Wednesday, 30 May 2012
Casablancas who has referred himself to therapy...
On the other side,
on the other side
nobody's waiting for me.
On the other side
I hate them all.
I hate them all.
I hate myself for hating them,
so I'll drink some more.
I love them all.
I'll drink even more.
I'll hate them even more
than I did before.
On the other side,
on the other side
nobody's waiting for me.
On the other side.
I remember when you came,
you taught me how to sing.
Now, it's seems so far away.
You taught me how to sing...
I'm tired of being so judgemental
of everyone
I will not go to sleep.
I will train my eyes to see
that my mind is as blind
as a branch on a tree.
On the other side,
on the other side.
I know what's waiting for me.
On the other side.
On the other side,
on the other side
I know you're waiting for me.
On the other side.
Thursday, 24 May 2012
was an emotional rollercoaster yet did not account for all his symptoms...
Step 1: Rediscover letters of 2001 from (quite possibly) first ever girlfriend.
Step 2: Swig of scotch and re-read letters thoroughly.
Step 3: Plonk her email into MySpace. Discover she hasn't been on there in 5 years. But on the bright side, she's dating a chav.
Step 4: Plonk her email into Facebook. Discover I can't message her, let alone add her.
Step 5: Friend confirms that they can't contact her at all either, so at least I haven't been singled out.
Step 6: As steps 3-5 are performed, wonder why I care so much about a girl who was nice to know once but is know seemingly a few steps away from wannabe WAG status.
Step 7: Repeat step 2 and wonder how it's possible the girl in the letters could transform into a chav.
Step 8: Give up. Go to bed.
Step 2: Swig of scotch and re-read letters thoroughly.
Step 3: Plonk her email into MySpace. Discover she hasn't been on there in 5 years. But on the bright side, she's dating a chav.
Step 4: Plonk her email into Facebook. Discover I can't message her, let alone add her.
Step 5: Friend confirms that they can't contact her at all either, so at least I haven't been singled out.
Step 6: As steps 3-5 are performed, wonder why I care so much about a girl who was nice to know once but is know seemingly a few steps away from wannabe WAG status.
Step 7: Repeat step 2 and wonder how it's possible the girl in the letters could transform into a chav.
Step 8: Give up. Go to bed.
Sunday, 20 May 2012
local Carshalton school advertised a weekend car boot sale, and...
That's where Dad and Catherine are headed, good luck to them - the weather's awful! It seems like SE England is perpetually overcast at the moment. I've given them two bin liners containing over 100 CDs to sell. Figure if I can get about 50p a CD, that's £50, better than nothing. And I'm not even there selling them, lol!
Thursday, 17 May 2012
first time in 74 months, a startling denouement...
Since I last used pseudo-newspaper headlines as blog titles, but I thought it was kind of cool at the time and I'm liking the idea again. (see what I was writing in March 2006) So, until I get bored of resurrecting this old practice, this is the way forward.
Tuesday, 15 May 2012
badminton end of season review
It was a reasonable season for most of our teams.
Ladies :-
Having been promoted from division 2 last season, the ladies team found it tough to survive at the very top. The top pair of Helen & Sarah would usually win two or three of their rubbers, but the other two pairs would struggle to make any inroads into the rival players. The most frequent results were 4-5 and 3-6 losses.
Mens 1 :-
The season was defined by close 5-4 wins (of which there were 5 in 8 games!) and by the excellent Po & Dan who, despite playing every game, did not drop a single rubber all season. Tolworth won this division last year and were the favourites to retain their title, but Penguin did a Manchester City and threw a spanner in the works at the last minute with a 4-5 away win, so we won it on rubbers. Three teams tied on the same number of points tells you everything you need to know about just how tight it is at the highest level in the Sutton league.
Mens 2 :-
The team were not helped by the scheduling, with all the away games up first. We duly lost all four, followed by the first home game against a very strong Chaldon outfit. Our position looked precarious, but some strong team selection by Captain King eventually paid off, and saw us win 3 out of 4 home games to avoid the humiliation of demotion to Division 4. Ebbisham B2 only turned up with two pairs at each game, and so kindly donated three rubbers, as did Chart Centre on home soil. At least we won't have to play Chaldon next season!
