Good day/ Bad day? Football, wedding, F1...

Saturday was a mixed bag. Will try and make sense of it below:

Bad day: Fell asleep watching F1 early in the morning and missed Q1!
Bad day: Lewis getting knocked out in Q2 and being out-qualified by Jenson (11th and 4th on the grid)
Good day: Vettel grabbing pole position on a brilliant run that was pure controlled aggression
Bad day: Having to leave home to go for the wedding (see previous posts) just before 3pm, meaning the only way I could follow the game was via twitter
Good day: Arsenal nicking what seemed like the winner with about 15 minutes to go, thanks to Nasri
Bad day: Having to hang about at Liverpool Street station for about 30minutes, waiting for a couple of friends. (But at least I could sit down and concentrate on following the game on twitter)
Very bad day: Birmingham delivering one hell of a sucker-punch by equalising in injury time! Not seen it yet, but apparently it was a freak-goal, to make it even worse! My heart literally sank to my feet!
Bad day: Chelsea scum hitting Aston Villa for 7. Seven?! 
Bad day: Man Utd winning 4-0, meaning we're 4 points off the lead
Bad day: Our players being given unbelievable stick on twitter
Good day: Seeing and hanging out with some of my mates
Bad day: Being UNBELIEVABLY bored at one point, that I wanted to cry! No, my friends aren't boring, I just wasn't sat with them at that point
Good day: Taking some pictures before going home, like finally! No pictures of the Bride and Groom- they're pretty much hard to get at a Reception, especially if you're late, like we definitely were. And no, my friends and I don't tend to wear similar outfits- this was a special instance! See previous post.

Esther & I:

Me, obviously:

Oyinda, Toyin and Esther:

Esther & Toyin:

Chris & I:

I am terribly anti-social. Well actually, it depends on what we're doing really. I hate being in places where there are LOADS of people. Don't like it. Well, minus the Emirates ofcourse. But having said that, the more people there are somewhere, the more likely I feel all alone, which is the reason why I'm not sure if I can go to the Ems on my own.
I much prefer hanging out with a small selection of people I know; I prefer doing active stuff- bowling, paint-balling, go-karting; I'm not really a fan of clubs (although I did love going out with my football team at Uni last year- that was fun!); I hate small talk (like really! It's so pointless and I'm terrible at it anyways!). Okay, I'll stop going on about it and get back to 'Good day/ Bad day?'!

Bad day: Players STILL being given unbelievable stick on twitter- probably because Match of the Day was on at the time
Bad day: Both of my batteries running out 10-15 minutes before getting home
Good day: Getting into the cab home with a really nice and chatty driver- and it wasn't small talk!
Bad day: Having blotchy thighs, thanks to the sequins on the bottom bit of my dress! There was one particular sequin directly on my thigh and was practically ripping into my skin when walking. I tried ripping it off, but I could only make it worse.

(Yes, I did take a picture of my thighs, just to post on here! Well, it's my blog, so I'll do whatever I want! ;) I can assure you it looks worse in real-life, though)
Good day: Getting home just in time to catch Roger Federer's game! Get in! He won ofcourse: 6-3, 6-3 against Nicolas Lapentti
Good day: Finally getting to bed!

As I'm a positive person, I'll conclude that was a good day, minus the Arsenal result, bu
Well, as it's Saturday morning at the moment, I'll continue up to what's happening currently! :)

Good day: Waking up at 6am in time to watch the Australian GP. Woop!
Bad day: Having to listen to Jonathan Legard. He's my least favourite F1 commentator in the BBC. Martin Brundle is my favourite and guess what? They're paired together!
Good good day: The race getting off to a flier, with Lewis moving up 4 spots from the start into 7th, with Jenson dropping a couple into 6th! Woop! Button tapped into Alonso's Ferrari, who then crashed into Schumacher! Other crashes, as well. Just the first lap- wow start! LOTS of cool overtaking manouvres. And oh! LEWIS JUST OVERTOOK BUTTON! Brilliant move! Oh my wow! And Button's had to pit for a change of tyres. Hmm.
Loads of pit-stops- a bit confusing at the moment, as the timing screens aren't up and it's hard to tell who's in what position! Just on Lap 10, with rain still forecast. This IS manic! (I am listening to 5Live radio commentary in addition to BBC 1's, though!)
Oh no! Vettel's out! From the lead as well! Jenson was in 2nd, so he leads! Bummer for Seb, brilliant for Button! Wow! PS- 2nd race in a row (off pole position) that he's had car problems! He managed to end up 4th last race, but he's out this time. Gutted for him though. The Red Bull's quick, but keeps having reliability issues. But Lewis is up to third! Still 28 laps to go, I think! (Or 30. Out of 58). It might end as a McLaren 1-2 (Jenson and Lewis, in any order!)- the driver ahead of Lewis is quite a slow car, and Lewis is on his tail at the moment. That really would be brilliant! Even more so, if Lewis wins...

I'll post this now, and will probably update it at the end of the race...


Update:
Would you believe it? Yet another Birmingham sucker-punch! Howard WEBB kinda messed us up yesterday, and guess who messed Lewis up today? Mark WEBBER!
Basically, Lewis was in 5th (as he pitted for new tyres) and catching up to the back of the 2 Ferraris in front of him with a couple or so laps to go, with Webber behind him. Lewis was about to pass the first Ferrari- he almost made it stick, but Webber came up behind and tapped him! Bummer! If he hadn't been tapped, he'd have probably passed the 2 Ferraris, and the other car ahead, and ended up 2nd, giving McLaren a brilliant 1-2! But Lewis ended up 6th, with Jenson winning. It really was Birmingham all over again, Webber's tap almost at the end is the equivalent of that stoppage time equaliser yesterday! Lewis ended up 6th, from 11th position, but it could have been so much better- same as us, yesterday! It's just before 9am, and it feels like a bad day, already.

