HERE WE GO AGAIN

-

-

Like it or loathe it, and I love it, the Football World Cup is with us again. The build up has been relentless and once again English flags and pennants have sprung up all over the place willing our nation, usually nothing to be proud of, to step up to the plate and this time...just this time, do us proud. The inclusion of five Spurs players this time round can only be good of course, my boys will be fresh from an inspiring season in the league and ready to continue their form for their nation.

However, I was thinking last night, what can I do for my country, as John Fitzgerald Kennedy once famously said. The answer to this was easy. So on my way back through Flitwick I stopped at my friendly branch of Joe Coral. I reckon our four main rivals for the cup this year are, in no particular order, Spain, Brazil, Argentina and Holland. I placed bets on all of them, hoping the curse of Scaley, so recently felt by Everton, Aston Villa and Manchester City in the Premier League race for fourth place, won as we know by Super Spurs, would strike again. I walked from the shop with a smug look on my face. That'll teach them to be favourites. I actually got 10-1 on the Dutch!

Of course I am slightly worried still. Against my better judgement I failed to include The Germans in my death spread bet. As I heard someone say yesterday,'never discount the Germans'. I might get back to Corals tomorrow........

The greatest German ever!

Here he is in better colours

SWEDEN AGAIN

OK OK I know, no posts for a while but we have had a busy time and a great five days in my favourite country good old SWEDEN. Some time ago Rustan fixed tickets to see Eric Clapton and Stevie Winwood in Malmo on 31st. May. So we thought we would make a real trip of it and go for a few days extra. The weather was great for the first few days and we made the most of it sitting out at street cafes, watching the world go by with our good friends.

Rustan avoids sunburn. May the force be with you my friend

An added bonus was a lovely invitation to spend a day in Bastad with friends Anna and Anders which is on the way to Malmo. So on Sunday off we went to Anna's family summer house.

Anders, barbie man

The weather was pretty good most of the time and we had a great tour of the beautiful quiet area where their summer cottage lies, right by the sea. Anna and Anders treated us to a fab Swedish meal, straight off the barbie...

SKOL!

We were soon off to Malmo for the concert. I went expecting to be underwhelmed but Eric and Stevie played a great set, plenty of old Traffic favourites and a couple of Blind Faith and Cream too. He also played some acoustic songs, the best of which was Layla......

And then an absolutely stonking version of Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Chile (Slight Return) which of course Stevie played on way back in the 60's. To finish they exceeded even this with one of my favourite Traffic tunes 'Dear Mr. Fantasy' WOW. Thanks to Rustan for organising the trip. Well done mate.

Voodoo Chile

THE ROAD GOES ON

-

-

A totally forgettable Friday just happened. I had an interview. Lucrative job. £270 a week, one day's work a week, 39 weeks a year. Lovely. BUT of course there was an interview. My track record at interviews is not good. Originally, I was given to understand the job was a 'shoe in' but of course other people applied for it. Trouble was, it was at the place I was already working. This means the interview was taking place in front of three people I already knew, one of them well, as a friend and fellow Spurs fan.

It didn't go well. I had the feeling a condemned man must have when he ascends the steps to the gallows, hangman's noose dangling in the wind before him. I was first up to do my presentation which I spent a beautifully sunny Thursday preparing. 'Yours will be the presentation by which will will judge all others' informed my friend David as I prepared my ten minutes of what I thought would be informative diatribe. 'No pressure then' I muttered to myself. Ten minutes later I had finished and was lead away from the room still trying to part my tongue from the roof of my mouth.

Written test next. Spent about 30 minutes writing incisively feeling clever because i, unlike the other witless candidates in the room with me, I had the foresight to bring my netbook and could raise pertinant quotes from the internet. Take that you fuckwits! Scribble scribble the bullshit flowed like sludge.

Next up the actual interview. God knows how I hate it, especially sitting in front of three people you already work with. I struggled through like a dope on a rope most of the time, words failing to express the thought in my brain as if I had been drugged with some mysterious serum. It didn't help that David was sitting at the table drinking coffee that someone had brought him in a West Ham mug! Knackered, I stumbled from the room as the next candidate, tipped by my boss John Williams as hot favourite for the post (thanks mate),cheerily went the other way I ignored her, climbed into the car and went home.

