Footsteps in the dark

Colindale, London, England // 8.32 pm // Mostly clear 21ºc / 70ºf

First post of the month... the way things are going there might not be any more this month either! A backlog of stuff to do is piling up, and I don't see much time between now and Cuba to get stuck into that either.

Obviously lots has happened since the last blog post that I've forgotton by now. Actually, over the last couple of days I've been contemplating whether I should keep doing this blog or not, given that my life is so well documented on Facebook and Twitter anyway. Your thoughts please.

One thing that does stand out in the last couple of weeks is Celtic qualifying for the playoff stage of the Champions League qualifiers. We lost to Dinamo Moscow at home, before rewriting our history books and beating them away to win the tie. This was the first competitive away win in 7 or 8 years, the first time any Scottish team has overturned a first leg home defeat for 50 years or so, and the first time Celtic have EVER done it. It was a special night, and the next leg will almost be as special as we are playing Arsenal! I was hoping to get a hold of some tickets for the game here in London, but season ticket holders get first dibs on the briefs. I'll have to wait and see if there will be a general sale for any remaining tickets. The first leg in Glasgow is next week!

Last Thursday I got the train back up to Saltcoats for another long weekend in Scotland. It almost started with a disaster though. I got onto the train at Euston, found my seat, and proceeded to try and squeeze my luggage into the overhead compartment, which was approximately half the width of my bag. I wasn't going to be beaten though, and after trying to compress it further I tried to force it in again. I gave it one almighty push, my right hand slipped, and all of a sudden I was putting all my forward force onto my thumb, which was bent right back towards my wrist completely unnaturally. I saw, and felt, the almighty pain and just waited for it to pop out of its socket. Thankfully, it didn't, otherwise the trip home would already have been called off in order for a trip to A&E! But the thumb was in complete agony for the rest of the weekend, and still hurts to quite an extent now.

The train journey up there was unusually uncomfortable. The carriage was quite cramped, and I didn't have a window to the side of me. Nothing too bad though. When I got back to my mums in Saltcoats, she had made me a big pot of chilli con carne. Later that night I went to my friend Stephen's, and our friend Big Craig also came along for a good catch up and a few beers.

On Friday afternoon I caught up with another good friend, before getting ready to go out for a meal in Ayr with Stephen and two of his friends. We stayed out in Ayr - the night was ok, but was definitely surpassed by the following night.

On Saturday afternoon my dad came to pick me up and take me to Tesco in Irvine where I got together the ingredients to make Sichuan Beef for my mum and John. Took me about three hours to make, was a wee bit more complicated in a kitchen I'm no longer familiar with, but the end result was fantastic. Barely gave me enough time to get ready to go out though, but I managed. 

On Saturday night Stephen and I hit Saltcoats. Although people slag it off, I love going out in Saltcoats. It's my hometown and a large bit of my heart is still there. Plus most of my friends and family. Stephen and I went to our usual pubs, and it immediately became obvious that this was a different kind of night. The town was jumping, and the atmosphere was fantastic. This was also the case in the town's one and only club, the Metro, which has usually been a bit shit the last few times we've been. This time round though we had a great night, despite getting caught right in the middle of a rather large fight (one of the many that night). I also bumped into a lot of old faces, including some people I hadn't seen for at least 8 years.

Sunday. I felt rough. Very rough, and my dad was planning to take me to a fantastic Italian restaurant in the afternoon. I was determined to go, but felt worse as they day went on, and once my dad arrived at mine he decided that it wouldn't be the best idea. Instead, we went back to his for a little while before we headed out on our usual Sunday night pub crawl. Drinking was the last thing I wanted to do. I knew I had to be sick... that way I'd get rid of whatever was in my stomach that was making me feel so shit, and be able to carry on. I felt like I was going to be sick a few times, but no joy. In desperation to feel better, I resorted to desperate measures. In a moment of madness, I induced it by myself - the old two fingers down the throat technique. I'd never done it in my life, never even contemplated it before, but my god does it work! I was spewing away like something out of The Exorcist. Minutes later, I was on top of the world. I don't condone this kind of action, especially as I was making myself sick just so I could go out and drink again, but it did help me enjoy the rest of the day/night.

