Weekend Walk Stuff

Times like this you want the "big lens" - a red kite ...



Just a signpost ...



Time for some new boots - I'm a "Meindl Man" !!
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Stuffed !

Yep .. got a Monday night "pass out" to watch the mighty Ingerlund take on Germany in the under 21s ....

The beer was good mind ("Railway" @ Greenfield was the choice of venue) ...

What can you expect playing one up front ?

We ended up playing games with names - German goals from Costa (Spanish ?), Orkil (Turkish) and two from Wagner (good German name .. first name Sandro ... aaargh !) ... hey that's entertainment ..

Grand weekend up Wharfedale way - an 11 miler on Saturday and a 5 miler on Sunday - and we had NO RAIN - pictures ... not really anything that jumps out ... can certainly recommend Howgill Lodge campsite though.

Pleas be aware that bloggy posts will be a little less regular over the summer due to lackof football/ideas/time.

Work still crazy as well so early starts/late finishes (especially while Johnny in China i.e. holiday). How can a failing company still contrive to employ so many "non-team players" - people who are only in it for their own ego/hourly rate etc - us "long serving lags" (loyal ? stupid ? I know where I stand) get really hacked off by the fly-by-nights... and I'm not talking about the obscene pay leaders either (given up on them) - just the "normal" workers who cannot understand the difference between "want" and "need", the definition of the word "priority", and the fact that most of them are desperately covering up for other people's f**k ups as well as their own. Look around the world ------ people get good pay-offs for failure (another cock-up on my part no doubt)... this just turned into not a ramble but a rant ... and at our place the lunatics have taken over the asylum ... going back to Beverley Hills Cop III now before I start to get REALLY personal ......
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Thursday "Stuff"

Check out the weather for Glastonbury - from Radio 4 no less ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8119664.stm

My "Licence to Snap" came through today - my Conference "accreditation" for the coming season - thanks to the efficient Keirina and the Football Conference admin crew down there in Birmingham.

Comforting to know that the "silly season" has started @ the non-league level with Fleetwood of the Blue Square North shelling out ... wait for it ... £17,000 for Barrow's Steve McNulty. Seventeen grand, viz four grand short of the total that could put Mossley into admin/liquid or some other "..ation" ... or the money earned for one morning's training session by Man City's Rocky Santa Claus ...



Seventeen Grand ? Looks a bit "porky" to me !!!

Another local club in trouble is Chadderton - left in the lurch by the so-called "moneybags" of Halliwell & Bhatti, they've been "helped out" by the council (who now own the lease on the ground - keep your eyes on this Mossley peeps - Seel Park could (if certain decisions are made) go back from the Mossley AFC Limited Company to Tameside Council - Seel Park Apartments would then return to the agenda .. just like in the "bad old days" of Lawlor & Fisher). Suffice to say, Chadderton are getting the usual help from the local populace - concrete fence panels demolished, stand seating wrecked - t*ssers ... they should really be playing chicken on Broadway - far more constructive - I'll get me car !!! Going back to the Newcastle Blue Star fiasco - that £61,000 debt is - according to Unibond League admin - nearer to £150,000 !!

Still waiting on the Hyde United situation - the "8 week extension" on their £200,000 "problem" will be up on 15th July (Hyde entertain Manchester City in a PSF on that very day !). And I have to be honest, still waiting for some info from Mossley - the £21,000 debt is out in the open - how it will be covered/go into administration/go into liquidation is still very much in the air ... although again this week Mossley get full back page honours in the local "freebie paper".

Noticed that what Smiffy snapped on Sunday (St John's Church with scaffolding), the "Manchester Evening News" get round to doing in this evening's edition ... slackers !!!

A weekend in the Yorkshire Dales awaits - with tent of course ... fingers crossed on weather ...

LATE 2330 EDIT ... has Michael Jackson died ?? Txts have flown in from my two eldest - the three of us went to see him at the Don Valley Stadium Sheffield back in 1997 ...we await an "official source" ...

0030 - Now sadly confirmed ...............................
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If I was a Curzon Ashton fan ....

... I'd be one of a select few !!

That's the joke out of the way - now to serious stuff - Newcastle Blue Star have officially "gone bump". Now ... Newcastle Blue Star beat Curzon Ashton in the Unibond 1 North Play-Off Final to claim a place in the Unibond Premier for 2009/10. Well done Newcastle Blue Star !!!

