So, here I am on Sunday afternoon at ten past four in the afternoon trying to put together the events of the weekend. Quite a lot to cover all things considered, so if you do not mind, I will dive straight in. Firstly, the return of Sarah Connor. The series two opener was fantastic, although I found the slow motion first scene rather annoying, but the significance of the song did not hit me until earlier this afternoon when I decided to watch the show again on my XBox in the lounge (although I only managed twenty minutes or so). The song was Samson & Delilah the same name of the episode but that was not important, it was performed by Garbage front woman Shirley Manson. Their lead singer would have a major role as a villain. Overall, it was great and so glad that the show is back. I have something to watch again. Yesterday was relatively quiet during the day. I was annoyed that I had missed several editions of Football Focus, so I set my PC to record the show before I headed out to Slough. I went to ProTyre on the Bath Road to have the puncture on my nearside rear tyre repair. I had taken my CD case out of the car so had to cope with listening to the radio for my journey. Not a great idea! It was quite busy when I arrived and I was told it would be at least an hour wait as there were three more puncture repairs ahead of me. I settled down on the sofa chair with my Zen and listened to some tunes and began to text Pav about plans for the evening. By midday, I was on my way back but could not catch the last fifteen minutes as I did not want to disrupt the recording. Once it finished (a few extra minutes added to the end for contingency). I watched the Theo Walcott segment and then decided to get outside and wash the car. While down in Bournemouth two weekends ago, we had been speaking to Charman and he had told us the following story. Well I say story but it was actually about a recent dream he had, but please stick with me. He had woken up in the middle of the night with a formation in his head. Not for Arsenal but for England. Walcott on the right and Joe Cole on the left. The amount of pace would just rip defences apart. So you can imagine my pleasant surprise to see Fabio Capello taking Steve’s advice on Wednesday night against Croatia. Personally I thought England were going to get completely battered but they put together a convincing performance and Theo went from prodigy to star in the space of three goals. Yesterday afternoon I thought I would find out what was being send about the Arsenal striker on the e-grapevine. I carried out a search on Twitter and read some of the articles. Interesting reading, plus my Dad saved me an article from Friday’s Telegraph. Still not had a chance to read it yet.

Around 4pm, I was on the computer but very tired and in two minds about heading into London. I decided to crash out for a while and see how I felt when I woke up. I dumped myself on the sofa on the lounge and told my sister Julie to wake me up at 5pm. She did and after fifteen minutes I eventually got up and decided to and crash at Pav’s. I rushed to get everything ready and back my bag and have a shower and head over to Reading. I had been given an arrival window of 6.30pm, as they wanted to head into London early and flog some tickets in the some bars nearby. I wanted to wind up Pav and called him outside while just getting onto John Hall Way and say I was not going but it was a bit stupid to make it sound convincing with the diesel engine roaring and the noise of traffic going past on the opposite lane. I got there on top perfectly and found a spot next door and parked up. I even went as far as shutting the car down (clip in wing mirrors, take out stereo etc). Similar to what Michael Keaton does with the Batmobile in Batman Returns (albeit on a small scale). In the end, we took my car, even though it would have been far more comfortable in the Rover 200. Never mind, it was not a problem and I actually enjoyed the drive down (apart from the drive back at 4am, when I was extremely tired).We listened to a recording of the BBC Radio Essential Mix from 10th May 2008 featuring Sebastien Leger. Emily kept skipping back to track seven which was Daft Punk – Around The World. We went to pick up Paul and Ian from Slough before heading into London. The original plan to head over to Farington was dropped, mainly due to time and we opted to check out some bars close by. I parked up and we headed to the Ruby Lounge. We got a drink in here while Paul tried to sell tickets but also speak to the resident DJ and find out where would be good places to go in the area. He advised him to head to The Big Chill. So taking his advise that is exactly what we did. The bar was very trendy and busy but there were no takers for any tickets. It was close to 10pm and I drove up to Egg and dropped off Paul and Ian. His set should have already started the moment we pulled outside the night spot. I drove back to Kings Cross and we waited for Joe to arrive. I had not seen Joe since I had left college so that was a good eight years (yes eight) years ago! I went to get some food with Emily while Pav and Joe headed to the Big Chill but as they were now charging £4 to get in so they headed back to the Ruby lounge to wait for Joe’s friend Anton. He did arrive eventually and after a few drinks we headed back to the car and up to the club, parking right outside. We queued and after some tight security and searches we were allowed through. We met up with Mark and Eddie in the terrace bar and found out how lucky they had been with ticket sales. The place was relatively quite and it was just coming up to midnight or so. A fantastic night, even though there were fewer of us “groupies” around. Photographs will be added to Facebook shortly and I will try and replicate them across to my FlickR account. We left around 3.30am and got back to Reading ten to five in the am! It was very tiring drive back and I was wondering how much of my week I had spent on the M4 motorway! I had to put on a temporary visitor pass to ensure my car did not get clamped. Although he likely hood of a warden being around at the crack of dawn on a Sunday morning is unlikely, there is no point taking chances. It looks like a scratch card and you have to seal it yourself with the Reading Borough Council crest. I crashed out straight away and was out like a light. What a weekend but thankfully a relatively relaxing Sunday planned.

I got up around 8.20am and got after heading to the bathroom, I laid in bed and wondered whether to get up and go to the gym, to go home or just sleep for a little while longer. It must be because of the alien environment, I could not get back to sleep, even if I had tried, so I decided to get changed, grab my things and head to the gym. By 9am, I was one the road and heading to Castle Royle. It was not as busy as I expected as I pulled into the car park and headed in. Once into my kit, I checked into my weights programme and walked to the bikes at the far end. I was looking at the notice board, mainly to see what this month’s challenge was. It was in fact a results table but more to my surprise was my name. Yes, believe it or not, my name was up there, in forth place for the number of workouts completed (51). Proves that by hitting the gym four times a week is slowly but surely delivering results. I was shocked as it was not something I expected. Particularly as I only concentrate on my programme, I never enter any of the challenges (such as the Olympic Games which was inter-club, Castle Royle came second but two clubs were disqualified). I wonder if my colleague (if he ever makes it into the gym will notice, I might have to prod him with a text). After my workout (which went very well) I decided to stick around at the bar, read a newspaper and get some breakfast. A nice strong cup of tea and two slices of toast with strawberry jam, went down a treat. While watching Sky News, I noticed an appearance of a news presenter. Could my morning get any better? As I drove home from the gym in the glorious sunshine, I decided to take stock of my current situation. Life is good and for the first time in ages I feel not just great but important! Of course there are issues and obstacles but they are not anything I cannot handle and in time remove from my path. If “Success Is A Journey And Not A Destination”, I think I just took the slip road onto the fast lane.