We won one one nil....

Relief all around the region as Aston Villa win their first game since I cant remember when. A first half goal from Norwegian striker John Carew was enough to earn Aston Villa a narrow but deserved victory over struggling Hull. Carew found space in the box to divert in an Ashley Young left-wing cross with his instep to break the deadlock. Former Villa reserve keeper, Boaz Myhill spared Hull from a heavier scoreline with a number of good saves including a superb point-blank parry from Gabriel Agbonlahor.

Hot on the heels of Birmingham's win at Reading on Sunday, this success was long overdue.

BLUES WIN MARRED BY PHONE IN VILLA ABUSE

Mindless idiots on TOM ROSS's radio phone in yesterday were obviously drunk, as we got the endless barrage of 'back where we belong' and '$hit on The Villa' and the like. Now I've always wanted success for all our local teams, and will do so long after all my teeth have, like my hair, fallen out, but yesterday's sickening phone in tirade, reminded me of the Blues fan who ran onto the pitch when Peter Enkelman let Olof Mellbergs throw in under his foot into the net, and the distasteful Robbie Savage went down like a wet lettuce when Dion Dublin replied to Savages racist comments, resulting in Dublin's red card.

DTW 4/5/2009

Ainsley The Pr1ck with a fork

This photo was forwarded to me by my wonderful daughter Trevor. It claims to be true but with photoshop and all the things one can do, it might not be, although, as the original size and poor quality means it may have been from an actual genuine website thumbnail. A hoax would more likely be better quality! According to the story:

"Poor old Ainsley!!

This is a genuine mistake made in Ireland

This was actually sold in the supermarkets -

until they twigged!!"

DTW 30/4/2009

[Message for the benefit my Mom. May I apologise for my recent posts that seem to be a tad crude and the use of expletive language] [ROFL]

More $hit From The Council

Despite making a claim for Job seekers allowance on 10th March 2009, the claim has not been processed because some w@nker somewhere has decided to scrutinise how we have spent Annette's meagre inheritance, to see if we spent it inappropriately in order to claim JSA.

Once criticism that may be levied at us is that we started shopping at Waitrose a few times and gave Farmfoods and Aldi a miss.

Who the PHUCK do they think they are?

Because of this delay, we have built up rent arrears with the council. Despite many calls from me to the council's benefit service, yesterday we were served with "Notice Seeking Possession" by our ever loving council. The letter was, of course, hand delivered by TWO people from the Neighbourhood office, presumably so they could nip into Oddbins or M&S on their way around.

My main gripe is this preoccupation by both The Council's Benefit Service AND The DWP/Income support office as to our spending patterns! Furthermore, because all the offices are closing down and consolidating, I have to ring a 0845 number which means even with inclusive daytime landline calls I am still paying 7p per minute for the privilege of burning an ulcer through my gastric walls. And I say again.

Who the PHUCK do they think they are?

I know we have been quite lucky to receive this inheritance, but if I'd been working we could have enjoyed the extra money for a decent holiday (which we didn't do this time) rather than use it to just live off. At least I was honest enough to declare it as soon as we received it, and I still had to claim JSA every fortnight to get my NI stamp filled.

We have had to get bank statements for the last 15 months and provide a receipt or justify every amount over £300 spent. Twice (IS & BCC)

Who the PHUCK do they think they are?

DTW 29/4/2009

Google Chrome V Mozilla V IE8

I've just been thumbing through my delivered copy of "Computeractive" Magazine, which is out for sale on Thursday.

I have previously read about browsers, Google Chrome, Opera and Mozilla Firebird, ever since they were made available. In this weeks issue of Computeractive, there are several mentions of Internet Explorer 8 plus the others. So today I downloaded them all, and one by one installed them and gave them The Wilson Once Over (which is different my usual Wham Bam Thank You Ma'am).

After a handful of Co-codamol 30mg and Nurofen Plus and a few pills the drunk on the corner was selling, I wished I hadn't bothered.

Google Chrome.

The only sparkly thing about Chrome, is its name.

Mozilla Firefox.

Likewise the only thing remotely interesting about Mozilla Firefox is it's name, which conjures up a mental image of a robotised fox scampering around cyberspace.

Opera.

Yes you guessed it Opera sounds like an intellectual piece of kit and is a big let down too.

