STROKE THE ROOSTER..

Joe Thornton.

Name mean anything to you?

Probably not to most of my European readers. But the twitter-sphere and lots of US TV channels have been set alive by a comment he made recently. Here's the story.

Joe Thornton is the 34 year old Captain of the San Jose Sharks ice hockey team in .. well San Jose strangely enough.

His team mate and new player in the NHL Tomas Hertl scored his first NHL hat trick when playing against the New York Rangers last week. Only it wasn't a hat trick, he went on to put the puck in the net a fourth time - a rarity in hockey at the best of times but for a rookie player, quite the talking point.

Fast forward to a press conference in Vancouver on the following Thursday night.


Thornton butted into the chat at this point by saying that if he had scored four goals, “I’d have my cock out if I scored four goals. I’d have my cock out, stroking it.”
There was no way a room full of reporters was not going to make sure that comment went as far and wide as it could. And it did.
The sports news, twitter and every other social media platform ignited with re-reporting re-tweeting and embellishing the original story. Page after page of dedicated stories popped up on the comments made rather than the amazing performance of Hertl (like this one - lol).

There are even plenty of image meme's popping up and being sent around with a young Joe Thornton holding a rooster, etc. Here's another to keep it going! 

You know I couldn't resist it with the recent chicken themes I've had on my blog.

It's still doing the rounds - if you're on twitter check #joethornton

Youtube is now filling up with parody songs too...



More hockey news in a few days...
  

HYBRID ICING. ?

Well, it's that time of the year again.

The time when I sit at my desk each morning with a 'big cup of Joe' and dial up last night's hockey games to catch up on events. At the end of the week I then bore my bemused friends (best type to have) with stories of strange central european names who have been heroes or pussies this week. Who scored what and where, etc.

As I'm in England my friends have no clue about hockey - except those I keep up with on facebook who I used to play with and against in my earlier years - and never seem to tire of my incessant stories. Well, not much anyhow.

So, this short post is as much a thank you to them for putting up with me as it is an attempt to start writing more often again - let it slip a bit didn't I - work commitments and all.

Best game this inaugural (very US word) week (if you're interested) was:

Buffalo Sabres v Detroit Redwings
Detroit won in a low scoring 2-1 game with goals from Samuelsson and Datsyuk (see central europeans abound!)

source: nhl.com

Mrs P will be happy as she's a fan - not of the hockey you understand, just one player in particular. ;-)

One more thing to bore people with - and if you are really not into learning about hockey then you can skip this bit!

This year the NHL have decided to amend the rule book and changed the icing rule - this is one conversation that seems to enthrall my football-oriented friends as they like to go on about the complexity of offside rules (which appears simple in comparison).

The icing rule is a bit of a mystery to most when they first start watching hockey - especially people here in the UK.

Basically, the attacking team cannot simply shoot the puck from their half of the ice (behind the centre ice red line) way into the attacking zone as this would have the effect that each time it happens the other team has to skate all the way back, go and get it and start their attack again. Wastes time if the team doing it are in the lead.

So if the puck is fired in this way but an attacking player can skate like crazy and beat a defending player to it before it passes the goal line, then the icing is waved off. If a defending player can get to it first, the ref blows the whistle, icing is called and the play is resumed with a face off back in the attacking teams defensive zone.

This is called the Touch Icing rule

The new rule change effective in NHL season 2013/14 is termed Hybrid Icing. Now, the linesman or referee does not have to wait for a defending player to touch the puck when the icing happens. Instead, they can make an icing call (stop play) if they feel the defending team will definitely get there first. This stops the race for the puck and danger to the players of both crashing into the end boards with serious force in their attempt to touch it - i.e. the new rule is deemed a safer rule.
One of the most quoted events where a player was injured due to the race for the puck going wrong happened last season (2012/13) when Carolina Hurricane's Joni Pitkanen was seriously injured.. 



In summary, an official can now make an icing call based on where the players are on the ice, but the overall basis of icing still remains intact.

Check out rule 81.1 in the NHL's official rulebook for a full explanation.
Want more? There's a really good blog here that goes into a lot more depth..
   

HOCKEY & MOZZARELLA..

HOCKEY..
A slightly disappointing start to round 2 of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs for New York Rangers. Down 2 games in the first 2 games to Boston Bruins..

Current standings are (21 May):

Boston really are the surprise at this stage being 2 straight games up. Pittsburgh and LA are my personal favourites and I would have thought would be 2 or 3 games straight up but both have conceded a game.

Detroit, Mrs P's team (for different reasons to judging hockey skills and more to do with likeable players!) are looking a bit scrappy in their games but have been helped by Chicago's similar performance. Who knows which of those two teams is going through to the semi-final..

