I'm Alive *

All rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated. No blogging simply as a result of having no home computer and having too much work to do at work that I cannot take time out to do any blogging - not that I should be blogging at all at work cos the members of the organisation that I work for would be fucking outraged if they thought they were paying me to blog all day!

First things first, have had some amazingly beautiful nights out and some very amazingly beautiful nights in with JJ since I last wrote to you, my dear friends. She has documented some of our escapades driving through London and driving to Brighton last week. She was kind enough not to mention that what was once my favourite Indian restaurant, Babur in Honor Oak Park, has gone fucking posh. As I told JJ on the way there, it was never a curry and rice type restaurant, always having a menu that was out of the ordinary. But it's gone a step further and I know it is not for the better. That is not to say that the food is not lovely, it was, it's just not the kind of place I like going to. No excuse for her failing to mention the sunset we viewed together while sitting having wine al fresco in Telegraph Hill Park - it was a lovely sight indeed! Oh, and then we went to my house and watched the Wicker Man, but, of course, DVD was paused when Britt was about to strut her stuff and my very kind friend performed the dance live instead - I wish!!! No mention also of a very excellent lunch at The Spaniards in Hampstead the following day. But maybe cos, boo hoo, that's because JJ had to leave for home shortly afterwards.

We also had a kind of a celebration last night as it marked six months since we first met - excellent pate, superb steaks and brilliant chips at Chez Gerard in Charlotte Street (and lots of kisses and cuddles, of course).

World Cup? Well, I had been saying "best one in my lifetime", but that was up until the quarter finals, when the quality took a bit of a dip. What the fuck were Argentina up to against Germany? Substitution madness when they took the lead when taking off Riquelme - stupid fuckers! Germany deserved to beat them after that nonsense. As for Brazil - total fucking pish against France and I was glad those over-rated (yes, by me as well, I'm not bothered about admitting) tossers. One of the highlights of the tournament for me was Germany v Italy semi, that was everything that a game of football should be - end-to-end action, with both teams really going for it. The final was okay, don't need to say much more about that and definitely don't need to say anything more on THAT incident as it has already got far too much words written on it by people who know football a lot more than I do. I will say that it all kind of fizzled out a bit in the latter stages - but get your money on Spain for the next European Championships and the next World Cup, they are absolute certainties.

Have been having to deal with some offspring problems tonight. He bunked off school for the first time (that we know about) last week. That's one thing - well, can't really be hypocritical and lay into him for that as I didn't go to school for about two out of the four secondary school years - but what is not on is the way he's giving his mum a very hard time at the moment. Much talking back, much extremely rude behaviour, much telling her he hates her and he's going to run away from home and much of not getting up on time for school and generally being a fucking wee shite bag. I was round on Saturday night and for much of Sunday and thought he was pretty well behaved. But things took a turn for the worse this morning. So I came round tonight to have a quiet word. I think he took on board my comments, particularly when I told him that, as his mum's dad is dying at the moment and has only got a matter of weeks or months to live, he really really should be a bit nicer to her. Talking of the boy's maternal grandfather, he is a wonderful bloke with his own pecularities, but, of course, we all have those. I always think of him as a really strong bloke, tall and happy. Unfortunately, at the moment, he is very weak and can hardly stand up on his own and falls asleep for most of the day and is always in absolute agony as the cancer he is suffering from has seeped into just about every bone in his body. He is drugged up to the eyeballs just to stem the pain, but this puts his mind a bit out of action. The hope is that he can be around to see his beloved Reading play in the Premiership. In fact, it would be great if they could win a few games early in the season and see them - probably briefly - top the league. But we can only wish. As my ex is one of my oldest and dearest friends, I'm trying to help out as much as I can, particularly as she does - and really always has done - the majority of bringing our son up. I'm also trying to help out cos he's my son too and it really shouldn't be thought of as anything other than normal for me to look after my own child.

As well as carrying out parental duties tonight, I've also been putting on a second coat of paint on the kitchen ceiling and walls, first one having been put on as part of my pre-World Cup final build-up - yes, such fun, fucking not!! So second coat put on tonight and my body is well painful (feel a bit ashamed to say I'm in pain considering what I wrote about the boy's grandfather above, but there we go!) as I played football after work. Scored five absolute fucking crackers by the way, one of which had everyone on the pitch applauding me, which made me beam with stupid pleasure - yes, I know, what a sad fucker I am! But we still got beat - again!

Talking of football, Lennon signed an extension to his contract (shit), Petrov still wants away (shit), we haven't got a midfield or attack or defence that will do anything in the Champions League (shit) and Millwall got beat 2-0 and 4-0 on their two friendlies in Iceland in the last week (shit). Yes folks, the football season has started again - whoopppeee!!

So here I am, writing a load of crap for this blog, listening to Tindersticks, drinking neat Sainsbury's White Rum and thinking: "Will I ever write anything of interest on this blog ever again?"

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