summer time and the living is easy

all is well, sat at home looking at the internet, had a look at johnny's blog and he'd written a few posts which shamed me into writing this ad-hoc offering, had an ok weekend, woke up on saturday and decided randomly to go to the cricket, i thought we're pretty good at the moment so i should see maybe the best england team of my lifetime while we are at the top of our game

i say "we" i'm not really in the team, but i am part of the country so i feel I've done my bit, arguably I've contributed more than kevin pietersen who isn't even really english

anyway, i set off down to the oval with the hope of buying a ticket off a tout, i've never done that before and didn't really have much idea how much it would cost, a bloke outside the station asked me if i wanted a ticket, i said "yes", he said "walk with me", i said "ok", he said "we'll have to do this quickly like, the old bill are trying to drive us out of business" I said "how much?" he said "80 quid to you, squire" I said ok and we did a quick swap, money and tickets at the same time.

so i went into the ground, i was a bit nervous going in as i thought it might have turned out to be a dodgy ticket, it was fine, i went to my seat and the seat was fantastic, £80 for a £75 ticket, i thought that's fantastic value, the sun was shining, ian bell was on about 210, i had a book and spare money for beer and snacks, hooray.

I watched an entertaining couple of hours of english batting, bell was out, bopara battled against his notgoodness, prior hit fours, all was well. the time came for lunch and almost simultaneously it started raining, i thought "where has that come from, it was sunny and bright but five minutes ago, no matter, I'm sure the sun will come back soon" the sun didn't come back and it quickly became apparent it wouldn't in the immediate future.

i decided to leave the ground in search of sustinance and football results, i went to borough market and bought bread, butter, tomatoes, cheese and assorted hams, then i went to the pub and watched the exciting end of the liverpool arsenal game, liverpool look ok, arsenal don't, blackburn aren't even on the same planet as ok.

i looked outside and lo and behold, the sun was out again, i got back on the tube, went back to the oval, back on the ground, got myself a pint, ate some bread and butter and cheese and ham, thought "bloody hell it's warm now", got myself an england top, england declared and then came out and exhibited an amazingly disciplined display of seam and spin bowling, i was gobsmacked, we are actually really good at the moment, hooray for cricket, it almost made me forget how shit blackburn rovers are

afterwards, flushed with the warm feeling of a satisfying day, i made my way home where i finished off my bread and butter and cheese and ham

THE END

i am happy

i am happy, i am a happy man, i have my own place to live which must be the first time in forever.......... it actually is, i've never lived alone, i feel like a true grown up, never mind that i'm 33 years old and should be a grown up already, this is a new chapter in the history of sam douglas

with my new found positivity, i've decided to start blogging again as it's much easier to do if you're in a cheery frame of mind, i will put pictures on but i have a slight problem with chargers and suchlike going missing..... like a true douglas, i have a problem taking pictures, with me at least it is partially down to my inherent ugliness (i take a shocking picture, i feel i'm the most unphotogenic person in the world but then maybe most people think that about themselves) anyway, i digress, we douglasses lack the discipline and order to take cameras anywhere and take photos when it matters. my dad is great at lugging a big camera round the alps and taking pictures and videos of plants and mountains but where is he when you need a photo of someone blowing the candles out on a cake (playing darts normally) anyway, at least i've recognised my faults (well, one of them) and i'll try to do better

working a lot at the moment, my job is not always fun but i'm trying to be better at it so at least i can take some pride in my work, i don't want to write about work too much as i'll bore myself and while i can be fairly honest about most things it's not always a good idea to write about your thoughts about your place of work on the internet as somebody might actually read it, i think my mum has decided not to read my blog as she is afraid it will upset her (this may have happened after reading one of my particularly dark posts written whilst intoxicated)

days off this week should include a trip to see a friends band in hoxton (cash for cars) fortunately it's the kind of music i like (power rock) so i dont really have to pretend to like them, week after may be a trip to germany to see luke (celines birthday) then dinkling green is looming large, i may have to try out some cake recipes and do some art research, and johnny we'll have to arrange for me to visit ireland

so i know it's been a while but i promise to write again soon, peace out, come round for dinner, i even have a spare bedroom, wow