We are already one twelfth of the way through the year, can you believe it. Time flies when you are, um, er, well you know. Despite the lockdown, we have an interesting and eclectic mixture of Tweets this week. So without further ado...
1. Mill Hill's favourite Irish resident has been granted the Freedom of the City of London. we look forward to the Morris Minor being loaded with his sheep for the Lord Mayor's Parade
Congratulations to our great friend Richard Logue, who has been granted Freedom of the City of London in recognition of his work in the community and for education. pic.twitter.com/oEJvcZOq0C
3. I've played football on these fields many times, but I don't ever remember them looking like this. I used to love the cold wind whipping off the Welsh Harp whilst putting a crunching reducer tackle. Those were the days
5. Another great wildlife shot from Samuel Levy. It's amazing what is on our doorstep
Day 25:
An evening walk to Totteridge this evening with Woodcock and Snipe seen in the farmlands along with plenty of Little Owls. The highlight was perhaps this Nuthatch feeding in and amongst the Ivy just above the footpath. #londonbirdspic.twitter.com/YiVdiedk9b
6. This is a great community initiative in Cricklewood
We’re using surplus food to fight waste. It’s pay what you wish and bring your own container if you can! Let’s stay connected (and socially distant) throughout this lockdown. ❤️☔️🌿 pic.twitter.com/ex2BRwoXfR
— Clitterhouse Farm, Cricklewood, NW2 (@clitterhouse) January 30, 2021
7. Some great music from Golders Green Hippodrome back in the day. Billy Duffy is one of our fave guitarists.
9. This is a great tweet. I love the fact that we are now sharing our collections via Twitter
@time_nw been sorting through some old photos and found this i took of the mural that used to be on the Edgware Road between Colindale Ave and Colindeep Lane pic.twitter.com/XSUgidO9Se
10. Who didn't want one of these when they were a nipper?
Back when I was five, I asked Santa for a real digger for Xmas. I knew the post was slow to the North Pole at the moment, but not this slow. Santa seems to have forgotten to drop off the keys! pic.twitter.com/lqWR3VHRL8
As we are all going a bit stir crazy, I thought I'd chill out, kick back and have a look at a few conspiracy theories, giving my take on how likely they are to be true and why.
1. Q-Anon. This is the perhaps the top conspiracy theory doing the rounds at the moment. They basically believe that the world is run by a bunch of paedophiles, who control everything so that they can carry out their noncing, unimpeded by the law. Interestingly, there is a Twitter account in Mill Hill dedicated to conspiracy theories, but they never mention Q-Anon or nonces? Could it be a conspiracy?
Are Q-Anon right? Well, not moving in such circles, it is hard to tell. The activities of Prince Andrew have not exactly done too much to dispel the rumours, but the fact we know about what he got up to perhaps tells us that the conspirators aren't quite as powerful as some think. Child abuse in the Catholic Church certainly gives some idea of just how dodgy it can be when such people get a whiff of power, and the sorry tale of Jimmy Savile is another sordid example, but to me it seems to me that it is unlikely that there is such a cabal running everything in the way Q-Anon claim.
Probability that it's true 4/10 (ie there is a bit of that going on but Q-Anon are overstating it).
2. The moon landings were a hoax. I suspect that this was started by James Bond, when Sean Connery disrupts a faked lunar landing scene in a film set in Diamonds are forever. I think there is a body of evidence that some of the pictures are dodgy, but given that the lunar landing took place at the height of the cold war, it is unlikely that the USSR wouldn't have made hay out of a faked landing. I discussed this with my Dad, an EX RAF pilot before he died, one time when we were watching Diamonds are forever. He told me that in WW2, the allies could track an enemy bomber taking off in France, so the idea that the Soviet Union couldn't spot a hoaxed landing is bonkers. I am always amused that the same people who think the landings were a hoax believe that the USA have alien technology in Area 51.
