Run along now

Titter ye not hardcore runners, everyone's got to start somewhere.

For the next few weeks anyway it's going to be a couple of miles, every other day.

Dutifully warming up and warming down but the aches seem inevitable.

Still, the warm glow and endorphins afterwards do feel kinda' gooood.

It is, perhaps, the second-best glow in life.

Goodnight Hungary

With 11 days to go before our first group match, Rooney aside, England are looking in good shape for the World Cup.

Okay so this was only a 'friendly' warm-up match, but we'll take 3-1 thank-you-very-much.

Gerrard, Terry and Crouch all scoring tonight with Cole and Beckham providing magnificent support.

But hey, let's not build this up too much...

Ah sod it; lets!

With the squad we've got and the form some of them are displaying at the moment, especially when the tempo steps up a gear..

This could be our time, again.

No, really!

Anyone got any idea what the hell Crouch's goal celebration was supposed to signify?

A wonderful little bombshell

Great evening with friends. Evening drinks and a nice meal, rounding off a generally relaxed Bank Holiday weekend.

So we're all sat around chatting away before the meandering conversation of the evening is shattered by one of our groups' stunning revelation.

She's pregnant!

Unbelievable. We sat around slack-jawed for several seconds before the women present went hypersonic, diving at each other in a flurry of hugs and shrieks. The lads broke into a round of handshakes, back patting and finally, some manly hugging.

As I wrote a few weeks back - it's poignant to see your friends get married, but equally so when they break such wonderful news. Turns out she'd sat on it for over a week whilst hanging out with us individually, waiting for an occasion to gather us all together, sit back and see our faces.

Boy, did she get her monies' worth.

Other event of the day?

I've started running again.

Ouch. I can feel the aches already.

Wait for it... Wait for it...

To borrow the nearest cliché to hand - there is light at the end of the tunnel.

I received a letter from the force yesterday informing me of a new provisional start date of August 7th, along with some forms to fill in, sincere apologies for the delay in recruitment (I would bloody hope so) and a final instruction not to quit my current job quite yet.

This is to say 07/08 should be my commencement date, but there is a very small possibility that I may be delayed or deferred once again. I am however under the impression that is an unlikely situation, but I'd rather not go counting any chickens just yet.

So put the champagne back on ice, hold the fireworks and tell the street party to hold off just a little longer.

When they formally write to me with a job offer, then I'll get suitably excitable.

Strange day today otherwise. Mood a little lighter with the cop-news, but felt very lethargic in town this afternoon whilst shopping, suddenly had an inexplicable craving for junk food in town and virtually collapsed on the sofa straight into a two-hour cat nap back home later on. Very unusual in that I find it almost impossible to sleep during the day unless I'm jetlagged or something. Maybe it was my blood-sugar perhaps.

Which made me think, not that I'm unfit (or ever have been recently, I'm proud to say) but with the tangible goal of recruitment once again shimmering resplendent on the horizon I intend to shake the cobwebs from my bones and start jogging again.

I could have worked this Bank Holiday weekend for the extra money but, frankly I can't be arsed. I figure later this summer I'll be training hard, and practically doubling my wage while I'm at it. I may as well take this opportunity to kick back a little before things really pick up.

Incomprehensibly far away

Wow.

One of those news items that makes you stop and think; then put this little rock of ours in a whole new perspective.

What would Jesus say?

Before anyone starts wading into a vast theological debate. Please, let's not right now. It's a bit too late in the day.

But that question there just popped into my agnostic little head & refused to budge.

Watching a news report this evening - the reporter was stood in front of the Israeli 'security' wall discussing Isreal's plans for the future of the West Bank.

Live from Bethlehem it says in the corner of the screen, with a 20-foot concrete wall and a watchtower in the background.

Surreal, almost.

Stories

To quote from today's Sunday Times review of The Da Vinci Code:

"There's a terrible snobbery about The Da Vinci Code... You would think that in our age, a best selling blockbuster that is rooted in European history and its high culture, a book that gets millions of people discussing everything from Christian theology to the art of Leonardo da Vinci might deserve a little credit."

I'm surprised by some of the bad reviews that the film has been getting. The main problem seems to be that some critics, whose very job is to find praise and fault in things, are viewing the film as an artistic work. It's not. Hell, Dan Brown would be the first to admit that.

It's a story.

Humanity loves to tell stories, we've done so since the birth of language. Somewhere along journey of history stories change, often written by the victors, truth is diluted by fiction, stories become mythology and legend.

Like most things in modern life, don't believe everything you read.

Pause, consider, keep an open mind.

Think a little more.

And accept the possibilities.

Here comes the rain again

What else is there to do on a rainy weekend but baton down the hatches, put an extra layer on and download, read and watch stuff with a steaming pot of tea by your side?

