One Month Down

I'm running through a forest. I'm running away from something - but I'm not sure what. I keep stumbling over tree stumps and tree branches are lashing me in the face, cutting new cuts and deepening old ones. I know my legs are below me - how else would I be getting anywhere? - but I can't feel them and have to rely on guesswork as to where I'm putting my feet. Something warms breathes down my neck like the heat from the back of a city bus. I recognise the pungent smell but I can't quite place it - I've smelt it before, I know I have. Then I see the end of the forest, the light in the distance slashed by the trees that stand between me and potential freedom. My legs are still going, somehow, and my heart seems to be the only thing in my body that is functioning - how many beats per minute is normal? The edge gets closer yet still seems so far away, the pungent smell and warmth of a thousand ovens still close behind me. Then I burst out of the forest into the daylight. It's raining but I'm sodden from my own sweat and tears so I hardly notice. As I stumble to a stop I turn instinctively to look back into the deep darkness that lays behind me. But nothing is there, just the rustle of the trees in the soft wind and a few broken branches that I left in my wake.

Hazard by name...

If last night's incident at the Liberty Stadium wasn't odd enough to watch, today I find myself agreeing with Pat Nevin - now that is odd. I went to bed thinking about Eden Hazard's alleged kick on the Swansea ball-boy and I was greeted with the same thoughts this morning as I made my customary cycle through the news channels. I'll say at the outset of this post that I'm on Hazard's side. This is mostly down to the fact I'm a Chelsea fan but that's not the only reason - I would probably be on the side of most footballers in this situation. The main reason why I feel very strongly about this is because of the reaction and the type of person that the boy (although at 17 he would have to pay an adult fare on my local bus) portrayed himself as.

Firstly, let me explain why I agree with Nevin. I don't particularly like the guy; in fact, I find him to be a particularly annoying pundit. It should also be noted, for those less aware of football in general, that Nevin is himself of the Chelsea fraternity - maybe take what he says with a pinch of salt. Here's what he said:

 

Yes he's got a slightly annoying, whiny voice but what the basic part of what he said is true. The boy shouldn't have been rolling around on the ground. Hazard did not try and kick the guy (he's all grown up now) who was meant to be doing the simple job of returning the ball the goalkeeper. I heard a football agent's view on this earlier who first of all noted that at 17 you shouldn't be a ball-boy. After all, ball-man sounds just wrong. Secondly, he said that it shouldn't be up to him to make the decision to time-waste in such a game. Granted Chelsea were getting nowhere, but Hazard wanted to keep pushing and, as a Chelsea fan, I can only commend him for that. In fact it might have been a breath of fresh air if the whole team had showed a little bit of fight last night.

I got side-tracked with a dig at my team's poor performance last night but I'll quickly sum up what I'm trying to argue here because I need to get on with something else. Hazard shouldn't have got himself involved - that's a given - but he did and so what happened is a reality. Yes, he should get a 3 game ban for violent conduct; if he'd kicked a Swansea player then I wouldn't expect anything less. However, the ball-boy acted disgracefully and I don't have any qualms about sticking up for Hazard who has received more bad press this morning than David Cameron has since his speech on Europe over a day ago. Pretty impressive for someone who was just trying to do his job - Hazard that is, not Cameron. Also, a note on the ages of the two involved. As I've noted, the ball-boy is 17. Hazard himself is only 22 - only a year or two older than me. It's not like he kicked a 10 year old now is it?

Sorry this post was brief and biased and everything that is wrong about the Internet culture but I've got to get away and I just had to get that off of my finger tips before I exploded!

Thanks for reading,

Martin

I Can't Get No Satisfaction

One of the weirdest parts of my recent essay writing was the prevalent fear of plagiarism. There was this constant guilt that I was writing something that I hadn't come up with but when I read over things again I had given everyone the credit they deserved and the only times I hadn't was when it was a 'commonly known fact'. I found that phrase before I properly started writing to make sure that I was footnoting everything and everyone that I should, while also being very wary of avoiding footnoting everything. 'OH! I've used a full-stop, who was the first person to ever use a full stop?' - you get the picture. Oddly enough, this post is not even about plagiarism but the fact that I used a Rolling Stones lyric as my title got me thinking about it. So I'm going to give them the credit they deserve by putting the song below. It also means that you can listen to it as you read the rest of this ramble!

The End is in Sight

What a difference a week makes. I was sitting on this very chair this time last week worrying about the fact that I only had one essay finished, another getting there and one that wasn't even started. I now sit here with 2 done and one more following not far behind and that's a good feeling. I probably shouldn't be writing this tonight because some of my peers will read this thinking that they've got a little way to go yet - but I have my reasons. Firstly I didn't fancy doing any substantial work on the day of my deadline because I think that would result in an ironic death by stress. I've also got an all day shift on Sunday at work and I couldn't bare the thought of spending all day in a supermarket worrying about my essays while everyone went on with their lives, buying crap they don't need - if anyone asks I didn't say that.