14 weeks yesterday ...

Before I start I'd like to draw your attention to this blog post from a couple of weeks ago - just to say the woman walking down Old Broad Street this morning in ridiculously high heels, holding an umbrella and talking on her mobile, so meandering all over the pavement as she's unable to walk, talk, and hold at the same time - will be the first up against the wall ..

Anyway ...

Went to watch the football last night, taking Charlotte and the little brother of one of her mates (We took him before Christmas, when Charlotte's mate was in hospital and he was bored out of his skull in the play room - we've made him an Ipswich fan!). The ITFC manager has been getting a lot of flak from the local press, who have asked for him to be sacked or for him to resign. They've disregarded the fact that in January we took 11 out of 15 points, and in 23 games we've only lost 4 .. Needless to some of the 'fans' have jumped on the bandwagon and organsied a protest before the match yesterday - it failed spectaculary. The Jim Out's were drowned out by the Jim In's ... And as for their banners, I only hope they checked with their Mum's first before writing all over their bed sheets (And I didn't get them to pose for a photo, I nicked it from the local paper that stirred it all up in the first place)

As we were parked near the planned protest, the kids and I wandered towards the north stand where I could make out a reasonably large group of people. Then as I got closer I started to notice that I could actually hear individual voices during the chanting, it also became apparent that the "large group" was actually only onlookers, pointing and laughing. When I arrived at Sir Alf's statue (The advertised meeting point for the protest) the full extent of the "protest" became apparent... I was actually able to count them, there were 23 of them, there may have been 24, but I couldn't work out whether the kid on the end was protesting or not. The other thing I noticed was how happy they all appeared to be, smiling for the cameras, waving to friends and family. Seriously, 23 of them, who were then overshadowed by the arrival of a group of "Inners", they then rolled up their bedsheets and disappeared.Now, hopefully that will be the end of it.

Protests aside, I love night matches though, as the atmosphere is so much better under the floodlights - only problem is, I find it really hard to get to sleep after the match as I'm replaying aspects of the game through my head - Very, very tired this morning ...

But more importantly, I discovered at the weekend that as of 14 weeks yesterday, I'll be on holiday! My brother-in-law and his other half are getting married in Cyprus, and at the last count there was approximately 20 of us going out for the holiday/wedding. So with the thought that in 14 weeks time I'll be parading around a swimming pool, I'm going running tonight! I need to shift some weight, so have plotted out a nice run - Home to Manningtree, along the walls to Mistley, then down the Harwich Road, and down Cox's Hill to home - works out at around 4 miles. If I can make it to Manningtree tonight without passing out or throwing up, I'll be happy. Luckily, I have tomorrow off so can recover.