Football Shirts: England Away

After much waiting and over-blown hype the new England away kits have been revealed. Last year's home shirt set new levels for design and quality and there was hope that the away shirt would follow suit. It was an open secret that it would be red, and due to the simplistic and nostalgic influences of the 'Tailored by Umbro' range that it would bear a striking resemblance to the mythical shirt worn when Bobby Moore lifted the World Cup trophy in 1966. However, the devil is in the detail and so there was a fair degree of baited breath until the kits were seen in the flesh for the first time.

And now we have them, both the red outfield shirt and the goalkeepers jersey. Both are wonderful. There is no question that they take an unapologetic influence from the '66 shirts, but rather than being a totally plain red shirt it is pleasing to see the designers have taken pains to make it more than a total homage and so hopefully play down the '66 references and make it something of it's own. The sleeves are capped with a white cuff and the sleeves are rendered in a slightly darker shade of material to the main body that gives the shirt a sense of strength.

I am also over the moon with the goalkeepers kit. Again, like the outfield players shirt it takes it's cues from the 1966 iteration but the styling and the colour are perfectly done.

I reached 25 without ever owning an England shirt. Having already acquired the home goalie shirt for my recent birthday (thank you special person!) I now find myself clamouring for both these new shirts and the white home shirt. They are just too beautiful to resist, and I know that is likely that there will probably not be another set of England shirts to rival them. I am compelled to have the set.

Merchandise Fail!

This is the truly unbelievable result of incredibly poor quality control, and probably careless copyright licensing controls. This West Ham piggy bank was spotted this weekend in Sports Direct, Tottenham Court Road. Bizarrely it's the Tottenham Hotspur version next to it that's been price reduced, presumably leaving this botch job still retailing at a whooping £6.99.

It's kind of ironic that something designed to help you save money is actually a total waste of cash!

My Weekend

Saturday: Craven Cottage, Fulham vs. Aston Villa. Celebrating my Dad's birthday with a 2-0 Villa victory

Sunday: The British Museum. Enjoying a calm Sunday exploring the galleries before late afternoon tea with friends and an inquisitive child

Buddies, Beer, Bubbles, Baby and Bagpipes - New Year's Eve

Happy New Year!

Snow Comes to London

Queen Takes Train

The Queen has indulged in a bit of economy when travelling to to Norfolk for her annual Christmas holiday at Sandringham. Like a mere mortal, she's jumped on board the train. There's something odd about the whole thing, a true clash in the juxtaposition, like seeing her shopping at Poundland. Still, she got to go first class, and no doubt she got a whole carriage (maybe even whole train) to herself. It might even have been cleaned for her too - no empty coffee cups under the chairs for Her Maj!

She doesn't look that happy about it. Maybe they've just announced that she'll have to change to a rail replacement bus service at Diss? (so true isn't it Norfolk travellers!).

Figueroa Wondergoal!

A little quick one here. Wigan's Figueroa makes a pre-Christmas claim to the Goal of the Season award. A fantastic shot, accompanied by a not so sublime sexist comment by Match of the Day's Alan Hansen. Someone should remind Hansen who Gabby Logan is married to! Surely the Scot is no match for a international class rugby player.

Ryan Giggs, the award ceremony and the amazing beard

Last night Ryan Giggs won the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year award. Side-stepping the obvious reservations about whether Giggs truly deserved the award on the basis of pure sporting achievement over the last 12 months (some sympathy must be extended to those nominees who'd actually won world title's and set world records during the past year), it was a fitting recognition of a player who has not only had a stunning career, and who at 36 can still turn out top quality performances for a title-winning side, but also someone who is genuinely liked and admired for his personal qualities as well as professional abilities.

As Giggs rose from his seat to accept the award I couldn't help but be amazed by the gentleman with the extraordinary beard sitting to his left. By his reaction and subsequent embracing the gent was clearly a member of the Gigg's family, but he certainly made for an incongruous sight, more reminiscent of Grandpa from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang than a family member of a modern footballer. He was my hero of the night.

