matt's online diary thing

[matt]

ok this wont be entirely about football, as you may know football is not my only sport and i no longer play for a team. so this will be like some sorta random diary i will update every so often.

saturday 5 november

this morning, i went to a match for the junior side (under 10s) who i am helping out as part of my d of e service. its top versus bottom, our team yet to win a game, although they seem to be gradually improving. their manager looks like he was in the US marines. and he shouts like it to, except without the acccent.

the first half was more even than i expected. we went in with the score at 2-0 to them. it would have been three had it not been for some heroic goalkeeping and a free-kick that smacked the underside of the crossbar and somehow stayed out. one of them is nearly as tall as me. he plays and looks like an urak-hai from lord of the rings.

sadly, they play with a rather aggressive style, too physical than what i would like to see from an under-10 side - too many fouls, pushing, shirt-tugging.

the second half began brightly enough, one of 'our star players' shooting a few inches over. but then came the massacre. we concede 4 goals in 5 minutes and it's game well and truly over. a few minutes left and they get one more. 7-0. still searching for that elusive win........

[Futbolstud]

lol i like that post it was amuzing do you coach them or what do you do for the team?

[peps1154]

Yeah interesting post it makes u feel as if u were watching the game, too bad u guys didn't win, and I would also be interested to know what u do for the team.THX.

[matt]

well basically i turn up to their training and help out with the warm-up, help the coach set up various training drills...occaisonally i take part, but i am literally double their height, i nearly trampled one of them once..

it's good fun, but one of them is a little spoilt and he cries A LOT

anyway....

sunday 6th november

played with some friends for an hour or two in terrential rain. great fun though.....its sounds kinda crap cos all of you play in teams but this is friendly yet competitive enough for all of us to improve...... so i really enjoy going. my dad wasnt too impressed when i nearly flooded the kitchen upon my return....oh well.

went to nets (indoor cricket training) in the evening. such good fun as well. although you could practically see the rust falling off me.....not my best performance, although i did execute a perfect inswinging yorker, bowling out a batsmans middle stump.

spent the majority of the weekend revising for my GCSE Mocks....joy. wish me luck guys....

[matt]

thursday 10th november

yesterday was the first basketball practice of the season. there were only five of us, including the teacher, so we did some lay-up and shooting drills before playing a game. it felt really good to be dribbling a basketball again after six months without playing, so everyone is rusty. my shooting during the game was particularly woeful - some went right over the backboard, others sailed pathetically underneath.

mock exams are not going well. history and english were ok, drama could have been worse, and statistics was fine........but maths.......because it is so hard the grade boundaries should be relatively low, so i should get a B, which i would be reasonably happy with as a final grade. but its just so damn difficult, it really doesnt do any good for your confidence. must revise harder.

[matt]

friday 11th - wednesday 16th november

ok so we had training for the under-10s on saturday, which was quie good, the coach putting them through some passing and moving drills. i laid out the cones. joy.

got some of my mock results back. A in History, Maths (somehow!) and Statistics, and B in D + T Food. so not too bad it turns out. still to come: English, English Literature and Drama, two long, lots-of-writing exams. but traditionally, amongst the easier ones so not too worried.

had the second basketball practice. as with my football these days, my problems are shooting (and crossing as well for football). i seem to be dribbling ok, passing is fine, but as soon as i get within 20 yards of goal or basket, i lose all control. i missed abot 10 shots from inside the key. gutted. and i cant seem to keep my crossing consistent for some reason. it will eventually come back to me with practice, i think i need to take more time.

science modules tomorrow. the hardest chemistry test i have ever done. wish me luck. at this rate nothing short of a miracle will get me an A.

[matt]

thursday 17th to thursday 24th november

jst about survived science modules. although i am much less confident about them than any of the others i have done.

new series of little britain!! i find it hilarious, many others dont it seems. although i cant see why.

saturday's scheduled game for the under 10s was cancelled due to the pitch being frozen solid because of the frost. so it became a make-shift training session. more fun and games for those taking part, and i am getting better at laying out cones.

sunday night was nets (cricket), i batted quite well but only took the one wicket, a beauty of a delivery which was bowled at pace (don't blonk, you'll miss it.....), pitched on middle and leg, and somehow swung back onto leg stump. get in!

basketball on wednesday. this time there were 11 of us which made for a good game, i finally got some time playing gurad/ball-carrier, which is my prefferred position.

wednesday night was also five-a-side football with my dad and his friends, which sounds kinda lame but it is actually immensely enjoyable. i score about 3 or 4 each time, and set up numerous chances, but since they are all over 40 they often struggle to keep up. but it is played in a friendly yet competitive atmosphere, so the standard of football is about right for me.

today at school was a PSHE day, on mental health, HIV/AIDs and personal statements. it was quite interesting, but not as fun as previous days.

