Niiiice!

Not the most interesting week ever, but another step closer to Christmas.

I spent the whole of Sunday either watching the Fast Show, eating a lot of food or drinking beer. Darren and Katie are moving back to New Zealand next week, and it was the last time I’d see them for any decent length of time. We started at Jim’s by watching the Fast Show, enlightening Darren as to its charms! After tiring of that and the Wii, we went to the Oak Tree in Sherwood for what was intended as lunch, but the sheer size of the portions of our Baguette and chips floored me and Jim, whereas Darren made light work of his triple burger and chips.

Later on, we met Katie and Sian at Brown’s in Hockley, before heading off to Revolution. I had some crazy Jaffa Cake cocktail in there, filled with milk & chocolate sauce and well worth the £5.25!

After a discussion on where to eat for dinner (”Shall we eat at Revolution? Red Hot Buffet Shacks?”), we settled on Zizzi’s Italian restaurant on King Street. Bearing in mind the hotness of the Calzone I had there once before, I decided to steer well clear of anything that had chillies in. I chose the rather safe option of the Goats Cheese & Spinach Ravioli and was happy enough with it - can’t beat authentic Italian pasta.

In the age of the Internet, it isn’t really a goodbye to Darren & Katie as they head back over the other side of the world - our frequent contact with China-based Iain is proof of that - and Darren himself has promised to come back to England in the near future. Still, it’s always sad when your mates leave.

I bought £75 worth of clothes for my Christmas present yesterday. It was initially hard to decide what to buy, but a good search in Tk Maxx and Sports World has seen my money spent wisely. I managed to find the previous season Forest top available for just a tenner, long sleeved too! I already have this years Forest top, but seeing as I bought it in the spring, I thought it best to actually have a Forest shirt that fits me!

Having slimmed down to a normal size, it also made it incredibly easy to buy clothes too. It certainly beats those fucking Big ‘n Tall clothes shops that succeed in only ripping you off.

It was my sister Megan’s birthday yesterday, so it was another dinner out!! She chose to go to Piano in Radcliffe, another Italian restaurant. It was nice, though I always knew it would be having had food there before.

In the land of the football, Forest finally seemed to have found a bit of form, dominating the games against Crewe and Lincoln. Here’s hoping that it proves the catalyst for our promotion bid.

And that’s this week, in a nutshell!

Anyone?

Steve McLaren gets the sack from England after we fail to qualify, and it seems the job is not that much of a hot prospect anymore.

Most of the previous candidates have ruled themselves out (Allardyce for one), O’Neill and Mourinho look unlikely to take the job, which leaves us with who?

Fabio Capello and Marcello Lippi have both shown an interest, which I assume is good - but my knowledge of them and what they’ve achieved still isn’t great. Rafael Benitez has hinted he may be interested in the job, but with his constant tinkering for Liverpool, I don’t think we want to go there. There is also Harry Redknapp. He’s the leading English candidate who’s yet to turn down the opportunity, but he readily admits that he doesn’t expect to be considered.

Seems like the managers have realised how much of a poisoned chalice this job has become. I fully expect the FA to take their time over this, so a new manager in before Christmas seems unlikely. But seeing as we have a friendly in February, they won’t leave it that long.

Away from footy, the new series of the Mighty Boosh started last week. While last weeks episode was funny, yesterdays was genius. I’d worried that the Boosh boys might have wilted under the pressure of expectation, but I shouldn’t have. It is as mental as ever.

Getting Away With It

England get lucky.

What annoys me about all this is, should we somehow happen to beat Croatia next Wednesday, we’ll be subjected to Steve McLaren’s FUCKING smiley face until at least next summer. We’ll also get players such as Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand and others telling us how ‘we’ll win Euro 2008′,’this is the best England side ever’ and generally making us believe we’re better than we actually are.

That’s what gets me the most about the players, is it’s all talk and no end product. Steven Gerrard (NOT FUCKING STEVIE - Unlike almost all of the media, I refuse to call him that!) has said previously that this is the best England side he’s ever been part of. So how does he explain the consistent under-performing? Aside from having a coach so woefully out of his depth, we have players who seem to talk about how much of a privilege it is to play for their country without actually showing any evidence of that out on the pitch. The England players of recent times have never really looked like a team, more like 11 Premiership footballers.

I can’t see us beating Croatia, but then I also couldn’t see Russia losing to Israel. So I don’t know what to believe…

Folking Hell!

A very shit day yesterday.

I had a check up at the dentist, only to find out that I need some work doing on a chipped tooth. The tooth has broke and the filling inside the tooth is starting to wear away. Apparently the walls of this tooth aren’t very strong, the only option being a gold crown to hold it all together.

The minute the dentist said Gold was enough for me, I knew what was coming. It’s costing me £194 to have some shiny yellow metal put in my mouth. A hundred and ninety four!!

To top it all off, I lost my TrentBarton buscard yesterday. I pay £55 monthly for this card, and after I’d left the dentist I reached into my pocket to get it and it wasn’t there. I went back to the dentist and checked with them, walked around West Bridgford and retraced my steps but to no avail.

Turns out that TrentBarton, unlike NCT, can’t replace lost cards. NCT charge you a pound or two for the trouble, TrentBarton simply don’t bother. So on top of the £194, I’ve now got to fork out another £55.

ARSEHOLES!

The Golden Age

London St Pancras reopened its doors yesterday as St Pancras International. A fancy opening ceremony brought about a ‘new age of rail travel’. With the Eurostar terminal moving to the north side of London, it brings European rail travel to the masses.

Eurostar and East Midlands Trains are working together to offer tickets taking you from Nottingham to France/Belgium, needing only to get off a train in St Pancras, flash your passport at the barrier and hop on the Eurostar trains taking no more than 4 and a half hours from Nottingham to Europe.

I’m keen to try out this service when it’s all available next year. I like flying, but when a way of crossing the channel arrives on your doorstep, it’d be silly not to give it a try.

I’ve also recently bought train tickets for a day of Christmas shopping in London. Midland Mainline are soon to cease existing, as Stagecoach’s East Midlands Trains take over operations. It doesn’t change things much, just a change of name and colour of train. What with this change happening next week, I had worried whether tickets bought from Midland Mainline would be valid on the new company’s trains. The guy at Nottingham station told me that the tickets would be accepted, as no wholesale change would be happening until January.

So, I decided to travel First Class. I haven’t done so in years, and the last time I did, i loved being pampered! Free papers, as much tea/coffee as you can drink and complimentary orange juice and snacks. Plus, on the way back I was offered a mini bottle of wine. I think it’s best to experience Midland Mainline’s first class pampering for one last time!

In other news, Forest thump Southend 4-1. Junior Agogo and Nathan Tyson help fire us to second in the league. The following game was against Carlisle, who are top, so it would’ve seen us go top had we won. Sadly, the game is likely to be called off due us having international players playing for their country.

Our rise up the table will have to wait.