We met up with my uncle, auntie and stepmum (my dad's brother, sister and wife) and had a few drinks in their local before a lovely, much needed, Chinese meal. After that we all headed into town and to a pub my other uncle was working it, and spent most of the rest of the night there. It was a great laugh, and as always one of the main highlights of the weekend.

Headed back to London on Monday afternoon. The train journey back wasn't half as bad as the way up. Had the day off Tuesday, so I caught up with a lot of stuff. Had a hellish night sleep on Tuesday night, sleeping only for the last 30 minutes before I had to get up for work. Managed to struggle through yesterday at work, and slept like a baby last night.

Speaking of last night, Scotland played their World Cup qualifier against Norway. Getting some kind of result was so important last night. Instead, Gary Caldwell got sent off and the game just fell apart from there. We ended up losing 4-0. We have two games left - both at home against Macedonia and The Netherlands. We really need to win both. I'm not sure we can. Roll on World Cup 2010.

Pride

Colindale, London, England // 7.30 pm // Partly cloudy 19ºc / 66ºf

Last weekend was quite packed, and lots of fun. On Saturday, a little late as always, Elle and I headed down to Mottingham in South East London to catch up with our friends Ciara and Paul. Paul broke his leg a few months back and is still on crutches, but was getting around fairly well. Elle and I were friends with Ciara at uni, and she and Paul are getting married in the near future, which will involved a trip for us to Northern Ireland. Anyway, the main reason for going down there was for a catch-up and BBQ. The weather was actually really good on Saturday, as was the food. Elle and I even enjoyed the chilli prawns that were done on the grill, despite not being very adventurous when it comes to seafood. After the BBQ we went back inside and had a good few drinks, played some games, and then left around 10.45pm to catch the last train back into Central London.

I woke up fairly early on Sunday, and headed to Wembley again for the second installment of the Wembley Cup. After lunch at KFC, I headed to the Crock O' Gold pub near the stadium to once again meet up with Tam and the others. On the way there I noticed that the whole feeling and atmosphere around the place was different to Friday. It was much more vibrant with many many more Celtic fans than Friday. This day was going to be different.

I got to the pub and found it, somehow, twice as busy as the last time. Just as I got to the front of the bar, I got a text from Tam telling me he was also in the pub. I had assumed they had already been through, got their drinks, and were in the beer garden. So I waited at the bar for my turn to be served. And waited. And waited. For almost 20 minutes I was being practically ignored. I started to feel potential violence surge up inside of me. There are only two things that really really annoy me in life to the point that I'm scared I'm going to hurt someone. For the life of me, I really can't remember right now what the other one is. But the main one is poor, unexplainable, pointlessly bad bar service. Somehow I kept my cool and finally got served, buying two pints at once so I didn't have to repeat the experience any time soon. Just as my pints were arriving, I got another text from Tam. This time telling me the pub was too full, they gave up and went to the stadium! So there was me, on my tod, with two full pints in my hands.

I duly finished them and headed to the stadium too, and caught up with them at the bar there, where the bar service was completely the opposite. I managed the full transaction - request, handing money, receiving - in about 6 seconds. Incredible. Although this was a good 90 minutes before the Celtic game was due to start, so the place wasn't exactly full at that point. Barcalona were playing Al-Ahly on the pitch, but unsurprisingly most of the Celtic fans were more interested in sinking a few pints, which is what we did.

Just before the Celtic game was due to start, we headed out into the stand, and it became obvious that this was a Celtic event. Not a Tottenham event. We had at least three times more supporters in the stadium than Tottenham. In their own backyard! It was a very proud night for Celtic and their fans. We were in fine voice throughout the game, and it paid off. We played a very good night of football, with a very young, almost reserve team, and still comprehensively beat Spurs 2-0 to win the first ever Wembley Cup. I stayed for the presentation of the cup itself before heading home. And the good news is it's likely we will come back next year to defend the title.

Throughout the whole weekend there was not a single hint of any kind of trouble that I spotted. Everyone was on their best behaviour, and it just proved and solidified the brilliant reputation that the team's fans has. I wonder if Rangers can repeat the good behaviour this weekend as they hit London for the Emirates Cup. Somehow I doubt it.

