Thoughts on This and That

I’m sure I’m not alone in having been approached by kids outside off licences requesting that I go in and buy them alcohol, I was even once offered certain favours by a particularly chavvy girl in Headingley a couple of years back. Without fail I have always refused, being a highly moralistic type - and I was ready to do so again today when a kid, probably no older than 14 came up to me outside the off licence about twenty minutes ago, until he asked me to go into the shop and buy him a pint of milk.

Apart from thinking it very odd, it also got me wondering whether government health campaigns were working, and why he couldn’t go in and buy it himself. Obviously I still didn’t go in and get it for him, but that’s because I’m a mean and miserable git!

Thanks to John D, who himself was tagged by JerryChicken, for this great honour. Apparently I have to now state ten interesting things about myself, which is much easier said than done. I probably could come up with ten things, but I’m a very shy person and, knowing who reads this thing, there are lots of things I don’t like to talk about, so you’ll have to make do with this lot instead, I apologise in advance for boring you!

1 - If things had worked out for me as planned, I’d now be in Melbourne with a fairly decent job living with a very nice girl. Unfortunately shit happens, so I’m not, and now I don’t have a clue what to do with myself - having never really been able to formulate any clear plans for my life and just stumbling into things.

2- By the time I left my last job working in the tax office I absolutely hated the place, and what it was doing to me. After spending the last four weeks since I got back from Spain looking and applying for jobs with little success or encouragement I’d actually happily go back to it.

3 - I have a high degree of musical talent - I am a world record holding maraca shaker, and was once invited to play the harmonica on stage with a band at Bradford Rio. I have also written the lyrics to a song for a friends band in Hull (which he subsequently performed).

I’m already struggling with this.

4 - I’m allergic to lipstick, I trust this information will ease the broken hearts and minds of the numerous girls I have declined the opportunity to kiss over the years.

5 - I used to be addicted to chewing gum, and could often get through eight or nine packets a day, one day I just stopped cold turkey - and I am now able to enjoy the stuff every now and then in reasonable quantities.

It’s getting really trivial now isn’t it?

6 - Doctor Who saved my life, well sort of, I was at a Guillemots gig last April in the Manchester University Students Union and someone decided to spike my drink. All I remember is suddenly feeling exceedingly hot and dizzy, and making my way out of the venue towards the toilets. The next thing I know I was laid on the floor of the corridor opening my eyes to be greeted by the sight of former Doctor Who Christopher Ecclestone, who helped me outside and sat with me until I came round properly.

7 - When I was seven years old I fell 20 feet from my bedroom window onto the garden path while attempting to retrieve a tennis ball that had got stuck in the guttering using a sweeping brush. My sister apparently ran downstairs shouting “Asim’s dead, Asim’s dead” however I was merely unconcious, and the only evidence now is a small scar on my chin - well, that and the brain damage.

8 - I am currently writing a book, despite numerous ideas it neither has a title or a plot, and, if ever finished, will possibly the worst book ever written. I think the only reason I am writing it is so I can tell people that I am a writer, which I’ve found to be an extremely successful “in” when meeting new people.

I’m struggling now.

9 - When I was twelve years old I stole a pound from a friends bedroom. It is the only time I have ever done anything like that and this is the first time I have admitted it to anyone, I still feel ashamed of my actions and, if Daniel Wallis happens to be reading this, please get in touch and you can have it back.

10 - I have a bad habit of telling little white lies when meeting new people. Why, I’m not entirely sure, and half of the time the things I come up with actually make me look bad. I very very rarely lie about anything important, or to friends and family, but the amount of bullshit I am able to pass off to people at times scares me. My most successful lie has to be the time I introduced myself to folk in a hostel in Berlin as Charlie, a guitarist in a band who, having woken up one day with his ability to play lost, was travelling with the aim of getting over this mental block.

I managed to keep up the pretence for five days which included bluffing my way through conversations with actual guitarists, and being taken out to a show, then dinner and drinks by people from a touring theatre group who were amazingly sympathetic to my plight!

