Cirque Du Soleil, Late Partying, Football and Mum’s meal

A very quiet weekend…not! On Friday night I worked quite late and then wrote a note of the times that we’d be doing things over the weekend as I needed to factor in some work, it transpired that I had Sunday night at 10.00pm free, and here’s why.

Saturday morning was Jack’s football with the Oxford City Schools team (after I’d sent a few work-related emails), they have a semi-final in a fortnight so wanted to have a practise match and played against the Vale of White Horse who we played our first match I think. It was a very even match and Jack played left midfield again and did well, his best game for the team so far for certain.We had to leave with 10 minutes left to play and they were losing 0-1 but as a team performance they didn’t deserve to be losing and in fact were the better team. It was pleasing to hear positive comments from the side for Jack so that was good.

We then rushed home to pick up Tash, Lewis, Charlotte and Nanny Sue to travel into London as we had tickets for Cirque du Soleil showing at the Albert Hall. We got parked up in Imperial College by Hyde Park and then found a restaurant that Tash had managed to download some free vouchers on my iPhone on the car journey down…resourceful woman! Lovely Italian meal, nice and easy and then wandered back to the Albert Hall for the show (Totem).

I have to admit I was astounded by the Albert Hall, I simply had no idea it was so fantastically huge! Absolutely massive, I was shocked, checked on the internet and it holds over 5,000. We were right up in the Gods as far away from the stage as you can get but it didn’t matter one bit and we could see all we needed to see. And what we saw was wonderful.

The name Cirque du Soleil conjures up the image of gymnastics and fantastic stunts so you had an idea of what you expect but when you see it live and without harnesses then you simply cannot fail to be impressed and have your breath taken away, some of the acts were simply incredible. They even have the ‘clowns’ and they still did visually impressive stunts but were amusing at the same time. The two hour show (with a break) flew by and it was a shame when it ended, and then we were talking about which act was the favourite and I think we had a general agreement that a couple of a high-wire trapeze swing and the oriental girls on the uni-cycles were the best. But it was a very touch call.

My personal favourite were the uni-cycling girls, they kept going round and flicking what can only be described as metal cat food bowls onto each other’s heads, okay that sounds shit, but it was brilliant! The timing and technique was, well, just …speechless…I don’t have the adjectives to describe it without repeating some from earlier sentences.

Suffice to say – we had a great time!

That’s not all, drove home and got ready in 30 mins and then wandered down to John and Pauline Bampton’s for Pauline’s 40th birthday celebration. Great turn out and the drinks started flowing, had a good chat with people and a bit of a laugh and then as the evening wore on people drifted off. Tash has a headache and wanted to go at midnight but I wasn’t ready so said I’d catch up…mistake…sort of. By 1.00am there was Pauline, John, Jeff, Rob and myself and we proceeded to play John’s iPod and dance for the next two hours in the kitchen, it was funny as fuck. Excuse my French! Pauline videoed some of it – I think my interpretation of Beyoncé's ‘Single Ladies’ – Kurt from Glee has nothing on me! I sincerely hope any videos as now deleted as it must be one of the funniest things you’ll see.

We were laughing at ourselves and it was getting more and more ridiculous as we drank more and kept Pauline up until 3.00am we agreed enough was enough and there’d be sore heads in the morning! As drunk as we were, it was a really funny and memorable evening because you’d probably never see the four of us in the same room again! Ah, until the party up at the King’s Arms in a few weeks…ha ha!

Still I wasn’t finished! With a beer head on I then sat up and started watching Watchmen, but I can’t remember any of it but can remember I couldn’t even see the TV! Staggered into bed around 5.00am!

So, Sunday morning, up at 8.30am as Jack’s football miles away needed sorting out. No hangover as such, in that I wasn’t feeling rough but certainly heavy headed. We played Rotherfield who we drew with on the first day of the season and I was a bit worried because in the game yesterday Jack was knackered having not played for a while and I expected the same of the lads. I had a decent chat with them, geed them up and then we got the game started. I insisted on them that they start to take the rest of the season seriously with a few to moving up the table again, they seemed to take that on board.