Probability that it's true 2/10
3. JFK wasn't shot by Lee Harvey Oswald. There are many theories about who shot JFK. The CIA, the mob, the Russians. There have been films, documentaries and billions of lines of speculation. The whole thing stank to high heaven. It seems likely to me that Oswald was in some way involved, but was a useful idiot to blame in the plot, so that more powerful and shady people could get away with it. Will we ever be sure? I suspect we won't know in my lifetime, unless I live til I'm 120.
Probability 8/10
4. Prince Phillip is an 11 foot high lizard. This is the belief of self proclaimed messiah, David Icke. He believes Prince Phillip is a shape shifting alien and part of a cabal that rules the world (I'm not quite sure if this is the same cabal that Q-Anon suspect, and to be honest I can't really be bothered researching the views of people who are clearly bonkers). Many believe that this is simply a metaphor for Icke's anti semitism. I well recall David Icke coming out as the Messiah on a TV chat show, in a turquoise track suit. He predicted that the channel tunnel would be destroyed by an earthquake shortly. I suspect that this prediction was as accurate as his assertion about Prince Phillip.
Probability 0/10
5. David Bowie isn't dead. I have a friend who is a conspiracy theorist. He informed me that Bowie isn't dead. Apparently there is a theory that Bowie simply relocated to a luxury refuge to get away from an impending disaster that will wipe the rest of us out. Apparently this place is stuffed full of billionaires and their families. I've met a few billionaires and TBH if I was Bowie, I'd rather be dead than stuck with them. Sadly, the likelihood of Bowie being alive is negligible. He was a genius and loved making music, so why would he stop?| When he passed, I was tempted to think he'd faked it as his last release was Lazarus, recalling the biblical story of a man raised from the dead. Sadly, Jesus isn't walking among us at the moment and there are no known occurrences of that other messiah, David Icke, raising anyone from the dead.
Probability 0/10
6. The British charts were rigged during the Queens silver jubilee in 1977 to prevent God Save The Queen by the Sex Pistols from being number one. I know someone who used to work compiling the charts and they confirmed this, off the record, to me. The BBC still deny it, but they would, wouldn't they? Rod Stewart was the lucky beneficiary of these shenanigans.
Probability 9/10
7. Adolph Hitler did not die in his bunker. There have always been rumours that Hitler fled and lived out his days in Argentina. My Dad had a mate who was an intelligence officer at the Israeli embassy. The guy had been in the Israeli airforce and they had a shared love of flying. He told my Dad that Mossad kept an open file on the matter. He said that if there was any credible evidence, they would have moved heaven and earth to nab him and put him on trial. Although Hitler would have had the whole mechanism of the German state behind him to facilitate his escape, he would have had the largest bounty on his head in history. I tend to think my Dad's friends analysis was correct, it was possible, but very unlikely. If he did survive, he would have lived like a rat, holed up in constant fear of Mossad, awaiting the inevitable betrayal. Not justice though. I believe he took the cowards way out, having destroyed the nation he lead.
Probability 2/10
8. Great Britain has had a base on Mars since the 1950's. This is an odd one. There is a documented Parliamentary question in Hansard about the British base on Mars in the 1950's. There is almost no other reference to this anywhere. Given the state of our technology, this would only have been possible if the UK had entered into partnership with an alien race with Inter Stellar travel capabilities. Whilst this is perhaps possible, a more mundane explanation was that it was a codename for a secret base in a less glamourous place, in a time when people weren't obsessed with conspiracies. If we had such a deal in the 1950's, I suspect that we'd not still have railways with 60 year old diesel engines chugging around on them.
Probability 1/10
9. The USA recovered a flying saucer and aliens from a crash at Roswell. This is a very interesting story. The initial press report clearly stated that a flying saucer had crashed. There is testimony from many witnesses that whatever crashed was extra terrestrial in its nature. The story that it was a weather balloon has been debunked. A more feasible explanation is that it was a highly advanced US test vehicle and the Yanks didn't want the USSR to know. If the craft was alien in origin and the US genuinely did have dead aliens, it seems likely that aliens would come back for their comrades. Would they end up having a treaty with the USA? It is what intelligent, sentient being tend to do. My gut feeling is that on balance it is possible but unlikely.
