James Joyce's Ulysses

Reading James Joyce's Ulysses is not an easy task. The diffculty lies in Joyce's Stream of Consciousness technique where thoughts seem to follow theor own logic and as such become very dfficult to follow. I like this blog post which is a guide to reading James Joyce's Ulysses . The 2 books it mentions are the 2 that I would choose to help find my way through Ulysses. Moreover it mentions the Ulysses audiobook. I totally agree that this is a brilliant way to "read' the book - and it's read by Bishop Brennan from Father Ted. Which is marvellous

The book "Complete Winnie the Pooh " by A A Milne

The book "Complete Winnie the Pooh " by A A Milne is available from Amazon at the price listed in the link below.

Click on the link to go directly to the correct page at Amazon where you can find out more about the discount, read more about the book and buy it if you want to.



Please note that the information above is correct at the time of writing but price and availability do sometimes change at Amazon.

The book "Left for Dead" by Nick Ward

The book "Left for Dead" by Nick Ward is available from Amazon at the price listed in the link below.

Click on the link to go directly to the correct page at Amazon where you can find out more about the discount, read more about the book and buy it if you want to.



Please note that the information above is correct at the time of writing but price and availability do sometimes change at Amazon.

The book "Wild Life" by Simon King

The book "Wild Life" by Simon King is available from Amazon at the price listed in the link below.

Click on the link to go directly to the correct page at Amazon where you can find out more about the discount, read more about the book and buy it if you want to.



Please note that the information above is correct at the time of writing but price and availability do sometimes change at Amazon.

The book "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracy Chevalier

The book "Remarkable Creatures" by Tracy Chevalier is available from Amazon at the price listed in the link below.

Click on the link to go directly to the correct page at Amazon where you can find out more about the discount, read more about the book and buy it if you want to.



Please note that the information above is correct at the time of writing but price and availability do sometimes change at Amazon.

The book "My Better Half and Me" by Rosemary and Joss Ackland

The book "My Better Half and Me" by Rosemary and Joss Ackland is available from Amazon at the price listed in the link below.

Click on the link to go directly to the correct page at Amazon where you can find out more about the discount, read more about the book and buy it if you want to.



Please note that the information above is correct at the time of writing but price and availability do sometimes change at Amazon.

"Bamboo Goalposts" by Rowan Simons

The book "Bamboo Goalposts" by Rowan Simons is available from Amazon for 10.49 which is a 30% discount on the RRP.

Click on the link below to go directly to the right page at Amazon where you can read more about the book and buy it if you want to.



Please note that whilst the information above is correct at the time of writing price and availability may change at Amazon.

"Football Dynamo" by Marc Bennetts

The book "Football Dynamo: Modern Russia and the People's Game" by Marc Bennetts is available from Amazon for the price of £8.39 which is a 30% discount.

Click on the link below to go directly to the correct page at Amazon where you can read more and order the book if that's what you want to do.



Please note that the information above is correct at the time of writing but that price and availability do sometimes change at Amazon.

The Ball Is Round - A Global History of Football. By Andrew Goldblatt

This is about as comprehensive a history of football that I've read. It's a touch scholarly in tone - but that's ok because each page usually has one or two football facts that fire the imagination and thrill to the core if, like me, you are moved by such things.

Read this and that part of your brain that deals with football will become engorged with football facts and will grow distended and you will have to buy a new hat or perhaps even a mortar board for your misshapen head - (if your hat is a baseball cap then you have no need to worry - just stick to whatever Premiership player's biog. is coming next and your head, and all that there in is, will stay exactly the same.)

It is a very very good book.

We Don't Know What We Are Doing. - Adrian Chiles

Imagine a middle aged man sitting in the Hawthorns on a Saturday afternoon in February, and there under a low, cold, grey sky this man, whilst watching his team putting in a mediocre performance, finds himself quietly gripped by a mild existential crisis.

"Why Am I Doing This?" he asks himself.

And his answer is ... Well I'm not sure really - but the book Adrian Chiles wrote to try to answer his own question is highly entertaining.

It is also incredibly dour. How a book about football in the 21st Century can include a reference to German civilians drowning in the Baltic as they fled the Soviets I'm not sure. Read the book and you'll see how Chiles manages to include such a bleak detour - one of many in a book about football which of course is essentially a leisure activity.

