Paul's Top 10 of 2006

Every direction you turn at this time of year, you end up confronted with someone's list of the top events/songs/movies/sports plays from the previous 12 months, so I figured, why buck the trend? I present, in no real order, my top 10 songs from the year that was.

1. My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the Black Parade
2. Muse - Starlight
3. Snow Patrol - Set the Fire to the Third Bar
4. AFI - Miss Murder
5. The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
6. Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco
7. City & Colour - Save Your Scissors
8. She Wants Revenge - Tear You Apart
9. The Zutons - Why Won't You Give Me Your Love?
10. Tool - The Pot

I'm sure there are lots of songs that I'm missing, but those are the ones from the top of my head, after a period of Steve-like introspection, maybe I'll think of more, but this is my list, and I'm sticking to it!

They Like to Do It

Congratulations to Darren & Kari on their engagement! I'm so happy for the two of you, I wish you all the best!

Christmas Starts Here

Long time no speak, I know, I'm terrible. To be honest, I haven't had that much time to just sit and wax lyrical about anything. Work has been ridiculous, working in excess of 48 hours in 4 days, and then 30 in 2 nearly did me in, but as I sit typing, loyal reader, I am sitting in the basement of my house in Campbellville. Granted, its 8:00 in the morning, I've been up for two hours, and went to bed last night at 9:00, but let's not get bogged down in the details.

To be perfectly honest, not too much has gone on since I last wrote. At work, I seem to have become the angel of death, I've lost 4 patients in 5 weeks, essentially doubling my body count from the previous two years. How bad is that? I should start wearing a hood and carrying a scythe as I make my rounds, so no one is surprised when they drop dead. I've got six more weeks on this placement when I go back from Christmas, and then I've only got one placement left before I am a fully qualified nurse, and that scares the shit out of me. I know how to clean up shit, and I know how to take people into the shower and wash them without getting soaked, but do I really know enough to, essentially, have people's lives in my hands? Would I want me to look after myself, probably not!

Sorry for the brief update, but my jet lagged brain is incapable of pithy monologue at this early hour. I just wanted you all to know that I'm alive, and that I'm really looking forward to seeing all of you.



Here's a picture of me and the lads off of my course on our Christmas Night Out. Good times.

Also, here's my top 5 songs of the last little while, just in case anyone cares, or is keeping track:

1. Snow Patrol - Set Fire to the Third Bar
2. My Chemical Romance - Famous Last Words
3. The View - Superstar Tradesman
4. The Fratellis - Chelsea Dagger
5. The Rifles - Peace & Quiet (Gavin, if you like British Indie, check out The Rifles, they're boss!)

Its Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas....

...or is it?

Its been Christmas in Liverpool since October 28th, that's when the Christmas decorations first appeared in shops, and the Christmas lights went up in the mall. But I just can't quite get into the festive spirit...something's missing....something I can't quite put my finger on.




Ahhhh...much better, Merry Christmas everyone!

Peace Kids

xx

PS. RIP Canadian Tire Scrooge, even if you're not dead, your career is

Hard to Swallow

Ever watch a movie that just made you uncomfortable while you were watching it? One that made you squirm in your seat, cross your legs, and watch from behind your hands? I saw such a film this evening, Hard Candy. As uncomfortable and claustrophobic as the movie was, it was actually really good. I don't want to give much away, as it will probably ruin it, but I want you to take the time to see it. The basic premise centers around a 14 year old girl that has an online relationship with a 32 year old man. A meeting, some anaesthetic drugs, a tazer, and a crazy safe hidden under some rocks later, its all resolved, sort of. Oh, and that Chinese one out of Grey's Anatomy is in it, briefly. Fun for the whole family. Seriously, watch this film, squirm, thank me later.

Peace kids.

xx

The Revolution Will Be Televised

Today, I took my first step as part of the YouTube revolution. I posted a video that I made on my phone from the My Chemical Romance show I went to on Monday (review to follow) -- the quality isn't great, but I felt a sense of accomplishment, I'm a child of the revolution!




Peace Out kids.

xx

Picture page, Its Picture Page

Just a quickie, my mate sent me a picture of me, and I thought I should share. This is from our day in university this week, the day we don't go to hospital, but to tutorials and stuff. My friends and I went to lunch at a bar in town, where, apparently, I fell asleep -- I don't really remember, but here's photographic proof.



On the plus side, I didn't wake up with one eyebrow, or a massive cock on my forehead, but on the downside, who falls asleep in public during lunch? Must be my rock and roll lifestyle, finally catching up with me.
Roll on December 13th!

Peace kids,

xx

What The Hell Am I Doing?