New York being down 2 games is in fact a good thing. As each game they lose goes by my yearning to be in New York later in the month to soak up the atmosphere of a game and some great Brooklyn beer and freshly smoked mozzarella pizza is slipping away.

MOZARELLA..
On that, I have just found out that Joe's Dairy, a family run cheese shop in SoHo that used to make the best smoked mozzarella I have ever tasted closed last week (11 May 2013).

Unbelievably, the shop was suffering from not enough walk in sales for their home made cheese.

I went in 2007 and witnessed the steam being blown across the road as the vats were being opened one morning. Bought some smoked, sliced by Anthony Campanelli at that very counter below and he wrapped it for me in a paper wrapper. I had it in my backpack, visited Bleeker St record store and then found a great Brooklyn Brewery real ale style pub close by at lunchtime and really enjoyed it for my lunch. One very memorable morning spent. Seems that won't be happening again. Shame. Real shame. Here's the official report.

In fact, it deserves two links it was that great a place - here's a really good review on a blog called Vanishing New York. Joe's reminded me of the types of store I used to see on Starsky & Hutch or other US TV programmes when I was a kid. Still a lot around, but not too many in Manhattan it seems. These days you have to venture out to Brooklyn, Long Island (not a bad thing - I am a fan of the New York Islanders after all!) or up to the Bronx.

Happy hunting.

BEARS BEAT RANGERS..

Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup second round started Thursday evening for New York Rangers with a visit to the TD Garden Arena, Boston. An ice hockey venue I have yet to visit - next on my list in actual fact.

I'll keep this one short. ish.

Most of the shots on Lundqvist in the first period hit dead centre of his shirt logo. You are not going to score against "possibly the best netminder in the NHL" doing that.

Just over 12 minutes in though, a scrabble in front of net ended up with the puck in the back of it and Boston taking a lead. Scorer: Zdeno Chara, a Slovak national standing and one of the tallest players in the league at a huge 6 foot 9 inches! Huge! See below:

Last 20 seconds saw Sagan almost even up with a shot on the net that went wide. You couldn't cut it finer. 1.3 seconds to go in second period and NYR evened up. 1-1 as McDonagh fired in a medium strength snapshot from midway to the blue line.

Then, just 14 seconds into the third period the Rangers scored again. Derek Stepan this time (who is currently 2nd in both the regular season and the playoffs for the amount of game winning goals achieved.. strange stat, but clearly a key player for the team). Two goals with 16 seconds of playing time. 2-1 Rangers.

Didn't last long though, newcomer defenseman number 47 Torey Krug got his first NHL goal just before the three minute mark of the period. 2-2. This was his first ever playoff game having only played one game for the Bruins in the regular NHL season following signing from non-league team Indiana Ice. Keep your eyes on him next season - wikipedia page here.

The pressure was kept on by the Bruins for the next few minutes before play settled down into an end to end pattern for the rest of the period. 

Powerplay Boston and a dangerous try 22 seconds to go in the third. Then they hit the goalpost as the clock ticked to 0.0 seconds. New York Rangers thrown a lifeline at the very sound of the horn...

Overtime. Powerplay and, to be honest, Boston looked dangerous throughout.

4:20 left in OT and Boston took game one 3-2 with Marchand's first goal in the playoffs.

Shots on goal: Boston 48, New York 35.

One up for the bear. Let's hope the park Rangers get him at Madison Square Garden on Sunday afternoon (3PM ET).

The other game last night was San Jose Sharks v LA Kings. End score: 4-3 to LA. A very very close game with LA only just evening up to 3-3 with 1:43 left in the third period and then, amazingly, 4-3 with 1:21 left. You can tell these two teams are going to come to major blows very soon.

And in other news, non hockey readers of this blog will be happy to know that I am going to post a non-hockey post later today. Mind you, if you think trains, trams and subways are boring....

TO THE MADHOUSE..

We have to wait until this evening for the first face off between the New York Rangers and Boston Bruins. It's going to be a rough, tough fight between those two old time rival teams.

Last night, Wednesday evening, saw the first of the second round games for the NHL Stanley Cup involving the other two of the four 'Original 6' teams - Chicago Blackhawks v Detroit Redwings. In Chicago. Welcome to the Madhouse..

Detroit didn't show much promise it must be said! Chicago went 1-0 up within 10 minutes of the game start as the Czech $63.3 million signing Marian Hossa (read "star player, major power shooter") made sure his slapshot went straight into and nearly through the back of the net.

Detroit managed to even up two minutes later but that was one of the only high points in their forwards game all night to be honest. Their saviour - if you can call it that given the end score - was Jimmy Howard, their 6 foot netminder who seemed to fill every space possible to stop more pucks going in the net.