For me the most memorable image from the book comes from his description of his watching West Brom. fall to another painful defeat on a TV in the Match of the Day office in the BBC Studios on a Sunday afternoon. It's strange to think that I was probably at home - reading the Sunday papers and idly wondering whether I could be bothered with watching Man City or whoever on MOTD2 that night - and as I was thinking this - the show's host was tucked away in an office in West London slowly falling out of love with life.

'Tis a good book - and I don't think you really need to be a West Brom fan to get a lot out of it.

This is the funniest thing I have seen at a football match

Adrian Chiles. We Don't Know What We Are Doing

Another quote:

this from the bloke who organises the Baggies coaches

"In about 1990 we played Newcastle at home midweek and we lost 5-1. Then we were playing Ipswich on the Saturday and I had so many cancellations I started to getting really, like, shirty with them. And when I was on the way to Ipswich I was thinking I'd just love to come here and win and that lot would have missed it. But we didn't, we lost 3-1."

...and here is a WBA related clip. They sing the Lord is my Shepherd a lot. (and there was me thinking they are a well and truly forsaken team)



Very Odd but quite cool

MyFC/Ebbsfleet stuff from last week

Thanks To B.T. being a little useless I was off line for a couple of days last week- but here is some of the stuff that I found about MYFC/Ebbsfleet which I thought worth posting

Here's a blogger's take on the project.
Here's a match report from last weeks mid-week John Ullman Kent Senior Cup match. From the official site
And here is another match report from the same match. (..according to this paper the Ramsgate manager was not there -so his brother stepped in - first time I've ever heard of that)
Ramsgate's website has a good match report. 'Tis a nice website ( and you should click on the HomePage just to see the brilliant advert which reads: "SEE RICKY (Hatton) IN VEGAS - at Southwood")
From last week but here's another blogger's take on the project.
Here's another (nicely laid out) blog from last week.

Roger Godsiff's Early Day Motion

This is the Early Day Motion by MP Roger Godsiff (Birmingham, Sparkbrook and Small
Heath) in the House of Commons today.

ENGLAND'S FAILURE TO QUALIFY FOR THE EUROPEAN FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS

"That this House congratulates Croatia and Russia on qualifying for the European Football Championships from Group E; acknowledges that the Croatian team which beat England were far superior in technical ability, skill and commitment than the insipid and inept England team; notes that £747 million was spent on the new Wembley Stadium but the match was played on a surface similar to those used by Sunday footballers on council pitches; thanks the efforts of the Israeli and part-time players of Andorra in trying to help England by doing their very best against Russia; commiserates with the fans who have spent large amounts of their hard earned money following England during these championships; believes that the over-paid, over-pampered and over-hyped English prima donnas from the Premiership who took the field against Croatia disgraced the England shirt once worn by legends such as Stanley Matthews, Duncan Edwards, Bobby Moore, Nobby Stiles and Bobby Charlton; and recognises that they will no doubt be consoled by the thought that while they are watching the European Championships from their luxurious holiday destinations their celebrity lifestyles will be protected by them still receiving their vastly inflated wages, provided by Sky and Setanta television money, from clubs in a Premiership League which is nothing more than a money making machine for players, agents and entrepreneurial club owners which does very little for promoting the well-being of football in England either at the grass roots or international level."

...I thought Beckham and Crouch did pretty well myself - but it made me laugh.

Chris Kamara. Always Good For A Laugh.

Ebbsfleet. My Football Club. Round Up.

Here's some of the Stories from today about Ebbsfleet. It's not comprehensive but I hope its useful

We are nerds according to the Mail
The Sunday Times reckons that this means football is now part of the 21st century -(surely it was before - or at least the bits that were played in the last seven or so years)
This columnist from the Times is really against the idea.
This blogger puts up a pretty good defence of the whole idea.
I'm not sure if I posted this yesterday - it's from the Independent and , I think because they ran the story first, they seem to run more articles than anyone else.
This person has been inspired by the idea to suggest that Gurnsey should do something similar.
This is a match report from the Oxford game from a Kent news website.
This is an article from an Oxford Newspaper about the game last Saturday.
This blog just gives an overview of the whole idea - but it's from Malaysia so I thought I'd link to it.
This article is from the Telegraph

Adrian Chiles -We Don't Know What We Are Doing.

I am currently reading Adrian Chiles' "We Don't Know What We Are Doing" which is a study of obsession with Chiles trying to make sense of his, and others, dedication to West Bromwich Albion. I'll write what I think about the book when I finish it- (though I'm at pg 149 and so far Cress says yes).

What I'm going to do is write a few posts about the book as I read it quoting some bits that I liked and then follow it up with a YouTube Video that will have something to do with West Bromwich - but maybe not the club.

