It has not been a day of achievement. The day was governed by staying up late, the cold, going to football, eating too well in the evening and moments of panic. I was better organised for going to the match than pm Boxing Day having worked out in advance the time needed for preparations and to arrive and get the desired parking space. I was in place long enough to slowly drink a thermos of onion soup. I had first put hot water to warm the metal contained so even though the journey took half an hour the soup was kettle boiling hot. I waited half an hour before walking to the ground noting the lack of fitness as the cold bit into the bare skin of my face.
Yesterday afternoon as I had made my way to buy the ticket, I listened to an interview with an Antarctic explorer who recounted how on the two earlier missions to reach the South Pole by a route not accomplished before he had nearly lost his life. In the first instance because the special boots had not arrived he had worn footwear providing less protection with the consequence that an organism had entered his leg of a flesh eating kind and fortunate he had been able to visit a local doctor who had recently been on a course about recognising and treating his very condition. In the second, although tired and knowing he should not have continued, he did so for a short distance but sufficiently to fall into ice solidifying water and where he had only seconds to psychologically motivate himself sufficiently to get himself out before in effect he became frozen in. Married with a family and twenty five years of experience he did not regard himself as an adrenalin risk taking junkie but as with any aspect of day to day life however good the planning, the preparations, the equipment, the knowledge and the experience it is still likely that the unexpected will occur and the difference between surviving to tell the take and not, can be a matter of luck, seconds, motivation and mentality or combinations of such things. He answered questions including from one young man who said he liked the cold and wanted to know how to get the kind of sponsorship or grants which would enable such adventuring. It was this statement about liking the cold which came to mind as I walked. I do not.
I arrived in the stadium with half an hour announced before the kick of and the number of people congregating around the food and drink outlets. The television screens or go to the toilets suggested that despite the special ticket offer of £5 compared to £17.50 for seniors and children the ground was likely to be less than half full. The Maximum capacity is 48000 and I estimated 15000 to 175000 as the match progress. There as just over 20000 with significant areas of emptiness, especially behind the goal mouth where I had sat on Boxing Day. This time my seat was in the East stand upper tier even more central than when I had the season ticket and also not as far up. It was an ideal position providing an excellent view of both goalmouths, higher enough to see the movement and the organisation of the teams but also close enough to feel part of the action. I had no difficulty in buying myself a coffee before entering the seating area and at half time I had no difficulty in buying a packet of crisps as well as going to the toilet and finding a place to rest against a wall before returning to the seat.
The main reason for the poor attendance is that only a couple of weeks ago the same team being played in this third round of the Football Association Cup had beaten Sunderland 4.0. A disgraceful result given the standing of the visiting team who had not had a good time since the departure of their manager to Newcastle, and more recently appointed to Blackburn, Sam Alladyce, who through his agent had indicated an interest in the Sunderland Manager’s job, vacated on a voluntary basis by Roy Keane following this defeat in question. Sunderland supporters feared another thrashing and even those who braved the cold like me feared the worst, according to comments from those sitting around during the opening third of the game. In truth Bolton looked the better organised and more skilful team during this period. They had good movement with accurate passing. However as the game went on I was very impressed with the work and defensive qualities of Carlos Edwards who usually plays on a wing but this time was a tour de force in central midfield. Gabriel Cisse is a colourful character with a Mohican hair strip which he colours brightly, changing from game to game. He has great speed but at Liverpool promised much but failed to deliver and returned to France. What has impressed me and more so on this occasion was his tireless running always to good purpose. Kenwyn Jones on the other hand had no touch at all and several times put his own side in difficulty. However as is sometimes the case he scored a brilliantly headed goal to give Sunderland the lead and Cisse appeared to make the contest safe later. However Bolton rallied and scored what has to be described as a soft goal and the excitement commenced especially as the referee awarded four minutes of extra time.
It was a day of few great Cup surprises although Hartlepool did beat Stoke and Chelsea were held to a home draw by Southend. Newcastle were nil nil at Hull where the main interest is the growing speculation that the best UK keeper, Shay Given, wants out along with Michael Owen. My hunch is that they are both on their way to Manchester City where is would not surprise me that the bad run leads to the end of Mark Hughes and his replacement, Kevin Keegan, ho ho!
