Just a quick one

An incredibly busy week at work has meant that there, other than the usual up and down weather, isn’t much to report this week.

On Monday evening I had my first training session with the u10 football/soccer team I am helping out with coaching. I need to get myself a Coach James name badge though. It’s good fun, but I’m glad that I’m only there to help and not the main coach; with many years having passed since my younger sisters were that age, I’d forgotten how uncontrollable kids are that vintage.

Throughout the week, the sunshine that has been blessing the UK was nowhere to be seen. Instead we have had heavy rains, what feels like continuous thunderstorms, and even tornado warnings.

It’s actually a pretty cool system they have, providing that you’re not watching one of your favourite TV shows at the time of a warning!

Geeky Stuff

I keep meaning to update this more regularly, especially as I’m in competition with myself in the amount of people I can get reading the blog. Google have some pretty good tools that enable you to: track your most popular posts, where your audience is in the big wide world, where the source came from (if you clicked link through Facebook etc), what operating system you use and even what the reader was wearing at the time of reading (the two of you wearing PVC bodysuits at 9am really need to have a think about that). OK, I jest with the last point.

For instance, over the past month I have had 345 pageviews of which 235 have been from the UK, 108 from the States, 1 from South Korea (work colleague I think) and, oddly, 1 from Colombia. They haven’t came back so there’s clearly disappointment at the lack of Queens in my posts; please ignore the blog title.

The above chart shows my pageviews over the past month, with each spike happening on the Sunday/Monday of me posting the update. It’s good to see that people are actually reading it; just imagine how many I’d have if it was actually interesting!! Haha. I’m also approaching my 4,000th (FOUR THOUSANDTH) view!

Back in the real world and the price of fuel is beginning to be a hot topic here … I don’t know why as it’s still 50% of the price that is currently being forked out in the UK. Still, the rise to a $4 gallon of fuel did happen very quickly so if I was an American I think I would complain too, but when compared to what is paid in Europe it’s really not that bad. Perhaps it will become even more of an incentive for the US to ditch the big trucks and V8’s.

The weather continues to throw surprises, a day of glorious sunshine is all too often followed by a day or two stormy weather. Still, there haven’t been any tornado warnings for a while even though there was a storm that was recently swept across to the East coast.

Tomorrow I have to take a trip to the Post Office to get my tax returns in the mail, both of which contain some meaty little cheques checks. Who even uses them anymore? I’ve had to pay taxes to both the State of Indiana and also the Federal Government on the money that I have earnt whilst working here. Luckily, I will also be getting some kind of rebate from the Inland Revenue in the UK to equalise the payments through some agreement the governments have. I don’t think it was set up specifically for me, so I don’t have all the details I’m afraid…

In other news I’ve booked flights for a trip home in May! It’s only a short one, but I can’t wait to see everybody. I also managed to get me and Dad some tickets for the Arsenal vs Villa game; hopefully this one won’t be called off like the one on my last trip home.

This weekend has been a very busy one. The Saturday was spent on a charity trip to a casino; was great fun although I expected there to be quite a few more little old grannies wearing their visors, sitting around the slot machines. Instead there were mullets everywhere, which is much better. I started off with $40 in my pocket and at one point had $90, but then the sweet old lady on the blackjack table turned evil and kept picking herself aces and picture cards. That’s code for “I LEFT WITH NOTHING”. There was an amazing buffet though, with endless options of food and desserts …

Sunday was cool too as I went kayaking with friends down the White River. It was all going so well, floating in the current with the occasional bit of required effort, bathing in the sun. Until we got to the end of the stretch we were doing and there was a mini rapid to go over. Trying to straighten the kayak, I over corrected too much and so took the honour of being the only one out of a group of six to go overboard. The water was COLD. Still managed to keep hold of everything though inc. sunglasses. Afterwards we stopped for ice cream where I had a huge double scoop (cookies and cream with a biscuit crunch) in a waffle cone. Sitting outside on a park bench eating it was brilliant.