The Joy

The Embrace

The Beard

A Pretty Place to Blow Your Nose

Recently I have become a devotee of the handkerchief. I was given a box by my late Grandmother during my teens, presumably because firstly, I was beginning that passage to adulthood, and hankies are a proper thing for a proper man, and secondly, it's the sort of thing a Grandmother would give you isn't it?

Needless to say as an image conscious teen there was no way I was going to produce a handkerchief from my pocket in the middle of the school playground, gosh, how old-fashioned, how grandfatherly, I'm not a pensioner! This is the (by then ingrained and unconscious) line I took on handkerchiefs right up until my sudden, unexpected conversion.

So, what changed? I don't honestly know. One day it occurred to me that I'd been habitually putting two fresh paper tissues into my trouser pocket every morning before I left for work, and I'd come to realise that there was a considerable flaw with them, namely their propensity to become wet, mushy and well, disgusting. One morning I picked up one of the long-untouched squares of fabric from my sock drawer, slipped it into my pocket and that was that, hankies are now part of my everyday life.

Every so often I purchase up another pack of handkerchiefs and I now have a small range in different colours, patterns and shades. This leads me on to what is undoubtedly one of the greatest pleasures of the hankie - the ability to match or contrast one with your shirt or outfit. This is a wonderful little charm, something that appeals to a man with a sartorial pursuasion. It's also endearingly self-indulgent. Hankies are so small and they're hidden away, not shown off. Yes, they come out for a sneeze but essentially the only person who will appreciate the colour co-ordination will be the person who's pocket it is in. An indulgent pleasure indeed.

I do wonder whether the handkerchief is at all a popular item for the modern young man or whether I am cutting a lonely path through a world shared only with the old and middle-aged. With interesting design such as the hand-printed handkerchiefs of Thornback & Peel, pictured above, I can only assume that there are other like-minded people out there.

Movember Man

My brother dedicated his November to the cultivation of a very dashing piece of facial topiary, all in aid of Movember and The Prostate Cancer Charity.

He braved public transport and important business meetings for a whole month looking like a Seventies sex-king.

I got a photo of him just as he prepared to shave it off on December 1st.

Music What I Been Listenin' To

I seem to be a fairly erratic purchaser of music, often buying 3 or 4 records at once before not dipping into my pockets for sometimes two months or more. Mentioning 'buying' music, it might be worth doubling back over what a few years ago might have been a innocuous statement but now is not such a certainty, even for those devoted to music. Yes, I still buy albums, solid, physical albums.

Despite the advent of downloading (legal and ill-) and the more recent arrival of Spotify (a programme I have been using for most of this year and which I love wholeheartedly) and the myriad predictions of the death of the album format I still refuse to relinquish. I'm aware that I could save myself a large wodge of cash buy simply never buying anything again, but the collector inside me desires to have the little plastic cases stored neatly on a shelf in front of me. I like having the artwork, the case, the physical signifier that I own this piece of art. I'm aware that this is seen as bemusing to anyone over the age of 40, including my father, who has never loved the CD sleeve, seeing no merit in the scaled-down, poor-relation to the vinyl sleeve. But hey, I was raised with the CD, this is what I know.

Anyway, on to what I intended to write about before I was characteristically sidetracked - what I have been buying, and listening to, recently.

First up The Beatles. I have always been disinterested in the Fab Four a mixture of over-familiarity with their most famous material, which without trying is so easy to achieve due to their omni-presence in media and culture alongside the fact that with not growing up with any of their records in our home. I did listen to my brother's copy of the '1' album in my teenage years a couple of times but again, because I already knew the tracks I found it hard to get into (I like having to get to know songs on an album, and as a rule of thumb the albums I know least of when I buy tend to work out as my favourites). I just was never interested.

However, for no discernible reason last week I decided to give The Beatles a go. I decided that the only real way to do it was to start at the beginning and work through their 12 studio albums in chronological fashion. So this week I have been listening to 'Please Please Me' and 'With The Beatles' which I have enjoyed immensely. I should also say that an added incentive to buy The Beatles catalogue is that all the band's records have just been remastered and re-released in three-fold glossy card cases. They look and sound wonderful.