The second period didn't happen. Still 1-1 by the end of it. Enough said.

Then Chicago turned it on and dominated the Redwings throughout the third period, two more goals coming at 8:02 and 11:20 minutes in. Oduya snapping up a rebound and then Kruger with a cheeky backhand shot.

3-1 into the final minutes and in a move of desperation Detroit pulled their Jimmy out of the net and played 6 men up front. That didn't work out though as Pat Sharp found an opening and outskated Detroit's Franzen to put himself in front of the net with nobody there to save the last shot. In the net. 4-1. Game over.

Best of seven though. Early days yet.

The 'Shots on Goal' stats show very clearly the uneven nature of this game:

ROUND 1 OVER..

So, Islanders out - see my last blog - but some surprises at the end of the first round of the Stanley Cup this year.

Mini-me supports New York Rangers (think he does it to wind me up as a New York Islanders fan!) and so we've been head to head in round 1 NYI playing Pittsburgh Penguins and NYR playing Washington Capitals. Both tough match ups.

The Rangers managed to hang on in there to game 7 of their first round and the last game of round 1 for them was undoubtedly their best yet. A real treat for anyone watching (except Caps fans of course) which ended in a 5-0 shut out by the Rangers and their progression to round 2 winning 4 games against 3. Lundqvist again proving himself to be, "probably the best netminder in the League."

Round 2 has started - some amazing match-ups top come.

New York will play the Boston Bruins, close rivals and both teams quite hard hitting. It will be a great round to watch from game 1 on.

Detroit Redwings will play Chicago Blackhawks, again close rivals and another source of family rivalries in this house as Mrs P has adopted Detroit as her favourite team. Largely due to the presence of one Henrik Zetterberg it must be said. She knows nothing about hockey! lol

Detroit v Chicago is the first of these Original 6 games facing off tonight in Chicago at 8:00PM ET (1:00AM here in the UK).

All four of those are 'Original 6' teams, a term used to recognise the group of six teams that composed the NHL for 25 seasons up to 1967 when the League was expanded.

The remaining match-ups feature non Original 6 teams and are Pittsburgh Pengiuns v Ottawa Senators (Pittsburgh are up one game already), LA Kings v San Jose Sharks (LA up one game with a 2-0 win on Tuesday night).

My money is on Pittsburgh v LA in the final but anything can happen in the Stanley Cup...

 

NOT NEW YORK..

Game 6 of the first round of 2013's Stanley Cup playoffs. New York Islanders fighting to stay in with a chance to go through to the next round against the number 1 seeded team from the east Pittsburgh Penguins.

All excitement. They've done extremely well to get to this point.

And opened well by putting themselves into the lead after only 5 and a half minutes. The Islanders completely dominated Pittsburgh, spending what seemed like 90% of the on-ice time in front of the Pittsburgh net for most of the first period. Rewarded for their effort by scoring their second goal with barely 30 seconds left to play in the first period - a truly amazing split second response by McDonald.

The Penguins though, never let it faze them and matched the Islanders goals first 1-1 by 7:39 into the first period, then 2-2 after 11 minutes of the second period. The 3-1 lead by the Islanders grabbed just into the third period lasted until 14:44 when Martin's slapshot whistled past Nabukov and returned the game to even numbers.

Brooks Orpik put the last goal into the Islanders net, a slapshot from the blue line that hit the left hand post, bounced to the right hand post and bumped inside the net line. It could so easily have bounced the other direction and maybe, just maybe the Islanders could have been in with their 7th game chance this evening.

Here's a link to the highlights video

So. To my blog title. Not quite right as it happens. The New York Rangers managed to hold on to a 1-0 lead on Sunday evening  against the Washington Capitals and with a series tied at 3 games each will now play their 7th game of round 1 this evening at 8pm ET.

Vokoun, the Penguins netminder summed up the NYI-PIT series well, "Give them a lot of credit. They played a great series and they played really hard. They're an up and coming good team."

And the web is full of commendations to a team that is only just getting into its stride. Young players abound. Only two guys with Stanley Cup playoff experience? Tavares already a major star player and he's only 22 years old... There's clearly a lot more to come from this line up.

At least I won't be tempted to stay up late now and catch the playoff games live is over, I'll catch up each morning from now on- until the final final of course! And with the Islanders now out of the running I am not planning to jump on a plane and travel to NY for a final series sometime in June - the sun of Gran Canaria beckons instead.

#PITvsNYI over.

See you next year!

TWO GOAL BREAKAWAY..

Correction, three goal breakaway...

That's what killed NY on Thursday night at the Pittsburgh Penguins v New York Islanders game. Game 5 of a best of 7 Round 1 Stanley Cup playoff match up. Islanders hanging in there and have to win two in a row now to stay in.

