Pluses and minuses

It was a weekend to remember, and a test of glass half-fullness, if such a thing exists...

On Friday, Steve and I went to Liverpool to meet with a potential fulfilment partner to replace EUK. In the morning there was a Times article saying that we were about to go into administration, and on the way up we heard that the administrators have given up on EUK and had made 700 people redundant. So by the time I got home the glass was definitely close to empty.

Let's say, then, that the weekend started on a score of -5.

Friday night saw the first of two football nights out, with my Thursday night football crew. Drinks at a pub in Hornsey followed by a curry in Crouch End. While we were in the pub, one of the guys produced a 'chocolate roulette' game - spin a pistol and it points to a numbered chocolate that you eat. Except that one of them is laced with chilli. The way my week had gone, nothing was surer than the fact that I would get the chilli one and, sure enough, fate didn't disappoint. It felt like one of those comedy film moments when leading man has lost his wife, kids, house, job and everything he has, and to cap it all a dog pisses on his leg. So that was another -1 (-6 cumulative).

It was a good night though. Rob put together a football quiz that was great fun, and I wisely bowed out at around midnight instead of going to Will's for cheap liquers. +2 (-4).

Saturday morning, and a visit to my accountant to find out the damage for my tax return. To my huge relief, the bill is just over half of what I had expected. A big +2 (-2).

Rangers could only draw 2-2 at Dundee United, giving Celtic the chance to open up a 6 point lead at the top of the league -1 (-3). Celtic could only draw 1-1 with Hearts +1 (-2).

Saturday was the Chiswick Casuals day/night out. Started with team go-karting, in which Sav and I came second. Annoyingly, and to my mind controversially, I was given a sin bin penalty for entering the pit lane too fast, which could just have made the difference between first and second place. Still, never let it be said that I'm a poor loser...

A great game of football followed, then drinks and a Thai meal. I brought along a copy of the quiz from Friday night, which was fun. Soapy and I got home by Scooterman - a guy with a fold-up scooter who drove us back in Soapy's car. They really haven't marketed this properly - it's a great idea and should be more popular than it is.

All in all, a good day and night out +2 (0).

When I got home on Saturday, James was home for the weekend. On Sunday Wenge went to Nottingham to pick up Laura. In the meantime, I went to the Race of Champions at Wembley, with Lee, Suzanne and Michael. A 6 hour motorsports extravaganza on a mobias band of a racing track, with appearances by Lewis Hamilton, Chris Hoy, Michael Schumacher, Jensen Button, David Coulthard and others. That said, once you've seen a couple of cars racing round Wembley, it doesn't really matter who the drivers are or what cars they're driving - so it was mildly interesting for a while but not that long. The much-vaunted race between Chris Hoy and Lewis Hamilton didn't take place for safety reasons, which must have been annoying for the people who came because of all the publicity around it. +0 (0).

So we left before the final round of races, which allowed me to get home in time to have roast dinner with Wenge, Laura and James. A very big +3, taking me to +3 for the weekend and restoring my faith in the power of Melvtopia...