Mens Fours :- (my team!)
Any of three teams could have won this division, so it was just as well we won our first 3 games all away 2-4, 1-5, 0-6. Chessington fielded a second-string team in the 0-6 away win (their excuse was their first team were all busy shopping at Bluewater!) and thumped us 1-5 when we had the return in the New Year; with a couple of players reportedly also playing for Bookham, this hardly came as a major shock. We cruised to a 6-0 home win against struggling Ebbisham D, setting up a showdown with Dorking for division winners and promotion. We needed to draw or win the last match, otherwise they would go up instead of us. Luckily, they were unable to put out a team and conceded a walkover, ensuring promotion to Division 2 for us next season.
Mixed 1 :-
Mixed 1 had a horrific season, losing 6 straight games and doing permanent damage to their hopes of staying up. By the time their solitary 6-3 win at home against Bookham came about, it was far too little too late. In mitigation, the team never scored less than 4 rubbers at home, so some of the games were closer than the scorelines suggest.
Mixed 2 :-
The team were extremely unlucky at the start of the year to lose the first two opening away games 4-5. They picked themselves up and had excellent form towards the end of the season, winning 5 of their last 6, including a notable 1-8 away win over Coulsdon & Purley. Unfortunately, Chaldon proved - as in Mens 2 and Hybrid - that they were a bit too strong for us, and pipped us to certain promotion, even though we had a better rubber difference.
Hybrid :-
An extremely long season for the Hybrid players with 12 games contested. We started in typical fashion, with an away loss to always strong Sutton Adults, closely followed by a 0-9 home thrashing at the hands of ...yep, you guessed it, Chaldon! In November, we realised the season had started and won the following three games before breaking up for Xmas. The latter of those three games was a turning point in my season as I won all 3 rubbers for the first time. When the season restarted in January, I won all 3 in a 5-4 home win against Ebbisham to make the glory last a little longer, and picked up our sole rubber in the 8-1 away humiliation at Chaldon's hands. We scored a good 4-5 away win against a more determined Ebbisham side, but had crises of all kinds on the night of the away New Malden match - Captain King being involved in a car accident that had the police swarming over Cheam Road. It was a miracle anyone turned up for the game itself, but unsurprisingly with our heads in the wrong place, we lost 2-7. We then showed up in Leatherhead to play Howard, who were stronger than expected and nicked it 5-4. The score was tied at 4-4, 1-1 in the final rubber: me and Kaz lost the last game by 2 points. Can't get closer than that! We claimed a walkover against Sutton Adults who are reportedly struggling with low membership and couldn't put a side out. The final match of the season was another cliffhanger, in which the score was 4-4 once more, 1-1 in the final rubber, and 24-23 to us on points. The final point of a dramatic season was won by Captain King and Gerry flinging themselves on the floor to dink it over the net and cement a strong 2nd place.
As for my own stats:
So I just about won more than I lost over the whole season... not bad considering I was included in some teams against crazily good opposition (ahem...Chaldon...)
Ladies :-
| Division 1 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| Sanderstead Hall 1 | 10 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 64 | 26 | 18 |
| Coulsdon and Purley S2 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 57 | 33 | 14 |
| Chadacre 1 | 10 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 50 | 40 | 14 |
| Limpsfield 1 | 10 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 45 | 45 | 8 |
| Tolworth 1 | 10 | 3 | 0 | 7 | 28 | 62 | 6 |
| St Andrews 1 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 26 | 64 | 0 |
Having been promoted from division 2 last season, the ladies team found it tough to survive at the very top. The top pair of Helen & Sarah would usually win two or three of their rubbers, but the other two pairs would struggle to make any inroads into the rival players. The most frequent results were 4-5 and 3-6 losses.