Probability 4/10
10. Neil Armstrong saw aliens when he landed on the moon. There is a rumour that Neil Armstrong was met by a fleet of alien space ships when he landed his craft on the moon. The live feed between Armstrong and the Earth was interrupted for two minutes. The theory is that he was describing the aliens to ground control. Armstrong never mentioned this, but then again he wouldn't. One has to assume that although the missing segment wasn't broadcast, the USSR would have been monitoring this and would be well aware of what happened. We'd have to assume that if the aliens were 'sending a message to humanity' both the USA and USSR would have got this message. One would have expected such a seismic shock to have ended the cold war and started a swift round of détente. Conspiracy theorists have always believed that this did happen behind the scenes, with a joint USA/USSR Apollo mission to recover alien artefacts from the moon. The main problem I have with these theories is that if an alien race is capable of assembling a fleet of space ships to 'send a message to earth', they would be equally capable of using a radio message to the President of the USA and arranging a face to face meeting somewhere discreet. I tend to think that the fact that Donald Trump didn't make a name for himself by revealing all of this when he had the chance, tends to indicate that it didn't happen. But then again, maybe the CIA showed him the real 'JFK files' to show him what happens to presidents who misbehave. Now there's a conspiracy theory for you!
So how are you doing as the weekend approaches. It's been a bruising week, the UK passed over 100,000 covid deaths. We need a bit of light relief. So today, we'll not only give you a joke, but a great album, brought to my attention by Robert Elms on BBC Radio London. It is very chilled and very good!
But first....
I went to a job interview on Thursday. The interviewer asked if I could perform under pressure. I replied I wasn't sure, but my band used to do a killer version of 'Another one bites the dust'.
And here is the album, ideal with a nice fire and a bottle of Malbec, Boz Scaggs Fade into light from 2005
Have you ever got lost? I don't mean just a little lost, but totally lost, without a clue where you are or what you are going to do, in a place which you are unfamiliar with and without money or identification?
It has only happened to me once. It was about ten years ago when we went on holiday to the USA and were visiting friends in Milwaukee. I went with my wife and children and we were visiting friends. Although I am good with directions and knowing where I am, our friends had picked us up at the airport and taken us directly to their house. I hadn't bothered to even ask their address. On the next day, the plan was to go to a large amusement park, where I can't even remember. As we were with friends, I didn't take my passport. My wife had all of our US currency as she feels I am irresponsible with large amounts of cash and I can't be bothered arguing. We did what you do at theme parks. After about an hour, I needed to go to the loo and said "Just wait here a second". Off I went. When I came back, they'd gone. I didn't have a mobile phone that worked on US networks, so I couldn't ring them. I didn't have any cash at all. I had credit cards, but nothing to actually buy food or drinks because the stalls didn't take them.
I initially assumed they would come back, so I just waited, but after an hour they hadn't returned. It dawned on me that I had no clue where my friends lived. I didn't have our address book. I didn't know where I was. I had no cash, no ID, just a few credit cards and I didn't even know if I could use these in a cab. It suddenly dawned on me that I was completely lost. I knew where I was, but even finding my friends would be a monumental effort. We'd driven several miles and I didn't even know what district of Milwaukee they lived in. Where do you start in such a situation, especially with no cash?
Eventually I decided to set off and find them, but the park was huge. I tried to imagine where they might have gone. After another hour and a half of searching, no luck and it was announced that the park was closing. I couldn't even remember where they'd parked. To make matters worse, there were several exits that all looked the same. I couldn't believe the situation. I couldn't work out what to do. Should I check into a hotel? Would they let me in with no ID, would they believe my bizarre story? Maybe I should report myself lost at the Police station. I was just about to make my way out as the park was shutting, when the party showed up. What amazed me was they weren't in the least concerned. They'd not heard me say I was going to the loo and hadn't noticed I was missing until long after the event. They'd assumed that I'd got bored and would meet them back at the car.
