Maiwand

The Maiwand Lion as it is known, has been a fixture in Reading for far longer than I can remember. It's situated in the Forbury Gardens part of the old Abbey ruins. It's also said to be the largest cast lion of it's type in the world. So there LOL.

If you take a look at the dedication, you'll realise we really haven't learnt anything at all.

Slippin'

20 April:
Scunthorpe 2 - 2 Reading

24 April:
Watford 3 - 0 Reading

St George's Day

Really should get that flag pole LOL.

Few Thoughts

In no particular order:

• Have successfully tracked down Fentiman's Traditional Ginger Beer. It's "Botanically brewed" dontchaknow. Will enjoy drinking, I'm sure. Just have to remember to gently shake first.The bottle that is LOL.
• Reading FC thrashed Peterborough United 6 - 0 today. The Royals move to 9th in the Championship. Very little chance of a play-off place sadly.
• The General Election will be upon us 6th May. Whoever wins I just hope they put an end to the horrible habit of briefing the press and pre-announcing everything. You know: "The Prime Minister will later today announce that..." I mean you either announce something now or you say it later.You can't do both, with me?
• The new style Daleks are rubbish. I mean they suck, big time. With a few minor tweaks, the classic design of Doctor Who's greatest foe has remained unchanged since 1963. Why a major and appalling overhaul now?
• While I feel for all those stranded air passengers, as someone who lives under the flight path of the busiest airport in the world, it's lovely and quiet without any planes flying for two days now. For those from "out of town," Britain and most of Europe is closed to air traffic thanks to an Icelandic volcano.
• LL has done very well this week in his swimming class. Am very proud. 
• You can tell spring is here and summer not that far away: the air is full of the smell of BBQ lighter fuel LOL.

Reading 1 - 2 Newcastle

Last night's result means I think we can pretty much say goodbye to a play-off place :-(

Coca Cola Championship
Tuesday, 13 April 2010 

		P	GD	PTS
1	Newcastle	43	52	95
2	West Brom	43	39	86
3	Nottm Forest	43	24	75
4	Cardiff	43	19	70
5	Leicester	43	10	67
6	Swansea	43	3	65
7	Blackpool	43	13	63
8	Middlesbrough	43	12	61
9	Bristol City	43	-7	59
10	Sheff Utd	43	2	58
11	Reading	42	-1	56
12	Doncaster	43	0	55
13	Ipswich	43	-8	54
14	Preston	43	-11	53
15	Barnsley	43	-13	53
16	Derby	43	-11	52
17	Coventry	43	-13	52
18	QPR	42	-7	51
19	Watford	42	-10	48
20	Scunthorpe	42	-24	47
21	Crystal Palace	43	-3	46
22	Sheff Wed	43	-19	45
23	Plymouth	43	-19	41
24	Peterborough	43	-28	31

My, How Little You've Changed!

Recently I've been taking an interest in tracing my family tree. Although to be honest I've been taking a bit of a back seat and been getting some help. Something that has come to light is just how fixed in the Reading area all sides of my family have been. You'd think therefore tracing ancestors would be pretty straight forward but when one branch a generation or so back have the "Smith" surname it's not such a small task tracking down the right family members from old census documents. Particularly when someone has seen fit at a later date to amend documents, changing descriptions of occupations to more "glamorous" sounding ones...

Anyway something that has been quite fun has been looking at old images of Reading town centre. This got me thinking about how much the town has changed over the years and perhaps how much or little a grandparent (or great grandparent) would recognise of our home town. Cutting a long story short, I took a walk about town today armed with my camera. Take a look, what do you think?

Friar Street, looking towards the clock tower of Reading Town Hall (1950ish) and what is now Reading Museum (2010).

Queen Victoria Street, looking towards Heelas department store (1950ish) and the recently re-branded John Lewis department store (2010). Note the façade has had something of a face-lift but it is the same store. Promise.



Oh I should also mention that apparently last weekend the final batch of beer was shipped from the town's brewery, bringing to an end a proud history of beer making in Reading. I blogged about this a couple of years back when the closure was announced; the Three B's are no more.

Eleventh

Despite putting in some very strong performances the Royals have seen only mixed results this past week, playing two games over the Easter weekend and one again today.  Nevertheless they've moved up to 11th in the Championship and pretty much security from relegation. With only a few games remaining until the end of season the mathematical chance of making the Premiership play-off's remains but some tough matches await...

3 April
Ipswich 2 - 1 Reading

5 April
Reading 3 - 0 Coventry

10 April
Cardiff 0 - 0 Reading

Next up, the Royals host Championship leaders Newcastle on Tuesday.

And I bet you thought I was going to mention Matt Smith LOL? (But isn't he brilliant?)

Slow Down!

Got this in the post today...

Driving too fast. Not feeling too proud of myself.

Good Friday

Bun anyone?




















It's a public holiday here today and Monday so it's bound to rain LOL. Ah, the joys of living in Britain! But wherever you are, hope you have a good weekend.

Not Long Now

Shush... don't tell anyone but it's only a few more days until we can step back inside the (remodelled) Tardis for more adventures in time and space...


Matt Smith and Karen Gillan as the 11th Doctor and Amy Pond, inside the Tardis.

As these pictures from the Radio Times listings magazine show, it's even bigger on the inside this time!

Elementary My Dear Alice

Long story short, last night I ended up booking and paying to see one film, only to have to pay (again) to see a different film at a different cinema 8 miles away. Ended up being quite a late night but very enjoyable LOL.

Reading 1 - 1 West Bromwich Albion

I think the Royals were robbed- I'm pretty sure the Referee was playing for West Brom today.

Anyway, on a humourous but absolutely true note...

You will recall how back at junior school, children in the playground would get into arguments that eventually boiled down to "My dad is bigger than your dad" and "Oh yeah? Well my dad's a truck driver and can beat your dad up."

Well no word of a lie, I was sat at work this week in the kitchen having my lunch, reading my book when two grown men (mid twenties to thirties) got into a row that before too long turned into "My mum is an antique dealer" gaining the reply "Oh, well my mum is a diamond expert. So I should know what I'm talking about."

I was so tempted to chip in with "Well my mum's an angel" but I thought better of it LOL.

Freebie

I don't know about you but I love those freebie mail order magazines that come stuffed inside other publications. You know the sort that sell all sorts "reader offers" such as electronic gadgets you never thought you wanted, rather unfashionable/unflattering clothes and an eclectic mix of garden products...


Anyway I really enjoy leafing through these magazines, checking out all the "wonderful" items I won't be ordering before consigning it to the recycle bin.

Now given my feelings that us British just aren't patriotic enough, you can imagine my delight when I found this flagpole for sale at a "bargain" price of £59.99 this week. I mean it's 6 metres (about 20 ft) high and comes complete with a flag for instant patriotism, what more could you want?

Well for one thing if you happen to be Welsh or Scottish, you won't be too happy that it is supplied with the English St. George's flag and if you want either St. Andrew's or the Welsh Dragon flag you have to pay extra LOL.  



Leicester 1 - 2 Reading