What we saw next was a demolition! A short-lived demolition, which I’ll explain. We looked rusty, defensively and in midfield we looked off the pace and were under pressure, but Jack and Max are on fire for us and always a danger going forward and very quickly in the space of 20 minutes Jack scored 2, Max scored 2 and Adam scored 1 to put us very much in control. I was able to take some players off to give our lesser ability players a chance and sure enough Rotherfield got back into it and scored right on half time to make it 5-1. No changes at half time and Rotherfield scored twice more, twitchy parents on the side but we were in control, however, I put Jack back on, twisting and turning on a run he was hacked down to win a penalty which he despatched to secure another hat-trick and did his trademark celebration!

Final score 6-3 which flattered us a bit as we didn’t play well but who cares at the end of the day. We didn’t move up, but we’re with the middle pack which is 7 teams separated by 6 points and all teams we have to play. Hopefully we’ll do well with coming matches.

So straight back to Oxford, 5 mins rest and took Lewis to his football, home to Carterton – I did a decent warm-up and then ran the line. Lewis played well, we does really well at left-back and it’s pleasing to watch him. I probably wind him up with my directions and should let him play his own game more. I’ll shut up one day. So this Carterton side were awful, however, we were worse! Actually, that’s not strictly true, we were really poor in areas and somehow found ourselves losing 3-2 at halftime with some really shoddy goals.

I had a go at them at halftime, stressing how they should be playing, exploiting their defence and how they’d really let themselves down if they lost to this side. It worked briefly and they started the second half really brightly and got a goal back only to go a goal down again (cracking goal by the way, straight into the top corner!). Time ticked by and I had to take Lewis off to karate and we then equalised, as Lewis and I got to the car and looked round we saw Jack Smith thumped a brilliant long drive into the net to put us ahead with minutes to go. I later found out Alfie topped it off with a great free kick to earn us a 6-4 win so that was really pleasing, and VERY unexpected with 10 mins of the game remaining!

Dropped Lewis off at karate and then had a shower and we then drove into Oxford and went to Prezzo in the Oxford Castle and had a birthday meal with mum. My hangover was sort of kicking in by now in that I wasn’t very hungry but I was extremely tired, I tried to ignore it as I didn’t want to be rude but it was hard. Certainly didn’t have a drink! Lewis got dropped off and we had a lovely meal, second time in two days, and a good laugh with Mum and Derek. Derek paid which was a fantastic and unexpected treat. So what’s that make mum now, I reckon 64, yep because I am going to be 44 this year.

Finished and left around 9.30pm and sure enough, home for work preparation for the meeting on Monday from 10-11pm.

What an incredible weekend, packed loads into it and had a lovely time. Same again next week?!?!?!

Return of the Old-Timers coming out of retirement…

No not talking about me for once.

At the weekend two Legends of football made a return to the Premier League (well FA Cup).

Paul Scholes who’d retired for Man Utd at the end of last season signed and played against Man City at the weekend and last night Thierry Henry (who’s still playing in the MLS in the US – so effectively retired…) is on loan for Arsenal having left 5 years ago.

Call me a romantic but it’s great to see these two back if only for a short term measure.

Henry had the better return, playing versus Leeds, stalemate, comes on at 68 mins, scores 78 mins and it’s the winner – fairy tale!

Merry Xmas & Happy New Year

Okay, it’s a bit late for this but I thought that I would still update the blog with what we did this year over the Festive period, it was bloody busy I know that much, loads of food and drink, and a bit more drink just in case!

So where to start? I guess the works do just before Xmas. We went out to a local restaurant/pub in Bearstead near Maidstone, it was okay. Very busy popular place, and I could soon see why, the food was excellent and there was loads of it as well. Had a few drinks but didn’t go overboard although everyone wanted me to get drunk – it wasn’t going to happen though!

I took the Friday 23rd off and just helped round the house to get things in place for the coming weekend and eventually got the Xbox sorted out – that was a big saga which I won’t go into here, suffice to say I am pleased and relieved that we finally got a working model before the break.