I'm back in the hospital, 13 weeks on a ward, doing real nurse work. Unfortunately, the universe, fate, and God have all conspired against me. My 13 week placement is on a colo-rectal surgery ward. That's right, 3 months of staring at bowels, and what comes out of them! I've been on for two days, so far, and in total, I've given two enemas, five different sets of suppositories, changed three colostomy bags, admitted five patients, filled out a mountain of pre-op paperwork, and handled one dead body. What have you guys done this week?


Its got to get easier, right?

Peace out kids,

xx

Take Me Out

Long time since I last updated, lots of stuff has gone on. Everyone knows about my birthday shame -- too many cocktails, some terrible dancing, getting asked to leave a bar, and then puking all over my carpet -- the less said about that the better.

Anyway, being in a predominantly female course at uni has caused the heterosexual males to bond together. The four of us have become inseperable around the university, and it was only a matter of time before we went out for a proper boy's night out. So last night, we got together, put on our finery and set off for a night on the town. The original plan was to head to the student union for 'Friday Steak Night' - I say original plan because by the time we got there, the bastards had run out of steak! What the hell is that? Steak night without steak, only in England could this happen. Undeterred we soldiered down the street to a dodgy Chinese buffet and proceeded to gorge on Sweet & Sour Chicken, and Beef in Black Bean Sauce. It was nice, but entirely unsatisfying when I was expecting steak -- MSG just doesn't do what 8ozs of beef does (you heard it here first.)

From the unsatisfying Chinese we wandered to the poshest bar we could find, The London Carriage Works, scene of the now infamous absinthe bender. When we arrived, we did whatever you'd expect 4 entirely classless individuals would do when they go to a really nice bar. We ordered snifters of brandy and a cigar, and took photos of each other sloshing it around and puffing on the cigar. How manly is that? For the record, the brandy was supposed to taste like gingerbread and spicy vanilla. In actual fact, it tasted like burning. I thought I was going to die, my throat was on fire, I think next time, I'll ask for a snifter of coke instead.

Feeling totally out of our league, I paid the $85 bill (8 drinks and a cigar, scandalous), and we went to where we felt a little more at home, cheesey student bars!



I didn't really drink, so I managed to survive the night without getting booted out, laying on the floor, or puking on the carpet. 26 really isn't that bad afterall.

I'll have to try and update more frequently, but my life is dead boring, and who but Steve has the time to sit and wax poetic on sports, music, and politics?
I hope this finds everone well --
Peace Out kids,

xx

Yet Another Top Five

As I was wandering through the Virgin Megastore today, I was inspired. There, among the piles of DVD's on sale, was my childhood - Ghostbusters I and II were part of the mega-sale. Naturally, I bought them, and am currently sitting watching the climax of Ghostbusters. So, what better way to commemorate this rediscovery, than my top 5 childhood movies.

1. The Karate Kid. Wax on, Wax off. Loved it.
2. Ghostbusters. Doh-Ray-Egon!
3. Labyrinth. David Bowie in satin trousers + the bog of eternal stench
4. The Neverending Story. Ohhhh-oh-oh-ohhhh-oh-ohhhh
5. The Dark Crystal. There's something about Skeksies!

At one time I could recite every line of each one of these movies, but time has made everything a little fuzzy. I watched each of them so often that the VHS tapes were threadbare!
If I've missed any, or you want to share your own favourites, let me know. I love hearing about that stuff!

Reports from the front

I'm back in Liverpool and strangely enough the sun is shining. I got back on Saturday in time to see Liverpool suffer the worst derby day defeat in many years, which sort of conveys my mood really....resignation.
It was nice to be home, it gets harder to come back everytime, as the end of my training appears on the horizon, I just want to get it over with and get back. I've made some really great friends in Liverpool, and I'm sure I'll stay in touch with them, maybe even come back and visit, but I'm just done with living here, you know?

Ah well.

I had a blast at home, I didn't get to see as many people as I'd have liked, but I did get to go to see my nephew, Kieran, for the first time.



He was very sweet. A happy little baby, didn't cry that often, slept a lot, and gave really wet, gummy kisses! I managed to get him in a Liverpool kit before I left too, which he promptly vomited on (shut up Johns!).

Thanks to Bri, I also got to go to The Ex for the first time in like 7 years. The sports building was a little disappointing, I remember it being a shangri-la of hockey cards, memorobilia, and a Jimmy Key/Tom Henke video batting cage. This year is was all leather belts, and discount books...fashion and reading aren't exactly demonstration sports at the next Olympics, are they?



I saw the future home of Toronto FC, unfortunately, I saw it as it will be for every Toronto FC home game, empty.



