NFL at Wembley, London...

It’s been almost a week. I need to break the silence.


Last Sunday Liz and I went to Wembley Stadium to watch the New England Patriots beat the Tampa Bay Buccaneers 35 – 7. The whole event, from start to finish, was just brilliant… and that’s apart from the fact that two tickets that should have cost £280 cost us £50.


We had some of the best seats in the house- the halfway line divided Liz and I in two. Our seats were the row in front of the box seats (which are surely the best seats in the house?) and had padded seats with arm rests and cup holders. The box behind us was the BBC Sport studio, where Jake Humphreys and Lee Dixon were sat (JH is a Formula 1 correspondent and LD is an ex-England international soccer player and commentator) so we got to “meet” them. We had a group of Americans who had flown from NE to support the Pats and hi-fived us whenever they scored. We had a gig with one of the UK’s biggest groups beforehand and had Toni Braxton singing the USA national anthem. We had footlong hotdogs and beer. It. Was. AMAZING!


All that without even touching on the game, the atmosphere, the buzz of being at a live game.


Only one disappointment. There was a festival going on outside the Stadium that we had access to, but we got there too late to go into “Tailgate” –which we had VIP tickets for. There were concerts, food, and a chance to meet the hoes… sorry, cheerleaders (they really do move and look like I’d imagine strippers to move and look).


Apart from that it felt like the complete game- even got to see Tom Bradys MASSIVE head a few times (seriously- check out his forehead).

Photo’s are DEFINITELY to follow! Or you can check out my facebook page!

Crackdowns and Smackdowns...

ALERT: There’s been a crack down at work- where for “security” reasons all conceivable “fun” websites have been blocked other than blog and shopping sites. Working in the male dominated construction industry, this has led to outrage that sport can no longer be read.

This is a mockery of 2 basic principals of productivity:
a) That you’re most productive with a 15 minute break every hour… there is now no reason to break because we can’t do anything with it;
b) That if you block websites, people will take half an hour trying to find a way into it, rather that a few minutes check every hour- leading to people trying, fruitlessly, for longer periods to access information, leading to an even more intense level of frustration and even less productivity.

This equates to any readers, probably, hearing a lot more from me.

Recent blogging thoughts: that this could easily turn out to be a log of recent injuries rather than anything interesting.

Let us take the last month as a good starting point. I have started my first season of competitive football (soccer) since a couple of years back. My first game; I got the blisters (last post, see below) that crippled my walking ability for a week. Second game; in the first half I put in a crunching slide tackle, causing a bigger man than I to land on my back. This caused a huge amount of pain, and for about a week and a half my lovely wife had to do just about everything around the house for me. 5 weeks out as a result. Last Saturday; my comeback game. I headed the ball in an odd way, leading to a neck injury!

As none of these stories are fun/ caused by anything that will cause laughter, there seems little point expanding. Needless to say, my body will be grateful for the 2 weeks rest it’s getting while Liz and I go away for our anniversary!

Right now, soccerly speaking of course, it’s 3 wins out of 3- not a bad start to a falteringly stuttering football career.

Peace out… And if any medics want to become friends or move to my local area, please let me know on phil@injuryproneman.com*

Oh, to establish the injury-proneness here’s an interesting fact:

I’ve dislocated my left should 9 times and had 2 operations on it. There are 6 bolts in my arm now and thanks to my original surgeon (Mr Rowntree- oh yes, I’m naming and shaming) they can’t be sure if my first 3 bolts are metal or plastic- which means I can never go into an MRI Scanning machine because there’s potential that 3 bolts could shoot out of my shoulder.

I think it all started when I started walking- I was fine when I was about 1 and a half years old.

Up next- Footballly speaking and Unclely speaking…


*This email address is FAKE- please to not try and follow me to Spain** to try and fix my problems.
** This is a fake address- I’m not giving away my location that easily.