Arse!

Morning

Can't believe it's Monday already. So fucked off about being at work i'd put holidays in for Thursday and Friday within 5 minutes of arriving this morning. I haven't been here for 3 days and yet it feels like 3 minutes.

Still haven't been to the pub yet, Friday 10th February being the last day I attended. Nearly went on Saturday night but couldn't be bothered, nearly went on Sunday night.....but couldn't be bothered.

Was in Manchester on Saturday. There's a 'git big' wheel in the centre at the moment, the views across the city were fantastic (i'll add some pics when I get home). I hate heights and I don't mind saying that I was scared up at the top, it was windy you know!
Manchester is a great place. there are some beautiful buildings in the centre, some great bars, everything you could possible want to be honest. I even took some time to visit the art gallery in Princess St, among other things to see the Lowry's they have on display there. While I was there I noticed a gathering of people so I went over to investigate. Some old wrinkly was having his photograph taken, then I noticed he was having the photographs taken in front of photographs hanging on the wall, photographs of him to be exact. He was even wearing the same jumper and scarf as in the photographs on the wall. Bizarre!

On the car cd: The Carpenters - Greatest Hits

On this day: The first Arseblog was published (2002).

Talk Hard!
H.

Eureka!!

Not had time to post today, bloody work getting in the way again.

I've put a holiday in for tomorrow, off to Manchester (alreeeet aar' kid), back Sunday so this will prolly be the last post til Sunday, maybe even Monday. Going to an Art Gallery/Museum in Manchester city centre, should be good fun.

Had enough of work this week anyway, where the god damn hell is my lottery win!?

Going home at 3pm, that's in 8 minutes. Gonna go to Google images and find a random image to
post here ----->

And there it is, the first picture you get when you search for 'Random Image'. How bizarre.

Well that's it, sorry to run but it's 15:01........

On the car cd: Wham - If You Were There, The Best Of

On this day: Rudolf Diesel received a patent for the Diesel engine (1893).

Talk Hard!
H.

Oh Ye Of Little Faith!

Bloody hell, what a match! And I sat here yesterday and questioned the ability of an injury ravaged team, stating they would get their butts kicked all the way back to Highbury.

I don't know what's gone on, but that was a completly different set of players on the field last night. It was by far the best display of the season from each and every player, including Hleb, Gilberto and Ljungberg. Lehman was again outstanding in goal, but man of the match for me was young Cesc.

We became the first English club EVER to win at the Santiago Bernabeu!
Still, while all fans will be over the moon at this performance, we must remember that it is still only a slender lead in what is a 2 leg match. We still have to take them back to Highbury on Webnesday 8th March and stop them scoring to progress through to the next round.

The new SatNav mount arrived as expected yesterday. It's safely tucked up in the spare room at home, out of the reach of any thieving pikey bastards.

While it is around 7 months since Harry had a cigarette, it's also now 12 days since I entered licensed premises and purchased alcohol. Not that I'm totally off the booze of course, I've been having the odd glass of cider here and there, I do like my Blackthorn Dry, very fruity. But there's also a litre and a half of Rum that's sat in the cupboard and half a dozen bottles of wine that are still in the wine rack that haven't been touched.....ok, ok, it might have something to do with the toothache, sore throat and sniffle I have at the moment, but still, I'm a "call at the pub after work at least 5 nights a week for a quick relaxer" type of guy.
I don't know if it's the cold weather, the gym, or just cos I'm knackered thats making me not want to go out at the moment. Once I get in from work and get into the warm, I just can't be bothered to go out again.

On the car cd: Charlotte Church - Tissues & Issues / Nik Kershaw - 15 Minutes

On this day: Elvis Presley enters the music charts for the first time, with Heartbreak Hotel (1956).

Talk Hard!
H.

A Good Spanking!

The team play Beckham and his Madrid cohorts this evening. I hate to say it but I expect us to receive a damn good lesson in how to play european football. With an injury list as long as the M1 and confidence throughout the team being as low as it is, what else can happen?

The squad for tonights game is:
Lehmann
Diarby
Pires*
Ljungberg*
Reyes*
Hleb*
Henry*
Fabragas
Flamini
Song
Gilberto*
Senderos
Almunia
Eboue
Toure
Larsson
Walcott
Djourou
* = in my opinion, these players do not deserve a place in the squad

If anyone is in Madrid and bumps into Gilberto, please either give him a quick lesson on retaining possesion and passing to a player on your own side or, just punch him in the face, whichever is easier for you.

