You can tell when half term hits these parts as riding down to Mumbles becomes more of an exercise in avoiding people (and their kids, pets, bikes, scooters, etc, etc) than head down and pedal like hell.
Obstacles aside, it was a pleasant enough ride down to Verdi’s and back (a 9 mile roundtrip) this lunchtime and it was nice just to be outside in the lovely sunshine. A fact which no doubt was emphasised by the number of other bikers I saw en route.
Mrs DDWT had a nice surprise this morning when those lovely people from Venture Photography phoned her up to say she’d won a competition they were running – which she entered in Morrisons down at the Morfa retail park the other week. The prize, a free family setting and £75 voucher to spend on the snaps.
I finally got back to doing some training during lunchtime today and eased into it – although it sure as hell didn’t feel like it – with a 3 mile run around SA1 with Razor (another training buddy of mine). Our time of 24 minutes 23 seconds was quite satisfactory considering the 10 day lapse since the last session.
Seeing as it’s Shrove Tuesday, Mrs DDWT made some homemade pancakes (which we lush by the way) and enjoyed by all. Well everyone except DDWT Junior who took more pleasure in washing the dishes than trying the pancakes. What is it with kids and water? Talking of the nipper, the mrs took him to the docs this morning to get him checked out as he’s still under the weather to say the least. They got the usual retort of “it’s a virus” and were basically told by the doctor to let it run its course like everyone else was doing! Well that’s all well and good if you’re an adult, but not if you’re a 3 years old toddler. So Dr. Osbourne if you’re reading this (which is highly unlikely) you are indeed a 1st class MUPPET.
I headed off to the Liberty tonight to watch the Swans take on the table topping Irons of Scunthorpe – more in hope than anticipation to be quite frank. Unfortuantely, the 2 nil scoreline (to the visitors) didn’t really do justice to what was – compared to recent weeks – a much more gutsy and passionate performance (in the 1st half at least).
If the truth be known we were sleeping for the 1st goal (after about 4 minutes) and Willy made a howler for the 2nd (time for Oakesy to have a go surely?), so once again we gifted a rather ordinary looking Scunthorpe team 3 points. Having now seen the two top teams in League One during the last few weeks I personally felt Oldham were the much better of the two sides. Anyway, if you want to read the match report it’s in its usual place.
As for the talking points, well Bayo was stretchered off with a suspected broken leg to be replaced by the (currently) un-flattering Pawel Abbott (or should that be Russ?). Our attack looked weak before, it’s decidedly non-existent now and I for one think that this injury coupled with the result has pretty much put the final nail in our promotion coffin (play-offs included). Why, well simply becuase the state of affairs off the pitch and confidence on it – looks to have taken a pasting.
O’Leary was the pick of the bunch tonight on the whole and typified the tenacity which we have been lacking of late. To be fair to all of the other players they were all committed – in the first half especially, which resulted in the crowd getting behind them. It’s a point worth dwelling on – all to often players ask the fans to get behind them, well we will guys IF you show us your up for the fight as well.
No doubt the rollercoaster of life that is being a fan of Swansea City will take a few more twists and turns yet. Swansea ’til I die indeed.
With Valentines day long since gone, I’m amazed at the amount of love that is still in the air and being shown to me (and everyone else no doubt!) by total strangers. Don’t get me wrong, a little bit of love goes a long way, but in this the day and age of cyberspace, lurve and affection has taken on a whole new meaning.
Never before have I had so many emails (legitimate ones I hasten to add – not penis enlarging ones) from complete strangers calling me ‘matey’, ‘sweetie’ and always signed off with a ‘x’. I mean I’ve never even met these people (work colleagues to be precise) yes they work for the same company but I don’t know them from Adam (who is he anyway?). I had a friend in uni once who sweared he had the ideal measure for sussing out if someone fancied you or not – the gist of which was that if you received any form of communication from them (email, letter, card, txt, whatever) and it was signed off with an ‘x’ you were in! Bingo, result, lurve was on the cards.
Personally I never bought into that crap, but it was amazing to see how popular he “thought” he was with the ladies. Gawd help him in my job then *smile*
On an altogether more serious note and being somewhat of a newbie to parenthood, it’s amazing how much your little one being ill can upset you and make you worry. I know that sounds a stupid thing to say when your talking about your own flesh and blood, but you’d be surprised (as I am often) by how many parents appear to not give a tinkers cuss about their kids.
Anyway, I digress. I wrote this simply becuase DDWT Junior is unwell at the moment (high temp, stinking cold, off his food, etc) and it’s at times like this that make you appreciate what a bundle of laughs they really are and how sad it is to see them suffering without really being able to tell you what’s wrong or how they feel.
We ventured over to Aberavon beach this afternoon for what was the first ever visit for all of us – strange but true. It’s just a shame that the early sunshine had long since disappeared to be replaced by a murky overcast sky, which eventually meant light drizzle.
Considering the location of the beach is relatively near to Port Talbot steelworks (some 3+ miles or so away), the sand and shoreline is very pleasant and clean – so don’t be put off by it’s location. I can imagine the place is rammed when the weather is hot and sunny and there is always the nearby Aquadome to visit if the beach isn’t your sort of thing.
The tale of the scale saw an increase this week to 16st 8lbs, but I was pretty much prepared for this considering I haven’t trained since last Sunday and that was a weights session. On the subject of training, Mrs DDWT put me to shame this morning by going out for a run whilst I made elephants out of Lego Duplo with DDWT Junior. So the chips are down now and the competition has begun!
With the sun shining brightly outside I decided to take full advantage and do some of the many outstanding jobs on my ‘todo’ list – whilst I had the chance. First up was to repair some of the vertical panels in our fence (which actually belongs to next door). The irony being that the panels are coming off the fence due to the lad next door kicking his football against it. Oh well it’s your fence mate and I wouldn’t really bother repairing it except that it looks sh*tty the way it is!
The 2nd job and ultimately all the more messy and irritating sort of way (due to sneezing), is repairing our darn Dyson DC07 cleaner, again. It’s amazing really how much dust it actually collects – well until it cuts out and gives up the ghost that is. Anyway, a thorough cleaning and hose down with a jet spray usually gives its vital organs a damn good makeover! I also decided to replace the HEPA filter – only the 2nd one in the erm 8 or so years we’ve had the contraption.
We headed off to Fforestfach in the afternoon for some low cost retail therapy – i.e we look but don’t buy! We spend most of our time there in Borders having a good look at the cast array of books they have, especially childrens. It was quite amusing actually that whilst I was reading ‘The Gruffalo’ to DDWT Junior, I quickly had an audience of about 2 or 3 other children – much to my amazement. Oh well, if ever I give up on the world of computing I could always go into storytelling *wink*
It’s been an odd week on the whole, not because we’ve all had the flu, but because I’ve watched so much tv and films in particular. This in itself is a rarity and I hardly EVER watch television (only sports TV) let alone several nights of it. This week I’ve managed to clock up watching – The Honeymooners (don’t bother), The Manchurian Candidate (quality Denzil W flick) and Good Morning Vietnam (a Robin Williams classic).
In fact I quite enjoyed my ‘change of lifestyle’ (ha ha) and even said to Mrs DDWT that we should watch at least one film a week from now on, she just looked at me raised an eyebrow and smiled. I don’t know what she means.