Back to work on Monday, prepared for the radio show on Monday night and did the show on Tuesday night, which was another good one.

Last night Celtic played Dynamo Moscow in the 2nd round 1st leg Champions League qualifier. I was very hopeful about the game given the great pre-season we've had so far. Annoyingly, the game wasn't show on any single TV channel anywhere in the world, which has to be the first time this has been the case for a very long time. Well actually, the Brisbane game wasn't on anywhere either but that was a friendly! Anyway, the only place you could see the game was Celtic's online TV channel, Channel 67. As it happens, I subscribed to this last week to watch the Celtic v Cardiff City friendly, so I was over the moon that I'd actually get to see the first important game of the season.

But no. Celtic obviously completely underestimated the demand. The website was down all evening as it was too busy. I tried several times but failed. I tried to listen via the Radio Scotland website but they didn't have the rights. In the end I had to opt for a less-than-legit stream via a dodgy website, which in the end was a simulcast of the official Channel 67 stream, so obviously some people got to login. Anyway, it was a frustrating game. We played fairly well from the point I saw the game, 15 minutes in. Unfortunately, we lost a goal before that, and that's how the game stayed - we lost 1-0. I can only now pray that we can turn around our shockingly bad away record in Europe and beat them in Moscow next week to qualify for the next qualifying round, where we'll play an even trickier team. If we don't win next week, we won't even see the Europa League.

Day off work today, and I had lots to keep me busy. I left the flat around 10.30 this morning to finally enroll at the local doctor's surgery. To do that, I had to call my old surgery in Reading and request my NHS number. Apparently I should have a card, but I don't ever recall seeing one in my life! I have a  general appointment with a nurse in mid-August but I do need to try and sort out seeing someone before that as I need vaccinations for Cuba.

After that I headed down to the Royal Mail delivery office to pick up some vinyl that arrived for me earlier in the week, which was a 1986 vinyl compilation of Earth Wind & Fire tracks called "The Collection". I came back to the flat to tidy and have some lunch after that, before heading out again for a haircut, a quick beer in The Stag in Burnt Oak, then to Asda to pick up ingredients for tonight's meal that I'm cooking.

The meal will be interesting. I've never cooked a fish dish, ever, but tonight it is salmon and asparagus supper. I've never really had salmon before either, and Elle is just a less likely to try seafood as me. But we're going to try and venture into that whole realm with my next few recipes to see how it goes.

Actually, I should go and make a start on that now.

Video blog: Road to Wembley

Colindale, London, England // 11.55 pm // Partly cloudy 15ºc / 59ºf

Video post: We're on the road to Wemberlee

Colindale, London, England // 7.16 pm // Partly cloudy 19ºc / 66ºf

Keeps ticking away

Colindale, London, England // 5.24 pm // Mostly cloudy 18c / 64f

Halfway through the week, and it's been a pretty heavy one so far. Something I neglected to say in my last blog post was that on Sunday Elle managed to do something for me that I had been hoping to happen for 8 years. She found square sausage in England! Square/lorne sausage/slice is a Scottish delicacy, and is something I grew up on back home. Right now, now that I'm thinking about it, there's nothing I want more than a roll and slice with a tattie scone. Anyway, I digress. I noticed on Twitter that some random had said something about square sausage. So I tweeted back something about the fact I've never been able to find it in 8 years is one of the biggest downsides of living in England. She replied shortly afterwards. Turns out she lives in Coventry, and Iceland sell the stuff! Elle headed to our nearest Iceland in Burnt Oak and, right enough, they do sell it!! It's hardly as good as the stuff you get out of the butchers back home, but my god will it do! Now all I need is a place I can buy Scotch pies and bridies...

Monday was my last day of the long weekend. I slept till around 10am and did some DXing. A guy from British Gas came round around lunchtime to do the annual gas boiler inspection and safety check, and thankfully all was ok. Monday afternoon mainly consisted of getting the flat in order, doing loads of dishes, preparing for the radio show and doing more DXing. Later, I headed to Asda to get ingredients for dinner, which has been named "Spaghetti Shenanigans", and is basically chicken and bacon spaghetti with tomatoes, garlic and herbs, with garlic bread. It was, of course, really bloody good. I also came across one of the most impressive things about anything I've done cooking wise yet since I started all this. I'm now fascinated by the process of peeling tomatoes. It's soo easy!

