World Cup

I'm sitting here watching Australia vs Japan (I have a feeling it will turn out to be a cracking game) and not yet once posted on the World Cup. I tried on the opening night but blogger.com was being a tempremental shit and the weekend was just too busy.

England won their first match against Paraguay of course, although as usual it wasn't a great game (It never is with England) and I was thankful that we held on for the victory. Ok, so Paraguay never really threatened to score but then again, in the second half certainly, neither did England and that's a worry.

In the past 11 tournament matches England haven't scored in the second half (If my memory of what John 'Useless old cunt' Motson was babbling during the commentary is correct), which brings up dreadful memories of the dismal surrender to Brazil in 2002 when England didn't even have a shot on goal in the entire second half.

That can only be, well in my mind anyway, down to Eriksson and his woeful tactics - get an early lead and sit back, ever deeper, absorbing the onslaught - and his baffling subtitutions - Owen Hargreaves making his first appearance. If England carry on in that vein, then we won't last longr than the second round or Quarter Finals at best, when we run up against the stronger teams with the ability to break down stubborn defences.

We looked weak going forward too, with only a few long range Lampard and Gerrard shots (Which mostly ended up in Row Z) to accompany Beckhams flukey opener. Let's hope Owen was injured (Although only ever so slightly of course) as the alternative, substituted after 56 mins for Downing (Who looked pretty amateurish with his punt it past the defender and sprint as fast as you can style of play) for tactical reasons can only lead most England fans to despair.

Nevermind though, the boy Rooney looks like he might be making the return of the prodigal son to the England starting XI and it doesn't come a moment too soon after watching the match against Paraguay. Unless he re-breaks his foot in the first tackle of course.

The talk is that he could be back in time for Thursday's game against Trinidad & Tobago, who actually did us a favour by playing so brilliantly with 10 men against Sweden and holding out for a draw. While it was a fantastic display (And celebrated as if they had won the final itself by the players) it will hopefully play to our advantage when the two sides meet in a few days.

Playing with ten men is always pretty exhausting (Arf, sounds dirty!) and to recreate that performance again only days later is a big ask for the T & T players. They may reach the same heights against England but I doubt it and can see them losing. While most England supporters will be demanding a display that blows Trinidad & Tobago completely away as they did Jamaica in a friendly last week, the reality will probably be a 2-0 or 3-1 victory.

OOOOOHHHHHH and the Japanese almost opened the scoring with a shot that flashed just wide of the post. It's a good, open game so far with both teams looking to attack at every opportunity. Come on Japan!

FUCK!!! Just sorting out my links and the Japanese score! It's a bit controversial but looked good to me, seemed the Japanese player was buffeted into the Aussie keeper which allowed the ball to float over them all into the back of the net.

Waste weighing

This weeks waste stats are:

Recyclable material = 4 kg
Landfill waste = 8.1 kg
Compost = 1.5 kg

Plus a wheelie bin full of mowed grass.

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

Yes I know! World Environment Day! How it slipped my mind again this year i'll never know, but hopefully i'll still have time to walk down to the local independent retailer of Fairtrade goods and purchase a recycable 'Happy World Environment Day' card for all the local, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural kids.

Anyway, enough of the sub-standard attempts at humour, let's crack on with the point of this post. The Guardian ran an article today with some top tips for World Environment Day on how to save the planet from home, and the warm feeling of smugness that follows realising we already fulfill almost all of them spread across me as rapidly as the warm dampness of weak urine spreads across the crotch of the typical Guardianista whenever some rotten racist waves the St Georges Cross.

Thedacs already:

• Turn off the lights, as well as turning off plug sockets when we're out or asleep, including those used for mobile phone chargers
• Recycle and compost. We even pay £15 a year for a garden waste bin so it all gets taken somewhere cool and groovy.
• Use the car as little as possible or walk and cycle.
• Have an insulated home and, where the level of craftsmanship used to build this house has been substandard (Very common in MK I must add in my experiences), we take additional measures to insulate further. Bless you Sausage Dog draught excluder!
• Use rechargeable batteries

The only thing from the Guardians list that we're slacking in is the reuse of plastic bags. What a pain in the arse that will be, although I seem to remember a time long ago where shoppers had to pay for them anyway. Best get a Bag For Life from Tesco. We've got a coupon for one so let's recycle that fucker!

HBS...

...Didn't go to the meeting. Had to look after A all day and besides, I didn't want to go.
Without C here to give me strength I didn't feel able to attend a meeting called by HBS (For what purpose i'm obviously no closer to knowing) nor able to cope with being quizzed by two senior, senior management cunts i've never even met.
Maybe I bottled it but fuck it, those bastards pushed me down into a place I didn't like (Nor did I like the effect it has had on me) and i'm not really sure that i've entirely got over it. C will probably moan at me later for letting those still working there down, but I felt sick at the thought of going, sick at the thought of a long, lonely bus journey there, sick at the thought of sitting there when I no longer work for the fuckers.
Either way, I no longer have to worry about it.

HBS II

More developments regarding HBShite as a small article based upon the email I sent to a reporter appeared in the local press.

It wasn't a particuarly great article and only focused on one part of the story, although that's to be expected really, but the fact that HBS have 'stongly refuted' any claims regarding staff retention hasn't gone down too well with some of my former co-workers still toiling under the incompetence of HBS management.

So much so, that L has emailed me asking for details of how to contact the press anonymously so that they can lay into HBS, back up my claims regarding the company and basically add their fuel to the fire. I do so hope that L goes through with it, as the accusation will not only be more powerful coming on the back of mine, but also as it's coming from within.

Euston Manifesto Launch

It was the official launch of Euston Manifesto the other night, so it's an ideal opportunity to re-run this

Finally, a break from the new job.