England fails

So England are out of the world cup at the hands of Germany again. It's been a disappointing campaign with lackluster team performances and a number of individuals failing badly as well.

Yesterday, Germany were certainly the better team in the game. However, the whole world saw the ball cross the line and Lampard's goal should have been given.  Although we could have been 3 or 4 goals down at that point, the psychological effect on Germany of us pulling 2 goals back so quickly to level the game could well have changed the match.

I know that referees and their linesmen make mistakes, but the main aim of football is to score a goal and when a team is cheated from that objective by "the system", you have to question why technology is so hated by FIFA. Overall, football works as a game and we don't need lots of reasons to stop the flow by checking TV screens, but goal line technology has been proved to work and in this case might have seen a different result.  Did anyone else note that the BBC had turned down the volume of the crowd due to cries of "the referee's a wanker"?

The goal that never was for Crystal Palace at the beginning of last season was even more obvious and had a hugely negative effect on on-loan striker Freddy Sears and the team for many matches.

As I say, Germany had been playing better before and after we were cheated out of a goal and we will never know what the final result will have been.  I would much prefer to be beaten by a better team, rather than the ineptitude of a referee and his staff.

To brighten our day (except for you straight guys), here are some nice pictures of Torres that I've been drooling over lately...

England expects

It's been a sort-of-busy-work-week, mainly picking up at stupid o'clock on Wednesday morning when I got a flight to Edinburgh.  Dan (my colleague) and myself were in our Head Office by 8.30am and spent most of the day meeting people and not working too hard, but looking as if we were quite successfully in fact.

At 2.30pm we walked to George Street in the heart of the city and found a pub to watch England versus Slovenia.  To our surprise, the place was packed and it was a very big pub.  There seemed to be a few English people there, but it was mainly Scots.  I was pleased to see that most were supporting the auld enemy - something I had not expected (though not the group standing behind me who were clearly anti-English).   It was a fantastic atmosphere and the beer flowed.  We followed that with a fine meal, courtesy of our employer.

Next day was a team meeting, which was one of the better ones.  The Easyjet flight was delayed and then the barriers at the car park at Luton were not working.  So I got home late and had to be up early on Friday.

Despite being exhausted last night, Pete and I joined his brother and girlfriend and best mate to go to Newmarket for an evening race meet.  I had one winner and a couple of close calls.  The weather was perfect and the sunset impressive.  The main reason for the evening (for the others anyway), was to watch Spandau Ballet.  I always found them to be rather "wet", but the performance was professional enough.  I wont be rushing out to buy their greatest hits however.

And this weekend has to be a restful one, though I have to say... "bring on the Germans!"

Vuvuzela and Haggis

Tomorrow I am off to Edinburgh for a couple of days with work.  My manager has mentioned that he will overlook anyone skiving off to watch the England game, which is at 3pm in the afternoon.  After the last awful awful game, it has to get better... hasn't it?

It will be interesting supporting England in a pub in the Scottish capital (as we will be in a pub at 3pm).  Edinburgh is a cool place and I dont expect any problems.  Hey it's not Glasgow is it?!?

I'm not going to write lots about football, but I hope the English players can pull this one out of the bag as I am getting a bit fed up with my Scottish colleagues having negative opinions.  Even the well worn "you've got to be in it to win it" is even failing to shut them up.  There have now been some great games (none featuring England of course) after a dull start.

Didn't Torres look great in the game last night?  :-)   And Spain had a little fella on the pitch called Jesús Navas who has the most amazing eyes.

The weather over the last couple of days has been beautiful and yesterday morning at about 8am, the birds in the garden were chirping like crazy - as if singing and chirping was about to be banned by the bird police.  Did they all know it was the shortest night of the year?   My oldest brother spent the night at the Coldrum Stones in Kent.  He's just an aging hippy at heart.  I personally find this ancient burial mound to be a bit spooky, but I'm sure it was great to see the sunrise on such a lovely morn'.

Sexy footballers part 1

This is obviously an important ongoing blog project... sexy guys playing in the world cup.  Of course I had  a picture of Fernando Torres in there, but will save that for another day instead!