Anyways, enough drama for 2 days, won't you say?!

Forever young.

Was going to publish a post I just wrote, but I think my thoughts can be summed up aptly:

I don't want to live forever, but I want to be forever young. I think...

Soo random!

Quite a few clusters of 'B' names have caught my eye of late, in sports- well, at least football and cricket!

In the Champions League quarters/semis draw:
Barcelona;
Bayern Munich;
Bordeaux.

In the Premier League:
Birmingham;
Blackburn;
Bolton;
Burnley.

In the England cricket team playing against Bangladesh:
Bell;
Bresnan;
Broad.

And still in the 'B' theme, our next two games are against Birmingham and Barca!

Okay, I think it's quite obvious I've got lots of time on my hands, so I'm off to do something productive! :)

Thursday and Friday.

It's already early morning Saturday morning, and I was going to write this post on... Thursday! But I was really tired when I got back home so I decided to sleep instead! We all need our beauty sleep, you know!

But anyways, Thursday felt like a very looong day. As of Wednesday afternoon, I didn't have any proper plans, but as it turns out with my friends, they like to spring things up on me at the last minute- probably because they know I haven't got much doing, so I'm likely to be available! I had to meet Oyinda in London this time around. It was urgent (ish) stuff, anyways, so I couldn't avoid it, really.

Was planning on getting my hair done (steamed, trimmed and all that) on Friday in Mill Hill, but since I had to be in London on Thursday, it only made sense to only make one trip to London, so I had to try and fit both 'meetings' into Friday. After making a number of phone-calls, the day was finally sorted- meet Oyinda at Kings Cross for about 11am to get things sorted, then be at Mill Hill for about 2-3pm.

It's so hard getting up in the morning. I'm sooo not a morning person! But anyways, I only had to leave home at 10am so it wasn't too bad. I did get to Kings Cross at about 10.40am. She'd banged on about how I had to get there before 11am, and typical, eh? She was late! She meant 11:00 BMT,but I guess I should have realised that the BMT she meant was 'Black Man's Time'. Haha! She did say, after I was at King's Cross though, that she'd forgotten something at home and had to go back. She only lives at Holloway Road, but she was still about 20minutes late! I really ought not to moan much, though- who knows, I might be the late one, next time!

Anyways, where were we off to again? We had to go all the way to Excel. Why? We had to go to the tailors'. Why? That's the long bit! Basically, it's Oyinda's cousin's wedding next Saturday and the way it works traditionally, is that for the reception, the bride's family (and/or the groom's family, not too sure, really) usually get to wear something called aso ebi; my rough translation- family cloth (that's a rubbish translation, but it's one of those ones that a literal translation doesn't really do justice for!). What it is really, is that they choose a particular fabric for family and friends to wear, if interested. Thankfully, Urban Dictionary do have a better explanation!
Immediate family almost always have to wear the fabric, but it's generally optional, and you tend to buy from the family. I don't know, but I think the whole purpose anyways, is to sort of contribute towards the wedding. That might not be the reason, but it sounds like a good enough reason! And it usually ends up looking nice, especially in pictures, with a bunch of people wearing the same fabric. It's up to you to get it sewn at a tailor's, and you've got carte blanche as to the style or design!
So yeah, Oyinda and I (and another of our mates) bought the aso ebi (it only cost £30), so we just had to find a tailor. It's not really stuff I can be bothered much with, so I just left Oyinda in charge. I'm not related to the people getting married, so I'm sure it wouldn't matter to anyone whatever I was wearing!

Either ways, she found a tailor at Excel, so we just had to find our way there, choose what design we wanted sown for us. I'm like the least fashion-minded of us friends, so I hadn't given much thought to it! No surprise Oyinda had, though, as she came armed with her laptop, full of pictures of different styles to choose from. I ended up choosing something really simple from a magazine, as I'm not that fussy! And I got a picture, too!

First things first, though- I totally am not brave enough to wear a dress with that low a neckline, and I think those black pouch-thingies on the hip are a bit dodgy, so I'm not having those- the neckline'll be a bit higher, if not I'd feel self-conscious for the whole time! Also, the black transparent band on her waist will so not be transparent for me, and will be a different colour which matches the aso ebi. Simple does it, I'd say, especially as it ain't my wedding, or anything. I can't remember, but I think the outfit's brown and orange, but in all honesty, I've forgotten what it looks like! Oyinda went for something slightly more complicated, but I guess she's allowed to! And it's only costing me £35, which is really decent. We've got to go back (unfortunately!) on Thursday for the fitting- got to hope it turns out fine, seeing as the wedding'll only be 2 days away!
Anyways, we were out of the tailor's at about 1pm. Job done. Oyinda was off to her Aunt's for some more wedding preparation!

Actually, I do remember when her cousin got proposed to! I can't remember why, but I was staying over at Oyinda's that day- I think it was around October/ November. Oyinda's friends with her cousin's boyfriend, so he told her earlier he was going to propose to her cousin on her birthday, so she had to pretend not to know anything about it! I think he took her to dinner, under the guise that it was just the usual birthday dinner, then he proposed. She said yes- obviously! The only reason why I remember, is the terrible acting skills of my friend! Her cousin called her later that day to tell her she was getting married and to give her the low-down, but she had to pretend as if she knew nothing about it. Gosh, she's so terrible! Haha! I can't believe she actually screamed when her cousin mentioned the proposal- that's was like the fakest scream ever! Ok, I'm probably exaggerating, but it was hilarious!