Internet Explorer 8.

IE8 is a cleaner looking IE7 with slightly faster Internet access and the tabs are smoother in their operation. Overall I felt most comfortable with IE as its what I've been used to. Unfortunately, Bill Gates will only get even more richer as the opposition are far poorer by comparison.

I have worked at places that use APPLE/MAC, and found them very easy to use with extremely quick file retrieval as a PC, but Internet access seems slow as most servers seem to use MS, and there is an innate incompatibility between them and the APPLE browser, SAFARI. The only other Operating system after the big two (assuming that 8% for Apple is counted as big!) is LINUX.

As an old friend of mine once said, when I asked him about using Linux, Linux is for computer geeks. Stay away!

I have never considered Linux after that.

I am now using IE8 and like I said, it works well, I am used to it, and hopefully, all the bugs with IE7/Explorer have been worked out of the system, and there will be no more crashing.

DTW 28/4/2009

Addendum: at 18:15 "I spoke too soon, It's crashed again."

Reflections

Well the Soccer season is nearing its conclusion. Birmingham City blew the chance to gain automatic promotion on Saturday night. Winning 1-0 they eventually lost 2-1 to the Pressed-on Northenders. Lee Bowyer did what he always does best and was red carded for yet another girlie fight on the pitch. After his punch up with Keiran Dwyer (both playing for Newcastle United) against the glorious Aston Villa a few years ago, you'd suspect he would have learned to behave, but realistically if I was on £30,000 per WEEK I wouldn't care either.

The Baggies seem to have at last found their testicles this weekend and put a few in against The Mackems, but is it too much, too little, too late? Methinks so

As for The Villa, they seem destined to scrape in at 5th place, having halted a run of 6 defeats with 4 draws, but they still look like they can't win to save their life!

30 miles up the A38, Burton Albion have achieved league status for the first time ever! Well done to The Brewers.

What this area needs is perpetual or continual Premier League football with a strong (West and East) Midlands presence, and the yoyo teams, a title currently held by Small Heath Alliance, and West Bromwich Albion, to be London or Lancashire teams, like Charlton, West Ham, Bolton and Wigan. Then there's the banter preceding the big games Baggies v Wolves, Blues v Villa even Derby v Forest and Leicester v Coventry, followed by six months of bragging half of us and six months of cringing for the other half. Such a great feeling. Even if you've lost, you still have the belief that you can bounce back in the next game. Its such a pity that we've had such a void in that department in this area for so long.

I always will be a Villan, but unlike many others, I follow my local teams and hope they all do nearly as well as Villa. Next season 2009-10, it'll be Villa/Blues/Wolves in the Premier League. Let's hope that all three stay up and are joined for 2010-11 by the Baggies and even Coventry. Lets also pray for the relegation of West Ham, Spurs, Fulham, Bolton and Wigan.

DTW 27/4/2009

St Georges Day, 2009

[Both JPEGs have been plagiarised from other sites]

DTW - 23/4/2009

Standing Room Only!

This morning was the funeral of old family friend, Keith Wall. So in the space of 10 days, I've visited Yardley Crematorium twice.

We drove up the artery road from Stockfield Road to the chapel, and had no idea what awaited us, as the area was packed with people waiting for the hearse. As we slowly filed in, the main chapel room became full and the overspill went up the stairs to the balcony. 170 people must've turned out to pay their respects. Keith's casket was draped in The Union Flag, and he had Two flag bearers to accompany him to his final destination. In the service, between the two hymns, daughter Angela gave us a thorough and deeply touching speech, to which the mourners gave a rapturous ovation. Incidentally, it was really nice to see the cheeky smiling Nigel after 40 years. At the committal, we heard a recording of a sole bugle playing "The Last Post" and "The Rouse" separated by a minute silence. I'd never seen this before in real life and it was most moving. As we left the chapel, the lump in my throat doubled as Frank Sinatra sang "My Way".

Earlier back at Muriel's house, we'd seen hundreds of sympathy cards too, overtaking every inch of shelving space in the extended living room.

Keith (as we know) was obviously very very well liked and will be greatly missed by so many of us.

DTW 20/4/2009

[An apology to the family: In my previous blog, I'd incorrectly identified the cause of Keith's death as MRSA. This was wrong, although Vasculitis can be caused by many factors including MRSA]