Ordered a new powered cradle for the SatNav yesterday. Nearly £36.
Let me say it again. "Bastard scumbags!"

I have toothache, god does it hurt, the right hand side of my face is numb. I haven't had toothache since I had my wizzies out in 1999. Need to go see a dentist. Haven't seen one in around 3 or 4 years. I hate the dentist's.

On the car cd: Level 42 - True Colours / Level 42 - World machine

On this day: Jeanne Calment was born, going on to live for 122 years 164 days, the longest confirmed lifespan for any human being in history (1875).

Talk Hard!
H.

Scum

Morning folks. What a weekend, what a god damn weekend! Started off on a high on Friday. I was just having a quick look at the Interweb before going home when I noticed Level 42 had confirmed their tour for later this year. I had been checking the website daily, but, my bloody luck, I hadn't checked for three days and that's when the tickets had gone on sale. So I call up The Sage in Gateshead, expecting to have to settle for a ticket in the back row. "Two tickets as near to the front in the centre please" I ask. "Front row centre seats be ok for you Sir" is his reply. "Blood hell, I'll have four then!" I describe Level 42 as being my band, they are the band I got into aged 16, and while my taste for other music has come and gone. Level 42 remain my favourite nearly 18 years later.

Not much happened on Saturday. Went to the gym and had my review, learnt a few new exercises.

Sunday went down hill fast. Went out in the car about 07:30, got back around 8am. Went to go out again at 14:00, no drivers side window! Called the police, called Autoglass, both turned up at 16:00. Policeman spoke to my neighbours, one side didn't hear/see anything, the other went out at 11:15 and said all was fine at that point. Policeman to his credit knocked on nearly everyone's door in the street, a young couple up the street said they had seen 3 hoodies running away around 12pm. Obviously there's nothing he can do, but I was fairly pleased with his performance anyway.

The sum total of the swag that was stolan: half of the stand that holds my SatNav. That's right, HALF! They ignored my cd's, ignored the loose change, ignored my sunglasses. They left the part of the stand that has the suction bit wich attaches to the windscreen? What use is half a stand to anyone? They can't use the half they have and I now can't use the half I have. I'm not so stupid as to leave the SatNav in the car but I never thought in my wildest dreams that they would smash a window to steal half of a plastic holder.....?

So it cost me £50 as I have a £50 access on my insurance for glass, and now I have to go and order another powered cradle for the SatNav.

Scumbags!

On the car cd: Level 42 - Running In The Family / Level 42 - Staring At The Sun

On this day: The FA Premier League is formed and takes over as the professional league in England from season 1992-93 (1992).

Talk Hard!
H.

Past it......

I must be starting to sound like a right grump, I just don't have any happy energy at the moment. Everything's a hassle, there's no fun in anything anymore.
I haven't even been out for a pint since last Friday, that's unheard of for me, normally even acts of god don't keep me from the pub.

I decided about a month ago to live life to the full. Fcuk responsibility, fcuk stress, fcuk hassle, fcuk work, you only get one go at this so make it a good go. But, I just don't seem to be able to do that. When things are going bad at work, I spend 24 hours a day seven days a week thinking about it. When I have an arguement with a friend, I worry about it until I can see them again and make things right. I blame myself and take resposibility for everything. I'm always uptight, I can never seem to relax.

I suppose that's why I am so jealous of people who don't give a fcuk, and why those type of folks annoy the life out of me. The young Harry was never like this mind you. The young Harry was up for a party everynight, the young Harry who lived in Perranporth, Cornwall then Scarborough, North Yorks between 92 and 99 was the life and soul of the party. We actually did party at least 6 nights a week for 7 years, the job demanded that you let off steam.

I can't believe that the 1992 Harry has evolved into the 2006 Harry who sits here today. The 1992 Harry lived in a caravan a couple of miles outside of Perranporth, had long hair, smoked 'herbal' cigerattes, had a nice deep tan, was a keen surfer and, when I look at photo's, he didn't have a care in the world. He would think nothing of walking the 2 ish miles along the beach into town, what would I have done with a car in those days? If we needed to get to Newquay (7 miles) or Truro (5 miles) and there was no one around with a car, we would just hitch.....
Each and every night, someone would have a party, each morning Harry would have a hangover, but so what, you just had a fry-up, took some paracetamol and looked forward to getting drunk again later that day.

