just thought I'd let the arseblogger speak for me this morning (partly because i am nursing a bit of hangover..) he is usually good value even if his language is often crude i suspect his heart is in the right place

http://arseblog.com/WP/2008/02/24/eduardos-injury-must-bring-about-change-birmingham-thoughts/

just back home from the abbey havinf watched two matches back to back and then listened to united take keegan's barcodes apart on the way home. so here goes, 2 match reports for the price of one:

birmingham city (plus a dodgy ref) 2-2 arsenal: a minute's applause for an ex brummie hero and armbands for sagna's brother plus a bad week for the gunners overshadowed this early k/o. eboue suspended so walcott came in for a game we needed to win with the mancs guarranteed 3 points up north. less than 2 minutes into the game and taylor goes in hard on eduardo: the arsenal players call for the stretcher immediatly and taylor is sent off while the crozillian is carried off with an oxygen mask to warm applause from everyone. sky wouldn't show the incident because it was so sickening apparently, wenger was furious afterwards calling for taylor to be banned for life - it reminded me of diaby's injury two seasons ago. eduardo has broken his shin, his fibula and his ankle the pundits feared he might never play again. i hope he is ok becasue he didn't deserve that. im not sure the bluenose meant it but mcleish should drop him until eduardo is in training again - that is the only way to stop these sorts of tackles happening.

with arsenal looking shellshocked birmingham took a surpise lead - a nothing tackle from flamini gave them a fee kick very close to the D and alumunia was out of position and flapping as mcfadden put in the top right corner. for the rest of the elongated half we huffed and puffed but never looked like scoring. SheWho was hassling me for info from cork - just find a tv love! second half we went for it and scored twice in four minutes. first theo reacted to a knock down from adebayor and then created a brilliant goal himself. but we shoudl then have buried them - they had ten men remember.. but we had about 4,000 chances and fluffed the lot. then in the last minute of injury time the inevitable happened. the blues broke down the right and knocked in a harmless ball that clichy should have cleared but - and i still dont know why - he looked away and only reacted at the last minute, catching the brum in the box. he got the ball but the ref (having already waived away a perfectly obvious pen at the other end earlier, pointed to the spot. mcfadden - the scurge of all things french - finished off a miserable week - gallas went ballistic and got booked for kicking a sign when he shouldl have kicked clichy or himself for letting it happen. ho hum just gonna have to do it the hard way (as usual)

Cambridge united 2-0 forest green rovers
so, left the supporters clubhouse at 10 to 3 to get on the newmarket road end to watch the mighty U's. big crowd (nearly 5,000) but only about 50 from forest green. started very well, hatswell's free kick sailing past the FG keeper (robinson.. no not paul robinson.. his stock has fallen but not that far..yet) and the ground erupted: bounce bounce amber army! then we had a dreadful game to be honest. FG were rubbish and we kind of descended to their level. but it wasn't helped by possibly the worst referee in the world ever ever. this is what the regular match reporter on the U's website says: "Ref: Mr Oli Langford - he was whistle-happy, inconsistent, pedantic and often wrong. Surely the worst referee we've had this season. 0/10." Take note of the name - OLI LANGFORD, lets hope he's not coming to your club in the near future..bonnie langford more like it! anyway the game was summed up when cambridge scored their second. a long ball towards the FG end was met by one of their defenders (i use the term loosely) and it sailed into the net over the advancing keeper. anyway its three pits and now im going for a curry

only fair to restore the balance this week having moaned about my students' laziness last week. this morning's seminar was much better: in groups they had 9 ripper suspects to study and make the case for, while i came up last with a tenth. a selected panel of absentees from last week judged their efforts and asked questions to try and undermine their evidence. most of them took it seriously and everyone contributed, some (especially a couple that generally say little) really did well. i had very little to do for 3 hours and it never dragged or needed me to cajole or encourage. in all it was, as a colleague said at lunch, the perfect teaching and learning experience. and they weren't being assessed so could easily have chosen to cruise, so well done to them

in the afternoon it was the turn of the first years to try and impress with their (assessed this time) group presentations. now students generally HATE presentations because this is the time they find themselves in the spotlight and at risk of looking foolish - the number one concern of most teenagers i reckon. we had three today - the first was almost excellent, very well organised, lots of good ideas backed with well expounded theory from their reading. it fell down a little because they weren't totally cohesive as a group - they were more 4 individuals and this caused them to run over time a little. the final group were better at this: they were a proper group - zipping speech between the four of them, and they had good ideas and lots of evidence but were perhaps a little dull by comparison. i think i will give them very similar 2:1 grades.

