Travelling

One of my best friends, Andy, left our humble little flat in London last month to embark on touring the world with his girlfriend. To be fair, after four and a half years of researching and writing to earn two little letters in front of his name, he's probably earnt it, but I freely admit to being disgustingly jealous.

He's in the US at the moment and sent me a message on Facebook this week detailing the first leg of his journey. I spent several weeks backpacking round the States in 2002 and so far he seems to have discovered very similar things to me - it's huge, very spacious, pretty stunning to look at, and every city is different. Oh, and Canada pretty much trumps it all.

The vast majority of people that I spent my uni years with have gone travelling at some point in their lives - indeed, I've had the pleasure of going twice, once on my own and once for six memorable weeks across Europe with two other guys. Almost universally, they've all come back saying roughly the same thing - "when I go next time, I'll do....".

The only slight problem is that the annoying 'career thing' has so far got in the way of pretty much all these aspirations. Hence why Andy is only just going now - he's had to wait twice as long as us for the window between education and career.

I'm no different in terms of wanting to go again, but I'm starting to have doubts as to how I'm going to fit it around the 'career thing'. Three years ago, the thought that I'd delay such a trip because I was worried about taking a year out of my career path would have seemed absurd to me, but that seems to have slowly changed as I close in on three years in London.

Whether that's a good thing or not, I haven't quite figured out yet.

Report no 3 from the field of dreams

The third instalment from a football team rapidly heading in the wrong direction in their league table:

Football’s merry men, the H&K’s Booze Hounds, strutted their increasingly questionable stuff in their latest game last night against Skinners FC 2000, battling back to earn a tough 7-7 draw against one of the most physical teams in the league.

Early dropouts meant that the squad was down to its bare bones prior to the game, though thankfully two ringers were found during the day, meaning that Theo Walcott missed out on yet another squad for the summer.

The game started at a frantic pace with Battersby diving in with his customary snaps at opponents’ ankles and Jones doing his best as always to test out the softness of the floor by hitting the deck regularly. Chambers meanwhile took the first watch in goal, a place he would occupy twice more in the second half as the effects of several bank holiday barbecues began to take hold.

Despite some good early play and plenty of the ball, the Hounds somehow found themselves 2-5 down at half time; the quick pressing and uncompromising physical style of the Skinners clearly a factor in throwing the Hounds off the scent. However, Jones was ordered off the leash for the start of the second period and having parked himself up front proceeded to hold the ball up expertly time and again, allowing others to flood onto it.

Rallying the score to 5-5, the Hounds took a momentary breather and quickly found themselves down 5-6, a mistake replicated following yet another equaliser. With time running out, and the contest becoming increasingly fractious, the Hounds summoned one last attack, yet more intricate link-up play from Jones and a smashing finish to level at 7-7.

And with that, the game was over. Mid-table mediocrity beckons with only a few games left, though a top three finish remains in sight if a late season surge can be secured.