Fabulous Fall Blog Challenge: Day 1

FALL TRADITIONS

The first - and the most obvious is that the leaves come off the trees - we are blessed with several large decidious trees are our garden!

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The constant battle is to keep the lawn and pathways clear!

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Then there is Hallow'een. It is getting more and more and more popular in the UK - by my favourite bit by far is the Jack'o'lantern carving.

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A traditional London event in the late Autumn is the Lord Mayor's Show. The Lord Mayor isn't the elected head of the London governing authority - but rather the figure head of the 'Square Mile' the oldest and most historic part of London - think Dick Whittington and you're getting there!

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And now (for the 5th year) so it is a new tradition - NFL comes to Wembley. Being English both the Better-Half and I reserve the right to support several teams - and we've both been lucky enough to see a team of ours play; my Giants and his 49'ers.

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Just to cheer things up the clocks go back. I love waking up in daylight and long summer evenings - I hate Autumn/Winter when it's dark the whole time you're up and about.

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And back to sport again... it wouldn't be that time of year without the Fall Classic. Always a tense time in our house split in the AL East between Red Sox and Yankees; but we'll watch whoever is playing!

Although preferably without the feline profile included (Casper is a very sports orientated cat!).

Uploaded by nat_mach on August 13, 2011 © All rights reserved

First Sunday

As Douglas Adam's wrote in Life, the Universe and Everything (the third book in the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy series): 

 

"In the end, it was the Sunday afternoons he couldn't cope with, and that terrible listlessness that starts to set in about 2:55, when you know you’ve taken all the baths that you can usefully take that day, that however hard you stare at any given paragraph in the newspaper you will never actually read it, or use the revolutionary new pruning technique it describes, and that as you stare at the clock the hands will move relentlessly on to four o’clock, and you will enter the long dark teatime of the soul."

That is a common problem often enough in this house. Not this week though. My day started excellently watching the Gators win in the Outback Bowl.

Why does someone for London support the Florida Gators? Well that is illustrated by the photo on the left. Back in the day there was a college football game on NASN and one team was the Gators and I took to their bold blue and orange and the Gator on the helmets. Never looked back... helped by mighty quarter-backs Chris Leak and Tim Tebow and legendary coach Urban Meyer.

After that Rich settled down to the New Year's Day Old Firm Derby. He was happy as Celtic triumphed over Rangers.

At this point I decided that the thing I really ought to do was go through a stack of magazines that had been stacking up since June. That accompanied by the gentle strains of Handel's Water Music and two sleeping kittens proved a very peaceful way to finish the afternoon.

I'm now sitting watching the final week of the regular NFL season. Happily there is still the post season and the Superbowl to go... before that unfortunate gap until the baseball season starts again!

All about Sunday

Another Sunday full of sport. This afternoon was the first ever F1 night race in Singapore. Eagerly anticipated and hugely hyped. Also from the point of view of night-time, very anti-climatic. Apart from the reflections on the body of the cars and shots which showed the night sky you really couldn't tell it was night-time. It was actually rather like a cloudy day.

The race itself was pretty good. A horrible crash by Renault's Piquet (amazingly he wasn't hurt) brought out the first safety car of the afternoon. A happy few drivers had been brought in for pitstops as soon as the crash happened in anticipation of the safety car (Alonso included). An unfortunate couple didn't and then had to stop under the safety car but before the pit lane opened as they were running out of fuel. Oops, that's a rule infraction. Best of all was another Ferrari FUBAR with their ridiculous automated car-release system. Yep, again. Massa was signaled to drive off with the fuel rig still attached to his car, almost into the path of Sutil, whose quick reactions avoided an accident. Realising the fuel rig was trailing from his car Massa stopped at the end of the pit lane whilst the Ferrari crew had to run down and fix it. Dumped him right at the back of the pack.

Worse to come though... Massa (and Ferrari) are given a drive through penalty for unsafe release in the pit lane. He isn't the only one though. Both Kubica and Rosberg are given stop-go penalties (like a drive through, but worse as you have to stop in your pit box for ten seconds). This is for pitting under the safety car before the lane opened. This is where it gets ridiculous. These infactions happened around lap 16/17. The safety car came in on lap 19. The stewards started investigating the incidents on lap 23 (a lap after they looked into Massa even though his incident was after these!). In the intervening four laps since the safety car came in Rosberg, leading the race, has had the chance to build up a nice big lead, so the stop-go doesn't even really hurt him that much! Ridiculous.

