It's turned out nice again.

I know dear reader that this is as much as a surprise for you as it is for me to be adding another Blog entry, but the truth is there has been a miracle of almost biblical proportions because you see I have been cured from the dreaded and almost fatal SOB that had struck me down. I am fit and well again, at least as fit and well as anyone my age have the right to expect. I attribute this healing of my body mind and perhaps soul to maintaining a healthy regime, well that is my excuse at least.

Mrs F however has got flu. My god you should hear her continually moaning about how ill she is. She never stops moaning about the many and varied symptoms she claims to be suffering from, the sore throat, the aching limbs, the occasional bouts of shivering, on and on and on, I have told her to pull herself together and stop complaining it is only flu. I hate people who do nothing but grumble when they get some simple and relatively harmless ailment like flu. The humorous twist to this perhaps is that Mrs F is within an at risk group medically speaking and about four weeks ago or so she received two injections at the local surgery, one for flu and one for swine flu...............that works then.

So today is the Super Bowl and the New Orleans Saints will battle it out against the Indianapolis Colts for the title of Super Bowl XLIV Winners at the Sun Life Stadium in Florida. The game is due to start at 5pm Eastern Time [US] and will be shown live around the world. We here in the UK will get it starting at about 10.30pm and it will continue until about 4am. I will be watching it on the BBC having already taken the precaution of taking the day off work tomorrow. I have also prepared for the event in other ways; the fridge is stocked with Budweiser, I have a couple of packets of Doritos chips and a jar of Hot Salsa Dip and to get me through the forty minute half time show, this year a performance given by The Who, I have some Hot Dogs and Rolls, I think that should see me through it all okay.

I do not really have any fixation to either team but there is a requirement to support one or the other. The Colts are statistically the better team with a season score of 14:2 against the Saints 13:3 and as I write this the Colts are the more favoured team to win. I have seen the New Orleans Saints play live in London in 2008 when they played the San Diego Chargers and so for that reason and that alone I shall support the Saints.

Whilst still on the subject of the NFL the news is now out that at the fourth International Series Game to play at Wembley on Sunday 31st October this year will be between the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos, it will be classed as a home game for the 49ers. So dear reader you will you will understand how excited I am about this as you will recall that the Denver Broncos are my team. My ticket has already been purchased and confirmed and the hotel has also already been booked paid for and confirmed, so I shall get to see the Broncos play in person at last.

A couple of other snippets of news to catch up on. Mrs F and I decided late last year that our settees just about reached the end of their useful life. These two two seater settees had in fact given long and valuable service and had seen the wear and tear and rough and tumble of two children growing up and two dogs running around and jumping on and off them or that might be two dogs growing up and two children........................no perhaps not. Last November we then decided that we had enough spare resources to invest in new furniture and so the upshot was that we ordered at great expense two Lazy Boy settees, perhaps for the benefit of any new readers from Chad I should explain that these settees both recline and tilt from the upright to an almost horizontal position. The good news is that these eventually arrived three days ago and so I look forward to reclining in comfort tonight whilst watching the Super Bowl.

Mrs F and I visited Whitby the other day, there is I know a regular reader and good friend of the Blog who will now smile and nod knowingly whilst remembering that Whitby is twinned with Anchorage in Alaska. I have to share the good news that Whitby now has a Pie and Mash shop, aptly named 'Humble Pie and Mash'; on discovering this enterprise Mrs F and I could not resist taking our lunch there. I had Sausage and Black Pudding Pie with my mash peas and gravy and Mrs F had a Steak Pie. In line with all good Pie and Mash shops the meals are all at a fixed price and at the time of writing the price in Whitby is £4.99 with a mug of tea at an additional £1.00.

To close this edition of the Blog a couple of things that made me smile over the last day or so. Regular readers of the Blog will remember that during my spare time I am working on my family tree, see post for 29th August 2008 of the Blog. I have recently received a copy of a death certificate for a relative; sometimes it is worthwhile obtaining copies of these certificates to confirm some details of the individual in question. One of the mandatory items of information recorded on a British Death Certificate is the name of the person reporting the death, the name of the informant. On this certificate it amused me to see the name of the informant was Alice Dodgson Clay. I do not know who Mrs, Miss or even Ms Clay is but her name made me smile, I wonder how many other readers will make the connection and smile as well.