the middle lot were a bit of a shambles. here are four untypical university students: all from ethnic minorities, all first in the family to go, all from 'deprived' parts of the UK. and they lacked confidence in the limelight, they can be cocky and cheeky (in quite a charming way) in class but this brought them down here. not enough planning, stopping and starting, errors in their overheads and an air of casualness.. but, they had some good ideas, they tried, they had enthusiasm and they have contributed to discussions all year so they will pass but they will be lucky to scrape into the 2:2s

overall then a much better end to a much less stressful week - i dont know if its a factor but the needles tonight were much sharper - i felt them much more and i relaxed much more in my session. i am certainly ready for a week away from here: the change of scenery and the excitement of a new place is just what i need to boost me to the end of term in three weeks.

forget early spring with its first daffodils, crocii, cuckoos or whatever ive just walked across campus and seen a female student wearing flipflops.. surely means that sunglasses and factor 27 are just around the the corner?

arsenal 0-0 ac milan: well the first thing to say is that 1 to 11 (or 1 to 32 as it is these days) that was much better than saturday. in the second half especially we bossed the game, fabregas looked back on form and but for a series of missed chances and bad luck and a clear penalty shout we would have taken a lead to the san siro in two weeks time. so a good reaction to the manc game and good effort from eveyone. milan defended really well and apart from a couple of corners, a long shot and a great turn by kaka (who was well tackled by the excellent swiss tony) milan offered little going forward. back in italy they will have to go for it a little more and we will hit them on the break and hit them hard. a 1-1 over there and we are through but i think we can do better. tonight's was milan's opportunity to snatch an away goal and they fluffed it.

poor old celtic, sounds like a great game but 3 away goals makes it inevitable that barca will go through, the mancs as well with a 1-1 in france. if it gets that far i want barcelona (as soon as possible...) in the final. adebayor to show thierry that we dont miss him.

wierd new pub for me tonight since the local was only showing manure - full of regulars waiting for their kareoke night.. mental note to avoid it on non-football wednesdays...

what a productive day even if i cant feel my toes cos my flat is so cold.

got hair cut and euros purchased and borrowed guides to lisbon - i am almost ready to go. Altered my paper as well in the light of a new and interesting article ive just read. looking forward to it nad portuguese seems like a curiously different language - obligarto, brilliant!

also finished the next draft of chapter 3 of the book: there will be 6 chapters plus an intro and conclusion and my plan is to get the 6 written (3 down so far) then add new material in the summer and edit the 6 before writing the conclusion then the introduction in august/september ready for submission in october..well that's the plan..

i typed up the minutes of our house meeting , wrote a stiff letter to an idiot who is annoying people here , and updated our members pack (no NOT those sort of members..) so its more friendly (I think)

oh and I switched my phone from payasyougo to contract w/o losing the number

and i feel quietly relaxed and unstressed ready for a day back at the funny farm tomorrow - meetings meetings and more meetings, but hey my barnet looks trim once more and its a lot warmer in lisbon than it is hereD

im getting increasingly annoyed at the reporting of fidel castro's 'retirement' from politics. nicky cambell on R5 this morning was scathing about cuba's human rights record and anti-revolutioanries are queueing up to slag off the regime. castro's revolution kicked out a deeply unpleasant right wing pro american and corrupt governemnt in the 50s. the revolution has killed many and locked up many and human rights IS an issue in cuba for sure..but castro has brought many benefits to his island in terms of health care and education and has had to do all this in spite of intense antagonism from america. and lets just pause a moment and consider the good old US of A.

