supertinks | Entries tagged with six nations

So after crawling into bed on Saturday evening, utterly exhausted from the events of the day, I slept like a log, and woke up bright and early at half eight ish on Sunday morning. I felt completely restored, both physically and emotionally, so I got out of bed feeling pretty good.

It was only after I'd got out of bed and moved around for a bit I realised my legs/arms were a bit sore. All that walking, and stairs, and the cold, and the excitement, and the clapping and cheering and waving and so on from the day before had taken their toll, and my calves, thighs and shoulders in particular were aching.

Since I didn't do much yesterday, apart from sit and watch TV, it just got worse as the day wore on. Even this morning, my legs are still aching. Hopefully after the gym tonight they will get better.

So anyway, yesterday morning I was feeling all refreshed and recovered. Until Jamie put the recording of the game on, and I was transported straight back into the whirlwind of emotions I felt yesterday. Game was just as exciting from an armchair perspective, plus was interesting to hear the commentary/punditry as well as pre- and post-match interviews.

In one of the post-match interviews, one of the Welsh players made particular mention of the atmosphere created by the fans, and the arrival of the bus and things, and it was nice to think "I was a part of that".

Jamie went to the gym once he'd woken up, and I cycled over to Tesco to pick up the ingredients for the curry I'd promised to make him for dinner. Was good to get out of the house and in the fresh air, but I collapsed in a tired heap again when I got back home.

We started watching the Italy - Ireland game, but it got boring in the second half so we went back to bed for a snooze. Then tackled the mountain of washing up, and watched Bee Movie, which was ok - funny in places, but not brilliant.

Then I made a really tasty chicken curry, following a James Martin recipe off BBC Food.

This morning I am experimenting in making my own lunches again, in an attempt to get me away from eating crisps/snacks and drinking fizzy drinks/ribena. So I have two garlic chicken baps in the fridge, with mountains of grapes, and am drinking water. From tomorrow it will be chicken pitta bread with salad, but I did the shopping late so I couldnt have that today.

I cut my fingertip on my knife when I was chopping my coriander. Its not deep, but it was rather irritating. Luckily I didn't get any ginger or garlic into my cut - that would have been horrible.

So we woke up this morning around 9ish, and so began a most excellent day. I had a shower, got dressed and made breakfast, while Jamie caught up on missed sleep and also showered. sausages, scrambled egg and beans. Tasty!

We watched Saturday Kitchen, which was a Valentines Day special sort of thing, and they had the usual two chef's table guests, but the twist was, the bloke had arranged with the show to propose to his girlfriend on air, which was very sweet. She was somewhat shocked, but said yes of course :-)

Then there was a short period of waiting, as it was too early really to leave, but we had already done everything we needed to do packing wise. So we bounced nervously and excitedly in our chairs until it was time to leave. We drove to Cardiff, via the sorting office to pick up an undelivered parcel. I had intended to drive the first stretch, but I was a little overexcited so Jamie took over once we'd got petrol in Tesco, and he drove till Membrey Services.

We swopped over there, and swopped back at Magor, after the bridge. Drove into Cardiff, got there around three-ish. As Jamie used to live there, we know a handy spot near the town centre for parking the car, and there's usually always a space. Then we walked into town from there, stuck our head round the door of a pub to check the score in the France v Scotland game (which was 0-0 after 20 mins). Decided not to bother finding somewhere to watch that, so wandered round Cardiff for a bit soaking up the pre-match atmosphere.

Then we wandered over to the stadium, initially planning to see if they were showing the France game on a big screen. When we got to the entrance of the stadium, it quickly became obvious that the crowd gathered was arranged in such a fashion for watching the team bus go past into the stadium (in two lines either side of the road, lots of police making sure they stayed in place). It was 4pm, so an hour and a half before kick off. We stuck around in the crowd, quite near the gate, at the front of the mass of people. Shortly afterwards, we heard the roar of the crowd round the corner up the road, then the police escort hoved into view. Two mounted police on gorgeous brown horses, followed by two police motorbikes. Then came the team bus, followed by more bikes and horses. So there was much cheering and yelling and chanting of "Wales! Wales! Wales!". It was amazing. And to cap it all off.......

