Formula One, The McLaren team dominated the qualifying and race in Monte Carlo claiming first and second on the starting grid and that result continued in the race. Both McLaren’s running away at the front, the rest of the grid had no answers to McLaren’s turn of pace with their closest rival, Felipe Massa more than a minute down the road at the end of the race. In the end Fernando Alonso’s superior experience paid off holding off the hard charging Briton Lewis Hamilton. Hamilton finished only four seconds off Alonso when he crossed the line, but the Briton looked disappointed not to win the race. Alonso and Hamilton are joint world championship leaders on points, but Alonso is leading by virtue of winning two races this season. Felipe Massa crossed the finishing line in 3rd almost 70 seconds behind race winner Alonso. It was a better race for current world constructor champions Renault, Giancarlo Fisichella brought his Renault home in 4th one lap down on the leaders. Another great race for BMW claiming 5th and 6th spots with Robert Kubica getting the jump on the more experienced Nick Heidfeld. Alex Wurz claimed his first points of the season for Williams’ bring his car home in 7th ahead of Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen. I am starting to question just how good Raikkonen really is, is he really a world championship contender, judging by current form, I would have to say not. Was his move to Ferrari a mistake, should he have stayed at McLaren? So far this season he has been outshone by team mate Felipe Massa. I think that Raikkonen is having problems filling the void that Michael Schumacher left at the end of the last year. There was more disappointment for the other Brits, with Jenson Button finishing outside of the top 10 after starting 9th, Coulthard was also down on his starting position of 13th after being penalised for blocking in qualifying being excluded from the top 10 shootout, eventually finishing in 14th and the final Brit Anthony Davidson brought his Super Aguri home two laps down in 18th, the last of the finishing positions, again being beaten by team mate Takuma Sato. It was an exciting race from the point of the battle between Alonso and Hamilton, I think Hamilton did well to finish in second, although he looked very disappointed on the podium, I think he really thought that he had the measure of Alonso after beating his more experienced team mate in the last couple of races, but Alonso’s experience shone through when it counted!
In cricket England are dominating the second test match against the West Indies at Headingley with England knocking up 570 off 735 balls to declare with seven wickets down. Kevin Pietersen was the star of the innings scoring 226 off 262 delivers, that’s more like one day form. Michael Vaughan played another brilliant innings knocking up 103 runs. Matthew Prior made another useful contribution of 75 from 99 deliveries. The West Indies could only manage a meagre 146 runs from 37 over, and were forced to follow on by England, and are current 22 runs for 2 wickets in 9 overs. The Windies still need 402 runs with 8 wickets remaining to reach England’s total of 570 wickets; I think the Windies best chance for any sort of result is rain interruptions like the third day that has obliterated any chance of play, England were unlucky to lose the first test because of rain, let’s hope it doesn’t happen again, it really wouldn’t be fair after England’s domination of the game this test match.
The big game of the week was the Champions League Final, which sadly didn’t go the way of my team Liverpool, eventually losing the game 2 – 1. AC Milan were lucky to take the lead with a fortuitous deflection off the chest of Pippo Inzaghi to wrong foot Pepe Reina just before half time. Inzaghi made sure of the result doubling the lead 8 minutes from time; Dirk Kuyt grabbed one back in the 89th minute, and everyone was wondering whether this could be another great Liverpool comeback with a minute of normal time plus four minutes of added time, but sadly it wasn’t to be. On balance of play, I think Milan deserved the win, Liverpool lacked quality on the night. But us Liverpool fans can take solace in the fact we came further than any other English team in the Champions League and beating Chelsea had to be a high point for me. We’ll try again next season, it’s been a decent enough season for the Reds, they may not have claimed any silverware, but champions league finalists and finishing 3rd in the league if only on goal difference over Arsenal can be considered a good season considering the start of the season and being knocked out of both domestic cups by Arsenal this season, so finishing ahead of them in the league can give us some satisfaction!
My feelings about Ali are not so intense today, I’ve had time to take stock of the situation while at work after fighting back the tears most of the afternoon after I left Ali at the train station. I had caught up on all the sleep that I have been missing over the last few days, slept for almost 14 hours. I am trying to think that it was four days of fun together doing lots of different things, walking, eating out, enjoying each other’s company, I actually enjoy all those sort of things with a woman, sex is secondary for me, although that is nice also. I wish that Ali waited until after she went home to tell me her feeling as telling me on our third day together tarnished the whole experience for me. It would have been great to spend all four days being happy then find out after she left by email/text or even a phone call. But that said I am glad she told me instead of dragging it out for months, then telling me that she doesn’t have feelings for me in a boyfriend/girlfriend way. I just need to take some time out for myself, time to heal, I do want to be Ali’s friend but in time, it’s too soon to just be friends, and I hope she can understand that. I know she thinks that I am being childish not wanting to talk with her at the moment, but it’s not as simple for me to just ‘switch off’ my feelings towards her, having a constant reminder of her isn’t good for my mental health and stability. Maybe nature intended me to be alone, maybe that’s my fate, always the friend, never the boyfriend, maybe I am trying too hard? I don’t have answers to these questions!
