Sorry.... i'm feeling a bit tired at the minute... I should really be asleep now but I've just got too much running round my head. So here I am, half awake, half asleep.... Yawn
I know I haven't blogged for ages, I just haven't really has the time... I know that's a pretty poor excuse but I have just found it incredibly hard recently juggling work (and all the associated crap you get with working for yourself) with everything else... such as a 9 month old baby, an over excited boxerdog and getting organised for Christmas. I think I've failed miserably by the way - I'm definitely not organised for Christmas!
Work has been good recently, I've been very busy and i've got a couple of good new clients. I think at the minute I've got a catalogue job on, a website, a flyer and some business stationery work... so it's looking like I might be busy right up to Christmas and possibly over it!
I really want to push on in the New Year and really establish the business... I thing its progressed quite steadily over the last year or so and hopefully fingers crossed it can carry on in the right direction. I want more clients and more work next year, so I will be doing much more marketing.
I very nearly wrote a post a few weeks back that would have been a bit of a moan and a grumble from myself about some of the negative sides of working for yourself. But thankfully I didn't... the thing is, you see I've finally learnt that you can't dwell on things, you have to develop a thick skin and sometimes bite your tongue, smile and move on... for every pain in the arse, bad client there a couple of really great clients who your happy to go the extra mile for, who appreciate your work and are happy to pay for it.
Anyway grumble over, I'm not going to go into detail and tell you about what very nearly triggered my rant... I'll save it for another day!
Night all
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
Wednesday, 14 December 2011
Tuesday, 8 November 2011
Midfield General
So on the day Sir Alex is given the honor of having the North Stand named after him in recognition of his 25 years service at Old Trafford, I couldn't help thinking that a better gift might have been a couple of new central midfielders.
The performance against Sunderland was a slight improvement but I still came away feeling pretty disappointed at what I'd seen. United are playing with a real lack of confidence, there's no creativity, we just don't make as many chances as we used to... its not enjoyable to watch.
Personally I think the problem is in midfield, that's certainly the long term problem anyway - I know that United will start playing better over the next few weeks, they will start winning games more convincingly and that certain player will get there confidence back but we definitely need to invest in our midfield.
To be honest we probably need a couple of midfielders - I think we need a specialist defensive midfielder and a creative playmaker, a real 'Midfield General' that can dictate play. I remember when we bought Roy Keane, we already had Paul Ince, Nicky Butt and Bryan Robson at the club - thats four world class defensive/all round midfield players, not to mention the creative midfield players that we also had at the club.
The current squad doesn't have that strength in midfield, there are only really two that i'm happy with... I like Darren Fletcher, I think hes good player, he covers a lot of ground, works hard, can tackle and pass. Tom Cleverley looks the part when he is fit, I think he could become a special player for us but he's still quite young. I've given up on Anderson - he's just so inconsistent, there might be a great player hiding in there somewhere but how long do we have to wait. He's been here a long time now and he should be playing at consistent level but I think he's been shocking recently. The other so called 'Midfielder' is Carrick - I don't know what's gone wrong with him, but I think he's awful - there's no passion, no running, he can't tackle, he gives the ball away all the time, he isn't a goal threat - I don't rate him!
Hopefully, fingers crossed we'll do a bit of shopping in January and bring in a couple of players.
The performance against Sunderland was a slight improvement but I still came away feeling pretty disappointed at what I'd seen. United are playing with a real lack of confidence, there's no creativity, we just don't make as many chances as we used to... its not enjoyable to watch.
Personally I think the problem is in midfield, that's certainly the long term problem anyway - I know that United will start playing better over the next few weeks, they will start winning games more convincingly and that certain player will get there confidence back but we definitely need to invest in our midfield.
To be honest we probably need a couple of midfielders - I think we need a specialist defensive midfielder and a creative playmaker, a real 'Midfield General' that can dictate play. I remember when we bought Roy Keane, we already had Paul Ince, Nicky Butt and Bryan Robson at the club - thats four world class defensive/all round midfield players, not to mention the creative midfield players that we also had at the club.
The current squad doesn't have that strength in midfield, there are only really two that i'm happy with... I like Darren Fletcher, I think hes good player, he covers a lot of ground, works hard, can tackle and pass. Tom Cleverley looks the part when he is fit, I think he could become a special player for us but he's still quite young. I've given up on Anderson - he's just so inconsistent, there might be a great player hiding in there somewhere but how long do we have to wait. He's been here a long time now and he should be playing at consistent level but I think he's been shocking recently. The other so called 'Midfielder' is Carrick - I don't know what's gone wrong with him, but I think he's awful - there's no passion, no running, he can't tackle, he gives the ball away all the time, he isn't a goal threat - I don't rate him!