how many times are we prepared to let america back unpleasant regimes (the contras, saddam first time around, the mujahadin against the soviets and many more), for how much longer are we happy for them to torture people in guantanamo bay, or to invade places they dont like (from greneda to iraq) or to ignore international agreements (kyoto) and to export their capitalist 'revolution' to the rest of the world (macdonalds)? lets face it the USA is not very democractic (remember florida folks?), it is an extremely unpleasant culture where schoolchildren murder each other in gun battles, it is home to some extremely unpleasant religious bigots who think that their beliefs (their 'faith') allows them to kill surgeons who perform legal abortions, it is run by obscenely rich political families and it thinks it has the right to tell everyone else how to live. after 9/11 it also believes it is the only country in the world to suffer from terrorism - a terrorism that it did so much to create. dont forget either that america all but wiped out its indiginous peoples for financial gain - it is capitalism in national form while cuba is communism in national form. give castro a break, he's not perfect (far from it) but neither are the chinese, and america (and us) are quite prepared to do business with them and let them host the olympics. hypocrites

i think ive decided that the third years are just below par this year.. does anyone want one? happy to swap for a dedicated student who is prepared to thinkforthemselfWITHOUTmetellingthemtheansweralltheBLOODYtime and one or two who listen to what im saying occasionally and remember to bring a pen to tutorials.. Q:what is the point of me spending a hour reading someone's work then advising on improvements if you dont write any of it down? one of them - who has missed all the year's teaching so far, dropped out today. its a shame because he's a nice bloke, a 'first-in-the-family' to go to university, and i have really tried to help him over the past three years. i'll miss him and hope he finds what he wants in life: surely taht is not being assistant manager in a computer games shop (no disrespect or offence intended to anyone)?

house meeting passed off without too much incident - the management agent came across at the eleventh hour and gave me all the accounts details i needed after weeks of me hassling her. the building's most difficult resident kept her temper and we managed to have a friendly (if far too long) meeting that resolved to try and persuade the less respectful neighbours to behave more reasonably. i will have to write some letters and ive sort of taken on the role of peacemaker (again) - it wont be the first time ,my mum always said i should be a diplomat - even when i was ten.

i might have drunk too much wine this afternoon.. in fact i probably have (hic).. but i think i have fallen in love with eva green..she must have the most spellbinding eyes in cinema..

http://www.popstarsplus.com/images/EvaGreenPicture.jpg

hic (several times) nite nite

i just checked to see if my gooner friend had posted yet but perhaps like me she is still licking her wounds.. what a shambolic display! I know its not our first priority but 9,000 arsenal travelled to the stadium of prawns to be publically humilaited. shreck's grin just got wider as the game went on, he couldn't believe that toure and gallas could be so accomodating. ok so who's to blame? lets start with gallas, he is the captain and he showed no fight for most of the game and blamed others for his mistakes - he also seems to enjoy scoring so much in manc/arse games that he does it at both ends! toure looked like he was still in africa, hoyte and traore looked out of their depth. fab was not fab yesterday and gilberto is frankly past it (sorry but love him as i do his confidence has gone and his heart is not in it). hleb did ok, bendtner tried and eduardo i thought was our best player - running around trying really hard everywhere. jens did little wrong despite conceding 4 goals.. that leaves eboue.. what can i say? he is an accident waiting to happen and in the summer i would like to see his bum firmly repositioned onto a plane out of london. ade's dive was disgraceful and flamini was asleep when they got the fourth. hopeless the lot of them.. but wenger must carry some blame. they are young players (average age is just 7..) and need direction. his direction was that he would rather not play this game with the league so tight and the milan game on wednesday. united on the other hand were probably told that after losing to citeh last week they would have their expensive testicles removed individually by a specailly trained gorbals born torturer if they didn't improve against us. they did, they were very good - but we made them look even better. Wenger now has to get them into the right frame of mind to beat milan - it will go one of two ways: we will raise our game, repay the fans who tarvelled, and make wednesday night a great european night at the grove or.. it will start the decline in our season. i think it will be ok, we will beat milan and then (more importantly in my mind) beat birmingham at the weekend. at the end of the season this game, like the 1-5 to sperz, will be a footnote in a successful season. my fingers and toes are crossed.

