A Wednesday Wobble Around the Block

I'm not one for watching the Oscars though Son-who-watches-films does so - it's one of the highlights of his year and his evening is planned in great detail with lots of snacks and sweets and fruit to see him through it. This year the Best Short animated Film was won by 'The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore'. I think it is brilliant and have watched it twice now. If you have fifteen minutes to spare please pop over to the Once A Librarian blog and watch it. (Thanks to Danielle for bringing it to my attention).

(Photo from the Web)

Liverpool Football Club won the Carling Cup (League Cup as it used to be called until sponsorship ruled sport) on Sunday. Hip hip hooray, more silverware for the trophy cabinet and it means we will be playing in European competitions again next season having dropped out this season for the first time in years. Kenny Dalgleish, in his two reigns as manager, has now won as many trophies as the great Bill Shankly.

(Photo from the Web)

Even those to whom sport is boring used to enjoy Bill Shankly's reign because he had one of the quickest wits around. It's amazing to think it's thirty years since he died. I think one of my favourite stories is of the news reporter who asked him if the long-suffering Nessie, his wife, was taken to see Rochdale play to celebrate their wedding anniversary. "Of course I didn't take my wife to see Rochdale as an anniversary present, it was her birthday. Would I have got married in the football season? Anyway, it was Rochdale reserves." Probably his most famous quotations is "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that." Having said that he was realistic about life and a true socialist at heart - “"Pressure is working down the pit. Pressure is having no work at all. Pressure is trying to escape relegation on 50 shillings a week. Pressure is not the European Cup or the Championship or the Cup Final. That's the reward." "The socialism I believe in isn't really politics. It is a way of living. It is humanity. I believe the only way to live and to be truly successful is by collective effort, with everyone working for each other, everyone helping each other, and everyone having a share of the rewards at the end of the day. That might be asking a lot, but it's the way I see football and the way I see life."

On Sunday Jo and I went for a super meal and pleasant chat with friends. They have a miniature Yorkshire Terrier. Isn't that a sweet face. It's the sort of face that suggests half a ton of mischief inside a six pound body.

To change from dogs to cats I should mention that I've just sent a postcard to a cat - called Jeppe. His owner has put an entry on the postcrossing site for him!

One of Jo's clients or students (I can't recall which) gave her an Amarylis bulb last year and it has been flowering this last week. They have never been a particular favourite of mine but this one is excptional. So big and bold. A real colour statement at this time of year.

Sharp Little Pencil has just reached her 400th post. She's well worth visiting and if you want to know my favourite of her recent posts it is this one. It's a great example of her poetry, or if you want a very short story you could try this one.

I thought I'd check how many posts I'm up to – the answer is 2273 on this blog alone. What a lot of time I must spend on the computer and many congratularions to those who've been with me from the beginning of this particular blog in August 2007. Ironically I moved my blogs from Angelfire at that time because Angelfire was changing its format. I think Blogger must have done 2273 changes since I've been on it. Ironically, the one change I would like to see has never happened. I would like old posts, when you visit them, to show the sidebar and headers as they were at the time. That way I would not have lost the various award pictures I have had on at times.

Kay (Georgia Girl with an English Heart) has kindly awarded me the Versatile Blogger Award. In the past I've had the Over the Top Award from Pauline at The Paddock; the Honest Scrap Award (for my word blog) from Monica at Dawn Treader; someone anonymous nominated me for the post of the day on David Mcmahon's Authorblog; Cheshire Wife gave me the One Lovely Blog Award; Shabby girl at A Fish’s Beach Wishes was kind enough to award me the Lemonade Award for this blog and a Crown/Queen Award for the word blog. I've only found out what awards I got by using Mark's postvorta search engine because at some stage I've deleted them from the sidebar.

I shall blog about the Versatile Blogger Award in the near future.