It was an instructive lesson. I will never, ever find myself in a foreign country not knowing where I am staying again. Needless to say, they all thought it bloody hilarious. I often wondered how it would have panned out if I'd not bumped into them. It hadn't occurred to them that I didn't have their address and telephone number.
A few months later, I was with a group of people with special needs in France. We were visiting a place and people were going off on their own in small groups. I made sure we all had our badges and made a point of stressing that if anyone got lost, come to the town square and we'd meet under the clock. I said "Don't worry too much if you get lost, just make your way back here". As everyone went off, I should say that those who might get lost had people with them who I trusted to find their way back, I thought of the irony of the situation. We can all get lost. And then I thought about the situation we find ourselves in today with covid, many of us had the roadmap of our life mapped out. We had plans. We had savings, we had all sorts of things. And now here we are. Whoever thought one could get lost in their own home? Strange times indeed.
Yesterday the Government confirmed that by their figures more than 100,000 people have died of Covid. It was a Tuesday, so Barnet published their figures, as usual, at 5pm. In 2020, across the whole year, 560 Barnet residents died of Covid 19. It was the cause of death on 20% of death certificates. This year, in the first two weeks of 2021, 130 Barnet residents died. Almost a quarter of last years death toll, and it feels like a toll, in just two weeks.
Here is the thing - according to Barnet's figures, the case numbers are going down. But they are not dropping as fast as last week. And they are still incredibly high. Hospital admissions are not going down, but there are no beds. People go in faster than others are discharged. ICU is full, and expanded, and full again.
It is so tempting to feel helpless in this situation, so easy to panic, so hard not to feel angry. To quote CS Lewis "I never knew grief felt so much like fear."
We are not helpless. I am not going to talk to you about the rules you need to stick to. Honestly, the rules are so confusing and change so often, that I think only Adam Wagner understands them. But what we do have is a strategy. A set of basic principles that we can all understand. We can, and should, do more than the rules require, if we can.
This is an airborne disease - wear a mask, in fact, wear two. Remember that anywhere inside puts you at risk. Work from home if you can; educate your kids from home if you can; ask for furlough if you need to; reduce your shopping trips for essentials; remember that when you order nonessentials online you put people in stockrooms and warehouses in contact with delivery workers, and people in sorting offices and post offices, and other delivery people, who also go to petrol stations. Open windows. Walk, cycle, get off the bus a stop or two early if you can.
Stay 2 metres apart. Just, do.
Wash your hands. Wash the things you touched before you washed your hands - the doorknobs, loo flushes, light switches. And, whilst we are talking loos, close the lid before you flush.
Get tested. Get the PCR test if you have symptoms or know you have been in contact with someone. Get the rapid testing regularly if you are a key worker or volunteer.
Isolate. Ask for help if you need it, but please isolate. And I know that is easier said than done.
Get the vaccine. Please get the vaccine. If you are worried about it, ask. If you have questions about it, ask. Ask me. Ask your GP. Turn up for vaccine appointment and ask the doctor there. A lot of people have worries about the vaccine - that is normal. A lot of rumours and stories go around about the vaccine. Stories are important, they bind us as communities, but being powerful does not make them true.
Today, after the grief of yesterday, is Holocaust Memorial Day. The theme this year is "Be the light in the darkness". The darkness of distortion, hate and anger, the emotional darkness. We can be the light, we can make a path with kindness and calm. Because what we need to do is just what we have been doing, but more.
Thank you to churches, temples mosques and synagogues who are already doing more by halting communal worship. We know your work continues, even though your buildings are shut. Thank you to all our key workers and volunteers for their courage. We see you and salute you. We know bravery was not necessarily in your job description. Thank you to everybody who makes every journey, every contact, every link in the chain, count.
