It was the work Christmas do last night and it was a great night. It was different to previous years where we have just out in Manchester to a restaurant and then to some bars. We went to something called Rock the Kasbah which was an Arabian theme Christmas party thing.

It was at Old Trafford Football ground. Actually it was in a car park at Old Trafford but a fair distance from the actual ground. It didnt start too well at the start of the evening though. We were waiting for a taxi for ages but there were none anywhere!! We ended up getting a tram but by then I was frozen!!! Even then the tram stopped at the Old Trafford cricket ground so was about a 10 minute walk. It took us a further 10 minutes to find the actual place!!!

We got there and it looked pretty good. There was lots of sport memorabilia – George Best autograph and shirt etc. Also the bar, photo area and dodgems. The show wasnt that good to be honest. Before the meal the show was some dancers (admittedly some of them looked nice) dancing for about 1 minute and then resting for about 10 minutes!

The food was “OK”. Nothing special. There was a platter for the table with the usual filo pastry things, wedges, garlic bread. Starter was a goats cheese and spinach tartlet thing which wasnt that keen on. Main was chicken stuffed with cranberry and orange stuffing. Dessert was a short a cheesecake chocolate Christmas pudding thing. Unfortunately I dont like cheesecake. The boss was buying must of the drinks so we had champagne, pitchers, and shots.

There was a dancefloor right in the middle of where we were eating so I got up and danced. A few of my workmates also danced but not too much. I think they were tired??? Or boring!!! :p (If your reading this I am only messing!!) At the same event was one of our clients we work with so there was someone else on the dancefloor I knew.

The dodgems was great fun. Crashing into people when your abit drunk!! Very funny. We stayed till it finished at around 130 and most of us walked back to the nearby hotel for a few more drinks. It was quite funny walking back and hearing all the City fans singing Man City songs as we walked past Old Trafford! No other United fans were about so I had to sing a couple songs!! We left the hotel at about 3 ish – I think – a couple others stayed until more like 4.

I took some photos and they will be uploaded to the usual place and also Facebook.

Well the past week hasnt been great for United for different reasons. First there was the problem that happened at the United Christmas party when a girl was allegedly sexual assaulted. This is still ongoing and the United player accused has been released on bail. We will have to see what happens.

The Christmas party was just asking for trouble in my opinion. No wives and girlfriends were allowed and apparently each player was allowed to bring specially picked girls – only the best looking ones. They started in Manchester 235 which is near me and then eventually in the Great John Street hotel.

Fergie has un-surprisingly now banned Christmas parties and has apparently layed into Rio who was the one who organised the party. Lets hope it does not distract them from whats happening on the pitch.

I hope this is not true and he is innocent.

All the players were at the party except Ronaldo who was at the world player of the year awards – which he was in 3rd place after Kaka and Messi.

To make the week worst some United fans were jailed after the problems in Rome the other day.

Its almost Christmas and the parties are starting to happen. On Wednesday one of my friends arranged a get-together meal which was really nice. Photos will be online at the usual place and properly Facebook. Thursday I went to a workmates party after playing football in the freeeeeezzzzinggggggg cold!! Friday went out for some drinks and clubbing. It was leaving drinks for one of my friends who is heading back down south We started off in Matt and Phred Jazz Club and then Bluu bar in Northern Quarter. Then moved on to Wetherspoons. Finally it was 42nd street till it closed. It was very warm and abit sweaty in there. I took some photos from the night and these will be online at some point at the usual place in my Picasa photo album thing and Facebook.

At the weekend I did some shopping on Saturday. Needed to get a secret santa and a card. It was tooooo busy!! Couldnt get home quick enough!!! Today went to meal to celebrate my cousins 18th birthday. It was a buffet so ate loads!! Plenty of duck and pancakes! The United Liverpool match was on at the same time and a few of us tried to watch the last 15 minutes in a bar. However the usual places were not showing it for some reason.

It was a grand slam Sunday!! United played Liverpool at Anfield and Chelsea played Arsenal. Most of the times these matches are not really that good.

The United match Liverpool were on top of most of the game but United took there chance. Rio was brilliant as was Anderson. Ronaldo had one of those games where it just didnt happen and he tried to take on everyone. In the end it finished 1-0 to United.

The Chelsea Arsenal game finished 1-0 to Arsenal which means Arsenal stay on top. It had some controversy as it always seems to be. Plenty of chances and amazing it was only 1-0. One thing that did happen in the match involved John Terry a few times. First he was yellow carded and I think he could have got a red. There was a bit of scrapping for the ball with Fabragas and Terry cleared. His challenge followed through on Fabragas – he knew what he was doing!!! Later on Eboue (who is not exactly the cleanest player in the world!!) went in for a challenge and Terry got injured. What goes around comes around – Terry getting injured. Chelsea been fined twice this season for behaviour on pitch and its still not great! There is a rumour that with Capello now England manager (more of that in a bit) that Terry will no longer be England captain because of his behaviour on and off the pitch (including trying to grab red card from refs hand).

Chelsea now without Drogba for a few months and Terry will be out for some time (latest is he is going for a scan but its thought to be ankle ligaments damage). More controversy near the end when Fabragas had a late tackle on Cashley Cole who then swung an arm out at Fabragas.

On match of the day 2 Alan Hanson thinks that United will win the title. If someone else is to win it they will have to be above United. (We are now favourites according to the bookies).