Robin Van Persie
Roque Santa Cruz
David Villa
Iker Casillas

Sleep

It's been a strange old week.  I have felt exhausted most of the time and ready for bed as soon as work finishes. And sleep don't come easy either.  I cant blame it on the holiday and jet lag as that was nearly a week ago.  Who knows what's going on in my brain, though Pete is also struggling to sleep and function properly

For the record, today (June the 18th) is our anniversary.  11 years ago we met on a works night out and then sat on the terrace in the crappy flat Pete shared in London, chatting until the sun came up.  I will skip the details of what happened when the sun came up

It's been a dull week overall and the entertainment value in the football World Cup is mixed. This is often the case in the group stages as no teams wants to lose. England play tonight and I pray for some quality attacking play.  I told you my brain wasn't working properly

Still looking for pictures of cute footballers in the World Cup - more to follow.  On the football theme, it looks like Crystal Palace are saved and a new manager has been installed with ex-Scotland manager George Burley joining us.  Good times ahead!!!! Brain still not engaging.

A couple of weird things from yesterday when I was out seeing clients:

- A big fat man on a rusty 1970's Chopper bike struggling to ride along the pavement near Ascot.
- A sign pointing to "Historic Egham".  Two words you don't expect to see together.
- Listening to NPR music and the presenter said he didn't like Fleetwood Mac.  What a narrow minded blinkered prat.

June Movie Update

Here are the films that Pete and I have received from Lovefilm.com and watched on TV and DVD (and on a plane) over the past month or so, in reverse order, with my ratings out of ten from my movie list on IMDB.

Shrek Forever After 7
Cant compete with the first two films, but it's still clever and funny.

A Single Man 7
Perhaps seeing this on a plane didn't do it justice.

I Love You Phillip Morris 7
I thought it was funny, but I think that the story is interesting enough to be made into a drama instead.

Un prophète 8
Violent and has a complicated story - but a great film all the same.

Me and Orson Welles 7
Zac Efron is a better actor than he gets credit for (and he's gorgeous of course).  He needs to make more "proper" films like this.

The Informant! 6

Humpday 1
Was this crap made up as they went along?

Greek Pete 1
Awful documentary about a gay rent boy in London, complete with friends who think life is all about scrounging benefits, taking drugs and acting like idiots.

Fantastic Mr. Fox 7
Better than the reviews gave it credit for.  A fun film all round.

Fauteuils d'orchestre 7
A surprising French film that was witty throughout.

Before Sunrise 6

Kill Bill: Vol. 2 6

The Men Who Stare at Goats 6
Couldn't decide whether it was funny or up it's own...

Mr. Right 5
Gay film that had a few too many camp (annoying) stereotypes for my liking.

Hannibal Rising 6

Home

And so the holiday comes to an end and I am dreading going back to work.  I am sure that my inbox is full of goodies to bring me down to earth with a crash.  I need to sort out quite few ongoing things this week which is tough with zero motivation, I need to arrange an appointment to take my manager with me so he can "see me in action" (I hate those meetings) and I have to plan the next team meeting and have few ideas so far.

Post holiday blues suck.

On the blog this week I intend to post a list of the movies I've seen lately and perhaps find pictures of sexy footballers at the World Cup just for the fun of it.  I'll not comment on the England v USA game until England have played again.

Oh no, here comes Monday...

40th: Day Seventeen - The journey home

So the holiday is coming to an end and shortly we will be making our way to Las Vegas airport. We have done so much (as you have possibly read) and I cant say it's been cheap. Being a good financial type person, I've actually been saving for this for 2 years, a little each month. I like the little pots that Intelligent Finance let you fill with money online.

Anyway, the experience of 17 days in the USA has been extraordinary. So I intend following up the holiday with some thoughts on this vast and surprising country. Watch this space.