Mens 1 :-
| Division 1 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| St Andrews 1 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 49 | 23 | 12 |
| Penguin 1 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 47 | 25 | 12 |
| Tolworth A | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 44 | 28 | 12 |
| Coulsdon and Purley S2 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 28 | 44 | 2 |
| Ebbisham B1 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 60 | 2 |
The season was defined by close 5-4 wins (of which there were 5 in 8 games!) and by the excellent Po & Dan who, despite playing every game, did not drop a single rubber all season. Tolworth won this division last year and were the favourites to retain their title, but Penguin did a Manchester City and threw a spanner in the works at the last minute with a 4-5 away win, so we won it on rubbers. Three teams tied on the same number of points tells you everything you need to know about just how tight it is at the highest level in the Sutton league.
Mens 2 :-
| Division 3 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| Chaldon 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 59 | 13 | 16 |
| Woodcote 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 31 | 41 | 8 |
| St Andrews 2 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 31 | 41 | 6 |
| Ebbisham B2 | 8 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 30 | 42 | 6 |
| Chart Centre 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 29 | 43 | 4 |
The team were not helped by the scheduling, with all the away games up first. We duly lost all four, followed by the first home game against a very strong Chaldon outfit. Our position looked precarious, but some strong team selection by Captain King eventually paid off, and saw us win 3 out of 4 home games to avoid the humiliation of demotion to Division 4. Ebbisham B2 only turned up with two pairs at each game, and so kindly donated three rubbers, as did Chart Centre on home soil. At least we won't have to play Chaldon next season!
Mens Fours :- (my team!)
| Fours 3 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| St Andrews Fours | 6 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 28 | 8 | 10 |
| Chessington Fours | 6 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 15 | 8 |
| Dorking Fours | 6 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 20 | 16 | 6 |
| Ebbisham D Fours | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 33 | 0 |
Any of three teams could have won this division, so it was just as well we won our first 3 games all away 2-4, 1-5, 0-6. Chessington fielded a second-string team in the 0-6 away win (their excuse was their first team were all busy shopping at Bluewater!) and thumped us 1-5 when we had the return in the New Year; with a couple of players reportedly also playing for Bookham, this hardly came as a major shock. We cruised to a 6-0 home win against struggling Ebbisham D, setting up a showdown with Dorking for division winners and promotion. We needed to draw or win the last match, otherwise they would go up instead of us. Luckily, they were unable to put out a team and conceded a walkover, ensuring promotion to Division 2 for us next season.
Mixed 1 :-
| Division 1 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| Foresters 1 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 58 | 14 | 16 |
| Tolworth 1 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 39 | 33 | 10 |
| Gladiators 1 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 32 | 40 | 8 |
| Bookham 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 23 | 49 | 4 |
| St Andrews 1 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 28 | 44 | 2 |
Mixed 1 had a horrific season, losing 6 straight games and doing permanent damage to their hopes of staying up. By the time their solitary 6-3 win at home against Bookham came about, it was far too little too late. In mitigation, the team never scored less than 4 rubbers at home, so some of the games were closer than the scorelines suggest.
Mixed 2 :-
| Division 3 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| Chaldon 1 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 44 | 28 | 12 |
| St Andrews 2 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 46 | 26 | 10 |
| S. London Harriers 1 | 8 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 31 | 41 | 10 |
| Coulsdon and Purley S3 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 35 | 37 | 8 |
| Ebbisham B | 8 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 24 | 48 | 0 |
The team were extremely unlucky at the start of the year to lose the first two opening away games 4-5. They picked themselves up and had excellent form towards the end of the season, winning 5 of their last 6, including a notable 1-8 away win over Coulsdon & Purley. Unfortunately, Chaldon proved - as in Mens 2 and Hybrid - that they were a bit too strong for us, and pipped us to certain promotion, even though we had a better rubber difference.