Neil Jenkins looked at me!!!!!!!!!!!

I had a real fangirly squee moment. It was hilarious.

Once they'd gone into the stadium, we made our way over to gate 5 and headed inside. Our seats were in the middle tier, the first time we've been sat up there. In the stand behind the posts, but off to one side, so about halfway between the posts and the edge of the pitch. Wales were playing towards us in the first half, and away from us in the second, so as you look at the game from the point of view of the telly cameras, we were on the right hand side.

We were mostly surrounded by pleasant people, which is always nice, although throughout the game there was far too much of people going back and forth to the bar/toilet, always at the wrong moment and getting in the way of the view.

So we were in our seats a long while before kick off, and got to watch the teams warming up. We were entertained by that school choir that were runners up on Last Choir Standing last year, and they were awesome.

It was a full house. 74,594 was the official attendance, and the entire place was buzzing. The roof was open, which made it colder, but did nothing to dampen the spirits or reduce the noise. If anything, we were making even more noise to compensate!

The anthem almost had me in tears. The confidence I'd been feeling all week about the likely result had all but disappeared by then, and there was a tight knot of anxiety and nerves in my stomach. By the time we'd sung the anthem, I felt physically sick.

And then the whistle blew, England kicked off and for the next 40 minutes I was screaming and singing as loud as any other Welshman in that crowd. Then came 10 minutes of quiet, as Jamie disappeared for a break and a stretch of the legs (there isn't much space for legs in these stadiums!). Then came the second half, and another 40 minutes of screaming, singing, hiding my hands behind my eyes.. lots of tense moments, lots of nervousness, and by the time the final whistle blew, and we'd won the game, I had run out of any energy with which to celebrate.

We made our weary way back across town, stopping only to get a small burger each from Burger King (and for me to have a wee!), and to get Jamie some coke from Sainsburys. A quiet five minutes sitting in the car, then we drove home. Well, Jamie drove, I collapsed in the passenger seat. I was meant to be taking over at some point, but was so tired and drained that Jamie agreed to drive the whole journey, in exchange for a cup of coffee at Membrey, and me cooking him a curry for dinner tomorrow!

Got home at about half ten - would have been earlier, but there are a number of stretches of roadworks on the M4 which have average speed cameras, and one of them has a speed limit of 40 mph! Very irritating, but we got through it.

I am utterly exhausted. But very happy.

Grand Slam Winners!!!!!!!!!!!

Yay!

I really don't like this whole consecutive weekends for courses thing I've got going on. Due to Tax on Sunday last, and Law on both days this weekend, today is now day 9 of my marathon 13-days-without-a-day-off. And I'm starting to get a little sleepy and distracted. I'm also hungry, which doesnt help, and since I didnt have time to do the food shopping this weekend, I have no food! May have to nip over the road and get something snacky to get me through to lunchtime.

Fortunately, I have plenty of work to be getting on with, otherwise I'd be going quite mad!

( So, the weekend... )

I am hoping that work wont be too stressful this week, because I'm not sure if I could cope if something went horribly wrong!

Of course, I'm not going to have much in the way of relaxing weekends anyway, for the next few weeks, cos of all the work I have to do for my courses! Don't have to do too much for Tax, cos I've only got one day's worth of home study, but before the next Law weekend (5/6 April) I have to do all the home study, practise questions and then do the first course exam!

And with the rugby this weekend, that wipes out Saturday completely. The following weekend is Easter, so I'll be at Caro's on the Saturday, but at least I'll have the monday off to do work (I shall be relaxing on Good Friday!). The weekend after is the next weekend of my Tax course, so I'll not be doing any work then, and then its the second Law weekend. So lots of work in the evenings for me.

( the schedule of busy )

So yeah, busy busy busy.

Wow when put like that the exams really don't seem all that far away! And also, by the time that schedule is done, it'll be halfway through the year already, and I'll be hurtling towards our 3rd anniversary! Where has all this time gone?

Still, at least it doesnt provide much opportunity for spending money irresponsibly!

Although, of a minor nature I suppose, in the grand scheme of things.