Anyways, with the tailor done, I had to get myself down (up?) to Mill Hill to get my hair sorted. Good timing, really, as I got there at about 2.30pm. Not bad! Of late, I've been feeling happy with myself that my hair's relatively long, but it did need a proper trimming. I think getting your hair trimmed is one of the most painful things ever, especially as you can always see how much the hairdresser's cutting off! A necessary evil- that's what I call it! My hair definitely looks much better now, even though it's way shorter :(
I'll console myself in the fact that it looks nicer than it was before! The disadvantage of salons is that you end up staying there for much longer than necessary, really. Didn't leave until about 6pm! Crazy, I know! At least my cousin picked me up from the station, so it wasn't that much of a pain getting home.

I got home in time to catch the second-half of the Fulham-Juve match in the Europa League. What a corker! Totally chuffed to bits for Fulham and Roy Hodgson. Pretty unbelievable that they were able to turn what was at one point, a 4-1 deficit to win 5-4. Against the Old Lady, of all people! I guess the fact that they were down to 10 men for most of the match helped, but still, that was an amazing performance by Fulham! We might be London rivals, but it was great how most Arsenal fans, at least the ones on twitter, were right behind them. I'm sure if it were Chelsea though, we'd all have been supporting Juve! Massive massive well-done to Fulham. At least one West London team was able to do the business against an Italian team! ;) There were loads of good games in the Europa League on Thursday, actually. Loads of goals. The Liverpool v Lille was on next- glad I was watching it in my room, as I promptly fell asleep sometime during the second-half. I somehow ended up dreaming that Liverpool won 5-0 or 5-1, with Torres scoring a hat-trick! That's what I get for falling asleep while watching/listening to football. For the record, that game ended 3-0 (2 goals to Torres) and I'm sure it was 3 nil anyways, by the time I fell asleep!

So that was Thursday. Felt like an eventful day, but it wasn't really. I'm just a lazy so-and-so! :)

The only memorable thing about Friday was the Champions League draw! That was officially meant to start at 11am, but the draw itself didn't start until 11.15am. I had to book myself a Doctor's Appointment that morning, but I had a momentary brain-freeze and chose a 10:40am appointment, after being offered one at 9:50am! It was only after getting off the phone that I remembered my blunder! Duh!
 I only live about 10-15 minutes away from the hospital, so I was going to rush home quickly. But how totally predictable that I didn't get to see the Doctor until about 11am! That didn't last longer than 5-8 minutes, but it meant I had to follow the draw on the BBC website on my phone, as I was walking home. I was nervous as hell! So the first couple of draws saw Man. United paired with Bayern Munich and Bordeaux v Lyon! That could only mean that we either had to Inter, Barcelona or CSKA Moscow. But as luck would have it, we were paired with Barcelona! I literally went weak at the knee! I so didn't want Barcelona- not because I think we can't beat them or anything, but because I would have preferred that to be the final! But not only that, if (read when) we beat Barcelona, we probably have to then face Inter or CSKA in the semis, then probably United in the final!
Another reason for me being gutted about the draw, is because I wanted to go for the home leg. But the chances of Red members getting tickets are slim to none! It's times like this I hate all you lot with season tickets! Haha, just joking! But I realy wish I was going to the game. It's going to be epic! The bookies are all predicting a Rooney v Messi final- as if they're guaranteed to be there, already! As far as I'm concerned, our tie could go either way, but I'm sure if the players are well up for it, there's no reason why we can't take the holders on and beat them! Cannot wait! I hope we crash the party! But I guess I'll have to do with watching on TV. Better than nothing, though!

Anyways, no need to worry about Barcelona for now- we've only got the small matter of a London derby against West Ham on Saturday, in the league. Not only that, we also get the chance to go top if we win, since Chelsea and United don't play until Sunday! I'm sure we can do it- as long as we don't repeat what happened at Upton Park where we let a 2-goal lead slip inside the last 15 minutes and ended up drawing the game!
No slip-ups, please! Come on Arsenal! :)

No 3!

3 blog-posts in one day? I'm on fire! And I still have a half-finished one!
This isn't a typical post anyways, as I only felt like posting a couple a videos:

1) Realised I love this song, even though every time I hear it, I always have to ask my cousin for the title and the name of the artist!I do know, now! ;)



2) And as I can't do without mentioning football, have a look at this promotional video about Germany's World cup kit. I'm a bit late with it, but well, it's still a weird one. It's in German, but it doesn't matter much!


Goodnight! :)

Strange one...

I do LOVE writing, like I say almost every time :) but I'm a bit too shy to tell people about it. Ofcourse, my blog's online & is on my twitter page, so all that sounds a bit ridiculous! And I have mentioned it to a few people on twitter, but I can count the number of people on one hand, and I do remember when and how! But then again, I haven't mentioned it any of my close friends, family, or even the people I live with! Apart from this blog, I also write for an Arsenal one, but I always try to avoid writing on either of them, when people are around me. I wonder why!

Maybe it's because I don't do criticism well, and the less people who know about it, the less likely I am to get an earful about what I'm doing wrong! I know you can get one of those twitter-feed things, whereby when you post a new blog it gets tweeted, but I don't want to. Ofcourse it's nice when people read your blog, but I'd kind of feel bad, as if I was forcing people to read it, if that makes sense.
But it's a weird one for me though, as I do like it when people tweet their blog posts, as it reminds me to read them, which I'm always very glad to do! I'm a words-junkie, remember?
Words-junkie! I'm sure I just made that up! :)

Or maybe it's because I only write as a hobby, and I'm worried I'll be told to get a life if I mentioned that I spend so much time blogging?

Or maybe the reason why I'm too shy to publicise it much, is because I just love the excitement of doing something in secret, if an online blog counts as a secret?!

Ooh, or maybe becuase I get the chance to slag off these people, since they haven't got a clue about the blog! Who knows, maybe I'll end up doing so one, of these days! ;) Nah, I probably won't... Damn! :)

Either way, I'm having so much fun blogging- does it really matter if next to no-one reads it?
(Hi, if you are reading by the way!) :)

Nice and easy, today...

