The House Husband

Yesterday in Farnham I was unfortunate enough to witness a Spanish horde. I guess I should qualify that statement a bit. I’m guessing the horde was Spanish. At first I thought it was Italian but on closer listening, it sounded Spanish. I apologise if I am wrong.

There’s a language school in Farnham and I can only assume they were attending classes there. There was about 40 of them in small packs wandering the town. And they were all tweenies – not quite teenagers, but not younger than 10.

The thing that struck me the most was how rude they all were. It was like everyone else just wasn’t there. To my knowledge I’ve only met a couple of Spanish people and so I can’t say whether it’s a cultural trait. I’m also not sure if it was an age thing, though, of course, children in packs can be quite surly and rude. But let me give a few examples.

The footpaths in Farnham are quite narrow and it’s an accepted fact that if you walk three abreast, you are going to have move if someone is coming in the opposite direction otherwise you either run into them or they are forced onto the road and a certain injury from the ever-present traffic. This did not bother the horde.

I was run into a couple of times simply because these kids refused to concede any part of the footpath. Naturally I was going to hold on to my small claim of ground and so, they ran into me. No apology, not even a glance, they just slid around me having crashed.

In Starbucks, a group of about eight girls ordered drinks then hung around the bar like so many pesky insects while an elderly couple waited for their orders. The barista delivered the elderly order and one of the kid’s drinks. The kid rushed forward, almost pushing the elderly couple out of her way and grabbed her drink.

The elderly lady was a bit peeved but in that polite English way, she just huffed and puffed a bit and probably moaned about them all the way home. The young girl just kept up her constant chatter to her friends. I should note that they were all pretty sullen and their hair and clothes were almost identical. To be honest, they all looked related.

As I left Starbucks, a group of boys arrived at the door. Because I was inside and they were between me and freedom, I naturally held the door open for them. A couple drifted through but one decided that half way in was a great place to stand and have a conversation. I was going to give him a good clip around the ear (metaphorically of course) when his mate pushed him through the doorway.

And then, finally, two of them were in Waitrose having a conversation in one of the aisles. A woman in a mobility scooter was trying to get to whatever product was behind them. They just kept talking, completely ignoring her.

Maybe they were all from some sort of boot camp institution for rude kids and they’d not learned anything yet. All very odd. It certainly made me think that the Spanish are really rude. Not a good ad for an entire society given that I extrapolate things to a massive degree.

And then, this morning, it struck me. They won the World Cup. Perhaps this explains their air of superiority. Damn them.

Today I saw the worst English football team EVER. I thought they were bad two games ago but today saw them sink to new depths. The Germans played well and we had a goal un-awarded that was a goal, but, whichever way you look at it, we played like one legged tap dancers in a room full of treacle.

I see that Australia has a new prime minister…and it’s a woman! Well done, I say! Mind you, it’s a bit like us and Gordon Brown. We didn’t vote for him but he replaced Tony Blair when he left mid-term.

I’ve had a look around about Julia Gillard and she’s Welsh and a lawyer. Though she’s Welsh like I’m English. Her parents moved to Australia in 1966 as ten pound Poms.

Unfortunately, she was part of the ‘Gang of Four’ who were instrumental in cutting the emissions trading scheme for which Rudd stood down. So I’m not sure that Labour will still be in after the next election. Knowing bugger all about Australian politics, that’s all the comment I’m going to make.

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Today I pottered about in the garden. I had to transplant a stripey plant and drop in a few cosmos’, which instantly brightened up the bed near the patio. I also planted the second lot of sweet peas at the base of another obelisk.

The garden is looking lovely now though I have to water every evening because it’s so dry. Actually there’s a drought in the north east which follows the terrible floods they had in February. Go figure. They are close to a hose pipe ban up there!

Fortunately we have lots of lovely aquifers down here in the south which mean we have more water. I heard on the news that the Isle of Mull had to ship in something like 40,000 litres of water the other day. Who says we don’t get a summer over here?

