blew it

Great start for ManU but they blew it. Such poor performances by so many. Hard to turn it around in the return game.

Arsenal playing the team they look up to today. Barcelona.

Munich-Manchester

Went for a blood test for SD at the hospital today. She hates needles and needed her hand held.

There were the most people there for a long time but we were still in and out in 10 minutes.

* * *

Big week in Champions League this week. Big!!

yummy

Previously boiled spuds diced and fried with onions is always nice. Did it with some bacon, all in the same pan and topped off with fried egg.

Bloody lovely. Not fantastically healthy, granted, but not that bad either ('minimally' fried) and okay once in a while.

A Sunday afternoon at home

Yawn.

Strange day

It's an odd start to the day.

Almost the end of March and it's 13 below with a feels like of -23. Very cold reaching for the paper.

We're still only 3 hours behind the UK until tonight, so kick offs are still an hour later than usual. But there's no top game at lunchtime in England (8.45am for me) either. What would normally be the next game at 11.00 is now not until 12.00.

I could have enjoyed a lie in but I have to get up to test and shoot. Going back to bed isn't really the same as enjoying a lie in.

still not gone

Winter.

Snow again today. Not a lot but a complete covering of everything that was previously clear.

More expected later and minus 12 (real feel -20) overnight.

Just when you think it's safe to ...........

Power deal off

The "sell off" of NB Power to Quebec has been cancelled. Cold feet? Maybe. There have been many protests against the sale but backing out at this stage is hardly likely to make the government more popular.

Quebec has said it's not worth it to them anymore. They wanted it so they could export their spare electricity to the USA. NB isn't in a position to do that.

Now if NB Power is no longer attractive to Quebec when they'd have additional income to pay costs, how the hell is it attractive to NB? We're gonna be paying through the nose for it again. *sigh*

Rain not snow

At least our "storm" was just rain. The Northern half of the province was expecting over 15 cm of snow.

Nice drop of rain though. First in quite a while.

What is a storm?

When in England, I always thought a storm involved something dramatic. Like a Thunderstorm with its noise and lightning. Or a dumping of snow.

In Canada I read of a pending snowstorm and I picture a blizzard but it could be just a couple of inches of snow.

Today there's another storm predicted. I first heard it on the radio and that station often overstates what we really get. But on the weather network there's actually a storm warning. Yet the forecast for each part of the day - afternoon, evening, overnight, morning - just says light rain.

Hard to think of light rain, even if continuous, as a storm.

and it was just a bit

Got up today to a covering of snow on the grass and deck. However, at the front you wouldn't have known it had snowed where it had melted on contact.

It's quite funny in a way. During the winter the snow falls and stays on the road and paths while sometimes not staying on the deck and today it's the other way round.

Windows

Well that was a surprise. We only lost by two points. If I was Welsh I could claim victory because we scored a try and they didn't.

* * *

We actually had some windows open. But we're due a bit of snow tonight. Just a bit.

All late

The UK still hasn't put its clocks forward yet so we're still 3 hours behind instead of 4. Everything is kicking off an hour later (Canada time) than usual. It seems odd.

I have a rare chance to watch the England rugby team live on TV (as opposed to internet stream) in a minute. On TV5, the French channel. A shame we'll likely get stuffed by the champions France.

Normal service resumes...partly

A bit of normality has resumed.

A pity that Chelsea lost their European tie Tuesday, but yesterday Liverpool won theirs and little old Fulham had a frankly astonishing win.

They were already 3-1 down from the first leg and quickly went 3 goals down.

Then they staged one of the all time great comebacks and scored 4 times to win. Against mighty Juventus!!!

It was one of those "where were you" moments. I'm happy to say I was watching.

odd dream

Unusual dream last night.

I was playing rugby - something I've not done since school nearly 40 years ago. We were also using a round ball and not the oval kind.

I scored a try and the ref signalled it would go to video replay to see if my foot was out of play before grounding the ball, thus disallowing the try.

Whe on the ground after 'scoring' I checked my foot and it was certainly close to the line, but hopefully not touching; it was hard to tell from my angle.

When the replay was displayed on the video screem I had apparently taken two steps beyond the line meaning the try would not be allowed. But I knew something was strange about it.

Then I noticed. That player stepping over the line was not me. Someone had substituted different footage of the incident to get the score disallowed.

Thaw

It was nice to go out earlier with summer shoes instead of winter boots and no coat!!

I swear there was less snow on the path when I returned 25 minutes later.

Magical clothes

Back in England I used to have what I called a magic jacket. In the inside pocket I would often find a fiver (£5) in putting it on.

Twice in the last week I have put a jacket on and found $5 in my pocket.

It's a shame $5 isn't worth as much as £5, although the way the £ is going it soon will be.

I just put my hands in my jeans pocket and found $10.

I wonder if there's anything in my boots.

Injuries

Barring some sort of miracle, David Beckham is out of the world cup. It's a huge blow for him but less of a blow for England...not like it was for 2002 and then Rooney in 2006. But it's still a useful option missing now.

It really is about time we had a bit of good luck for these competitions, if only with important players not getting injured. We've lost the use of 6 major players (not including Beckham now!) for the last 4 International tournaments and there are serious doubts about at least two others right now.

Anyone but England

Enjoyable blog in The Guardian today about the attitude of many Scots towards England when it comes to sports, particularly football.