more positively cambridge came from a goal down away at halifax to win 2-1 despite going a man down with 20 minutes to go. so with other results going our way the U's are up to 3rd at least until aldershot and stevenage play today. Im hoping to go see them at home on saturday agaisnt forest green (who thrashed us earlier in the season), i will see how the week goes.

so wenger has picked a depleted squad to face the mancs in the FA cup

Squad
Goalies:Lehmann, Fabianski
Defenders: Senderos,Traore, Song, J Hoyte, G Hoyte
Midfield: Hleb, Fabregas, Flamini, Gilberto, Randall, Lansbury
Attackers: Adebayor, Eduardo, Bendtner,

which suggests a team of mad jens in goal, traore left, one of the hoyte's on the right, swiss tony and the other hoyte in the centre. fab and flamini in the middle (but i wont be surprised to see bertie in there) hleb and randall on the flanks with eduardo and bendy up front. I think however much weger says this is a game he wants to win he doesn't really care if we go out. if this was against almost any other side in the draw I would be fairly confdent of getting a win but its united - and a utd who are smarting from recent bad results. so im not confident but having said that its the cup, the youngsters know that if they win this one then they can fear no one in the next round. im more interested in keeping the league run together - win our last 12 games and we are champions - if the mancs or the chavs slip up then we dont even need to win them all. my hunch is that the players also want the prem trophy, wenger? well i suspect he thinks he wants it to, but also wants the champions league because he's never won that. fergie wants the champions league more than either of the others FAC or prem). I just hope its a) a good game and b) no one gets injured
come on you gunners!

not a blog today as such just the antidote to feeling fed up - my mary chain ticket arrived in the post!

its been a rough week, what with the sabattical set back, the news that i have the heaviest teaching load next year (if i get my contract) and the return of my allergic reactions (three this week). mind you the latter is clealy related to the stress caused by the former. its funny becasue quite often i dont feel stressed or rather i dont think my work should be stressful but it is. some days this i leave the office wondering exactly what i have achieved.. often very little despite doing quite a lot. but term is disappearing fast: a week on monday i fly to lisbon for the conference and then there are just two more weeks before we break for easter. so really its my 9 disserttaion students who should be stressing - their work has to be in to me in draft form by the 7th march if iam going to read them all before the hols. they hand them in on the 11th april. over easter i have two days teaching schoolkids and one eveing at a local history group (but both those sessions are written and ready) - so now the concentration has to be on book one. starting next week im going to aim at spending two days on it.

tonight ive seen one of the travellers - my friend had another operation last week, and has another booked for next week - so i should complain?
tomorrow night its dinner with a colleague, a dutchman and a siberian which will be lots of fun
saturday im relaxing then watching the arsenal
sunday i'll cook for the travellers
monday the whole circus starts again..

found this image in the docklands museum in london. the museum was much better than i expected it to be and this image - of port of london police practising life saving was one of my favorites. They have a Jack the Ripper exhibition starting in May and while the entrance fee is steep (at £5) it lets you in for a year.

alex hleb and adebayor post match interview was very funny - hleb is all 've played vell i sink very hhappy' and ade is 'ofcourseofcoursehegavemetheballandiscored'delivered at lightning speed. they were both obviously very pleased with themsleves - if i can find the interview later in the week i might stick it up here. the game started well with swiss tony scoring from a corner (yes i did say we scored from a corner..) and for ten minutes we were all over a depleted blackburn. but then they remembered who they were and put up a fight. they never looked like they were going to equalise but in football you never know... after several missed chances and after 88 minutes it was nervy stuff. then up pops alexandre hleb who was man of the match, to set up the togonator. 12 ganes to go and we have a five point lead.. it will go to the wire but i would have laughed if anyone had said pre-season that we'd be where we are today.