Friday night we went up to Mum’s house to have Xmas early because she was spending the time at Louise’s and wouldn’t be around as normal. So from about 5.00pm we were up there, had a lovely Chinese take-away meal and then handed out the presents – got some nice things and the kids were spoilt as normal. Jack got a mobile phone and was thrilled, it was really lovely to see him so excited, haven’t seen that sort of childish wonder and thanks in him for a long time, he’s always seemed older than his years, but this was definitely a very excited Jack!

Mum gave Tash and I some money to go towards the camera that I have my eye on so that was appreciated. We stayed until about 10.15pm and then driving home Tash offered to drop me into Oxford as the City Veterans were out on our Xmas night out.

I met up with them in the Living Room and they were absolutely hammered, it was a laugh seeing them like this and I quickly tried to catch up! I saw loads of people I know, a real who’s who so that was good and I was glad to have gone down there. I stayed until the end of the night, by which time I was a little bit drunk and then got some food and bus home. Tash was still up at 2.30am so came to the cemetery to pick me up.

Thankfully not a big hangover for Xmas Eve as we got more things sorted and had a relaxing and lazy day, we met up with the Holdens and the Carrolls in the White Hart and had a couple of drinks. Wayne wasn’t drinking which was no surprise having seen the state of him the night before! It was a nice evening and the new landlord was chatty and trying to get us to like him and go back there as regulars! As the night ended the Holdens went home, and we then went to the Richardsons for their house party. I wasn’t really in the mood and when it got to 11.30pm Tash went with Lucy to midnight Mass (it’s something she’s always wanted to do) I actually left the party at the same and went home to get some normal drink and watch the TV. I had no interest in going to Mass, not for me…

Not too sure what time Tash got back but she wasn’t overly enthused about the experience so we sorted out the final presents and went to bed.

Kids up at 8.00am – not bad for Xmas morning!

Stockings and presents, coffee and croissants, perfect start to the day! Kids were pleased with what they got and enjoyed handing out presents to each other, me and mum – they’re really good kids and great fun. They didn’t get a great deal this year but they didn’t moan and made out they were happy with it all. We then popped round to Sue’s house because she was on her own so more presents handed out and then she went off to get Tiffany whilst we came back to our house for an hour or so to get showered and changed and ready for the long day.

It was nice not having to rush around to be honest when we’re normally having to go over to Mum’s, that’s not to say I didn’t miss going over there first thing but it was nice to not be so hurried. So in our own time we went back to Sue’s and then Tiff/Paul and Nikki, Gaz and all the girls were there. Victoria also bought her boyfriend Jason over. Usual mad time was had by all, loads of food crowded in the kitchen and loads of drink, far too much. It got very rowdy this year, even by dinner time – I thought Tash was going to cut her fingers off the way she was waving the electric carving knife around in a drunken state.

After dinner handed out the presents and then played games, watched telly and the usual things.

It was a really enjoyable day that seemed to fly by. Gaz did his ‘pub quiz’ which he’d been working on for months and it was really good, loads of varied (and hard) questions which my team won in the end by only 4 points. So we were pleased with that effort! As things ebbed and flowed it felt like the night was passing us by a bit so we got the Sing Star out – that certainly got things going and the videos of our singing were soon being uploaded to Facebook – not a good idea as we were not remotely in tune!

Sue had had enough by 12.30am so we got kicked out and home by 1.00am. A thoroughly brilliant day.

Boxing Day…bear with me, there’s loads more…we were really lazy in the morning and then went back round to Sue’s for a big breakfast and catch up and more TV watching. We weren’t really in any hurry but we got on the road to Louise’s (King’s Lynn) by about 3.00pm, dropped our gear off at the hotel we were staying at and then got to theirs around 5.30pm – probably later than they expected but it was okay I think. Had a good evening, handed out more presents, but played a couple of games and had a laugh on the roulette table mum had brought along. Jack won that so he was pleased! Great Grandma and Sue & Simon were there too having been there for Xmas Day as well. Finished up and left around 10.30pm and crashed out at the hotel. We only had a room for 4 so sneaked Jack but it wasn’t a problem.