So,

I need to give a bit of context for the first quote. Chiles' knows the man who usually plays WBA's mascot Baggie Bird and when this man says he cannot make the WBA - Pompey game Chile' volunteers to don the suit.

"Before the toss of the coin we line up for a photo. The Portsmouth Captain is Dejan Stefanovic, a Serb. Because my mum's from Croatia, I can speak Serbo-Croat, in which language Baggie Bird now says to him, ' Hello Dejan. Best of luck.' He looks at me, a little alarmed. I suspect he thinks he might be losing his marbles. (.......) he doesn't reply"

Phil Lynott was born In West Bromwich, which I did not know when I woke this morning - so I'm going to post Thin Lizzy doing Whiskey In The Jar.

Ebbsfleet MyFootballClub, Today's Stories.

I'm not totally sure about whether to do this -it feels like I'm cheating on Pompey - but as I am one of the shareholders in Ebbsfleet I will try to keep up to date with the news stories about Ebbsfleet (assuming the deal goes through) by posting links to the stories.

These are mostly from today I think

This is nice thread from the Ebbsfleet Chatroom which shows where some of the Ebbsfleet fan's heads are at.
This is the man behind it all's take on the first match.
A rather cynical piece about the first game and the whole project by the Observer.
The Telegraph are also keen to focus on the disaffected Ebbsfleet fans

This is an optimistic piece about the whole project in the Independent on Sunday where the journalist keeps asking himself questions. Why? I don't know. Did I like it? Not sure. Some good facts about other similar projects at the end of the piece.

...and these are mostly from earlier in the week

A piece from the day of the announcement of the proposed take over from the Independent
and this is another one -they are sort of crowing about the fact they got the story first I think.
This from last Thursday is from Time Magazine no less. (I've been posting links to stories about Pompey in one of my other blogs for a few months now and I've never linked to Time Magazine before). I have however posted links to AP many a time and this is by them.

This is from the South Devon Press. The writer thinks the idea is flawed and he finishes with the line "Put their money where their mouse is" which , whilst not making sense in the context of his argument, is a cracking line.

Northern Ireland Against Denmark and Flower of Scotland

Considering that there was no team playing that I care about- yesterday was pretty exciting.

Despite beating Denmark 2-1 it is very unlikely that Northern Ireland will be going to Euro 08 next year (they have to beat Spain and hope Latvia beat Sweden). This is a shame because I'd happily listen to more commentary- with mad laughter, like this:



Some Observations.

1. Both Northern Ireland and Scotland had fantastic qualifying campaigns - (despite having to change managers) - but won't be going to Austria/Switzerland (short of a miracle in Northern Ireland's case) whereas England had a terrible campaign and are still in with a good chance. I'm pretty sure that if Scotland were in England's group they would have qualified, and so may have Northern Ireland.

2. Scotland are out because of the initial draw - (and the Belarus result). They have their best team for a generation and then get drawn in the same group as both of the last World Cup finalists. If they had been better seeded then this would not have happened but their poor seeding meant that they were still hamstrung by the legacy of Bertie Vogts. That is behind them now.

3. Lots of people in England are whining about how the amount of foreign players in the Premiership somehow undermines the national team.. This is rank nonsense - England have failed to qualify before when there were hardly any foreign players in the Premiership. More importantly- whilst England have better players than Scotland and Northern Ireland- those two countries, both of whom have a number of Premiership players, know how to play as a team - there ain't one self important gadabout amongst them - and it's that that nearly got them to the finals. If England could show the team spirit, work ethic and ambition of either Scotland or Northern Ireland then they could win in Austria and Switzerland.

...and England should get rid of their dirge like National Anthem- it just cannot compete with something like this:

Russia hijack the Times. Boca Fans Graveyard. English Aggression and Man City.

The Times ran some silly campaign for English fans to send messages of support to Israel ahead of Saturday's Israel - Russia game. It seems that Russian fans hi-jacked the initiative (if that's the right word) and here are some of their charming e-mails.

The Guardian have run this article about Boca fans who now have their own graveyard.

The Telegraph argue that the English habit of getting stuck in is what has held us back as a team. Not sure I totally agree - they give the example of Barton - who has only played once for England (I think). What he has in common with the England players is not a desire to get stuck in but an over inflated sense of his importance in the great scheme of things.

Walt Disney may be interested in buying Derby (insert your own jokes)

Good piece in the Independent about Erikkson and Man City