A Rambling Geek

Liverpool scrape 6th home win

Liverpool waited until the 92nd minute to secure their 6th home win of the season. To say we’ve been poor so far is an understatement and I don’t see where things are going to improve. At “fortress” Anfield we should surely dominate every team but it seems they are no longer afraid when they come to play us. I took a friend’s son with me to the Northampton game after I won some tickets at work, hoping to show him how a proper team plays (he’s parents have different allegiances). As most will remember that result, it wasn’t our best hour, though he certainly got his money’s worth with normal time, extra time and penalties.

Something has to give and I just wonder what our new owners will do. We can’t continue on this run because our away performance is dire and even our home games aren’t a certainty anymore.

2011 – A better year

2010 started off really well, as you may remember I got the triple roll-over bonus ball at work, had just been bought a PS3 and finally acquired a home entertainment system. Things ticked along rather nicely until summer time when it all turned to crap.

It started with Kitty‘s nan Lil, who in early May was quite poorly but refused help. After much persuaded and begging she finally agreed to go into hospital. She had been diagnosed with breast cancer a few years back but with medication, she’d been doing very well and the checks all came back clear. Due to her stubbornness she only went into hospital on the saturday before the May bank holiday, which meant there was a delay in her being diagnosed.  Unfortunately we were informed that the cancer had metastasized to her liver and she sadly passed away in the early hours of 7th May. Lil was the first person I’ve lost to any form of illness and it was very strange to think that this was someone I saw almost every weekend for nearly 7 years. As you can expect it hit Kitty and her mum Pam very hard and I wanted nothing more in the world to take away their pain. It that situation all you can do is support them as best you can and do everything you can to take any pressure off.

Whilst all this was going on with Kitty‘s grandmother, her uncle Richard who lives in California was undergoing surgery for prostate cancer. Thankfully his operation went well and he’s recently been given the all clear.

My uncle, who had also been diagnosed with Prostate cancer in late 2009, required a second course of treatment as they had not got all the cancer the first time round. Currently he is doing well and is being monitored by his local hospital, though if you ever need to know anything about  catheters he’s your man.

For that extra kick in the guts Richard and Jean’s dog Meg had to be put to sleep . She’d become poorly with things getting progressively worse until the kindest thing to do was to put her out of her misery.

2010 wasn’t quite finished yet, my grandfather then passed away after suffering from myelodysplasia, which can be referred to as pre-lukemia. It causes the bone marrow to not produce enough healthy blood cells. He was diagnosed with it a few years ago and the prognosis with the condition varies depending on the severity. With the help of blood transfusions he battled on until the afternoon of August 5th when he was finally at peace. I never made it to the hospital in time and arrived shortly after he’d gone. To make things worse my nan got stuck in the lifts and also never made it, arriving too late. Everyone deals with grief in different ways and so far I have not shed one tear for him. I have at times been incredibly sad that I won’t ever get to see him again and discuss the rugby or football but I haven’t cried. Helping Kitty and her mum, Pam with Lil, I was well suited to help my uncles and my nan with the arrangements for my grandfather. Thankfully it gave me something to focus on and also took the pressure of everyone else. I’m pleased to say his funeral was lovely, with a great turnout and no issues with either my parents or sisters with whom I’ve fallen out.

While my grandfather was getting progressively weaker my nan was diagnosed with bowel cancer and required an operation to remove the part of her bowel that was infected. She was due to go into hospital just before my grandfather’s funeral but postponed the operation so she could bury her husband. The operation was a success and the surgeons were pleased with her progress and she is now awaiting her first 6 month check which should be around March.

So that is my crap 2010 there for all to see. It is quite awkward when wishing my nan, Pam or Kitty a happy new year. You usually say “hope 2011 is a better year than 2010″. There is no way the new year can be better because those we’ve lost are never coming back. We just have to hope 2011 isn’t filled with the same sadness and loss.