So there you have it, if you have made it this far please accept my apologies for wasting your time, I’m going to see if Alexis will carry this thing on!

If you are elected to serve your city as a councillor, surely your first responsibility is to serve those people who have elected you? Not so if you are Bradford’s Labour party group leader Ian Greenwood - who is refusing to take the position offered to him as council leader, or let other Labour councillors to take jobs running the council, as he will not work with some of his fellow elected councillors because they are members of other parties.

The article linked to explains that the Conservative and Liberal Democrat groups had proposed an all party executive to tackle the many issues facing the city, surely being able to have an input in these things is the reason someone stands to serve as a councillor? If someone isn’t willing to do that - and instead wants to serve petty party politics then I doubt their suitability to be part of the council at all.

Despite the fact that it’s been splashed all over the Telegraph and Argus since about 5.30 tonight there has yet to be any official confirmation that Stuart McCall has accepted the managers job at Bradford City. It’s believed the deal has been agreed and he will be unveiled at a press conference on June 1 when he returns from holiday so, until that time I won’t get too carried away or write too much about the development, I’ll just restrict myself to what has already happened so far - tears, alcohol and dancing! Of course my celebratory dancing cannot hope to compare to his.

McCall is a hero to all City fans, the longer standing fans remember him being an integral part of the team that went from the old division four in 1982, to being the captain of the team who were one game away from the old first division in 1988 through the turmoil of the fire disaster. Newer fans remember him as the inspirational captain of the team who were promoted to the top-flight for the first time in 77 years in 1999 and stayed up against all the odds a year later. One of very few things I have that I will never throw away is my first ever City shirt, which has a very poorly stitched number 4 (Stuart’s number) on the back!

After all the crap that has surrounded the club over the last few years this appointment is the only thing that could have a galvanising effect on the supporters and the mood around the club, and there is still part of me that expects to wake up at any moment to find it has all been some kind of dream, until then I’ll just keep mooching around with this big grin on my face, oh and remembering that Colin Todd was wrong yet again!

7 years ago to the day Bradford City beat Liverpool 1-0 to stay in the Premiership, within a month manager Paul Jewell had resigned, after a string of disagreements with loony chairman Geoffrey Richmond and Jewell’s assistant, Chris Hutchings, was given the job at Valley Parade. The ramifications of that are still being felt now at City as I, like many others, believe the mess we have got ourselves into all stems from that happening.

So are Wigan set for a similar fate? It’s unlikely but after Jewell’s resignation today, to be replaced by Hutchings you can’t help but get the feeling of déja vu. Hopefully Hutchings will be a success, and he will actually get the chance to manage this time, but you can hardly see top stars lining up to sign for him and play for a team who struggle to attract people to watch them, as for Jewell hopefully he’ll get a managerial job at a club with prospects, I believe his talents deserve them.

I don’t blame him at all for leaving Wigan, like about 90% of professional football clubs in England the best they can hope for is to achieve Premiership safety year on year, OK they might have the odd good season and finish in the top half like they did last year, but the way the Premiership has gone means the top four is a closed shop - and providing they are managed correctly, I see the likes of Tottenham, Everton, Aston Villa and Newcastle taking a firm grip on the next four spots over the next few years with little hope of anyone else breaking through into that “elite” bracket.

No, I’m not going to discuss the meaning of life, or the ramifications of some important development in the world, but this so-called “social networking” craze, that seems to be taking full grip of the internet, you know these sites where you bare your soul online for the benefit of total strangers and old and current friends, all in the cause of bringing peace and harmony to the virtual world.

The latest one I’ve signed up to is facebook, which does seem to have it’s advantages in terms of who you can stop seeing your profile info but, apart from that, I can think of sites I have signed up to which share information on what music I listen to, photographs I have taken and which books I read, as well as this blog, a site to try and re-connect with people you meet travelling and myspace. What is the point of it all? Is my willingness to sign up for these things due to a pathological need to be noticed? Or do I just not like to think that I’m missing out on something? Hopefully it’s the latter.

