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Archive for the tag “london”

17 Feb 2013

Chelsea 4 Brentford 0. Chelsea Fans 0 Brentford Fans 4.

As a Brentford fan days out like this at Stamford Bridge are rare and to be cherished. The harsh reality is that in the first game Brentford should have won and a 2-2 draw was not fair reflection of that game. Today Chelsea had their first team out, internationals galore, and deserved to win but not by 4-0. A few mistakes and some curious refereeing decisions ensured that their win was relatively painless, and some less than excellent defending too. Nevertheless a few reflections on the day.

The atmosphere in the Chelsea fans area seemed akin to a library and one wondered if any fans were actually there or was it purely neutrals rocking up to see a game that maybe was easier to get tickets for. The Brentford terrace chants of ” 4-0 and you still don’t sing” and when the Chelsea fans were leaving in their droves in the 80th to 85th minutes, the chant of ” Is there a firedrill?”, resounded. Having said all that, the Chelsea fans and stewards were nothing less than friendly.

Would I come back here again to see a game? Probably not. My preference is for more atmospheric games such as those in compact small grounds in league 1 and 2.

The Brentford fans were superb throughout, singing and chanting and generally won their game with ease.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged brentford, brentford fc, chelsea, chelsea fc, league 1, league 2, london, london football, premier league, premier league grounds, stamford bridge | Leave a comment

16 Feb 2013

Walton Casuals 1 Eastbourne Town 2. Walton Casuals a consistent team.

A somewhat pleasant day where the sun threatened to shine and photography was halfway possible without floodlights, not that one notices when they come on at Walton . A good day out though, decent game, crowd 106 and the best burger I have had at football for some while.

Walton Casuals if nothing else play in one of the better strips and today there was a riot of orange, red, yellow from both teams. Walton also are consistent having not won a home league game all season and that is why they are second from bottom of the Ryman south League.

The first half was all Eastbourne and until Walton scored with almost the last kick of the half, it looked like it would be a 5-0 type of game. the second half was all Walton and they were unlucky not to equalise.

The football standard in Ryman South does seem variable this season and although neither of these clubs would fancy their chances against the top sides, they did play a good open game in a decent spirit, and the game was well refereed too.

Mu Maan may be the most important player for Walton judging by how the programme had him down playing at both number 8 and number 10. I did wonder before the game if he might be a large gentleman needing two shirts, however in fact he was of normal size and in fact never really caught the eye today.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged eastbourne, eastbourne town, football, london, mu maan, ryman, ryman league, ryman league crowds, ryman south, stompond lane, sun, travel, walton, walton casuals, waterside ground | Leave a comment

13 Feb 2013

Dirty Pretty Wings

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged airplane, airport, BA, baby shambles, british airways, clouds, dirty airplane, dirty pretty things, dirty wings, expensive food, london, london city airport, pete doherty, stockholm, sweden, travel | Leave a comment

13 Feb 2013

1 Comment

London City Airport

The jury is out on this one. On the one hand it is easy to reach by train but on the other there are few lounges, highly expensive food and drink and not so many planes in the middle of the day.

The cost of food is frankly startling here. For 16£ they were offering rich souls a take away pack in a hideous bag ( cooler bag I suspect) containing panini, water, popcorn and fruit ( 1 piece). Extraordinary. For almost 20£ one might have a real breakfast served in a restaurant that actually is a walkway, so an easy place to make and meet friends as they will practically be dropping in as you have your breakfast.

Planes tend to be smaller, so space for luggage more limited. So, I really do not know if this a good or bad option.Not a cheap one though.What you see here is the free cabaret of watching the de-icing of planes. Quite like the look of that job!o

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged airport, breakfast, cheap food, expensive airport food, Heathrow, london, london city airport, luggage space, planes, travel

03 Feb 2013

2 Comments

Candidates for the Most Ridiculous Lampshade in the world

This is a new annual competition I am running. Here is the first entry from Barcelo Raval Hotel Foyer in Barcelona. A life size horse, with the lamp coming out of its head. This one gets 7/10 for nonsense factor.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged barcelo, barcelo hotels, barcelo raval, barcelona, competition, equine, holiday, horse, horse lampshade, lampshade, las ramblas, london, murder, ryman league, spain, sunshine, surrey, weather

27 Jan 2013

Brentford 2 Chelsea 2

It has been a long time since I have been so proud of my team. For those not familiar, Brentford are a small West London team averaging crowds of around 6,000. Chelsea are the current European champions. In the 4th round of the FA Cup today they drew 2-2.

A great day was had by all. It all started well by us meeting the Brentford manager Uwe Rosler on the way to the ground and he was kind enough to pose with my family for a photo. A good MCDonalds breakfast, and a great game of football in a packed stadium.

At no stage of the game were Brentford overawed by Chelsea and in reality came close to knocking Chelsea out.

A few photos as moments but sadly all I Phone photos and the camera on the phone underwhelms me totally.