So I turned 30 yesterday

When you hear some people talk about turning 30 they make it into a big deal. For me, yesterday just felt like another day. Don’t get me wrong it was a brilliant and I enjoyed it a lot, but nothing profound happened. I didn’t have an epiphany or anything, though I have noticed a change in myself over the last couple of months. It’s difficult to describe the change but I have found myself wanting to finally get organised, in all aspects of my life.

With this new found enthusiasm I’ve decided to attack the new year intentions again.

I’m going to have another crack at the 365, though this year it’s going to be a combination of blogging and photography. I was initially thinking of just doing a photography 365 but I enjoy blogging so the entries may contain just a photo or text it may even be both.

I’m going to have a crack at fitness again this year, as I do every year. I’m no longer a member of the gym so will be using the Kinect as my main fitness regime. The first time I used it my legs ached for nearly a week which has put me off slightly. I really do need to start this again because I’ve checked my old posts and since 2006 I’ve half a stone. The positive I’m seeing from that is that I’ve lost that weight and not put it back on.

I’ve decided to start the 365 today instead of January 1st because I expect a lot will be starting them tomorrow.

Result on the GeeGees!

I don’t bet on the horses very often and it’s usually restricted to the Grand National. Tilly and I got to back in 2008 and it was a blast, we did fairly well with our betting. We missed out on the tote with 1 horse, which came in 5th but thanks to a great friend Stan we figured the horse bearing his name was worth a bet and gave us a fantastic £100 return on a £5 bet.

I had no idea it racing was on at Cheltenham this week but a tweet from @marksweb led me to place a bet on Peddlers Cross in the 2:05 race. Thankfully I still had £3.88 in my Paddy Power account so I figured £1.88 on the nose would be worth a punt. Mark was true to his word and the horse came in making me just over £15. In the 4PM Deutschland was tipped to be a good runner so I backed that £1 on the nose. Unfortunately it came in 5th so no result there, which just left the 5:15 race. When I put my Peddlers Cross bet on, I figured an each way on Drumbaloo at 8/1 was worth a look but noticed late on a tip from a fellow LFC supporter to have a go on Cue Card, which at 33/1 looked very promising. Not wanting to blow my winning I only ended up putting a 50p e/w on it, which would give me  a return of around £21 if it placed. Not only did it win but my odds were upped from 33/1 to 40/1!

So after starting out with £3.88 I’ve ended the day with £40.04 in my Paddy Power account. I’ll take £30 out and leave £10 in there for a flutter over the next couple of days and keep whatever winnings there may be for the National at the beginning of April.

The End

After much consideration I’ve decided to withdraw from the one a day challenge. Currently I’m nearing 2 weeks behind and I do not want to just churn out posts to catch up. I’m certainly pleased with my progress so far but think it’s time to concentrate on getting good quality entries up and not short/filler ones because it’s late in the day and I’ve not done met today’s challenge.

Rest assured any readers out there that I will continue to post and there are some days where you’ll get 2, maybe more posts for the price of 1.

Om Nom Nom (8/52)

Love (7/52)

Shocking Refereeing

Being a Liverpool suporter I’m not a fan of Manchester United so sat down to watch the Carling Cup final hoping for a Villa win. Sadly that was not to be and not for Villa’s lack of trying, they were cheated out of the game by a referee clearly biased towards Manchester united. Agbonlahor was through on goal when he was brought down by Vidic who personally received NO punishement from the Referee. There is some debate as to whether it should have been red or yellow but for him to receive nothing is just outragous. My understanding is that if a player is denied a goal scoring opportunity then their team is awarded a penalty and the offending player is sent off. So for at least 85 minutes Manchester United should have been down to 10 men, or at least vidic on a yellow.