May venture outside this evening. As far as the car, and then the cinema. The Da Vinci Code is out now, and I'm pretty sure it'll still be raining tonight. That's my excuse.

I just downloaded the trailer for Superman Returns and I'll be damned if I don't feel like an excitable twelve year-old again. Yes, some say I act like that all the time, but if you ask me it's probably part of my boyish charm. Christopher Reeve is irreplaceable, but with Bryan Singer directing, the magic's still there. As for Kevin Spacey, he looks like he's having a ball.

As previously mused upon, I'm filling up a few dates in the summer so that I've got something to work towards amidst the unclear career-jump situation.

Got tickets to see David Gray at the Hull arena in June, and I'm currently in the process of swaying a friend to get tickets for the Red Hot Chili Peppers in July.

Also sat down with a calendar just now, my current work shifts and the World Cup fixture list to see what shifts I may have to swap in order to see the England games. Hmmm, I may well have to beg, steal or borrow... Or just plain bribe.

Outgunned

Gutted.

Who knows what an 11-man Arsenal could've have achieved?

18/05/06... So, NOW you go and change your mind?!

I'm boycotting Norway for a few days (see, us Swedes know they can't be trusted).

19/05/06... However, Theirry Henry signed a new contract with the Gunners today, keeping him at the club until 2010. Perhaps that's a greater prize after all.

Men are in awe of him, Women... Just love him. The man's a genius.

Guilty pleasures

Maybe I'm being too downcast about everything. There's things to cheer about...
Isn't there?

Erm, five things that float my boat right now?

1. The 'Mars' disk of RHCP's 'Stadium Arcadium'. On top funked-up form.
2. Cafe Nero's Chai-Lattes. Delightful.
3. Battlestar Galactica. The new, improved deadly-serious take, not the shiny disco-version.
4. Nicola Walker on Spooks (Dvd). Grrrr, strangely.
5. The fact that this supremely iritating delay might open up my summer a bit? The only good I can see in it right now.

Limbo

Well this is great.

How to start a prospective trainee Police Constable off with low morale.

Rang the recruitment department this morning.

They still have no idea of a potential start date.

Recruitment hasn't heard anything from training, and training hasn't heard anything from the Police Chiefs.

What I did get out of the polite but clearly frustrated recruitment lady who dealt with my enquiry was that I'll get at least 4-6 weeks notice when they do eventually decide to run the next training course. The only glimmer reassurance this gives me is that I will be able to plan a few things at least for the start of this summer. Seeing a few gigs, visiting a few friends. I've got to do something to keep me going.

It's been fifteen months since I first submitted my application, this is ridiculous.

Strange isn't it, that if you wish to fight for your country you can be recruited, trained and serving abroad within six months.

Yet if you wish to protect people and property at home, you have to wait almost a year-and-a-half.

The un-scientific observation of parents and piranhas

Working in a retail environment (hopefully not for much longer) it's generally hard to avoid people watching and/or overhearing snippets of random conversation as you mill about the shopfloor. It can be interesting, and occasionally worrying, what people broadcast about their daily lives.

I was just thinking today, idling overhearing...

Why is it parents are such soft touches these days? So willing to spoil their kids stupid and allow children to wallow in a gluttony of choice and disposable goods?

You could argue that my un-scientific observations are skewed by the fact they're in a retail environment. However, once you notice the parent/child banter a few times, you notice it almost everywhere you go. Increasingly aggressive ankle-biters; parents so quick to wave the white flag and get them whatever they want in order to pacify them.

Have they given birth to little consumer piranhas?

It's all:

Do you want this?

Do you like that?

Are you ready to go?

Please can mummy/daddy...

etc etc...

The soft, massaging language and attention is all utterly child-focused. Children know they are the centre of attention. All of the time. And boy do they know how to milk it.

So, how are children supposed to learn the value of things? To budget? To plan? To save? Not to waste?

I'm sure I winged as a child, but I'm glad I had firm but fair parents. I used to look through toy catalogues close to Christmas and birthdays thinking up some sort of outrageous wish list, but I knew in my heart that my parents' limited means would never stretch to that. I'd get something modest in the end and was generally happy and appreciative. I'd be pining in stores, but they'd either calmly explain why I couldn't have whatever, or stand firm me until my fleeting attention-span flicked elsewhere.

But in a world where advertising is gunning for children, designed in a boardroom by the very same parents who refuse to deny their children anything, what sort of generation are we creating?

By god I like to think I'd wouldn't be such a parental pushover when I eventually come to settling down. That is of course if I ever find a lass crazy enough to volunteer to spend the rest of their life with me.

And I don't have all night to write about that.

Self-absorbed post

Let me know when this week is over.

