It’s been another slow month for blog entries, this is only the second entry for the month and I don’t see another one before the month is out. The reason; work has been keeping me busy, nine to 12 hour days plus general family life doesn’t leave too much time for Internet usage. But despite the lack of online time; life is good, we got nearly $10,000 tax refund this year and we have treated ourselves to a new RCA 40″ 1080P television which we picked up for just over $600, next step will be digital cable as analogue 480P television signals look horrid on a 1080P screen. I also want to get a PS3, I mainly want it for when Gran Turismo 5 when it comes out but it does have a built in blu-ray player, which brings the price down to about $160 as blu-ray players cost around $140 for a cheapish one. Although family life is starting to become a struggle especially for Erin as she feels she never gets the opportunity to go out as we can rarely find a babysitter for just a few hours, let alone overnight so we can have a real night out. I don’t mind being at home so much as I have spent much of the last six years before moving here to the US in bars and clubs working and partying. If Erin decides she wants to go out tonight to a friends birthday bash I will stay home and take care of the kids so she can let her hair down for an evening. I have been almost tea total these days, it is months between having a beer for me now, when I was back home, going a day without at least one beer was tough. Family life has certainly changed me for the better although it would be nice to have a night out with my wife without having to worry about being conservative because we have to pick up the kids the same evening.
One win, two draws and one loss is the record of results for Plymouth Argyle since my last blog entry. Beating Barnsley 3 – 1 away from home was a good result but then followed up with two disappointing home draws against Swansea and Leicester City. Today’s performance against Sheffield United at Bramell Lane was much better showing excellent spirit to come back to from 2 – 0 down at half time to a final score of 4 – 3 to the home side but ultimately it is still a loss. Plymouth remain in 23rd in the league with only Peterborough below and Sheffield Wednesday five points ahead. Sadly I believe that Plymouth are strong candidates for relegation at this time unless Paul Mariner can inspire his men to a series of wins, at this time I don’t see that happening, one excellent performance comes along once in a while then it’s back to draws and losses. At this point I believe that Mariner is living on borrowed time, how long will Sir Roy Gardner put up will this level of performance given the amount of money pumped into the club this season.
Liverpool aren’t fairing much better in the Premiership, losing to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium and a lacklustre draw with Manchester City at the City of Manchester Stadium. Benitez has been generally supported by the Liverpool fans but I wonder how long the fans will remain loyal if fortunes don’t pick up. At least things are good in the Europa League beating Unirea Urziceni 1 – 4 on aggregate to move into the last 16 of the competition. But that being said it’s disappointing to even be in the Europa League after starting the European campaign in the Champions League.
Formula 1 is back in two weeks time and it seems based upon testing that Ferrari are the team to beat. McLaren are struggling in relative terms after all the big words at the end of last season that McLaren will be the team to beat. USF1 has become a complete laughing stock after all the hype of having a US based team. The North Carolina based team has asked the FIA to allow them to miss the first four races to join the grid at the Spanish Grand Prix in May; almost a full two months after the season started. Personally I would rather have Serbian team Stefan Grand Prix on the grid as at least they seem to have gotten their act together using the Toyota chassis despite not even having a place on the 2010 grid. You have to say that in general, F1 has become a joke in the past 18 months with all the scandals and attracting new teams to the sport has been farcical given that new teams were forced to used Cosworth power by the FIA and two teams USF1 and Campos Meta are serious danger of not making the grid for Bahrain, if at all this season. At least we will have one historic name on the grid this year in the form of Lotus, shame that Pro-Drive (Aston Martin) wasn’t chosen because they wanted to use Mercedes engines and not Cosworth.