The debt that "takes them down" relates to £61,000 which the club received towards development of the Wheatsheaf Sports Ground. Yes - money received between 1999 and 2004 (a while ago !!) - to develop a ground that they moved out of in 2007 !!

I'm guessing therefore that they knew damn well they were in deep do-do before they had the cheek to enter into the play-off situation - not only denying Curzon Ashton a place in the Premier Division, but even taking the p*ss by allowing Colwyn Bay to travel up to Kingston Park on a Wednesday night (not cheap for Bay I'm sure) for the Play-Off Semi-Final .

Naturally this sort of situation usually reprieves a club in the higher division (Witton Albion ?) - rather than allowing the "defeated" finalists to go up. Unfortunately - with Curzon Ashton having a similar sized fan base to Newcastle Blue Star - I'm guessing the anger will be confined to the "two Harrys" - they've basically been cheated out of promotion - there's certainly "bog all" on the Curzon message board.

For many many years the Northern League teams - and Mike Amos - tried their damndest to keep out of the non-league pyramid claiming all sorts of excuses - which have been proved cr*p by teams such as Whitby Town and Durham City (plus we await the Whitley Bay revival following their FA Vase success - although I notice Paul "baldie" Brayson has moved to Durham City !) ...

Me - still reckon the non-league world would be a better place with a Northern Premier League, a Southern Premier League and a Midland Premier League (get rid of that Isthmian League anomaly probably the real reason that a North/Midland/South has never got off the ground) - and what with the "Gloucester City" fiasco, a Blue Square North, a Blue Square South and a Blue Square Middle Bit wouldn't be a bad option either ...

But now the Blue Square have lost Setanta ... cus you can guarantee the Sky/ESPN are only after the Premiership stuff - Paul Parker on the dole as well then (just like our Michelle !) ....
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Sad Sad News ...

...the fight against Fascism has claimed another victim ...yep Private Sponge (aka Colin Bean) has died in Wigan Infirmary aged 82.

And then there were four ... Clive Dunn (Jones), Ian Lavender ("Don't tell then Pike"), Bill Pertwee ("Put that light out" Hodges) and Frank Williams (Reverend Farthing).....
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I've been lazy ....

It’s been quiet on here - time off blogging for good behaviour … so all you get today is the ramblings of a lazy git who hasn’t snapped at all this weekend (apart from one below) – no football – not cricket – no British Grand Prix either (my Dad had the monopoly on that option … all weekend !!) – see Button failed mind – a Brawn/Brain thing maybe ?

I say lazy – dropped son, girlfriend and cat off at Manchester Piccadilly, before me and Mrs Smiffy went for a “bit of a wander” this afternoon – after the receipt of the Fathers Day thingies – a beer set (!!), a book to write camera stuff in … and the “Anvil – The Story of Anvil” DVD (yep that one I “mentioned” earlier in the week … success !).

A gentle five miler up the canal to Uppermill – and back to Mossley via the bridle path. Stopped off at the recently re-opened (a couple of weeks ago) “Roaches Lock” pub – naturally it’s gone for the gastro first – plenty eating both inside and out. Didn’t really check out the menu (minted lamb waiting at home !) - beer selection not that much different from the previous incarnation – same leaseholders, same beer list/cartel I guess. A pint of “Bombardier” and a half of “San Miguel” = £4-18 …….. sat outside looking up at the St Johns church spire which is covered in scaffolding at the moment ...

– one of those “Eureka” moments – the immortal “Church Spire Fund Thermometer” is famous throughout the land – why don’t the Church of England (Central Branch) use some of their copious moneys to train a crack – nay elite – squad of scaffolders/spire repairers to cover the entire country ? Having the monopoly of the entire CofE “portfolio”, costs could be reduced all round (although I guess doing an RC church on the day off could certainly be classed as a “foreigner” – or an “Italian Job” – ho ho !).

The next three weeks @ work will be interesting... Regular readers will know that due to various reasons (many of the knee-jerk variety but hey .. ) the Department of “9 + boss” is now down to “3 + boss” – and one of the “elite 3” has this weekend scooted off to China for 3 weeks … overtime/nervous breakdown/violence beckons ?

Time for a bath …. !

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Having a night off ....

... got my refund from Ticketline though -very efficient !

Night night ....
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Wednesday Night &Thursday Morning

... running on battery so ...

Little - if any - comeback from the "official" meeting after the meeting last night @ Mossley - no doubt minutes need to be typed up and approved before unleashing anything to the "hoi polloi" as Trimm Trab calls them ! Fully understandable as well (Mossley's answer to Hansard - i.e. "Frosty" - posted a note very late (!) - fingers crossed for some "product" later in the week - I'm sure there are many out there watching and waiting).

