The Lair of the SlowFox

Hull 1 - Chelsea 1. Absolutely awesome game that the crowd was well up for :-)

Chelsea are the league leaders. Hull remain in the bottom three even after this result, but make no mistake, it was epic.

To be honest, I'd had misgivings about dragging P along to this one, on a school night: aside from the 2hr round trip to do the school run (having left work early), since kick off's 7.45, the match doesn't end 'til about 9.30ish, and we weren't back at Castle Fox until 10. The school bus leaves at 7.55 from the Farm, so we had an early start this morning, too (since Mali had to be walked before we left).

All this I was mulling over on the drive back from school yesterday - get home, walk dog, rush food, get to stadium etc etc... but once we were actually there at the game, I knew it was the right decision to have made the effort. Hull were really up for it, and put in a massive effort, and when we went 1-0 up it was gratifying and welcome, but definitely not undeserved.

That they levelled was inevitable, but Hull maintained the pressure in an intense game, and as I said at the top, the crowd was awesome, making a ferocious din half the time that managed to shut up the (surprisingly large) travelling contingent in the North Stand.

This was always going to be a tricky match to be present for as a spectator: I'm a season ticket holder for Hull City, but I've always supported Manchester United.

So when it came to today's match, I honestly wasn't sure which team I wanted to win - sporting allegiance isn't something you can choose, it's invested deep, such that although United winning matches doesn't normally register on the radar (United tend to win a lot), every time they lose it definitely stings.

As the match started out, I found it hard to tune out the subconscious willing of the team in red to score, and I was consciously having to hold back from applauding Giggs (there are many, many good players in United's squad, but Ryan Giggs is a legend amongst legends, and it's just a privilege to see him in person) and the like.

However, as the match wore on, my allegiance shifted until I was most definitely willing on our boys in the Black and Amber...

...unfortunately to little avail: we went down 1-3, despite scoring two goals (sadly, Dawson's was into the wrong net).

I will never understand why Phil Brown leaves his substitutions so late - 10 minutes to go doesn't really allow the new players much time to have an impact, and it's arguable that the match was waaaaaaaay beyond us by that point.

This result sees Hull now sitting 19th in the table, at the season's half-way point. The bottom three get relegated, and honestly, I hold out little hope that we'll be able to match last season's drop-dodging 17th place.

Today is one of those days where, from about lunchtime onwards, everything needs to run exactly to schedule if I'm going to achieve everything in time.

I've got my appraisal this afternoon, which is a little bit weird, because it's going to be with New Boss, who still doesn't really know what I do day to day, nor has he been in touch with Old Boss/Effectively Still Acting as Boss to find out said. Hmm.

Anyway, that's scheduled to end at 4pm. Which is fortunate, because I then need to pick P up from school, so that I can get the two of us back to Castle Fox to walk Mali, eat (speed dining FTW!), possibly take Mali out for Walk 3, and then amble across to the KC to watch Hull City take on the mighty Everton in what will be P's first evening match.

I've only been to one floodlit game before now, which had a less than optimal outcome for the Tigers, so I'm kinda hoping for better things tonight.

I'm currently reading Rachel Caine's second Morganville Vampires book, Dead Girls' Dance, which is... not quite as much fun as the first instalment, but is certainly readable. Proper review to follow on completion.

Back at Castle Fox, briefly, before heading out to the KC Stadium to watch Hull take on the might Portsmouth in a six-pointer this afternoon.

Back from, this morning, a UN conference on Climate Change being held at the Guildhall. John Prescott, croquet-playing former Deputy Prime Minister, was due to be speaking at 12, but we got a call at about that time from his car (one of the notorious two Jags, no doubt) to say that he was mired in traffic on the motorway (so, evidently, some fair way off), and necessitates meant that I had to leave before our most honoured guest arrived.

Dianne Johnson, my current constituency MP was there to show her face... quite literally, as far as I could tell, in that she arrived, sat down and read a couple of papers before, but by the time I next looked across, she'd vanished. Ah, but She Was There, and that's the important thing to note, of course.

As for the conference itself, well, there were maybe 40 personages drawn from this fine city present. Most were, I feel, waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too optimistic about human nature, and weren't willing to follow through the implications of what they were suggestion in terms of its impacts upon day to day life for us all.

I make no bones about this; with world population projected to hit 9bn people by mid-century, conventional oil production most likely having peaked in 2005, and the impact of increasing water stress across different areas of the globe, lifestyles are going to have to change drastically. Climate Change ups the challenge of feeding those 9bn people without the aid of petrochemical fertilisers and weedkillers, without the oil-driven mechanisation of industrial farming, struggling with the diminishing resources of fossil aquifers...

It's singularly ironic, methinks, that the 'greens' are constantly pilloried for wanting to sacrifice 'lifestyle' for the sake of the planet. From my perspective, that assessment is fundamentally flawed: the 'greens' are, for want of a better description, attempting to wrest what elements of a sustainable lifestyle can be wrung from the mess that's coming - it's naked self-interest for humanity's sake. Don't worry about Earth - we can pretty much do what we want, and it'll endure regardless.

