My beloved Reds www.reds.co.uk made the play offs for the 1st time in super league this season which is a great achievment given that we are one of the smallest teams with a small salary cap compared to the big guns of the league,play offs start in a couple of weeks so im hoping we can progress a little further.Some brutal defence has paved the way and as our home ground is known as the most hostile in Rugby League our little stadium has become a bit of a fortress.We all hope we get our new stadium for 2009 though and hope it can generate the same sort of atmosphere as The Willows.

Some other good news is that my old mate Vanilla the Hippy (Erik) has,with his beautifull girlfriend Susanne decided to get married later this month so,from Jan,Jim and myself hope you have a wonderfull day and enjoy the rest of your lives together and rest assured i’ll take some time to visit and i wont forget the scissors to cut your bloody hair,its beyond a joke now,its more than hippy its like a bloody italian footballers hair .

Seriously though,we are very happy for you,and we’ll raise a glass or two in the UK on the 30th to celebrate.

They did some lovely things including several prayers and songs and a part where all of them in turn told of their best or funniest memory from school.A couple of the kids were weeping so badly they struggled to get through it which was hard to watch,couldnt help but feel sorry for them all.

Now James and all his classmates will go their seperate ways as they attend their respective High schools,only 6 i think from James class will join him at his High school from 31.

Collecting him this afternoon was equally as hard as in the playground they were visibly upset and giving each other hugs and stuff.I do hope some of them manage to stay in contact as they are a great bunch,i spent a year reading with them in 2001/2 twice a week to help relieve the pressure on the teacher at the time and its something i remember well and with happiness.

Good Luck to them all.

2.5 hrs later and several passivley smoked large joints i stumbled out of the gig slighty deaf and wearing a big grin.

http://www.georgeclinton.com/

Brilliant….

Next gig …John Cooper Clarke the Punk Poet.

Saturday morning was spent doing some retail therapy shopping for nexts months vacation to Samos,all the better as the shops were very quiet as most people seemed to be queing at the supermarkets for bbq food and beer for the big match,i wisely decided to take a nap while England were doing what they do best in football (promising everything and delivering f**k all).

Saturday night we trvelled to some friends house who live near a nice quiet country pub which welcomes kids AND serves great beer (a very rare thing) then back to there house where james took a midnight dip in their indoor pool.

Sunday was more retail therapy down at the Lowry centre with Janet and James and for once james didnt whine while shopping so we took him to Heaton park for some fun,then topped it off with a nice late sunday afternoon pub lunch,James managed to eat a entire sirloin steak (adult size) for the 1st time ever,he wishes to eat more meat as his rugby coach has told him it increases muscle,so bless him he tucked away like only a 11yr old can .

We came home just in time to avoid the evening storm which left some homes under a metre of water only a couple of miles from us,even by rainy Manchester standards it was truly terrible,i watched this from my windows with a leffe in hand and felt quite cosy !

V6 vroom vroom…….

BUT !

I find i am losing the will to live while watching it,even Brazil are boring for gods sake.

By the way,have you decided on a send off for the famous boots yet…simple burial ?,Viking funeral with people humming the tune from the Vikings movie ?,or just gonna be a sling in the bin type thing ?

Anyway.all is quiet in Manchester,as usual its been raining (on and off for 4 days) now and no sign of any sun

But on the positive side of things my strawberries are coming along strong,i think we have had near a kilo of them so far and 5 of them even survived a replanting while in fruit.Thats obviously down to my awesome gardening skills and the type of songs i play to them when re-planting and trimming……

To save myself the inevitable questions……

The Rezillos,Joy Division,Ladytron,William Orbit and Frederica Von Stadt are what strawberries get jiggy to

James paticularly enjoys the sports mode on the gearbox which really makes a differance when toying with BMW’s on the M60

Pctures to follow asap.

On the coast of Jutland is this series of old bunkers built by the Germans in WW2 which we had a fun time exploring.Cream brought a nice picnic and a few chilled beers