There is still to be another safety car in this race... after that though it all calms down a bit - apart from the delightful moment when Kimi put his Ferrari in the wall. I like Kimi but I hate Ferrari, so that amused me. Alonso wins the race, but Lewis takes third, to increase his lead in the Championship again. Ferrari manage a total of no points, oh dear.

All in all I'm not a huge fan of this new track. Not enough chances for overtaking, the walls are a bit tight leading to otherwise avoidable accidents... there really are too many road races now, what with this and Valencia added to Monaco. There should only be one, the original and the best... Monaco.

Currently I'm sitting watching the NFL - which is what we do in this house on Sundays during the season from six o'clock onwards. My Giants have a bye week this week, but my Jaguars have managed a win and it looks like the Jets will too. Triumphant!

Baseball is practically in the post-season now. Unfortunately despite my conviction that the Yankees would make an amazing come back to be the Wild Card team I was wrong and they didn't. Happily my second favourite team the Cubbies will be there, so maybe this is the year for them to break their curse!

Sports on Sunday

Having celebrated the excellent end to this afternoon's Grand Prix it turns out that I was somewhat previous in my celebrations. It isn't over until the Fat Lady Sings... or in the case of Forumla One until the official results are published. The stewards decided that Lewis gained an unfair advantage over Kimi in the 'off-track' passing incident (even though he gave the place back) and fined him 25 seconds... which dropped him down to third place. Mclaren will of course appeal this - but it all takes time.

I'm now enjoying the start of the NFL season. Having seen the Giants beat the Redskins in the first game (and thus make an excellent start as reigning Superbowl Champions!) I was eager to see how my other favourite teams were going to fare. The Jets were playing Miami... the Jets with their new quaterback Brett Favre and Miami with their new quarterback Chad Pennington (who used to play for the Jets!). Happily the Jets won (although it got a bit hairy at the end). The Jaguars dissapointingly managed to lose to Tennessee... two out of three isn't bad, I suppose. Everyone in this house is now cheering on Cleveland as they take on Dallas. Sundays as they should be - lots and lots of football.

The Yankees are playing Seattle at the moment... and winning in the second inning. Although they are still way back in the AL East I refuse to accept that they won't be making the post season until I see the letter 'E' in the elimination column. No matter how unlikely I keep the faith until it is mathematically impossible!

It's all about the numbers

Apart from the fact that I genuinely enjoy watching a lot of different sports there is one other thing that I really like about sports. The numbers. I adore that there are statistics for everything. I keep spreadsheets to monitor the statistics, even the ones that don't mean anything.

It all started ten years ago when I first started watching football and following Charlton Athletic. I made myself a spreadsheet to keep track of the scores through the season. It was a fairly straightforward fixture list with a few complicated "if" formulas and some formatting. Still going strong, now in it's tenth year it provides an interesting side-by-side comparison of Charlton's fortunes.

The next sport to be tracked was F1. Again, fairly straightforward to track grid positions, finishing positions, points accrued... and also effectiveness (how many retirements, accidents, etc.). I have to have one of these for every season as the whole thing gets pretty huge after a while.

The masters of sporting statistics, however, are the American sports. Baseball and NFL. Nothing like these for actual statistics and some more meaningless numbers.

My first baseball spreadsheet was designed to keep track of the American League East (as Rich supports the Red Sox and me the Yankees this seemed logical). It has 162 rows which have to filled in upon the completion of each round of games for the teams in that division. The front page then calculates the current standings. Yes, I realise that I can get this just as easily from CBS, ESPN or a number of other places - but lets face it, they don't always get it right first time!

Just as interesting is my master sheet which tracks the whole of MLB. Games won and lost home and road for every team. This of course gives you winning percentages. Runs scored and runs against - which gives you the difference between the two. A real time assessment of who's hot and who's not! Slightly stranger are my especial favourites - the 'expected win/loss' and the 'elmination number' (also known as the magic number). The expected win/loss uses a rather complex formula to calculate on the basis of runs scored and conceded what a team's win/loss record should be (almost never what it is!). The elimination number gives the combination of wins and losses which eliminates a team from winning the division (or making the wild card race) and conversely gives the 'magic number' for the leading team to win clinch the title.

Sadly the baseball season is into the downhill stretch now with only a month or so before the post season (which isn't looking good for the Yankees right now). No matter though, as this brings me to my favourite statistical sport of them all. NFL.

