Great night out

On Sunday night we went out for a drink. We like to go to various places that are local, and we settled on New Malden.

New Malden has a huge Korean population, and we thought that the pubs there would have some atmosphere.

what we envisaged was a few Koreans having it large, as one says.

However, as we approached The Fountain, we realised that something bigger was happening. In the (very large) beer garden were several hundred Koreans, in front of five TV screens. Loads of kids too, who entertained us all night by playing their own little football game. There was whooping and cheering not seen since a Socialist Workers' Party conference heard the news about Lady Diana nine years ago.

They were all waving flags, wearing red, and singing along to a few popular chants. There was a guy with a drum, just in case they forgot. There was a barbecue, and everybody was buying the very reasonable alcoholic beverages (£6 for a bottle of house red, and it wasn't bad).

The Koreans are very vocal, and screamed their enthusiasm when their team got the ball, never mind scored. When they did finally score, I'm sure the earth tremor could be detected several hundred miles away.

You can find out more about support for Korea here".

It was a brilliant night out, and I'd normally recommend James as an authority on New Malden, but, after featuring as a famous blog in the local newspaper a couple of weeks ago, I get back from holiday, and, after several years of faithful coverage, I find that he's gone password protected. I suppose he has his reasons, but I'd like to know whether he was the mad ginger bloke doing the podium dancing on Sunday, because he looked a bit familiar.

Oh no

Looks like England are through to the second round. B*gger. I so look forward to the sound of chavs crying.

It was colder in Kefalonia!

We came back at about 1am today and fell into bed. Er...no, don't get excited, we were tired. Well, it was the equivalent of 3am in Greece. Kefalonia is a wonderful island, full of dramatic history and a beautiful, mountainous interior. The food is scrummy, too, as I found this morning when my trousers, slightly loose when I left, seemed to have shrunk just a little. The temperature was between about 22 and 27 degrees, so it was actually warmer in England, but that's no bad thing, if you're trying to explore.

So, we had a great time, but we were very tired after the journey back from Gatwick, and not looking forward to getting up for work at the normal time after about six hours sleep.

The house was extremely hot, because it had not had any windows opened for a week, so we threw our bedroom windows open as wide as we could.

At about 5am we were disturbed by loud birdsong. This isn't unusual, as we have sparrows nesting in the eaves near our bedroom, and they get up bloody early. This time, though, it didn't sound like sparrows.

There was a sudden crash, as an ornament was knocked from our window shelf, and we sat bolt upright, looking at a struggling shape between the glass and the curtain. A magpie had got itself caught inside the window, and was struggling to find its way out again.

Now, a little bird, you can cup your hands around it and put it out. It's quite sweet. A magpie at close quarters, however, is quite a big bird, and if you see its beak and claws flailing a few inches away, you don't want to get too close to it; you'd probably need stitches.

Eventually, by sort of patting it and shooing it over to the part of the window that was open, we released it. It had, in its panic, left bird poo all over the window shelf, which we had to wipe up.

There is an old saying about magpies: one for sorrow, two for joy. So if you see one, you should look out for a second for luck. Believe me, one caused us sorrow, but we certainly weren't hoping to see another in our room!

Off for a while

Well, we're off to Kefalonia for a week. Sun, sea, and more retsina than you can shake a stick at!

World cup song

As I am going into work tomorrow, I have today off. This means a day of writing, fresh air, and cultural viewing. So I switched the television on, to increase my understanding of political events, to see if I could discover a channel showing classical music, to find some wonderful black and white gem on the film channel...

Unfortunately, my finger slipped, and I was forced to watch This Morning with Eamon Holmes. No, it's true, I tell you! Anyway, whilst my finger was, for some reason, unable to move, I managed to watch an article about the various world cup songs that have been released.

I was most impressed with a song produced by a group of builders in Bromley, called Young Stanley, after the son of one of the participants. A surprise hit. Well done to them!

The official entry, by Embrace, sounds like something that failed Eurovision.

Go! Go! Bromley builders. And in the years to come, Stanley will be so proud!