Next morning nice big breakfast at the Harvester and then we went over to Sandringham to an hour or so’s walk around the forest. Very nice place. But then it would be wouldn’t it as it’s the Queen’s holiday residence. Prince Phillip has been ill and was due out of hospital today so there was a Press presence near by, nothing exciting happened in our time there though – ah well. Once we’d had a quick look around the Gift shop we said our Goodbyes and made our way back hope via McDonalds in Kings Lynn! More videos in the evening when we got home – tired and crashed out.

Tuesday we did nothing all day. Can’t actually remember what we did, I have a feeling Tash, Charlotte and I went to Ikea to get stuff for Jack’s bedroom and a couple of things I wanted, Actually we did do that as I phoned into work from the car-park to check on how things were ticking along

Wednesday we went over to Paul & Pauline’s for a party and that was great fun. Usual faces plus some who are not usually invited but it made it a lovely crowd and it was a great evening, again far too much to drink and I lost playing Spoof for a large glass of Port – which to be fair was actually quite nice, had I not had to down it in one! Don’t really remember much else to add other than I was talking rubbish by the end of the night, so nothing new there.

Bit of a hangover next morning but nothing compared to Lewis and Jack, both were really ill, physically sick. Bit of a shame as we were due to have Pete and Katharine come over in the evening but we had to cancel it in the end as they were so ill. More videos and nothing happening!

Friday we went over to Liam and Zoe’s in the afternoon for a meal and ended up watching the Liverpool v Newcastle match, both teams were pretty poor to be honest and it was painful viewing, especially as Liverpool ended up winning…another nice evening though.

Saturday – New Year’s Eve – already! Katharine and Pete came up around midday for the postponed get-together we were going to have and that was really nice afternoon, they stayed for 3 hours and it was a really good catch up. They were off to Stratford with friends so we relaxed once they’d gone and in fact caught up on a bit of a sleep in readiness for the evening. We’d invited people to come to ours for 7.00pm to start the night and sure enough that soon came round and the door was being knocked on.

The Carrolls, Mum & Derek, Sue, Tiff, Paul and Brendan made up the numbers and after a few bottles of bubbly had been finished we made our way over to the Red Lion in Wolvercote. It was quiet to start with and I could tell a few people were thinking it wasn’t going to be a good night, but we were there at 8.00pm! Gradually it started filling up and the drink started to take effect and the night got livelier and livelier and turned out to be brilliant fun! We’re a bit of a whirlwind as a family group and took over the dance floor all night. Everyone joined in and it was a laugh. Midnight soon arrived and the usual best wishes took place and the party continued until 1.30am by which time it was time to go home, manage one Facebook update and then bed for a well-earned sleep.

The only sad thing was that Lewis was missing, I’d dropped him off at his girlfriend’s, Kathryn, as they were having a family party and he slept the night there. He said he’d had a good time so that was pleasing but it was a shame that he wasn’t sharing it with us!

That’s it I think – New Year’s Day was a lazy day and the Bank Holiday Monday I worked in Jack’s bedroom to sort out the stuff we’d bought from Ikea for his bedroom so I was swearing away sorting out cupboards and the like, got it completed though so that was good and the bedroom looks a lot better now as a result.

What else have a I missed?

Tiffany and Paul got engaged the day before Xmas Eve so everyone was really pleased about that and it made for a great atmosphere as they’re obviously delighted and excited. Paul wants to go to Las Vegas for the bachelor party – Tash has vetoed my involvement in that already!

I am hugely over-weight, trousers don’t fit me so in January I will be working hard to lose some of it, it’s actually revolting and I am not impressed with myself for being so ill-disciplined to have allowed myself to get in this state. Mind you, I’ve written this blog for 45 minutes instead of exercising!

Tash and I got on really well over the break – I didn’t stay up watching TV like I normally do, nor argue about leaving early any times or any of the other silly things that I do to cause arguments, so brownie points for me! I can’t claim to have grown up, because the fact I am even mentioning that I am pleased that I wasn’t causing Tash problems shows a distinct lack of maturity I think!!

Er, I think that’s it. Mammoth update to the blog but then I am sat here in my hotel in Kent, first day back in the office which was really hard to do, it was only a week and a half off this time around but I didn’t do any work at all, it was lovely!

Well, here’s to a Happy New Year, good luck to everyone!