Until Thursday the Islanders had done well to come back from a disastrous first game (5-0 loss) by winning the last two games and arriving at 2-2 game stand off.

So, the Penguins first made a two goal lead, then a three goal lead thanks to Sidney Crosby (one of their star players) in the second period.

To add insult to injury they opened it further to 4-0 within the first 6 minutes of he third period.

The Islanders didn't really look like they were communicating most of the game. In my eyes, the real star for them in the series so far has been Nabokov, their netminder. Even he didn't shine on Thursday night and was pulled and replaced by 23 year old Kevin Poulin for the last 15 minutes and 4 shots on goal - none got past him.

Amazingly, some of the best playing of the game by the Islanders came in the dying minutes. They managed top keep the puck out of the net in the last three minutes even when faced with a 5 on 3 players situation  following a whole heap of penalties - Hickey for elbowing at 18 minutes, Hamonic and Cizikas for roughing at 18:39 (matched by 2 Penguins players) and  Strait, Aucoin and Martin 10 minute enalties for misconduct at 19mins 36 (joined by 2 Penguins players for the same).

The Penguins netminder was changed in the last game from Fleury to Vokoun and this seems to have had the desired result for them, Islanders 31 shots on goal during the game being kept out of the net by the 37 year old Czech player from Karlovy Vary.

Pittsburgh: 31 shots on goal - 4 goals
New York: 31 shots on goal - 0 goals

Says it all.

Roll on Saturday night when Pittsburgh play on the Islanders home ice at the Nassau Centre, Long Island. I'm staying up to watch! You gotta be positive.

Note: for US readers, the games that start at 7PM ET air live here in the UK from midnight so we have to stay up and watch late night games - adds to the ambience for me though is a little annoying in the mid-week when work calls the next day!

IN THE NET..

Game 4 last night between New York Islanders and Pittsburgh Penguins in the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

A real game of ping pong this one. First one team scores (the Islanders got the first lead as Brian Strait got his first ever NHL goal), then the other evens up 45 seconds later. 1-1 out of the first period.

2-1 to New York 6 minutes into the second with Pittsburgh making it even again within 60 seconds.

Pittsburgh then took a 3-2 lead at the end of the 2nd period and it all started to look more familiar as the Penguins game tightened up.

It took the Islanders a while to get back the 3rd goal in the second period, but guess what? With 1 minute 25 to go they did it. Then the Penguins stuffed another one in to make it 4-3 in the first minute of the 3rd period . No panic though, 15 minutes 30 on the clock to go and the NYI evened up to 4-4.

5-4 lead for the Islanders after some really close in work by Tavares. First one shot with a rebound and then proof that persistence pays as he got another chance to hook it round Fleury's right hand side.

Then the first two goal lead of the game opened up. 6-4 to the Islanders in the last minute and a half as Cizikis simply walked it into the net past the Penguins Fleury.

This was the first time that the Islanders have won a playoff game at home since 2002.

Two games each in this best of seven.. Pittsburgh host the Islanders on Thursday 7th, then it's back to Long Island on Saturday 11th. I wish I was not so busy with work and there to soak up the atmosphere!

Persistence paid in another game too.

Montreal were leading 2-1 into the final few seconds of their game against Ottawa on Tuesday. But they managed to even up with 22 seconds left. The game went into overtime  and Ottawa managed to get the winning goal in the first three minutes of OT. 3 games to Ottawa, 1 to Montreal and it looks like the Canadiens may bow out in round 1 this year..

STANLEY CUP SO FAR..

Spot that break from tradition up there? Usually my blog titles are three words only. Couldn't quickly make up a 3 worder today. Sorry.

Anyway, the Stanley Cup is well into the first round of the playoffs. 16 teams playing for the ultimate cup. 8 teams from the Western Conference, 8 from the Eastern.Each round is best of 7 games - an exhausting haul to mid-late June with teams playing every other day, home or away. They're earning their dollars right now.

All for this..

My teams, New York Islanders and the Montreal Canadiens are both faring ok - little early to tell but the NYI at the very least are doing incredibly well given they were drawn against the favourites from the East Coast, Pittsburgh Penguins (PIT in chart below). Three games in, won one, lost two - but only just to be honest and the last two games being high scoring - proving the NYI can score against the Penguins. And a lot when they get their act together. 

The first game was a write off as they lost 5-0 but they came back to a 4-3 win and then took the Penguins into overtime in game 3 to win 5-4.

Here's the run down so far (at early evening 7 May). Eastern Conference on the top row, West on the bottom for the uninitiated!

The other team I follow closely, Montreal, are faring a lot worse against Ottawa Senators (OTT in chart above).

