The trials of a football supporter ...

When I was growing I had two loves, Star Wars and football. I fancied myself as a goalkeeper (Ray Clemence was my hero), but in all honesty wasn't any good. During my early teenage years you'd find me on the terraces at Spurs (Mainly), with occasional visits to West Ham and Leyton Orient, but then I discovered music and had no time for anything else ...

When we moved to Manningtree in 2001, I fell in love with football once more. It does help having an international class football stadium 20 minutes from your house, as well as a cousin-in-law who was determined that you would go and watch Ipswich Town with him. Thanks to Adrian (The cousin-in-law) myself and the girls have season tickets for ITFC, and I get highly agitated on a match day and I'm not at a match. (I missed a home match due to being in Tenerife, and spent the Saturday afternoon slowly drinking a very expensive pint of cider so I could watch Sky Sports News!).

Now I'm a die-hard Ipswich Town supporter. I goto every home match (Holidays permitting), try to get to some away matches, and more often than not are at the majority of reserve matches. I have an hatred of referees Andy D'Urso and Kevin Friend, as well as that city of Green and Yellow up the A140 (That is totally lost on my American friends, but it's not important). I enjoy evening matches, but hate the after-match effect where I'm lying in bed replaying the game in my head. I'm against the playing of music whenever we score, but still join in madly when it happens. I want to run out on the Portman Road pitch ...

Charlotte has joined me in the joy that is Ipswich Town, and has managed to get on 1st name terms with the majority of the 1st team squad! She makes cards gifts, and certificates for the players, as well as writing them letters (Having a friend who teaches Spanish is useful for writing to Pablo and Sito, our 2 Spanish players) and seems to understand what is going on 50% of the time on the pitch. The players are very nice to her also, as her collection of match-worn shirts (Currently 7!), signed shirts, balls, goalkeeper gloves, posters, and Christmas cards show. Charlotte acquired her latest match shirt last Wednesday after our match against Cardiff City. Alan Lee, who Charlotte was making hairbands for last season, gave her his black away shirt (He needed the home one for the next home match).

And she's run out on the pitch ...

George 1996 - 2008

Sad end to our holiday in Tenerife last week. We discovered after arriving home that George, our 11 year old golden retreiver died whilst we were away. He suffered from a twisted stomach 3 years ago (Where the stomach twists round and stops anything getting in or out), and only through an emergency operation at 1am in the morning did he survive. He had it again on Wednesday, but although the kennels rushed him to the vets who in turn operated on George immediately, he didn't make it.

Charlotte is devasted as she and George grew up together, but we've decided that we had 3 extra years out of George that we shouldn't have so can't be too sad he's gone. Bethany hasn't quite got the concept of death, though it didn't help that she's just learnt the Easter story at school as she's convinced George will rise again after 3 days ...

Jackson, our Lhasa Apso, is totally lost without George as he's never been separated from him before. He's taken to lying in George's spots around the house, and has no interest in anything ... I took him for a walk last night down the path that runs behind the train station car park. There was a lot of work down there last year, with pipes being laid, paths being dug up and put back down, and bits fenced off, and I have a permanment memorial to George because of it. One evening we got to where a stream runs under the path, and found it cordoned off with yellow warning tape as a new concrete had been laid ... Unfortunately George didn’t understand the concept of yellow warning tape, so plowed through the tape and into the wet concrete. George being George didn’t back out, no he turned full circle, utilising all 4 paws, before stepping out again (And taking out the tape he missed before ...) So now whenever I walk down there, I see George's work in all it's glory..

Oh, and Jackson wrote I T F C in the wet concrete at the same time... That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Mia and I got George before we got married, and I named him George after the character in 'Of Mice and Men' and would often quote the cartoon version I'd seen and tell Mia that "I'd love him, and pet him, and I will call him George".

He was fantastic with the girls, guarding their beds when they were babies, and letting them climb on him, pull his whiskers etc as they grew up. We're all going to miss him.