I have recently watched a quiz programme on the television. One of the contestants was a rather nice looking blond, in her early twenties I would imagine. The host of the programme asked the young lady why she had wanted to appear as a contestant. The young lady crossed her long legs thought for a moment and replied that as she had the outward appearance of what today is sometimes rudely described as a 'Blond Bimbo' and she was not like that at all, in fact the lady informed the audience that she was very intelligent and wanted to dispel the idea that sometimes she is automatically and wrongly placed into the 'Blond Bimbo' category and she wanted to prove to all her friends how clever and intelligent she really was. This was followed by a polite round of applause from the audience.

Question 1. Can you tell me in which continent Angola can be found. [a] Africa [b] South America [c] Asia].
Answer. I have never heard of Angola............errrrrrrrrr Asia I think.

Question 2. Can you tell me what the term Epilating refers to. [a] Hair Removal [b] Wrinkle Removal [c] Fat Removal.
Answer. Epilating...........errrrrrrrrr is that a real word ? errrrrrr I dont know.........oh hang on, epilating yes I know it is fat removal my friend was epilated last year and she lost loads of weight.

Oh well never mind, brave effort.

For those keen to follow the World Tour of the Gnome I have to report it has yet to arrive with me.

Postscript: Super Bowl Results: New Orleans Saints 31 Indianapolis Colts 17

Back to normal..........or what passes for normal here.

I have now safely returned from my holiday in Cornwall, well I say safely but that might be no thanks to the half wit who at Junction 18a on the M5 Motorway Northbound [Northwest of Bristol] was in the left hand lane to leave the M5 to join the M49 heading for the M4 as I drew level with him, both of us doing around 80mph [sorry officer I mean 70mph]. He decided he was in the wrong lane or perhaps that the M49 held no interest for him and without any warning or indication he swerved off the M49 slip road and rejoined the M5 right in front of me. Mrs F screamed and I sounded the car horn and flashed my lights as I at 80mph [sorry 70mph] took avoiding action to the right into the middle lane, which thankfully at that very moment was devoid of any other traffic. As I increased speed a little to overtake, but of course not at any time exceeding the prescribed speed limit, Mrs F lowered her window and shouted some friendly words of advice at the other driver that I am afraid modesty forbids me from repeating here.

I was saddened to read about the death of Mary Travers, though she had been suffering from Leukemia for some years, news of her death on the 16th of September still made me briefly stop and take stock. Perhaps for the benefit of some of the younger readers of this Blog I should explain that Mary Travers was one third of the folk group Peter Paul and Mary. Now there are those of you who may know that my musical tastes may be varied with a slight bias toward American Bluegrass and Blues and I play, just for fun and in my own fashion, the five string banjo, so folk singing I agree is not my main musical passion.

However it is not directly for the folk singing that I remember Mary Travers or Peter Yarrow and Noel 'Paul' Stookey but for what happened on August 28th August 1963 and the small but significant part Pater Paul and Mary played during the March on Washington at which Martin Luther King Jr delivered his [now] famous 'I Have a Dream' speech. The song 'If I had a Hammer' which they sung during this rally became the anthem for racial equality just as much as Bob Dylan's 'Blowin' in the Wind' also sung during the rally did.

Mary Travers was an outstandingly beautiful woman as anyone can see if they take the time to surf the web for pictures of her during those times with her blond almost white hair bobbing about her face as she moved and sang; even now up until her death she still retained an air of beauty and dignity. Sadly another link with my youth has now disappeared forever.

Regular readers will remember in last month's entry of the Blog I mentioned briefly about the impending start of the NFL season and that the Denver Broncos had then played and lost two of their pre season friendly games and I thought perhaps that the oncoming season did not bode well. An update is that they also lost their third game but won the fourth, despair began to creep in I feared for the season ahead and wondered even after all these years perhaps I might select another team to support. Imagine then my delight and no doubt the delight of Bronco fans worldwide to discover that they have won both their opening games of the new season. Perhaps this may be a return to the glory days of the Broncos when they won the Super Bowl two years running, 1997 against the Green Bay Packers 31-24 and 1998 against Atlanta Falcons 34-19; but then again it might be the kiss of death for them with me now having declared in a celebratory manner their early success, we will have to wait and see.

