So true, yorkie. You know, I was thinking, how many times do people with DOBs before 1970, say: Kids these days are wrapped up in cotton wool... I used to go out and play football on my own when I was tiny and be out playing till I was called in for tea - or bed!... My mum and dad would go out to neighbours' parties and leave us kids on our own, no babysitter 'cause they were only next door and they'd come and check on us a couple of times... etc etc. There is a degree of truth that children these days are a little over-protected, particularly from risk in play, however, when the many gymnastics coaches, swimming coaches, football coaches, DJs and other assorted other celebrities have been recently revealed, I wonder if we were all too trusting... I've always said safeguarding is a matter of "What if..?" My wife and I are very choosy about babysitters, for example. It used to be any 12 year-old with even the smallest apparent common sense when I was a kid (if we had a babysitter, which we often didn't, as was common then), but we've only used our mums, my dad and one of my sisters. Restricting, paranoid but not the risk. A member of my family was abused as a child and the corrosive effect, across generations, has been terrible. The McCann family's turmoil is beyond my imaginative capacity. I don't know how people can cope with the knowledge that their child has been abused - murderous thoughts must run riot, perhaps replaced by corrosion from their inability to really strike back. And what purpose does pure revenge have? Horrible. In short, how much trust people put in other people, purely because they were seen as responsible adults. But ignorance still persists. As a football coach of disabled children (who are of course very vulnerable), I was sitting out after my Achilles injections, so I took the opportunity to put my rainbow laces into my football boots. The look I got from one dad was amazing. You could see the cogs turning. Football coach + works with children + these are very vulnerable children + rainbow laces (somethin' do wiv gays an' that) = nonce?? I don't mind people being cautious of me. They're asking themselves "What if..?" and that's keeping their children safe. The funny (not ha-ha) thing was the conflation of homosexuality with *****philes. I hadn't realised my actions would send warning signals! But disabled football, which is called 'Inclusive Football' (but nobody knows what you mean when you call it by its proper name ), is about inclusion of everybody into this wonderful sport. Homophobia must die out. And yet the scapegoat for all things bad in society, football, the great sport that brings us together here, could lead the way in removing societal discrimination. Of sexual orientation, race, gender, disability... Here's to hoping and trying...
A couple of friends put their house up for sale, and eventually a Scottish couple agreed to buy it, paid the deposit and signed the pre-contract agreement. Thinking they were still in the UK they waited a time then reduced their offer. The notaire promptly wrote back to tell them that they had agreed to buy at a set price, therefore if they wished to back out the deposit, 10%, would be lost. After the buyers tried many different ways to get their money back, the notaire pointed out that in France things do not operate in the same way as the UK, telling them that the sale was now officially off as they had run out of time to complete, the deposit was lost, and there would be an additional bill for the time she had spent to date. Meanwhile our friends have sold nearly all their furniture intending to downsize and could be stuck in a near empty house until another buyer appears. Other friends have taken pity and invited them to Christmas dinner.
Unfortunately many people leave their brains in Dover when crossing the channel. They often proceed with property purchase without adaquate advice. They always underestimate living and development costs and overestimate potential earnings from gîtes etc.
Good morning all from a cool and dry Weston-super-Mare! Have a good day and good luck to your Golden Boys!
Further to my previous post, I was playing a game called Socceristic with my boys last night. You have to name your team and as my boys go for a modern Watford XI, I go for more 70s vintage (with occasional variances like Mooney, Chamberlain). No 8 needed to be filled in. Of course the great man himself. And he scored twice our game, so I showed a video of the defeat of Utd at Old Trafford in the League Cup (was it 1978?). My eldest (Matej), has a real ear for chants. He asked what the monkey noises were that were aimed at Luther. I try to be honest with chn as far as is possible/appropriate and told them of how racism was very prevalent back then (I remember our fans making racist 'jokes' about Luther back in the 70s). The boys' bewilderment and confusion was really telling. Perhaps football really made a colossal contribution to the wider non-acceptance of racism we see now (not pretending for a second it will die out in my lifetime or its potential return not be an ever-real threat). When you look into a young child's face, saddened by what Luther and others put up with, and he asks you: "But why?" - it is really difficult to come up with an answer he, or I, can understand.
Sorry about the result last night, Dave. I know you've 24 matches left but is a decent play-off place best or do you think automatics still possible? Could Brighton or Huddersfield implode?
Morning all, rather foggy in this part of rural France this morning, but I can see the barn at the top of the lane so it is not too bad. It is that Sunday in the month for a good gossip about football and many other things over a splendid meal with a dozen or so friends. What joy to get into some clean clothes rather than the building attire. All works on that front are now off until the New Year with daughter moved into a habitable, but unfinished house. Her husband comes back from Belgium today for two weeks, but he is not the most handy at doing DIY, so he will no doubt get the job of taking his daughters to events put on for children while their mother tries to catch up with the preparations for Christmas. Have a good day whatever you are doing. I wonder if SH will have his flight back sent to Coventry?
Glad your daughter got into the house for Christmas. Well done, you. As for SH, who knows if he'll be sent to Coventry on his flight back. But history would suggest...
