The Times They Are A Changing

Arriving in the North East on Tuesday brought its normal mixture of dread and excitement. It was Tuesday (as previously stated, hey isn’t memory a wonderful thing?) And as such I had not checked who our manager was since Sunday; there was a good chance that we had gone through several since then.

Now this is the first Christmas for several years that I have not spent in Newcastle, I can usually drag up a relative to visit so I can drink their beer and eat their food for a couple of weeks while I catch up on football and all things Newcastle.

But this year they visited me (and I am still trying to restock the drinks cabinet) now I should explain for anyone who doesn’t know, around Christmas Europe from a football sense closes down, they take the novel approach that it’s a time you should be spending with your family and not worrying about the important things in life. (No I don’t understand it either).

In England they do the opposite and play a game every 35 minutes over the Christmas, so knowing I had missed in excess of 3 thousand games, made me hop off to the nearest pub where I could be regaled over something cold, and hear tales of robbing refs and cheating foreigners.

It also brought the uncomfortable realization that I had missed a derby. Now really the only excuse I can offer is I had to work. My wife and children are under the novel illusion that I should feed them and keep them warm.

However I could watch it live on TV unlike you. Now lets just think about this I am about 2000 miles away and I can watch the most important match of the season in peace and quiet (or more accurately Violence and noise, hey I take it serious) and everyone else living, breathing having to work with those of a mackem persuasion couldn’t.

Which brings me rather neatly I feel to Andy Gray and Richard Keyes. Sacked a national institution (in the shape of Andy) and a part time werewolf , (Richard) for unguarded comments. Now I am not going to belittle the comments, I mean I wouldn’t want the opposite sex to worry their pretty little heads about it.

Women are more than capable of running the line (providing the dishes and the ironing is done) they are just as capable of making a pigs ear out of every decision as their male counterparts.

But having said all that I am not convinced that what Andy did was a sacking offence, stupid and embarrassing certainly, but sacked?

Anyway I am off to chair feminism in the workplace.