One of the guys who works for me commented to me today that I seem to be the only person he knows who is dealing with lockdown and not cracking up. He'd told me he had 'writers block as he was obsessed with the horror of what is happening. I gave him a pep talk about using the free time to write some new music and if he was having difficulty getting inspiration, to try and write something left field and out of his comfort zone. I've no idea if my words will help or have any positive effect. I said to him "Don't be in a position, in two years time, when you don't have the time then to do stuff that you could be doing now, and wished you had". Being creative is hard and cannot be forced, but sometimes you can reboot yourself artistically with a bit of reinvention. Bowie was the master of it.
One of the most pervasive aspects of this situation is that it seems to be sucking all of the life and postivity out of creative people. I have a confession, I went through a period when I was struggling. I've always had structure in my life, always worked towards goals. It is hard to have any goals at the moment. We've no holidays booked, no desire to book one. The only goal for the business is to survive until 'things pick up'. With my band, our singer is isolating, so rehearsals have almost become a self help group, jamming abstract ideas, to work out for a forthcoming album to follow the forthcoming album we were due to release in December, but have postponed indefinitely. We are having our first rehearsal of the year next week. We are also working on a track we are planning for release. The main purpose is actually to learn our new software in the recording studio. Today, the UK passes 100,000 deaths from Covid. That is a really awful number. I think it would be distateful to say too much about the reasons today. But if that doesn't make you feel slightly down, then maybe you need to take a look at yourself.
But I am coping now. Whether I will be tomorrow, next week, next month, who knows? But I am coping. I've achieved this by making some sort of routine for myself. At the start of lockdown, I was drinking too much. This was mostly boredom. I am not a three bottle of scotch a day person, but I was having a few beers, sharing a bottle of wine over dinner and then maybe a nightcap. After a few weeks of this, I realised that this was not good for my health. I had a consultation about my Prostate cancer last May, which focussed my mind. I returned to my "not drinking for three days a week" rule. During the first lockdown, the weather was great, so we did lots of long dog walks and I did lots of sunbathing in the garden. The lack of traffic meant that the air was fresher, with less pollution from the M1. As it became clear that lockdown was lifting, we made plans for reopening the business. Risk assessments, improved ventilation and other measures. As we moved into August, things seemed good. Gradually the tide turned.
Now we find ourselves back where we were in March. It is frightening. What seems worse is that whilst we should be more positive, from a rational point of view, no one seems to be feeling anything other than bereft. There are three vaccines that seem to work. It should be the case that when we are open later in the year, the vaccines will mean we are in a much better place. But it seems to me that the mood music is negative. Listening to todays Boris briefing, I am worried that he is painting the wrong colours on the picture. I believe that his message should be more positive (perhaps not today, but generally) if he has the evidence that the vaccines work (which he certainly should have). We need to stick to the rules now, so we are around and healthy to appreciate the benefits of this later in the year. n the picture. I believe that his message should be more positive
(perhaps not today, but generally) if he has the evidence that the
vaccines work (which he certainly should have). My biggest fear is that Boris is not helping the nations mental health with his approach, both the rambling chaos and tardiness or the mixed messages from manic bohomie to dire predictions of doom. I do wonder whether he ever seeks counsel on what effect his words may have on someone who is struggling to keep afloat. We don't even have our churches, mosques, temples and shuls for solace. The normal support networks are broken. Many are cut off from friends, family and work colleagues. I have 14 staff at the studio, I've not seen eight of them since March 2020. People I'd see every day. Some of my studio customers have seen me more than they've seen shielding parents this year. It is truly awful.
As to me, I have done various things to make myself feel better and more positive. Here are a few things (you know how I love lists).
1. I am not drinking during the week. That means I have something to look forward to and makes the weekends feel special.
2. I am writing some new music, this gives me a channel for my creative juices.
3. We have a family takeaway curry on a Friday. This gives me a degree of normality in my life and I look forward to it all week.
4. I play myself some Ska music every day. Ska always puts a smile on my face, we all need to smile.
5. I am building a portfolio of pictures from around Mill Hill, working out the best time of day and lighting patterns to get various pictures. When this is all over, I intend to get some prints made.
