Movember 2011

As of September 1st 2011 I've been growing facial hair with a purpose, as opposed to my usual laziness. The reason is so that I can be sporting the start of a Mo' (moustache) at the Robin Hood Marathon on 11th September.

The Mo' is in aid of Movember. The charity raises awareness and money to support the number one and two male specific cancers - Prostrate and Testicular.

I have done this in the past and felt this year it was about time to try to help again.

Ordinarily men will start the month of Movember (formerly November) clean shaven and cultivate a Mo' thought the month. As I am running the Robin Hood Half Marathon I thought that I would start early (this has been OK'd by Movember Organisation!!!) and keep it going for 3 months and see what I can do!!

Obviously I will update you all throughout this time of my progress and of any things that I will be doing.

I will try to keep my requests for donations to a minimum and hope I don't bother you all to much!

The link for donations will be up soon and I'd love it if you could hang on to this months charity money until it is, as I hope me running 13.3 miles on Sunday will make you want to give to this great cause.

Thanks for reading and if you want to know more please let me know. Also please spare a thought for my gorgeous wife who is going to have to put up with my lovely facial hair during this time! But she does understand the importance of Movember's work and is supporting me fully through it.

Sharif

exit_international at Barfly 21st Aug 2010

The night started well. I was going out with my gorgeous wife for the first time in ages. We were going to see a banging Welsh band. We were going out in Cardiff!

Then it all started going bad……
Started pissing it down with rain.
£6 for a pint and a bottle. Twice!
£4 to get into Barfly! “It said £3 on the email” I say. “Yeah Scott got it wrong”.
No free shot! “We’re one of the first 50!” I say. “Yeah Scott got it wrong”.

It seems Scott may have some answering to do. And still the night tried it’s hardest to get worse…..

Couple of weird looking blokes walking round in short trousers and deck shoes.
Big Dave drops his pint and makes a right mess.
The lead singer of All the Damn Vampires looks like the Irish guy from The IT Crowd…..

But then everything changed…….
Tracey is still smiling and having a good time.
Outside while she has a smoke I spot one of the band (no idea which one at the time as the website does put name to face!!!) and get all excited!
The music starts……..

……and all of my worries about a disaterous night melt away with the banging sound that is coming from the stage. All the Damn Vampires were brilliant. The noise they made was an instant joy to my ears. And as soon as our internet is back on at our new house I will be on youtube looking for them! I’m not one to instantly like new music but this lot I liked. Liked a lot.

Good Time Boys jumped on stage and we found the deck shoed men! Amazing energy from them, if a little to hardcore for our liking. The lead singer threw himself into the performance (and up on the floor!) to continue the great night.

And then they were there, gracing the stage like 2 scruffy homeless dudes and a little man with a backpack! I’d been listening to exit_international for the last couple of months and had been blown away by them. The sound, the lyrics (well the ones I could make out!), the emotion….and now they were playing. And I lost the fucking plot!!!! Luckily, my wife loves me and was in no way embarrassed by my drunken movements to the music, and for the first time in months I forgot all my problems and let the bass engulf me. I was mesmerized by the ferocious drumming from Adam Thomas (“But he’s tiny” said my wife, “how does he thrash those drums so brilliantly??”), a little bit scared by the stare from Fudge and amazed at the vocals from Scott.

And then it was over. I was dripping with sweat, my phone was covered in beer (as was my wife’s shoe!) and Scott, by this time forgiven for the price and shot error, was lying on the floor after an exhaustive set (hopefully he wasn’t in the sick left by the Good Time Boys lead singer!).


We left Barfly, slightly drunk and hoping to cadge a lift home with my Dad (some things never change with age!) and in a great mood. Adam was outside and we interrupted him chatting with a lovely lady to say thanks for a great show. If we’d had more money we would have stayed for the party afterwards but alas having kids limits that!

Hopefully we’ll be able to catch them again before they become big and every fucker and his dog loves them and we can’t wait for the album!

Speaking Welsh

Anyone that knows me, and anyone that reads this blog (hahahahaha, that made me laugh!!) will know that I'm Welsh. I used to take Welsh as a 2nd language in School until I was 14. Then I was advised to stick with French and I've regretted it since.

I've been trying to motivate myself to take it up again and also find a course that I can stick with. Recently I found a free course and it seems to work.

Say Something Welsh has a brilliant system of a series of mp3 files that you download and listen to. You basically say in Welsh what the bloke says in English! I was really skeptical at first but you know what? You pick it up really quickly. I've been doing it in the car on the way to work! I've only done the 1st lesson but I've been repeating it to make sure that I'm OK with it. I've started lesson 2. Now I just need to get a bit more organised. There's no reason why I can't do it every day......

Anyway, I fully recommend this site. It's free (which I couldn't believe when I found it) and there are loads of people on there who can help.

Log on and get speaking. I would sign out with something int Welsh but I'm only on the speaking part and not the writing part so far!!

World Cup on BBC

So the BBC spent Millions on renting their studio for the 2010 World Cup. A huge glass window behind the presenters with a wonderful view of....well, what looks like a shanty town and a mountain. Now I know that it is one of the great natural wonders of the world but is it worth it?

Do they really think that football fans really give a shit about the back drop to the pundits? Most of them are in the pub and use the analysis part of the coverage as a chance to go to toilet or the bar! They may as well have had Caerphilly Mountain as the backdrop, or the Black Mountains...just as beautiful....minus the shanty town obvioulsly!!

Or they could have all stayed in London and had a huge projection of the backdrop instead. The image would have probably been better than what you see now. Also the evening coverage has the reflection of the studio in the glass. Quality as always from the BBC.

Can't believe I'm forced to pay for the rubbish the channel produces and pays.

While I'm on one, do they not realise that if you want to watch their matches you HAVE to watch the BBC coverage? They may as well have had a minimum wage student presenting it and use a crappy little studio in the UK as they don't have any competition for the coverage.

Arses!

ITV Football Coverage is.....

.....fucking awful! Aside from their HD channel breaking up at times and then showing Adverts just as Steven Gerrard scored, the titles are crap and the commentators talk an absolute pile of shit! Just tell me who's got the ball. Your opinions are not worth the air used to say them!!!
If only those vuva-thingy-la horns were loud enough to drown out the commentary......

Play off final

Big day today. Cardiff City take on Blackpool City in the play off final. Winner goes into the Premiership. The Premiership!!!! Can't believe how close we are (I don't like using 'we' when talking about Cardiff but you know what I don't care today!! ). It's where the club needs to be. It's what South Wales needs.
Watching all the coverage and I'm sick of all the Blackpool loving. "Fairy Tale story if they get there...", "Holloway would be great in the Premiership...", "it's been 31 years since Blackpool have been in the top flight", blah-de-blah-de-blah!!! Sick of it! They only want them in there so that they can have a laugh at there misfortune, so that they can be on the end of a couple of 8 nil drubbings, so that the big teams can point at the simpletons from the North West.......Nothing about wanting Cardiff there. Think it's because they think we could stay up. Because we have the structure to establish ourselves there. They worry!!!

Anyway, now that's off my chest, I'm off to "enjoy" the match. I'm cacking my pants!! Wish I was able to afford to see them more. Hopefully new job and I can see lots of them next season. Hopefully in the Premiership.......COME ON CARDIFF!!!!

KEIR HARDIE: How does he do it?

KEIR HARDIE: How does he do it?

Must be hung like a donkey!!!