The only negative might be those who thought it clever to let off flares in a packed terrace.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged brentford, brentford fc, chelsea, chelsea fc, cup shocks, FA Cup, flares, flares at football, football, football crowds, league 1, london, surrey, uwe rosler | Leave a comment

16 Jan 2013

HAPPY KEBAB

In my travels I do see a fair amount of utter nonsense. Today in Copenhagen is no exception. A taxi driver driving me to the airport with an obvious fairly flat left front tyre, needs also to be known that the temperature was minus 4 and dropping to minus 15 tonight, snow and ice on the roads in abundance ( and he drove more like Evil Knievel than anyone else). On me pointing this out he helpfully told me ” that is because air is escaping from the tyre”.

But the greater nonsensical thing today by far was as one walks from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2, which is easy at Copenhagen Airport, about 30 yards maybe, one passes a little food van perched on the corner of two roads. It calls itself the Happy Kebab. And it might , who knows, I know little about the happiness or otherwise of the kebabs in Copenhagen. But then on the end of the van was an exhortation to ” Follow Happy Kebab on Facebook”. I am still thinking as to exactly why anyone would want to follow Happy Kebab on Facebook. So I will and would advise that we all should www.happykebab.dk

We could create a certain amount of confusion if we all follow them, tell our friends to and generally whip up a world wide interest in how happy the kebabs are!

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged copenhagen, copenhagen airport, facebook, flat tyre, happy kebab, ice, kebab, london, rain, snow, taxi, taxi driver, van | Leave a comment

14 Jan 2013

2 Comments

A Poem By 12 year old. Please read

I am not a man of poetry and actually failed my english Literature O level many years ago. Luckily this amazing lack of poetic talent has not genetically passed to my 12 year old. Whilst waiting to enter the field as a second half substitute at hockey last week ( on that freezing cold day), she wrote this poem in her head and then transferred it to her phone on the long coach journey home. To me an amazing poem butyou must be the judge.

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged 12 year old poet, crocodile tears, elena bushe, elephants, english, english poet, hockey, literature, london, o level, pizza, poem, rain, travel

13 Jan 2013

Do not nibble my Olives

A short post to emphasise something that to most of us is basic and obvious. If we are in a shop and we select fresh food, we don’t take an item, nibble it and put it back? Or do we . This sign today at Garsons Farm Shop at Esher suggests maybe some customers do. If they do they are likely to drive Range Rovers the size of a bus and can afford the not inconsiderable prices charged in this Surrey outpost.

The only other occasion I can recall where similar warnings were given was at a school fair a few years ago , when parents were extolled to bring certain items in to be used as prizes or to be sold and the school had to emphasise that ” toiletry items should be new and not partially used”. So no bringing along the end of a bar of soap or a toilet roll, or worse.

Dont nibble my Olives

Posted in Uncategorized and tagged garsons farm, hygeine, london, murder, olive, olives, rain, school fair, school fete, surrey, toiletery, toliet roll, tombola, vacation | Leave a comment

13 Jan 2013

Carshalton 2 Cray Wanderers 1. Ryman Premier

The weather was unhelpful this weekend and many games got called off in non-league but this game thankfully survived. The pitch looked like a mud bath and that was maybe because it was. Having said that the football played was perfectly fine and the ground staff need to take some praise although I understand that not a lot was done to the pitch from the preceding tuesday night game.

Carshalton have had a troubled season to date. Change of manager few months ago, awful start and currently bottom of the Ryman Premier, seemingly heading even at this stage for Ryman South next season. Things of late however have changed. A surprise away win on boxing day at Hampton, followed by a few decent results and another victory a few days ago versus Enfield. This was a key game against a mid-table club.

The first half was surprisingly low key. Little in the way of flying tackles etc. The second half very different. Cray were awarded a penalty by an unconvincing referee in the 25th minute and Carshalton scored with a long range shot that maybe should have been saved in the 31st minute. Little else to warm the soul. I had to resort to eating the last cornish paste, which I suspect was left over from tuesday, which tuesday I will not speculate, but it tasted divine in the cold.

The second half was all about end to end stuff, with Carshalton scoring the winning goal in the 84th minute with a truly special goal from Luke Nolan. This was a goal that you never think can happen. A run by the left full back, beating a few players cutting inside and hitting a shot from around 30 yards that roared into the top left hand corner of the net. With no exaggeration this is one of the best goals I have seen this season. Michael Kamara was highly visible all game with his bandage making him look more like Monty Panesar but played a decent game. Nick Hamann the goalkeeper has to be one of the best keepers at this level and I suspect could play higher. The German flag you can see behind the goal reflects his nationality.

This is a club trying to play their way out of trouble. They have left it late but maybe not too late with now 3 wins in their last 5 games. A lot will depend on key games, injuries and of course luck. I shall be following their progress and now count myself as a fan. As the crowd was 201 it is fair to say that I increased the crowd size by 0.5%.