Yesterday I went back to work and was really suffering from tiredness when I got home. But, I still had to head back out and do the radio show last night, which was really good fun. I loved playing that EWF track - it went down really well.

Still not been successful in getting the handyman into the flat to sort out the sealing around the bath. We rearranged for him to come round this coming Thursday, after he failed to appear last Friday (he simply said "I couldn't make it". No shit). Then he turns up yesterday, two days early, when I'm not in, and calls to ask me where I am! I don't know where my patience comes from.

Yesterday I also received the current Celtic home top, which I neglected to buy when it came out last summer. Thankfully, it's still the home top for this season, and is actually the first time I've actually owned a current Celtic football top, after my £10 steal at Tesco in Reading just days after it was no longer the current strip! I'll be wearing the new top with pride at the Wembley Cup next weekend, which I'm looking forward to immensely!

From the vaults

Colindale, London, England // 12.13 am // Mostly cloudy 16c / 61f

Coming towards the end of my long weekend, and it's been a really good one. It started on Thursday night, when I cooked for us. It was a really simply recipe this time, which was hoi sin and garlic steak and noodles stir fry. I stuck to the recipe, and therefore added no spices which it, in hindsight, probably could've done with, but it was still really good nonetheless.

On Friday, rather than get my much needed lie in, I needed to wake up early as the handyman was due to come round at 9am and reseal the silicon around the bath. Only, the guy never appeared. I called him three hours after he was due to come, and there was no answer. And he failed to respond to the voice message that I left. Two days later, and I've yet to hear anything. I'm pretty sure I'll be taking this up with the landlord tomorrow, and this isn't the first time it's happened.

It's just as well I didn't really have any plans on Friday anyway, so I wasn't put out too much. I ended up doing a lot of cleaning and tidying, and lots of DXing, plus catching up with stuff I meant to do ages ago. Later that evening I headed into town to meet Elle and her friend Olga, and then a load of my workmates for a rare, pre-arranged get-together in a bar in Soho. Elle and I were the first ones there, and true to form the last ones to leave. It was a good evening, and nice to chat to the guys in a non-work setting. I was also glad that Elle had the chance to put some faces to the names she's heard so much about over the last year!

Saturday morning and afternoon was definitely a chilled affair. Elle was definitely suffering more than I was too, due to a slight bit of overindulgence the night before. Still, that evening we went out for a gorgeous Indonesian meal at a restaurant in Colindale that I've wanted to go to since we moved here, "Jakarta". The food was fantastic, as was the service, and it was really well priced too. After that we had a couple of drinks in Wetherspoons and our local before coming back home.

We were going to drive to the restaurant, but we discovered that Elle's car had absolutely no power at all. Not even enough to power the LCD clock on the dashboard. God only knows what drained the battery - nothing was left on - but something did. So that has just compounded the initial problem with the car that caused us to break down on the M1 last month. The joys of driving.

This morning Celtic played the first of their 6 pre-season friendly matches, and the first match the new manager Tony Mowbray has been in charge of. And it was a great start with Celtic beating Brisbane Roar 3-0 in Australia. It sounds like we had a great game, and a very convincing performance. And someone who went to the game told me on Twitter that there was no less than 4 streakers during the game! Next up, Cardiff City a week on Wednesday.

Today has been another really chilled day, again spent catching up with stuff, and doing lots more DXing.

Tonight, thanks to help from a friend in Los Angeles, I came across a series of Earth Wind & Fire demo recordings from the sessions for the Raise! and Powerlight albums of 1981 and 1983 respectively. They are horns demos, and from the sound of the tracks, the songs (which eventually made the album) were in their very early stages, mostly with no discernable vocals, and slightly different structures. And the biggest highlight of coming across this series of recordings is the fact there is a complete, full-length track that has never even been heard, never mind released. And it's vintage EWF. I'm hoping to play that on the show on Tuesday.

The ladder

Colindale, London, England // 8.19 pm // Mostly sunny 16ºc / 61ºf