It all started off with such high expectations: in honour of Welsh Legends, a pre-match drinky at the Owain Glyndwr. Unfortunately the beer was being served by an amateur, and headless Brains was the result.
Not to worry! A text arrived from a colleague of the mister’s (a Tigers fan) announcing that he was at O’Neill’s, so we made our way there. The colleague was nowhere to be found, and the beer (and wine) was equally shit. The main point of interest was that the owner must be a County Antrim man, judging by the exquisite photographs on the walls.
Next on the agenda was to find somewhere to watch the Munster v Racing match. After considerable traipsing, eventually found a pub that was both showing it and had drinkable booze. Hooray!
As you’ll all know, that was quite an exciting match, ending in a draw.
On to Arms Park for the main event!
Arms Park is a civilised ground that serves Courvoisier doubles. Whoever designed the signage must have been overly-appreciative of said cognac, because the signs in no way resembled any of the seating information on our tickets.
With the help of a friendly usher, we eventually found our seats, in the middle of a garish sea of Leicester supporters. A particularly large-lunged one was sitting directly behind me, and was given to shouting YESTIGAHS every time Leicester touched the ball.
Noticing me flinching, he said, “Sorry, I’ll try to warn you before I shout. But I don’t always know when I’m going to do it.”
“Oh. A bit like Tourette’s, then?”
As for the rugby itself:
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(Yay, try Cardiff.)
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Ah shit.
Further Reading
Weekend team selections start here.
ClydeMillarWynant’s views on known knowns and unknown unknowns.
On the telly this week
Friday 29th November
| Munster v Edinburgh | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ulster v Scarlets | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
| Bath v Saracens | 19:45 | BT Sport 1 |
Saturday 30th November
| Wales v Barbarians (women) | 11:45 | S4C |
| Wales v Barbarians (men) | 14:45 | Channel 4 |
| Northampton v Leicester | 15:00 | BT Sport 2 |
| Treviso v Cardiff | 15:00 | FreeSports / PS2 |
| Connacht v Southern Kings | 17:15 | TG4 / Premier Sports 1 |
| Dragons v Zebre | 17:15 | S4C / Premier Sports 2 |
| Glasgow v Leinster | 19:35 | Premier Sports 2 |
| Ospreys v Cheetahs | 19:35 | Premier Sports 1 |
Sunday 1st December
| Harlequins v Gloucester | 15:00 | BT Sport 1 |
Ovally Balls 
Summer rugby ? No thank you. Quick way to kill the game, I reckon. How about them southerners do that if they want same season ?
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Talking of which, my daughter phoned me last night in a bit of a state, she is playing her first rugby match this week and she was very concerned that she had been selected to play “in the first row”, (I was pedantic of course)
She is very tall and skinny and didn’t think she’d be able to play there.
She phoned again this morning quite relieved as there is another with the same name who is playing prop. My daughter is either winger or backrow, selection hasn’t been finalised.
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Ha Larry, I have indeed known about Billie Eilish for months. My 9 year old daughter wants to be her I think.
Look like her at least. Mrs Craig’s took her to have her hair cut and she said she wanted to be a goth. I showed her what that meant and asked her if she wanted to look like a 1980s weirdo. She shook her head and showed me a video of Billie.
Even ‘goth’ has changed.
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Ticht – looks like his non playing hand is about to grab something.
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This is what a goth looks like
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Boak
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Craigs, middle daughter listened to Souxie and the Banshees, Cure, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhuas etc. She dressed in black with lots of make up etc, but still denied the G word.
Finally she did own it and said she was a Goth, he older sister said she had finally come out of the coffin.
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Couldn’t resist.
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Ticht – I was called a goth a lot by people growing up but these people went to cheese nights and could be dismissed.
What was worse was being called a hippy by some local lads outside a kebab shop in Southampton one night. I was wearing a hawaiian shirt but it was all a bit unnecessary. Iirc it nearly ended in a fight between myself and the main accuser but luckily they were intimidated by my hippy demeanour.
I still have the shirt, it survived a possible beating and the fire.
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My youngest (age 6) was a last minute stand in for the Upminster u9s cricket team vs Ilford over the summer. He was there to watch his brother and they were a man short. He played the match wearing a Hawaiian shirt.
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Craigs, you’ve made me think of the “Tribes” subcultures thing the Graun did a few years back, it ran for ages in the Saturday music section of the paper iirc.
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Whoa there. My son went through a Goth phase with his best mate Jason from 15 to when they finished Uni.
I’ve mentioned it here before but I am a big EBM music fan with leanings to Goth. I used to go these Zillo Magazine parties when they came to Heidelberg, and was benignly tolerated by the clientele while being perhaps the oldest person on the dancefloor. I was properly at this one! Great days.
https://de-de.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.285343754828164.83854.161098483919359&type=1
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Someone (half my age) asked me if I knew of lo-fi music. I thought they were going to talk about early Guided by Voices.
But no. It means something different now.
I remember when I used to be hip. Then they changed what hip was.
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That should be probably, not properly – I think…
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@yosoy what’s lo fi music now?
Also I catch myself playing music at my kids off and on trying to ‘edumacate’ them proper like and their response is often a kind of ok boomer thing. Best to embrace being an old person.
