Romantic Cup

I hope this overcast Sunday is treating you all well? As is my usual tradition, welcome new follower Andy Hill who says of himself: "Lifetime career in IT, Had Stroke in November 2010, Now disabled." Read his blog here and I am interested that he's had a Reiki treatment and felt some benefit. Welcome sir.

Now for those of you that know nothing about football and there will be many, in England and Wales - the Football Association Cup (FA Cup) is a special time in sport. I'll explain why its special shortly but did you know (Michael Caine impression) that the FA Cup was first played for in 1871/72 season. The Wanderers beat the Royal Engineers 1 - 0. 

Now the FA Cup is a knock-out competition and pits the giants against the minnows - its an all in competition where all standards of footballing teams from minor leagues and the Premiership come together in sport to put a leather ball in a net. This means of course that like every American has the ability to become President, every club in the country has the ability to get to the cup final and over the years there have been spectacular upsets where giants have been well and truly toppled. 

Yesterday, Crawley Town in the second division and 45 places below their rivals, beat Hull City from the Championship 0-1. This is a great achievement for the Crawley Team when the statistics suggested this should never of happened. What this does is give the team and supporters hope and many will remember that great victory for many years and will be subject of much discussion over a pint. 

Crawley Town will now play in round five against Premiership team Stoke City with the opportunity for a bit of extra income and a chance to topple another giant in football.  

My son Ben is home from University this weekend, celebrating his 21st Birthday a couple of weeks late because on his birthday - he had exams! Lovely to see him and he's got a new pair of glasses and has a Johnny Depp look now. If only he was a few quid behind him.

I went to see the Iron Lady with Meryl Streep playing the eponymous former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher the other night and I'm not sure what I was going to make of it. Politically, I was neutral about it, after all this is a bio-pic about someones life. It was a stunning performance by Streep superbly supported by Jim Broadbent as her husband Dennis. 

This was a film done in flashback and was done sympathetically to someone who appears to have the early signs of dementia.  I have to say that this is highly recommended although it's leaving the cinemas this week, and a supporting cast to die for. Certificated at 12A, don't bring your kids to see this or buy them the DVD - they'll be bored to tears. This isn't the usual review I'd do I guess because it's not a populist film, but Streep is an Oscar contender for this performance.

It's a very grey day today despite some morning sun and a frost last night and it has a distinctly snowy feel about it. 

I hope you have a great week ahead.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.