More thanks to Bri who wangled VIP air show tickets for Steve, Steve's parents, and myself - it was dead good, very loud, but dead good!




Anyway, that's pretty much all I did on my Canadian adventure this time around. I'll be home again at Christmas, I hope that I get to see more people and will have more pictures to post.
12 more months and I'll be home, let the countdown begin!

Peace kids.
x

HLPS + HLPP

I did indeed go to Woodstock.



7 years is a long time to still be talking about football.

Better Late Than Never

Around the time of Rahul's wedding, I wanted to do a photo montage in his honour, one showing Rahul as we all know and love him. Unfortunately, I haven't seen him in 3 years or so, and I was seperated by my Retrospecticus by 3000 miles. Yesterday, however, I rifled through my old university stuff and found it. Rahul, buddy, this ones for you!

By Crikey

Just a note of sadness over the death of Steve "The Crocodile Hunter" Irwin. I've been a big fan of his for a number of years now, and am gutted to hear that he has died. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones -- the crazy bastard.

Sliding into Home

I'm back in the +5GMT time zone. Wahoo.
I arrived yesterday and am currently suffering from a whopping case of jet lag. I'd regale you with tales of my getting drunk twice in five days (you did read correctly), and my leaking plane across the Atlantic, but you know what? For every letter I type, three appear -- so I think that's a sign that nothing of substance, or interest can be written.
Tomorrow I need to write a 2,250 word paper on 'collaboration and professional issues in community nursing', and after that I'm free of responsibility for two whole weeks.
Who wants to see me and hear about my drunkeness and leaky plane?
Now if you can refuse that offer, you don't have a soul! ;)

Peace kids.
x

HB to my HLP

Happy Birthday Stephen Nathaniel Johns! Well done on successfully navigating another year!

A brief photo montage of Steve in action:









This montage would have been a thousand times better if I still had my Retrospecticus, but its MIA, so these will have to do. Happy Birthday big guy - I hope its a good one!

Congratulations Captain Portugal!

Many congratulations and my warmest wishes to Andre "Captain Portugal" Pires and Jen Reinhorn on their engagement. I wish the two of you all the best, and happiness for the future!

Why I Love the News...

Tommy Sheridan, the former leader of the Scottish Socialist party, is suing the News of the World for libel in a case that has included witnesses' tales of 'extra-marital affairs, cocaine-sniffing, sex romps and spanking.' On Monday, the trial reached its zenith when Tommy Sheridan, defending Tommy Sheridan, called upon Mrs Sheridan to speak in the defence of Tommy Sheridan.


'Asked if she believed the accusations that her husband had had affairs, been to swinging clubs or taken cocaine, she said "no". "There's no way I would be here. In fact neither would you. You would be drowned in the Clyde. I would be appearing in the high court for your murder,"' reports The Guardian.


'The court had previously heard from former SSP activist Katrine Trolle who claimed she had had sex with Mr Sheridan in the couple's home and that he had given her a glass of wine.


"Red wine?" Mrs Sheridan tutted. "You wouldn't know one end of a wine bottle to the next. You wouldn't know how to open it. You wouldn't even know where it was kept."


'Asked if she had read the News of the World stories, she said yes. She was surprised by a claim that her husband had ice cubes rolled around his body. "You're like a monkey, so anybody that was rolling an ice cube round your body would have had a hair ball in their throat," she said, before turning to the jury. " He's covered in hair from head to toe. He looks like a gorilla."'


On the day it was announced that a record one in four marriages now ends in divorce, how refreshing to be reminded that there are a few couples still enjoying the pleasures of marital bliss.

I Love Japanese TV!

Who can blame me...this rules!

The Bitch is Back

Well, I'm back. A brief hiatus, caused by an imploding network card - attempted replacement, utter failure, and a new computer later, I'm back! I laughed, I cried, it was better than Cats. Catch y'all on MSN!

Countdown Conumdrum

This wasn't staged, Countdown is a game show where nerds pit their wits against each other to make words from random assortments of letters. It had to happen sooner or later, just keep in mind, the contestants on this occasion are both priests. Ha!

World Cup-STRAVAGANZA!

I know that you've all been waiting with baited breath for the big post-World Cup trip update....I know that you've spent sleepless nights staring at the ceiling, or around the campfire (Gav) just waiting, willing, hoping that you'd log on to find that I'd updated. The wait is over, my friends...no more sleepless nights, tossing and turning in your bed, or tent, or gulag (or whatever you sleep in Gulley). Here it is, in all its majesty, the big update!