And here sits the 2006 Harry. Always worrying if there will be any money left in the bank at the end of the month. Always worrying about work and what his boss thinks about him. Always worrying about cancer (2006 Harry stopped smoking 7 months ago). Always worrying about weight. Always worrying about....worrying.

I look old now. I always remember being able to drink in pubs wthout hassle at 14, people said I looked 18/19 ish. At 20 - 25, people always guessed that I was 18/19 ish, even in my late twenties I would be mistaken for being in my very early twenties. Now Harry is 33, and he very much looks 33 at the very least. The worry lines across the forehead have appeared despite daily use of E45 moisturising cream over the last 15 years.

Oh well, onwards and upwards......

On the car cd: Scritti Politti - Anomie and Bonhomie

On this day: Paris Hilton, American actress and heiress, is born (1982).

Talk Hard!
H.

Lips sealed

Went to the gym last night, pretty much enjoyed it, booked in for a review with my instructor, 09:00 Saturday. I want to know why my £35 a month isn't reducing the size of my waist. Not that I'm 'that' fat to be honest, I'm currently 84kg and have a 36" waist, all I want to do is get back down to a 34" waist...but it just doesn't seem to be happening.

Spent 3 hours on a teleconference this morning, not in the mood to talk hard today.

On the car cd: Nik Kershaw - To Be Frank / Oasis - (What's The Story) Morning Glory

On this day: Pope Gregory I decreed that "God bless you" was the correct response to a sneeze (600).

Talk Hard!
H.

Taxi for Gilberto

Morning all (I use the term 'all' lightly)

Hope everyone enjoyed valentines day? No off the cuff proposals that you will regret later?
I had a lovely romantic night in with a curry, several cans of Blackthorn cider, a bottle of Rose and the Liverpool v Arsenal match.

Gilbert0 " should be sent packing"













The team are are playing like amateurs at the moment. Gilberto should be sent packing back to Brazil, it was 12 men v 10 last night, he might as well have played wearing a Liverpool shirt. I'm sure Arseblog will have plenty to say this morning.

Went to the gym yesterday for the first time in NINE days. It's not that I don't like it, once I get there I enjoy it, I just can't seem to be bothered to go, if you know what I mean? Must go tonight and work that curry off....
One of the jacuzzi's was broken last night, everyone was crammed it to the remaining working one, it was like a communal bath.

On the car cd: Morrissey - Suedehead, The Best Of

On this day: The British pound sterling and the Irish pound were decimalised on what is called Decimal Day (1971).

Talk Hard!
H.

There is a dog

Didn't want to get out of bed this morning, it's getting harder and harder to motivate myself with regards to work. Coming up 4 years in this job, I moved to a new project 6 months ago but even that's wearing thin now.

I really need a lottery win, nothing else will do, I was born to be a man of leisure, unfortunately I'm beginning to realize that it is quite possible that I will die without winning so much as £10. I usually put 1 lucky dip on the Eurodraw each week using their website and 1 lucky dip as part of a syndicate in the pub. The week that the prize reached £125,000,000 I put on an additional 6 lucky dips using the website and another 8 lucky dips in the local shop. That meant 16 lucky dips at £24. I got one number! One measly number across 24 lines!

I remember where I was that very first night on Saturday 19th November 1994. The Grapes Inn, Filey, North Yorkshire. The whole pub went quiet as the draw started. I'm sure everyone thought as I did, I was about to become millionaire and live a playboy lifestyle. Just as the numbers had been read out and we had all realized that we hadn't won a bean, one of the lads pagers went off, he dropped his pint and legged it out of the pub. We had fun winding the tourists up that he'd just won the jackpot (we knew he was on call for the RNLI lifeboat).

Well I'd better go do some work, things are getting busy around here, we're moving from the project stage that we have been in for the last 6 months, to the live stage, which I think in English means 20 minutes less Interweb time each day.

On the car cd: Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing, The Best Of

On this day: A Fatwa was issued for the execution of Salman Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses novel, considered "blasphemous against Islam" (1989).

Talk Hard!
H.

Error: You are too stupid to use this computer

This blogging lark is harder than it looks, where do folks get the time to post each day?