My laptop has died! Thankfully, its covered by a 2 year warranty, and the internet shop i bought it from opened a branch literally 5 minutes down the road from us, so while I was learning this morning, Jamie took it down with the receipt and they're checking it out as we speak. if they can't fix the problem, they'll rescue my hard drive and replace the laptop. So I'll be able to recover all my music/photos/files, which is handy, as none of its backed up anywhere!

Still, things are on the up. the magical numbers 12 - 16 have made my day, and so far Scotland are up 9 - 3 against England, which is fabulous.

Last night in the pub i mistakenly took on some bets with work colleagues about this weekends games, I have 10 quid riding on the Italy France game tomorrow (I have Italy, Alan has France) and I had a tenner on the Wales game too (which I have of course won).

First day of Corporate and Business Law today, it was actually relatively interesting and so I am not so concerned about it now. I just need to stay on top of things and make sure my exam technique is good, and I'll be fine. For both exams. So I'm happy about that.

And of course there are kittens and they are (as usual) exceptionally cute. nothing cheers me up quite like cats, I have to admit. Whether they're mine or not!

Which reminds me, the route I use to cycle to town is full of kittens! Sort of 6-8 month old kittens I think, in a variety of colours. There's a ginger one who looks a bit like Elmo, a really friendly black one, another ginger one, a black and white one with longer hair, I spotted a silvery-grey spotty one (similar pattern to the spotty Bengals) today, and a grey and white one. They're all very cute, I always see them pottering about, a few of them are friendly enough to stop and say hello to, but most are wary of the noises my bike makes so wont come too close. But they make me smile on my way to and from work every day (and to and from my courses, because the courses are in the office next door to my work!)

( Fidget )

( Rugby )

Yesterday we did Useful Things, like tidy the bedroom of clothes, and the living room of paper. We meant to do the front room too, but enthusiasm for tidying died so we played Zombies instead. This then put us in the mood for watching Slither, which we duly did and it was very entertaining. Then we watched Brucie's birthday celebration, which put Jamie in the mood to watch the Mask, so we watched that too. I'd forgotten how much that film makes me laugh.

Team P W D L PF PA PTS

1	Wales	3	3	0	103	42	6
2	Ireland	3	2	1	71	50	4
3	France	3	2	1	66	51	4
4	England	3	2	1	66	58	4
5	Italy	3	0	3	38	86	0
6	Scotland	3	0	3	34	91	0

Not that I want to brag or anything, but we're the only team on 3 out of 3.

Still not ready to shout out from the rooftops how we're going to win a Grand Slam, but it does feel strange to be winning again...

47 - 8
that is all

Checked the IRB's world rankings today - Wales have jumped from 10th to 8th, and England have dropped from 4th to 5th.

Hahahahahahaha.

Scotland unfortunately have dropped to 10th, but given their poor performance I think we deserve to have switched places.

In other news, for le Rygbi is not the only thing going on right now in my world...

I

( food/weightloss ramble )

England 19 - Wales 26

in your face, England.

What a good start to the Six Nations. the Ireland v Italy game was fantastic. If only Italy could have scored one more try...

In other news, I made scones. Tasty tasty scones. Mostly to test the new food processor, but also cos I like scones. I made plain ones, and sultana ones. Tomorrow I will make apple and cinammon ones. Yum!

Boo to New Zealand. We lost 40 - 5. Made it to the Plate final though, but lost to South Africa (19 - 12), so we only get 6 points for the weekend. Which means we now only have 8 points in total, which puts us behind everyone apart from USA and the rubbish countries who never win anything.

While New Zealand have won all three tournaments so far, and are now on 60 points...

Ah well, at least we got to a final!

Only a few hours till 6Nations now.. I'm stil all excited.

So, Six nations starts this weekend, but before that, another, just as important competition.

the Sevens tour is in New Zealand this weekend, and Wales have successfully qualified from their group (although as runners up, not outright winners, thanks to Fiji who trounced us 40 -7. Seriously, how do you score 40+ points in ten minutes!) and are facing the hosts, New Zealand in the quarter finals. but the BBC isnt showing any of it. There's a highlights program on Sunday, but thats it.

