Back By Dope Demand

Well, a lot has gone on since the last update. I went to St Lucia for a week and ponced about on the beach. I also got engaged, which I am delighted about – Lucy was drunk enough at the time to answer yes and as far as I am concerned this is not retractable. We went ring shopping over the weekend, which was obviously not pleasant from a financial perspective (I was hopping she would settle for something from the Elizabeth Duke range at Argos but this wasn’t the case) and was also very dull. Still, it only happens once (I hope).

The holiday was good. Amy Winehouse was in St Lucia, looking fairly well and disappointing me by not getting utterly cunted and biting people in the bar. Otherwise I consumed moderate amounts of booze, slept a lot, read a few books and now feel a lot better than I have for quite a while.

I also started my new job today. I am back at my old company, so it has been nice to catch up with a few old faces. I seemed to be genuinely warmly received (apart from the inevitable and probably deserved piss-taking on the beard) and there is plenty to do here. The work will probably be harder but the commute is shorter and actually have some enthusiasm for the job, although I can’t see this lasting more than a week.

On the poker side, I have played a few SNGs since I have returned. I have run way above expectation but feel that I have played pretty well too, having adjusted my approach somewhat and tried to tone down some of the overly aggressive plays that I make all too often. The holiday seems to have done me good as I seem to be coping a lot better with the high number of beats that occur during playing SNGs, although I dare say that I’m going to give someone a world-class berating at some point soon.

West Ham racked up a couple of good wins whilst I was away, at home to Man City and away at Wigan. The loss of Behrami for the season is a big blow, hopefully he will come back the same player that he was before the injury. The goal we scored against Wigan was a joy to watch, although the red card for Carlton Goal is a big blow as the choice of replacements is really not attractive (and also a compliment to how Cole has made himself absolutely vital to us this season). Stuart Atwell copped a load for his refereeing display but really wasn’t helped by the players. Parker could have been sent off and Neill should have been, and even though Cattermole’s challenge on Parker was a disgrace, I wasn’t thrilled to see Parker rolling around on the deck afterwards. That said, the press over-reaction to the game has been somewhat over the top – as one Wigan fan said, a 1-0 defeat, a very good goal and two red cards, hardly World War III.