I get to work most mornings around 06:55 to open up the building, this morning was no different, other than to get LAN connectivity involved going to another building and making phone calls to tech support in Hungary until 10:20.
Hence by the time I returned to my building, got connected and read 3421 emails, it's was 15:00 when I got round to doing this.....

The team got a point at the weekend, as did Sunderland, two boring draws....
Jimmy Bullard, my fav premiership player ever, what a guy.

Still no news on the car....or the fine for having no tax....

Got a mail on Friday telling me that someone had commented on my blog!
HURRAH! I shouted.
Actually I think it was spam from someone who wanted to get his car website advertised so I deleted it, but so what, at least one person has read a post on my blog, success on a small scale!
Everyone starts somewhere, one day I will have a blog to be proud of, a blog as good as sexy Sadie's.

Well, off to the gym, today could be that day......

On the car CD: Robbie Williams - Intensive Care / Jamiroquai - Dynamite

On this day: The last original "Peanuts" comic strip appears in newspapers one day after Charles M. Schulz dies (2000).

Talk hard!
H.

Busy busy busy!

Whirlwind couple of days, no time to post, sort of went like this....

Thursday night, a mate (we'll call him The Lord) calls round for some PC advice. While he's walking up the drive he notices my car tax is out of date, expired on 31/01/06, it's now 09/02/06. No problem I say, I'll call into town in the morning a get a new one.
I speak to my boss about 30 minutes later, "Did you see the Car Tax camera van at the Tyne Tunnel this morning" are among the first words out of his mouth. "Bollocks!" are the next words from mine....

I haven't had a reminder about the car tax from DVLA so I call them up.
"But you sold that car on 27/02/04 Mr Hard-On?"
Erm, no I didn't even buy it until 01/03/04, it's an 04 reg.
"No Mr Hard-On, it was first registered on 27/02/04, it's a 53 reg".
Hmmm, we have a problem then. I promise to let DVLA by mail that I am still the registered keeper and go to sleep thinking of all the nasty things that i'm gonna say to the garage in the morning. After all, I bought an 04 car but was sold a 53.

(Edit: In case you wondering how I didn't notice for two years that the reg plate said 53 and not 04, it has a private plate on... I'm not quite that thick)

I call in to town and purchase 1 years road tax, £125 of my hard earned cash which enables me to drive on some of the worst roads around...pothole city.

I then call into the garage, ask to speak to the general manager and explain my issue to him.
To be fair, he was pretty helpful, promising that after he checks his records he will give me the value of an 04 car if I were to trade it in (I am indeed thinking of changing my car). He then blames the salesman (we'll call him Chancer) who left over a year ago for causing the problem and states what he'd like to do to him if he could get in contact with him." No problem" I say through gritted teeth, "Chancer is (was) my best pal, I'm godfather to his son, I'll be contacting him very very shortly"!!!

The next Harry Mobile if they do me a good deal

10 minutes later, driving to work, the phone rings.
"Mr Hard-On, this is the GM from the garage. I'm trying to catch you before you call your pal Chancer. It seems that DVLA are to blame and not the garage. The got the date wrong, if you send off your V5C they'll make sure the date is corrected".

I'm trying to see the funny side and laugh at what would have happened if I'd called my best pal and accused him of fraud? Just sweating now on whether I was spotted by the tax camer'a on Thursday monring.....

The Lord and I went for a beer or seven on Friday night. Couple of nice pubs down by the river side, both owned by the same guy, both specialising in Real Ale's. Back home for a Chinese and the day ended a lot better than it started.

Saturday was spent in South Shields, feeding the ducks and swans in the park....it's a long story....
Sunday will be spent watching Sunderland v Spurs and drinking lots of Strongbow.

Work tomorrow, hurrah!

On this day: Lady Jane Grey executed for high treason. She was Queen for nine days (1554).

Talk Hard!
H.

Low Fat Diet Blog

Not much time, so it's a light weight blog today, which is a good thing as there's not much happening. Friday eve isn't a good day in all honesty, simply because that's what it is, the day before Friday, which is a very good day.

Not been to the gym since Monday, have 'forgotten' my stuff again today, so that's another day I can't go training. No wonder the stomach isn't getting any smaller.......