The surprise so far has been the New York Rangers, not my team but I like to watch and they are 'mini-me's' favourites. They seem unable to start the playoffs proper against the Washington Capitals (WSH above). 3-1 down in game 1, then a very uneventful game that went all the way into overtime (OT) with a score of 0-0 until the Capitals scored 8 minutes into OT. Then a 4-3 win for them in game 3.

Their school report says "must try harder". Especially when they get Power plays (the other team have a player off ice for a few minutes - again for the uninitiated).

Also watching Detroit Redwings (second on bottom row above) closely as they have failed to ignite their star players so far (lots of late night catching up on my tablet in bed with Gamecenter Live!)

If you want to keep up with progress, the NHL have a great, constantly updated results chart here.

More soon..

BAD START THAT...

Wednesday 1 May 2013

New York Islanders game 1 of the first round of the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs.

I'm waiting with anticipation. 

True, the Islanders have drawn the worst possible team to go up against in the first round - Pittsburgh Pengiuns (way ahead on points and games won this year and playing an amazing game). 

True, the Islanders haven't really got a team with any experience of playing in the Stanley Cup - only one team member and their netminder have done so before. 

True, they haven't even made it to the Stanley Cup playoffs since 2007.

But, Sid Crosby - the Penguins all start high scorer - broke his jaw playing against the Islanders in the last regular season game (1 day before on March 30) and is out of play at the moment. That's got to help, right?

Wrong.

News headlines like the NY Daily News site's "NY Islanders get destroyed by Pittsburgh Penguins in first playoff appearance since 2007" don't help!!

Oh well. Onto game 2..

STANLEY CUP 2013...

And so... it is that time of the year again.

The NHL Stanley Cup is about to start - with the last of the regular season games scheduled for Sunday 28 April. The Stanley Cup starts on April 30th - NHL Countdown Clock

This has been a strange and rapid season as the NHL didn't even get started this year until after Christmas (due to player/union/NHL disputes about the split of revenues). But, I am very happy to say that the Stanley Cup is on. We know the 12 teams that are now going through from the East and West coast teams. The top 6 of each are: 

Very happy to see both my teams I follow in the playoffs this year; Montreal Canadiens and New York Islanders (the latter for the first time since 2006/07).

It should be an interesting journey as hardly any of the NYI team have played in the Stanley Cup before as they have been building a strong new, young team for a few years. Nabokov, the netminder is a seasoned playoff guy but hardly any of the forwards have been there before.

I might even jump a plane to NY if they get through the first few rounds.

The atmosphere in some of the sports bars in Manhattan is going to be brilliant, even better still on Long Island (where I've never stayed before). 

More reports coming very soon...

WHAT A GAME

Only a few games into this year's NHL season and I just saw one of the best hockey games I've seen in years...

New York Islanders second game of the 2013 season - for it is n't the 2012/13 season as they have only just started the shortened 48 game season due to a labour dispute that nearly saw the entire year wiped out. NYI were playing at home, the Nassau Coliseum, against Tampa Bay Lightning.

In the very first second of the game two players decided to have a fight - strange given they haven't even yet played against each other this year and so no real rivalry could have been built up?

That episode meant that 4 players got sent off within 1 second of the game as the fight escalated - two for the entire match. Then as they all bedded down to the first face off for a second time two other players were at each time ticking off the clock again.. 6 sent off in 1 second could well be a record?


The Islanders went on to storm four goals, three in the second period and another in the third, to make it 4 to 0.

However, Tampa Bay kept coming back and managed to narrow the lead from 4-0 to 4-3 with 12 minutes left in the game. The final seconds saw NYI scrabbling around th Tampa Bay net, minus their netminder, but they couldn't put the puck in and so closed the game at 4-3.





Quick respect photo for Vincent Lecavalier, #4 with Tampa Bay here, as he was playing his 1000th NHL game.

Phew! Much improved from the first game when they lost 2-1 to the New Jersey Devils.

NYI start a five game trip away from home on Thursday, starting in Toronto - good luck and lots of stamina guys..

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES..

 
My life is filled with them.  But before you go for the hankie drawer and commiserate with me I must admit they are not that important..


I used to play ice hockey, still love watching it and from time to time plot an escape from this green and pleasant land (?) and catch an NHL game or three in America.

This would have been an amazing week to have done so.

Montreal Canadiens met Boston Bruins on Wednesday evening and lost (boo hoo! my favourite team) but the match was eventful to say the least - 172 penalty minutes, fights galore, goals galore (final score 8-6)..