However the story just gets better as shortly after that, Owen is brought down by Villa defender Collins, who you can guess what happened to him, yes a yellow card. Stuart Downing makes a late challenge on Evra and yet again is given a yellow card. So currently that is 0 cards to United and 2 for Aston Villa. Carrick tackles Emile Heskey and brings him down to the floor but gets away with a warning. It almost seemed as though Phil Dowd was evening out the penalty that Villa got by not booking any Manchester United players. Another united player Rafael was cautioned by the referee twice but never received a card. Finally after 41 minutes Dowd decide to book a united player so that should have been by my count at least 5 yellow cards with 2 possible red cards compared to Villa’s 2 yellows. To rub salt into the wounds Vidic was finally booked just after the hour mark for a challenge on Ashley Young and the Villa fans gave a sarcastic cheer for Dowd when he gave the booking. The Manchester United fans would argue that sending Vidic off so early would have “changed the game” well tough! That’s his fault for bringing Agbonlahor down in the first place, regardless of whether it’s a cup final or not the rules are rules! For me the most amsuing outcome of this game was Graham Poll telling everyone who would listen that Phil Dowd was right, it wasn’t a red card. This is coming from a man who gave the same player, 3 yellow cards in a World Cup match, like most people, I just ignored what he had to say.

It seems it was a similar situation in our game against Blackburn Rovers which thankfully we won 2-1. From what I could hear on the radio we were battered and I mean litteraly by an inferior team who knew they couldn’t beat us using skill so decided to injur as many of our players as they could. Rafa did get the last laugh though, during the press conference he had this to say about Sam Aladyce “I think he is a model for all the managers all around the world. He is a model, the style of football, his behaviours, everything is perfect for the kids. I am sure Barcelona will be thinking about copying this style.”

Pizza & Video games

On Saturday night I went to see my good friend DaveyPitch as our other halves were on a night out. What better way to spend an evening than with a great mate, pizza and video games! Turns out we didn’t get much video game playing done as we ended up watching part of the Teneriffe vs Real Madrid game on Sky Sports while Little Big Planet was downloading nearly 500Mb of updates. I’d been debating about what to eat as there is a good selection of takeaways near Davey’s and a curry was calling my name but I finally settled on pizza. When I was younger I didn’t like pizzas because I wouldn’t eat tomato based sauces but would eat ketchup and soup, strange I know. Anyway back onto the subject of toppings!

What are your favourite toppings? This time I went for a spicy meat special which consistsed of cheese, tomato, pepperoni, ham, spicy beef, spicy chicken, salami and peppers. It was fantastic and took me back to my uni days where every Saturday my group of friends would get together for a film, pizza and beer. Back then I’d have a four seasons  which had cheese, tomato, pepperoni, salami, ham, peppers and mushrooms. It was my favourite Pizza and I’m yet to find somewhere that can equal it, though the spicy meat special came close, but I had just too much going on. One topping I’m not fussed on is minced beef even if it’s spicy. I just don’t see how it fits in with the whole pizza idea, then again the same thing could be said for anchovies, yuck. More often than not I’d probably stick with the simple and some would say boring pepperoni. However if we go to Pizza hut I have to have the Super Supreme it is the best pizza on the menu.

It’s a miracle

Liverpool really pulled it out of the bag on Thursday night with a 3-1 win over Unirea. I was very nervous going into the match especially after our shaky win last week but with goals from Stevie G, Ryan Babel & Mascherano we secured the win. When Unirea scored the opening goal I thought that was it for us, that is how much confidence I have in my team but good old Javier came through and managed to put us back in the driving seat. Despite the win and us through to the last 16, the biggest plus point for me was Ryan Babel getting on the score sheet. The lad needs the manager to show alot more confidence in him and start him especially with Torres coming back from injury. It constantly amazes me that Lucas and Kuyt never ever miss matches and Ryan only gets 10 minutes here and there. He’s a striker for heavens sake, play him in that position, give him 6 consecutive starts to prove once and for all if he’s got the “kwality” to play for LFC.

We face Blackburn Rovers tomorrow at 3pm and it is AGAIN a must win game as we need to keep the pressure on Manchester City. Hopefully Chelsea can do us a favour and beat them so they still only have their game in hand but we’ll be 2 points in front.