Poor old Katherine Jenkins. How difficult it must have been for this talented multi-millionaire songstress to come clean and reveal to the tabloids that she’d done various drugs in her pre-stardom days. Grown men and women have leapt to her defence and expressed admiration for her having the strength to come clean.
Oh come off it. I mean really, how hard could it have been for her. She’s well liked (as the public/media reaction illustrates) and financially secure (having recently been awarded a £6 million pound recording contract).
Can you imagine the outcry if a lesser known/squeaky clean personality had come out about their past misdemeanours. Need I say more?
Of course there is the issue of Christmas being just 51 days away and a certain ‘Sacred Arias‘ album having been released just a couple of weeks ago - so it couldn’t be one massive marketing and media push by her agent could it?
Oh what a day. I’ve never liked shoe shopping, not even for myself and I simply can’t understand why so many women (in particular) do. Anyway, where am I going with this?
Well it quickly became very apparent today that DDWT Junior is certainly following in his dad’s footsteps (no pun intended) with his immense dislike for shoe shopping as well! Trouble was, it was for him we were doing the shopping.
To make matters worse, we needed shoes and trainers for him - so we were going to have our work cut out. I won’t bore you with the details of a marathon 4 hour shoe shopping session - where tempers flared on several occasions, but we got there in the end.
My pockets are nigh on £55 lighter (for size 11 children’s shoes!) but at least we got the job done and the little fella is happy with his new “shoosies”.
I’ll also give a mention to the Landore park and ride service, which we used for the first time today. For £1.50 (per car) it’s great value and we were very impressed by the service and shall be sure to use it again - rather than get gridlocked in Swansea and then pay through the nose for parking.
It was also nice to have a rest day from the training as well. Having done 4 runs this week, I was in need of a rest as I felt leg weary to say the least. I still missed not doing any training though!
We’re now on our way home after watching the Swans earn a point with a dominant performance at 2nd in the table Carlisle and in doing so take a step nearer the Championship.
Our 680 odd mile round trip started at 10:30 this morning and we quickly made time up the M4 before having a quick pop and crisps stop at Frankley services on the M5 (after deciding to give the Jack Army’s usual stop at Stensham a miss!). Nevertheless we still managed to bump into a few other Jacks making the long journey north! In fact we saw quite a few other Jacks on tour as we made our way along the M5 and M6 - all with flags or scarves fluttering in the wind as they motored towards Carlisle.
After a relatively brief but expected hold up on the M6 we arrived at Carlisle at 15:30 and headed off in search of the ground. Once we acquainted ourselves with the locality, we decided on setting up camp at a Toby Carvery some 1/2 mile away from Brunton Park.
The £5 buffet option was too good to miss and we proceed to devour a voluptuous beef dinner, washed down with lashings of cider (well I did anyway, not the driver!). Somewhat ironically, we were soon joined by the same Jacks we had bumped into at Frankley services and our numbers began to swell even more nearer kick-off. The locals were in a jovial mood and the banter flowed until we decided to ground at 18:30.
The ground itself was rather dated - with the exception of the stand we were in, which was modern. The place felt more like a rugby union/league ground to be honest, rather than a football one - mainly because of the old type terracing which went the length of the pitch (a la Whaddon Road, Cheltenham).
By kick-off the Jack Army totalled in excess of 580 - a commendable effort for a Tuesday night fixture - and we certainly made ourselves heard in the 10,000 plus crowd. In fact the only noise the home fans appeared to make was the rather predictable chant of ‘United, United’.
As for the game itself, well after an iffy opening 15 minutes we settled and began to play our crisp passing game and we were unlucky not to go in at half-time 1 or 2 up with Robbo hitting the post (the 1st of 3!) and Pratley having one ruled out for playing it before the ref’s whistle.
We got even stronger in the 2nd half and we very professional in the way we disciplined ourselves in the face of some very tasty Carlisle tackling - I’m still amazed someone didn’t get sent off. I counted at least 3 scything lunging tackles. Anyway, it remained goalless and we were more than happy with our point. I think this video clip which I took pretty much sums it up to be honest.