Hopefully, fingers crossed we'll do a bit of shopping in January and bring in a couple of players.
Thursday, 22 September 2011
Stop Limping!
Quick update on 'Weak Knees Ryan' - he's still limping. I think he's doing it out of habit, he's just very reluctant to use his bad leg, so when I take him out he limps all the way down the road!
I can get him to stop limping by threatening to take him home, I turn around and start walking back towards the house and then he pulls the lead and put his bad leg down so that its harder for me to drag him home. We can then start walking normally for a bit but the limp always come back. I hope its just a habit and I hope that eventually he will start to walk normally. We have another appointment in a couple of weeks, so fingers crossed he's still on course!
I can get him to stop limping by threatening to take him home, I turn around and start walking back towards the house and then he pulls the lead and put his bad leg down so that its harder for me to drag him home. We can then start walking normally for a bit but the limp always come back. I hope its just a habit and I hope that eventually he will start to walk normally. We have another appointment in a couple of weeks, so fingers crossed he's still on course!
It's Time To Leave The Party
So late last night, shortly before I collapsed into my bed I noticed a few people on Twitter and Facebook mention that REM had decided to split. Its one of those things that kind of makes you feel both sad and happy, it makes you feel sad if like me your a fan of the band but also it kind of instantly takes you back to the reason you why you really like a band, you start to remember certain records and concerts. So it was quite nice to go to bed dreaming of watching REM at Glastonbury, many years ago.
When I heard last night that they had split up I guessed that they must have been going for at least 30 years and today after reading an article or two I see that I was right... 31 years to be precise. They've been going almost as long as me. I know a lot of people probably only know them from the mid nineties where they had some massive records but I actually really like their early stuff - definitely worth a listen.
When I heard last night that they had split up I guessed that they must have been going for at least 30 years and today after reading an article or two I see that I was right... 31 years to be precise. They've been going almost as long as me. I know a lot of people probably only know them from the mid nineties where they had some massive records but I actually really like their early stuff - definitely worth a listen.
Thursday, 8 September 2011
Eric 'Weak Knees' Ryan
So then we had some good news on Monday, we took Eric back to the specialists so that they could check on his progress and after an x-ray they confirmed that its all looking good - which was a big big relief!
I should really have posted about this before, I might have mentioned it in passing but I don't think i've posted about it in any real detail. To be honest its been a bit of a worry because after making some good progress he suddenly started to limp again and I was sure that they were going to tell me that it hadn't worked.
Eric, for those of you that don't know, is our big bouncy boxerdog and after walking him a few months ago he developed a limp. Initially we weren't really too concerned because it had happened before and he'd be okay the next day but this time the limp didn't go away. We could still walk him, he'd run about as normal but the limp would return by the time we got home. So I took him to the vets, the very excellent Mrs Bendelow in Swinton, and she straight away noticed the problem and put eric on some pain killers. The limp disappeared but returned once the course had finished so the next stage was for us to get Eric's knee x-rayed and that showed that he had some mild arthritis and possible ligament damage which meant a visit to the specialists in St. Helens and the possibility of an operation.
Eric actually went in for the operation the same day that he had his first appointment at the specialists, the problem with his knee was something that is very common in dogs. Basically they develop this ligament disease that weakens the tendon in their knee and it has to be removed and replaced with an artificial joint, apparently the only breed of dog that they don't see it in is the greyhound. One of the surgeons told me that he see two dogs a day with the same problem.
Thankfully we were insured and it's just about covered the cost of his treatment, the operation cost something like £2000 and rather worryingly they told us that there is a 50% chance of it happening in Eric other knee within 18 months!
So this last month has been a bit of a nightmare as like I said earlier he started limping again a couple of weeks ago when initially things were looking great. The specialist reckons that its nothing to worry about, I think they took a bit of fluid out of knee and to be honest he's actually started walking a little bit better this last couple of day. Recovery is going to be slow, we've been told that it might take up until Christmas - we have to walk him for about 15 minutes, 3 times a day on the lead and we can increase this by 5 minutes each week.
I just can't wait to have him back to normal - he's dying to run around again and hopefully we might be able to let him off the lead in a month or so. We have another appointment in about 4 weeks at the specialists and we will keep and fingers and paws crossed!
