Watching the World Cup

Somehow all my plans for mid-week blogging went out the window. Now it's Saturday and Mr K-E is watching the Rugby World Cup Final. I am squiffy. Too much Grolsh too quickly. Even a giant bag of Kettle Chips (Honey Barbeque) didn't help.

Oh dear, England are behind. Over and out.

14 - 9

Mr K-E is very happy. England has beaten France in Paris to enter the Rugby World Cup final.

I still can't believe it. Normally for most big games (football, rugby, cricket, whatever) England start well and then things start to go wrong, and before you know it, Mr K-E is holding his head in his hands groaning No, no, no.....

Mr K-E says I don't care what happens now. We've beaten the French and that's all that matters. Silly man.

I am watching the post-match analysis now and the England fans are singing Oasis' Don't look in anger. Is that a rugby song?

And also on a good note, she's back. Woohoo!

Gym and Pizza

Mr K-E and I went to gym today for the first time in months. The TVs in there have been stolen, hahahaha! Unbelievable! They are 4 big 50" screen monsters....must be an inside job (that's Mr K-E's opinion).

After the gym we were tired and starving so we got a Dominos pizza delivered.

Can you spot our lifestyle conflict?

Sponsor you? @&£% OFF!

I have never understood the concept of "sponsoring" someone to do something for charity.

You know what I mean : it works like this. Someone in the office is running a marathon/climbing a mountain/doing a parachute jump etc. They come round with a form for you to pledge money towards a charity and you try to pledge an amount that doesn't look too stingy.

What a complete waste of time and (my) money.

Someone in my office ran in the New York marathon last year. He came round with a form collecting money for a cancer charity.

Now, I support charities. I admire people who volunteer and give up their time and energy for charities.

But does it make sense for this guy to fly to New York and run a marathon, then ask me for money for the charity? Why doesn't he save the £300 plane ticket, £300 hotel charges, running kit etc etc, stay home that day and give the money he has saved to the charity? To make things worse, this guy loves running; frankly, it's a holiday for him!

Aarrgghhh, I wish I had the guts to tell him where to go. Of course, I just pledged £5 instead.

First of all, if they genuinely want to raise money for charity, then I am sure there are a hundred more efficient ways of doing it than running a marathon. If they got a second job stacking shelves in Sainburys instead of "training" for their marathon, they could give all that money away and wouldn't have to bother me!

What I hate the most are the schemes where charities pay for parachute jumps, trekking holidays etc as long as you raise a certain amount of money. For example - raise £360 to do a parachute jump for Breast Cancer charity. The charity only gets £140 and the rest pays for the jump. What. A. Con.

ARMY vs NAVY 2007

This afternoon we went to watch the annual Army vs Navy rugby match in Twickenham with a group of friends.

I'm fairly neutral about the whole thing, but there is great rivalry between between the two groups which usually makes for an entertaining day. People watching is almost as fun as the rugby itself - the fans are amusing as they insult each other, wave flags etc.





The stadium is not yet fully complete (as you can see from the empty seats) but there were still 45,000 people there.

The Army won, by the way.

He's Back!

Hooray, Mr K-E is back. He had a lovely time, although the conditions weren't that good on the slopes.

He brought me back some gifts. Swiss chocolate and nice Ham. What else could a wife ask for?

All Dressed Up

Mr K-E is away, sniff sniff. He is away snowboarding in Chamonix, France with some friends from work. He was up late last night packing and checking that all his snowboarding kit was OK. I think he looks really cute with all his gear on, so I couldn't resist a photo when he put it on to check it.

He told me to mention that he is not actually fat, just wearing lots of fleeces, thermals etc.

Have a nice time, honey!

The Ashes

No news about the job. Hhmmm. Maybe I'm too expensive. Is that a good thing or a bad thing?

I work in a male-dominated industry and today all the men were talking about the cricket, or more accurately how rubbish the England cricket team are. The Australians were trying not to look too smug but you could detect the tell-tale smirk. Someone explained it to me thus, "If it were football, it's like being seven-nil up at half time and then coming back to lose seven-eight".

Anyway, I still don't get cricket. I have had the rules explained to me about 30 times but I still can't remember them. If you are really interested, here is a link explaining all the rules. Too complicated for me. (Don't tell me its like baseball or rounders, I don't understand how they work either)

It seems to me that cricket is an excuse to stay out in the sun all day and drink lots of beer. I mean, come on, most of time the game ends in a draw and you can never tell who is winning until the end. (Not strictly true, if one team completely "collapses" like England did today)

Cricket is in the news because The Ashes is on in Australia. The Ashes is a test cricket series, with Australia and England playing 5 test matches. It is held (roughly) every two years, alternating between England and Australia. A "test" cricket match is played between two teams over 5 days, with about 6 hours of play per day. And that is just about all I know about cricket.

"The Ashes" is an interesting name for a sporting event, don't you think? When the Australian cricket team beat England in England for the first time in 1882, The Sporting Times printed a spoof obituary:

"In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval on 29th AUGUST, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances R.I.P.

N.B. — The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."

The media (yes, they had "media" back then!) seized this, and the next tour of the England cricket team to Australia was dubbed "the quest to regain The Ashes of English cricket".

The Ashes are represented by an urn, which as the story goes, was presented to the Hon Ivo Bligh, captain of the England cricket team during the 1882-1883 tour, by a group of women. The urn is said to contain the ashes of a cricket bail, but there is some discussion about this - you can read more here. (The bails are the cross-pieces which sit on top of the stumps)

What this really means is - lots of men checking the BBC Sport website all day to see how England is doing. If England do well, all the newspapers will be full of glowing reports, ministers will make speeches about sport in schools, the Olympics are bound to be a success, house prices will rise, the angle of the Earth will change so that England gets more sunshine.......OK OK I'm exaggerating. But the converse is true too. If England gets trashed, then this country "has gone down the toilet, the NHS is on its last legs and my god, the situation with immigration is completely out of control." So for the sake of racial harmony and peace across middle class dining tables everywhere, good luck England!!