Made it back!

Me, the lads and Lasses on a recent trip to Dubai! Boy it was hot out there!

So close yet so far

If you have read my previous post regarding Arsenal titled " What a Season" you may have deduced I am a sometimes frustrated fan. This year Arsenal reached The Champions League Final (for any cousins not living in Europe) this is THE biggest Football (cousins read 'Soccer') match in the World! (cousins read 'Europe'). And yep, you've guessed it time for my annual frustration!

Arsenal had performed above their domestic league form throughout the competition, in fact they remained unbeaten. They had also dismissed Real Madrid (admittedly they are on the wain) and Juventus (who were 'walking' the Italian league). Their opponents were to be Barcelona, no mean team themselves, and also unbeaten in this years competition. A final to wet any Football fans appetite - maybe even a few Spurs (cousins read Arsenals arch-rivals) fans!

The game started very well for Arsenal in fact our star man, the incomparable Thierry Henry, had to glorious chances inside the first 5 minutes. The game settled down a bit, both teams feeling their way into the game. After 18 minutes Ronaldinho (also it has to be said, pretty incomparable) played a ball through to Eto'o, the Arsenal keeper Lehmann came out, brought him Eto'o down, the ball ended up in the net, but the referee had whistled for a foul. The ref then produced a red card and Lehmann was sent off! Two choices were possible, allow the goal and book the keeper, or award a foul and send him off. Ref, you made the wrong decision! Down to 10 men against Barcelona, for 72 minutes! No chance right? Wrong!

After 42 mins Arsenal took the lead, a majestic header from Sol Campbell! Half time came, and after that ............. it all went wrong!

For me, and I obviously don't know what was said at halftime in the dressing room by the Manager, Arsenal then proceeded to try to defend a 1-0 lead, with 10 men against Barcelona, who were incidentally the favourites. It was not possible, dispite a superhuman effort by some players Barca won 2-1.

Another season over, a fantastic achievement to reach the final, only to stumble at the hands of the second choice referee, who made strange decisions throughout the night, in particular a booking for Thierry Henry. I hope FIFA are proud of themselves for coming up with such an inadequate choice of a referee.

Sorry it turned into a typical rant at the end but I did say it was frustrating......! Grrrrr

Still, next season is another chance for glory, and all I can say is......
"COME ON YOU GUNNERS!"

Vegas here we come!! These are some pictures from our first trip to Vegas in August 2001. We drove from LA to Vegas across the Mojave Desert - what a desolate hot part of the Country! It even has an area called Death Valley! Not a place to run out of gas! As you can see from the picture, the good old Americans still manage to put the odd billboard on the side of the road!!

This year we are going back again with friends. It is Steve and Tracey's Anniversary and they have asked if we will go with them. Last time we had our kids with us so our style was cramped somewhat, this time we will be kidless!!

We are all really looking forward a relaxing couple of weeks, even though we will travelling around a little taking in the local sites, e.g. The Grand Canyon!



Image rights owned by "Pretentious? Moi!"

A high speed picture of a bush! Great huh! Yep you've guessed it, in the Mojave Desert!

Image rights owned by "Pretentious? Moi!"

What a season!

As an Arsenal supporter I am having a nightmare along with thousands of others! Have you ever seen such a turnaround? One minute (well two seasons, but we don't want the facts to get in the way of a good story!) we are invicible! The season before we don't lose a game away from home. This season we have only won two away games losing 6, and now we have lost 2 home games! Chelsea you can kind of understand, but West Ham! As much as I love the Hammers (my 2nd favourite team - any team that supplies 3 of the England World Cup winning team can't be bad!) Arsenal should not lose to them at Highbury.

In hindsight, should the board have fought tooth and nail to hang on to Viera? I think if they could turn the clock back, they would now. As a last season in the fabled Marble Halls go, this has been a disaster!

But Viera has gone, the King (of midfield) is dead! Long live the King (of midfield)! But where is he? We have some great talent coming through, Fabregas is a hell of a player now let alone in a couple of years when he'll be 20!! But we need some mature talent now! Someone who can mix it with the tough guys of Newcastle, Bolton, Chelsea and Man Utd.

There have been two players moving around that I think could have provided experience and no small amount of skill to the midfield. Scott Parker! Remember him? When he was at Charlton he could do no wrong, created and scored goals, looked like an England player through and through. He went to Chelsea and was probably their toughest tackler (after 2 ton Terry! What a rock he is, how much would we have to pay from him!) now you hardily hear about Scott Parker. He needs regular football in a team challenging for honours. Another ex-Charlton player has just signed for 'Sp_rs' (sorry can't write it!) Danny Murphy, unless he has injury problems that I'm not aware of, he could also have done a great job for Arsenal. He would have provided experience and guile to the midfield - not too bad at taking free-kicks as well!

While I'm on my soapbox, what about a hand for Thierry as well? Yakubu? He always caused problems for us when he was playing for Portsmouth - a real handfull. What a boost it would have given him and us for him to be pummeling other defences!

Well got that off my chest....phew! Come on you Gunners!

Oh and while I'm at it, how about some shooting practice from more than 8 yards! You don't have to walk it in! Look at Chelsea, how many deflected goals did they get last year? Get some shots in lads! Link

New Job...hurrah!

After a bit of a glich over the Christmas period I am back in the world of the employed! I finished at Cadbury after 3 years mid-December, not a great time to start looking for a new contract position!

During the last two weeks of December and the first two weeks of January, I gathered approx 20 leads for new roles. All except 3 came to nothing - in fact to date I have only received a couple of calls from agents relating to those leads!

Out of the blue (well nearly out of the blue) I received a call from a agent I had done some work through previously, asking if I would talk to a client, just a chat. It really is good to talk, because out of that 'chat' came my current role!

I started at e2v on 18th January. A very different industry to Cadbury, for a start you can't eat the products! They are in a High Tech industry making equipment for a variety of applications.

Did I mention the location? It's great, only 35 miles (approx 50KM) from home, so I get home every night - a real luxury for a contractor like myself!

The duration of my contract is 3 months. That is how it all started at Cadbury, and then 3 years later....... Link

Useful SAP Site with links to Official sites

The link below will take you to SAPStuff, a site that contains useful technical information for the 'advanced' consultant, including all '30' versions of SE16!! Surely not! Too technical for me but hopefully someone will find it useful.

The links to SAP AG sites are definitely useful for all SAP Professionals Link

Rome again - the Dome of the Pantheon, unobscured by Dave or John this time! Everytime I tried to take this picture, camera lying on the floor, 'someone' would stick their mug in the way!! Still 3rd time lucky!

Image rihgts owned by "Pretentious? Moi!"

Rome December 2005! Do you like the matching attire? See if you can link the partners! 

MIT Open Courseware

Another great source of 'free' information (courtesy of Pascal) for those that way inclined, is the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Open Courseware site. Here you can download papers on various subjects - you do have to hunt them down though! Link