RIP Gary Speed 1969 - 2011

He will be remembered by most people as one of the gentlemen of the game, who epitomised this quote I found on Four-Four-Two’s blog

“Hard work beats talent if talent doesn’t work hard – that’s what I tell my players. The best players, the most talented ones, usually work harder than anyone. We have to better that work rate.”

Atleast Bobby Robson now has his captain for the Heaven XI

A large-scale clean-up operation is under way after a tanker carrying more than 20 tonnes of yeast extract – believed to be Marmite – overturned on a busy motorway.

Police shut a section of the M1 in South Yorkshire at around 10.15pm on Monday following the incident, which saw the vehicle crash and and spill its contents onto the carriageway.

The road remains closed in both directions between junction 32 and 33 near Sheffield and is expected to cause delays for rush hour commuters.

A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Police said the tanker overturned after being involved in a collision with a motorcaravan.

The tanker driver was taken to hospital but their injuries are not believed to be serious, she added.

“We were called at 10.15pm yesterday to reports of a tanker, which was carrying 23.5 tonnes of waste yeast, overturning,” the force spokeswoman said.

“Some of the contents were spilled on the northbound carriageway and we are in the process of emptying the remaining contents of the tanker and clearing up the spillage before it can be moved and the road reopened.”

Link to the story

I’ve decided to cover up the blokes address and phone number to protect him Altho this did make me laugh when it was posted through our door, and with the window open I laughed and pointed the need for a spell-checker when printing business cards.

"Metals Wonted"

Things have been very quiet on here, altho I will hopefully be having some cracking news to share in the next week or two

Altho it appears that on night 3 of the riots that people are just using the original riots to get themselves a new pair of trainers, or a new computer. It angered me that watching Sky News last night a news correspondent was walking down the high street that was being looted, recording on his mobile I think, and asking people why they were doing it, and the answer from one person was “We’re claiming our taxes back” What an utter load of shit. Thanks to these lawless pillocks, we’re all gonna have to work harder, and pay more taxes to clear up the trail of destruction that has been left. Now it apears that other gangs in other cities around the UK are trying their hand at it. 40 cars were damaged in St Anns, Nottingham last night and they tried to smash their way into the Victoria Centre Shopping centre. Liverpool, Birmingham and Bristol were also targeted.

Whats worse is hearing one person who works in a shop that became under attack tell how she sneaked into a back office when gangs broke in, and phoned the police speaking as quietly as she could telling them that they were bullying her work mate, and the police told her to sit it out and wait for the police, who she claims NEVER arrived.  A mate of mine Bobby who spent 10 years on the Notts force even tweeted saying that the police are totally understaffed to try and fight back in the riots.  The other problem being with all this instant messaging etc, small gangs kick off in one part of london, then as the police begin to get a prescence in the area, they go and kick off in a neighbouring area leaving the police with a very thin blue line over every increasing areas.

So thats now 2 nights on the trot I’ve managed to get by on minimal sleep. I find myself drifting off for half an hour, then I’m wide awake again. Surely it can’t be long till it’s cool enough to sleep once again. I am longing for them long cold winter nights at the minute as I know I can sleep through then I’m finding myself humming away to this classic song

So there has been a survey including 104 professional football clubs from the Premier League, down to League 1 and the SPL. All clubs took part in the survey showing ticket prices, programme prices and how much a pie and cup of tea is.  This has helped to work out the cheapest places to go and watch a game of football.  Well all that is except for NUFC.  Once again the silence coming out of the Boardroom is deafening. The only announcement really being Derby tickets against the unwashed, in which we have 500 less an allocation as previous years, and also that after a mini-twitter rant from Joey Barton (Our best player last season) he’s no available for a free-transfer, and has of today been told to train on his own. Ashley is really making himself popular with the fans, who most have gotten behind Barton after he started showing the promise of earlier in his career. He’s not entirely innocent, with more reports being fed out on the twitter-vine that he fell out with Pardew about who takes free-kicks and corners in the Leeds game at the weekend, and also the fact he was not asked to captain the side in the absence of Captain Caveman.  I guess we’ll never know the truth with it being Bartons word against Ashley/Pardews (Pardew just being the yes man it seems) I am still gonna hold off judgement till the end of the transfer window and see just where the squad is at. Minus Barton tho I feel that it’s alot weaker than it was last season, and see some substantial investment needed if we are to break into the top 10 and maybe push on for Europe in the next few years (I’m deluded I know)

As we went to Sports Direct at the weekend with the aim of getting a few pair of joggers to knock about the house in, I decided to go ahead and buy the #ToonGoesOrange 3rd kit. After some debating wether to get Wiggy and 3 on the back or wait till the squad numbers are announced I plunged with the Wiggy 3 option.

#ToonGoesOrange

The Front of the kit

For some reason I’ve suddenly become really tired all the time again, and hopefully I’ll be able to remedy that soon enough.