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The Japan team is playing out of their skins in the World Cup tonight. At half time they lead Denmark by 2-0 after two amazing free kicks. If they win, they go through. Brilliant stuff. And the shock of the tournament…Italy, the World Cup holders, went out this afternoon, ending up coming last in their group behind New Zealand! I love football.

Last night we watched two movies I’d actually not seen before.

The first was a recommendation from someone Nicktor works with. Taking Lives. It stars Angelina Jollie and Ethan Hawke with a rather odd guest spot by Kieffer Sutherland. It’s a thriller and has quite a few surprises, one of which had both of us jumping off our seats, it was so unexpected. I thought the plot was good but I had figured most of it out before the end, which is annoying. One thing that came out of it was the fact that Angelina Jollie has quite ugly wrists.

For a film about a serial killer, it is not very gory but relies more on tension and surprise, which is a nice change to what we usually watch (Saw, for instance). If you like a good thriller, and can put up with Jollie’s annoying pout and Hawke’s half hearted acting style, then I’d recommend it.

The second film was called Made. It was made by the same guys responsible for the highly successful cult movie, Swingers. It is an American gangster style film about two guys (one a bit lovelorn, the other a bit stupid) who enter the world of organised crime in order to make their mark…and earn a lot of money. Jon Favreau, who also wrote and directed it, is a lovely foil as Bobby for the stupid and irritating Rick, played by Vince Vaughn. You may remember Jon Favreau as Monica’s rich, IT boyfriend, Pete Becker, in Friends – the one she wasn’t attracted to.

A very old Peter Falk is quite funny as the LA mob boss though his voice has all but disappeared. Probably because of all those stogies that Columbo put away over the years! His final scene with Rick is particularly good.

In all, it was very funny. Most of the humour comes from the banter between the two main characters and the stupidity of Rick. If you don’t mind a fair bit of swearing (there is an awful lot) and the odd bit of violence (nothing graphic I should add), it’s a highly entertaining film.

As a bonus, and if a viewer was so inclined, there is a lot of Sopranos spotting available. It was like the Made production team strayed onto The Sopranos backlot and just employed them all. Most of the film takes place in New York so I guess that could explain a lot.

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After the movies, we watched the highlights of the first ODI between England and Australia. Without going into too much detail, England won with a stunning century from Eoin Morgan who is actually Irish. I did tease Nicktor about the English team having an Irishman and two South Africans playing for them.

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Meanwhile in Port Elizabeth, South Africa…this afternoon is England’s final chance to progress into the next round of the World Cup. To be assured of a place, they need to win against Slovenia (incidentally, the population of Slovenia is the same as the entire prison population of the US). If they only manage a draw then there’s still a chance they could get through but it will depend on the US game played at the same time. If they lose, it’s all over for another four years and Capello will probably be out of a job.

I am hoping to get home in time to see most of the game and Nicktor is going to try and rush a meeting he has in order to come over for the second half, on his way home. Mirinda has a 1:30 meeting so I should make it by 3:30…if I hurry.

I did and I managed to see all but the first ten minutes. And England played like a team possessed! They were wonderful. And they won, 1-0. Yay! We are through to the next round, albeit in second place because the Americans managed to score a late goal in their match. Nicktor managed to cut his meeting off and arrived in time to watch the second half with me.

I’m still not feeling 100% and, consequently, I had another granny nap this afternoon. I’m not sure what the matter is but I get all lethargic, my head starts to ache and my nose starts to run. A summer cold, as my mum says, is what it probably is.

Anyway, before hitting the pillows, I planted the white sweet peas in the hot border and managed some dissertation work. For lunch I watched Portugal’s annihilation of North Korea (7-0) which was all in the second half. The North Korean team was holding its own and being threatening for the first 45 minutes but the Portuguese were given one hell of a team talk during the break, came back out and couldn’t stop scoring. A highlight was Ronaldo, showboating as usual and failing miserably.