So ... I could grumble about trains maybe ? Late this morning meaning late to work (it's a bugger at around 0800 in Man Picc - end up with nearly 40 minutes to wait for the next train to Cheadle Hulme - and they call it peak-time/rush-hour ? I had time today to nip into the caff outside Piccadilly Station (Antonios) and have a full £3 brekkie - hit the spot !) ... but being honest there's been very few probs on the rails recently. OK the thunder/lightning/flooding kerfuffle on Monday caused some grief but "Acts of God" vs proper earthing ? You decide...

Ticketline have cocked me up tonight however ... booking tickets for DragonForce (December @ the Academy) tonight, a very very poor connection/crash has seen me end up with four rather than two tickets ! More fingers crossed for a refund on one of the transactions ... no probs last week when getting the Offspring tickets for August - first time tonight that the "new" Ticketline site has caused me some grief.....

Watched "Days of Glory" tonight about the North Africans fighting for the Free French in WW2 - a film to recommend - and I'm looking forward to picking up a copy of "Anvil" from HMV later today (Thursday) - a sort of "Spinal Tap" - but real (must admit I'd never heard of them - Canadian apparently) !!

And on Spotify - check out Soldat Louis .. a sort of Breton Pogues (awful album covers mind !).

And it's also "goodbye" to our house chameleon who died today - he/she was only little (two inches ?), and they're a touch trickier to look after than the bigger lizard buggers we have .... never got a decent photo of him/her either ...

Work is still crazy (thank heavens for some consistency in life !) - my first major balls-up as Lotus Notes "guru" arrived today - ran an agent four weeks ago against the wrong project database and overwrote a stack of data - whoops - thank heavens for backups and archives - still leaves me with a "bit of a job" putting it all right tomorrow. No defence, but I'm amazed it's took four weeks for this to be discovered - especially when weekly reports are being issued to client based on this data ....keeps me off the streets for now anyway (no doubt if I don't sort it, I WILL be on the streets !!)

One final point - I notice that this site has just had its 50,000th visitor since it was set up back in August 2006 - not many in the great scheme of things, but ... cheers me up - many thanks to you all.
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Tony Kempster

I may have wobbled on about the crisis @ Mossley for a week or so, but I'm sure many of you out there are aware of Mr Kempster and the amazing work he's done for many years on non-league football via his website ..

http://tonykempster.co.uk/

However many may well have been unaware of his health problems ...

http://health.tonykempster.co.uk/

Sadly Tony died at the weekend, leaving a great void in the non-league game ... God knows how many people/prog editors/press etc logged into his site to keep up to date with the various "goings on" in non-league football ... he'd known for a long time that his "time was short" and he was going to "freeze the site" at the end of the season anyway. Well he made it to the end ... but now it's no more.

There have been many many volunteers to help to keep his site/his "non-league vision" going - it will be a very hard act to follow.

RIP Tony - he will be sadly missed. My thoughts and wishes to Anne, Stuart, Martin & Ian.
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Removing Foot from Mouth

Yeah I wandered up the road to Seel Park tonight - tried the door to the Social Club ... it was locked ...

Being the inquisitive one, I wandered round and peeped through the boardroom window to see ... action ! I went in and stood by the door ... and then it got hit by a bolt of lightning and all inside perished ...

OK the last bit is slightly "wrong" (!!!) but, I'll be honest, an interesting meet - I have to apologise to Mark Pocock (in fact I did it face to face as well !) - my post last night was a bit of a misunderstanding - tonight was a meet to elect the "12 Good Men/Women and True" rather than a meet of the first 12 to apply !!!

The "open" side of the meeting was constructive - and restrained - and then it was onto the "Here's 12 posts - hands up ..." - Chairman, Secretary, Financial Controller, PR, Ground/Facilities, Team Liaison and the like (yep no paper so I can't remember all posts!!). In addition there were peeps who offered their services "under each post" (sub-committees if you like) .. so it was in the end ... more than 12 that offered up (and for those who want to know, there were some of the "old school" as well as the "newbies").

Manager Chris Willcock and asst John Flanagan were there too ... and were naturally interested in the "way forward" (viz wots mi budget ?!?!) .. so it was decided to break the meeting and then re-convene with the "12 Good Men/Women and True" - so the rest of us went to the "Highland Laddie" and nattered a bit... met suitsusir (Kevin) as well as Mark P...