Got this email today, in my spam folder, thank God! Lovely way to start the day, right?

---

Hello,
My name is Mr.John Jasper from South Africa our client died Three year sago
leaving behind Capital amount (US$14.6M) in our bank here where i
work ,I am his account manager ,till date nobody has come forward or put
application for the claim. To maintain the level of security required I have
intentionally left out the final details.

I want you to come forward since I can provide you with the details needed for
you to claim the Funds so that I can be gratify by you,I that will do all the
crucial part in the bank to have the claim release to you promptly. To affirm
your willingness and cooperation please do so by replying me at my private email
stating your mind,and His Name is Dr. George Brumley.

Thank you,

Mr John Jasper

I obviously know it's from one of those scammers, but well, it makes a lovely change that the silly man isn't claiming to be a Nigerian business-man!
But really though, do any people still fall for these scams, in this day and age? I'd like to one day pretend to be interested and reply to one of these emails just for laughs, but well, today isn't one of them and besides, I wouldn't want these monkeys having my email address, would I?


Anyways, in news more important to me, it's Theo's birthday today! Happy birthday, little speedster! He's 21, can you believe it? Finally, I'll say! I sometimes feel like I'm an old-head, but realising that I'm the same age as Theo (although a number of months older) and I'm always tempted to call him 'little Theo' is a lovely reminder that I'm not, if that makes any sense! :) He's got such a lovely girlfriend too, not your typical WAG. But then again, do any of our players have typical WAGs? Just thinking of it, I don't really know about most of the players', but maybe that proves my point, as they're hardly in the news all the time! Oh, here's a picture of Theo's cake from his 21st party over the weekend, that a got off the Daily Mail website. Make of it what you will:

On another note, I've got to say how seriously gutted I am for Becks. Such a true professional, and despite what people say, I think he would have been a great addition to the England squad, and he wanted desperately to play at the World Cup, too. He might not have pace like Theo but his range of passing is second to none, and I'm sure if Theo's deliveries become anywhere near as good as Becks, he'll be an even better player than he is at the moment. It'll be a shame if his career ended this way, so I hope he's back soon. But on the plus note, it makes it even more likely Theo'll be at the World Cup, especially with Aaron Lennon still out injured.

I was only going to write a short post this morning but the more I write, the more stuff I think to add, so I'll just stop now before this get wayyy too long!

Have a nice day! :)

Addictions...

Was going tell the ridiculous tale of my cousin and her attempts to get a car, but I'm a bit of a terrible story-teller and I just didn't think it'll come out funny! It IS funny, though. Well, somewhat. And besides, it's still an on-going saga!

Anyways, I started writing a post the other day about addictions, so I might as well finish it! :)

.................
Have I got addictions? For sure. Have I got addictions to be worried about? Erm, I don't think so. But can you really classify addictions as 'good' or 'bad'? Addictions are addictions, right? I don't know, really. But don't worry, I'm not about to tell you I've got a cigarette, drugs or drinks addiction. My life is wayyy simpler than that! ;)


My  biggest addiction has got to be sports. It's really a weird one because 5 years ago, I couldn't give a flying fig about sports but now, I can't imagine what my life would be without it. Who knows, maybe if I grew up in a sports-mad country, I probably would have tried to go into a career in sports, but well, it wasn't meant to be!
The sport I'm probably maddest about is football and it's actually really bad. I'd watch anything, even if it's football between teams I've never heard of! I think I've toned down a bit on that, but that's probably because I've found other sports to immerse myself in, so I don't have enough time to watch all the football on! And I don't just go to games or watch football on TV, but I even listen on the radio! (But to be honest, radio commentary tends to be fabulous!). But yeah, I follow the Premier League keenly, but I also have my nose in other leagues. At least I don't just watch sports, I also play as much as I can. Oh that reminds me, I need to find a new football team, a local one! Going to Southampton every week just ain't working, unfortunately :(
But yeah, Arsenal obviously, are THE team as far as I'm concerned. If I could go watch all our games I'd do, but well I can't. I probably spend most of my money on them and don't mind spending even more on them, even if it makes me bankrupt! But no, that'll never happen, I'm too smart for that! :p I wish I was a season-ticket holder, though. Maybe I'll get one in the next 20 years! It really is a long list, trust me! I'm not on it yet, as I need to convince someone else to get on the list with me, so we can get a seat together! I'm working on it, don't worry, but I haven't got that many options, since I don't know that many 'proper' gooners.

Others sports I'm absolutely addicted to? Tennis, F1 and cricket, though not necessarily in that order. My sleeping pattern is totally dependent on these sports. I sleep when it's not on and stay awake when it's on. It's a bit of a strange one actually, as I remember last year when I had exams during the Australian Open, I could only study when tennis was on. Don't know how that worked, really, but it did! Maybe my concentration levels are at their highest at these times. Very strange! Like now, I'm currently writing this post while watching F1 (Free Practice 2), but I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work if an Arsenal game was on. I'm usually such a nervous wreck when the game's close by and even when it's on. I totally wouldn't be able to do anything else!
 
I think I'm allowed to say this now since I actually finished with a very decent grade, but I  think Iwas more into sports during my masters than my books. And that's saying something, since I'm a bit of a geek! But then again, I'm not sure if I'd spent more time reading, that I would have gotten a better grade- I learnt that from my undergraduate days. I was really upset for a really long time that I got a 2:1 at Uni, as I was very very close to getting a First. I still am in all honesty, but way less. I worked really really hard, yet if I'd worked less hard (is that grammar correct?), I would have still ended up with a 2:1, anyways. You don't get asked: 'Did you get a high 2:1 or a low 2:1? A 2:1's a 2:1 and the fact that I have a high 2:1 is nothing but an ego-booster. I'm not sure it'll make any practical difference to my life. So how weird is it that working very hard taught me to work less hard, and still do well? I got a Merit for my Masters anyways, and I don't regret the fact that I didn't necessary work flat out. Not saying I didn't work hard, but I made sure I had fun the best way I knew how to. Would I have got a Distinction if I'd worked flat-out? Maybe, maybe not. But what's that saying again, 'All work and no play...'? My mum made a similar point to me and I totally don't regret my decision to ease up a bit during the LLM.

