Bob Spunkmouse

Sausages look astoundingly good. The potatoes can do one.

Fuck it, it’s a great picture as far as I’m concerned. my girls’ team played against (and beat comfortably) a team a few weeks ago that had a captain, complete with armband, and they asked their coaches if they could have a captain. training this evening in the rain, at the end she comes bouncing over, armband in hand. She’s only been picked to be their first ever captain in the match tomorrow. fuck yes.

It’s been less shit here, admittedly.

A stonewall pen it may be in isolation, but a free kick to Austria should be the result. Why should we watch a replay of a Dutch player diving seconds before - a clear act of simulation with no contact at all - that should result in a free kick and a booking, and be ok that it is simply ignored, yet a foul mere seconds later in the play, the defender making the tackle likely wouldn’t have done if the first player hadn’t dived.

Add butter to the toast and it looks a lot more appetising. add beans and you’ve got yourself a breakfast.

Reminiscent of when he took over with us though really. An international tournament ongoing so not front page news, first responsibility is to convince our world class players he’s the man for the job and that they should commit their future to us, coming here fresh on the back of upsetting the establishment to win the league and European competitions, and being one of the hottest properties in the game, joining a globally renowned team. well, there’s an international competition on.

I picked up my clubs for the second time in 5 years today - the one other being in Cape Town ahead of my mates wedding two winters ago. the place near harrogate I stayed Tuesday night has a little 6 hole par-3 course near the driving range so went round that for 40 mins on Tuesday before we could check in, and then hit a hundred balls at the range this morning after checkout. should've done it the other way round really as I was hopeless yesterday, albeit I was also a half bottle of Prosecco down so that might’ve had some part to play. inspired to get out again soon though. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

The eggs were genuinely tremendous. Couldn’t have been better. The pictures toast was sent back. The replacement toast was no better but at least was warm enough to melt the butter second time around.

So here goes... went for the “full Yorkshire breakfast” no idea of cost as included and this was a gift for us from my ex. let’s get it out of the way... the beans were a fucking disgrace. My missus had the same and hers were ever so slightly better where you could actually see some beans amongst the juice, but still. Microwaved beans. My head is shaking as I type this. second... the “toast”. Once upon a time before covid the toast would be a serve yourself affair I think. As it is, I’m sat looking at the fraud who’s been given that job and he hasn’t a clue. We send back our first effort (pictured) cause not only was it not toast, but it was stone cold to boot. Second lot arrived modestly warm and still untoasted. If I hadn’t got a view of the affair I’d assume the heat lamp it was sitting under to “keep warm” was the only heat source involved. breakfast itself, good. Bacon was lovely and well cooked, sausage was superb, and the poached eggs were the star of the whole affair. hash browns were fine, mushroom was grand and the tomato was as good as you could ask for. overall, a decent start to the day. Giving me something to whine about makes it almost perfect. 5/10

Now I’m gonna order it for room service instead so you have to guess if I’m naked when I’m eating it.

Staying at a posh spa hotel near harrogate tonight as a joint 40th present for me and the missus, and looking forward already to posting the breakie in the morning. currently sat drinking in the garden near the roof terrace spa with not another soul around us, having tried a bit of golf (dreadfully) in the sunshine earlier, dinner in an hour, then maybe more spa action too, but it’s breakfast I’m looking forward to already.

Got my second on Friday.

Back on the slow carb diet today after writing last week off due to leftover birthday cake and beer, so cooked up breakfast this morning. it’ll go down very badly on here, I’m sure, but went down very well in actual fact. one bacon rasher, 1.5 turkey bacon rashers, half of 5 scrambled eggs, grilled tomatoes, smashed avo(cado) and some wonderful mushrooms. the big gap on the plate is where the beans I couldn’t be arsed making (cause I cant have sugary Heinz ones) should go.

Watching that back in “real time” it’s actually Williams that shows up there more than Phillips. the ball from Trent was awful, everyone knows that, and Nat had little choice but to try and go for it, and his lack of pace didn’t help but Williams’ reaction was to do nothing. Not great all round but not on Nat.

That’s a pretty unfair selection of issues to concentrate on. I agree with the last few posts before yours that suggest he’s a rung or two below the standard we need as first choice (and the Klavan comparison was a pretty good one) but to use two examples to call him “poor or very poor” is unfair. he is slow, that’s a given. Sometimes that pace stood out like a sore thumb, like the example you gave, but by and large that lack of pace was way less obvious than I expected it to be, which is credit to him given every team tried their utmost to exploit it. and to also use zaha getting the better of him is cheap. Zaha gets the better of way better defenders than Nat regularly. Like saying Carra wasn’t a good defender cause of the times Henry made him look like a clogger.