well my droogs the powers on high have spoken and yeah verily and forsooth they saith that i shall go on research leave in the summer of 2009 (from april to july) as predicted. my american coz gets the autumn - as predicted. the prof was very decent about it and will try and make life easier but when it comes down to it i am on a temporary contract so i have to put up and shut up. so now i am going to explore ways to be as selfish with my time as is possible without hurting the students or my chances of permanency - and woe betide that former colonial subject if is so much as dares to suggest HE is overworked again

for once in a blue moon i decided to read the grauniad's main paper rather than just the sport section (well actually just the football because i dont really watch any other sport and never read bout it). the stories that interested me are the arch bish's comments, the trial of the ipswich 'ripper' and the proposed export of football matches across the globe. Let's start with teve wright (not in the afternoon..) who claims that the fact that he met each of the murdered prostitutes, in chronological order, just before they met their deaths is pure coincidence. the prosecutor said 'it would appear in so far as you pick up prostitutes in the streets of ipswich you have been singly unfortunate', 'it would seem so, yes' replied wright. i think it was the women that were unfortunate - in all meanings of the word as applied to prostitutes. if he not the killer then he is indeed extremely unlucky in having such a wealth of evidence stacked against him. perhaps thats why the case isnt making headlines any more - wright is going to be found guilty and will spend the rest of his days inside. in the 19th century the trial and then the hanging would have obsessed the press for weeks but our modern hacks had their sensasionalist fill last year, reporting the growing body count - this is old news now.

while rowan willaims is very much the sort of stuff to fill the front and inside pages. 'what a burka!' screamed the supersoaraway sun. naturally the G is more restrained, offering a careful line by line analysis of what the archbishop meant to say. franly i dont mind if muslims go to sharia law to settle their marriages or divorces but a woman living asa citizen of this county lives under our laws; if she marries or divorces she should be protected by the laws of this country, and in english law she is treated as being equal to men: in sharia law she is not. in a muslim male wishes to live under sharia law he should do so somewhere else. similarly if a christian wants to live by the law of the old testament they should find somewhere else to do it. england is a secular country - our law is not based on mythology and the archbishop should remember that

finally the premiership chief executive richard scudamore (who russell brand has dubbed 'lucre-more') wants football exported around the globe. for one weekend only the 20 prem teams will play an extra fixture abroad in front of foreign crowds in places such as australia, america, south africa and beijing. in the same week as managers complain about pointless international friendlies the premiership want to add another 90 minutes of football and thousands of miles of travelling in january - just after the busy christmas fixtures. they are either stark staring mad or greedy money hungry parasites..you decide.

right, all that off my chest i am off to buy rat bedding so i can clean out the little blighters, and pop in and visit some guinea pigs en route. have alovely saturday folks.

but i couldn't resist this.. 1976 folks.. i was 13 what chance did i have? i had debbie harry posters everywhere

walked back from the pub listening to iPod, this came on but by Nick Cave and the Bad seeds.. RTB has posted a Cave track tonight nad it sent me on a hunt. however, while i couldn't find the carnival is over by that crazy antipodean i did find this which, i hope you'll agree, is pretty excellent

i have just finished writing my paper for lisbon and read it through to make sure it only lasts for twenty minutes: i resent those people whose arrogance allows them to over run conference papers. the result is that, if you are on a panel of three or four, time is squeezed for everyone else and there is little or no time for debate. what is the point of sitting through an hour of presentations if you dont get to discuss them afterwards? so, mine will be delivered on time - unless i drop everything on the floor or leave the bloody thing on the plane!

writing it has lifted a large weight off my shoulders and means that i can get off early today and spend an hour at the gym before cooking for my ex tonight. i entertained SheWho last night and we watched the rather uninspiring England game - the only time i got off the sofa was when the swiss wonderkid scored that brilliant goal. that was a natural reaction and im not swiss. i just cant get excited about an england team made up of overpaid premiership players and led by an italian. i mean how exciting is capello's england going to be?

so its nearly the end of the week and ive worked hard. it looks like one of tomorrow's seminar groups is likely to let me down - but ive made contingency plans if they do. i was a cub scout.