Hybrid :-
| Hybrid 1 | P | W | D | L | F | A | Pts |
| Chaldon Hybrid | 12 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 102 | 6 | 24 |
| St Andrews Hybrid | 12 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 52 | 56 | 14 |
| New Malden Hybrid | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 55 | 53 | 12 |
| Howard Hybrid | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 52 | 56 | 12 |
| Sutton Adults Hybrid | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 44 | 64 | 12 |
| Dorking Hybrid | 12 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 42 | 66 | 6 |
| Ebbisham C Hybrid | 12 | 2 | 0 | 10 | 31 | 77 | 4 |
An extremely long season for the Hybrid players with 12 games contested. We started in typical fashion, with an away loss to always strong Sutton Adults, closely followed by a 0-9 home thrashing at the hands of ...yep, you guessed it, Chaldon! In November, we realised the season had started and won the following three games before breaking up for Xmas. The latter of those three games was a turning point in my season as I won all 3 rubbers for the first time. When the season restarted in January, I won all 3 in a 5-4 home win against Ebbisham to make the glory last a little longer, and picked up our sole rubber in the 8-1 away humiliation at Chaldon's hands. We scored a good 4-5 away win against a more determined Ebbisham side, but had crises of all kinds on the night of the away New Malden match - Captain King being involved in a car accident that had the police swarming over Cheam Road. It was a miracle anyone turned up for the game itself, but unsurprisingly with our heads in the wrong place, we lost 2-7. We then showed up in Leatherhead to play Howard, who were stronger than expected and nicked it 5-4. The score was tied at 4-4, 1-1 in the final rubber: me and Kaz lost the last game by 2 points. Can't get closer than that! We claimed a walkover against Sutton Adults who are reportedly struggling with low membership and couldn't put a side out. The final match of the season was another cliffhanger, in which the score was 4-4 once more, 1-1 in the final rubber, and 24-23 to us on points. The final point of a dramatic season was won by Captain King and Gerry flinging themselves on the floor to dink it over the net and cement a strong 2nd place.
As for my own stats:
| Player | P | F | A | ||||
| Jamie Gray | 17 | 26 | 25 |
So I just about won more than I lost over the whole season... not bad considering I was included in some teams against crazily good opposition (ahem...Chaldon...)
Sunday, 13 May 2012
reality bites
So I went to New Malden last night, to watch the production of 1066 and all that, which was admittedly quite good - or better than I thought it would be. My friend Anushka from badminton also tagged along, and was most unsuitably dressed for the occasion in a tracksuit and T-shirt...
A bit of background. Before last night, I hadn't seen Amanda for nearly 9 years. In fact my lasting memory of her was at a house party me and my sister threw in 2003. As with all parties, it was far too bibulous to make sense of, and we both ended up drunk in the same bed. But that's where the line was drawn. I didn't sleep with her because I wanted to matter to her when she was sober.
Amanda appeared to be cast in one of the lead roles as she featured prominently in several scenes, and showed a convincing command of several accents. The evening was enhanced (perhaps) by the availability of wine before the start and during the interval - and at £1.50 a glass, I certainly wasn't complaining!
After the final curtain call, I even managed to get in a few words with her. Unfortunately a dayglo neanderthal also appeared who I rightly assumed was the beau; we made our excuses and left. I sent her a text at about 10pm commending her performance once again and promised to keep an eye out for any future shows she was in, and went off in search of dinner with Anushka...we ate, I drank even more, I went home, I slept.
I woke up Sunday morning. This is where it gets interesting - she replied to my text at 3am thanking me for my support, saying she hoped we enjoyed the show. Shouldn't she have been with dayglo at the time? Now perhaps, once again, I am guilty of overanalysing something that doesn't need to be analysed - or maybe it's a clue.
Whatever the reason, I can't deny my fondness for indulging in rose-tinted nostalgia concerning women linked to my past. It is certainly not healthy and it invariably leads to "oh, you've found someone", which is pretty predictable. I don't know why the fuck I do it. If I ever grew up and realised it would almost certainly be a more fruitsome move to approach women who weren't in my social circle a decade ago, I might actually get somewhere in life...
A bit of background. Before last night, I hadn't seen Amanda for nearly 9 years. In fact my lasting memory of her was at a house party me and my sister threw in 2003. As with all parties, it was far too bibulous to make sense of, and we both ended up drunk in the same bed. But that's where the line was drawn. I didn't sleep with her because I wanted to matter to her when she was sober.
Amanda appeared to be cast in one of the lead roles as she featured prominently in several scenes, and showed a convincing command of several accents. The evening was enhanced (perhaps) by the availability of wine before the start and during the interval - and at £1.50 a glass, I certainly wasn't complaining!