Then Thursday night the Canadiens travelled to my other fave team of the NHL, New York Islanders.  Hard to say which I prefer really - Montreal an 'original 6' team of the Hockey League from 100 years ago and loads of amazing history and culture or NY Islanders, a newer upstart that doesn't have as much money, has a scrappy rink relative to the Canadiens and stuck out in a Long Island backwater relative to the other NY team (Rangers) who play at Madison Square Garden.

Islanders beat the Canadiens - battered and bruised from their defeat on Wednesday I guess.

And Friday comes.. Islanders play against the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight, an altogether much more difficult game for them - and NY have launched a load of tickets at only $49 (I usually end up paying around twice that) with a load of offers attached - All You Can Eat Seat, Get Your Gear Seat etc etc

bah! I couldn't have gone.  Too busy with work.  But then I will soon.  Very soon.
 

DAMN FLYERS!

  
So, it's Philadelphia Flyers v Chicago Blackhawks in the 2010 Stanley Cup Final..

.. and there was me getting all excited that it might just feature the Montreal Canadiens (my favourite team).  They were rank outsiders going into the playoffs and managed to weed out both Washington (the No.1 contenders) and Pittsburgh (the current holders of the Cup).

Oh well, back to reading tales of the Stanley Cup!

A great book I picked up in New York a few years ago.
 

A DAY IN THE LIFE..

Thought I'd do something slightly different today. The blog will grow by the hour (or thereabouts) as I step through today, a Wednesday, a pretty typical middle of the week day looking forward. So, here's a day in the life of.. Polko. Much for my own benefit as anybody else's. I am pretty lucky as I live in a great, quiet place, work from home with only the odd trip out to see my clients and - thanks to the global financial crisis - have a little more time on my hands than usual (given that a lot of what I do relies on the property market and funding).

08:35. Polko's cat has had his tablets, squeezed in tuna so he definitely takes them. Mrs Polko is outside letting our chickens out to free range, probably getting attacked by our cockerel who, given it is Spring, has become a bit of a nutter again. Breakfast at desk = vanilla coffee and cinnamon and raisin muffin. I may go back for a bowl of cereals. BBC News website to check how many more people have died from flu overnight (see last post!) and read about Brown & Co's latest stunt - every home in the UK to receive a leaflet about how to cut down the risk of contracting flu? hmmm. One thing did catch my eye on the news given that most holiday companies and regular airlines are being sensible and cancelling flights, etc.. British Airways, which has four flights a week to Mexico City, said it would not be cancelling any flights. Very sensible.

11:00. Started a new job file for a contract won yesterday. Responded to a few emails, most importantly to a good friend in Hungary who thinks the flu issue may have a more sinister raison d'etre - maybe just maybe the virus or at least the advice to stop international travel is related to the fact that those in power (who have recently been pocketing millions if not billions of dollars of government financial sector handouts... where has that money gone?) don't want us bumping into them as they wander the globe spending their not so hard earned new fortunes... Maybe?

Surfed the web for a new bathroom radiator - dark metal tubular model that has varied in price between £505 and £395 delivered, illustrating the power of the web to grab a keen price. Then surfed to www.edmistoncompany.com to gaze at the yachts that are still being bought, presumably by those in receipt of aforementioned government money. Another coffee just appeared on my desk, with a Pecan pastry courtesy of Mrs Polko. Nice.


12:30. Few games on Call of Duty 4 - Modern Warfare (of course). Skimmed the UK Inward Investment 2007/08 report from UKTI. Riveting. Not riveting as in engineering wise, just an interesting read. Honest. Filled out my 5 Best Rap albums on a facebook app - very hard to pick only 5 of anything but listed 1 x BDP, 1 x EPMD, 2 x Braintax and a Poor Righteous Teachers album I love. Good distribution of the types of rap I like I guess - all saying a lot more than guns and ho's ovr a bassline. I did try to list Hijack (an old South London rap crew) but couldn't as this is probably as rare as a rare thing.. but much better than anything that I've heard since 1990!

13:30. Lunch at desk - mackerel, baked potato and cheddar with a glass of water. Quickly stripped air horns off my old (as in 47 years old) car as Mrs Polko micro-baked the spuds - having a radiator re-cored and so the chance is here to take apart, clean paint and make tidy various bits at the front of the bonnet. My baby is getting there.. More surfing around. Need a funky toilet for my bathroom project and maybe one or two youtube comedy videos to lighten the lunch half hour.