There doesnt even look to be a correspondent out with the team. The report on the BBC page only appeared at 12pm (20 mins after I emailed Scrum V to complain about their lack of coverage) and says very little. Even the quotes from Paul Turner (Dragons coach who is out there observing the players) were made to the South Wales Argus, and not to the BBC, so their second hand. What kind of shoddy journalism is that!! If the South Wales Argus can send someone to New Zealand, surely the BBC can manage it!

Anyway, England were in Wales's group, and we beat them 15 - 5. which is an auspicious start to the weekend. England lost all three pool games (Fiji and the Cook Islands being the other two teams).

Tonight Wales U20s play England U20s at Kingsholm in Gloucester, but its not being televised as far as I can see. So hopefully we can win that one too.

And then the biggie, Wales v England at Twickenham on Saturday afternoon. So excited. Can't wait. New coaches, interesting team selection on both sides. New era for Welsh rugby perhaps?

Hope we win!

And just to keep everyone in the mood, here's a poem from the Rugby: Poetry in Motion collection:

Steel

I felled a tree
with my bare hands.
I ran through a forest.
I sifted its branches for gold.
No border guard could hold me.

Soon, my country
you will be rich.

Your rivers run through my veins.
Your tides and mountains
swell in my chest.
Your birds of prey
are my arms and legs in flight.
I have fifteen hearts.

Inside this steel frame
the wheels of your valleys
turn again, spin
and catch the sun.

I am steel in flight,
unstoppable -
a dragon with fifteen hearts.

Soon, my country...

Nothing can stop me now

And I'm not all that inclined to talk about much of it.

So I will be brief.

( saturday )

( sunday )

Ok it’s been a whole week since I last wrote anything of any use on here. It seems that I don’t have as much time for Live Journal as I once did – is this a sign of me having a more interesting life, or am I just finding new and interesting ways to waste time?

Anyway, I keep thinking of things I ought to write about on here, but never getting round to it. So here goes for a proper, probably long-winded account of my life over the last however long it’s been. Apologies for length, I have cut and categorized to try and make it easier for you to read.

( In which Tinks complains about her job )

( In which Tinks is ill )

( In which Tinks reads books )

( In which Tinks watches films )

( In which Tinks talks about the rugby )

Hmm not much else to add now, save that Jamie is off to murder players at the Spring Event this weekend, leaving me much to my own devices. Gyms and swimming pools will no doubt fill much of my time, as will Rome: Total War which I am still enjoying playing. On Saturday I drive to Cambridge to visit Mr Beaver, which could go either way really. I’m hoping it will be pleasant and nice and we’ll be able to have a decent conversation about stuff, without having to worry about saying the wrong thing or anything like that. Of course, the main reason for the visit is to get the rest of my stuff, my Discworld books and some stuffed toys I accidentally left behind at the flat in Chester when I moved all my things. But it will be nice to see him again, and see his new house and things. And to see what his new kit is like. And the drive will be fun, except for the M25 bit.

Right I’m off into town to go meet Jamie for lunch and stuff. I have said more than enough for one post, I think!

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Over at the Frankenstein Place - Rocky Horror Picture Show

I am so glad its the weekend. Work has been particularly annoying this week - a combination of not having very much to do, people being crap and one of my workmates having lots of emotional stress in my general direction.

Weekend off in the rugby this weekend, so we've acquired on DVD all 5 of Wales's Grand Slam winning games from last year's Six Nations, and are watching them. We watched the 11-9 win over England (a very very bad game of rugby) last night, and we just finished watching the Italy game (38-8 what a victory!). Its all going to get very exciting later when we watch the France game, cos that was a very exciting match.

Jamie's just gone to work, so I don't really know what to do with myself for the next hour or so. Andy and Kieran are still in bed - they were both out late last night. Fortunately, unlike last weekend, neither of them arrived home doing impersonations of herds of elephants, so it didnt wake us up.

I can't wait to get out of here and into a house where its just me and Jamie - roll on the summer!

Thinks I might go for a short jog to the post box to post the letters I've been meaning to post for days. And then I think I'll have a shower, or go back to bed. One or the other.