I had a little whisky on return before cooking a medium size chicken, enjoying poacher’s relish on oatmeal biscuit crackers as a starter, then having a portion of mircowaved vegetables, then, the four medium size roast potatoes and then half the chicken breast with the rest chopped up later for stir fries. For lunch I had eaten three large slices of cold ham cut from the joint with remaining salami and pickles followed by the last of the ice cream, while this evening I had the penultimate portion of the Christmas cake slab with a glass of Beaujolais.
That finished me off for the night without energy, dozing in front of the telly and no inclination to work, tread or even play games against the computer. After successfully completing the first 101 games of Free Cell after the great computer crash, I had set the game aside to concentrate on the other four being played with the intention of not returning to this game until the 101 wins was achieved in these other games. I came close with Spider, another form of patience winning 93 games in succession before encountering a game which I do not believe could be won despite going back to the original allocation of cards, time, and time, and time, and time again. The present streak is 30, having reached 67 on a previous occasion and then making an unintentional and avoidable error so that 314 of 324 games played have been won. I also had a disaster with chess having made a mistake after a successful run of 87 games, but unlike Spider one had complete control of every aspect of the play as White with a reverse move button and therefore while later night draws are excusable the two defeats are not so the tally is 350 games played 350 won and a long long way to get back to the 87th game. This contrasts with Hearts where it is impossible to control the outcome of a full game because you are but one of four players with the computer playing the three other hands. This was the game where I originally only won 11% and gradually increased to over 40% by playing a restricted game in which the outcome was loaded in my favour about 9 to 1. By loading the game even more so, but not completely I am running at 92% winning 85 of 92 games and a continuous in run of 33. There is no point is playing the same cards the same way. Having said I would not continue with Free Cell Hearts until I achieved a second 101 over Christmas I could not resist seeing if I could still work out how to complete a game from a spatial examination rather than repeated use of the back button and to date I have complete 123 games in succession at 100% win. However this is only a satisfactory achievement if everything else is excluded. My mind was much given to what is happening in the Hamas controlled part of Palestine which I continue to suspect has become the first Test of what can only be described as the Oil, Arab, Middle East, Muslim, Terrorism Israel Palestine problem for the new President Obama Administration. It is indeed a dangerous situation but who actually means what they are saying or appearing to do is impossible for the likes pf you are me know,
Being in a state of not wanting to do anything but feeling not ready for sleep I got myself into quite a state by the time I went up to bed about midnight. It was not a good decision.
Yesterday afternoon as I had made my way to buy the ticket, I listened to an interview with an Antarctic explorer who recounted how on the two earlier missions to reach the South Pole by a route not accomplished before he had nearly lost his life. In the first instance because the special boots had not arrived he had worn footwear providing less protection with the consequence that an organism had entered his leg of a flesh eating kind and fortunate he had been able to visit a local doctor who had recently been on a course about recognising and treating his very condition. In the second, although tired and knowing he should not have continued, he did so for a short distance but sufficiently to fall into ice solidifying water and where he had only seconds to psychologically motivate himself sufficiently to get himself out before in effect he became frozen in. Married with a family and twenty five years of experience he did not regard himself as an adrenalin risk taking junkie but as with any aspect of day to day life however good the planning, the preparations, the equipment, the knowledge and the experience it is still likely that the unexpected will occur and the difference between surviving to tell the take and not, can be a matter of luck, seconds, motivation and mentality or combinations of such things. He answered questions including from one young man who said he liked the cold and wanted to know how to get the kind of sponsorship or grants which would enable such adventuring. It was this statement about liking the cold which came to mind as I walked. I do not.
I arrived in the stadium with half an hour announced before the kick of and the number of people congregating around the food and drink outlets. The television screens or go to the toilets suggested that despite the special ticket offer of £5 compared to £17.50 for seniors and children the ground was likely to be less than half full. The Maximum capacity is 48000 and I estimated 15000 to 175000 as the match progress. There as just over 20000 with significant areas of emptiness, especially behind the goal mouth where I had sat on Boxing Day. This time my seat was in the East stand upper tier even more central than when I had the season ticket and also not as far up. It was an ideal position providing an excellent view of both goalmouths, higher enough to see the movement and the organisation of the teams but also close enough to feel part of the action. I had no difficulty in buying myself a coffee before entering the seating area and at half time I had no difficulty in buying a packet of crisps as well as going to the toilet and finding a place to rest against a wall before returning to the seat.