15:00. A few emails sorted out, two meetings set for London in two weeks time. Interspersed with another few games of Call of Duty 4. I am clearly not in an aggressive mood today as I keep losing or winning the coveted award of least kills in the online games (usually of around 12 players). 4pm sees me finishing early today to watch the final game in the quarter final series (game 7 if you're that interested) of New York Rangers' attempt at winning the Stanley Cup. Sadly, my team (New York Islanders) didn't even make it to the playoffs - much the same as me today on COD4 they managed to come lowest of all NHL teams this year. But hey! There's always next year! Some light has started to shine at the end of the economic tunnel - HMV have been cleared to take over 15 Zavvi music stores and one of my clients has just secured funding to build some more data centres (big sheds, super-cooled, served by multiple power units, full of server racks essentially). Sadly, we don't get involved in this type of work so nothing much in it for me.

15:30. More COD4 for me. Mrs Polko is far more energetic and is cutting grass outside. First US death from swine flu is a young Mexican child on holiday apparently. All is good on our hill, clearly not so elsewhere. But, what hype this virus is gettin'!

17:30. I have a bad back at the moment and so instead of sitting for long periods in front of a TV watching ice hockey (see above) I have to get up and do something else to ensure I am not crippled when it comes time to get off the sofa. I either have a very badly strained lower back muscle or Hodgkin's Disease (which ain't nice believe me). I am sincerely hoping it's the former. So, back at desk surfing the web (again) for more information or in the blind hope of finding a website that says, if this is happening it can't be that Disease and must be something less serious. I need to book in with the doctor sort it all out for once and for all. Tomorrow. Honest. (those that know me know I hate anything to do with order, appointments and medical personnel - except sister-in-law of Polko who is a nurse and is therefore ok). Also need to sort out my expenses forms as I have been travelling a lot recently and the receipts are piling up in my in-tray and I'm owed a fair amount of money by my employer. Which is me. So, that's sort of ok then? More ice hockey in a mo'


19:00. My son's favourite team are now out of the Stanley Cup. He won't be happy - I'll text him. He won't reply. He rarely does. Even if I fund his mobile phone top-up... How quick this time has come round - especially when memories of him being 3 and taking his clothes off in Kendals Manchester, calmly sat on a sofa while I was buying some clothes seem only yesterday... Also managed to squeeze in 15 minutes of shooting outside - still hitting right of target - need to adjust my scope I think - before setting to and making some Pecorino and Mozarella Ravioli for Mrs Polko to come home from her horse riding to. Switching to kitchen computer to update the rest of today's blog.

20:00. Pasta made - a change of mind and the discovery of an old-ish avocado in the fridge has resulted in Avocado & Gorgonzola Ravioli instead. The last hour has been one of new things; Mrs Polko arrived home with some fresh goats cheese made from a friends goat's milk.. yummy, I made pasta to a random soundtrack from youtube - spurred on from my search for a Big B track called Hooligan I found a list including a band called Hed PE and their track Ordo Ab Chao - knew it was going to be good when it started with a quote "The puppetmasters create disorder, so the people will demand 'order'." and then a sample saying "President Bush come out with your hands up, you're under arrest..." Check it out by clicking here. Really not my usual cup of tea guv' what with its thrash guitar chorus (Polko is no fan of guitars - having a range of synths and massive array of Reason 4.0 Refills on the theme 'classic analog synths and drum machines!') but a strange and extremely engaging mix of latin percussion, political statements and thrash. I like. A lot. Anyway, here's Big B - big indeed!


22:00. Dinner was great - Avocado works well with Gorgonzola. Lesson of the day digested. Quite literally. Watched some TV - Victorian Farm and an hour programme about wheat farmers on BBC4 (Polko lives on a farm, so this is in the mould so to speak - although this farm is a sheep farm and not arable.. but hey! who's counting). The news is full of the upscaled Grade 5 threat of the swine flu virus, which makes me ever more suspicious of the political nature of the whole event? A good friend of Polko's has a medical degree and I had a brief text chat with him earlier in which he suggested that the only real threat at this stage is to those who are already low in immuno-reponse.. another friend of Polko is stepping on a plane to NY this Friday & I think all will be well there. Polko is also thinking a trip to US is in order to watch the remainder of the 2009 Stanley Cup in his favourite sports bar (in Santa Barbara). California is so enticing this time of year. Any time of year in fact. Oh, and in other news a great big hole has appeared in Barlow Moor Rd, a road Polko used to know well in South Manchester - see here. Which reminds me of that strange unanswered Beatles line, "how many holes does it take to fill the Albert Hall".

23:30. Watched a Newsnight special on Obama's first 100 days in office - court is still out on that one. One last glass of wine. One last game of COD4. Mrs Polko is ascending the stairs. Lava lamp is still doing its thing. Another day in the life of Polko is drawing to a close...

Hope you've enjoyed it.

no more later..

THE BENEFITS OF SLOWING DOWN..