Of course it drew the typical comments from so many of the self loathing hand wringing types, so common among the readership who seem to think that England is the only country in the world whose citizens like to support their teams and that support of the England football team implies support of foreign and economic policy as well as shameful incidents from the dim and distant past.

Balderdash

Unbelievable article in the paper today about how New Brunswick is taking a lead in Canada in doing something about poverty and, by implication, that Federal government as well as the other provinces are doing nothing.

Now, it is true that the present NB government has taken big steps in that respect recently and they are to be congratulated. I'm also not going to be churlish and say it's not enough.

But successive governments in NB have neglected the subject for so long that it's become very very bad. Programs here fall so far short of those throughout the rest of Canada you wouldn't believe it. So it has actually been quite easy to make the improvements recently seen in NB.

Meanwhile, the other provinces already have safety nets and programs far superior to those in NB and, consequently don't really need to make improvements on the scale recently seen in NB.

The mind boggles

Liverpool blew it and I thought Fulham were a little hard done by. Both have second legs to turn things around. Liverpool will, Fulham won't.

* * *

A couple of weeks ago I commented how British Airways was antagonising the cabin crew union and how there had been another large vote for a strike as a result.

Now they have had further negotiations and the union has suggested measures that meet more than 80% of BA's wants....including taking a pay cut that wasn't part of previous talks. And people say the union is being selfish

Sounds like a good compromise but BA has rejected the proposals, seemingly prepared to lose far more in loss of custom. Fools.

easy peasy

Terrific performance from ManU in stuffing once great Milan 4-0. The fire that is Rooney continues to burn.

Just watching Liverpool. Playing really badly again, but still well in the game. Had the best two chances. Fulham v Juventus keenly awaited.

part three

Arsenal more than recovered. I thought they would but I didn't expect 5-0. Porto are Portugal's third best team currently. Burnley - 19th in England - put up a better showing.

ManU's turn today.

Part two

So...Liverpool blew it. Can Arsenal recover?

Two minds

Interesting week of footie lined up.

Liverpool fighting to get back into the Champions League positions, Arsenal and ManU in the CL tomorrow and Wednesday, followed by Liverpool again on Thursday for the other European trophy.

Mixed feelings for Arsenal. Want them to do well but ready to laugh sadistically at some of their fans* if they don't.


*Some of their fans are just so up their own arses.

Spring?

After a false dawn last week when the snow was almost gone and then got replaced by loads more, maybe it's pretty much over for real now.

It's plus 3 degrees out and it feels warmer. Even the railings on the front steps are warm to the touch. I went without gloves for the first time in months.

Anthem row

Big fuss here about proposals to change Canada's National Anthem. Seems a fuss about nothing to me...especially as it's not so much a change as reversing a previous change.

There's a lot spoken about things being "inclusive" like that nonsense about how Happy Holidays is better than Happy Christmas. How actually wishing someone to have a nice time in that season or any other season or festival whether or not they celebrate it is excluding them is beyond me.

But surely, if you're going to have a National Anthem it should include everyone? The use of "sons" without mention of daughters does not do that.

It would just be a small change and by all accounts it's already been changed a couple of times anyway. Is it so different to marriage vows having "obey" removed?

Be thankful it's not that dreadful dirge God Save the Queen.

It's a first

Our Property Taxes haven't gone up for the first time since we moved. The first year saw a crazy increase and not insignificant ones since. They might even have gone down a little.

I know there was talk about some protection being built in to prevent fleecing owners because of valuations going up, but it was suggested taxes would still rise...just not so much.

In the UK there's a relationship between value and rate charged, but the value isn't subject to review. It's in a 'band' and the rate charged changes.

Here they can change the rate but the value also changes. So the authority rakes in cash from increased values without looking the bad guys by upping the rate.

Until now, it seems.

Scum of the earth.

Nice to see another good old fashioned financial and morality scandal involving the UK Conservatives. It's right up there with the ones when Thatcher was running things. She must be so proud.

* * *

Too much bloody snow again. It's March. Just a few days ago everything looked good and it seemed like winter was on the way out, other than a few flurries, but I wouldn't be surprised if we'd had half February's snowfall in these four days.

Just three hours ago I did the drive and steps and the road surface was just wet. Now there's more on the steps than when I did them. Not so much on the driveway but the road is covered so it looks as if the plow will be along soon to put a bloody ridge across the newly cleared drive. Rats.

Lovely curry for lunch.

Two footie games on telly this afternoon...an England under 21s game and then the first team in a friendly. Very nice.

Elephants revisited

There was an elephant in the room last week and again today. Both of them in football articles again.

Carried away

Very exciting Ice Hockey final which Canada won in overtime which was relentless end to end stuff.

A great 'games' for Canada but some seem to be getting carried away with talk of winning the most Golds ever, for example.

As with the Summer (or proper) Olympics there are new events, so there are more opportunities than previously.

Snowboarding is relatively new and the medal events were increased from 4 to 6 a couple of 'games' ago and Women's Ice Hockey has only been included since 98.

Those two sports, alone, gave Canada 3 more golds than would have been the case prior to 94. I imagine other sports have more medals involved too. I wouldn't be surprised if there are more skating medals than earlier years too.

But still an excellent performance, especially when all the talk beforehand was of never having won Gold in Canada before putting so much pressure on the competitors.

And today's heavy snowfall will, unfortunately, have brought people back to reality. Although I'm sure many will, understandably, be beyond giving a damn.