I'm gradually falling apart

Well I've been back at work for 3 weeks now after almost 6 months off with back pain; I started at 3 days a week at 9am-1pm, increasing to 4 days the second week and 5 days this week. Next week, the hours will be 9am-2pm and will increase until I'm full time again (urgh! how will I ever get used to that again?). My new height adjustable desk is great, meaning I can stand up and work whenever I want. However, I have been struggling a lot with pain in my shoulder, brought on (I think) from overuse of the laptop and therefore using the mouse and keyboard at work was just aggravating the problem. I brought it to the attention of my supervisor and manager staright away and without hesitation a new special keyboard has been ordered and I have been put on a rehab plan for that as well - this week, I had to refrain from working 60% in every hour. This will reduce by 10% each week. I went to the docs at the beginning of the week and useless as he is, seemed to think it was swelling of the shoulder joint (which has a more technical term but I can't remember the long word). I am taking anti-inflammitories which seem to be doing the trick, unless of course, it's just the rest which is helping the pain. Who knows? I can't fault my employers in any way for their support and understanding considering I've been such a pain in the arse.

I haven't been on myspace much recently as I need to rest my shoulder so apologies for not being so interactive as usual. Here's hoping I can stay in one piece for the rest of the year and maybe I will find a new younger body in my Christmas stocking. Thanks Santa!

What a bunch of muppets!

England were given an unlikely lifeline when Israel beat Russia last weekend, and we only needed a draw against Croatia to qualify for the Euro Championships. So what do we do? Lose. T

The first goal conceded was a howler from Carson when he didn't get his body behind the ball and it rolled off his arms into the top of the net. The second one, England's defence were asleep and Croatia easily beat our attempt at an offside trap. Embarrassing. I fail to see why McLaren left it until half time to make the changes - it was clear the formation wasn't working the way it was. Anyway, Beckham and Defoe came on second half and instantly, things improved. I will never say a bad word against David; he has consistently been England's backbone for the past however many years. Defoe won a penalty which may have been harsh but there was a definite tugging of his shirt. Lampard easily converted it. Then came a brilliantly accurate cross from who else? and Crouch took it on his chest and banged it in from a few yards out. All that hard work was undone though when Croatia took the lead again and despite having chances, England failed to score again which was curtains for them. Had Andorra levelled against Russia it would have been a different story but how many times can we rely on other teams to save our bacon? Andorra haven't won in 29 Euro matches so there wasn't much hope anyway.

So England won't be there next summer - the lads can have a holiday instead. I don't feel overly disappointed because we didn't deserve it. If we can't beat teams in these qualifying groups, what chance do we have against the best? Well done England - we're proud of you! I suppose it's now back to basics and trying to find a new mug who wants to take the manager's job!

Bulgaria's abandoned children

Last night on BBC2, I watched one of the most distressing documentaries I have ever seen 'Bulgaria's abandoned children'. Kate Blewitt visits a so-called care home over a period of nine months. The institution is in Mogilino in the north of the country where 75 children with a variety of handicaps were sent, as their parents were unable or not interested in bringing them up themselves. Some were only deaf or blind but many had more serious afflictions which would need specialist care. The children were never allowed outside and lack of stimulation resulted in most of them rocking back and forth and becoming mute. In general, the staff were not cruel except for the laundry man who hit a couple of the boys; the requirement was that they washed and fed the children which they did, however, the food itself was mostly 'mush' and lacked any vitamins. This resulted in many of the kids displaying terrible malnourishment and resembled scenes of the famine in Ethiopia in the 80s. What was unbelievable was that the staff didn't seem to think anything was wrong and that their conditions were acceptable. I was sobbing all the way through the programme but one little girl in particular had me so distressed, I didn't know what to do with myself. Kate Blewitt noticed that clearly the girl had broken her leg, and was crying out in pain. The staff were oblivious and seemed to think that it was the malnourishment was the cause of pain, and then curiously applied some ointment to the bottom of her foot! I don't know what period of time had passed but on the next visit, the girl had a makeshift splint on her lower leg and was bedridden. At the end of the documentary, you could see how bad the treatment had been because the bone was angled and hadn't set properly. Many of the children who had become bedridden because they could no longer walk, ended up in the nearby cemetery.