As you all may recall, I won the tickets on the toss of a coin from Scouse Andy, who needless to say, was gutted. To soften the blow, we gave him a little project -- we bought an England flag and had him write in huge letters the nicknames of our group of friends, that we could take to Germany and proudly display. So, even if he couldn't go, at least his flag could. He did it, and did a good job--


We promised that we would take pictures of the flag everywhere, doing everything with us -- so even if he wasn't there in body, he was there in spirit. In the picture we are each posing with our respective nicknames, and they're pretty self explanatory really.

After a horribly dull morning in university, Carl and I hopped a cab to Manchester airport where the fun really began. Having checked in and gone through the various security checks we were stopped by the police! We didn't even make it to the departure lounge! The police wanted to know if we were going to the match, and wanted their FIFA liason officer to come and talk to us -- thankfully he was busy, so they took our gate number and told us that he would come and find us later. After paying far too much for a pint of beer and coke, and playing an abortive round of Star Wars Episode I Pod Racer, we moseyed along to our gate. The rest of the passengers on the plane weren't exactly the rowdy football crowd we'd expected, it was full of German business men, in fact, Carl and I were the only English people on the flight. So for the FIFA police liason to come up and lecture us on behaviour, in full uniform, carrying a semi-automatic weapon, probably would have gone down like a lead balloon (or, Zeppelin, if you prefer.) Thankfully he must have been *really* busy, so he never got around to giving us the talk, and we managed to board our plane without any hassle.



Here I am, with the flag, on our teeny-tiny plane. The thing was literally a matchbox toy of a plane. It got tossed about pretty good by the surly Mancunian clouds, but, thankfully got us to Dusseldorf International in one piece. While we were in the air, Germany were playing Ecuador, one passenger smuggled a portable television on board and was giving everyone covert updates on the score. I'm not quite sure if he thought the whole thing through, infact, I'm quite sure that they say transmitters of any kind are banned from planes due to singal interference, but again, we made it, and Germany won 3-0, so everyone was happy.

After touching down in Dusseldorf, we wandered through the airport, not understanding any of the German signs, wearing England shirts, great scene, I assure you. After 10-15 minutes of wandering, a sign from the heavens - we ran into Steve Mcmanaman! England and Scouse Legend! He seemed in a bit of a hurry, so we didn't get the chance to get him to hold the flag - but there was mutual acknowledgement, which was good enough for us. We then somehow found the exit, and our way into a cab, well done us! Our cab driver spoke no English, ZERO English. We handed him our piece of paper, with the hotel address on it, and we were off, zooming down strange German roads, listening to an 80's compilation that included A-Ha, Depeche Mode, and some terrible German sythn-pop. The terrible soundtrack made careening down tiny city sidestreets, lined with ecstatic German fans, yelling and waving flags all the more surreal.
We arrived at our hotel and immediately felt out of place. The 4* Steinberger Plaza hotel was a bit swanky - and we were clearly the poorest people in there, staff included. Thankfully, the concierge spoke a little English, so we managed to get to our room. And what was the first thing I did when we got to our room.


That's right, put on the complimentary bathrobe and pose.
After much tomfoolery in the room, including noticing that on the brochure for the Pay Per View it breathlessly advertised "Hollywood Blockbusters on Channel 1" and "Erotic Adult Movies Channel 2, 3, 4, 5!" Only in Germany eh? We went out on to our balcony. Being contest winners, we didn't exactly have the best view. Our room overlooked a derelict building and a tree -


I chose to have my picture taken with the derelict building. I know my eyes are closed, its actually a recurring theme throughout the trip, nearly every picture taken of me, with my camera, my eyes are closed. Thankfully, Carl also took some of the same pictures, and thankfully, my eyes are open in those - so I didn't ruin two sets, as luck would have it, only my own!



We set off for the stadium at 5:30, and seeing as our combined knowledge of German geography was, shall we say, limited (read: non-existant) - it proved to be an interesting proposition. We were given basic directions by our mate the concierge (no tip!), and sent on our way -- we wandered the streets of Dusseldorf for a while until we came across a subway station, the subway train took us to the central station, where we jumped another train to Cologne (or, Koln). On the inter-city train we met some really nice Germans. Intoxicated on strong beer and Germany's victory, they chatted with us for the entire 40 minute ride, talking football, and even breaking into a rousing rendition of 'God Save the Queen.' We arrived at Koln's central station only to find that we had to take another train that took us to a tram station that took us to the stadium. Needless to say, we weren't best pleased. Thankfully the final tram we got on was FULL of England fans. A few more renditions of 'God Save The Queen', numerous chants of "I'd rather be a carrot than a Swede" and the full 11 verse version of "Ten German Bombers" got us to the stadium, and finally, the match.