This last week I have also been listening to:

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street

The Fall - This Nation's Saving Grace

Little Richard - Here's Little Richard

and, a lovely mixtape made by a lovely someone!

Umbro's New 'Football Wardrobe' Range

Umbro's rehabilitation from manufacturers of dull football gear for a handfull of achingly average sides (plus England) to purveyors of interesting and innovative design is advancing steadily.

Building on the success of their 'Tailored by Umbro' range (see England and Manchester City's new shirts) they now bring us a new selection of training / leisurewear, branded as the 'Football Wardrobe' range. The collection is typified by simple design, bright colours and the re-introduction of the classic Umbro lower-case logo not seen since the early mid-nineties. The range is supposedly out this month, though no appearance on Umbro's (achingly hip / manifestly pretentious) website's online store yet.

Personally I have my keen eye on the drill top (shown in blue, top centre, above) as an alternative to either the England light grey or Man City branded drill tops which I swooned over earlier this autumn and then decided not to buy. The royal blue looks rather dashing but even better I think would be the drill top in the yellow.

GreyScale

'Gridiron', Wembley

For the third year in a row the NFL brought an american football game to the UK. This year the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were at 'home' to the New England Patriots, and for the second consecutive season I attended with my brother and father, a long-time NFL-fan.

In terms of sporting contest the game was a one-sided washout, the far superior Patriots stamping their claim to the game within the first quarter whilst the Buccs faffed around making tragi-comic attempts to pass (and receive) the ball.

I made a bit of an effort to capture a few shots with my camera, nothing brilliant but I was reasonably pleased with a few of my resultant images, including the following:

I think they capture the energy reasonably well. I also noticed something Bruegel-esque in some of them, the sense of a discordant mass of bodies crowding the scene, often seemingly ignorant of others, moving independently and travelling in (apparently) different directions.

Question Time

There has been large-scale debate over the last week or two about the British National Party (BNP) leader Nick Griffin appearance on the BBC's flagship political panel show Question Time this evening. The BBC claim that as a legal party with elected councillors and MEPs they have the same right to appear as any other fringe party such as the Greens or UKIP and that by appearing there will be the opportunity for them to be held to account for their opinions and policies. Critics retort that the BNP may be a legal party but by inviting them to appear on the show they are receiving a seal of approval to be treated as a legitimate political movement and giving them free publicity.

While I have sympathies with both perspectives I cannot help but wonder what these who vehemently oppose the BNP's televisual appearance are so afraid of. Far from legitimising the parties views I cannot conceive that the show will be anything other than an opportunity for all Griffin's fellow panelists and large sections of the audience to loudly denounce the BNP's political outlook. It will be much different to the appearances on the show of other fringe parties where a wide range of issues will be discussed and the guests asked to give their view. Tonight's show will surely be entirely about the BNP and what awfulness they stand for.

It is impossible to imagine that the BBC could, or would allow a show to be broadcast that reflected the BNP in a positive light. As a result the fear that the appearance could garner the BNP thousands of new supporters seems to be unfounded. Leaving aside that fact that it is unlikely that anyone who holds such extreme views about race and immigration would not be aware of the BNP's existence already anyway, the strong censure that Griffin will receive is unlikely to allow people who were not previously interested in the BNP to switch off at the end of the programme with the impression that the BNP are being endorsed to them. Far from giving the party legitimacy, the show will surely deminish their legitimacy by providing a strong and clear point-by-point rebuttal of their ideology. I expect nothing much short of a hatchet job.

We live in a democracy, and while I bitterly detest the BNP and their ideology, I believe that all political parties deserve the right to make their case. The people of this country are intelligent enough that we should not need to stifle the voices of those with extreme views. I am confident that the British electorate as still capable of listening to argument and coming to rational and informed decision. Politicians and critics alike should have more faith in the public to listen, and to reject the BNP.