Capello

The new England manager has been named and as expected its Capello. He has a great record and will take no nonsense and hopefully get the stupid money greedy footballers to play!! One thing that worries me (maybe worry is the wrong word) but all his past teams are not known for being exciting and English football is about pace and attack etc.

It was a massive weekend of sport the other week with football, the big boxing matches and Sports Personality of the year. United won which of course was great!! However the main event of the weekend was the boxing.

First Amir Khan players on Saturday evening and won in about 72 seconds!! Then in the early hours of Sunday morning it was Ricky Hatton v Mayweather. The match was on at aroudn 5am in the end. I was planning on going to sleep then getting up but I ended up staying up all the night. Hatton was outclassed really but he did well. I read somewhere that Mayweather had a 7 inch better reach than Hatton!! It just showed that he maybe shouldnt have gone up a class – however what do I know!!

One thing about the boxing and everything – the atmosphere was great. Hatton had amazing support. However it was disgraceful and just embarassing the English Hatton fans booing the US anthem. What was that!!! Thats real nice and clever – boo the national anthem of the country you are in!!! I know they didnt like Mayweather but that no excuse!

The next day I normally play football but it was cancelled – it did mean I could sleep some more!! In the evening it was Sports Personality of the year and Joe Calzaghe won. It was a bit of a surprise but I am happy he won. He should have won last year really. He is undefeated in 44 matches. An amazing record. The expectant winner ended in 2nd place – Lewis Hamilton. It would have been typical of England in that someone who has not won anything (but admittedly did very well) would have won. Ricky Hatton was 3rd.

In the newspaper today Roy Keane said he is happy for goalkeeper Craig Gordon to have a mid-season holiday – “as long as he doesn’t go out in a canoe” LOL. Just incase you dont know this is in reference to that bloke who turned up at a police a few days ago saying “I think you are looking for me” and claiming he didnt know who he was. He was believed to have died 5 years ago when he went missing while canoeing.

It now turns that he went missing for 1 year after his “accident” and has since been living in the house next door and when he goes out is in a disguise. His wife knew all about it etc. It also doesnt help that there was a photo of them together in Panama about 18 months ago!! The latest now is that he has been charged. His wife is believed to be in Miami.

I went with some work mates last night to see Manic Street Preachers who were playing at Manchester Central (used to be called G-Mex).

The gig was OK. It was good when I recognised the songs but I knew properly about 8 or 9 songs but the ones I didnt knew were mostly good and had the “Manics” sound.

The typical fan of the Manics seems to be quite old with the average age of the audience was the highest for any concert I have been to. Also I dont know if its Manics fans but it doesnt seem like many people dancing much with many people just standing watching. Also I think the venue was quite big and open. I much prefer more intimate venues like the Academy and Apollo. I also would have liked it to be a big louder – didnt seem that loud at all for a gig.

One surprise at the end was no encore??? Thats a first!!

For your interest here is the setlist:

Motorcycle Emptiness
Autumnsong
Everything Must Go
Roses In The Hospital
Ocean Spray
Slash ‘N’ Burn
Indian Summer
Yes
La Tristesse Durera
1985
Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
Kevin Carter
You Love Us
If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
Partial Suicide Alley into Suicide Is Painless (Theme From M*A*S*H) (Acoustic)
The Everlasting (Acoustic)
Send Away The Tigers
She Sells Sanctuary / Motown Junk
Little Baby Nothing
The Masses Against The Classes
You Stole The Sun From My Heart
A Design For Life

I will possibly upload the photos – however they didnt turn out too well as they were all dark.

Related link(s):

Manchester Evening News review

Last night United played Fulham and won 2-0. They should have won by more properly. Once again Ronaldo was the star of the match with a brace of goals. He has now scored 2 goals in a game for United 12 times and is still waiting for that hat-trick.

He had a great chance to score hat-trick when he should have won a penalty. Instead he was booked. He was one on one with keer and knocked the ball pass keeper. The keeper dived and Ronaldo hurdled over the keepers arms. In jumping over Niemi (who had lifted his arms up) he fell over. He then was booked and clapped the ref (in some ways lucky did not get booked again for that). Why would he dive when he was about to score hat-trick!!! Grrr!!! Hopefully that yellow card will not add up and he is suspended in the future.

Fergie is understandably angry.

It seems to be that Ronaldo still has a reputation and a ref like Rob Styles is always going to make mistakes!!! If the same incident was at Anfield and was Gerrard (diving tw*t) I have no doubt it would have been a penalty.

Some more car news – it all seems to be happening to my car this year!! About 3 weeks ago someone crashed into the back of me. I only recently got my car back after being in the body shop for 2 weeks.

It was all sorted through the other drivers insurance so it has not cost me anything. I also got a hire car through insurance which was a Clio. It was an OK car, quite nippy but not as nice to drive. Had some nice features like automatic lights, what seemed like auto wipers and auto locking doors.

Well now that I have my car back I realise that my brakes dont seem as good – I know the other car was a lot newer but took some getting used to. Also the car smells of nail varnish – I am guessing the glue or something used. I think there may be a scratch on the front windscreen but not looked at it closely yet so it may just be dirt. Also looking at the right side panel which would have been replaced it seems like it needs a good clean. It has those tiny swirly scratch marks you see on black cars. So even brand new panels have these marks!! Also looks like it has been polished or wiped with something – will have to see what it looks like after I wash it.