Here's Koln stadium, it was quite nice and refurbished for the World Cup - they set up a huge perimeter fence, allowing no one without a ticket within 500 yards of the ground. We were frisked by some overzealous security, perhaps they'd had the call from Manchester that we'd snuck through without the lecture, and we were in. On our trek to the stadium, we took the opportunity to take some pictures of the flag outside the stadium. While this was happening, we were set upon by some Swedes. They wanted to be involved in our pictures, and strangely enough, wanted to take pictures of us with them, laying on the floor in sort of a cheesey male model pose, while humming "You'll Never Walk Alone." We declined on one of three counts, the laying on the ground and posing we could handle, but the humming, that was just too gay.


Anyway, here I am with my Swedish mate -- he had family in Canada, I feigned interest - I just wanted to get into the ground!

Being a small stadium, Koln didn't really have any bad seats, but ours were quite far back. We climbed flight after flight of stairs to get to our section, and then had to climb even more to get to our row. It was 25 degrees and muggy that day, so we were soaked by the time we got up there, after a much needed drink to revive and lubricate the vocal chords, we were up and ready for the match.



We were sitting in about four rows of English fans behind a mass of Swedish fans - they were generally good natured, and there was a bit of banter back and forth, which was really good.
The stadium was awash with colour, huge patches of yellow Swedish fans, with Red and White for England in other sections.









To be honest, I don't remember much about the game itself. Its like a really amazing concert -- you remember snapshots, but unless you're Steve you can't remember every kick and nuance. I remember the teams coming out and belting out the national anthem at the beginning, I remember Joe Cole's scorching volley, I remember Steve Gerrard heading England ahead right at the end, and the pandemonium that ensued in the stands. We went mental, thinking we'd won it, rubbing the Swedes noses right in it, only for them to come back and equalise right at the death.
The whole experience was everything I'd hoped for. The atmosphere was fantastic, the opposition's fans were brilliant, I lost my voice singing and screaming, Steven Gerrard scored! England didn't win, but at least they didn't lose, and at least now I can say that I was there, if England win the world cup, I can tell my children, and I will probably tell your children about my mad 16 hours in Germany.

Italian Soccer Practice

For all of you hard done by Aussies (I'm looking at you Gusen) -- I've uncovered some top secret footage of Italian training sessions....is it any wonder they won?

EN-GER-LAND!

Something happened the other day, something big, huge, MONUMENTAL even. I meant to post about it, but I was a little wary about it, now everything is sorted, so here goes.

Thursday afternoon is usually my study day in university. This means that instead of going in to placement, I go to university and have a day chock full of lecturey goodness. Last Thursday was like every other - seriously boring lectures on public health, and then Neurological disorders (MS and Parkinsonism, if you're interested)- my mate Carl was sitting reading his Playstation magazine, and stifling yawns - when his phone went off. He didn't recognize the London phone number that appeared on his call display, so being in class he sent it straight to voice mail. Usually those numbers are sales calls, they don't leave a message, just try to call you again when you'll actually pick up. This time, the little voice mail message icon blinked - very strange indeed. After lecture we were heading to a bar to watch the World Cup games (England vs. T&T included!) and Carl decided to check his voice mail. His face went pale, his jaw dropped -- "Somebody else has to listen to this, I think its a wind up" he said -- Scouse Andy grabbed the phone, while I waited to hear what the hell was going on. Scouse Andy had a similar reaction, gesticulating wildly and saying "Call her back, call her back." Entirely confused, I asked what was going on. The lady on the other end of the phone message was Georgia from Sony-BMG. She was congratulating Carl on winning the contest he entered for two tickets to the World Cup game between Sweden and England, and she needed to know his and his guests passport details so that she could send them off to FIFA! What do you say to that?
Now, Carl has three kids, his little lad Leighton is mad about football, so I assumed that he would be going, no problem -- get excited for Carl, ask for a programme, but don't expect anything. He was in a state of shock, but managed to call his girlfriend at home to give her the good news. After he sat down and had a drink to calm her nerves, he called Georgia back and found out the extent of his prize. He had won two tickets to the match, flights, transfers, overnight accomodation at a 4* B&B, travel insurance, and the coup de grace, copies of Il Divo's cd "Voices of the World Cup." He then dropped the bombshell, he told us that he thought Leighton was too small to take to Germany, and that Scouse Andy and I had to sort it out between ourselves, because there was no way he could choose. Andy and I quickly decided that the fairest way to decide would be to flip a coin -- a coin was produced and flipped, I called heads...the coin landed on heads, I'm going!
That's right, I, your humble narrator, am flying off to Cologne in Germany for the England vs. Sweden World Cup match! The tickets arrived this morning at Carl's house, so its all real now! Sony are dealing with our flights, and on Tuesday we just need to show up at Manchester airport!

