Well you learn something new every day

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

There has just been an article on the BBC World Service World Today programme about attempts to revive interest in football on the cricket-mad sub continent.

The reporter, Mihir Bose, reported that India had qualified for the 1950 World Cup. However, football was played there then as a "barefoot" game and FIFA, quite literally, booted India out of the competition because the Indians wanted to play in bare feet!

[ambersalamander]

Blimey! Never knew that. Not sure how they'd have coped with 1950s balls in bare feet.

[ambersalamander]

If you'll pardon my saying so, this one isn't quite as interesting as the first.

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

Yeah, got rid of it. Better to let things lie rather than post something weak just for the sake of it.

[ambersalamander]

I can't remember what it was now

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

Neither can i...

[Col ISIHAC.]

Tell me, tell me, tell me.....



Puhhhllllleeeeeez???

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

Trust me, it's not worth knowing. It was just some or other "statement of the bleeding obvious" scientific survey result that i'd just heard on World Service and was being sarcastic about it. I instantly regretted it and would've removed it immediately had Mrs Sultan not come home early, unexpectedly at that precise moment in a particularly belligerent mood over some housework or other i hadn't done due to posting on stupid websites and playing Football Manager 2009 all day.

So i logged on the next morning with the intention of covering my embarrasment by removing the offending post before anybody else saw it only to find that Amber already had, so i felt i owed her an explanation for leaving her posting "widowed."

Welcome back, by the way. ;D

The point is, normally i wouldn't have invested the time and effort to post it, but there had been so little activity on the board at that time that the wish to see something, anything, new when i logged on was so overwhelming that i just went ahead.

As the big 5-oh mark starts to recede in the rear view mirror i'm beginning to become aware of how faintly ridiculous it seems for someone of my advanced years to appear to be trying to "get right on down there with the kids". Maybe, like the embarrasing uncle at the wedding night trying to bring out his 1970's disco moves, it's time for this old-timer to knock it on the head and retire with what shred of dignity he has left rather than cause people to look down at their shoes and shuffle uncomfortably away.

[Col ISIHAC.]

In my world, the getting right on down there thing seems to have translated to early-onset eccentricity.

I have been viewed with a degree of mirth and, yea, incredulity by people way younger than me - some of whom actually refuse to believe that i am haunted by the big 5-oh! Others just sigh and move on - but generally with a smile.

Retire not; hide nowt under bushels dear boy! As the poem goes, just wear purple and ignore the b@astards :-)

[Meadow]

I wouldn't let it bother you Sultan. I, like ISIHAC, am rapidly approaching the big 5-oh (a month before him I believe) and I fully intend to grow old disgracefully. Some might say I've already started ;D

As for that wonderful poem by Jenny Joseph, I think it suits me more

When I am an old woman, I shall wear purple

with a red hat that doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

and satin candles, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I am tired

and gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

and run my stick along the public railings

and make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

and pick the flowers in other people's gardens

and learn to spit.



You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

and eat three pounds of sausages at a go

or only bread and pickles for a week

and hoard pens and pencils and beer nuts and things in boxes.



But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

and pay our rent and not swear in the street

and set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

[Sultan of Cannock- SRFC]

That's great stuff both - thanks.

Just been feeling a bit worn down lately. The poem gave me a smile, reminding me of my last visit to the rellies in Malaysia. No one likes me, i don't care, and took the opportunity to be a bit naughty and had a rare old laugh out there. ;D

Mrs Sultan and Smalldude may have to go without me next time but it was worth it. And a couple of weeks with the house to myself? Result! ;D

[Col ISIHAC.]

Hmm can you be trusted with an empty house for a few weeks at your age?

Gonna be pwopa nawty, innit! ;D