My angle on tonight's events - is definitely positive - we had none of last Wednesday's "borderline anarchy" (phrase courtesy SJNR !) and it was a lot more focussed with a bit of an agenda from Mark as well which kept stuff flowing / in order...

Fingers crossed the PR side of the committee will espouse later - might be an idea for them to set up a Mossley Forum user entitled "Big Cheese" of "Official Line" or something like that, in order to relay the "official line" - followed by the photocopied version of same line to distribute to the "over 50s pc non-savvy" and others by post etc etc ...

I came home feeling ... comfy ...so there !
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Mossley Meeting tonight - Tuesday

After Kevin's hard work following last Wednesday's meeting ... the baton has been picked up ... nay snatched ... by Mark "I missed the meeting" Pocock. Never mind ... still getting the community involved .......................... but ....

Apparently the only way to get into tonight's meeting is ....

1) Be level headed;
2) Be suitably "vetted" - love to know the criteria (apart from the "level-headed" bit);
3) Be one of the first 12 applicants who pass 1) and 2);
4) To have received the "Royal Assent" - sorry e-mail acknowledgement (don't know how this fits in with the apparent inability of the over-50s to cope with "tellyweb" and stuff but ...);
5) Forget it - it's fully booked/oversubscribed anyway.

... so if you're looking for minutes ... you'll need to look elsewhere ....
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Weekend Pix

Monday 2230 - Here's the cricket from Saturday - two snatched hours down Belper Meadows ....

http://mossleysmiffy.jalbum.net/BelperMeadowsSawleyLE/

2235 - a few from Sunday's walk ..... going for the industrial heritage/duck view !!!








and at 2330 - some early "lo-res" pix of the band "Missing Dog" - who played at the 50th birthday bash in Belper on Saturday night (bassist Andy is the son of the "birthday girl" !) ...








.. and finally my "I'm trying to be a real photgrapher pic" from the band pix .... a resting bass guitar !



(Now don't go nicking it - cus I've got an even better version of this !!!).
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A Very Long Weekend ....

Friday night - "Haunted" @ Royal Exchange Theatre - it was grim ... and certainly NOT recommended.

Saturday a.m. - drive toBelper
Saturday p.m. - watched Belper Meadows CC v Sawley & Long Eaton - well one innings anyway.
Saturday eve - a family bash (50th)

Sunday a.m. - bad back, tree felling
Sunday p.m. - 6 mile walk round several "Dales" in Derbyshire (Millers, Cressbrook and the amazingly named "Water-cum-Jolly Dale" !!)
Sunday eve - created a curry

Hoping to get round to looking at some photos tomorrow - eek today - evening (still gotta iron a bloody shirt for "that place") ...
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Preparing for 2009/10 ...Part 1 of Many !!

... flashgun diffuser arrived from China today (!) - an (indoor) family 50th birthday in Belper (OK Milford) this weekend will be not only the diffuser's first outing, but the new flashgun as well ! Another year's camera tackle insurance also confirmed today - for those interested (it's VERY reasonable) I offer up ..

http://www.photoguard.co.uk/

Now just awaiting the "Conference Snapper Licence" renewal notice ... (oh - and the offer of a Canon 85mm f1.8 for under £200 !!!!!!!!!!)

Now ... do I start flogging my pictures (proceeds to Mossley AFC maybe ?) or should I continue as the "socialist freelancer" in this "fascist stronghold" of Tameside ?? Still got a job - just - unlike our CEO who "left to pursue other opportunities" today - read into that what you will (we have - I disabled his e-mail account !!!!) - should save the company a few bob on the rent of his Beetham Tower apartment and flash wheels (need to unscrew the personalised number plates before handing it back mind ....). As not yet skint, I'm happy to stick with "help yourself freeware" ethos at the moment - plus, to be honest, I don't really feel confident/cheeky/bold enough to actually charge money for my offerings (strange ... but true ...).

Tomorrow night sees a trip to the Royal Exchange to see a "newbie" from Edna O'Brien called "Haunted" - the phrase "menage a trois" has been bandied about, but I'm sure that vests will remain firmly "on" (you never know ... babycam will be on standby just in case !!!). With it being the re-arranged Mossley AFC Presentation Night, my absence @ Seel Park may be seen by some as "failure"/"non supporter" type of stuff .....

And finally as part of the "wot you listening to" style of stuff - it's Alan Stivell .. courtesy of Spotify ...
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24 Hours Later ... Mossley revisited ...