After the final curtain call, I even managed to get in a few words with her. Unfortunately a dayglo neanderthal also appeared who I rightly assumed was the beau; we made our excuses and left. I sent her a text at about 10pm commending her performance once again and promised to keep an eye out for any future shows she was in, and went off in search of dinner with Anushka...we ate, I drank even more, I went home, I slept.
I woke up Sunday morning. This is where it gets interesting - she replied to my text at 3am thanking me for my support, saying she hoped we enjoyed the show. Shouldn't she have been with dayglo at the time? Now perhaps, once again, I am guilty of overanalysing something that doesn't need to be analysed - or maybe it's a clue.
Whatever the reason, I can't deny my fondness for indulging in rose-tinted nostalgia concerning women linked to my past. It is certainly not healthy and it invariably leads to "oh, you've found someone", which is pretty predictable. I don't know why the fuck I do it. If I ever grew up and realised it would almost certainly be a more fruitsome move to approach women who weren't in my social circle a decade ago, I might actually get somewhere in life...
Saturday, 12 May 2012
amateur theatrics
Long-time readers of this blog might, from this post's title, infer that I am about to launch into a rant on emo girls and/or undeserved, misplaced melodrama. You are WRONG!
What I am about to do this evening is go and see a production: "1066 and all that" that one of my sister's friends - Amanda - is starring in. Let me dispel some myths advanced by my inner circle right now. I am not "doing this to get some strange." Neither am I "stalking someone unattainable." Considering the production's nature and roots, I was slightly hesitant about whether it was worth the £8 advance fee... but this pilgrim has nowt better to do than soak up some culture/eye candy. I was also pleased to find they accepted my ticket booking on the phone rather than having to go the nasty service charge route of online ticketing outlets.
Alas, if you're reading this and are interested, you're too late, tonight is the last night swansong. If you read this in time, it's at St James Church, Bodley Road, New Malden. (By the A3 roundabout)
What I am about to do this evening is go and see a production: "1066 and all that" that one of my sister's friends - Amanda - is starring in. Let me dispel some myths advanced by my inner circle right now. I am not "doing this to get some strange." Neither am I "stalking someone unattainable." Considering the production's nature and roots, I was slightly hesitant about whether it was worth the £8 advance fee... but this pilgrim has nowt better to do than soak up some culture/eye candy. I was also pleased to find they accepted my ticket booking on the phone rather than having to go the nasty service charge route of online ticketing outlets.
Alas, if you're reading this and are interested, you're too late, tonight is the last night swansong. If you read this in time, it's at St James Church, Bodley Road, New Malden. (By the A3 roundabout)
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Monday, 7 May 2012
powered by
Not sure why, but the Google search function on my blog is utterly useless at the moment. I've tested it with words that appear in some blog entries from 2006 and it picks up nothing! So much for the indestructable force it heralds itself as!
Sunday, 6 May 2012
the weather outside is frightful
Spring should be here, but thankfully the English weather is reasserting itself and so May still feels like October of last year.
What did I do today? I got up at 15:30, went out to buy bacon & eggs, cooked the bacon & eggs, did all the washing up, had the most illogical argument on Facebook with some prissy primary school teacher on the subject of competence & standards, wrote 24 bars of a new piece for my rock opera, watched Match of the Day, played 7 games of online Scrabble, and somehow it is now ten to midnight.
Probably I should make better use of my life and the limited time we all have on this planet.
What did I do today? I got up at 15:30, went out to buy bacon & eggs, cooked the bacon & eggs, did all the washing up, had the most illogical argument on Facebook with some prissy primary school teacher on the subject of competence & standards, wrote 24 bars of a new piece for my rock opera, watched Match of the Day, played 7 games of online Scrabble, and somehow it is now ten to midnight.
Probably I should make better use of my life and the limited time we all have on this planet.
Saturday, 5 May 2012
I confess that even after years of its existence, I am still confused and bewildered as to the major attraction of Twitter. I define it as the modern illusion that people's conflated opinions matter to anyone but themselves.
Thursday, 3 May 2012
gloaming
Should really retitle this blog '3am thoughts'. Seriously, staying up this late watching The Apprentice on iPlayer and munching cookies cannot be good for either health or sanity...
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