I will be taking all kinds of pictures, so expect a massive photo update when I get back. I'm on cloud nine! If you go back to one of the massive surveys I did, it says that one of my lifelong dreams was to see England play in the World Cup, and now I'm doing it - for free!
Now all I can hope for is a result - COME ON ENGLAND!

Smart Kid!

The indoctrination continues.

Directive of the Day

"Switch off lights, water heaters and fridges, prepare dinner before the match and do not think about using an electric kettle to make a cup of tea" - Uganda's energy ministry prepares for the World Cup.


Just for you Ange -- I hope your following this, I'll turn you in to the authorities if you're not ;)

Have Some of That....

Video evidence of why Zaire have only ever taken part in one World Cup.

Out of the Mouths of Babes.....

Feeling a little left out, Lori has made her own World Cup predictions, and I promised that I would post them - so here goes:

Group Stages:
Group A: Germany, Poland
Group B: England, Sweden
Group C: Argentina, Netherlands
Group D: Mexico, Portugal
Group E: Italy, Czech Republic
Group F: Brazil, Croatia
Group G: France, Switzerland
Group H: Spain, Tunisia

Round of 16:
Germany over Sweden
Argentina over Portugal
Italy over Croatia
France over Tunisia
England over Poland
Mexico over Netherlands
Brazil over Czech Republic
Spain over Switzerland

Quarter Finals:
Argentina over Germany
Italy over France
England over Mexico
Brazil over Spain

Semi-Finals:
Argentina over Italy (I'm as surprised as you are)
Brazil over England

Third Place Playoff:
Italy over England (No surprise here, then)

Final:
Brazil over Argentina

Three Lions on the Shirt, Jules Rimet Still Gleaming

There's only one more sleep until the greatest sports competition in the world kicks off--Germany, Europe, and the World are all bracing for the World Cup Finals. Having read Steve's predictions, I thought that I would take a stab at this whole prognosticating thing -- I don't pretend to possess any knowledge, I mean, if everyone knew what was going to happen, what point would there be to playing the games? All I can promise is that all of my predictions are backed up by the loosest of logic and often, random guesses -- and rampant nationalistic pride.
So, without furthur adieu.....Paul's Predictions 2006:

Group Stage:
Group A: Germany and Poland
Group B: England and Paraguay
Group C: Argentina and Netherlands
Group D: Portugal and Mexico
Group E: Italy and Czech Republic
Group F: Brazil and Australia
Group G: France and Switzerland
Group H: Spain and Ukraine

Round of 16:
Paraguay over Germany
Argentina over Mexico
Italy over Australia
France over Ukraine
England over Poland
Portugal over Netherlands
Brazil over Czech Republic
Spain over Switzerland


Quarter Finals:
Argentina over Paraguay
Italy over France
England over Portugal
Brazil over Spain

Semi Finals:
Argentina over Italy
England over Brazil

Third Place Playoff:
Brazil over Italy

FINAL:
England over Argentina




World Cup 2006 Champions: England
Runners Up: Argentina
Third Place: Brazil
Fourth Place: Italy
Golden Boot Winner: Ronaldo (he may be fat, but he knows where the net is, and with the piss easy group they've been drawn into, and the players behind him, he could score three goals a game)

The Crouch-bot

Just doing my bit to support the team. Here's hoping that we see this celebration many, many times during the World Cup Finals! COME ON ENGLAND!

That'll Teach Her....

Taken from WSBTV Atlanta:

Woman Hit By Lightning While Praying

POSTED: 2:52 pm EDT May 30, 2006

DAPHNE, Ala. -- Worried about the safety of her family during a stormy Memorial Day trip to the beach, Clara Jean Brown stood in her kitchen and prayed for their safe return as a strong thunderstorm rumbled through Baldwin County, Alabama.

But while she prayed, lightning suddenly exploded, blowing through the linoleum and leaving a blackened area on the concrete. Brown wound up on the floor, dazed and disoriented by the blast but otherwise uninjured.

She said 'Amen' and the room was engulfed in a huge ball of fire. The 65-year-old Brown said she is blessed to be alive.

Firefighters said its likely she was hit by a bolt of lightning that apparently struck outside and traveled into the house yesterday afternoon. She was found lying on the floor by her 14-year-old granddaughter.

Fire officials think the lightning likely struck across the street from the couple's home and traveled into the house through a water line. The lightning continued into the couple's backyard and ripped open a small trench.

A family member said he will no longer assume it is safe to be indoors during a lightning strike.