I love NFL because there are fewer games. The statistics are easier to keep on top of - I can really appreciate the numbers over the course of the season. At a simple level it is a question of winning and losing. For more complex calculations the game stats can be brought into play (rushing yards, passing yards, etc. etc.).

So, I'm off to pick my fantasy NFL team. See you in the end zone!

Sports Sunday and other weekend things

Last night I had dinner at 'Mogul' in Greenwich (the occasion was my friend's Hen Night). Absolutely charming restaurant. Very small (so you'd probably want to book a table) but the food and service were absolutely fantastic.

The Saturday Night movie this week was 'War Games - the Dead Code'. Here's the thing. I'm a HUGE fan of the original 1983 film. I loved it as a kid, and now own a copy on DVD. I loved it to the extent that I changed our PC's 'C' prompt to read 'logon'. I wanted more than anything to be a computer genius. This was back before the internet, and before the widespread global dominance of home computers. Who doesn't remember the delightful synthesised voice of 'Joshua' asking "How about a nice game of chess?". So, I was intrigued that they decided to remake this in the modern day. I couldn't quite see how in the age of the internet and the mobile phone and everything else it was going to work. And, you know what. It didn't. Why can't Hollywood just leave classic 80s movies alone to grow old gracefully? This movie is truly awful. There is nothing at all to recommend it - less so when Stephen Falken and the WOPR made 'cameo' appearances. Sadly they couldn't (or wouldn't) get the same actor back - although I think the WOPR looked pretty good 25 years on! This movie had none of the urgency, none of the humour and none of the pathos of the original. I'm sad to say I give this movie no stars at all!

This afternoon we were treated to the the Grand Prix at Hungaoring. It seemed like it was going to be a foregone conclusion before the start, with Lewis on poll. Masa however took the lead before the first bend - at which point it seemed again that the result might be a foregone conclusion. Lewis suffered a blow out on the 40th lap which put him way back in the field, and gave him some work to do. There were a few other 'moments' but none as unfortunate as the complete failure of Masa's car three laps from the end of the race. Terrible thing to happen when he really deserved to win the race.

Final sporting event of the afternoon was the last game of the Angels at Yankee Stadium being shown on NASN. I missed the first few innings whilst I was in the bath, and I caught up with the game with the Yankees five runs down. After a few runs here and there, and a disasterous eight inning for the Angels (thank goodness I wasn't keeping a score card with pinch runners and going right round the order!) there were three seperate fielding errors in that inning. The Yankees finally won 9-14. Come-back kings!

All Star Game

So... tonight is the All Star Game. The annual collection of the greats (mostly) of baseball playing together. For the last few years the All Star Game 'counts' as whichever team wins the game gets home-field advantage for their League in the World Series. The American League usually wins the All Star Game (at least for the last few years)... not going so well tonight so far (AL are currently losing). It's about the only time that Rich and I can agree in baseball as we both want the AL to win.

This is the last season at Yankee Stadium... therefore the last All Star Game at Yankee Stadium. Before the game they had all the living Hall of Famers on the field along with the All Star Players. This was rather cool, they all lined up on the field behind the positions that they played at, and were then joined by the All Star Players.

We've been watching the coverage on Five (yep, there is a choice between them and NASN). Five win our viewing on account of they actually have proper coverage with presenters (no ad-breaks at all tonight so far). How could miss out the fun with Jonny and Josh (and David)... and the best bit of all, they wished me "Happy Birthday". Rich emailed them in and they read it out live on air... which means that my name was said in Yankee Stadium! How cool is that?! It's the little things...

We're currently enjoying the Seventh Inning Stretch... and Jonny, Josh and David talked through most of 'God Bless America' - not cool guys! I always enjoy the rendition of 'God Bless America'.

So, we'll settle down to enjoy the end of the game, and hope that the AL Team pull their finger out!

Deeply dissapointed

Last night's game was postponed due to the bad weather. Particularly disappointing for me as NASN are unlikely to be showing the make-up game (who knows, their schedule still seems to be wanting to show the game from yesterday that never happened twice more).

It's a tricky time of year for NASN and MLB. The hockey season hasn't finished and there is basketball all over the schedule. I'd probably be delighted if I followed either sport, but I don't, so I'm just annoyed that there isn't more room for baseball.