But I absolutely love how I kind of arrange my life around the sports I love, as it means I don't follow a certain pattern and each day is completely different from the other. I really can't stand routine. A 9-5 job will probably be very testing for me, but who knows, I might get a get a totally flexible job! highly unlikely, unfortunately.

That's my kind of addiction!


I'm also a snooker and golf fan though I'm not addicted to them- I just watch it if it's on TV, but I always happen to know what's going on. I was raving about the Winter Olympics the other day, but I probably wouldn't watch any of them until the next Olympics! There was actually Ski-cross on TV yesterday, but I couldn't be bothered to watch it. Very impressive on my part, I'd say!

Oh, for a random 'addiction', I've been told recently that I'm addicted to Strepsils. By two different people, no less! Strepsils? Like what? How totally random. Is that even possible? I do have it loads during winter, but in my opinion, it's only as a preventative measure. For some reason, I develop colds very easily and I noticed that taking Strepsils whenever I'm back inside from the cold and start to get that funny feeling in my throat, it works! I think I've only had a cold once this summer. So that definitely isn't an addiction. I guess I'll know if it is, if I find myself buying Strepsils in summer! I won't be able to find an excuse for that now, will I?

Does reading count as an addiction? I read anything and everything. Even when I'm out and about. I read words off posters, cars, sign-posts, anything. Most people seem to be drawn to lovely scenery, but I'm drawn to words. Apart from mine, though. I totally can't stand reading what I've written. Once I'm done writing, and ofcourse doing the initial proof-reading, I can't read it again. Maybe I'm just scared I'll find an error or something, but it's a massive no-no. I don't like reading short Articles as I feel like they're a waste of my time, if you get what I mean. No wonder my posts are always so long! (Maybe even too long!) ;) Maybe that's why I like twitter, as there are always tweets to read!


At the moment, I can't think of what else I may be addicted to, but I've always felt confident that if I wanted to stop being addicted to something, I can do so- as and when I choose. I do it all the time. I remember back in my first year, my iPod was like by best friend. This was in 2005. It'd go with me everywhere, and it even got to the stage where I'd listen to it during lectures! I'm very good at multi-tasking, really! :) I bet some poeple used to describe me as the 'girl with the iPod'. Haha! But yeah, it was with me everywhere- not just with me, obviously, but I always used to listen to music on it.
But I just woke up randomly one day and decided not to use it for a week, just to prove to myself that I wasn't addicted to it. And I did it. Easily. But after the week was over, I went back to listening to it, but not as much as I used to. I wouldn't have thought it was possible then, but I don't listen to music half as much as I used to!
I used to be addicted-ish to Twitter and thanks to my reading addiction, I'd read ALL the tweets from people I follow. There were loads of them! But I just decided all of a sudden to go on a hiatus, although that was partly to do with the fact that I was getting cheesed off by the ridiculous slagging off some Arsenal players were getting, just because we lost a couple of games. It was doing my head in, but I still kept on reading everything. So I went completely off it for about 10 days. And it was easy. Not entirely at first, but once I started, it was easy to continue. I've been back on it for a while now though, but I don't read as many tweets as I used to anymore, even though I probably follow a bit more people!

Oh, how can I forget, I'm addicted to Coke! I have it as much as I can, but I'm not too worried it'll become a problem as I'm sure I can always take a break if I so wanted! Maybe that's one of the reasons I don't want to ease up on my sports addiction now, because who knows, in a few years I may not be that keen on sports anymore! (I sincerely hope not! That would just be wrong!)

I'm currentlly addicted to my laptop and my phone, as I'm constantly on the internet doing one thing or the other. Am I willling to give that up for a few days, just to prove a point to myself? I can't believe you actually want an answer! ;)
.................

Continuing in the sports theme, there hasn't been tennis on for such a long time, but the Masters 1000 series at Indian Wells starts tomorrow! I say 'starts tomorrow' even though it officially started this Monday, but in reality, it doesn't proper get going until tomorrow! I've been getting psyched up about it for weeks, especially as Roger Federer missed the last tournament due to injury and I really thought it started this Monday, only to realise that it was qualifying (for those outside the top 32) that started on Monday and Round One was meant to start on Wednesday. So I was excited on Wednesday to finally watch tennis, only to remember that the top seeds actually get 'byes' in the first round, so don't play until the second round! Why on earth didn't I remember this ages ago? I've lost a bit of my excitement now, and I bet Federer isn't even due to play until Sunday. Anyways, I guess I'll be watching whenever it's finally on and I bet it'll never skip my memory again, that the top seeds get a 1st round bye!

Another sport I've been looking forward to for SUCH a long time is Formula 1. And it's back! Woop! I think I've been counting down to the restart since the season ended November last year- I've missed it to death! It started today, but it's only been Free Practice so it's not the real deal, but it's better than nothing! Oh yeah! The first race is at Bahrain, starting with Qualifying on Saturday and the race itself on Sunday. Was watching last year's Bahrain highlights here on the Formula One website (you need to register, but it's free), and the backing track was this song. I hadn't actually heard the song before, you know, but I absolutely love it. It's by Basement Jaxx. It sounds so much better when you listen to it on the highest volume! Or high enough as you can go- don't want you disturbing the peace! ;)
Really can't wait for Saturday and Sunday. May (I probably won't! :p) do a blog post on F1 after Qualifying on Saturday and maybe I'll even convince you to watch the race! The season should be AWESOME! No doubt :D

Lovely weekend...