Revenge is a Dish Best Served With Red Wine (Or is it White?)

Let's say that you're in the market for a new laptop. You decide the easiest way to get one is through ebay. You win an auction, pay the seller and wait for it to arrive. And wait. And wait. And wait. Eventually it arrives, and not only is it not the laptop you won, its also broken! What would you do? Well, in this case, take out the working hard drive, find many many incriminating files, and post them in a public forum, demanding an apology. Wicked.

http://www.amirtofangsazan.blogspot.com/

Future England Striker

Just a quick update - Kieran is starting to fill out and gain some weight! He now fits into a lot of the clothes that Lori and I bought him, and here he is in his little England shirt. You can see that he is practicing his goal celebration, waving to the crowd. I'll have this kid playing for England, mark my words ;)

Allow me to present the most unfortunate looking group in the history of music.




Perhaps Al Davis was insecure and chose to perform with the Christian Crusaders in order to get chicks. We'll never know, but for the love of God, why did they put the heavy set guy in the super tight pants in the foreground? Surely the crouching glasses wearing chap in the back would have been a better option. You know your band is hurting when you're using Augustus Gloop as your sex appeal.
You just know that each and every person featured in that picture used their royalty cheques to buy an oak kneeler for their home!

This post was brought to you by:
A Perfect Circle - The Outsider
Placebo - My Sweet Prince

Blessed are the Rich, For They Shall Spend Their Money on Useless Tat

Seriously, is anyone this pious?




Does anybody really need Catholicshopper.com to send them out an oak kneeler for the home?

According to the site: "What better way to pray at home than with your own padded kneeler! Every Catholic home needs a kneeler"

I'm sold, how many shall I put you down for?

Uncle Paul?

The baby finally arrived! He's home now, and doing really well - drinking a lot, sleeping a lot, poo-ing a lot. Here's a few pictures of him, I'll post more when he grows a bit and can wear the Liverpool clothes, or England soccer kit that I bought him (he's just a diddy little thing)!









This post was brought to you by the sound of Lori studying.

The Long and Winding Road...

As most people know, I was lucky enough to go home on Good Friday to spend a week at home. It didn't get off to the best start - my alarm not waking me up caused me to rush to the train station, forgetting both my iPod and extra PSP battery, to catch my train. Once I made it to the airport, things ran according to plan - the lack of music to accompany the situation smarted, and the terrible in flight movies rankled - but other than that it was an uneventful trip. Once I arrived on Canadian soil, I was hurried into the van and promptly driven down to Ohio to visit my heavily pregnant sister. We spent the Easter long weekend wandering around malls, and timing my sister's contractions. Nothing much happened, she's still pregnant now -- I've decided that she isn't actually ever going to give birth, and if she does, it'll be a 39 year old accountant in a gray suit. Needless to say that the 90 minute train journey, plus the 7.5 hour flight, plus the 5 hour drive wrecked me. At one point, I was speaking in tongues - I hate jet lag.
Once I got back to Campbellville I set about my plans for the week - which included the requisite meet up in Toronto:


Amazingly, my trip coincided with Darren being home from med school. It had been over a year since I saw him, and it was nice to get together and speak about hospital stuff. As is tradition, every time I go home, we went for a walk around the Hockey Hall of Fame, where Steve made the best French commentary to a classic piece of NHL archive footage that I have ever heard.


The Jays were playing the Yankees, so after Steve's stellar negotiations with a scalper, we wandered down to Skydome (fuck you Ted!), found Jeff and took in the game. The specifics of the game were unimportant, however, two points should be noted. One, the girl sitting next to us with her dude boyfriend was pretty hot. Two, there were two guys sitting behind me, one of which screamed "SAFE!" everytime a Blue Jay got out, right in my ear, he's lucky that I wasn't a proper football hooligan, and turned around and chinned him, I was half deaf by the end.


After meeting up with Jamie and Sherm at the bar, and a mad dash to my train, I spent the rest of the week with Lori and her family. I went to Credit Valley hospital on the Thursday to see him get his chemotherapy. Having worked on a ward that did a lot of chemotherapy, it was really interesting to see the different procedures and equipment that they use over there. Lori's dad really looked well, considering the circumstances - so well in fact - that if you didn't know it, you'd think he wasn't sick. That really helped Lori, and will make it easier for her to come back here.

So, there it is, what I did on my holidays. My next planned trip is hopefully August, I could use a bit of stifling heat and humidity! I hope to see everyone then, unless y'all want to come visit me here, which you're all welcome - just ask Steve - I'll take you out and get you wankered and everything!


