Right of Reply

David O'Leary recently called the long-suffering Villa fans 'fickle' for booing him.

Oh dear...

Armchair Masochist

What with three televised Villa away defeats and another pair for the England rugby team, it's been a tough eight days for this armchair supporter. Saved myself a little punishment by not paying for the game at Everton yesterday, as I took one look at the teamsheet and knew what was coming. Thought I'd covered myself by being one only two people to back Ireland in the score prediction contest, so the only way I could lose-lose yesterday was if Ireland won by five points or less. Which naturally they did.

Very depressing. The awful form and run-in for Villa's Birmingham neighbours means we *should* avoid relegation this year, but Villa are unmistakably a side in rapid decline, and I am now certain we will go down next season unless there is root-and-branch change in both boadroom and backroom.

Motoring Along

Took two and a half hours to drive home last night, due to an accident on the A13. Took another hour and a half to get in this morning, for no apparent reason that I could ascertain, other than weight of traffic. Meanwhile, serenely passed a mobile camera unit at 50mph on a deserted dual carriageway on Saturday morning, only to discover to my horror that the limit is inexplicably 40mph on that stretch of the North Circular (which I rarely use). Not a residential area, so I'm baffled as to why.

If I get fined for that, I'm leaving the country.

White Dorks on Mogadon

I think that was the worst performance I've seen by an England rugby team since the eighties.

Brian Moore called them inept, Jerry Guscott said they were terrible, Andy Robinson admitted they were awful. Eddie Butler said that France crushed them, but in truth, the French didn't even get out of second gear themselves - they had no need.

At the start of the competition, I thought we were starting to make progress, but in truth, we've gotten worse with every game.

Robinson needs to change the players - Cohen, Tindall, Noon and Grewcock are all living on borrowed time. And Lewis Moody may have a great work rate and do many good things, but he's worth six to nine points a game to the opposition in penalties and he shows no sign of learning. If Robinson won't change the players when they're clearly not up to it, he has to go himself.

Cracking Cretaceous

Took the boys to the Natural History Museum yesterday - the younger lad is potty about dinosaurs, and is just about old enough to walk around all day without need for a pushchair, so this seemed like the ideal test outing.

On arriving at South Ken, shortly after it opened, huge crowds at the front entrance, so we walked around to the side - completely deserted, we just walked straight in ! Moseyed around the Earth stuff for a little while until the boys got too restless, then made our way through to the Life section, and of course the good ole' dinosaurs.

The animatronic T-Rex was quite impressive - as expected, son number one wasn't at all keen to get close, but suprisingly, fearless destructo-boy was also a little nervy, until he noticed the T-Rex's feet weren't moving and decided it wasn't real, and therefore couldn't eat him. Impressive logical deduction for a three year old I thought. Nonetheless, even he didn't want to linger when we got around to the front and the dinosaur was roaring straight at him.

Back to CW for lunch at Chilis - didn't know they had a child's menu, was quite impressed. All in all, the boys were relatively well-behaved - they both had their moments, but generally it was a success. Our oldest pronounced it 'A grand day out'. About as ringing an endorsement as you're going to get from a six year old I guess...

Hiatus Over

Have been quiet on the blogging front lately, mainly due to starting my new job. Still sitting in the same seat, but working with the team behind me rather than in front, so that's a bit weird.

Have to say I'm really enjoying it - it makes so much difference having a manager who trusts and empowers you. There's a lot of hard work ahead, but I like to think I'm making a small difference already - team morale seems to be on the rise.

Taking this job is a bit of a gamble, as it's got an immovable external deadline, which essentially makes it a binary career opportunity - we either deliver on time and get muchos kudos (and hopefully cash too), or we don't and we get sacked.