Bring Back Kabaddi

I like sport. Or do I, because I’ve realised that I couldn’t care less about most sports.
Football yes. And I’ve always liked watching Athletics. I like playing the American football video game Madden but don’t get the chance to watch the real game much.
I used to watch a lot of boxing but not anymore. Not since the big fights moved to Sky, not since they made the fights pay per view and they come on at four in the morning.
The winter Olympics was on a few weeks back, I would liked to have watched some of the ice hockey but whenever I watched the highlights they had on downhill skiing, (which you can watch for fifteen minutes. Any longer and it’s repetitive boredom) dancing on ice, bowling on ice with brooms or as it likes to be called curling. What makes a person want to take up curling anyway?
I saw a little bit of cross country skiing. If you’re going to put on a pair of skis then go downhill. It’s the Winter Olympic equivalent of speed waking.

Rugby annoys me because it seems that most of the points are scored by a penalty kick. The crowd or players never dispute a penalty because no one realises when an offence has occurred. Then there’s a chance to get three points from the innocuous foul.
Cricket, test cricket especially is ridiculous. It’s a game where they leave the field for lunch come back again then go off a few hours later for tea. They play for five days and the game can still end up a draw. It can rain in the last session and it’s called a draw. Almost five days playing, a light shower and the match doesn’t even get resolved properly. Ridiculous.
Tennis, people try to care about it when Wimbledon is on but that’s all. Couldn’t care less if Andy Murray wins. But how could anyone like table tennis more than tennis? A miniature version of tennis on a table. Brilliant! It’s like preferring table football over the real game.
Basketball, one end to the other, score, score, score, bore, bore, bore.
Formula one, I only pay attention if there’s a crash.

No, really it’s football all the way for me. Or if they brought back Kabaddi on channel 4...

The Levee's Gonna Break

Something’s got to give.
I’ve lived in this place a year now. It’s been an eventful year and a year I won’t forget. I’m glad I moved into this house as it‘s been an experience and believe me there’s a book worth of material in it.
When I first moved in. The very moment, as I was taking the boxes from the car the police turned up. The landlady and a tenant had had an argument and she called the police. Welcome to the new place!

With eight rooms being rented out there’s been lots of comings and goings and a very diverse mix of people.
Nationality’s I’ve lived with in the last year: French, Polish, Slovakian, South African, Albanian, Angolan, Romanian, Malaysian. As I say it’s been interesting.
All these people from around the world, and where was I born? The hospital a couple of miles down the road.

I’m living in reverse. I’m living my thirty’s like I should’ve lived my twenty’s.
I’m thirty three. When I was twenty three I’d already been living with a girl for two years. and would do so until I was twenty eight.
Now days I rent a room in the type of housing situation for people who first come to this country. That’s not putting them down at all but this house seems like a stop gap. And I repeat, I’m thirty three and was born two miles away.

I need a new living arrangement, and a new job maybe?
Working for a living, it kills you, it’s soul destroying. I’m surprised that more people don’t go postal. The same shit day after day, week after week. Taking the shit. But how else am I going to pay the rent for this room.
It breaks you down. I need a holiday. Maybe a long one. Maybe move away. As I said, I was born two miles up the road. A change. But I like this place. I like living in London. People gravitate here to find a better life and find a dream. But what when you’re from here? Where do you go? Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester? No, fuck that. I don’t want to live anywhere else in this country. Abroad? What job would I do to pay for a small room aboard? I don’t know. Work in a bar or something?

Sooner or later the levee’s gonna break. I need a change before I lose my fucking mind.

Housemate quote of the day: This one from the Manchester United fan who’s conversations about football I try to end fast as he knows nothing about the game but talks about it every day.

Him: Did you see the draw for the Champions League? Oh my God, Arsenal, Barcelona. And Manchester United, we got Bayern Munich. Oh my God what a game. Have Manchester United ever beaten Bayen Munich in the Champions League? I think they have.
Me: Yeah, in the Champions League final. Think it was in 1999.
Knows a lot about his club then.

Keep Your 90s Nostalgia

In the 1980s my parents would occasionally go to a 60s themed party. My dad was reluctant to get involved where as my mum was always up for it. Even though I was only a kid I still remember thinking that it was a bit lame to go to a themed party to relive something in the past.

Last decade 80s nights were the thing. That’s on it’s way out so next it’ll be about reliving the 90s.
And guess what it’s only two and a half months into this decade and I have an invite for a 90’s party. A club that I used to go to in the mid-nineties is having a reunion night.
I declined. Not interested in such nostalgia. Save that to the people who used to go there who’re now married and have kids and therefore rarely go out. No, you can save the “Remember when we used to…” And “Back in the day I used to…” That’s what a lot of my mates who have kids are like. Always talking about way back when. “Do you remember the time when?” Yes, you relive it each time I manage to drag you out once a year. Why don’t you do some other stuff so that you’ve got some other shit to talk about?!?!

This reunion night just sounds like it’ll be too much of an embarrassment. Especially the people that will take it to the extreme. I can imagine them drinking cider on the bus, wearing a Nirvana t-shirt, (or for the slightly later era Oasis or Blur t-shirt or god forbid Shed Seven) ripped jeans, taking advantage of the drink offer as best they can, getting drunk and dancing with a look on their face that says- “Remember this one?”
This type of nostalgia makes me cringe.
Look I’m sure they’ll have a good time but nostalgia doesn’t interest me as much as it does Peter Kay.

See I know that a lot of these people stopped listening to new ‘alternative’ music after they left collage. Because they weren’t really into the music, they were following what was supposed to be cool and when they left collage they had to find new music themselves. But as they weren’t really into it they stopped listening to new stuff. Only stuff on the radio and they think Coldplay are alternative because they have guitars. And now they like x-factor. How do I know this? From a good proportion of ‘friends’ on facebook. Their status updates when the x-factor was on. They actually cared about who got voted out.

I’m still listening to new music and going out drinking every weekend. So sorry but you can keep your 90’s nostalgia.