There was one girl of 18 called Didi who didn't have an awful lot wrong with her - she was sane, could talk fine and was fairly intelligent but there was no-one to interact with. Her mother told her she was going to collect her on a certain date which was a lie but Didi was holding on to that promise. When it didn't happen, she ended up rocking in her chair which was very sad. As an adult she would be transferred to another institution, and you just fear the worst for her future.

Unloved, no care, forgotten....how the hell can this type of thing happen in a EU country? The director of the institution basically shrugged off any responsibility and blamed the problem on the staff who work there. Apparently, since the documentary was made, many international charities have attempted to get involved but the Bulgarian government has refused.

Update taken from the website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/features/bulgarias-children.shtml

Friday 16 November 2007

Some changes have taken place since the first showing of this film on BBC Four in September 2007. A team of Non Government Organisations (NGOs) is working with the government to bring about changes to the lives of disabled children growing up in the state institutes in Bulgaria. This NGO alliance is made up of teams who have been working on the ground in Bulgaria for years.

The children in the home in Mogilino have recently been assessed by a medical team, and rehabilitation plans are being put together for each child. Specialists like speech therapists and physiotherapists are being assigned to Mogilino to work with the children. In the long term the plan is to either build purpose-built small group care homes for the disabled - or to relocate the children to better environments with Day Care Centres and potential schooling.

Well at least that's some positive news. I would have been very surprised if nothing had been done about this appalling situation. I can honestly say, those images will remain with me for the rest of my life.

WHL stadium tour

After being a Spurs supporter for some 27 years, I finally made it to the tour of White Hart Lane yesterday afternoon. It is well worth the £7 (as a club member) or £8 otherwise as they take you to all areas of the stadium including reception, board room, function room, changing room, tunnel, executive boxes, and pitch side. There was quite a few people but they don't hurry you and you can take as many pics as you want.

Did you know that for an 8 seater box in the west stand, it cost £40,000 per year?! Gulp. They go up to £60,000 for larger ones. It made me chuckle a bit when the tour guide said Jermain Defoe and Darren Bent have both bought boxes for their families to watch them play....they must be empty a lot of the time! Sorry, couldn't help myself. I guess walking down the tunnel and the changing room was the highlight although you can tell they just put out replica shirts for the purpose of the tour. I was surprised how small the changing room and showers were. In the technical area they have very comfy seats, all heated, but get this, the ones for the visiting team are not heated!!! Yeah - let em freeze!

I was getting ideas when I saw the function room, as it's my 40th next year. Wouldn't it be great to celebrate it at the Lane? It cost about £1000 to hire then you have security and insurance on top of that. Not as bad as I thought it would be but then you got to think about getting people to North London in coaches - all a bit of a palava just for a party maybe?

Anyway, it was well worth doing - highly recommended to any fan.

Points in the bag (at last)

Spurs 4 Wigan 0

Well I may have been at the Lane today if I hadn't forgotten to buy tickets! Damn.
Anyway, I've just watched the highlights and was very pleased with what I saw.

The first goal was created by Keane for Jenas to tap it in on the line. JJ got his second, latching onto a long pass from Berbatov, going around the goalkeeper and beating the defender on the line. He made it look so simple.

For the third, Robinson picked out Berbatov with an 80-yard clearance, who controlled and flicked the ball back over Kilbane before laying back to Lennon who flicked up and volleyed across Kirkland into the corner from 20 yards. Only 34 minutes gone and cruising!

Spurs displayed some wonderful one touch football and Jenas should've had his hatrick but somehow put it into the side netting from a few yards out.

In the second half, more fabulous one touch play and Jenas puts it in the net but ruled correctly offside. JJ then put a through ball into Bent's feet and he slotted it home on 72 minutes.

Zokora, still looking for his first Spurs goal made a surging run and had a chance, but it was fingertipped away by Kirkland. Oh so close! Another great chance followed when Berbatov hit the post, and was followed up by Kaboul who also hit the woodwork.

I don't know whether the players have taken performance enhancing drugs but they looked a different team today. The movement, pace, passing and all round enthusiasm was so much better and looked like the Spurs of last season. Berbatov, after releasing a press statement two days ago seemed to be rejuvenated, like a weight was lifted off his shoulders. Thank God he's back.

I don't want to count my chickens and all that as this is only our second league win of the season, and both were 4-0 against poor opposition. Wigan were very poor and obviously made Spurs look good, but hopefully, this is the confidence boost they needed and they can drive on from here, notching up a few good results.

Hoorah and huge relief too!