6. On social media, I've done everything to purge negative influences, by blocking trolls and other people who I do not need in my life.
7. I've put down my pen, I was writing an auto biography, but I realised that I was dredging up extremely negative feelings about some episodes in my life. This is not the time to address these things. I should add, 90% of the book is fun and full of laughter. The trouble is there is a very dark 10%. I was getting fixated on this, it was not healthy and with nothing else to think about was destructive.
8. I am walking everywhere, unless it is not practical or possible.
These things may not seem like much, but they have given me focus. In life we all fall. There is nothing wrong with falling, it is human. Picking yourself up is hard, especially when the future looks difficult. But picking ourself up is what we do. We get on with it. Hopefully we'll all live longer than a few months, if we do, at some time this period will look like a strange period in our lives a long time ago. Like the three day week in 1974, like the cold war, like the hurricane of '87. Like 9/11. I remember after 9/11 when I was working in central London, every time I heard a low flying plane I flinched. I stopped flinching a very long time ago
As George Harrison said, all things must pass. This will.
Lockdown goes on. For many, the snow has provided some light relief to the monotony. There have been some great snow pics and some nice tweets elsewhere earlier in the week. Here is our pick
1. We rather liked this one. Has Dr Who been transformed into an Ice Warrior? (One for the Tom Baker era fans!)
4. Our historical tweet of the week, recalling a disaster in Burnt Oak
22 January 1889. Birth of Harry George Hawker MBE, AFC., in Moorabbin, Victoria, Australia. Aviation pioneer and co-founder of Hawker Aircraft. He died 12 July 1921 in the crash of his Noeuport Goshawk in a park at Burnt Oak, Edgware while preparing for the Aerial Derby. pic.twitter.com/xqjNoC56FD
7. Another great tweeter is @Time_NW, with some great footage here of Minder at Brent Cross, back in the old days of analogue!
Brent Cross turns up in the 'Minder' episode 'You Lose Some, You Win Some', September 1980. Shop interiors include Miss Selfridge, Kemps and The Picnic Basket cafe. (Warning: Dated Attitudes) pic.twitter.com/btL37N2aJ8
I work in Mill Hill at Mill Hill Music Complex studios. I also live in Mill Hill. Working locally has many advantages, so I thought I'd list 10 things that make this rather good for me. The site has changed a lot since we first started the studio. You might enjoy this album of pictures of Bunns Lane Works, where our studios are based, over the years
1. I can walk to work. This means my carbon footprint is very low. It also means that I keep fit.
2. I can nip home for lunch. I've not been doing this recently as we have most of our staff furloughed, so there is no cover, normally there are two of us. But in more normal times, I do enjoy lunch at home.
3. I can nip into Mill Hill Services club for a pint on the way home when I finish. I was actually having a pint in the club, watching the news when Boris announced the first lock down. If we've had a stressful day, it is nice to chill for half an hour chat to friends and have a pint before coming home.
4. I can pick up a takeaway on the way home from the Mill Hill Tandoori. I do this most weekends.
5. I get to see the amazing changes of the four seasons in Mill Hill Park on my walk to work. This is always a pleasure.
6. In better times, I am five minutes walk from Mill Hill Broadway Station and if I play my cards right, I can be having a pint with my friends who work in town in less than 30 minutes from leaving work.
7. When the burglar alarm goes off at the business (which it occasionally does), I can be around there with our two large dogs in two minutes.
8. When it snows or there are hurricanes and London grinds to a halt, I am not stuck with no way to get home.
9. In normal times, it is great when friends pop in to say hi and have a cup of tea.
10. If ever I get struck with inspiration, I can stroll down to the studio and record my ideas. A great perk of having your own studio (Here's one I knocked up last year).
