Runners - who do they think they are?

When you walk across the road as a pedestrian, there are certain unwritten rules you know you should abide by. The first is obvious, if there's a car coming, STOP! Seems like common sense, so why is it that as soon as a presumably intelligent person dons a pair of shorts, a flourescent top and quickens that walk into a quick jog, do they suddenly think those rules no longer apply.

How many times has a prat, most likely dressed as above, ran in front of your car, held there hand up at you without looking (presumably so they can't see you frantically swearing and making hand gestures at them after you've had to perform an emergency stop) only to be follwed by 40 clones ensuring you can't continue that journey for a full five minutes? How do these people get through life? Do they just waltz into the middle of the road when dressed in civilian attire? Do they tell their kids that it's not only safe to walk in front of cars but you can run in front of them as well? Or has natural selection saved us all the headache and prevented them from having children?

Of course they've got a very good reason for not stopping havn't they...THEY MIGHT GET COLD!!!! Well f*ck me you'd better carry on running in front of cars on a main road without looking, you might catch a chill otherwise and us motororist wouldn't want that on our conscience would we...

Zone Horror

It's been a while but I've finally begun re-posting on slashedopen.blogspot.com, my sister blog about horror films, after having taped the Italian zombie triple bill last Halloween. Now most of you will know that horror films are a passion of mine and i'll be updating this site with a lot more frequency than before having caught the bug again thanks to the fantastic channel that is Zone Horror. Jen hates it but I believe it's getting better and it shows the sort of pure horror that I used to watch in my formative years instead of bollocks like "Hide and Seek" or the remake of "The Fog".

Anyway, the gist is that if you like horror films and want to know more about them, stick this little page on your favourites, read and learn!

Terrible decisions v Orient

A point's a point and many fans have lambasted the bad decisions in the 1-1 draw against Leyton Orient. Was it a free kick that led to Orient's opener? Was it a red card for Thornton's challenge on Carole? Was it a penalty? Did the ball cross the line in the final few minutes? But the worst decision has been largely overlooked. Who the hell let Kandol take the spot kick?

Now you have to love the guy, he has hammered in 5 goals this term but, unless he was going to flick the ball up in the air and head it from the penalty spot, there can't have been one person in the ground confident that he was going to stick it in the onion bag. He's not too good with his feet you see. He's not got the greatest record of scoring one-on-one's suggesting a lack of composure and last season he buckled under the pressure lots of times. Still, only a Leeds fan can criticise their own, I've heard a few Orient fans suggesting it was a crap penalty and that's simply not on.

So Kandol...note to self please...let Westlake take them from now on there's a good lad...

Justice, FA style!!!

I notice West Ham got away with it, I wonder why this is…consider the following…

1. West Ham have a massive injection of cash from Icelandic owners and look like going down.

2. The FA have a new Wembley stadium horribly over budget and an ex-England manager who’s contract they’re still paying up.

3. They need to punish West ham who are probably already relegated, therefore a points deduction is not much punishment.

4. £5.5 million pounds would be greatly needed to go towards those FA cash flow problems.

5. West Ham stay up due to Tevez’s goals and an appeal is lodged by Sheffield United, a club that has caused the FA lots of problems due to Neil warnock’s whinging.

6. Sir Trevor Brooking, a West Ham legend, is now an FA bigwig and was never going to see his beloved club relegated.

7. Sheffield United’s appeal fails and they lose millions in the Championship as West ham are free to make multi-million pound bids for anybody they like.

Now that’s justice, FA style!

"Life on Mars" Gene Hunt quote of the day...

"You great, soft, sissy, girlie, nancy, French, bender, Man United-supporting poof!"

Let's all laugh at Tottenham!!!

I can't help feeling Spurs have overpaid for this man (shown above being beaten in teh air by the footballing bohemoth Christian Dailly). Lets look at the facts...

1. He only scored 10 goals in open play last season! Fair enough it was for a team that went down but I can remember Fabrizio Ravanelli hitting more than 30 when Middlesbrough went down one year and Spurs didn't pay £16.5m for him.

2. Fair enough he'sd got youth on his side, but so did Michael Ricketts when he looked like becomming England's next best thing.

3. They beat West Ham to his signature, another team that's got more money than morals.

Tottenham seem to think that if a player's under 23 then he's an attractive proposition, but where has it got them so far? 5th! But that's football at the moment isn't it? 5th might as well be winning the league because you can guarantee every year that Chelsea, Manure, Quiverpool and the Arse will occupy the top 4 spots (in fact they would consider a major crisis to finish 5th, signing Bent or otherwise.

To highlight the fact, Bent went for more money than Thierry Henry! Football's finally lost touch with reality.

"Life on Mars" DCI Gene Hunt quote of the day...

"It doesn't take a degree in applied bollocks to know what's going on."

Floody Hell!!!

Well I've never seen anything quite like it. An entire city brought to its knees after experiencing a month and a half's worth of rainfall in 24 hours, it really was an incredible couple of days in the steel city. We got off quite lightly, losing power for 48 hours was nothing compared to what happened to the people in Brightside, Winn Gardens, Chapeltown and is still happening in Catcliffe. Even having said that, a river burst its banks just 100 yards from our house.

That's the River Loxley, usually nothing more than a trickle, promoted to raging torrent due to an act of god. Many people have said it's the greenhouse effect, others have blamed a lack of flood defence, some even blame the authorities for a lack of warning, I say 24 hours of pissing rain will do that. It was the following day, Tuesday, that was the really surreal experience. I was on an early shift and driving along Penistone (no laughing at the back there) Road it was like the opening of "28 Days Later". There were cars strewn all over the dual carriageway, left abandoned, litter blowing across the mud-drenched wasteland, military vehicles, ambulances and sirens tearing down the deserted streets. That mental image will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Really, a day I will NEVER forget, the day of The Great Flood...

Stag Weekend

Had a fantastic weekend, the one that traditionally marks your last night of freedom. We went to Liverpool on the Friday, initially for a few quiet drinks ahead of a 5-a-side football session on the Saturday but as is usually the case, had too many and woke up a little worse for wear. However, the football went ahead as planned with a few casualties so we played 4-a-side, knock out pairs and knock out threes.

Taking it past John with consumate ease

Slotting it past Neil for a fine individual goal

Being dumped on my backside (notice how everybody's rushing to help!)

The only serious casualty apart from a few grazes and small knocks was Jen's brother Ian who dislocated his ankle and ended up with ligament damage. Still, it didn't dampen the evening's entertainment too much as we headed back to the hotel to watch Leeds get relegated before heading out for the main evening's drinking. A few pubs and a chinese followed by a few more pubs took us to Crazy House, an indie rock club that was absolutely the dogs testes. I don't think I bought a drink all night, at one stage struggling with 4 bottles and trying to dance.

Struggling but having fun

Having a sing song!

I can't help being irresistable!

So all in all it was a cracking weekend enjoyed by all!