Fell asleep about 6pm last night and woke up around 7 ish. Felt horrible. How can getting some sleep make you feel more tired and lousy? Woken up at 4am this morning by the back gate banging in the wind, and windy it was too. Feel sooooooo tired now.

Just had a techie install my new phone on my desk. He isn't sure how to set it up, I have no clue how to use it and it doesn't come with any instructions. No phone calls for me then in the near future......

This morning's pictures are of the wonderful TV honey, Miss Emma Pierson. Even better than Kylie!


On the car cd player: Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I am, That's What I'm Not / Kaiser Chiefs - Employment / Oasis - Don't Believe The Truth

On this day: Joanne Woodward was honored with the first star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (1960).

Talk Hard!
H.

I'm in the mood for love.....

.....but I'm certainly not in the mood for work today. Didn't sleep well last night, plus I think I'm coming down with man-flu; sore throat, bad mood etc etc

Another road rage free morning, things are on the up! I've set the car to emit an ear piercing scream whenever I pass 70mph, it's very relaxing driving along at 65mph you know. Fuel consumtion is up too.

Today's photo comes from Runswick Bay in North Yorkshire, one of my fav places. I have spent many a day relaxing here, well worth a visit if you are in the area.

Ordered copies of Police Squad series 1 & 2, they should be here today, will watch tonight. Got copies of Airplane 1 & 2 a couple of weeks ago too, looks like I'm set for a comedy night tonight.

On the car cd player: Level 42 - Forever Now / Jamiroquai - Live in Verona

On this day: Queen Mary I of Scotland was executed at Fotheringhay Castle on suspicion of having been involved in the Babington Plot to murder her cousin, Queen Elizabeth I of England (1587).

Talk hard!
H.

ZZZzzzz

Well, I managed to make it to the gym, back home, then here to work again this morning without any crazies trying to kill me with their vehicles. I guess I just have one of those cars that provokes guys in to proving that they are more of a man than I.
I've decided there's nothing else for it, the car has to go. Gonna make some For Sale posters for the back windows and put some up on the notice boards at work.
If anyone's interested in a sporty hatchback........

Is it true that the more sleep you have, the more tired you feel the next day? I only ask as I usually survive on 5 to 6 hours a night but, feeling tired yesterday, I went to bed at 10pm and had 8 hours. I feel bloody knackered this morning? Worse than yesterday.

Went to the gym after work yesterday and I intend to go again tonight. I think the only thing that keeps me going again and again is waiting and hoping that one day, some complete stranger is going to saddle up to me in the steam room and have their wicked way with me. I suppose either I will be going to the gym for many years to come waiting for it to happen or some 25 stone horror will attack me and leave me for dead after reading this.......

Think I'll take a 1/2 day tomorrow and go shooting, I do like to lord it up now and again you know. Before I get animal rights protesters on my doorstep, the only birds I'll be shooting will be the clay variety. Actually, on the way to work tommorow I might just sling the shotgun over my shoulder while I'm driving, that should go someway to stopping the roadrage instances.....

On the car cd player: Sheryl Crow - Wildflower / Mark Knopfler - Sailing To Philadelphia / El Presidente - El Presidente

On this day: Walt Disney's Pinocchio, an animated feature based on Carlo Collodi's story Pinocchio was first released (1940).

Talk hard!
H.

Monday Morning Blues

Well, would you believe it!

Two days in a row now someone has tried to kill me. This time some cheeky chap in an aging maroon Citroen decided to cut across me while leaving the tunnel on my way to work this morning. When I flashed my lights to let him know I was there, he decided to slam his brakes on. I politely showed him my displeasure, as you can imagine. It ended quite well though, for the next couple of miles I followed him turn for turn, I could see he was getting quite worried....until I turned in to the works car park. Not my fault he was taking the same route as I is it?
I think I'll start walking the 13 or so miles to work.

Yesterday was uneventful, made a lovely fish pie for lunch, watched some tv, checked my losing lottery numbers, both Euro and British. Looks like I'll be working for at least three more days, here's crossing fingers for Wednesday's draw.

Have you noticed the amount of good progs on tv at the moment? I suppose it depends on your taste but we have Battletstar Galactica, Stargate, Surface, Invasion, Category 7 (finished last night), Northern Lights, My Name is Earl, Supernatural, Wild At Heart (with the lovely Amanda Holden), Eleventh Hour, Life On Mars and Hotel Babylon (with the lovely Emma Pierson) to name but a few.
I was complaining no end about the rubbish tv we were being subjected to at the end of last year. seems like someone overheard me.......