So, that was my weekend, and THIS is the end of the post!

American Sports Part III: Soccer

I know, I know … football. But when in Rome etc etc.

A couple of weeks ago I saw that the New York Red Bulls were travelling to nearby Ohio to play the Columbus Crew. Well, I say nearby, I had to drive for around 3 hours to get there from here in Indianapolis. It was a really boring drive too; straight line East and stayed on the same road for around 160 miles! At one point I went past a sign for London, wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating …

 

 

 

 

 

 

I was actually only going to the game as I thought it would be a chance to watch Thierry Henry, who used to play for Arsenal and is one of my favourite players of all time; he now plays for New York. That didn’t happen however as I found out through Twitter, the day before the game, that he wouldn’t be playing due to a hamstring injury. Thierry! I was gutted but still made the drive.

When I arrived at the ground I was impressed at how smart it looked, and also surprised at the amount of people in the car park having barbecues! They smelt so good. Later I would realise why everybody was wrapped up in coats, scarves, and some stupid ear protector things…

Around the outside of the ground there was plenty of activities for kids to keep them occupied and I was even given a free match day program … certainly different from a trip to any ground in the UK.

Once inside, I took my seat. A very good seat actually. Right behind the team benches and almost smack on the halfway line. Then the Americanisms started. There were cheerleaders, foam hands, fireworks, marching bands, an old guy singing the Star Spangled Banner and then, finally, the game started!

I actually wish the pre-match entertainment had just continued, because it was a terrible game. As bad as the game was, the atmosphere was good. There was a group of fans in the far corner making a lot of noise and banging drums, but unfortunately for me there was a young girl a couple of rows behind me with a vuvuzela. I bought one online during the World Cup and was crap with it; luckily she was too. The game must have been the longest one I’ve ever watched, it seemed to go on forever. I don’t think I was helped by the weather … and soon realised why everyone was wrapped up so warm. I was frozen. I started to wish that I had some of the daft looking ear muffs. Kind of.

Finally the full time whistle went and, although it was a terrible game, it was a good day out and an experience. The ticket was $50 plus a booking fee, so it wasn’t cheap. But then again I was in the ‘posh’ seats.

So that’s soccer, basketball, and American football down … baseball and ice hockey to go.

Bad times …

This week I found out, the hard way, the bad side of drive through ATM’s … I drove off without taking my card from the machine! It’s not completely my fault as over here the machine gives you your cash before it spits out your card … compared to the UK where we get our card and THEN the money; there’s no way you’d forget to leave without that. At least that’s how I remember it. Check next time you get some cash out. I had to cancel the card with Barclays, but because of fraud reasons they can’t send me a replacement to a US address, so for the time being I have to make do with my pocket full of quarters and my credit card.

This weekend has been incredible for weather, there are currently warnings on the news channels of high winds but it has been blustery all day. It has been really warm though, which is odd considering that we actually had a small snowfall earlier on during the week. As I write this blog, it’s 10:30 pm and the following screen grab shows the weather outside …

After I had cooked some dinner this evening and finished some work, I went to Dairy Queen for an ice cream and the shop was packed with the drive through backed up with at least a 10 car/truck/ queue … evidence enough of how much the weather has changed.

Check this out – a sandwich place that has my name on it!! Seriously tasty sandwiches too.

In sport, it’s been a bad weekend for me. It’s currently the College Basketball finals tournament, and I had a dabble in the prediction league, or brackets, that was being run at work. I didn’t have a clue about any of the teams, so chose them all on the toss of the coin. My predicted eventual winner, Kentucky, lost yesterday in the semi-final (or Final Four) which was much better than anybody predicted them to perform. The other bad news is Arsenal’s insistence on throwing away every opportunity they get this season … I wasn’t very happy on Saturday. I’m hoping my mood will be lightened by midweek when Real Madrid beat Spurs …

So, going back to my first point … spare any change??