Chop

Reduced to 10 men, the Royals still managed to score 3 goals in the second half and grab the points.

Reading 3 - 0 Barnsley

Position	Team	P	GD	PTS
1	QPR	8	20	22
2	Cardiff	8	7	16
3	Watford	8	9	15
4	Ipswich	8	4	15
5	Leeds	8	1	14
6	Norwich	8	0	13
7	Reading	8	4	12
8	Burnley	8	3	12
9	Swansea	8	1	12
10	Doncaster	8	-1	12
11	Nott'm Forest	8	2	11
12	Millwall	8	1	11
13	Coventry	8	0	11
14	Barnsley	8	-2	11
15	Hull	8	-2	11
16	Scunthorpe	8	1	10
17	Middlesbrough	8	-5	10
18	Sheff Utd	8	-6	10
19	Derby	8	1	8
20	Crystal Palace	8	-9	7
21	Bristol City	8	-6	6
22	Preston	8	-8	6
23	Portsmouth	8	-4	5
24	Leicester	8	-11	5

Guilty

As regular readers will know, Cancer is a subject close to my heart: Mum died of Secondary Breast Cancer in 2008. There's two UK charities I support- one largely carries out research into prevention and cures, the other concentrates mostly on providing care for patients.

I don't give a lot, rather each charity gets what I can afford. So how come I get to feel guilty every time I get a begging letter asking me to make greater contributions? Am I being heartless..?

Step Mum

Dad got married today.

SM and Dad with a friend's 1938 Austin











Mixed feelings but I guess I need to update the family tree I've been compiling.







Middlesbrough 3 - 1 Reading.

Whatever Next?

Absolutely yummy.

11 Sept
Reading 3 - 0 Crystal Palace

14 Sept
Millwall 0 - 0 Reading

The Royals move to 11th out of 24 in the Npower Championship.

Smelly

It's that same old story- you wait ages and then three buses come along at once.

Or in this case you're without tap water three times in the space of a month! We haven't been without water for many years but it seems the near 50 year old mains pipes are starting to give up. Apparently a leak in the water main was reported last night so our water supplier- Thames Water- switched off the mains in our street at around 1am but the guys didn't start digging until about 9.30 this morning and say it will take several more hours to resolve. Grrr.

Needless to say I wasn't able to have a coffee or even wash* until the shops opened and I could go out to buy bottled water. Think I'm gonna keep at least 5 litres of bottled in the house from now on, just in case.

Unlike the other utilities (electricity, gas, telephone), water is run as an effective monopoly- there is only one company in each region, we can't shop around for alternative mains water suppliers. Given the huge profits our water companies continue to make, isn't it about time some more money was put back into upgrading the water system a bit quicker?


* Have been able to get washed now, using the bottled stuff. In case you were concerned LOL.

Nice Butt

Quite a busy day at the office today but when I got home, I thought it would be a really neat idea to fit a new water butt at the front of the house. We've a water meter here, so every little drop helps keep costs down. So here it is, £39 (US$58) of your best "Sankey" brand 100 litre (22 UK gallons) water butt, stand and drain pipe diverting kit. That's butt number 5 on the property by the way. Just so you know.

Just need to wait for the rain now LOL...

Blitz

Today the UK marked the 70th anniversary of the start of the Blitz, when the first German bombs fell on London.

Read about it here.