What a fantastic day. Cardiff was great, not raining, only took us an hour and a half to get there. Free carparking. Free tickets to the game. Brand new official replica shirts. New crazy hat with bells on.

And we convincingly beat Scotland. Awesome.

I'm all bouncy its very cool.

Current Mood: ecstatic

Okay, so I don't post on here as much as I used to...

Lets see, whats happened recently:

Rugby! Six Nations started in earnest. Saturday was pretty much given over to the rugby, we watched Ireland vs Italy here, then raced to the pub to watch Wales vs England. Game was good, marred only by three things:

Wales lost.
There was a complete twat of an English fan in the pub who was a) obviously ex-public school boy b) didn't know anything about rugby c) extremely loud/racist/offensive towards the Welsh (of whom there were a fair number in the pub).
Jamie and I got very very drunk and (Jamie in particular) were rather unwell. This resulted in bad moods and arguing and stuff.

Sunday was nice and sedate, we had a lie in, went to the supermarket, watched an awesome game of rugby (Scotland vs France).

Rest of this week has been fairly normal, except the servers in Jamie's office broke because of some stupid guy fixing the lifts, so he had two days off work, which wasnt good as he has had loads of stuff going on in work that he needed to be there for.

Yesterday evening, Jamie and I went to the South Reading Leisure Centre, for our gym inductions. A lovely Austrian man gave us forms to fill in, took our money, took terrible photos of us to put on our membership cards, and showed us how to use all the equipment. I was a little scared and nervous cos I'd never been to a gym before, but it was nice. It wasn't too busy there, as there weren't that many people about. None of the machines are complicated, and its all good. After he finished showing us how to use everything, we stayed for a bit longer and did a bit of exercise, but not too much. On Tuesday next week we're going to have fitness assessments done, to see how unhealthy we really are, and to help us work out an exercise plan. All I need to do really is get my general fitness levels up, and lose the slightly wobbly belly I seem to have developed.

The gym membership is actually very good, we're paying 21 quid a month, which gets us unlimited access to 3 Fitness Factory gyms (two of which are within walking distance of our house) and 7 swimming pools, as well as free access to all the group exercises e.g. aerobics classes. And free fitness assessments in the gym. How cool is that.

We're aiming for getting all fit and stuff in time for the start of LRP season. Its going to be cool.

I'm not going to bother with extensive whinging about my job etc now, cos i'm in a pretty good mood and I dont want to spoil it. I have the day off tomorrow, as I am off to hospital in the morning for my consultation with the orthodontist, about the removal of my wisdom teeth. My appointment is at 10.10am, but apparently I have to go to X-ray first, and it says to go there at least an hour before your appointment. however, it then says they wont take another x-ray if your dentist took one in the last 6 months, and i have the one my dentist took at the start of december, so do i need to go to x-ray at all? I'm confused. I guess I'll go to x-ray anyway, and then sit around with a book and my mp3 player until my appointment. it does give me the rest of the day off to do useful things that i otherwise dont have the time to do (don't ask me what they are, I dont know).

Current Mood: bouncy

hehe its dress down day in work today, so I decided to wear my new Wales shirt, since its the start of the six nations tomorrow.

Ben (the support admin guy) is wearing an England shirt. He's been giving me dirty looks all day. So I've draped my Wales scarf over my monitor, and created a great rugby orientated picture for my desktop (its a collage of the welsh flag, the WRU three feathers, two pics of the Wales team celebrating at the end of the six nations last year, one of Colin Charvis scoring a try against the All Blacks and one of Gavin Henson running rings around some English chappy.

Hehe.

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Will I ever recover?
A Good Day.
*ahem*
*yawn*
So, more disasters..
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*ahem*
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Wahoo!
woo!
Sevens
RUGBY! YAY!
lots of stuff happened this weekend
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28 - 18!!!
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Entries tagged with six nations

Will I ever recover?

A Good Day.

ahem

yawn

So, more disasters..

(no subject)

ahem

(no subject)

(no subject)

Wahoo!

woo!

Sevens

RUGBY! YAY!

Steel

lots of stuff happened this weekend

(no subject)

weekend

28 - 18!!!

stuff update

(no subject)

Profile

July 2011

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