You'll have to excuse the foul mood, but do you ever seem to have those run of days where minor things get in your way, pile up and begin to snowball, making you think that the universe is stacked and dealt against you, and only you?

I can ream off a list as long as my arm of things that are pissing me off right now.

Here's five:

1. Due to roadworks in a spectacularly awkward location, my daily commute has gone from a swift 40 minutes, to almost 90 at it's worst.
2. Conversations with the boss today; an endless steam of buzzword bollocks and figures. (Felt close to grabbing him by the throat and screaming that I just don't care)
3. The realisation that everyone's moving on (in so many metaphorical ways), but me.
4. Play.com have gone and lost an order I sent to my brother.
5. The endless wait to begin my new career. Still.

Of course in the grand scheme of things compared to homelessness, poverty and conflict I'm the first to hold my hands up and admit that these problems are utterly trivial. However, one's own problems always seem the worst when one only has one's self for company.

Besides, I only make jokes to distract myself from the truth.

Human rights, apparently

I support human rights as much as the next liberal citizen. Those who really know me know how true that statemet is.

However, two cases in as many days have twisted, in my eyes, the definition of human rights.

In 2000 nine Afghanis hijacked an aircraft to fly to London Stanstead in 2000. A four-day stand-off ensued which concluded peacefully when the hijackers surrendered and were then duly arrested. The nine men were convicted in 2001 for what is an internationally recognised crime. That was that, you would have thought, but no. A few years later their convictions were quashed and they walked free on a legal technicality. If that wasn't baffling enough, the nine men have now won a legal case to remain in the UK and claim asylum.

So hang on, run that by me again...

Nine men who held passengers and crew at gunpoint, forcing an aircraft to divert from an internal flight and fly to the UK now have the possibility to live freely in this country?

I have deep sympathy with the fact that they were fleeing one of the most brutal and repressive regimes in modern history, The Taliban, but it is absolutely no justification for such extreme actions. If you wish become a citizen of this country you should respect the laws of the land, and by breaking them in the most spectacular fashion, sorry guys you've blown it.

Another case this week saw a radical Muslim cleric start a legal battle against deportation, fearing persecution in Jordan where authorities seek to question him on terror charges. This cleric has been linked to al-Quadea and has been recorded inciting racial hatred, yet his lawyers are now suggesting that deportation breaches his human rights!

Yes, chuckle and smirk if you will, but I'm quoting Spock from Star Trek, oh yes, because they're really rather sound words when you stop and consider them.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few."

Don't you think?

Who do you trust?

Interesting little article from The Guardian, well worth a read.

This evening

The Tipping Point?

Excuse the politics…

The Iraq War aside (yes I realize that is a rather big aside), I’ve been on the whole fairly supportive of Tony Blair in office. I do sincerely believe that his government has been good for this country, both economically and socially, following the polarizing years of Tory misrule.

Labour has had a turbulent seven days of negative headlines, a through kicking in the local elections and the Tories have slithered back towards a disturbing level electability this Thursday. Unsurprisingly a cabinet reshuffle ensued today, in which Charles Clarke took the fall for the Foreign Prisoner scandal.

None of that surprised me.

What did surprise me however Blair demoting a thoroughly good and decent Foreign Secretary (Jack Straw) this evening and replacing him with an arch-Blairite (Margaret Becket) who frankly looks like a toothy Margaret Thatcher. Seriously now, looks have got nothing to do with it really, but shuffling somebody out of a job when they’ve made the best of a incredibly tricky brief bloody well does.

Actually now that I remember it, didn’t the last Foreign Secretary resign and end up in the same job as Straw (Leader of the House of Commons), because of a disagreement over the Iraq war?

Hmmm.

Why the demotion though?

Because he was too friendly with the ‘Brown’ camp within the party? Private disagreements?

Taking in the picture, is the biggest reshuffle since 1997 really the answer to the party’s current woes? Or just shuffling the deckchairs on the Titanic?

Something about reeks of desperation.

If you bring in replacements that merely see the world from your point of view then who’s going to tell the emperor he isn’t wearing any clothes one day?

Police report

For those of you wondering about my Police application, I called them again today.

The news?

None.

Seems the recruiting and the training are handled by two separate departments (reminding me of the old left hand doesn't know what the right hand's doing adage) – training does not inform recruiting until about five weeks before a course is due to commence.

However, I have an assurance from them that I will be contacted later in the month with regard to the possibility of starting in June.

So, either which way then, I’ll be put out of my misery in the coming weeks.

A little informed speculation leads me to conclude thus; if they haven't had a batch of trainees since the end of last year, think of the 'natural wastage' of retirees, transfers, the infirm... They're going to need some new blood awfully soon.

Once I get the nod it all kicks into gear.

New Job.

New Place.

New People.

...New Me?

Who knows.