Ciao, Alessandro!

In the early/mid nineties, when Channel 4 used to regularly broadcast live Serie A matches on Sunday afternoons, I saw a 19 year old make his debut for Juventus. His name was Alessando del Piero and straightaway you could tell he was in the process of becoming a great player.

Yesterday, I watched the ESPN coverage of Juventus v Atalanta and it was del Piero's last league game before retirement. Just by chance I saw his first and last games for Juventus but I've seen him a good few times in between and, fortunately, twice "in the flesh" : once was actually at The Stadium of Light in a pre-season friendly.

Not everyone will have him in their list of all time greats but he is in mine and not just because of his football ability. When Juventus were found guilty of match fixing a few years ago, quite a few of their best players left the sinking ship and went elsewhere rather than face Serie B. Del Piero stayed and, if I'm not mistaken, he completed 704 appearances for the club yesterday.

I don't doubt that someone will soon come along who is as good as del Piero but I can't imagine anyone serving a club in the same way he did.

On the beach

Went to a different beach today and couldn't help noticing this washed up oil container. It's actually quite big, the diameter is about a foot.

This particular beach was, to be fair, a bit of a shithole. It's quite a big beach with sand dunes, like other north east beaches, but it's just not looked after at all. The amount of general rubbish was appalling. It wasn't just washed up stuff but also carrier bags and empty beer cans.

The massive irony is that, less than a mile away, there is a multi-million pound sea defence scheme underway. It's a shame that the Environment Agency can't shell out for the beach to be kept clean.

P.S. No, I'm not going to say where it is. :-)

An interesting conjecture

Well, I thought it was funny!

Spring has sprung!

Well, the clocks have gone forward, we've had a week of lovely weather and next weekend is Easter. Oh, and yes, Man Utd appear to be en route towards another title.

After a winter that we'd like to forget it's good to see Spring arrive : the added bonus this year is that I start a temporary job (four months) on Tuesday. I'll will, of course, post about this development as necessary but, for the time being, I'm both excited and terrfified at the same time.

Why I want Sunderland to lose the replay.

My son was one of around 6,000 Sunderland supporters who travelled to Goodison Park yesterday to watch what turned out to be a 1-1 draw. Undoubtedly, he will be at the replay at the Stadium of Light but what concerns me is what happens after that.

When a team gets knocked out of the FA Cup the old cliche about "concentrating on the league" rears it's head. Personally, however, I'm a lot more concerned about my son's A-levels than Sunderland's league position. If we beat Everton, then a Wembley Semi-final beckons : great for the club, of course, but it can only be a distraction for a young man working for his A-levels, particularly one who is yet to cover himself in any academic glory.

He's on his second chance so if he messes up this time he's really in the brown stuff. Come on you Blues!!!!!

A tale from the classroom

"I'm going to f***ing get you, you f***ing bas****!", said one boy to another as he picked up a chair and tried to hit another boy with it.

My middle daughter, on her teaching practice, managed to grab the chair before it did any harm but the little charmer still managed to land a couple of punches on the other boy. With the aid of a Teaching Assistant, my daughter concluded the incident without further violence and both boys were duly dispached to the Headmaster's office.

Both boys are eight years old.

Dodging Charity

Grey's Monument, Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Despite being a "Mackem" (naturalised, of course) I have always loved Newcastle City Centre. There is something about it that I can't adequately explain : maybe it's the architecture, who knows. Anyway, the thing is that Newcastle has a fine city centre.

I was there the other day for a business meeting and I'd arranged to meet my "client" (what a grand sounding word for the bloke who used to be my boss!) at Grey's Monument, not very well pictured here.

I'm not sure why but  there loads of people trying to get you to give money to charities. Most of them were wearing high visibilty jackets so one could avoid them if you wanted to but there were so many at Grey's Monument that avoiding them was almost impossible.

I give regularly to a certain very good cause and I don't think I could be accused of being "anti-charity" but I don't think anyone being likes being accosted in the street. This sort of thing used to be the preserve of groups like The Moonies and, for me, it's sad that organisations who ought to know better have started doing this.