On the car cd player: Take That - The Ultimate Collection

On this day: Bobby Charlton survived the Munich air disaster in Germany, which killed eight of his Manchester United team mates (1958).

Talk Hard!
H.

Hurrah!

Despite saying yesterday that I wouldn't, I was sat in front of the box to watch MotD last night. A 0-2 win for my team, a debut goal for the new striker and a clean sheet, all in the same game!

Drove to South Shields, watched the Duke of Scandinavia (pic left) leave for Amsterdam. It was bloody freezing! Missed out on Fish & Chips, had a Chinese instead, it's not good for my waistline you know.

I was out in the motor at stupid o'clock this morning, and nearly died at the hands of a mental taxi driver who decided to overtake me on a 30mph road which has traffic calming humps every 50 yards. He didn't seem too keen to pull over and discuss his terrible driving skills over a coffee so I decided instead to drop in to the taxi office which is nearby.
Imagine my suprise when, after finding the that the drivers name was Jeff and he was an owner-driver, that was all they knew about him. No reg number, no badge number, no surname? Doesn't it worry you slightly that you could be in a taxi with a driver that no one knows about? It's pure muppetry!

Work tomorrow, oh joy.

On this day: The rationing of confectionery ends after 10 years, with schoolchildren first in the queue for unlimited sweets and chocolate (1953).

Talk Hard!
H.

It's a non-working day!!!

Morning

This is my first day off for a couple of weeks, not much happens on a Saturday.

Got up at stupid o'clock to go to the gym, the first time since last Sunday to be truthful. Been going for about 3 months now but you would need the most precise measuring instrument in the world to be able to calculate any loss to the circumference of my waistline. Still, I get to laugh at the people who have bigger beer guts than I, and drool over the ladies who don't.

Then it's back home to update the blog and relax while watching Soccer AM, the funniest sports show on TV.

Around 2pm will be the weekly fight/slog/adventure around my local ASDA. I hate shopping. No, I don't hate shopping, I just hate shopping when other people are shopping. These days it seems that my local ASDA is busy 24 x 7, I think I heard someone say it's quiet at 03.20 on a Tuesday, I'll mark that in my diary......

This evening is, as yet, unplanned. I'm leaning towards a drive along the coast, culminating in watching the ferry leave for Amsterdam while eating Fish & Chips on the banks of the Tyne at South Shields. The exciting life I lead, eh!

My team is away to Birmingham today, an injury list as long as my arm and no Sol Campbell. Hopefully we can avoid defeat at least. Probably won't bother with MotD this evening, there's got to be a movie on Channel Five that is more enjoyable.....

On this day: Bacardi, one of the world's largest rum producers, was founded as a small distillery in Santiago de Cuba, Cuba (1862).

Talk hard!
H.

P45

Woke up this morning with a hangover? Having only consumed 2 pints of the old John Smiths Smooth last evening I put this down to having again dreamt of the 86,805,555 pints I can purchase when I win the Eurogazillions draw tonight.

News filtered through yesterday afternoon that Newcastle United had sacked Graeme Souness. I spend 8 to 12 hours each day in the heart of black & white country, so you might expect I was involved in debating this subject for most of the day. Throw in the fact that I am one of only 3 persons who hail from the red & white area to the south of Geordieland and you would expect the debate to be heated.

Not so. I support, and have done so since I was ickle, a team who reside in North London. At this time my particular chosen team aren't doing as well as is expected of them, so I guess I can sympathise a little with the Geordie folk over the situation they now find themselves in. I am a not-so-regular visitor to the Stadium of Light and theirs is the second score I look for at final result time, but my loyalties lie in North London. This may then be the reason why I have never been involved in Newcastle v Sunderland debate wars, why I have never held as strong views as neighbours, friends or indeed work colleagues.

Liverpool & Everton, Rangers & Celtic, Portsmouth & Southampton and the two teams from North London to name but a few also have this type of rivalry ongoing. I do hold my hands high and admit to being involved in many a heated debate involving the North London teams, I do care passionately and my mood for the following days is often influenced by the final result of a game. Never though have I witnessed such passion as those from here in the North East when it comes to a game of footy.