There are few aspects of the BT football commentary I prefer to Sky Sports, but one aspect that is a big improvement is having Peter Walton, a retired referee on the team. This means that when there is a controversial decision, he can give a referee perspective on the incident. It was interesting that during Wednesdays game, he incorrectly stated that VAR had made a mistake, not giving an offside decision against Rodri, in the build up to Bernado Silva's goal. Initially Walton stated that the ref and VAR had made a mistake. I can imagine that Villa fans up and down the country were livid, then five minutes later, Walton read the law and realised that it was him not VAR that got it wrong. Rodri's offside position had become negated when he controlled the ball, under the current version of the law.
I can imagine how annoyed Villa fans were, especially having been initially mislead. But the Villa manager Dean Smith got himself sent off for being rude to the referee. After the match, he was still fuming. He's now received a one match ban. He feels hard done by. He shouldn't. He should have a long, hard look at himself. The ref and VAR got the decision correct, as interpreted by the laws of the game. It isn't the ref's job to make it up as he goes along. Refs are now highly paid professionals. They get paid to know and understand complex laws. Over the course of the season, with VAR, they make thousands of decisions. Last season, I read somewhere that only seven had been technically incorrect. A manager has a right to feel aggrieved when this happens, but this rarely happens with VAR, so they should learn to behave.
As I stated, referees are highly paid now, but the likes of Dean Smith are paid far more. Football clubs are big business. It is Dean Smith's job to know the rules and to ensure that his coaching staff and players know the rules. He has clearly failed to do this. Smith claimed that only officials know the rules. His club pays specialist defensive coaches. Do they not read the rulebook, to explain to their players how rule changes affect them? If this really is the case, Smith is running a very slack regime. It is not park football.
🗣"It is their job to know the law like it is a vicars job to know the bible"
Aston Villa boss Dean Smith was not happy with Manchester City's first goal against them and says the only people who knew the law at the time were the officials pic.twitter.com/J4aDDc7HPl
As I watched Tyrone Mings try and control the ball, before being robbed by Rodri, I thought, as a former centre half "what is he doing?". You don't try and control the ball when you are last man with an opponent nearby. You get rid of it. On the City team, John Stones was rightly criticised last season for making 'Schoolboy errors'. These invariably included trying to be clever when the ball should have been punted into row Z. Dean Smith's team conceded because his centre half had not done the basics properly.
I quite like Tyrone Mings, he has many of the attributes of a great centre half. He had a good game until that point. It does him no favours to try and blame the ref. Several pundits said that the rule is ridiculous. I tend to disagree. If a player has a ball under control, then it is a new phase of play. A defender should know if there is an attacker behind him. Having your pocket picked is one of the worst feelings as a defender. It is why you need to keep your wits about you. You always clear your lines as a first option.
Villa have over achieved this season. They've had some very good results and should be pleased with the performance, if not the result. Playing against City, they were up against the technically best and most intelligent team in the league. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that Rodri knew the law and knew that as soon as Mings controlled the ball it was there for the taking. You can be 100% sure that in the next PL game, all of the defenders and attackers will know that. I also couldn't really understand why Smith was complaining about the penalty. His defender had his arm well above his head. Under the modern definition, this is handball, end of story.
When the likes of Dean Smith kicks off, it sets a poor example to young players, youth team managers and coaches. It legitimises ranting and raving when you are wrong. Smith said in response to his ban, when he'd had time to calm down "I will reluctantly accept it". That is appalling. He was 100% wrong, end of. He should man up. Whilst I could accept a 'heat of the moment' act in a tight game, his response to the ban shows that he is a very arrogant person, who simply can't accept that it is him, not the rest of the world that is wrong.
One of the best things about this time of year is the absence of wasps. If it wasn't so bloody cold, I'd be having a barbecue every night! I am a peaceful man, I try and respect all of Gods creatures, but wasps. Sorry, they are the one neighbour I just cannot love. We've been cleaning out the cupboards as a lockdown task and I noticed the wasp killer can was rusty and empty. As it is the one thing I always like to have a supply of, I walked around to the pound shop in Mill Hill and picked up a can of fly spray