... well that meeting certainly started something !!!

Whilst fervently sticking by all that I said last night (although SJNR in his usual erudite way came up with the "phrase to kill for" .... as in "borderline anarchy" !!!), it appears that some of the "gobby ones" (as I so "non-eruditely" put it !) are getting things going. No doubt the comments below the previous thread will have been noted by you the listeners ... and all I can say is "Go for it !"

So a meeting next Tuesday at 1930hrs to form a new committee to move things forward - obviously there's still the small problem of the £21,000/administration/liquidation, but with what I've heard (via "gob" last night !) and read (via stuff today), Kevin from Mossley Juniors is going for this big style - and he will have my full support, no doubt about that (think - even this tiny website gets 1,500 hits a month, so any [free !] publicity is ...).

Going back to my Tuesday post for a minute though - my wallet has to remain firmly in my pocket - and having "been there done it" in the past (committee member in the Les Lawlor/Steve Fisher dynasty - programme editor for many years), it maybe, just maybe IS the right time for some new blood, some new ideas, some new energy - and in the last 24 hours, Kevin seems to be supplying that by the bucketful. Good to see that it's some of the Mossley Juniors crew who are picking up the baton (hence my "strangers" quote last night - I only know "Wayne the Train" !) - they've certainly had a pretty raw deal for many years up at Seel Park (deffo used and abused by "certain people" in the past purely to get grants, publicity and the like ...).

So ... action ... and out of negativity comes some "plus stuff" - fingers crossed that the momentum continues ...

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"Mossley Crisis Meeting"

Here's the "late view" - you may get more sensible/ more thorough stuff elsewhere ... but ... hey ...

...well that was "interesting" to say the least ...

Crux of the matter - £80,000 to run the club through a season ... but ...

... we owe creditors £21,000 at this moment in time ... and the obvious options are administration (Ok minus 10 points - live or die with that) or liquidation (far more dangerous as Council own ground - and it's prime housing tackle)

The club was strangely full. After the first 20 minutes or so, the phrase that came to mind for me was "Many strangers with very big gobs" - rather than saying "Hey I don't come here often - I've heard about the problems - I've a business in Mossley/local - I'd like to help", it was more "Why are you so crap ? What's your plan, what's your plan, what's your plan ???" Good to start with some total negativity/"in your face" type stuff, whilst many there were saying "Who the f**k is that gobby tw*t ?". And then the "Mighty Councillor Etchells" (Mossley Raving Loony Party") stands up - with prepared speech in hand - might have had a quick meeting at Tameside Council today, but can't recall seeing him on any wet Tuesday last February ..... yep another mouth with no real interest in the 1500 - 1645 part of a Saturday - but happy to discover a stage to mouth off....

An impassioned speech by John (prog man, webmeister, man with Mossley history) was greeted with applause ... but was followed by "How often do you drink in here" by some stupid stupid woman ... well done you twonk ! And after that we ended up with the Mossley football (viz every Saturday/Tuesday etc) arguing with the "I drink here on Sat night / Sunday etc etc" crew - yep it just got silly - rather than the two sides thinking "You do the football, I'll do the social drinking", it just degenerated into b*ll*cks. I then took "time out" for a pint in the "Highland Laddie" because I could see this "unstructured" meeting was going down the pan. I returned to find that people have written stuff on a piece of paper (idea being to set up a committee) .. and that's about it really ........ gosh !

Really felt for those on the top table (Mick and Mark) - they got "lumbered" with this "directorship" cr*p by the previous incumbents (who I feel were looking for the club to die - grudges in the Rigby family ?? I wonder ....) and then they get attacked by total strangers - my only hope is that these "gobby ones" will put their money where their extraordinarily large mouths are ....

The football fans and the drinkers ought to be able to work together (failure tonight mind) - but .. being honest .. the club still need a "sugar daddy" - but a "sugar daddy" with not just financial clout, but a bit of "how to run a football club" clout as well. And I may seem to have been knocking the "strangers" - far from it .. that is probably the problem as I mentioned yesterday "same people more money" - the club needs the strangers/new peeps to pass on the money, whether through match/ball sponsorship .. or more...

As to the mouthy ones ... faces clocked ... we will await ....
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Congratulations to the Voters of Tameside ...

... we've come top of the pile ... yes the borough of Tameside managed to return more votes for the BNP than anywhere else in the North West....

WELL DONE TO YOU ALL ....