A couple of closing thoughts on the holiday however:

Gambling:  I have not mentioned the gambling too much, but we've done some obviously.  I was tempted to enter one of the poker competitions that are everywhere, but felt that I wasnt experienced enough with the game.  Most tables had a $30 buy in, but in the Wynn, the amount changed daily and were as high as $2700 (a random sum it seemed to me). The more private "high stakes" areas had limits that were not shared with us common people.

Tattoos: I did a rough tally that two-thirds of American guys under 30 in Los Angeles and Las Vegas have tattoos on show. I don't mean little ones like mine, I mean BIG impressive ones. It must be a right of  passage along with losing your virginity, to get a tattoo.

Drinking: We have seen now trouble due to drinking on this holiday and that's a bit surprising in Las Vegas as you can find $1 drinks everywhere.  The only drunks we have seen were British.  What a surprise.

Smoking: In California, smoking is frowned upon, in Las Vegas, you can still smoke indoors which seemed strange after a few years of smoking ban at home.

World Cup: To my surprise, adverts for the World Cup are everywhere and there is plenty of opportunity in the casinos to bet on it, so I hope that the USA enjoys the event.

Food: They don't do small portions.

See you all in the UK, but to end with, a silly picture...

40th: Day Sixteen - Love in Las Vegas

We failed with the gay night out last night. We spent too much time eating, drinking and a bit gambling. We got to the club around midnight (and it took a while to walk there in the heat) and it looked pretty empty. We were unsure whether to risk the $20 entrance to find it empty, so we went to a bar and carried on drinking $1 frozen Margaritas. They are great drinks, but do have a habit of removing the feeling from my legs.

We started the day by the pool listening to 3 rich girls doing Paris Hilton impersonations without realising. They were so dim saying such things as "let's go smoke, it'll be.. oh like such fun" and "The suite in the Trump is so cool, it's like soooo big". One of them called someone up and asked for $7,500 and it didn't sound like they were after a loan.

Anyway... we found a cinema today and watched the latest Shrek and then more casino's, shops etc. We checked out the latest Lions at the MGM Grand and saw a very fat Elvis singing Karaoke.  I'll will blog about the gambling another day, but the casinos are vast and the amosphere is electric, especially in the early hours.

We had bought tickets for the Cirque Du Soleil "Love" show which uses remixed Beatles songs as the theme. Although it cost a small fortune, it was a sellout and we got into the purpose build theatre around 9.50pm ready for the show. And what a show it is! It's a mixture of circus, effects, gymnastics, ballet and a lot of showmanship.  There were so many great parts including trampolining over a red phone box (you had to be there) and some amazing moves by a topless guy with a stunningly beautiful body.

When we got back to the hotel, we were in the lift with guys going to the the 64th floor - the top floor where there are 4 massive penthouses.  Had we had more time, I'm sure that we could have got an invite to a party!

Tomorrow we will start on our way home.  We've done so much and it seems like months ago that we landed in San Francisco.  I have lots of thoughts on the USA, it's way of life and interesting people - I will blog about it all over the coming weeks. Watch this space

40th: Day Fifteen - Las Vegas

An early blog posting today as we will not be back in the room until well into tomorrow if Pete has his way.

We spent the morning lazing by the pool (and eyeing up the poolboys again) and then went to the newest of the resort hotels which is blandly called City Centre.  It's a collection of massive hotels, casinos and shops aimed at the big spenders.  Every shop that I cant afford to walk into is there already or due to open soon.  Although the site is only half finished, it's looking good.  Just a shame that they didn't give it the inspiring name that it deserves.

I had to come back to the room for a sleep this afternoon.  I think that the heat has finally got to me and I needed a siesta.  That's far better than saying I needed to nap.

Tonight we are going gay.  I've already mentioned in previous blogs that Pete and I hardly ever go out to a gay bar, but tonight we are going to a huge club called Krave that says that's it's a gay club that is "straight friendly" but does feature a porn night with stars attending.  There are few gay bars or clubs in Las Vegas, I assume it's because gay guys are looking for the same things in this camp city as the rest of the pack. We decided to avoid some of the seedier places downtown, though the underwear only club looked interesting.