Well that was a mad 24 hours and no mistake.
Ray & I were dispatched to Port Elizabeth first thing Friday morning to cover Holland Brazil in a slight change of plan - we were due to do both Jo'burg games, but as Stan & Jim couldn't get flights from P.E. to Cape Town, it was easier for us to fly in and out on the same day and for Stan & Jim to do the same in Cape Town today for Germany's annihilation of Argentina...at least we scored against the Germans. Twice.
Those of us in the talkSPORT lodge who write the occasional blog for entertainment purposes are finding lots of common ground lately i.e. we're running out of things to talk about!
Well everyone and the neighbour's terrapin have had their say on England it seems. Being removed 5000 miles or so from the 'word on the street' so to speak, you're reliant out here on the online content of our newspapers and the general malaise amongst my facebook friends, most of whom have been using swear words even they never thought themselves capable of using.
I've vented my spleen at players & FA bigwig coaching idiots in my previous blog, and there is no point in repeating yourself unless you're AC/DC, who are quite fantastic at it. So be it.
Dang and blast it England - why the hell do you keep on doing this to us??????????
Commentators and reporters all have different methods by which they put together reports or approach games they work on. One aspect that I'm asked about a lot is whether I 'write' specific lines of commentary to suit a goalscorer or a match-winning player.
Well, the vindictive talkSPORT Lodge roof pigeon can coo for all he's bloody worth at 7am tomorrow and I won't care one jot, thanks to Jermaine Defoe. I cannot ever remember being as clueless beforehand as to what to expect from England in an international match as I was at lunchtime today, but what I saw was more like the England we're used to. Still loads of room for improvement, you have to be realistic and say that, so the negativity that the lads got from callers to talkSPORT drivetime after the final whistle was very disheartening.
Nearly 2 weeks in my cavernous room at the talkSPORT lodge and it's only tonight that I appear to have discovered the plug that activates the underfloor heating. Words like 'horse' 'shutting door' and 'bolted' are flashing across my mind amongst others. And those are the clean ones. Never mind - it might warm up by the time we're due to fly home next month.
So John Terry does it again, eh? The man whose lust for power and autonomy within the England camp to match his status at club level has led to our squad merely fragmenting still further, which I'm sure wasn't his intention, but shows his total lack of understanding on how to handle a situation where he isn't top dog.
Words fail me.
No, I'm not talking about England 0-0 Algeria - I'm referring to a sign we passed on our way to Rustenburg this morning. It said "World Record In Progress - 1 man living in house with over 40 deadly snakes - 114 days and counting!" Perhaps that's where Joe Cole is hiding. I then started wondering to myself, 'do the snakes give him an hour off every 24 for a comfort break?' Perhaps I'm turning into Karl Pilkington...actually, maybe it's him in there, with Ricky Gervais looking through the windows laughing at him incessantly.
What day is it today? Oh yeah – a day off! A chance to give the larynx a breather whilst still punishing other muscles at the preening parlour a.k.a. the gym. I forgot to take Stan’s fitness plan with me to work from, so it was as clueless a workout as you can imagine, but at least I felt I was getting somewhere…despite running on the spot for most of it.
