The Liverpool Uni Happy Families Club

We went "oop norf" last weekend for the christening of our friend Desme's latest family addition, Anya. There were a bunch of people from my Liverpool Uni days there with partners, spouses, about-to-be spouses and kids. Lara just couldn't resist practising her favourite activity of the moment - pointing - on the group photograph.

The football - oh well, never mind

There was an upside from the Liverpool match last night - I found out our local pub, the Wendover Arms, must be under new ownership and, far from being turned into flats, is being turned into a nice pub. They have Sky (albeit I'm not convinced it's the "Pub-legal" type) and they almost had Marlow's Rebellion beer (it had run out).
I dashed down there after the end of Normal Time to watch Extra Time; I wouldn't have minded really if Lampard had scored the winner, but that blinking Drogba had to have the last word, didn't, although I will admit that both his goals were well taken. Lampard deserves to be in the Final after taking that penalty after the week he's had, and I'll be supporting Chelsea in the Final - I couldn't support ManU against another English club, could I? And then at least we'd have been beaten by the team that won the competition!
There's always next season...

Scousers in Moscow then..

Liverpool v Arsenal? Course it was a penalty (but then again Arsenal should have had thiers in the first leg!). Anyway, Chelsea in the semis? Liverpool fans might as well start applying for their visas to visit Moscow then! Our holiday plans have us in Moscow a week after the final, but if Liverpool win there might well still be Scousers there...

Liverpool & England - what a relief!

Phew, Liverpool edged past Inter on Tuesday night, but they insisted on putting their fans through the mill for the first 85 minutes. After all the (justified!) criticism he's received, Benitez was the only manager of a British team to come out of the first round of matches with a win...

And then England go and tie a one-day match! I've Sky-plussed the highlights but I don't know when I'll get to watch them.

The Weekend Report

The girls seemed to enjoy their night out on Saturday. Olga and I took our time getting our jobs done on Saturday morning and afternoon, but it was nice for them to relax in the very swish Novotel for an hour before going out to meet Lucy's friends at 7pm. It was like the United Nations in the pub, there were 2 and a half Russians, a Ukrainian, a Pole, 2 Koreans, 2 Libyans, a Saudi, an Equatorial Guinean, a Kuwaiti, and even 2 and a half English Then I left at 8pm, taking the half Russian, half English Lara with me, leaving only Simon to keep up the Home Guard. Even he speaks fluent Spanish!

Lara was a bit skrikey through the night, and my cough was at it's worst, which made for a rather broken night, but it was nice not to be under much time pressure on Sunday morning, as I wasn't going over to pick Olga up until mid-afternoon, thanks to this late-check-out deal the Novotel was offering.

I was in a bit of a quandry on Saturday afternoon, over the Liverpool v Barnsley FA Cup game. I guess I couldn't really lose either way, with cousin Ryan being the assistant manager at Barnsley.
I recorded Match of the Day but I've not been able to bring myself to watch it yet!
Barnsley have drawn Chelsea in the quarter finals, at home. The BBC are showing it, so I hope Mindy irons Ryan's best tracksuit!
Tonight is Liverpool v Inter Milan. I wonder if Benitez might play his strongest 11 players, or if he'll continue to select his starting side in the same way most people choose lottery numbers.

Change of plans

We were planning to go to Southampton today, but Lara had her most fractious day so far yesterday, she wasn't very happy at all while I was bathing her, and after a nine-and-a-half hour day at work without a break, and a tough evening with Lara, I didn't think any of us could face an early start this morning.
So I'm listening to the game now on BBC Radio Hampshire via the internet, it's 0-0 after 20 minutes. We've just had a lovely walk round the block, and popped into our local pub for a Guinness - having been under threat of redevelopment as flats late last year, but after a word with the dog-friendly current landlord, it seems there is a convenant on the building which has prevented this.
I have put a couple of bets on the Liverpool v Havant game, the main one I wanted to put on was that Havant would lead at some point, but I didn't fully understand the betting slip, so I didn't go through with the bet... guess what - Havant are currently leading! I've got money on Harry Kewell to score the last goal in a 4-1 win to Liverpool, I placed that bet before I saw the team line ups - Kewell isn't in the squad!

Now Havant are 1-2 up. Doh.