A brisk walk back to the car meant we were homeward bound by 22:05 and we making sound progress on the journey home until junction 16-17 on the M6, where a 35 minute jam (due to overnight roadworks!) held us up somewhat - even if it was 00:30 in the morning!!! A brief toilet stop and some dense fog on the M5 saw us finally reach home at 03:10 - knackered but more than happy with the result.
Next up it’s Gillingham away on Saturday and it’s sure to be another long but hopefully productive day. The Jacks ARE going up!
Today is a very special day in the Welsh calendar - it’s St David’s Day our patron saint. So I hope you’ve all donned on your daffodils and leeks?
As for me, well I’m heading up north to the Galpharm stadium in Huddersfield, to see the Swans in action and at least make one part of Yorkshire Welsh for the day. Hopefully there’ll be lots of other Welshmen and women there to!
Are you feeling deflated after the festive season and in need of a tonic to get you out of the new year blues? Well Expedia are offering discounts of 30% on flights, hotels and package holidays on their Blue Sky Specials, so what better way to cheer yourself than with a holiday.
So if you’re are after a cheap long haul flight to Australia or even New York - why not take a look at Expedia, you might just be surprised at how good a deal you get.
My work took me to Gloucester today to see how the County Council had setup their call centre. It also gave me an opportunity to have a look at the ‘Solidus’ system from Sony Ericsson - which was quite impressive I hasten to add.
The timing of the trip was a week out however, as last Friday the Osprey’s were at Kingsholm (home of Gloucester RFC) for a European Rugby Cup - which would have been an ideal destination post-meeting time. Oh well maybe next time.
Our return journey via the A40 (as opposed to the M4 - anything to avoid the toll bridge you see) I got my first glimpse of the new Amazon building on Jersey Marine. It is MASSIVE and a great coup for this area, especially in terms of the economy and regeneration. My only concern however is what ’sort’ of jobs will be on offer and how much they are likely to be paid. Time will tell I guess, but I doubt very much that Amazon would be a bad company to work for - especially given their global size and status.
On the subject of the Opsrey’s I had the misfortune of watching them misfire (again) against Leinster on the box earlier. Granted they were missing 9 senior players, but given the squad Lyn Jones has assembled surely they could have got a result against Brian O’Driscoll’s men? I’m beginning to think that the time for change at coaching level is fast approaching.
Talking of TV, I saw the much debated ‘Swansea at Christmas’ advert on ITV tonight. Despite my initial optimism BEFORE seeing it, I really felt deflated after seeing it - it could literally have been anywhere in the UK and I felt it came across on the cheap side. What a major disappointment, considering the vibrant and stunning area we live in.
At last the Huish Park bogey has been laid to rest and I was there! The Swans had failed to score or even get a point on our previous visits to Yeovil, but today the 1,400 odd travelling Jack Army saw that duck broken with a 2-1 win.
Once again I was part of the much travelled Dieters Bar Jacks contingent as we headed off to Yeovil at around 8:30 am. The initial mood in our affectionately named ‘bang bus’ was as subdued as the misty and drizzly conditions that greeted us all this morning. In no time at all we reached our first pit-stop (or p*ss stop in Helmut’s case) at Sedgemoor Services (southbound). After a very brief stay - long enough for me to stain Lance’s bang bus with blackcurrant juice and Helmut to grab hold of Sven Jacketts nuts (as in magazine) - we were on our way again and duly arrived in Yeovil at around 10:45.
Contrary to popular belief we hadn’t turned up early looking for some Yeovil Yoof to go dancing with - it was purely for the sake of going shopping (which I hadn’t instigated for once). We were looking for the well reknowed triathlon shop Tri-UK and after some 45 minutes or so of cruising around Yeovil town centre we got there. Now anyone who’s been to Yeovil will know that it takes like 3 minutes to go around the town centre (by tractor) in traffic. Anyway, we found the shop and the lads bought some cycling and swimming gear. After seeking the advice of the main man in the shop on where was best to eat - we headed off in search of the Half Moon in Mudford.
Westons traditional scrumpy was the order of the day (all 6% of it) and within 3 pints I was deep in ciderspace.