When I put Sky Sports News on this morning, I wasn’t expecting to see this comwedy miss from Ballotelli when playing for Man City against LA Galaxy.  Takes a special talent to try something like that, but even more of a talent to try and brush it off to your screaming gaffer that you heard a whistle and assumed you were “offside”

Toying with his present

Typically I tried to keep the dead bird out of the house, but just as I was about to get rid of it, Timmy grabbed it and shot into the house! DOH!! Little bugger.  The other night we were sat watching the Apprentice final and Claire had her dressing gown on.  McGeee seemed a little cold later on when Claire had gone to bed and decided to try and wrap himself up in the dressing gown

Getting comfy now

This photo below is now a regular since either one of us gets our shoes on ready to leave the house or something.

Please sir let us out

The first is obviously Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. Having been a fan of this franchise and played all the games since Call of Duty 3 I feel that I shall give this one a shot. Looking at the trailer it’s looking awesome. Being able to play in London, Paris etc

The second game is again a Shoot-em-up game. Battlefield Company 3 is one that Crit has reccomended and having seen the trailer/gameplay with its more realistic building damage as opposed to CoD

Here’s an example:

Some of the episodes are proper cringe worthy with the way they go about their tasks, but I’m getting quite into it now and can’t wait to see who wins.

How I'm feeling at the minute

For some reason this past week or so since I embarked on the 11 hour trek to The Royal Cornwall Show and back I’ve felt like I’ve been running on resevre energy tanks, and now I’m feeling that they have just decided to give up the ghost on me

I think a nice week away soimewhere to clear my head and recharge the batteries is in order sometime soon

• Day you were born
• Month you were born
• First letter of your Surname.

I was quite impressed (cue everyone telling me their Dr’s have used this tech for years now )   30 minutes AFTER my allotted appointment time I managed to get in and see my Dr.  The previous time I went was about my shoulder, and I had to tell him that I was around 90% deaf in my left ear.  This is the problem they have with only putting the last few years of a patients history onto their computers.  Most of the illnesses I had were when I was a little kid, so the fact I’ve been about twice in the last 6 or 7 years means my computer file is gonna take up about 1kb as they will have no data on my previous medical history.  This was proved when asked to take my shirt off so he can prod my back and stomach to try see if there was anything wrong internally or not.  Upon seeing the scar from my Kidney operation many many years ago, he began to query when I had surgery and things like that.  This was then to lead to a 20 minute quiz about my previous health, like when did I have the operation, Why did I have the operation.  The sort of thing as a Kid you tend to wanna block out.  I couldn’t tell you the age at which I had the surgery.  Anyway one thing led to another and I ended up having Urine tests which came back clear.   So now I know next time I visit the Dr I will have to read up on my past history ready   That and the fact that my previous Dr had retired and a new one has since taken his place so I’ll grant him that

Was a steady enough drive, with minimal queueing all the way down to the Royal Cornwall Show near Wadebridge.  The worst of the traffic was near Bristol but I suppose saturday early afternoon it was to be expected.  Having left my jacket at home, we were approcahing Exeter and an end to our love affair with Motorways to find a mini torrential downpour.  This led me to thinking (which in it’s self hurt) about finding an ASDA or something near by to buy myself a jacket, but as we got closer to the show the temp rose, and the skies became bluer.

In the end a jacket wasn’t needed as the minor sunburn on the back of my neck proves haha! It was glorious weather, but it made me feel soooo tired.  Having not had the best of sleep lately, and always being tired after long drives coupled with plenty of walking around the show admiring the marquees that we’d sold in the past being used.  Was still a nice change from the norm I suppose.  The folks who had hired the marquee began packing away at half 6 so we did the same, and I walked to get the van around 7:15pm.  Rumours began that someone had been knocked over, and 2 or 3 cars seemingly crashed into each other, likely from people too busy rushing to get out before the bottle-necking began.  I finally got onto the showground and on the stand around 8:45pm!! Luckily Andy was happy to sit around and wait.  Had I been on my own I’d have really been screwed.  We made it back home about 2am totally whacked and everything.

Jackie and Andy stayed over on the sofa bed as it would be easier for him to give me a hand during Part II of our adventure weekend.  This one wopuld lead to us getting bloody wet through in the streets of Harrogate.  Luckily it was nowhere near as far as the previous days job, only around 1 hour 45 mins away and we left Mansfield around half 12 and got there bout 2 hours later after a quick stop for food.  Took a while to find an entrance into the little slip road outside the Harrogate Council Offices but we managed and got everything taken down and into the van so we could head home.  Was glad to be back, all be it in agony.  A few days ago I slowly developed a pain across my shoulder blades/back and it’s been getting worse and worse to the point where it was very uncomfortable driving back from Wadebridge in Cornwall.  I was constantly changing driving position.  Claires nan gave me some tablets yesterday which kind of helped, but ringing the Dr’s office this morning the earliest appointment is Thursday morning  What the hell!!!  Guess I will have to dose myself up on strong paracetemols then.

