At the final whistle, I got up off the sofa, switched off the television and headed into my room depressed, dejected and glum. How could I spent the rest of my evening? While perhaps the option of burying myself in the garden (or at least under my duvet) was there, I choice to occupy my time with something else. Looking at my phone, I had some text messages. They could be from only a handful of people and as I expected they were from Chris, gleeful at the result, with the same phrase Barry Davies used when Southgrate missed that penalty in Euro ’96 – “Oh no…”. I just was not in the mood for abuse via SMS and preferred my colleague to either wait until Monday morning or use the virtual playing field of MSN. He decided on neither and sent a final text with the word, Unlucky. Sometimes you can accept defeat, the better team won at the end of the day. Two harsh defeats in four days, which perhaps we did not deserve. Football for now, can go on the back burner, well at least until June. How do you deal with defeat? I switch off and occupy myself with something else, something different. Avoid as much possible all forms of media, particularly news or sports websites and radio. Keeping the mind busy is important. Then just after 10.30pm, my friend rang me and I had not heard from them for some time and it was great to chat and for them to cheer me up.
It was only this morning, after cleaning my car, that I was finally coming to terms with being dumped out of the Cup. Yet, I still could not summon the courage to watch Jimmy Hill’s Supplement, Goals On Sunday, or even Match Of The Day (the repeat was being screened on BBC1, while I had my breakfast). As I drove back to my house from Green Street, I spotted a man wearing a Arsenal bobble hat. My Mum then wanted to go to ASDA shopping so we headed across and parked the car. As we made our way into the store, I noticed a silver Ford Puma with the number plate message showing Arsenal Football Club, then I looked more closely at the actually registration. It was X2 AFC. Yet another reminder, as we returned to the car. In the rear window of a black Peugeot 307 Station Wagon, was the scarf for West Ham United, our next opponents on Wednesday.
It has taken me nearly five months, but I finally uploaded my photos from Trax to a set on my FlickR page. There was little need to upload them at all, as most of them (and more) can be found over at Mighty Mouse’s gallery on his now abandoned blog. Talking of cars, Daniel from over in the Far East has only just discovered that along with football, I am also a big fan of beautiful fast cars. He asked me about the BMW Mini Movies and whether I had seen any of them. I had not, because to my knowledge they have yet to be released in the UK / European market. My friend kindly sent me the videos via You Send It and I downloaded the collection while at work. I finally transferred them home on Friday but have only seen the opening few minutes of one. I am hoping Daniel can give me the ordering of the episodes so I can watch them in sequence later this week. Hopefully I can upload them onto my XBox and then watch them on TV with full surround sound. To be honest, I am looking forward to it, particularly Clive Owen, who would have been my preferred choice for 007.
Music wise some good news, a-ha got to number 10 in the chart with their single Analogue. This was a fantastic position following a heavy few weeks of constant exposure in the media. There is also a record signing at HMV Oxford Street tomorrow. Over on Smash Hits it was a Boy bands Weekend, and they were screening back to back classic videos from all our favourites. I caught a few videos on the music channel (Let’s Dance by 5ive still do this day has me in stitches) although I would not class Hanson as a boy band (a colleague at work might have something to say about that!) This got me thinking that I should really update one of the first MP3 CDs I burnt back in day (2003 to exact and it was the third MP3 CD I burnt!) Pure Pop – The Boys Strike Back around 24th April 2003, but it actually is noted from the entry on Sunday 27th April 2003. There were 38 tracks on the original with artists as diverse as 3T to Westlife. In almost three years, boy bands have come and gone, with perhaps the most in and around the charts at the turn of the century. My latest track listing for the album has 76 tracks and I am sure I could squeeze some more in and hit the magic 100 figure. It is also a matter of opinion on what artist you class as a boy band or just gender free ‘band’. Personally I think I need to make sure I fully do the album justice and hold off until I am sure it is the definitive boy band collection. On another music related note, I really need to update my Audio page, it has been over four months since I last carried out a recount. My collection has improved steadily over that time, but I am constantly in the look out for fresh music and to achieve my aim of having every UK number one since the begginning of time. Well actually from 1952 when the UK singles chart was born.
Was over at Trig’s this afternoon, setting up his new Dell computer. Was a breeze in the end, setting up Windows XP Media Centre and a few pieces of software. Installing a printer and scanner and tuning in the TV card to pick up Sky from the lounge. It is over six months since I set finally built my PC. (Although perhaps it has not had the big photo filled entry it deserves). I could have done with perhaps a little help from the little people. Where were they in mid June?