I'd planned to make this post mainly about pictures, but it's pretty hard for me not to write anything, so you'll have to deal with my waffle again! ;)

So yeah, right up until 12.45pm on Saturday, all I had planned for the day was a trip to the Emirates for the Burnley game then back home, and that was good enough for me. But with only 10 minutes to go before I HAD to leave home, a got a phone call from my friend saying she was coming down to Hertfordshire later that day for her cousin's graduation and she wanted me to come as well. After loads of 'erm, erm, I dunno's, I agreed to come along and also stay over as well, meaning I had try and sort out an over-night bag and what to wear to the party, asap! A frantic 10 minutes ensued, but I managed to find most of what I needed,but only after I'd thrashed my room a bit. Happy days!

Anyways, so that was me off to the game. I don't like sitting 'alone' at games, so I always have to get someone to go to the game with. It tends to be Chris most times, so I was to meet him at Finsbury Park. I actually sat with a couple of Burnley fans on the train into London; a father and son. They were talking predictions, the father going for 3-0 to Burnley! I think the son went for 1-0 to Burnley. Aww, bless 'em! They've got to be the most optimistic fans ever! I just sat there trying to suppress the widest grin, ever! They eventually sussed that I was going to the game.

Got to Finsbury Park about 30minutes before kick-off, but had to dash to Highbury & Islington with Chris for a quick drink and 'Hi' to Sharon (@SharonGooner) at the 'Famous Cock' pub, then on to the Emirates. Surprisingly, I've never been Highbury & Islington before, but like you'd expect, there were loads of people walking from there to the game, so we just tagged behind!

We eventually got to our seats with a few minutes to spare- perfect timing! Thinking about it, this was actually my first Saturday 3pm kick-off game. Should go to more...

It looks like all the players are wearing white kits, but ours had white 'GET WELL SOON AARON' T-shirts. There were a few banners around, but I didn't actually see any of them. There were loads of times doing the game when everyone was singing Ramsey's name, and I'm sure if he was watching the game, he would have felt the love!

Compare to how we've started the last few games, we actually started really brightly. Before the game, I had a theory as to how the game would pan out. The other 2 league games I'd been to at the Emirates this season were against Blackburn and Bolton, and this one was against Burnley. Notice a pattern? Other similarities between between both games were that we conceded first (conceding 2 in total); scored at least 4 (4 against Bolton, 6 against Blackburn!); Cesc, Arshavin & Tommy V all scored. So my theory was that Burnley would score first but we'd go on the win, thanks to goals from Cesc, Arshavin, Tommy V and I don't know, Theo or someone else!

But well, that theory was blown out of the water when we scored first through Cesc- not that I cared, really! :D And it was a brilliant goal too! Nasri floated a lovely lovely ball over the Burnley defence through to Cesc who had made a clever run into the box, leaving him with an 'easy' side-foot through Jenson's legs! Fabulous goal! I actually thought it was Nasri who scored at first, as I was at the opposite end and these 2 just look so similar from afar, and wear the same coloured boots to make it even harder! Shame Cesc got subbed shortly after due to a recurrence of his hammy. Wenger's just confirmed he's going to miss Porto. Bummer!

It was half-time soon after and we really ought to have been out of sight, but we just couldn't find the target! Theo was causing havoc down the right and Burnley just couldn't live with him! A bunch of us gooners on twitter had agreed to meet at half-time outside Block 4 for a quick 'hello'. I was upstairs in Block 99, so had to hurry downstairs and back up, so as not to miss the start of the second-half.

From left to right: Me, Brian, Paula, Sian, Louise and Paul- Nice to finally meet you lovely people! It was the briefest of 'hello's, and then we were all off to our seats for the restart.


We'd completely dominated the first half, so it wasn't that much of a surprise that a goal was scored barely 5 minutes after the restart. But it was a surprise though, that it was a Burnley goal! That was a goal as against the run of play as you would ever see! Okay slight exaggeration there, but it came out of the blue! I was half-expecting the flag to go up for offside, but it didn't and the match was level, David Nugent the scorer.
There was no need to worry though, as Theo scored about 10 minutes later. It was another brilliant goal and one Theo totally deserved. He cut in from the right side, and from just inside the box, passed the ball expertly to the far side of the goal, on his left foot! His celebration was a bit of a bizarre one, put apparently had to do with him missing the team bus on Friday and having to hitch a ride with one of the back-room staff. That's why he was tapping an imaginary watch on his wrists!

Rosicky got subbed for Arshavin almost immediately after the goal. I was really happy Theo had a storming game, after all the criticism levelled at him after the England v Egypt game. Totally unwarranted criticism in my opinion. He scored a brilliant goal and could have had a number of assists. The crowd responded very well to him, especially after he had a bit of a coming together with one of the Burnley players after he got tackled. It was a fair challenge, but it was good to see Theo getting upset and showing some emotion. I loved it! "Theo, Theo, Theo". I bet he loved it too!

We really ought to have scored loads more goals, but Nikky B was having a shocker in front of goal. Theo created a number of decent chances for him, but he couldn't take any. But apart from his finishing, I thought he had a good game. His link-up play was excellent as usual, and he picked up an assist for Theo' goal.

Nikky B after one of his misses! I think!

Although his misses were quite bad, it was all really funny to me! I just couldn't stop laughing. Not really sure whether it was just the nature of the misses, or whether it was the look of horror etched on Chris' face next to me, but I thought it was hilarious! The crowd seemed to accept it was one of those days, didn't get on his back and kept singing 'Super super Nick'. He even got a standing ovation when he got subbed for Eduardo later on and he managed a wry smile in response. Good-natured stuff.

 

Bendtner getting subbed...