After lunch we went up to the park for a walk. The fair is in town and Carmen was very interested in what was going on with the Dodgems. She stood and stared, alert and excited. I have no idea why. She’s seen stranger things as well as the fair last time! Maybe she has happy memories of last year. Day-z, of course, took no notice at all.

A woman, who I’d swear I’d never seen before, stopped to talk as her dogs sniffed around the nervous poodles. She said she didn’t know I had dogs. She said it in a way you’d expect someone who sees you every day to speak. She fussed over the girls and was amazed they were poodles. She wasn’t mad so I assume she’d mistaken me for some other scruff in a straw hat.

Back at home I crashed out with the poodles for company. Two hours later I felt a lot better and went into the garden with my coffee, the radio and dig bag and I completed the hole for the green cone. It was hot and sweaty work but I felt a lot better having finished it. After dinner I intentionally left a few bits of cabbage, just so I could christen it.

I’m presently watching Spain v Honduras. Spain are playing better than their last game but they still don’t look like world champions. Mind you, no-one else really does either. They are passing crisp and well and creating lots of chances but, coming up to half time, have not dominated as much as they should. They are also playing a bit dirty, faking fouls, elbowing off the ball, etc, which I really don’t like. Still, when they duck and weave and race down the pitch, it’s glorious. And the goal they scored was absolutely brilliant.

Carmen excited by the dodgems while Day-z looks in completely the wrong direction

I am not going to talk about the football except to say it’s the most dismal performance by a team of supposed international class footballers I think I’ve ever seen. I am stunned. They wouldn’t have beaten France the way they played tonight.

So, today was my induction into the Art Project at work. Though Nick worried me when I turned up and he said there was good and bad news. The bad news was that I hadn’t actually finished the Location Project because he’d found another load of records. The good news was that there were only 108 of them.

We had tea and stickies at 11am but I felt a sham. I hadn’t finished. Actually we had a jolly time just chatting, something I don’t get to do seeing as I only come in on Fridays. ‘Tea and stickies’ is lots of cakes with something wet to wash them down with.

Anyway, I’d completely finished the Location Project by lunch time. Since I started work at the museum (May 7), I have updated and entered 1,377 records. Yay.

After my usual lunch surrounded by hordes of school children eagerly screaming while stuffing food into their conveniently open mouths, I sat with Nick for the rest of the afternoon while he explained the Art Project. This is going to take some time. This project. I’m pretty sure it will not finish within my lifetime.

Essentially, I will be transferring information from a 1,000 page Word document, which represents the old database, and putting it in MIMSY, the newer database. But it’s not just a simple copy and paste. Oh no.

The information has to be disseminated throughout the proper fields and joined up with Places and People and Things. And if the information isn’t there, I have to research and enter it myself. Way cool! I’m really looking forward to starting next Friday!

I’m off to a lecture on Forensic Aspects of Ancient Egypt with Dawn tomorrow, which should be fun.

Did I say how bad the English played tonight? No, REALLY, they were awful.

Being a Tuesday and being free of the gout blight, Nicktor came over last night. We had sausages and mash and white sauce! Very odd, I know, but apparently he LOVES my white sauce.

We watched Saw IV. Interesting. It managed to answer a few questions but was still frustratingly vague. It’s a case of a franchise being way inferior to the original product. It was also, possibly, the goriest of the lot. Though there’s also Saw V & VI, according to Nicktor. I’m not sure what they’ll be like as the main character is definitely dead now – we saw him cut open on the mortuary slab.