Messin' About on the River

Last weekend myself and a bunch of my long-time friends hired a canal boat as a group celebration/commiseration at all turning 25. We charted the not-so notorious waters of the River Wey in Surrey and over four days traversed the stretch between Godalming and (almost) Weybridge. Despite pessimism induced by an overly-cautious advisory dvd sent out by the boat hire company and watched by us the week before (paraphrased sample quote: "[when using locks] be careful when using the lever keys to open and close lock gates, they can fly off and cause severe facial injuries") it turned out to be, once we'd got our heads around steering, a mostly painless trip - the only time someone ended up in the river was through their own will, rather than falling or being pushed.


It was a wonderful, really relaxing way to spend a few days with mates, mooring up to stop for a drinks at pubs or cruising down river with a can of beer in hand; sitting on the roof in late afternoon sunshine reading the sunday papers; and pulling together as a team to get the barge through the many locks without mishap or trying to turn all 70-odd foot of the thing around. I will only alude to Peter's attempts to crash into the riverbank and tree on purpose and the resultant half destroyed tiller. It was a bit cold (being October) but there was no rain. All in all probably one of the best weekends I have spent with these lads in a long while.

Absence

I haven't written for a while, for the simple reason that I haven't felt able to.

Four weeks ago a member of the football team I captain collapsed mid-game, and, despite everyone's best efforts sadly passed away shortly afterwards. The awfulness of the loss of a good man, aged just 26, while doing something as everyday as playing football has hit hard and touched me deeply. Yet while feeling the horror of what seems like a totally random, and terrifyingly uncontrollable tragedy, aspects of it seem so contradictorily distant. I was not present when the incident happened, nor did I know Michael in any meaningful way. He was a quiet guy introduced to the team through one of our existing players and only played in the team for a number of weeks. There is never much time for chat at football and our exchanges hadn't yet gone much beyond hellos and how are yous.

In light of this event I haven't felt comfortable writing. It has seemed all rather frivolous and unjustified. I have begun, or thought about restarting but nothing has been seen through. I do know that I need to restart though, and soon, to leave it much longer and there would be a danger that the ball could be dropped altogether. To write regularly and with commitment was something I pledged to myself when I started this blog. Despite my inactivity, one aspect of this period away is that it has allowed me to mull over something that has concerned me about this blog for a while.

I have been a little shy about being forward with this site - I haven't shouted about it's existence to my friends or courted an audience, even though I do hope it has some purpose and value to it and would like it to be read. Before I began writing I set out a number of guidelines for myself in order to shape what I wrote about and how, one of which was to not identify myself, or other people in my life. I didn't and don't want to write a teen-aged style blog of my worries and concerns but i have, for a while been wondering whether I should be finding a mid-way point and basing my posts more on my life, thoughts and activities. I confess that on occasion the blog has felt a bit purposeless, and personality-lite, especially all the YouTube, but even when I have attempted to be more weighty I haven't always been entirely happy with the output.

Perhaps I need to tinge my posts with a bit more personality and then maybe I will not only be happier with my output but I might also feel more comfortable sharing it with others.

Seeing things differently

I accidently discovered that my mobile phone's camera has a 'negative' mode, so I can take strange, slightly other-worldly pics while I am out and about. It strikes me as an usual addition to a camera, sitting alongside sepia and B&W. I've seen this finish as standard on photo software, but never on an actual camera before. Just snap and it's straight there. My phone is marketed as a business model, which only doubles the suprise.

It finds new interest from the most mundane of things, under my desk for example.

Maybe next time I go to a party i'll take all my snaps this way, could throw up some interesting results.

Today...

...I wore black patent leather shoes to work.

The Jerrytron

Dallas Cowboys' 'Jerrytron'

The new NFL season has begun and the Dallas Cowboys have a new, flashy $1.15bn stadium. The centrepiece of this new venue is the world's biggest high definition television screen. Measuring a staggering 160 ft in width and 72 ft in height, it's more than half the length of the pitch. Truely it's both amazing and ridiculous.

The screen being installed by crane