August 16th 2011 : Don't panic, but it's now less than a year to go !!!

The event of a lifetime, well my lifetime, Danielle's wedding, is now less than a year away. Although we had selected and booked a venue, my little cherub was throwing a wobbler over getting a dress sorted and booking a photographer etc.

So as you do, I booked a day off work and we went shopping. We met two wedding dress suppliers that Danielle had narrowed it down to and three photographers and I'm delighted to be able to say that we have now ordered the dress and booked the photographer.

Obviously before any money changed hands, a mentally thorough search had taken place to ensure quality, value and of course a little deal had to be struck to make the whole process sit a little easier. These wedding folks are sometimes in a world of their own it has to be said, but if you do your homework and look hard enough, common sense can be found and good business can be made.

Silly old me thought that by doing all this in one day, that I would now have had some peace for a while, apparently not. According to form, I now have to start with cars. Oh well, that's what little girls are for I guess !

August 7th 2011 : Happy Anniversary Marj, well almost !

Lucky old Marj, to celebrate our 29th (I think) wedding anniversary,I took the old girl to London and by chance, it just so happened to be the same weekend as the Charity Shield where the blues would take on the old enemy in a not so important game at Wembley.

Yep, incredibly we were at Wembley for a third time in almost as many months and I suppose having had two great results there previously, we might have expected / anticipated a bad result this time.

In the past I have always been joined at the match by blues, this time though, I took my good friend Rob Kirk, a good and decent guy, but a red .... and I think it was this error of judgement that caused a change to our otherwise good run of form at our newly adopted home.

It was a pleasant day right up to about half time, after that, it all went a bit Pete Tongue.

That said though, the old girl had a good time being as it was that we spent a good night out in the big City and had a lovely dinner with Rob and his good lady wife Kim in a nice restaurant just a side street away from Covent Garden.

The hotel we stayed had was very well appointed and really quite good value for a City Centre location, but the breakfast was the most expensive in the world ever and it was bobbins. Still we live and learn ;-)

Marj & Kim spent the day shopping whilst Bob & I watched the footy and the breakfast and the footy result aside, it was really quite a pleasant weekend. Roll on our next weekend away and our next trip to Wembley, I'm sure that one or both will be along very soon !

May 14th 2011 : Take down the banner !

This has to rate as one of the greatest days of my well lived life.

A Saturday it was and if you're not that into football, you will never get this, but Barlow & I made our way for the second time in a month, to the Holy shrine that is Wembley 

        

Just a month ago we were there playing our arch rivals in an FA Cup semi final and amazingly and much to my great delight we beat them, today we were reaping our rewards for those efforts, today was Cup Final day.  There was no private plane this time due to inclement weather, so a hastily arranged plan B was sorted and my soon to be Son-in-law Kenny volunteered to be our driver, well kind of.

So we raced down the motorway in good spirits but never really daring to believe we could actually win, City fans and other similar long suffering fans of teams like mine will understand this and soon we were there. In keeping with sporting tradition, well footy anyway, we soon found a watering hole, met with big Chris, Joanne and others and promptly sunk a good few beverages to loosen the vocal chords, give a little Dutch courage and relax the nerves. I had very luckily secured a much sought after and privileged place in an executive box, via a top man friend of my sister and so I bid farewell for the time being to Chris & Barlow and went with Joanne to settle myself for the very unknown.

A few more beers were had (complimentary of course which always makes them taste better !) and we were treated to a good but tense first half, which ended at nil nil.

         

A very pleasant lunch during the interval and you guessed it, a few more beers for good luck and then we were soon out for the second half. Still tense, despite always being quite in control of the game really, the minutes ticked away and still there was no scores on the doors and the nearer it got to full time, the more nervous I and the rest of the Blue faithful became.

That was until about 15 minutes before the end, when the hero of the hour Mr Yaya Toure, did what we had all hoped and prayed for, he smashed the ball into the Stoke net and gave us that all important 1 nil lead.

We went chicken oriental man, everybody hugged everybody, mad dancing, cheering, shouting and singing was all around. Could this be it, could we finally win a meaningful trophy after a 35 year drought and almost as importantly, could we make our arrogant and often ignorant footballing neighbours remove their banner depicting that very issue. The answer, yes, yes we could and as the final whistle blew, more mental behaviour, more hugs, more singing and just an unbelievable amount of rejoicing was had.

 

Manchester City, the peoples club, God's own team had now become the FA Cup Winners 2011 and for the first time in a long time, I could thank rather than curse my old man for making me a blue ! Had he still been here to witness it, that would have made the day complete but I'm sure he was watching, hopefully with a beer and his mates in some form of blue heaven somewhere.