For instance, a colleague travelled by train for a day out last weekend. He a Geordie, his lady a Mackem. As they boarded the train for the return journey they found their seats taken by a group of Sunderland fans returning home after having been beaten by Brentford.There were plenty of seats free and they simply chose to sit elsewhere. The fans struck up a conversation when they found Mrs X also to be from Sunderland. However, on finding that Mr Y was a Geordie the conversation and atmosphere turned hostile, even towards Mrs X. To the point where they moved carriage in fear of the situation turning to violence. What’s that all about?

It’s widely known that I don’t like Alan Shearer, you can take that as a fact. But I don’t like Alan Shearer because he is Alan Shearer. I wouldn’t like him if he were still at Blackburn, it has nothing to do with the fact he wears a black & white shirt. I’ve even been to St James Park twice. Once many years ago I attended a game against Leicester City and last year I went to a ball in the one of the function rooms, very nice too it was (apologies to the security guards who 1. had to put up with my Trophy Room gags and 2. had to chase me from the building at the end of the night when I pulled the shorts down on the Alan Shearer statue on the 1st floor).

So what next for Newcastle and the Sunderland?
Sunderland sack McCarthy and install Souness as his successor?
Peter Reid as the next Newcastle manager?

On this day: Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash on “The Day The Music Died” (1959).

I'm off to put this months wages on the Euromillions draw............

Talk hard
H.

Talk hard, I like that. It's like a dirty thought in a nice clean mind.

Hello and welcome to yet another blog that you will read, pause briefly for thought over, wonder if you should bookmark it and maybe come back tomorrow to see if it gets better (or worse)..... but then you move on to the next one of eleventy squillian blogs that are published on the Interweb, never again to muse over Hard Harry's dribble..... the thought that maybe tomorrow, Hard Harry might just reach in to your head and cause a spark of interest, is lost.....

Introductions Sir if you please!
My name is Hard Harry (Allan Moyle genius!)
Introductions over with!

I work on an IT Service Desk, I probably think I'm better at my job than I really am, there are people who probably think the opposite, if pushed I'd probably side with them. I put my succesive promotions down to being absolutely useless at the IT side of things and being slightly less useless at managing things (where the word 'managing' reflects duties of surfing the interweb, drinking tea and occasionally looking up to shout "Take those calls!"). Maybe I will tell you more about work in the future....

All I can think of today is £125,000,000, the Eurogazillions prize on offer this week. That's approx 86,805,555 pints of John Smiths in my local. It's 2116 Porsche 911 Carrera's (that's the base model version). It's also 1316 of the current house I live in (I could more than probably buy the village I live in). More importantly, is it not too big a prize?

There are two schools of thought to this. On the one hand, the higher the prize goes every week seems to result in increased sales, which in turn means more money raised for good causes. There are those who question the percentage of money that actually ends up in the pockets of good causes. Camelot state that this series of rollovers has generated £40 mil for good causes in the UK, I think that speaks for itself?

Can someone enjoy £125,000,000? It's probably more than dreams are made of. It would take care of your children, your childrens children etc etc. On the other hand people say money ruins your life and doesn't bring happiness. Is that really true? I would bet it probably is, not having had that kind of money I wouldn't know, I would love the chance to try, it certainly can't make things any worse, could it?

Should prizes be allowed to go this large? The Euromillions draw will be capped next week, if it isn't won then it will be split between the other winners. Better that there could be 20 people winning £7,250,000 each than one winning the full amount. Would you really care if you were a winner?

I guess if I win the £125 mil tomorrow night I will say it's fair and not complain
If I don't I'll be jealous as hell and complain that no one should be allowed to win that much

Finally, just noticed that Shell have announced record UK profits for 2005. £13.2 billion GBP to be exact. Does that make you feel as sick as I do? I'm paying 86.9p per litre at the moment, a lot of you are probably paying more. It seems that as the price of oil increases, not only do Shell put their petrol prices up to match, they put the odd extra penny or two on to increase their profit margins. Disgusting, in a word.

I have found a website called petrolprices.com. Once you have completed the quick registration process, you log in, enter your post code and it lists the cheapest garages in your area by distance. Certainly comes in handy, there are two garages in my area who are usually engaged in a price war. I now get a daily alert (optional) telling me which one is cheapest.

On this day: Sid Vicious dies of a heroin overdose (1979).

Talk Hard!
H.