On this day in history

1440 Eton College was founded by Henry VI. Prefects were warned to look out for "ill-kempt heads and unwashed faces."



1873 - The first practical typewriter was sold to customers.

1916 - Adelina and August Van Buren finished the first successful transcontinental motorcycle tour to be attempted by two women. They started in New York City on July 5, 1916. (Ed- They would have been quicker but they had trouble with the map)

1922 - The Episcopal Church removed the word "Obey" from the bride's section of wedding vows (Ed- Bad move)

1944 - U.S. Army troops entered Germany, near Trier, for the first time during World War II.

1953 - U.S. Senator John F. Kennedy married Jacqueline Lee Bouvier.

1954 - "Lassie" made its television debut on CBS. The last show aired on September 12, 1971.

1963 The Beatles had their second UK No.1 single with She Loves You.

1983 - Arnold Schwarzenegger became a U.S. citizen. He had emigrated from Austria 14 years earlier.

And most importantly

2005 English clinched the Ashes after a winning the series 2-1.

I thoroughly enjoyed seeing England beat Croatia the other night, a top notch performance when needed, I read a lot of papers in the build up and heard all sorts of journalists sharpening their pencils waiting for England to lose, the likes of Brian Woolnough (Star) and Martin Samuels (The Times) you could tell were poised... now from what I can make out our players feel the pressure before each game, and it is this pressure that affects their performances, they know that if they put a foot wrong they will be destroyed by the press, take Frank Lampard up to Euro 2004 he took his club form into Internationals, then after a few less than impressive performances the press did what they always did, slaughtered the man, all of this stoked the fans up who for a while now have been booing Lampard when he wears the England shirt at Wembley, do these journalists really think the players do anything other than try their best? I thought the idea of a journalist was to report the facts.. I am not interested in Martin Samuel's opinions (and boy does this over inflated ego have one). Its high time these idiots got behind our national team, they usually do once we get through the group phase of a championship, then its all hail our conquering heroes... the same heroes they had been slaughtering, I recall in the build up and during the group stages of the World Cup in Italy how these people were running down the England side saying how bad they were, how they would go nowhere, but suddenly we were in the Quarter Finals and the same team they had been ripping to shreds were now world beaters and the hapless Bobby Robson was now a top class manager, Martin Samuels and Brian Woolnough were amongst those people. These people make a good living out of football, think they are experts when they are just like you and me but they can write a bit, instead of slaughtering our teams they should stick to reporting the facts, and avoid their own ego fueled opinions that have a detrimental effect on the players. England needs its players to play without fear, that will not happen with the media behaving the way they do, but of course they are too arrogant, too full of their own self importance to even consider that!
As for the game Wednesday night, it was awesome, but a word of warning, they will not play like that every game, that is not possible, there will be times when a result will be ground out, where games will be tight dour affairs with few chances, that is the nature of football, Man Utd and Chelsea (successful teams) know this, and so does Fabio Capello, his Real Madrid side did not win in a swashbuckling way, they were efficient and got the job done, that is what we are going to see from England in the future I think. And Theo Walcott is not going to score 3 goals every game, he is young and will be inconsistent for a while, but the talent is there....
Right thats me happy....I have had my say!

Had a very interesting day today, I have secured some work with the Civil Service and a contract with a London Council, all good news for me, and will keep me more than occupied and will mean the midnight candle will be burnt a few times!
Been checking through my gear for next weeks trip to Cornish Cornwall, everything seems in order, just need to get some new Gaiters and we will be good to go! We have purchased some pre prepared food sachets for the weekend so we can be entirely self sufficient and not need to stop at any shops!

I may have mentioned that I am off to Cornwall for a walking weekend, well its a week tomorrow that we head off, we fly down to Newquay and get taken up to Boscastle then walk back to Newquay, easy.... my arse! we have a pod like tent, and are packing as light as possible for the trip, this is just a mere practice run for next summers 192 mile coast to coast walk which is going to be incredibly hard, so once a month we will be heading off, we have walks planned in the Brecons, Snowdonia, the Lakes and Peak District.

The Cricket team zooms back into action this weekend as we take on a team called Red Dogs, there is an air of confidence following our win the other week against Billericay CC, not sure if my brother is playing, but I am sure he will, and it will probably be our last of the season, hopefully I can get in the runs!

Things on the personal side are on the up!!!

Its official, I am old, I have gout! my big toe is very painful and the last two nights sleep has been difficult, my Dr asked about my recent diet.....France is to blame!
Now I always thought gout affected men of a certain vintage, I am a mere youngster at 45! my big brother has it but he is 58! my middle brother is 53 will have to ring him to see if he has it! In the meantime I am going to hobble about til the medication kicks in!

I need to elaborate on our cricket game yesterday, our team played exceptionally well and looked very lively in the field and worked hard to limit the opposition, we batted first had a dodgy start with my brother Bill holding things together, I was due in at number 5 and looking forward to batting with my big brother, sadly he got himself out so I strode out to try and get some runs and push our score up which we managed to do scoring 182 for 7 off 30 0vers which is a fair old lick and setting them a stiff run rate to achieve victory, which thanks to some great bowling and fielding we managed.
Now as a side show to our efforts on the pitch next to ours was the Essex Academy team, managed by one Keith Fletcher, who used to manage England at one stage, our younger lads were extremely keen to impress!!
This morning my knee is shot to pieces, its swollen and stiff as hell, the rest of the body is in full working order thankfully!