It's hard to top what had just gone on and so there was not much else to do after the celebrations had died down, other than to have a few more beers, find our absent driver and make our way back up North with our weary feet and our happy hearts. It was a day I will never forget, a day all our fans will never forget and hopefully, now that we are great again, there will be more of the same to come. The blue moon is rising my friends ;-)

April 16th 2011 : Life is just bloody good sometimes !!! ;-)

What a day, woke early and at 8.45 am, me, my sister Joanne & Barlow were just tucking into a full English and our fist bottle of Becks. We were at the start of a monumental and most memorable day as our beloved Man City were to take on our arch rivals Man Utd in an FA Cup semi final, our first for thirty years or so, at Wembley !

The day started very well and we were soon at Blackpool airport to meet my mate Captain Tim Hilton, who had agreed to fly the three of us in his Cessna light aircraft, to a small airfield in a quaint village called Denham, near Wembley. After a few beers in the pubs of Denham, it was onto the train to Wembley and a few more beers near there obviously. Here we parted with Joanne who went of for some royal treatment in a posh box with a friend of hers who has kind of done ok for himself in a bit of a singing and dancing combo and Barlow and I made our way to the ground to take our seats.

The atmosphere was electric, particularly in the blue half and the Poznan (an odd ritual stolen from some Polish fans, recently adopted by City fans, that involves the whole crowd turning their backs to the field, linking arms and dancing and singing like mad folk) was the stuff that will soon become legend ! The first half went well and we looked quite comfortable and at half time we met up with my mate big Chris and his daughter Emily. They joined us for the second half, a half in which we scored a most memorable goal and Mr Yaya Toure (the goal scorer) well he secured a place in every City fans heart for the rest of his life.

The final whistle came, eventually, and we had turned them over, unbelievable and at the time quite overwhelming. The reds were out of Wembley in record time, I've never seen such an exodus of fans, it was bloody marvellous. After more singing, more dancing and more Poznan's, we were back with Joanne and her mates and eventually we end up drinking in a nice wine bar in Knightsbridge.

  

(The motley crew after a very long and boozy but monumental day)

Several hours later, we were making our way by bus, taxi, tube and train to the airport at Gatwick where after some very strong coffee, we were boarding a Jumbo to get us back home. I could have gone on a lot more about this day folks, but those who know footy will know.

Ah well, now for the final I guess and watch us go and ##ck that right up ;-)

February 4th 2011 : Papa's first night baby sitting

I got to look after my Granddaughter Emily tonight for the first time, which I accept is not ground breaking news, but it was a big night for me. I did all the usual bits, helped with bathing, changing and feeding etc and I introduced the little cherub to the wonderful and soothing tones of the Pink Floyd.

These babies come with a fair amount of stuff these days I must say and my house was quickly taken over by bags, seats, toys, clothes and all sorts of other paraphernalia, but we soon managed to get some order back to the house once she had settled down and been fed. 

The night was not without incident though, just as we were getting ready to bath Emily and warm the bottles etc, the electricity at our little cottage suddenly went down, throwing us into complete darkness. Fortunately as we have dealt with this sort of thing a few times at our current home in the past and obviously a few times when we were younger during the strikes and three day weeks of the 70's, we were soon on the case with wind up lanterns, torches and candles and with a pan of water soon boiled on the coal fire, we were back in business and coping well. The electric came back on, so did the Floyd and a good night was had by all, here's to the next one.

January 30th 2011 : A monumental decision is made Hooray !!!

After almost a year of searching venues across the County, my little cherub and I have finally made a decision on where I will be transferring what's left of my wealth, after her two stints and seemingly endless life at University.

What I mean by this, is that we have agreed on a venue for her wedding, which is just around the corner in August 2012. Yep that's a year and a half away even now, and we have been looking for a year already, so we did it just in time then :-)

The benefactors of my ever depleting retirement fund will be The Eaves Hall near Clitheroe and I must say that I am now looking forward to some peace for a few months before round 2 starts.

Congratulations should go to the folks at Eaves Hall because we have been quite `precise` in our selection process, so here's hoping that we have made the right choice and that they can meet with our specific and detailed requests.

January 13th 2011 : Emily comes home

Baby Em was today allowed to go home after pleasing the medics with her weight. All were excited and all is well ........

January 10th 2011 : New Beginnings

Very apt and likely to be impossible to top in the future, my first report is to break the most wonderful news of the arrival of my first Grandchild.

Emily Elizabeth Morgan was born today at 11.45 am to my son Ben and his lovely wife Natalie at Sharoe Green, Royal Preston Hospital. She was born almost a month early, but still the little mite weighed in at a pretty good 5lbs 9oz and Mum, Dad, and Emily are all doing just fine. 

Despite this making my good lady wife Marj a Grandma, it hasn't necessarily gone to make me a Granddad. This is basically because I, rather tongue in cheek, claim to be too young and too handsome to be a Granddad.

So when my little princess is old enough to call out for my undivided attention in some busy shopping centre, she will call out only the words of Poppi Homie and not Granddad, thus leaving my street cred a bit more in tact than it might otherwise have been.

I will of course update the site with news as we go, so be sure to keep checking in every now and then ........