We then watched Jackie Brown, the only Tarantino film we had yet to see. I saw it years ago and had forgotten how long it is. Sadly, for Nicktor, it doesn’t feature much of that Tarantino action he loves. It is memorable for the wonderful job Robert de Niro does as the down and out-ish ex-con. A joy to watch. Anyway, Nicktor wasn’t impressed with it though he did sleep through quite a bit so I’m not sure whether he’s a fit judge. For me, I think it’s a bit long-winded but I like the style, being of the black exploitation films of the late 1970s. And it has quite a funky soundtrack though there’s only so much Motown Soul I can truly enjoy at one time.

In the World Cup, a bit of a surprise. Most of the games up till now have been a bit dull. And then New Zealand played Slovakia yesterday. I tend to disagree with most of the reports that say it was boring. I really enjoyed it. I thought the play was end to end and both teams looked hungry and desperate. Slovakia scored early in the second half and it looked like they were going to sail through with a win. But then, with 30 seconds to go, a cross from the wing came sailing into the box and a New Zealand head attached to it and it was one all. They went insane! Not only had the so-called minnows managed not to lose, they had gained their first ever point in World Cup football!

I like the fact that the NZ football team is called the All Whites versus the All Blacks rugby team. Cute.

A rather dull day, today. Most of it was taken up with writing test scripts. I also managed a few glimpses of football – mostly dull as well.

For a break I planted a few plants courtesy of yesterdays trip to Crondall. Of course I took the poodles for a walk and, of course, Carmen had an FSI. Rotten dog. That’s two baths in two days.

The highlight of the day was when the British Gas guy arrived to give us a quote for a new boiler. Ours is over ten years old, so he says and needs replacing.

The Italy v Paraguay game is currently on and Italy (the reigning champions), having been surprised by a goal from Paraguay in the first half has pulled one back. FINALLY, an exciting game! Two Italian girls in the crowd blew kisses at the goal scorer. Among the 89,000 fans, I’m not sure the guy saw them, somehow.

I forgot to mention my Neros’ coffee on Friday! Everything was as it should be. Service and coffee were excellent!

I notice that New Zealand has a team in the World Cup this year. The commentator just called them the minnows of the competition. Extraordinary. I didn’t even know they HAD a football team.

I love football but today I watched a game that makes me realise what it must be like to have to watch something you don’t like. The Slovenia v Algeria game. Talk about dire. In fact, when the fourth official held up the board, indicating the injury time to be played, as half time approached, the commentator said “Thank God, there’s only a minute of added time.”

One thing I really hate about the game is the way players are hero worshipped when they do something great and vilified when they make a mistake. This morning, for instance, our keeper, Robert Green has been plastered over just about every Sunday paper for his miss in the game yesterday. OK, it was a mistake but the way the papers have painted it, you’d think he’d cost them the final! And whatever happened to supporting your team? Bloody media.

Anyway, today we had a lovely short trip to Crondall to see the open gardens. It’s nothing to do with the NGS but it’s basically the same idea except a whole village opens lots of different gardens (some big some small, some schools) and raise money for a specific charity.

Crondall isn’t far from us. Actually we went and saw a house there when we were buying…once.

The gardens were lovely (as you’d expect). One is four acres and well maintained horticulture. As we were walking in the last bit, a chap was sitting on a sleeper, mug of tea in hand, and Mirinda asked if he was the owner. No, he replied, chuckling, I’m the gardener. They actually have a full time gardener!

I’ll try and get some photos up tomorrow but in the meanwhilst, here’s one to keep you going.

The pub in Crondall

I see that Australia had a less than successful first game tonight…

So, England was going to thrash the US, eh?

We had a lovely lunch with Susanne and Rafi. Actually I think Rafi had the best time, trying to fill the water butt with gravel. I made tabbouleh and we had it with lettuce and salmon on the patio furniture. Very civilised.

So, England have a good chance of winning the World Cup, eh?

Rafi insisted we watch Monsters Vs Aliens. I loved it. What a funny film. Susan is a fantastic hero. And so nice to have a great female role model in a children’s movie. And Rafi let me watch the entire thing.

I wonder what the record is for drawn matches in the first rounds of the World Cup?