Sunday thru Friday...(this & that)

So how many people do you have in the house at breakfast time? Well normally it would just be you and your immediate family. However, this is not a normal house and last Sunday we had 6 adults and 5 kids over for breakfast. John's brother Paul came down from Derbyshire for the weekend with his two girls Yas and Ellis. Chris and Sandy had their friend and her son over from Florida and so they joined us, together with their own little ones Joey and Jennifer.
Trying to cook and serve fry ups to each individual's requirements was mayhem as you can imagine but things like that don't phase John or myself. It's a different way to start the day.

Monday was my first day back at work after almost six months. It certainly felt weird. My new desk and chair were waiting for me but I couldn't do much on the system because I needed all my codes resetting etc. I got sent on a presentation for an hour to kill some time - that was a yawn a minute; do I really care how HSBC are doing?! My rehab hours were Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 9am-1pm that week. Next week will be fours days of four hours and that will gradually build up until I'm full time again. I'm seriously thinking about going part time because I don't know whether I can face working every day anymore, especially with my back problems. I have to think about my health above everything else now.

Thursday afternoon saw Spurs play Hapoel Tel Aviv in the UEFA Cup. Usually I would put this in a separate blog entry but it's not honestly worth it. The game was so sluggish and lacking in entertainment, there's not a lot I can say! At least we won 0-2 I suppose. What kept me awake was providing commentary to my friend Paula over msn as she was at work.

Friday after work I went straight round my Mum's as she was looking after Ronnie. I played with him all afternoon but then he went all weird about the old photographs on the wall behind the sofa. He got all scared and wouldn't come in the living room at all unless he closed his eyes, and at one point he was hanging on to me for dear life. Bless. I took down the photo his eyes seemed to be averting to but he still didn't like it. Very strange because Ronnie's obviously been round my Mum's many times and has never reacted like that before. I wonder how he'll be on his next visit?

I don't have anything planned for this weekend; just chilling out as a couch potato I think!

That elusive second win

Boro 1 Spurs 1 (Bent 35)

I couldn't get the live stream to work on the internet so had to resort to listening to this one on the radio. I wasn't missing much; sounded pretty dull and this was confirmed by Phil Thompson's reports on Gillette Soccer Saturday. Not much has changed there then!

New manager Juande Ramos bravely picked Bent and Defoe up front as opposed to the more familiar partnership of Keane and Berbatov and also gave Kevin Prince Boateng his first league start of the season. Given that he has only been in the country just over a week, I guess he will want to try out a few players and assess what his best team is. The full lineup: Robinson, Chimbonda, Kaboul, Dawson, Lee, Malbranque, Jenas, Boateng, Lennon, Bent, Defoe.

There is hardly anything to report from the game, and the Match of the Day highlights were very brief. You've got to say that Luke Young's equaliser for Boro was a 'screamer' - no keeper in the world would save that one. There were a few good goals around today, including another long range 'screamer' from Noe Pamarot of Portsmouth. Hard to choose from those two if the 'Goal of the month' competition was still going.

So just the one point (again) but dare we get carried away with the fact that we move up to 17th and out of the relegation zone?!!

2 today!

Happy 2nd birthday to my little nephew Ronnie. I can't believe how time has flown but he is now at the cutest age possible. I saw him for most of the day yesterday whilst my Mum was looking after him. He opened his presents then as the family are on their way to Wales today for the weekend. My Bob the Builder book and remote control fire engine were hits; Ronnie loves anything that has a siren. Dee-dah, dee-dah he's always saying and runs to the window when he hears one! His vocabulary for his age is astounding - everything you say he can repeat, no matter how many syllables. Ronnie has such an adorable character and is such a good boy, hardly ever crying. One of his favourite other things are balls. You'll always see him carrying one around and his kicking and throwing are amazing for such a little boy. Of course, I try and wind my brother up (who supports Liverpool), getting Ronnie to say 'Come On You Spurs'!

The pic of him is fairly recent and always makes me smile. Curls run in my Dad's side on the family. When you see the pics of Dad as a toddler and also my brother growing up, the similarity is uncanny.

Phew!

Spurs 2 Blackpool 0 (Carling Cup)

Goals from Robbie Keane and Pascal Chimbonda this Hallowe'en meant no nightmarish result tonight and therefore sealed our place in the last eight of the tournament. Ramos' first match in charge is a good one, although Spurs should never have been in danger of losing it. The difficult task now is to avoid Chelsea, Liverpool and the Arse in the next round. Hmmm....