today the professors and my head of department are deciding who gets research leave in 2008/9. there are 5 of us up for it and three terms to go in. we might all go - but not at once. the rumour is i will get the summer term which is crap. i avoid exam marking but do all my teaching. my american cousin is likely to get the autumn term, meaning he can extend his summer and leave here in june and return in january. i hope sense prevails. i have two books to write and had the summer term in the last round, i also have a much heavier teaching load. consequently this makes me harder to replace unless i get grant funding (which i wont in the next 12 months), i am not in a postion to make much of a fuss either, unless and until i get permanancy. if i dont get the autumn or spring terms the im not having much of a summer this year. oh well, they might surprise me!

as confuddled suggested/laid down the gauntlet - here goes

when were you happiest? hard really, first date with my wife; on top of my first mountain; when arsenal won the league at anfield..

what is you greatest fear? a long lingering illness

what is you earliest memory? I dont know - my early life (i.e.before about 11) is a blur (and its not the drugs - they weren't invented!)

which living person do you most admire, and why? easy: mandela - because he understands the power of forgiveness

what is the trait you most deplore in yourself? not living up to my principles

what is the trait you most deplore in others? selfishness

what was your most embarrssing moment? being reminded of what i did on my 21st (that's a blog in itself..)

aside from property wat's the most expensive thing youve bought? a 1979 triumph spitfire - a disaster from day one, i sold it for 10% of the price i paid

what is your most treasured possession? my 1785 set of justice's manuals by richard burn

what would your super power be? time travel - i'm a historian for f**ks sake!

what makes you depressed? selfishness

what do you most dislike about your appearance? my teeth

what is your favourite smell? women

what is your favourite word? concomitant

who would play you in the film of your life? no one

what is your most unappealing habit? my mum might read this so I'm not telling

what is your favourite book? very hard - possibly the Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre

what is your fancy dress costume of choice? dracula

what is the worst thing anyone's said to you? I'm leaving you

have you ever said 'i love you' and not meant it? no (not at the time)

what is your guiltiest pleasure? now? red wine

to whom would you most like to say sorry, and why? aaron kotchburg - for taking his legs from underneath him him playing football in the playground aged 12

what was the best kiss of your life? every one

which living person do you most despise, and why? mrs thatcher for ruining this country and taking away hope - i will dance in the street when she dies

which words or phrases do you most overuse? 'you see' 'sorry'

what is the worst job you've done? sewing mailbags - its a long story

what has been your biggest disappointment? louise (SheWho dear readers)

if you could edit your past, what would you change? nothing - je ne regrette rien

if you could go back in time, where would you go? London, 1780 - May, before the gordon riots

when did you last cry, and why? monday last, telling someone about my friend's cancer

how do you relax? red wine, tv or a book

how often do you have sex? right now, not often enough

what is the closest you've ever come to death? once on Jones beach in the USA dragged under by a wave and on in the cuillin four years ago, i lost my footing

what do you consider your greatest achievement? my phd

what keeps you awake at night? heartburn

what song would you like played at your funeral? bodies by the pistols or bank robber by the clash

how would you like to be remembered? as a good friend

what is the most important lesson life has taught you? that nothing is quite as bad as it seems

tell us a joke. we all make mistakes - as the dalek said climbing off the dustbin...

with the togonater again doing what he does best and sven's city proving as spineless as ever, arsene's kindegarten marches on. i've no idea whether we will win the league this season - and the smart money (smart because it is well laundered?) is on united or even the filthy rich chavs - but we are certainly going close. and one can enjoy the season in a more parochial fashion as st. totteringham's days edges ever closer.

http://www.arseweb.com/other/totteringham.html

this is the day that the spuds can no longer mathematically finish above us, and this has been dangerously close in recent years. this term it could come along very soon if results go our way. it was typical of sperz to let united score in the dying seconds yesterday even if the mancs' celebration of a point was well, rather pointless.

so for now we have a two point cushion (and six over the russians) and 20 over liverpool whose 3-0 win over sunderland fooled no one (except 40,000 scousers). we could still finish the season trophyless with united taking the league, the chavs the fa and league cups, and liverpool the champions league. but.. a) we might not and b) this team has defied all the journos who wrote us off as a spent force in the summer. thierry who?