Dumbass

This is what I feel I am tonight. I got semi-mugged this afternoon but only have my own naive and gullible self to blame. Some guy stopped me in the street and told me he had a £5 note he wanted to change for some pound coins. I had £5 in coins so was glad to help out but then he took the coins from my hand and ran off.

I was shocked and almost ran after him but then thought against it because it wasn't worth it. It's Ramadan and I didn't want to break my fast by getting in to an argument with someone over a fiver. It was in daylight (yes, that's how stupid I am - getting robbed in daylight) so I wasn't that concerned about anything drastic happening but it still wouldn't have been worth it anyway.

It's his loss at the end of the day. I felt so stupid afterwards and I'm going to have to make a resolution to be meaner when strangers ask me for favours from now on. No more Mr nice Mus.

Reading 1 - 1 United

I never thought the day would come when I'd see my two favourite teams play each other and when it did it was terrible and beautiful at the same time. It was like watching your wife and secret wife have a fight. You sit there terrified yet sort of secretly enjoying it as well.

As I was surrounded by Reading fans I cheered for my local team but while I did that I felt like I was cheating on United. Then again, when the United fans started making fun of Reading I felt like I was cheating on the Royals by wanting United to do well. In the end a draw was perfect but I was particularly proud of the Reading players. We showed the world that we belong in the Premiership.

My camera decided to die on me during the warm up so I didn't get any good pics but at least the memory will stay with me. I did get this one of Ronaldo strutting his stuff though. If you ever get the chance to see him live you've got to go do it. You don't appreciate just how good he is until you do.

"Argentina! Argentina!" I love this man. If I were a woman, I would have his children.

If this was supposed to be wife v girlfriend on the pitch, it should have been prawn sandwich v prawn sandwich off it. United and Reading fans are supposed to be among the more quiet fans but Saturday couldn't have been any different. I've never seen the Madejski jump like it did that afternoon and I wish I knew how to share the feeling with you but I can't. I tried to film some of the end but by some mystery all I have got is the sound of the crowd but only a picture of my jeans to go with it and no one wants to see that.

Wife meets secret girlfriend


"We are Reading"

I learnt a few songs from the United fans as well. My personal favourite probably isn't printable but I'll print the first part of it so you could guess the rest: (to the tune of I want to go home) "He plays on the left, he plays on the riiiiiiiight, that boy Ronaldo makes Beckham look *****". You can hours of fun working that one out.

Once you've done that you can check out the match highlights. Enjoy.

Cool down

Many apologies for the lack of posts lately (I'm sure you've been terribly upset). It's been a manic two weeks but hopefully it should calm down now that Ramadan has begun. I've been rushing around doing all sorts of nonsense but now it's time to settle down and make myself quiet. New posts should be up again soon.

While we're on the subject of Ramadan, I just want to say happy fasting to all those taking part and ask for the forgiveness and understanding of everybody if I make any mistakes towards you in the coming month.

Later alligators,
Mus.

Negotiation skills

I've just made the deal of the year. I've just persuaded my sister who hates football to come and watch Reading play third divison Darlington in the Carling Cup on Tuesday with me, my bro and some friends. I can't believe I managed to do that.

The lesson learnt was that the way to win a negotiation is to work the other side on something they really want. Thankfully my sister is fairly easily pleased so the only thing I had to do to persuade her to come was to agree to have fajitas for supper on Wednesday night. Then she even offered to cook them herself. Part of me thinks I should feel guilty but that will probably pass pretty soon.

I'll consider it as a gift in return for what happened this weekend. I was about to go out for a meal with some friends last night when I got a call from my little bro's school to say he'd broken his wrist playing rugby and may need to have surgery. I had to drive up to Peterborough to see him in hospital at about 6.30 this morning. Luckily he's feeling fine now but I've been knackered all day. Getting home in time to see the end of United lose to Arsenal didn't help my mood much either. You win some you lose some I guess.

The OC

Unfortunately I'm not talking about the TV show with that gorgeous Mischa Barton. An OC is the name for someone who used to go to my school and Saturday was the annual OC swimming and water polo match. I have no idea what I was doing there seeing as I hadn't been back for three years and that was also the last time I'd swum a competitive race. Still, it was a fun afternoon that brought back lots of good memories.

I used to spend about 15 hours a week training in this pool and many of my school memories are of good times spent in it. It was a very nostalgic experience being back.

It was good to see my old team mates and go through the routine we used to do - make fun of each other in the changing room, intend to to a ten length non-stop warm up, do a three length warm up and get knackered, sit on poolside cheering everyone else, watch Rob win his race and then run to the bathroom to throw up, wait there crapping yourself about your race, swim the race, lose the race, race again, lose again, changing room, match tea, go home and tell everyone we lost again. Ah, good times.

It was good to see everyone again. We had a competition between ourselves to see how long it had been since we had swum. I think my three years won it (it was in fact the only thing I won all day) but everyone looked pretty tired after their races:

Contrast that to the fit young things we were back in 2001:
The one thing I remember about this photo was Dan (looking glum on the far left of the bottom row) complaining that we had to wear our shirts because he'd worked all term on his pecs and abs so he'd look good for it.

As usual, Rob won his races. There he is smiling before he made his traditional sprint to the bathroom to throw up.

The standard of the school's water polo has improved beyond belief. As we were leaving the school we'd got to the point where we were only just starting to win matches but four years on the school are national champions. It was good to see but painful to play against. The kids never stopped swimming and I for one found it hard to deal with. I used to be able to play a full 28 minute game. On Saturday I lasted 7. I blame the studying Law.

Thanks to everyone for an enjoyable afternoon. See you next year...

The end is the beginning is the end

Had the first day of the LPC (Legal Practice Course) today. Before this morning I saw it as the last year of glorious studentdom but after a fairly intimidating introductory lecture I think it's more like the first year of my career. I'm not really sure how I want to treat it. I know I should treat it as the latter option but there is a very lazy man inside me that wants to cling on to my student days. So confusing. The end is the beginning is the end.