Benefit #1
So, today I have woken up to snow all around and the sight of my neghbours trying to get to work on a snowbound, 1-in-3 hill with bends! This makes me very happy that Polko and Mrs Polko decided to sloooow the f*ck down a few years ago, get sensible and restructure the way we lived (moving from town to country and working from home). Once they've all slivered their way down and off to their various concrete towers of babel to chatter incessantly into telephones about things that don't really matter to them we will have a whole hillside and dozens of acres to go out and have a massive snowball fight in. Cool.

Benefit #2
The slowdown has reduced our new work flow (though not ceased it altogether happily). So, the phones are not ringing so often and emails arriving at a slightly reduced pace. Giving me the time to get on my PS3 and Call of Duty: World At War having bought it and played it intensively for a week then finding myself swapping back to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare online - hits the mark with me more than stomping around Russia or Japan as part of the WWII effort!

Benefit #3
Related to the time I currently have - there are now signs that NASN television may well be starting to feature some of the better NHL team games on their channel, having attempted to buy in cheaper games by lesser teams than the Montreal Canadiens, NY Rangers and Islanders, Toronto Mapleleafs etc. So, I have more quality ice hockey to watch... and soon they promise they will even put Hockey Night in Canada back on each week. yay-hey!

Benefit #4
This came in the BBC News home page load-up this morning: Sales growth slows down at Tesco!

What a wonderful piece of news! Apparently like for like (which means they strip out the effects of opening new stores and extending existing ones in the last year) quarterly sales have grown by only 2% against 4.8% in the same period last year. Tesco are relatively exposed to swings in demand as they sell not only staple foodstuffs but also a large range of 'other items', luxury and spur of the moment purchases such as electronics, DVDs and clothing.

Factor in the effects that Woolworths keeping hold of their vast stocks of DVDs/CDs and other media to sell off at whatever price they can get for them this year (Woolworths are the largest distributors of said products to the supermarket chains and their administrators know that this stock is going to help them maximise cash in their winding up process) and things might just test the management Board at Tesco and the like a little more than they have been doing for the past five/six years or more. My guess is that some Directors of larger companies may well be asking themselves if slowing their life a little is in order in the coming few months. My advice would be: take the bonuses and golden pay-off's and get the hell out, learn to grow your own food, keep your own animals, reduce your consumption a little and regain some basic skills of being human. Anyone with a manual can operate a Blackberry, not everyone can grow them or make a Blackberry Trifle.

Which final thought reminds me of one of my favourite lines in a Braintax rap, when talking about a future world where energy lines break down and people are forced back into a simpler and more skilled way of living..

..holed up in the woods with my trusty rifle,
the rains rusted it up,
so now I'm living on snow and berry trifle.

Which then moves my mind onto Survivors - on TV tonight at 9p.m. Yay-hey times ten!

PRE-SEASON EXCITEMENT

Today is the first game for the Montreal Canadiens in their 100th year of NHL hockey playing. Not the first real game so to speak, but the first of their Pre-Season series, 9 games to warm them up starting with a Boston Bruins match up at home..

This year, all fans are hoping for their name on the Stanley Cup. It's been a while and it's a special year! Polko is aiming to attend a few games early in 2009.

The first game of the season proper is October 10th with their first test against ultra-rivals Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday October 11th.. Of one thing I am sure. You'll be hearing more about their progress from time to time during the year among my blog posts.


And onto something else...

I run two installs of Media Monkey and from time to time like to take a look at what I've been sub-consciously focusing on in my listening habits. This is my current top ten albums list from my work computer, which is always very different to my home PC given that I don't have access to my full mp3 drive at work and the fact that several other people have access to, and therefore mess with, my home PC mp3/Media Monkey playlist. It helps to juggle things up a bit and I get to listen to things I probably wouldn't otherwise.


No surprise to see a fair bit of hip hop (real hip hop that is, not shit-hop) in my daytime/work playlist. Rhythm based tracks tend to get me typing faster! Braintax is always lurking around there in the top three or four as are the Pet Shop Boys - their particular brand of gay-disco-pop works well when you are concentrating not on the music but on something else (sorry boys!).

One surprise though is the rapid ascent of Dub Pistols on my playlists of late. They are a brilliant example of how the best UK music takes a range of multi-cultural/multi-national influences and re-creates that form of music to a higher level. If you've not listened to any of their tracks take a peek at The Hype Machine or similar. Apart from 6 Million Ways To Live which is my personal favourite, they also produced some good cover tracks recently (2007?) including The Stranglers' Peaches (with Rodney P - one of the UK's finest rappers and Terry Hall of The Specials aka etc etc), Gangsters (again with help from Terry Hall) and even Blondie's groundbreaking white-rap Rapture.

They rent MySpace space at http://www.myspace.com/thedubpistols.

Soul shaking.

Oh yes.