(This does mean I will need to recalculate my statistics of yesterday evening as there are obviously more fascist scumbags on my early morning train than I originally thought...)

(PS I must pass my best wishes on to "Dear John" of the Hyde United Message Board)
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Latest from "Crisis Torn Mossley"

...this bloody meeting has been arranged/not been arranged / informal shareholders / "clear the air - all welcome" /on Tuesday / on Wednesday / not confirmed / on / off / in out / vote BNP / vote with your feet /trousers/hair ... sad to see - nay laughable.

We spend our Sundays reading about teams going bump / in admin/ in crisis / in vitro .. whatever ... the latest from up the hill is .....

There will be a meeting for all interested in the future well being of Mossley AFC at Seel Park this coming Wednesday evening at 8pm.

It is vital that everyone who cares about the club's future attends this meeting!

Good choice of day/time I guess, what with the mighty Ingerlund kicking off 15 minutes later against the power that is ...... ANDORRA !!! Probably equates to having the Veggie Society AGM at KFC.

Announcement says little as well - who's "on the stage/agenda" etc etc - reading back through the Mossley Message Board, there's been more organisers of this fabled meeting than this country has elected BNP MEPs !!

I'll be there from the start (camera ? maybe - this new flashgun needs a night out) - but you can guarantee that Mrs Smiffy will confiscate all cheque books/plastic/direct debit options - so if it's purely a "preach to the converted - and ask same people to put hands in pockets - yet again" ... I'll adjourn to watch the second half elsewhere.
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The Evening after the Night Before .....

.... people can read amazing things into numbers - especially when you throw in a chunk of media-speak ... I have this problem in that I've always loved numbers ... I may have only got a Grade 4 on "O" Level Maths back in '73 (blame Monday nights at the Top of the World in Stafford !) but as life went on, numbers became my friends .. my degree thesis/dissertation in 1982 was entitled "Unemployment Statistics - Complexity or Complicity ?" (and it was those 20,000 words that bumped up my degree !!!).

Anyway I ramble ...

"Tories hail European Advances" - share of vote up a gigantic 1% to 28.6% ...

BNP gain 2 seats - share of vote up 1.3% ...

Green Party vote up by 2.4% - no gains, same 2 seats ...

13.7% gets you 11 seats (LibDem) 8.6% gets you 2 seats (Green), 6.2% gets you 2 seats (BNP)

132,094 vote one way (get seat) - 127,133 vote another way (get nowt) [BNP v Green in the North West]

You sit (OK stand) there on the 0724 train thinking ... 200 peeps on this (overcrowded/slightly late) bugger ... so 12/13 of them voted BNP - but then you think ... 34% turnout .. so actually there are in fact a maximum of only 8 Fascists on this particular train (bet they've all got seats as well ...) - so it probably equates to the total number of "Sun" readers on the train as well (purely coincidental I'm sure !!!!)

OK Labour lost 6.9% of the vote - equating to - 5 seats - equating to 7% of the available seats ..... but apparently that's a complete disaster ...

But it's probably only me that looks at the numbers - everyone else reads a politically-sympathetic newspaper - and the gullible, and the paranoid, and the xenophobic and the trendy can believe/be duped accordingly

Stick me with guys/gals - read the Metro freebie - more bland than Bobby ...

Duped - I'm sure I am as well ...

...last word on this has to be thinking of UKIP - moaning about the fold in the (huge) voting paper which "hides" the party at the bottom .... Why not call yourselves the "Aardvark Party" (yes I thought about saying something else - tee hee ...) ...

Never mind - football (of sorts !) on Wednesday (and Andorra have NO SEATS in the Euro Parliament) ....
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Flaming June ?? Ha ...!

We spent the morning "mucking out" as they say in stable-speak - but this was house-based ! We are big on recycling at Chez Smiffy - big buckets marked "Glass", "Plastic" and "Cans" - if only Mossley had a cardboard skip as well .....

After a full morning (and part afternoon) tidying up, Mrs Smiffy and our Michelle went out shopping so I naturally felt the urge to do something despite the poo-weather - I went to watch the mighty Ingerland play the 132nd best team in the world ("Railway" in Greenfield - drinking E&S "Beyond the Pale") - and had that early chance gone in, and if the liner had been thinking "advantage to the attacking team"and "level", they'd have been two down in 20 minutes - once they were two up though there was no way back for Borat United .