Weekend route. With E being home

A quickly updated version of my European adventures in the last 2 years through work & play

My ever expanding knowledge of the UK

I had to laugh when I saw that Leicestershire City Council was trending on twitter earlier today

A worried member of the public has forced Leicester City Council to admit it is unprepared for a zombie invasion.

The authority received a Freedom of Information request which said provisions to deal with an attack, often seen in horror films, were poor.

The “concerned citizen” said the possibility of such an event was one that councils should be aware of.

“We’ve had a few wacky ones before but this one did make us laugh,” said Lynn Wyeth, head of information governance.

The Freedom of Information Act allows a right of access to recorded information held by public authorities.

Link to story

It just seems to lift my spirits and it came on when driving to t’other side of Hereford Monday so I just cranked the van speakers up and sung along like a right loon

Shearer being unveiled to the Toon fans

I feel this is the summer that could well define Mike Ashley’s time at the club.  With the £35 million in the bank having earnt interest since Liverpool nicked Andy Carroll on the final day of the January Transfer window and any new funds from sales, the press and “insiders” are having a field day creating rumours about who we’re interested in.  Like I said earlier I’ll believe it when I’ve seen them sat signing a brand spanking new contract.  Ashley does appear to be in a bit of a hole at the minute regarding contracts.  One or two people are entering their final year or two and all seem to be on pretty decent money 50k+ easily I’m guessing.  They all appear willing to allow their contracts to run down thus enabling a massive pay-day when they sign for any new employers on a free.

It’s a tough one.  On one hand it appears Ashley is getting a good scouting network over in Ligue 1 and is trying to get some young french/african talent in over the North Sea.  This is ideal as they will have a higher resale value, if they prove they can hack it in the Premier League, than say Kevin Nolan or someone who is closing in on or has past 30. I will be waiting in anticipation of who we manage to get in.  One or two like Ben Arfa and that should help get bums on seats and people through the turnstiles, which is what Pardew has been quoted as saying.  I’ll be happy come 1st September when Silly Season has ended and we can settle down for the long hard slot which is our 2nd season in the Premier League.  Let’s hope 2nd season syndrome gets no-where near Newcastle.  It’s amusing to see the dirty stinking Mackems selling their best players i.e. Darren Bent and now Jordan Henderson.  Let’s hope their slide is quick and their stay in the top division is ended soon enough Toon Toon!!!

Could it be that after these last 2 days of sitting in this tin can of an office slowly roasting away, that we are going to have a summer this year afterall? Or is it just gonna be the next few days, and then back to the cold, miserable, rainy weather that us brits love so much? Answers in a comment I guess

Whilst chatting to my mate Olstar and joking as to wether or not it was safe for me o upgrade my WordPress on their servers, he asked if I woulnd’t mindm deleting a few of the old plugins I no longer use.  Well as I was doing that (Getting rid of about 10 retired plugins) I decided to try the themes as well.  Hence this new one that popped up last week.  I was going through deleting them when I realised I had over 40 themes I’d uploaded! Safe to say now I’m down to about 3 or 4 I think haha

It was a great game and it felt great running about again and playing, but I don’t think I have another season in me after that! First off it was really windy, but Sunny, tthen the rain came down really hard which drenched us to the bone, before it became sunny, then overcast. It was odd that by the end of the game we’d all dried off after being wet-through in the first half.

The signs were there that it was gonna be a long-ass game when we were 1-0 down after about 1 minute Even 1 goal down we just kept laughing and joking as we played, and in the end it finished 7-7. The ref about to blow for full-time when Neil scored his hat-trick, so we went into Fergie time till they got into our penalty area, dived and won their 2nd outrageous penalty of the game. Smithy made some dodgy calls in the 2nd half thats for sure!

Over 500 years experience in this team

The "Current Breed"

Warm-up constituted smoking 3 cigarettes each, and a walk around

Wind-swept hair!!

Bagi signalling for the "Special Bus" to stop

It rained a little

When you see a Scotsman holding an Umbrella you know the weather is rough

It wouldn’t be right if I didn’t post Brads match Report

Match report:

£170 raised for Knife Crime Charity.

A good day with some familiar faces coming out of retirement to help raise money for such a worthy cause.

M.O.M ~ Wiggy Outstanding as ever!

Was a great laugh had by all, apart from Brad, who it appeared “Spat his Dummy out” when Maddsy told him to stop cheating after he waved an imaginary flag for offside against one of our attackers.  It was a game played in the right spirit for the occasion.  Was great to see a little bit of money raised for Knife Crime.

It’s safe to say that even on Tuesday my legs feel like Jelly everytime I try and stand up, and the inside of both my knees were hurting sooo much during the Sunday afternoon that I hear by announce LIVE on w1ggy.co.uk my retirement from all forms of the game. My body just can’t stand upto that sort of punishment anymore