Weekend Update – 14.2.16  - Love, kindness, 4 points & a moan

Saturday started cold, wet & miserable. That horrible “Mizzle” like rain that soaks you to the skin so quickly. A simple and quick decision was taken not to take the camera up to OBR & just watch the match as a spectator for a change. & what a cracking match it turned out to be. Rams coming out 23-13 winners & importantly that’s the third victory on the bounce. Anyone who reads the notes from Gary Reynolds is the programs will know his passion for local lads to be playing for their local clubs. Well Rams have that in spades at the moment, & along with youth on their sides they seem to be finding their feet at this high level. 

Yet another act of kindness knocked me for six whilst I was at OBR. Alison, who is probably one of the kindest people you’ll ever have the honour of meeting gave me a “Goody Bag” that her daughter had made up for me from a friend who runs something called ChemoGiftBags (I think). It’s a bag containing bits & pieces that someone undergoing treatment will probably find useful. Books, puzzle books, blanket, compression socks, mild tea, mild coffee etc, etc…… then I picked out the pieces that meant they know exactly what we’re going through. Mild & Gentle shampoo & conditioner!! Plus childs tooth paste & tooth brush as folk going through treatment tend to get sore gums, I know I have. Perfect, just perfect! I was truly touched by this kind thought, luckily the second half kicked off so I could rush downstairs for the match  & Alison wouldn’t see quite how touched. That’s the last home game at OBR for 4 weeks. In some ways I’m quite glad as I was very tired by the time I got home.

I was home in time to watch the Wales v Scotland match, I thought probably the most entertaining game to date in the competition. A little bit too much aimless kicking for my liking, but good for the neutral spectators. Not sure Cookie would have enjoyed being the filling between an Owen & Neil sandwich, but suspect they had a good weekend in Cardiff. 

One advantage, and there aren’t many, of having a 17 year old son in the house is that it took him about 5 minutes to set up the new TV, whilst it would have taken me at least an hour, 4 bouts of swearing & a couple of kicks at the cat. It’s a bloody impressive looking bit of kit & whilst the old TV was good in it’s day you don’t realise the progression made in picture quality. NetFLix & Amazon have now been set up on a free 1 month trial. One piece of new Tech works, one piece of older Tech has decided to go on strike. My iPod Nano 6G is now not recognised by my iTunes, been through all the usual Q&A’s & it looks like a trip the Genius Bar on Wednesday. Deep joy, a spotty 16 year old geek talking a foreign language to me J

A final positive for the day, I managed to eat a salmon fillet cooked plainly with Pak Choi, couldn’t taste it obviously, but it went down without any pain.

Not a great night on Saturday, I was up at 1.30am & again at 5am (when I started writing this). A few  problems stomach wise are keeping me from sleeping, hopefully easily shifted / moved / dumped away ………………. You get the picture J

A Valentines breakfast in bed on Sunday for Carol of salmon, scrambled eggs on a bagel, I just went for the plain scrambled egg. We both must be getting on a bit, as we’ve left the prices on each others cards, she spent 0.79p more than I did (You can take the Yorkshireman out of Yorkshire…………)

Now for a weekly RANT the following is entirely my own views & is not representative of anyone else who has connections with Rams Colts. I took Max over to play at Henley today, now for some reason or another I’ve never felt overly welcome at Henley RFC, perhaps it relates to when at U7s I was reffing a tag match and got called an “Effing” Cheat……. I’ve a long memory. It was good to meet up with Giles, Stella & Steve, all ex Rams parents, but that was about as good as it got. There’s no doubt that they are a good club, Nat1 for the mens & the ladies flying high too. However I always get the feeling that the club is on it’s uppers a bit. The changing rooms are awful, club house isn’t looked after. Little choice of food available after matches for spectators. My main bug bear though is in relation to the way one specific coach of theirs behaves, he was a twat at U7s & hasn’t really improved since. Today he acted as Touch Judge (Not Assistant Referee). Now I’ve done that job at Nat3 level, you are required to mark out 5’s, 10’s & indicate when the ball has gone into touch & who’s ball it will be. You are not allowed to flag to the ref any infringements you may see, you are totally passive. This muppet took it into his own hands on at least two occasions to try & influence the Ref, once trying to get a Rams players unjustly carded. Fair play to the Henley Head Coach who told him he couldn’t interfere, but DipBrian took no notice whatsoever & in my mind he can be held heavily responsible when the game threatened to kick off. Obviously he kept his flag down when Henley infringed. Back at the club house after the game not one Henley player had showered, they came into the club, got their food & sat down to eat. If that had been at OBR they wouldn’t have been served. Yu can expect perhaps U13s to not shower, but Colts?? Come on, have some respect for your club & your surroundings. I know Henley are looking to raise funds for new facilities, I really hope they get them as they are desperately needed. At least I won’t have to go back to that place again until Max is in the Seniors. Sorry if this sounds like sour grapes, but the day was spoilt somewhat by the experience at the club. Perhaps I shouldn’t have gone, I’d had little sleep last night & may have overdone things a bit over the weekend.

Anyway, a lovely looking dinner for Max, Bella & Carol, I resisted the chance to serve in my apron & just a smile. Chicken soup for me & an early night. I'll save watching the Italy v England match until later in the week I think. 

Week 5 begins bright & early, I hope Breakfast Club Tony is around tomorrow.

#shouldertoshoulder