I actually tried to avoid this whole phenomenon for a long time, it was only when I started travelling and kept meeting people who would give me “their myspace” so I could keep tabs on them that I eventually cracked, even then it was only a token half-hearted gesture at first, then I quite got into it, unfortunately when I got to that stage people seemed to have moved on, and everyone was now on facebook, again I resisted until a combination of boredom, nosiness and that feeling of being left out finally caught up with me and I succumbed. My only hope now is that I set the trend for the next big thing and people follow me there, rather than the other way round!

I went to my first gig for a while last night, the Manics are one of my favourite bands and it was the god knows how many-eth time I’ve seen them, but it was still well worth it, especially as I got the ticket for £10 less than face value on e-bay - it’s great when people try and ticket tout and come a cropper.

I’ve been to a few gigs at the refectory in my time, and it’s not one of my favourite venues, I’m not sure there is anywhere you get sweatier watching bands, although I’ve only got myself to blame really. I like going to gigs by myself as I tend to get into the music a bit more, and that certainly happened last night, happily they didn’t play too much stuff from their latest couple of albums (which I am not too keen on) and they played plenty of classics from Gold Against the Soul, which was nice, although they were back to finishing with “A Design for Life” which, great as it is, is way too predictable.

The band have had a bit of a break pursuing solo projects over the last couple of years and they certainly seemed to be a bit recharged by it, they seemed more energetic and happier to be there than they did the last time I saw them, there was also a mumbled mention of a tour in December which is good, which gives me something to look forward to - hopefully by then they will have dropped some of the newer stuff completely!

For those of you who understand these internet abbreviation thingies, please accept my apologies for the language used.

Further to my blog yesterday, it appears Bradford Bulls chairman Peter Hood wasn’t joking at all, and he has now instigated legal proceedings against the RFL, where this is all going to end I don’t know.

Over the past few years I have found plenty of things embarassing when it comes to supporting the Bulls, whether it be incessant whining about decisions, bizzarre conspiracy theories about the whole RL world trying to do us down or the fact that everyone from Bradford Council through to Morrisons Supermarkets via every national and local newspaper has it in for us and is trying to do us in, but this is something else, and a large part of me hopes that this ends up having some serious negative consequences for the club.

The Bulls copped a couple of very bad calls from the ref at the end of Sunday’s game against Leeds, these things happen for and against every team from time to time, most of whose officials have a bit of a moan and let off some steam - then forget all about it. In those circumstances you can pretty much forgive coach Steve McNamara’s misguided rant about being cheated in the heat of the moment after the game but, when I first read our chairmans demand that Leeds hand us the two points, I was mortified and, as a Bradford supporter, embarassed.

Then I thought about it and realised that he was just joking, wasn’t he? He can’t actually be serious - the problem being that such whining does nothing for the sport, enhances the opinion held by some about Rugby League being full of small-minded, petty and parochial people and further confirms the (not totally unjustified) repuatation Bradford have of being serial whiners.

So Mr Hood, in the unlikely event you are reading this, please shut up.

Well it’s the local council elections today and, for the first time in my life, I have no intention of using my vote.

I guess this makes me a hypocrite, after all I have gently criticised people I know for not using their vote in the past, but I don’t feel guilty about it at all, whatever the outcome in my ward.

All the main parties have had their chance to do something in Bradford in the last few years, and they are all as bad as each other, the city gets worse and worse with no progress being made. None of them deserve my vote, as these are local council elections the wider political issues on which many people base their votes do not play any part for me, not that anyone is worth voting for on a national level either. Oh for the “none of the above” option.

I really hate the fact that party politics has to play a part in the resolving of local issues, if only a likeminded bunch of individuals with the best interests of the city at heart could stand and win control of the council I’m sure we’d see some progress, unfortunately I know that cannot, and will not, ever happen.

I’ll probably still sit up half the night and follow the results though, despite me not using my democratic right today I am very politically aware - I wasn’t called “Prime Minister” by my former work colleagues for no reason.