Eric actually went in for the operation the same day that he had his first appointment at the specialists, the problem with his knee was something that is very common in dogs. Basically they develop this ligament disease that weakens the tendon in their knee and it has to be removed and replaced with an artificial joint, apparently the only breed of dog that they don't see it in is the greyhound. One of the surgeons told me that he see two dogs a day with the same problem.
Thankfully we were insured and it's just about covered the cost of his treatment, the operation cost something like £2000 and rather worryingly they told us that there is a 50% chance of it happening in Eric other knee within 18 months!
So this last month has been a bit of a nightmare as like I said earlier he started limping again a couple of weeks ago when initially things were looking great. The specialist reckons that its nothing to worry about, I think they took a bit of fluid out of knee and to be honest he's actually started walking a little bit better this last couple of day. Recovery is going to be slow, we've been told that it might take up until Christmas - we have to walk him for about 15 minutes, 3 times a day on the lead and we can increase this by 5 minutes each week.
I just can't wait to have him back to normal - he's dying to run around again and hopefully we might be able to let him off the lead in a month or so. We have another appointment in about 4 weeks at the specialists and we will keep and fingers and paws crossed!
Wednesday, 31 August 2011
August Playlist
Here's my playlist for August - Enjoy!
01
Modest Mouse – Bukowski
02
Howlin’ Wolf – How Many More Years
03
Boards Of Canada – Dayvan Cowboy
04
Cornelius – Drop
05
The New Pornographers – Mass Romantic
06
Lambchop – Up With People
07
Bert Jansch – Angie
08
Guy Clark – LA Freeway
09 Super
Furry Animals – Hermann Loves Pauline
10
Palace Brothers – You Will Miss Me When I Burn
11
Laura Veirs – Don’t Lose Yourself
12
Spinto Band – Oh Mandy
13
Elliott Smith – No Confidence Man
14
Captain Beefheart – Electricity
15
The Knife – Heartbeats
16
Love – A House Is Not A Hotel
17
Cinematic Orchestra (Feat. Patrick Watson) – To Build A Home
18
The Band – King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
19
Spain – Untitled #1
20
Brendan Benson – Tiny Spark http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hniX0LLSVak
The Eyes Are The Window Of The Soul
So another transfer window has shut... I've sat here for the last couple of hours watching Sky Sports News report as clubs have frantically scrambled to make their last minute signings before the 11pm deadline.
I don't know why it's such compelling viewing, it's ridiculous really but it's so addictive... I know really I'm watching because I'm secretly hoping that United will sign some big name player - although I know they hardly ever do any last minute business.
To be honest I much prefer the United way of operating, they identify their targets early and they get the deals sorted at the start of the summer. This then means that the players have longer to settle in and the club can concentrate on getting the team prepared for the start of the season.
A lot of the deals that have gone through today just seem rushed to me, I just think to myself are these really the players the clubs want, do the players themselves really want to play for these clubs or is just that everyone is that desperate to do a deal that they settle for second best. For example I'm not sure that Arsenal would have bought who they've bought if it wasn't for the fact that they were running out of time. Now i know that its not all there fault, the situation with Nasri and Fabregas has dragged on all summer because they obviously wanted to get the best price for these players but it meant they had no time to bring in players of equal quality.
Apparently £450 million has been spent during this window - it's incredible, the transfer market certainly doesn't reflect the economy. I suppose for a lot of clubs it's just one big gamble, a roll of the dice. I don't know why they bother... there's only one winner this season!
I don't know why it's such compelling viewing, it's ridiculous really but it's so addictive... I know really I'm watching because I'm secretly hoping that United will sign some big name player - although I know they hardly ever do any last minute business.
To be honest I much prefer the United way of operating, they identify their targets early and they get the deals sorted at the start of the summer. This then means that the players have longer to settle in and the club can concentrate on getting the team prepared for the start of the season.
A lot of the deals that have gone through today just seem rushed to me, I just think to myself are these really the players the clubs want, do the players themselves really want to play for these clubs or is just that everyone is that desperate to do a deal that they settle for second best. For example I'm not sure that Arsenal would have bought who they've bought if it wasn't for the fact that they were running out of time. Now i know that its not all there fault, the situation with Nasri and Fabregas has dragged on all summer because they obviously wanted to get the best price for these players but it meant they had no time to bring in players of equal quality.
Apparently £450 million has been spent during this window - it's incredible, the transfer market certainly doesn't reflect the economy. I suppose for a lot of clubs it's just one big gamble, a roll of the dice. I don't know why they bother... there's only one winner this season!
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