Normal service has been resumed . . .

I'm glad to see things are back to normal . . . Saturday afternoon and I'm tackling a pile of ironing, listening to Five Live Sport on the radio and watching the rain out of the window - happy days!

Please don't think I'm complaining. I'm still really enjoying the novelty of rain! And, what's to complain about when I'm snug and dry indoors looking out at the garden suddenly springing to life again.

Funny how the beginning of the football season coincides with almost the first bit of rain for weeks and weeks (at least in this part of the country).

Well, it's a much more attractive proposition than the England job!

I just heard the good news (for Spurs fans, at least!) - Harry Redknapp has just extended his contract with Tottenham.

I've been waiting for an opportunity to post this video. I enjoyed seeing it live on TV at the time it happened a couple of months ago, and it's still worth watching now. It's great to see the good relationship between coach and players - I can't somehow imagine Capello smiling like this in similar circumstances but then I can't really imagine any of the England squad having the courage to pull a stunt like this either!

A little flutter or a little footie . . .

I'm neither Irish nor much interested in horse-racing but even I have noticed that tomorrow is the day of the Grand National. I mention the Irish factor as most of the horses seem to have either Irish riders, trainers or owners, or in some cases all three.

Being female, I'm much more interested in who was wearing what on Lady's Day at Aintree today.

Typically, I would always choose a horse to back by its name rather than by form - I did say I was not really into horse-racing!

Looking at the card for this year's National, I suppose the obvious choice for Catholics must be 'Preists Leap'. Strange spelling!

Apparently the horse was named after the legend of a priest ambushed by brigands on an escarpment in Kerry. Cornered, he turned his horse towards Bantry and jumped. "In the town there's some rock, with four hoof marks where the horse landed," trainer Tom O'Leary explained. "Only it's four miles from the mountain."

By the way, the odds were 66/1 at the time of writing.

I'll be focusing on the FA Cup semi-final on Sunday, especially as Number 2 Son managed to get a ticket for Wembley.

The Beautiful Game . . .

I occasionally make references to 'the beautiful game' as I do like to watch the odd bit of footie now and again.

Time for an 'ode' I think:

Myth's river - where his mother dipped him,

fished him, a slippery golden boy flowed on,

his name on its lips.

Without him, it was prophesied,

they would not take Troy.

Women hid him,

concealed him in girls' sarongs;

days of sweetmeats, spices, silver songs...

But when Odysseus came,

with an athlete's build,

a sword and a shield,

he followed him to the battlefield,

the crowd's roar,

And it was sport, not war,

his charmed foot on the ball...

But then his heel, his heel, his heel...

I did like the quote by the author of the poem, Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, when interviewed on Radio 4, 'I'm a lot more likely to watch football than he is to read poetry!'

Multi-tasking . . .

I wonder, were you watching this today?

Or maybe, this was the focus in your house?

Maybe you took the opportunity whilst the menfolk were otherwise engaged to go out for a bit of this?

. . . and possibly some of this too?


Well, I did that thing that we women are supposed to be good at and managed to do a bit of 'all of the above'. I say, 'supposed' to be good at, as the Pater Familias always thinks it's a great joke and a bit of an 'urban myth'!

I had to make a few journeys in the car and managed to get a fair of idea of what was happening in the sporting arena today thanks to good old Radio Five Live. Then naturally, having to go to the shopping centre, I had to stop for the obligatory cappuccino! Once home, I managed to sit at the computer with the pop-out screen of the live streaming of the Rugby whilst still listening to the radio and dipping in now and again to the live text commentary of the football. Phew, it can be very confusing, especially when you have calls on your mobile and Skype at the same time!

What struck me about all of this, was the fact that the Rugby was all about the game, the teams, Twickenham etc. but the focus on the Chelsea/City match was all about action off the pitch. All eyes were trained on the pre-match handshake. Look at the photo above. I wonder what the young mascot made of it all.

What do you do when Valentine's Day falls on Match Day?

I was chatting to 'Number Two Son' on the phone this evening. You know, the usual sort of mother/son thing - What have you been up to this week? Any plans for the weekend? etc. We were talking about Valentine's Day and I reminded him that the Pater Familias is away on a business trip at the moment so Valentine's Day will be a non-event in our house this year (or maybe postponed?)

His reply? . . . 'Well, I'll be at the match tomorrow'

He then sent me the link to this great video. It's an answer to that perennial question, 'What do you do when Valentine's Day falls on Match Day?' I hope it makes you smile.

No words necessary . . .

This post is for Number 2 Son.

No words necessary - just look at Jermaine-5-goals-Defoe's expression and Crouch's 'I started it all' grin!

Congratulations Coleen and Wayne . . .

I'm sure you've all heard that Coleen and Wayne (Rooney) are now proud parents of a bouncing baby boy. Congratulations to them both.

Some of you may have had the same initial reaction as I did when I saw the news item . . . 'Kai???'

The boy's name Kai\kai\, also used as girl's name Kai, is pronounced kye. It is of Welsh, Scandinavian and Greek origin, and its meaning is "keeper of the keys; earth". Variant of Kay. Also possibly (South African) "beautiful". Kai is also a Hawaiian name meaning "the sea". (source: thinkbabynames.com/)

So now you know. I wonder if they know?

'Lame excuses' ... pardon the pun!!

I wouldn't claim to know very much about football but I do enjoy watching it sometimes, especially the national team. If you follow the game at all you will be aware that there is a 'friendly' international this evening against Germany (long time football rivals!!).

It would appear that Fabio Capello is struggling to field a team of 11 players looking at the long list of injured players. There is also the ongoing debate about 'club versus country'. You can understand that the clubs don't want their star players injured in a friendly match and be out of action for their club for weeks to come.

However, whichever side of the fence you come down on that particular argument, I was amused to read the following additional reasons for players' unavailability on Robbo Robson's blog on BBC's football page.

Theo Walcott (his dog's poorly); Joleon Lescott (certified hopeless); Gabby Agbonlahor (cheese allergy); Gareth Barry (needs to take a jumper back to M and S cos his Mum bought him the wrong size); Jermain Defoe (he's got a Pilates course Wednesday night) Ashley Young (eye test); David Bentley (brylcreem removal)....

I would say Robbo was getting a bit fed up with some of the probably genuine reasons why certain players were unavailable to play for the national team this evening.

As a footnote, I heard on the news this morning that Theo Walcott doesn't need to worry about his 'poorly dog' as he managed to dislocate his shoulder in training yesterday so is out of tonight's squad anyway!