This blog entry was brought to you by:
Tool - The Pot
Arctic Monkeys - Cigarette Smoker Fiona
Metric - Glass Ceiling

Music Makes the People, Come Together.........Yeah

Who am I to ignore a trend? Apart from all of high school when I wore nothing but tight black jeans, and full-print, trying too hard, metal t-shirts. So, to put high school angry Paul behind me - here's my take on the survey first seen on Bri's blog and taken up by a few others.

One Song I Hate to Admit That I Like:
Kanye West - Jesus Walks

Two Songs That Always Make Me Cry:
1. Nina Gordon - Tonight and the Rest of my Life
2. Oasis - Don't Go Away (this isn't technically true, as a song as never brought me to tears, but I connect these with incredibley emotional times, which will have to do)

Three Songs I Would Dance To At My Wedding:
1. Nina Gordon - Tonight and the Rest of My Life
2. Ella Fitzgerald - At Last
3. Frank Sinatra - Cheek to Cheek


Ten Songs I Can't Live Without:
1. Marilyn Manson - Dried Up, Tied Up, & Dead to the World
2. Rage Against the Machine - Bulls on Parade
3. Nine Inch Nails - Hurt
4. Oasis - Supersonic
5. Portishead - Sour Times
6. Death From Above 1979 - Romantic Rights
7. My Chemical Romance - Give 'Em Hell Kid
8. Tool - Aenima
9. Kasabian - Club Foot
10. Massive Attack - Angel

Happy Birthday Mr. Gulley!

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday Dear Gulley!
Happy Birthday to You!

Vsechno nejlepsi k Tvym narozeninam!

That Night in May.....

A friend of mine, Scouse Andy, recently acquired a number of photographs taken by a professional pitch side photographer from the Champions League Final from Istanbul. I've had them all scanned on to a cd, and I thought I'd share some of them with you all - I think they're great pictures, but then, I'm a bit biased. If you, or anyone you know might want some (there are 137 in total,) drop me a line and I'll see if I can sort them out!




Rafa Benitez playing keepy-uppies after training on the pitch inside the Attaturk stadium. Apparently he often does this after all of the players have gone off to the changing room, and from all reports is pretty good at it.




The Liverpool and Milan players entering the field of play, none has any idea what is about to transpire over the next 2+ hours, and I doubt they'd believe you if you told them!




The Kop travelled to Istanbul en masse. This is just an impressive picture, regardless of the team. The stadium was Liverpool on 3-sides, and if I wasn't so poor, I'd have been there!




The much-maligned Vladimir Smicer wheels away after scoring the second goal in "the comeback" - this was the exact moment where Liverpool fans everywhere began to believe.




Didi Hamman scores the first Liverpool penalty during the shootout, and from this angle, it looks as if he only just managed it!




The bus passes in front of Anfield on its lap of honour around the city. This is a great picture, and reminds me of the day I spent in the Liverpool sunshine, up a lamp post.

Sorry for all of the football related posts recently, I know that only Steve appreciates them, and seeing as they're about Liverpool, even he doesn't care that much! I assure you that normal service will resume soon, and that means not updating at all ;)

This entry was brought to you by:
Portishead - Glory Box
Oasis - Songbird
The Distillers - For Tonight You're Only Here to Know
Billy Talent - Standing in the Rain

Are you Red or Blue?

Tomorrow is one of the most exciting weekends on the Liverpool city calendar. It happens but twice a year, and is met with expectation and excitement by all. It's Derby Day! For those who don't know Liverpool has two football teams, Liverpool and Everton - and twice a year they play. Liverpool are by far the more successful of the two, but Everton have just as big a fan base. Tomorrow, everybody will care about football!

This afternoon I found myself at Anfield again - a friend from class had her brother over from Belfast, and as he was a massive Liverpool fan, we took him down to the ground and around the museum, as the tour was once again, sold out.
Anfield still excites me, which I suppose is a good thing, seeing as its the reason I moved here. We went around the museum, and I saw the cup, the REAL cup for the first time since it went past me on a bus, while I was clinging to a lamp post and craning for a view.



Here I am, outside the club shop at the Kop end of the ground with a statue of Bill Shankly, the most influential manager in Liverpool's history.



There it is, *THE CUP!* Looking at it closely there are lots of finger and lip prints, left over from the celebrations. Standing this close, you just want to smash the glass and hoist it over your head!



Words of Scouse wisdom....at least you can understand them written down, if a Scouser actually said it, you'd have no clue!



The Shankly gates, with the motto of Liverpool football club - call me a loser, but they give me chills.


This entry was brought to you by:
Damien Rice - The Blowers Daughter
Deftones - Elite
Arctic Monkeys - Dancing Shoes