With me starting my 2nd week of annual leave today, it’s a mighty shame my planning couldn’t have been better – as then I could have been off the same time as the rugby world cup is in full swing.
Still with Wales playing on Sunday, at least I’ll be home to see that one. God how I hope they put in a convincing performance and win. Talking of rugby, I came across a somewhat bizarre but bloody addictive flash game on the Lidl site (yes cheapskate I know) earlier. Get this – the purpose of the game is to drop kick a rugby ball over the posts and hit the passing food items!! The more food you hit the more points you get and there’s even a league table.
You can check it out here – http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.service.g.index – my best score to-date is 110 (as you can tell I was never an outside half).
Oh dear what a pasting our boys took at Twickenham today. 62 points to 5 against the old enemy is unacceptable to say the least – second string or not. It also couldn’t have been worse preparation for the world cup and there’s little doubt that it has posed Gareth Jenkins with more questions about who should be in his final squad than before the game. This was the last thing he or the faithful Welsh public wanted at this stage.
Now isn’t the time I know, but I still question the wisdom in appointing Gareth Jenkins to the role of national coach. For me he has always been the nearly man of Welsh rugby – how many times were Llanelli so close to European glory under his belt – yet they seemingly always fell at the last hurdle. I have no doubt that in terms of passion, commitment and loyalty he is up there with the best – but I’m not so sure he has the rugby experience at such an intense level as international rugby to succeed. Still, whatever I think – I hope he proves me wrong come September.
Thankfully with the bushes in the garden in need of a trim, I was able to exact my rugby-induced frustration out on them with the aid of some garden shears. One full wheelie bin later and both the bushes and I were in much better form. Oh if only I could say the same about our national rugby team!
With Nana DDWT returning from a 2 week jaunt to Center Parcs Eleveden, it was time to do some visiting and with that came the customary gift for DDWT Junior (who was spoilt rotten as usual). Perhaps unsurprisingly, we have yet another dinosaur to add to the already vast collection. This time is was a large Stegosaurus – or steggy as DDWT Junior calls it (after the Stegosaurus in ‘Harry and His Bucketful of Dinosaurs‘).
After having a successful day in work yesterday putting together an Ubuntu 7.04 LAMP server – complete with Nagios installation and tried my luck at home with the desktop version. Once again my efforts proved in vain as my Cisco Aironet 350 series wireless card simply refuses to talk to my Netgear DG834N router with any form of encryption switched on – yet works fine with it off. Grrrrrrr
Despite our usual jaunt to the shops – standard practice for most households on a Saturday I’m sure – I spent a considerable amount of time in front of the TV, which is rather unusual for me it must be said.
With Wales taking on the old enemy England in our final Six Nations match of the season and at the same time trying to avoid the wooden spoon, I decided to watch the game more in anticipation than expectation. Much to my surprise (but pleasure) Wales turned in a great performance – by this season’s standards – and won 27-18. The house of DDWT was so excited we even managed to get DDWT Junior into the spirit of things – which resulted in “C’mon Whales” for the rest of the evening! As an ex-semi professional rugby player myself, it was a good day and to beat England made it all the more sweeter.
After the excitement of the early evening had subsided a little, we settled down to watch the play-off for the UK’s Eurovision song contest entry. Bemused, mortified, dumbfounded were just some of the words I would use to describe the crap I witnessed – huh music my arse!
Despite Lee Trundle’s missus – Liz McClarnon – being involved in the play-off, I still couldn’t bring myself to call it “music”. But hey we are talking about Eurovision aren’t we, so what should I expect other than a load of crap EU propaganda pop. Even the stalwart of eurovision Terry Wogan made a complete cock-up when announcing the winner (or not as the case maybe be). ‘Scooch’ were the eventual winners (after the confusion) – need I say more with a name like that? So Terry, I think you were right the first time mate!
Phew what a hectic day! It all kicked off with a visit to the hairdressers at 9am this morning – which somehow managed to turn into more of a conversation on turkey crown than anything remotely associated with haircuts. Oh and how could I forget the “what I’ve bought everyone for christmas” ramblings of the new-to-me hairdresser. All interesting additions to my £7 short back and sides haircut.
Upon getting home, it was time to get the ladder out and scale the dizzy heights of our roof in order to try and repair our dodgy Sky system. I check the cables and the dish – which all seemed in working order. But without the necessary equipment I was unable to check if the dish was out of alignment, which to be frank was the most likely cause of the problems. Anyway, I managed to find a workaround by changing the default transponder of my Sky digital box to point to another satellite and hey presto I got 80% of the channels back. So if you’ve got the same problems as I had try changing the default transponder to be – 10.832 H 22.0 5/6.
After all of the early morning/afternoon excitement, it was off down the Liberty stadium this evening for some corporate hospitality and watch the Ospreys v Bristol EDF Energy Anglo-Welsh Cup game.
The game itself – to use an old cliche – was indeed a game of two half’s with the Ospreys cutting loose in the 2nd half with some scintilating running rugby. Unsurprisingly with Bristol sending out their 2nd string for the game, the Ospreys ran out comfortable 34-3 winners and had James Hook had his kicking boots on the score would have been a lot higher.
What struck me most about the evening though – apart from the cracking view in the hospitality box and the lovely 2 course meal (especially the beef stroganoff!) – was the lack of atmosphere at the stadium. I know only around 6 thousand were at the game, but the rugby games I’ve attended at the stadium always seem such muted affairs. In fact I did remark to one of the Ospreys regular followers that the atmosphere seems to have been left at the Gnoll and St. Helens respectively.
Last night saw the first overnight frost of the winter here in Swansea and with it came the customary ‘Turn the engine on and heating full blast for 5 minutes whilst I sit in the house’ scenario. The only trouble with this plan is that ultimately, I’m usually (at least) 5 minutes later than I want to be leaving for work anyway.
I went for a 27 minute 3 mile odd run lucnhtime which was undertaken in gloriously sunny, but chilly blue sky conditions. Chatting with some other runners in the changing rooms afterwards (about various routes and distances) highlighted a website that actually lets you plot your route and gives you the distance covered. It’s called ‘Gmaps Pedometer‘ and it’s great!
Mrs DDWT and I were at the Ospreys v Australia rugby game tonight and what an historic occasion it turned out to be. In years to come we will be able to revel in the fact that – in true Max Boyce style – “We were there” to witness the Osprey’s historic 24-16 truimph over the Aussies. Admittedly, they didn’t have their 1st team out – but then again neither did the Ospreys. No matter what, the Ospreys did Welsh regional rugby proud tonight with a gritty and ‘in your face’ display against at times what looked like a very fast and powerful Australian side.
One thing that did strike me though was the crowd. Although it was a full house (nearly 20,500) the atmosphere at times was very very subdued – something which I found odd, especially with the noise generated at Swans games with only 12,000 odd present. Having said that, the rugby ‘crowd’ is far less hostile an environment and I can see why so many families prefer the rugby for a afternoon/evening out than the football.
With such historic events taking place today, I suppose it shouldn’t come as a surprise to me that for the 1st time EVER DDWT Junior actually went to bed without either of us being around!! I think his Nana and cousins must have waved some magic wand as it’s never happened before or maybe it’s just that our little soldier is beginning to leave his baby days behind.