Baseball is back (almost)

Rich just reminded me that the Yankees were on NASN, last home opener at Yankee Stadium. So, I turned on the TV. Only to find, no Yankees. Apparently it is raining in New York. Typical!

Sunday, lazy Sunday

The whole going back to work experience has left me completely exhausted this weekend. So much so that I haven't left the house, and indeed yesterday spent quite a lot of the day in bed.

I did potter around in the afternoon, to the extent of playing the piano for a while. I murdered some Mozart and bashed up some Beethoven... it had been a while and my fingers were slow and generally a bit rusty.

Saturday night is movie night in our house. Last night we watched "We are Marshall". It tells the tale of a University whose entire football team and nearly entire coaching staff was killed in a plane crash and their subsequent struggle to rebuild the programme. It was a really good film, especially if you like football... but even if you don't. It stars the lovely Matthew McConaughey and the equally lovely Matthew Fox.

Watching a football movie reminded me of course how sad I am because the NFL season is over, although I am still enjoying the glory of the Giants winning the Superbowl. Football is one of my favourite sports to watch - it is one of the few sports I can enjoy as much when I don't really care who wins the game as when I do. Also, as there are (relatively) few games during the season it is really easy to keep up completely with what is going on.

The upside to Spring is that the baseball season is nearly upon us. I love watching baseball, but because there are so many games played all through the week it means that mostly they are on in the middle of the night during the week - getting up and going to work and baseball are usually mutually exclusive to me! However, the advent of the V+ Box and total absence of much to watch on regular TV means that I might even get to see a few more games this year.

Baseball and the World Series

On Sunday night the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. They swept the Colorado Rockies in four games. As a Yankees fan I was nominallly supporting the Rockies... although it must be said not terribly enthusiastically. It is somewhat of a tradition in our house... the Fall Classic. Every year we take holiday so that we can stay up all night and follow the games... although it has to be said, since the first year that I watched in 2000 the Yankees have not won the World Series, and I'm beginning to feel like their own 'curse'. The following year in 2001 the Yankees lost to the Diamondbacks (leading to my oft repeated statement when anyone mentioned Arizona "I spit on the Diamondbacks"). In 2002 the Yankees didn't make it to the World Series, and both Rich and I supported the Anaheim (as they were then) Angels... and the Angels won. In 2003 the Yankees lost to the Florida Marlins (squish the fish!) and that was the last time the Yankees made it to the World Series! In 2004 the Boston Red Sox finally broke the 'curse' and won the World Series for the first time since 1918. Rich is a Red Sox fan... so he was absolutely delighted! 2005 and 2006 were a bit of a bust as neither of us really had a team to support and we just nominally chose one of the two teams. I was quite pleased for Rich, therefore when the Red Sox won again this year... although, obviously, not as a Yankee fan!!!

There has been more than just the World Series going on in baseball though. After Joe Torre's departure as manager of the Yankees there was the search for a new manager. The choices came down to only a few... and the final choice is Joe Girardi. That isn't all for changes at the Yankees though. Alex Rodriguez (popularly known as A-Rod) with his massive contract had the option to opt out of his contract this year. Would he? Wouldn't he? He's been a pretty good addition to the Yankees line up (even though I never wanted to sign him at the time) but he's never been all popular in New York. In a coup of mis-guided publicity seeking he and his agent decided to announce his free agency during game 4 of the World Series. Not at all cool. Whether or not the search for even more money pays off for him has yet to be seen. The Yankees have stated that they will not have anything more to do with him. You need a lot of cash to take on A-Rod... and there aren't that many teams who will throw that sort of money around... so where will Alex land next year... I'm sure that will keep us entertained over the next few months. For amusement there are a couple of interesting articles from CBS here and here.

It doesn't stop there though. A-Rod is one of five Yankees to file for free agency - the most notable of the others being closer Mariano Rivera and catcher Jorge Posada... hopefully they will re-sign with the Yankees! First baseman Doug Mientkiewicz and pitcher Jose Vizcaino are the final two players who have already filed for free agency. It doesn't stop there though as there are a whole host of others also eligible: Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, Ron Villone, Bobby Abreu and Jose Molina. So - we could be seeing a lot of changes down at Yankee Stadium next year... and if it means that it is 27 (World Series Titles) in '08 then it can't be all bad, I suppose.

World Series is upon us...

Suddenly before we know where we are it's October... and the post season is upon us. I managed to stay awake for the whole of game 1 (it doesn't always happen). It helps when I keep the scorecard... which was pretty much a nightmare tonight with the Red Sox totally beating up the Rockies - 13 runs to the 1 scored by the Rockies. Not looking good for my adopted team this year.