Many readers I am sure will also remember in last month's Blog my brief mention of the Bus Pass rightfully earned at the young age of 60. Much enjoyment was had in using the pass whilst on holiday and I might add that I became somewhat complacent about its use. I would casually board the bus approach the driver and innocently wave my pass in his general direction whilst mumbling to him my intended destination prior to taking my seat. Once as an act of rebellious defiance, and just because I could, on one journey I stayed on the bus a further stop prior to alighting and walking back to my intended destination.

Mrs F being a child bride does yet qualify for a bus pass, and so we had to pay for her transportation. At one point whilst enjoying a liquid lunch at the Union Inn I suggested to her that she may wish to consider walking back to our apartment [a distance of some three miles] I had calculated the money saved from her bus fare would afford my another pint of beer and I would return later by bus, for free of course.

There followed a short sharp abusive tirade the like from Mrs F that I have only ever heard once since and that to a half wit motorist on the motorway when returning home a week later.

An Annual Review or Is That a Year Gone Already

Well it all appears to be going nicely, I am unsure if there was anything to be concerned about.

For those of my regular readers I can only say thank you for staying with it and I only hope that perhaps you have enjoyed something over the past year, one blog entry that made you smile, nod in agreement or furious with anger at least. Yes friends and I hope I don't sound too much like the late Hughie Green and I mean that most sincerely, it has been one year now since I first typed a faltering few sentences to introduce my blog onto an unsuspecting world. Not only is the blog a year older but I am also a year older and now the legal and lawful owner of a Bus Pass, it is mine and I obtained it fair and square though I have not yet used it in anger I will do so within the next week during my annual holiday in Cornwall, yes it has also been a year since my last visit there as well.

So now a year older my expectations start to diminish, now being a bona fide bus pass holder it seems according to my small biography [on the left hand side] that I am still an official Grumpy Old Man but now I am only happily heading steadily toward my retirement and eventual demise, so you see dear reader it is true that the older you become the less you have to look forward to.

I had hoped that the Cleveland Indians baseball team might during the present season instil a little heart-warming confidence in my continued support of their efforts by working their way to a higher position in the league than they did last year. Alas no, I have to report they have as of today played 126 games this season, so far they have only managed to win 56 of those games and they stand or perhaps slump might be a better description, second from the bottom of the Central American League.

The start of the NFL season is almost upon us and despite any failing that the Indians have had this year I was sure the Denver Broncos would at least come out fighting and show that my support of them was not misplaced. The season warm up is for each team to play four friendly games, these are non scoring games and are only considered to be pre-season shake down games. the Broncos have so far played two of their four and have lost both games, oh well perhaps a repeat of last year's performance with them is on the cards as well.

One item I have overlooked to mention in any blog report is that of my new computer. After manfully battling on with my old model that was the wrong side of seven years old it was suggested that I bite the bullet and purchase a new and more up to date affair. It is not that I am a computer virgin so to speak but the inner workings are somewhat of more than a mystery to me. I spent much time scouring the Internet, much time reading various and many computer magazines and even more time interrogating unsuspecting members of my employer IT Department.

I decided in the end and after much good advice from the aforementioned IT Department to order via the Internet so that I could [and did] specify my own build requirements, thus only getting the system I required for my needs and wants rather than buying a system off the shelf so to speak and having some components that I might never use and not having some components I would have liked and that I may have had to pay extra for to be installed.

Needless to say [but then I am bound to] the system is great, it fulfills all my needs and requirements for what I use or intend to use a computer for. It was certainly not cheap but then as my Grandfather was often heard to say, you only get what you pay for.

So here we are readers of this blog, the end of the first year and the start of another. I hope you continue to visit and read my blog and that perhaps you take a few minutes to leave a comment.

So here is to the coming year and I wonder what that will bring.

Postscript:

It seems I may have been somewhat a little hasty in my comments about that wonderful baseball team the Cleveland Indians. During the time it took me to type this entry the Cleveland Indians beat Kansas City 4 - 2.