65th anniversary of D-Day as well today - touched a few nerves for me this one, because five years ago there was a very very big "do" in France - for the 60th anniversary natch. Mrs Smiffy's dad was on one of those landing crafts (LCT 150 if I remember rightly) going into Sword Beach, so we'd arranged all sorts of the stuff for Ted and Win to go over to the commemoration "stuff" - we were going to drive him over, we'd arranged accommodation (it was a fairly complex thing with many official forms to fill) .... sadly Ted died in May 2004, a month before it all went off ... so watching a programme on Five early this afternoon was a little bit upsetting - listening to the survivors and thinking "My Dad-in-Law was there" and "They could have been interviewing Ted" - he never told us much about the whole thing until 2004 - we never asked ..... we understood why - wouldn't you - especially when you listen to those still alive who do talk ...

Politics ?? Not tonight - I await (with dread ?) the Euro-results tomorrow - just to see how much people care about life outside "Little Britain" ........ ironic really when you've got stuff like UKIP and No2EU - truly a strange society in this country these days ...
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Whit Friday ...

....weather has "not permitted" !!

See what the weekend brings .....

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Struggling with Vista/Voting/Lotus Notes ...

...managed somehow to download pix onto Vista laptop from babycam - fiddled with them but not sure how to compress like you could with Windows XP Picture & Thingummy wotsit (PS elements does a bit but ..) ... check out ... tonight's crazy-size voting slip - we turned up at about 2000 (with two hours to go) and the two pathetic-sized ballot boxes were "brimming" - we were told by the "electoral staff" that people had been "folding incorrectly" - what cr*p - obviously Tameside were expecting a p*ss poor turn-out and had left two tiny bins accordingly - and neither of the electoral staff actually asked me "are you Michael Smith of ...... etc" like I was taught to do when I did elections back in the early 80s - seems people can't even do this task properly these days .... here goes ... oops please ignore the X !!!



After the voting experience (and using a bloody teaspoon to squeeze my paper in - I kid you not !) ... a walk down the Stockport Road towards a pub - windy weather decreed the "Church" i.e. first one ... but on the way we got an interesting view of the building works for the "new Mossley Hollins" skool - looks more like a quarry, but then again Mossley is in a valley so you're either up/down one side or down/up t'other (our house on the hill .. two storeys at the front , three at the back - with a secret fourth storey in the loft mind !!) ... I digress .. see the new "Mossley Quarry" ...



.. and on .. they were selling Thwaites "Wainwright" in the "Church" (PRICE CHECK TIME .... £2-57 in the Church .... £2-50 at Saddleworth CC on Saturday !) ....I had a couple !!!

Home - to find out that little James Purnell has decided to call it a day - a clever resignation AFTER the Euros (unlike that twonk Blears) - however little Jimmy, it still doesn't hide the fact that you used to claim - on a REGULAR basis - £400 per month for food - and you're only 4 foot 9 inches ! Actually you end up looking no cleverer than "Motorbike Blears", or "No relation Jacqui" - you have all still cheated us - I'm looking to put together list of essential phrases that we the real people can use - you know what I mean .. "inadvertant administrative error", "accidental claim", "mucky moat" and other such bullsh*t - it seems to work if your name is suffixed by the letters "MP" - wonder what happens for us........

We won't know the Euro-results until Sunday - may give Gordon Brown time to construct a "sensible exit" - may give me time to wangle around in Vista and find a way to compress pix to the 25-50k "web" size ! Got a new toy off EBay as well today.. a usb Compact Flash Card Reader - looks cute and may well assist me in getting pix off "bigcam" onto this 'ere laptop - to be tested later (not tonight tho !)).

Tomorrow is Whit Friday up here ... Whit Walks in Mossley in the morning (everywhere else had their walks last Sunday - Mossley has always had this "special" - cus we're "special" !), and Brass Band Contests throughout the area in the evening. When the kids were small I always had Whit Friday off as a holiday (cus the skools were off so ...) - these days it's just another day .. until the evening. Since the "New Bridge" option died a death - no contest last year or this ....w eather permitting, our option is up the canal to the Friezland venue (they have an outside beer trestle table - with Millstone Brewery stuff on the handpump !) and then probably up to Greenfield - the "Railway" and then through the village - checking out the bands - to the "Clarence", and then bridle path back to Mossley. But it's all WEATHER PERMITTING - it's been great all week - fingers crossed for tomorrow...

Oh and Lotus Notes ?? Today I gave the "Singapore Server" a thorough "tidy" - tomorrow we p*ss about with the "Geordie Server" (OK it's in Wilton/Teesside but hey ....) I'll get this stuff sorted ... eventually !
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On your bike Blears .....