It didn't matter though- all the misses- as Arshavin made it 3-1 in injury-time with another fine goal. He's been out for a while, so it was nice to see him back amongst the goals. I thought he seemed a bit jaded before he got injured, so I hope he's refreshed now and back to his best or near enough. He has a big part to play in deciding whether we win something or not this season so we need him firing.

 

Then it was full-time... Time to go home...

 

Freezing, but in no real hurry to leave!

I thought Nasri also had a very good game. He was doing well before Cesc got taken off, but he did even better afterwards. He's hit some form of late, so hopefully that continues for a while. Theo was my Man of the Match, but Nasri ran him close. Tommy V was superb as well. But to be honest, if he was to ever have a bad game, I probably wouldn't notice! :) And no picture of him. Gutted!

We've got quite a few players coming into form or coming back from injury, so I'm really looking forward to see how far we go this season. 

I think there was more I wanted to write about the game, but I can't remember! :(

Anyways, we actually saw Nikky B on our way home. He was driving home (presumably), but had stopped to sign a few (loads) autographs. One of the fans actually asked him if he'd left his shooting boots at home, but he simply smiled and kept smiling. I think it was the same fan who then got him to speak to his girlfriend on his mobile, which Nick actually did! He stayed for about 5-10minutes before eventually driving off. Lovely lad!

So that was the trip to the Emirates done. Great game, great atmosphere and even greater 3 points.

Didn't get home until Sunday evening thanks to my impromptu detour, but it was a fun weekend! Saw quite a few of my friends on Saturday and Sunday which was really good.

Not sure when next I'll be going to the Emirates, but I hope it's pretty soon! :)

We've got Porto at home in the Champions League on Tuesday. Massive game. Not overly worried about it- not because Porto are pushovers; they're not- but because I'm confident we'll be able to pull out the performance and result we need. I hope I'm not proved wrong!

Winter Olympics- Better late than never, eh?

Is it too late to talk about the Winter Olympics? Oh well, I've got to do it now, if not I'll forget everything I planned to write- I've forgotten about half, already!

But yeah, what can I say about Vancouver 2010? It was simply AMAZING! I didn't actually plan on watching the Olympics, but ended up watching almost all of it! I usually have my laptop on next to me (bad, I know) and I'm always logged on to Twitter. So on the day of the opening ceremony, as per usual, I woke up at about 3am and was on my laptop when a few people tweeted about the Opening Ceremony. They're usually fun (remember Beijing?) so I thought I might as well watch it, since I'm awake.

Ofcourse I didn't go all the way downstairs at 3am just to watch the Opening Ceremony on TV- I've got Skyplayer on my laptop, so I could watch it in my room, as it was on Eurosport. I'd already missed about 30mins of it, but I think I caught the last hour or so (yes, it was pretty long!) and it was enthralling. I might be exaggerating, but I thought everything was done to perfection. I don't know a lot about Canada, but I just felt that the ceremony was the essence of Canada. That's just the way it felt.
Then there was the lighting of the torch. If nothing else gets you into the Olympic spirit, this does! So the ceremony was brilliant and got me excited about the games. I'm not even a fan of most winter sports, and the only one I'd watched previously was Figure Skating! But I was curious as anything. My first ever Winter Olympics!

I think the men's Downhill was the first I watched. Surprisingly enough, I had heard of USA's Bode Miller before (don't know how, really), so I was looking forward to his run. It was simply brilliant and it seemed that he'd go on to win gold, but he's time was beaten by 0.02 seconds by Svindall, whose time then got beaten by Didier Defago by 0.07 seconds! Close, or what? It felt like F1 on ice! Awesome!Then there was the women's downhill as well, with Lindsey Vonn blowing everyone away!

I thought that was all the skiing done, but hell to the no! It's amazing how many different sports you can do on skiis! There was the Downhill, Ski-jumping, Slalom, Giant Slalom, the Super G, the Super-Combined, ski-cross... Not only that, but there was the male, female and team competitions. I wasn't complaining- I was LOVING it. You can't help but love all that excitement. What made it even better, was the fact that it was practically the same people competing in all of them, with some better at one discipline or the other, so it was kind of easy to get into it and know who was supposed to be the favourites. Then ofcourse, there's always the drama of crashes to keep you on the edge of your seat! Thankfully, no one suffered any life-threatening crashes.
It was the usual suspects in the medals, with Bode Miller eventually winning all colours, gold last. He even managed to crash out in one of the others, but I guess that won't matter a lot to him, really. Norway's Svindall also won all 3 medals. The only other memorable names were Didier Cuche (he didn't actually win any!), Croatia's Ivica Kostelic with 2 silvers. The only women I can really remember are Vonn, Maria Reisch (Germany) and Julia Mancuso.

Ski-jumping was the only ski event with different competitors. It's amazing how far their jumps were! Even made me wish I was a ski-jumper! Good luck with that. One person who dominated the ski-jumping was Switzerland's Simon Ammann. He was untouchable! He won gold in the two events he competed in. Easily. At least there's another Swiss apart from Roger Federer totally dominating his sport! ;)Then there was the fabulously named German, Andreas Wank! Even Graeme Swann had to tweet about his name! Only one medal for him. Gregor Schlierenzauer and Adam Malysz(mouthfuls!) both had 2 silvers and 2 bronzes respectively. Ski-jumping lacked the excitement of the Alpine programme, but it was still fab!
Free-style skiing was amazing, too!

If the skiing wasn't your cup of tea, the skateboarding HAD to be! Like the skiing, there were different different events. There was the snowboard cross, the half-pipe and the parallel giant slalom. Male and female ones, as well.
The half-pipe was wow! It's amazing how many twists one can do in the air whilst still in control! USA' Shaun White won gold with one of the best combinations ever, including the fabulously named 'Tomahawk', officially the 'Double McTwist 1260'. I couldn't find a video of his Vancouver run without some rights restriction, but check this out. It's only a Double McTwist 12, but still very very cool!