But this fragile project of civilisation that we've got going here? That's something else.

On the bright side, True Blood S1 arrived in today's post :-P

I managed to get online on Friday night from Castle Fox, but about five minutes' up-time was all that was available on Saturday before the connection died completely. Telephone line continues to mainly consist of static and yes, I know, I really need to get it seen to. But it won't be this week.

'sides, not spending evenings glued to the PC might not be a bad thing anyway.

P and I saw Hull City sweep aside the mighty Wigan in a crushing, I tell you, crushing 2-1 display of awesome. To be honest, it really didn't look as though Wigan had turned up - they didn't seem that interested in attacking our goal, but we were mightily glad of Geo's goal that put us two clear when Wigan got one back. Injury time was nerve-wracking, accompanied by a deafening howl of the home fans whistling for full-time to be called...

( I finished The Reality Dysfunction )

Hull City 1, Bolton Wanderers 0.

w00t!!!

In the second half, Jozy Altidore made his Hull debut, despite only having landed in the country a couple of days previously. With his first touch, he sends another new acquisition, Kamel Ghilas clear in the penalty area, and we're one up.

Anyway, the subject line refers to the semi-ironic chant that the crowd got going after this fantastic introduction in Altidore's honour: ordinarily, football chants are a lot more involved, and it is a near constant source of mirth on this side of the pond that the colonies haven't yet come up with a more inventive repertoire than 'USA! USA! USA!'

There is, indeed, a great Billy Connolly sketch^* about football crowd chants, where he's describing how, as one, the crowd will all say something, complete with arm gestures and the like, and you never see anyone on the fringe sort of trying to keep up.

Wisdom of crowds, 'n all that.

Anyway, 'twas a good game, quoth I, from the safe perspective of 3 points, but in truth we were outplayed in the first half, and although we might have scored another two goals, the same could be said of Bolton. Three games in, three points on the board: it's generally reckoned that 40 points is assured safety, which, given that there are 38 games in the season, means that we need to average a little over a point a game. And that, in turn, means that we still need to pick up some momentum.

Typing this from work - am on call here from 9am to 3pm today. Then it's a mad dash home, whisk Mali 'round the Avenues before heading out again for a second viewing of HBP, this time with a work colleague who I'd promised to watch the film with (we've done the last few), but where events on either their part or mine have continually conspired to thwart whatever plans this mouse fox might lay.

* there are *lots* of great Billy Connolly sketches {"insist on Afghan melons", "about that carpet...", "Beware! Stingers!" and so on}

My fantasy football team is called Have Cake, Eat Cake - last year's competition between the office proved a lot of fun, even if Comrade H did end up walking away with it by several hundred clear points. I finished a solid second.

Unfortunately, Teh Grauniad has chosen not to run a Fantasy Football League for the coming season (although they are planning something for the World Cup in 2010), so I'm investigating instead the 'official' Fantasy Premier League, but the interface is nowhere near as slick and polished as the Grauniad's incarnation.

The Guardian runs a Fantasy Football league each Premier season, and this past one saw a group of us in the office all sign up, and create our own mini-League.

It would be nice if modesty prevented me from saying that I placed a solid, respectable 2nd (out of 6), although I have to admit that Colleague H set up an unassailable lead early on, and just kept on edging ahead in the league week on week.

So, FWIW, Have Cake, Eat Cake managed to garner 4,375 points for the season. Nationally, that put me in 5,388th place (out of 91,000 entrants). Respectable for a first outing, but the 'Cake will be looking to improve in 09/10...

P and I have just come back from having watched Coraline at the cinema in town: we caught the early showing, which meant that the cinema was crowded - nearly eight people in! ;-P

Coraline wasn't quite what I expected, I must confess. I much prefer the book (as any true fan surely must), but did feel myself warming to the feel as the story unfurled. The opening sequence is well freaky! :D

I've finished Necropolis, book four of Anthony Horowitz' Power of Five series. I quite enjoyed the Hong Kong setting, having ambled around some of the locations myself, it made it a little easier to visualise. Overall, though, the tale did feel as though Horowitz was trying just a bit too hard on this one - nonetheless, I'm keen to find out what happens next with the gang.

I was in Tescos getting the shopping yesterday, and happened to notice a new Philip Reeve novel: Fever Crumb. Better still, it's a Mortal Engines novel, although I'm not clear whereabouts in the timeline it's going to sit. Still, Mortal Engines was an absolutely fantastic (in the proper sense of the word) world, and anything that expands upon the legend of Municipal Darwinism can only be a Good Thing, write very large.

And finally (cue Mood), just settling down to listen to Radio 5's coverage of the Premier League's final day relegation battle. The portents don't look good for Hull, I fear - could well be us playing Championship^* football next season...

* note to the unschooled in football proper: Premiership is the topmost league, beneath which sit the Championship, then League One and then League Two in that order.