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Yes, the transition from being achingly hip to having aching hips is not a pleasant one.
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@beadle
Some form of hip hop, I think.
I’m guessing a lo-fidelity version.
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Yos – you’ll always be hip to me.
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Don’t think I was ever hip. Achingly or otherwise. In a surprise to everyone.
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*looks back over late teens music collection*
Ho hum.
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@sumbeamtim
“Summer rugby ?”
Well, over here – and especially down here in the deep south west – we have year round competition with football*. I refer to it as the 13 -month season. It’s ludicrous really, a couple of years back the first match of the season was arranged so it could double up as the league final from the previous season. There’s endless competitions – many of which no one really cares for but the clubs fear that their local rivals might win – so they have to enter and make some kind of show to win.
However, rugby gets most of the Oct-Feb period to itself (apart from schools football) – but summer is a complete non -runner as many rugby players play football and pretty much complain all summer about the numbers of games (or about huge breaks in the schedule followed by trying to cram in as many as possible)
Throw in the GAA’s love of a replay – nothing can be settled on the day if there a way to bugger up the schedule with a replay – so we’ll stick to the mud and rain – at least we only play 1 game per week max and knock outs are settled on the day.
*gaelic football (just don’t want to type ‘Gaelic’ 10-12 times to differentiate from soccer)
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Strangely enough my late teens music collection bears a striking resemblance to my mid-50s music collection…..
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‘once we’re over 30 we start to lose muscle mass each year’
Eek.
This may be an urban myth but also heard that typical mental peak after which inevitable decline occurs is late 30s. Might as well auto-euthanize to avoid turning into some kind of feeble blob.
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I suppose the point is you’ve got to exercise & use yer brain otherwise it all disappears. Time and DNA are bastards.
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And don’t get me started on hangovers.
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“I suppose the point is you’ve got to exercise & use yer brain otherwise it all disappears. ”
Chimpie, my eldest is doing her psychology masters at the moment she tells me there is a big correlation between brain function and the amount of physical exercise we get as we age, particularly many forms of dementia.
I know that weight training, or some form of resistance training, is very good for bones, connective tissue, circulation, posture as well as muscles
You can keep both body and mind healthy by exercising both allied to a “good” lifestyle.
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“once we’re over 30 we start to lose muscle mass each year’
This can definitely be turned around at the gym, people in their fifties might not get the same results as those in their twenties, but we probably don’t want the same results when we are older anyway.
Someone we know was told to take up weight training after leukaemia treatment had left her with osteoporosis, she was in her early 50s and went on to became a competitive age-group power lifter
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I’m probably in better shape than I was 4/5 years ago but it is a bit of a struggle keeping the exercise up as one gets older, with various time pressures etc. Always feel better for exercise.
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“Someone (half my age) asked me if I knew of lo-fi music.”
Sorry to have put you on the spot there Yos.
**Cues Vaporwave mixtape on the Radiogram**
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“Strangely enough my late teens music collection bears a striking resemblance to my mid-50s music collection…”
Respect for listening to at least 3 Prog albums from start to finish…
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Ah, here he is, the Happy Goth….
(OK, happy-ish)
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Pop quiz:
These lads won a football game exactly 30 years ago today. What was the game?
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Ah, not 30 years ago today but 30 years ago in June.
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This is fun if like me you are a bit nerdy about old Range Rovers and LandRovers, just old ones mind.
It also ties in with a subject discussed the other week, converting existing cars to electric. I don’t suppose it would be cheap, but I’d love to have one of these
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Tomp – “what was the game?”
Football?
Soz.
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30 years ago in June 89, or June 90? If it was June 90, then it must have been a Italia 90?
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June 89.
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Craigs, see the sentence before the question.
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They are Saudi Arabia (as the goalie has Saudi Arabia on his jersey). Did they beat one of the ‘Home Nations’ in a friendly? I would suggest Norn Iron or Wales.
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Tomp – I did. Otherwise I probably would have fucked up the answer.
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Saudi Arabia have never played NI and the only home nation they’ve lost to is Wales. 2 draws with England, 1 with Scotland.
The lads in photo “should be” in their late 40s now is a clue.
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Christ, I should have got that! They’re the ‘Under-16s’ team that beat Scotland in the World Championships that year. The only time we’ve been to a FIFA tournament final. Reckon most of that Saudi team are probably older than me.
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The good news, BB, is that Saudi Arabia have achieved very little in world football since then. Only once have they been beyond the group stages.
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Only once have they been beyond the group stages at the world cup.
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Ah well, its good news then, that the defeated hosts have since gone on to DOMINATE world football.
Hold on…..
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Saudi Arabia did however, score the second best goal ever at a World Cup (after Archie’s, of course)…
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“Summer rugby ? No thank you. Quick way to kill the game, I reckon. How about them southerners do that if they want same season ?”
We already do. Super Rugby kicks off this year Jan 31. Height of summer.
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Some of my musical “tastes” have implanted themselves in my offspring. I even caught my elder recently bopping and jiving, or whatever kids these days do, to Oh Carol off Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out.
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Occasionally my musical tastes seem reflected in those of my lads. For example the other day my youngest was dancing around the kitchen to Kung Fu Fighting by Carl Douglas
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