If you're in the UK, the real thing is on the BBC here. Stunning. It's less dramatic watching it now, but on the day, given the pressure of the big stage, it was simply stunning!
The skateboard cross was awesome, as well! This was like proper racing, but on skateboards, with 4 of them racing against each other in the tightest of spaces. It's almost like watching the 1st lap of an F1 race- it's manic! You've got knock-out rounds, before finally getting to the final 4. Good fun. Spectacular crashes too- it wouldn't be the same, without them, right?

Ice-hockey as well! The female competition was definitely better entertainment-wise, as there were lots of goals. Canada totally owned both tournaments, winning Gold in both, and it was fitting really, that the Men's Ice Hockey final between Canada v USA brought the curtain down on the games. And to ensure that the drama went on right through the end, Canada were actually leading 2-0, before USA got in back to 2-2 with only a few seconds left on the clock! I was rooting for Canada to win and thank God they eventually did, thanks to Sidney Crosby in overtime (Overtime? What happened to good old-fashioned extra-time, right?!)

I know I keep using superlatives such as 'brilliant' and 'amazing' a lot, but well, they were! Canada eventually finished top of the medals table, golds-wise. Not sure loads of people would have predicted this at the start, because they didn't win their first gold until about Day 3 or 4!

It's amazing (there I go, again!) how I can go on and on about sports I didn't have a clue or care about until a few weeks ago, but I guess that's what the Olympics is all about. I didn't even watch much figure-skating in the end, even though I'm a fan! I haven't even talked about Curling! Fair enough really, seeing as I moaned about it throughout. I wasn't forced to watch, was I? I finally understood how the scoring works towards the end, which didn't help my cause! Oh yeah, England won their one and only medal, thanks to Amy Williams' Gold in the Skeleton. A storming performance, too! Well done, Amy!

But yeah, despite my structure-less ramble, the whole point is that I had a blast watching the Olympics, even though I fell asleep at night when watching it sometimes (I blame Curling! ;) )! But I guess I have to say thanks to Skyplayer and BBC sports website for letting me watch the Games on my laptop. I doubt I'd have been that bothered to watch it on TV, especially as it went on well through the night. I'm glad, or I hope, I won't miss it much because guess what? FORMULA ONE STARTS ON FRIDAY THE 12TH! (Just ignore the caps, okay? I really am excited about it!).

Anyways, I'm tired and already yawning, so I better stop with this drivel! But not without wishing the boys good luck for tomorrow, first! It's 'only' Burnley, right? We shouldn't underestimate them, though- don't want to be caught out cold! I'm hoping for a win with a 4-goal margin, as that'll put us right on top of the League, if only for a few hours, anyways.

So- Come on you Reds!!!

Poor Aaron... Get well soon!

I want to go on about the Winter Olympics but I also want to go on about Aaron Ramsey. I've written a post about it already on another blog, but it's a bit different here because it's my personal blog and I can cry about it here as much as I can. I'm still so devastated for him. I know one can say 'well, he's not dead, think about people in Chile or Haiti', but it's a bit different. I have all the sympathy in the world for them and I can't begin to imagine what it is like to lose your loved one in such horrible circumstances and I hope we all do what we can to help them overcome their current predicament as much as they can.

But the thing is that I don't feel any emotional connection to any of them like I do for Aaron. Obviously Ramsey doesn't have a clue who I am, fair enough, but he's an Arsenal player and for me, they're as good as family and I can't help but feel their pain all the time. Same way I feel it personally when people slag off our players is the same way I feel personaly when any of them get injured. Maybe it's because I'm a girl, but well, whatever. To me, that's what it means to me to be an Arsenal fan. I go through the same emotions as the team, the very highs and the very lows, and right now feels like the very lows for me, until Aaron is able to at least walk again. And as a fan, I don't really care about the tackle, whether it was fair or not- that's irrelevant for me. I've not thought about much else since Saturday than about poor Aaron. My thoughts are with him not because he's still in pain, because he obviously isn't, but I'm sure he'll be devastated. He had a chance to get an extended run in the team and I'm sure he would have played the next 2 games especially as Song is suspended for them and Diaby might still be injured. I still cried about it when writing this post. My last image of him is him lying there in so much pain and maybe I'll continue to cry about it until I next see him free of pain and in better spirits. I went through the same emotions when Eduardo got a similar injury, but it's a bit worse now. Credit to Glenn Whelan and Bendtner for staying by Aaron's side, and to Sol, Cesc, Clichy and Vermaelen for being so great at handling all those emotions that day. I'd have been crushed myself and would probably not have been able to continue playing and to put in a performance capable of winning such a game.

As for Wenger's reaction after the game, I don't think there was anything wrong with it- he was even restrained, by his standards and I don't blame him for getting upset about it all, given it's our third in 4 years and he knows Aaron more personally than all the people having a go at him. Leave him be, yeah?!

I just really hope Aaron gets better soon as that's the most important thing right now.

And oh, Theo got called up into the England squad- I'm happy for him! Easily forgotten justifiably. As long as he doesn't pick up any injuries. I'm always worried he'll pick one up anytime he gets called up! I'm not even sure but I think a few other players would have met up with their national teams since the weekend- let's just hope they get back in no worse condition than they left!

I feel better already just writing about all that, now. I'll be at the Emirates for the game on Saturday and hopefully it wouldn't be as emotional as the last game. Actually, we've got a chance to go top of the league if we win by 4 clear goals, so maybe it might get emotional afterall, but at least in a good way! I'll try to take loads of pictures this time around and post them here.

But yeah, maybe I'll finally go on about the Winter Olympics and a few other things when next I've got the time to blog! :)