.... slowly but surely, the thieves are falling on their swords - Ms Blears especially picks her moment just before the Euro-elections ... she's obviously made enough "cash" to cope with "life after eccies" and b*ll*x to you all. (Emily Pankhurst must be turning in her grave..) So.. Gordon Brown to go ?? Anyone out there think of an adequate stand-in in the Labour Party ?? Diddy David Cameron as a ready-made Tory replacement ? ... my *rse ... (p.s. the leader of the Liberal Party is .... errr ... Ming .... no he was in Flash Gordon ... errr that bloke out of "Last of the Summer Wine" .. yeah yeah .. Clegg that's him)

What a bunch we've got ... never mind, look on the bright side - over in the good ol' US of A, Barack Obama has finally shed his "vote me in" persona and jumped into Dubya's coat ... at least we know what to expect over here (see the "all p*ssing in the same pot" from last night).

With the Euros upon us I can only offer ...

http://www.labour.org.uk/

http://www.conservatives.com/

http://www.libdems.org.uk/ (if you can get it to work !!)

http://www.greenparty.org.uk/

http://www.ukip.org/

http://no2eu.com/

http://bnp.org.uk/ purely in the interests of democracy (unlike themselves)

I'm fairly certain there are some other parties available to mark your X .... you choose ....
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Late Football Update ... Mossley-based

comes like this - straight off the message board courtesy Dydo...

"Steve Astley has been in contact today and asked if we could have an "informal" shareholders meeting (he being the major shareholder). He wants to clear up all the rumours that are floating around as they are begining to damage Mossley AFC. He is away until Tuesday 9th so I have sugested Weds 10th (venue and time to be confirmed).
He wants me to stipulate that the ins and outs of the money side of things may not be discussed but wants to get across what is going on. He is doing this as a fellow shareholder as he is no longer the Chairman but feels people need to know.
As of yet I dont know if any directors or board members will attend but I'm quite sure once this is posted my phone won't stop lol.
At the end of the day each and every one of us wants Mossley afc to go forward and win games of football"

A step in the right direction ....
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Tuesday Ramblings ......

.... Jacqui Smith is NO RELATION - another thieving bar steward prepares to bite the dust - no doubt after sorting out out suitable pay-offs etc etc. For me the only "slight" worry this week is that the reaction against all these thieving bar stewards in the House of thieving Commons will - for many - be to end up voting for the Fascists on Thursday - well that's a step in the right direction isn't it ?. In days gone by I could never understand how so many people would say "Conservatives are cr*p - I'm voting Labour this time" or vice versa ... let's swing from far left (right) to far right (left) - naturally these days it's not so obvious (viz they're ALL slightly right of centre and all p*ssing in the same pot !) - so a vote for the fascists is going from right to ............................ whoaaaaa !!!

"Six Tames Sides" advises all to vote Green, Independent, or at a pinch LibDem (not too many stories of LibDems with their noses in troughs - yet). UKIP, No2EU ... just watered-down Nationalists really.

But wait .. you didn't come on here for a PPBroadcast - did you ? Football ? A meeting up at Mossley Social Club next Tuesday - sounds ominous purely because of the lack of "official feedback" - the phrase being used is, "They're not sure what's going on" - that wears a bit thin ... THEY SHOULD - THEY RUN THE BLOODY CLUB (the caps lock equates to "angry shareholder" there ... !!!).

What else - a babycam "clear-out" reveals this motley bunch .... A neighbour's washing line - Man United all "washed up" after last Wednesday ...



Last Friday's barbie in back yard ....



Back yard looking cheerful in the good weather ...



Tonight's beautifully presented salad platter(constructed by moi !!!)



Just gone wild on EBay - they offered me a "£4 off" voucher - so I bought a £3-99 (dodgy ?) DVD - Barrow v Stalybridge Celtic Play-Off @ Burton Albion last season - I'll be looking out for me behind the goal !!!

And talking of "behind the goal" ... it's time for a little bit of self-indulgence - piccie courtesy of Martin Keaney - taken "down south" on the 10th May 2009 ....



... come the "moment of doom" at the "Tower of Doom", I'll need stuff like this for the CV !!

(and for the foodies ... we had Tiger bread, dolmades, hummus, spinach falafels, salami, chorizo, hard-boiled egg, olives, cucumber, onions, mature cheddar and feta !!!!!)
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