I spent the night in Luton at Trish's house drinking copious amounts of vodka and tonic, eating fish and chips and waiting for the call confirming that yet again I had fallen foul of the interview. My mobile rang but I let it go to voicemail. After dinner I retrieved the message. It was David asking me to call him back. His voice had the tone of a judge who had just donned the black cap and was about to deliver the bad news. And so it proved.

When I woke this morning the sun was streaming in through the blinds. A beautiful spring day was outside. It wasn't long before I was cycling through the Bedfordshire countryside on my way home. As I approached my village I looked to my left and saw great swathes of yellow mustard stetching as far as the eye could see, with the ridge houses perched atop the horizon. I stopped and took a couple of pictures and listened to the hidden skylarks sing and the peace of the nature. Suddenly Friday didn't really matter anymore.

-

COME ON YOU SPURS

-

Well what a great night Wednesday night was...but I missed it! I was at The Stables theatre at Milton Keynes watching Henry 'Blowers' Blofeld in his one man show. And very good it was too. But was listening to the game in true Test Match Special style, with a discreet earphone in one ear. And......................

-

BUSY WEEKEND WITH GOOD FRIENDS

- First gig for The Greg Stacey band

Yes a busy weekend we had starting on Friday night when Liam, Trish, Dianne and I went to The Black Horse in Luton to see another friend of our's Richard's son's band. It was their first gig, the young guys all about 17 years old and I can say they were pretty good for their first time out in front of proud parents Richard and Annette.
-
It wasn't long before some other good friends dropped in, ex- Cheat lead singer Nick and Ralph and Boothy all came for a pint and listen to the music which had now changed to a blues rockabilly band. It was soon for another good friend of mine Chris Brookes, ex Cheat guitarist to take the stage with his new band. I forgot to mention that also in the audience was Paul Madden ex-Cheat drummer and record producer and friend of Robin Trower. As usual Brooksy was in fine form and played a great hour's set. Below are some short videos from the evening.

Brooksie's band rocks up The Black horse

Mr. Nick Davey

Then on Saturday it was off to White Hart Lane for the last time this season with Trish, Mike and Nick and surprise guest Jayne, to see Spurs claim a 1-0 against Bolton thanks to a Tom Huddlestone thunderbolt.

Good old Gomez, in great form

Spurs on the attack.

IT'S A CLASSIC

--

Every month I take CLASSIC Rock. It's a pretty good magazine, full of interesting stuff and it nearly always features music from my eras and the bands that made it. It comes free with a cover disc. Quite often this cover disc contains a couple of good tracks and the rest go in the bin and so does the disc. This month things are a bit different. This month's disc has 15 tracks and only one is naff and at least half are really really good. The other half are good. I will send a copy of this disc to whosoever wants one. Leave a message at the bottom. You won't regret it, I promise you and this is Mr. Fussy talking!

HOME SWEET HOME

-
-
We returned to England late in the night and were picked up at the airport by good friend Nick who whisked us in his comfy Jag to good old home sweet home. Of course we were almost too tired to sleep and with body clocks well out of kilter, we woke early. The first thing I did in the peace and quiet of the sunny spring morning was to go out and breathe in lungfullls of sweet, clean country air. I expect in the days and weeks to come I won't notice the subtle smell of damp, fresh grass and the singing of the birds. But what I did notice was how the cherry blossom had bloomed on the tree in the garden. Really splendid this year's display and a far cry from the desolation of the traffic clogged streets of Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur.
-
It had been a great trip, and thanks to Ali for organising it all. We have had experiences that we won't ever forget, eaten cheap, tasty food and travelled in a variety of interesting ways. We have come through some fairly testing times and as usual come through it all with a smile. It doesn't escape me that we have been indirectly involved in two world events, the riots in Bangkok and the disruption of the volcanic cloud. All in the space of two and a half weeks. We were soon opening the suitcases and getting on with the more menial tasks in life.
-