Up

The new Pixar movie Up, which I haven't yet seen, apparently features the adventures of a grumpy old man and a young boy. In movies there's the concept of a composite character - one that combines the personalities of multiple characters. It struck me that in Chiswick Casuals terms it would be fairly obvious who the old man was a composite of (for legal reasons, answers on a postcard only please).

Anyway, I digress. Up has been the key word of the last week or so. Things are definitely looking up at work - I enjoyed last week more than any for a long time, and the arrival of Claire, my new Digital Marketing Manager, is a vital step towards a full strength team. We have a team night out on Thursday (bowling & curry) which should be a laugh.

Last week I met up with Ian and Soapy for beers, margaritas and Mexican food at La Perla, which is becoming a favourite haunt for me when I'm in Covent Garden.

The weekend was about preparing for our new kitchen to be fitted - first ever wooden worktop for me and I may have gone a bit mad with the linseed oil... I got a good game of footie in without injuring anything, which is a bonus, and Rangers went back to the top of the league with a win at St Johnstone while Celtic could only draw. Good times.

A walk in Hampstead Heath yesterday, followed by a roast dinner, finished the weekend off nicely.

Meanwhile, as I write I'm listening to our latest release 'The Chilled House Session' - gorgeous and ever so reasonably priced at ministryofsound.com.

Day 3 - damage assessment

One by one we woke. Mugs of tea and hobnobs were handed round as the damage assessment began. To no-one's surprise, the Black Rat had taken the greatest toll on Nigel and Soapy.

While Nigel was doing an impression of Ian without the tablecloth, Soapy had clearly found succour in the arms of Brian, the pair sharing a blow-up bed like a modern day Morecambe and Wise. Actually, it was more John Inman and Michael Barrymore (should have checked Pete's swimming pool before we left...).

Ablutions duly dealt with, we headed off to our favoured service station on the M4 for a final breakfast before saying our final goodbyes. Even the closure of Northwood tube station couldn't dampen the spirits, as captain fantastic made an unplanned and selfless 45 minute detour to take Soapy and me to South Ruislip.

In the annals of Casuals history this will go down as one of the special tours. And last night was without doubt one of the most memorable of all Casuals nights.

As for Pete and his beaten Welsh team? Well, they just can't help believing...

Chiswick Casuals on tour. Day 1 - arrival

Forget the FA Cup or Champions League finals. The big event in the football calendar is the annual Chiswick Casuals trip down to Abergavenny to take on the Valleys' finest.   This is the story of this year's tour...

With the sun beating down and the M4 ahead of us, it was an optimistic Jobbo, Soapy and me who spearheaded this year's advance party on Friday afternoon. A couple of ibuprofen tablets for the road, a 'Music for Middle Aged Men' playlist courtesy of Jobbo, and off we set. An 80's A&R man's dream, that boy - a random selection included AHA, Simple Minds, Phil Collins, Anastacia... you get the picture.  

Sadly, when his iPod ran out of power his adaptor wouldn't fit mine, so we had to rely on Radio 2, which incidentally is about 20 years more up to date that Jobbo, for the rest of the journey.
Predictably, if a little stereotypically, it started raining as soon as we crossed the Severn bridge, but thankfully the rain didn't last long and the sun was soon out again.

When we arrived in Abergavenny, we went straight to Pete's house, where Alan and Ian had already arrived. There began an unseemly rush for the comfortable bedding, which left us all relatively happy with our lot.

We walked into town for beers, and Soapy made an early bid for one-liner of the tour.  While enjoying a hotdog at the pub, I had a little ketchup around my mouth.  Soapy: "Bloody hell, Melv. You look like you've just given a blowjob to some roadkill."

After a short stop in another bar we we went for a curry, and were in the restaurant when Pete arrived.  We all finished up and moved on to Wetherspoons.

Now one of the themes of the weekend - perhaps inspired by this very blog - was positivity. Soapy in particular is prone to morphing into Victor Meldrew very easily.  We tried to put a fine system in place but to be honest it didn't work.  By the time we reached Wetherspoons who had run out of ice for Soapy's gin and tonic, he had reverted to type: "That's the problem with the world - it's all gone to shit".

Back to Pete's for some hot tub action followed by the blissful sleep of the righteous.

80 with a bullet

Went to Crouch End to pick up Wenge's car from the garage.  Theo and Roy, who run the garage, are fantastic and we've been using it for years.  My car was serviced last week, but it's shaking at around 65-70 miles per hour, so Theo asked me to see if I could get it through 70 and up to 80 to see what happens.  Could be a bit of a challenge in North London but I'll see what I can do.

Played footie in the afternoon.  Couldn't quite reach 80 on the North Circular.  Good 6-a-side game, but the calf muscle I've been nursing all week went again so I limped through much of the game. Of course when you adjust for one injury you put strain on other parts so I now have a really sore thigh to go with it. 

Had a drink with Soapy, Simon and Nigel, talking about next week's Christmas bash - go karting, followed by football then a Thai restaurant.  Since Soapy and I need to travel across London to get there (and back) he is going to explore the scooterman service - could be fun.