Another one bites the dust!

Happy to say that is another week done with! It's all been quite busy. Was very happy to discover this afternoon that my client doesn't want the cost until Tuesday morning... which give the outstanding prices time to come back. Good stuff.

My boss just raced off to get to the airport... happy to report to us that the Jubilee Line wasn't reporting any delays. So, that means he has jinxed it for the rest of us!!!

I'm off too in a moment. Rich and I are going to Ikea to get a new bed. The bed we have now came from Ikea about 6 and a half years ago. It was the cheapest that could be got. It is now starting to show it's age... every time I get in or out of bed there are most alarming creaking noises! It's like sleeping on a 15th Century ship with all the creaking timber!

The strangeset thing. I laddered my tights this morning, so had to pop out to Boots at lunchtime to get some more. The cardboard insert which the tights wrap around in the packet had INSTRUCTIONS for putting on a pair of tights. What is the world coming to!

Looking forward to a fairly quiet weekend this weekend. No football to go to... as Charlton are playing away to Blackburn. I feel guilty for not going as over 6,000 people are... the club are laying on free/subsidised travel. They had better win, that is all I can say!

Talking about rubbish sport... the Yankees are languishing at the bottom of the AL East, after failing to score against Toronto last night. I always maintain that April doesn't matter, and it is where you are in October that counts... but it sill sucks that the table is upside down!

Theee Yankees Wiiin!

After 13 innings of play the Yankees win... Giambi homer in the top of the 13th! Way to go! No pitchers left now... but anyway!

It's outta here!

Top of the 13th homerun Giambi!!!

Bad Baseball

Uh-oh. 11th inning. Yankees are out of pichers. Mo is pitching a non-save... as there is nobody else. Go to get this game over, even if we lose!

Hurrah for Firefox

Eventually found the link for Game Day Audio - and of course Firefox knows the log-in. So... top of the 10th... bases loaded (they walked Abreu) and Alex is up to bat. And guess what... he's either villan or hero. Not the hero so much right now. Bases loaded and he pops out. Bah! Off to the bottom of the 10th... not sure my nerves can take it! And, uh-oh, Farnsworth is pitching. Off to get a coffee or tea to steady my nerves

Silly AM

Wow! It's been a long time since I've been on the Net at this time of night (morning)!!! Usually if I wake up in the middle of the night I turn over and go back to sleep... or maybe read a book until I fall asleep with my head in the pages!

Yesterday we went to a wedding (in Ipswich). It was a civil ceremony... can you believe the first time I've ever been to a wedding that wasn't in a church! Decided for me that I do want to get married in church... it just doesn't seem right not having the words of the service! But, I guess if you sang in a church choir (as I did) and went to several weddings a Saturday through the summer (as I did) that probably would be the case. It was a really nice day... it was Rich's friends getting married... but I get on well with all his mates, and it was really fun to catch up.

The downside was that it was a nearly two hour drive each way between London and Ipswich... so by the time we got home (about half seven) I was exhausted and had to go to bed. It's the only aspect of having MS that I don't seem to be able to get by, and doesn't seem to be helped by any medication - doing something really simple for more time than is normal REALLY wipes me out... usually it is travelling... especially if I'm driving! The problem is, unless I'm actually feeling unwell, I just can't sleep for more than around seven hours at a go anymore! So, having gone to bed at half eight last night I woke up again around three! And here we are, wandering the web in the small wee hours!

I had the day off work on Friday (and again on Monday). Long weekend for wedding recovery, and also leave to use up! I decided to go get my hair done on Friday. I've found more than a few grey hairs over the last few weeks, and got totally paranoid about it! I decided that grey would show less with blonde hair than brown, so my hair changed colour again!

The Yankees are still playing baseball, as we speak. Extra innings (again) - tied at three and just started into the top of the tenth. If I knew how it worked I'd listen to it on the radio - must pay more attention! Still - have got CBSs Game Centre which is something. It is quite confusing though, as whatever NASN are showing is still in the Eight inning!! Could be good. Jorge and Jeter are on base and Abreu is up to bat - c'mon! Throwing error by the A's - but who cares. As long as we don't lose and land bottom of the AL East! Enough from Abreu get Jorge home should be enough... but if Jeter gets home too that should win the game. Here's hoping!