The main reason for the poor attendance is that only a couple of weeks ago the same team being played in this third round of the Football Association Cup had beaten Sunderland 4.0. A disgraceful result given the standing of the visiting team who had not had a good time since the departure of their manager to Newcastle, and more recently appointed to Blackburn, Sam Alladyce, who through his agent had indicated an interest in the Sunderland Manager’s job, vacated on a voluntary basis by Roy Keane following this defeat in question. Sunderland supporters feared another thrashing and even those who braved the cold like me feared the worst, according to comments from those sitting around during the opening third of the game. In truth Bolton looked the better organised and more skilful team during this period. They had good movement with accurate passing. However as the game went on I was very impressed with the work and defensive qualities of Carlos Edwards who usually plays on a wing but this time was a tour de force in central midfield. Gabriel Cisse is a colourful character with a Mohican hair strip which he colours brightly, changing from game to game. He has great speed but at Liverpool promised much but failed to deliver and returned to France. What has impressed me and more so on this occasion was his tireless running always to good purpose. Kenwyn Jones on the other hand had no touch at all and several times put his own side in difficulty. However as is sometimes the case he scored a brilliantly headed goal to give Sunderland the lead and Cisse appeared to make the contest safe later. However Bolton rallied and scored what has to be described as a soft goal and the excitement commenced especially as the referee awarded four minutes of extra time.
It was a day of few great Cup surprises although Hartlepool did beat Stoke and Chelsea were held to a home draw by Southend. Newcastle were nil nil at Hull where the main interest is the growing speculation that the best UK keeper, Shay Given, wants out along with Michael Owen. My hunch is that they are both on their way to Manchester City where is would not surprise me that the bad run leads to the end of Mark Hughes and his replacement, Kevin Keegan, ho ho!
I had a little whisky on return before cooking a medium size chicken, enjoying poacher’s relish on oatmeal biscuit crackers as a starter, then having a portion of mircowaved vegetables, then, the four medium size roast potatoes and then half the chicken breast with the rest chopped up later for stir fries. For lunch I had eaten three large slices of cold ham cut from the joint with remaining salami and pickles followed by the last of the ice cream, while this evening I had the penultimate portion of the Christmas cake slab with a glass of Beaujolais.
That finished me off for the night without energy, dozing in front of the telly and no inclination to work, tread or even play games against the computer. After successfully completing the first 101 games of Free Cell after the great computer crash, I had set the game aside to concentrate on the other four being played with the intention of not returning to this game until the 101 wins was achieved in these other games. I came close with Spider, another form of patience winning 93 games in succession before encountering a game which I do not believe could be won despite going back to the original allocation of cards, time, and time, and time, and time again. The present streak is 30, having reached 67 on a previous occasion and then making an unintentional and avoidable error so that 314 of 324 games played have been won. I also had a disaster with chess having made a mistake after a successful run of 87 games, but unlike Spider one had complete control of every aspect of the play as White with a reverse move button and therefore while later night draws are excusable the two defeats are not so the tally is 350 games played 350 won and a long long way to get back to the 87th game. This contrasts with Hearts where it is impossible to control the outcome of a full game because you are but one of four players with the computer playing the three other hands. This was the game where I originally only won 11% and gradually increased to over 40% by playing a restricted game in which the outcome was loaded in my favour about 9 to 1. By loading the game even more so, but not completely I am running at 92% winning 85 of 92 games and a continuous in run of 33. There is no point is playing the same cards the same way. Having said I would not continue with Free Cell Hearts until I achieved a second 101 over Christmas I could not resist seeing if I could still work out how to complete a game from a spatial examination rather than repeated use of the back button and to date I have complete 123 games in succession at 100% win. However this is only a satisfactory achievement if everything else is excluded. My mind was much given to what is happening in the Hamas controlled part of Palestine which I continue to suspect has become the first Test of what can only be described as the Oil, Arab, Middle East, Muslim, Terrorism Israel Palestine problem for the new President Obama Administration. It is indeed a dangerous situation but who actually means what they are saying or appearing to do is impossible for the likes pf you are me know,
Being in a state of not wanting to do anything but feeling not ready for sleep I got myself into quite a state by the time I went up to bed about midnight. It was not a good decision.
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