[Sputnik]

nice diary, v gd idea. ur lifes so intersting lol gd luk wiv da modulars

[matt]

friday 25th to monday 28th november

not much happened on friday. apart from george best's death. did you know he died before his father? i would hate it if my son died before me.

saturday morning football for theunder 10s did not go well. the final score was 0-7. they were 0-3 down in five minutes, 0-5 at half time. and it was sooooooo cold, i hated being a linesman

that night my mum had organised a quiz night to raise money for the pakistan earthquake appeal. it was a loooong night, but quite good fun for a worthwhile cause.

nets on sunday night was not good. i got out six times, but i took three wickets as well. not my best performance by a long shot.

monday i had a french spekaing coursework tape, which actually went pretty well. i also cooked some gulab jaman (an indian desert, made with pistachio nuts stuffed into a sweet dough and dipped in syrup - very nice!)[/i]

[Piccadilly]

I like this diary, keep it up, i am interested in how life is in other parts of the world and just an idea of how it is similar and different from mine, england sounds like an interesting place and i would like to come sometime, in case anyone's interested (no one is, i know) but i will keep one of what my life is like here in the states. i would have started about a month ago but my soccer season hasnt started STILL because the only indoor field that our team can use had the roof fall down so i dont even know half of my team yet and nothing interesting aside from soccer has happened lately.

[matt]

Monday 28th November to Monday 5th December

So...the week in a few words.....well I took surprisingly good pleasure from watching the England cricket team get wolloped by Pakistan on Saturday....I love wathcing them lose because it's always so spectacular....actually Saturday was a good day, Arsenal lost to Bolton 2-0, United won 3-0.....even Cambridge United managed a 2-1 victory at home to Scarborough. And the Under 10s won 3-1!!!!!! Very funny indeed.

Thursday was the German tape which did not go as well unfortunately. I kept forgetting huge chunks of it, and the word order was messed up 'Diese Woche werde ich nichts kaufen, weil jetzt ich arm bin' took 4 attempts

Looked on Expertfootball and was very pleasantly surprised to see my name up for an award....thank you to all who nominated & voted....good luck to all who were nominated.

Tuesday, in the gym, basketball again on Wednesday. Again a good turn-out, it was a good game.

Also, we got to choose our plays for our Drama Scripted performance. My group is doing 'Alota-Chocolota', a farce in the style of some famous play, Comedia d'ell Arte or something. I play 'the noble Arlechino'. Great fun!!!

So it was a pretty good week. I was in a decent mood right through to Friday - until I got an unjust detention from my pedantic biology teacher. So annoyed.

Oh yea, I missed nets on Sunday because I had to watch my sister's ballet production thingy. Some of the younger kids did actually crack me up, they didnt have a clue where they were supposed to be.

[matt]

It's been a while since I did this.....I'll just do a brief summary of the last month, I don't have the time nor the memory to go into too much detail..........

Let's see.....December was fun, went to a few parties for various birthdays (including mine! ) which were all good.......went to a fancy dress christmas party as well, I went as a Christmas Tree, my mum put some old decorations on a green bin bag and sewed a fairy onto my hat.........very convincing, I assure you.......unfortunately I havent played cricket in a while, I should be going tomorrow though........um went to Daventry for New Years par-tay........we have had two days of school so far and I am shattered.........I'm going to go have a nap as soon as I get off the computer.........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[matt]

Once again it has been too long since I updated this thing.....I finally have a half-decent connection and some time to kill so here goes.

You'll be fascinated to know I am sure that the Under10s are doing spectacularly..........badly. After a one-game winning streak, they lost 3-0, won 4-3 and then lost 6-1 at home. But do not despair, it is beginning to get warmer and they seem to be actually RUNNING occassionally now. I was asked by the manager if I would be interested in douing a course in refereeing, as the league is a bit short. My initial reaction was "NO!" however I gave it some thought and was about to accept when I realised that the training course clashes with an important Parents Evening at school. Bugger.

School has been a dreadful bore. We are supposed to be preparing for our language mock speaking exams, but sadly our inexperienced German teacher knows less about it than we do. Maths coursework has come and gone since I last posted in here, and our English teacher was taken ill for some time and we have had the great misfortune of the worst cover lessons and substitute teachers imaginable. The (un)aptly named Mr. Jolly was the pick of the bunch, who at one point had the class in such a stupour of boredom that time itself seemed to stand still.

But it is not all bad news: we recieved our results from the Incredibly Hard Science Modules I may have mentioned earlier......two As and one A*!!!! Most pleasing.............I also got a date for the Leavers Ball AND we took a school trip to London to see the Blue Man Group. If you live in Enlgand and you are reading this, I strongly urge you to go and see it, it is well worth the trip/money.

It is certainly good to see that the site remains strong; expert, once again, has excelled himself, as has jdefoe, cfrealmadrid and Sputnik. Keep up the good work everyone!

One last thing - those of you who have sent me pms asking for my opinions on various subjects, feel free to post them here, make my topic look more popular.....any publicity is good publicity, as the saying goes......Good-byeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

[Horris]

good luck to the under 10s for their next game, i am doing a similar thing with a local under 9s side whoch is turning out really good, i would recomend you try to take the reffereeing course as i just did it and i thought it was great and am now considering taking the next one so i can ref higher level games.

but the otherday when i was doing my game i really embarresed myself by falling over a kid as i started to run backwards

[matt]

I'm not sure - even when I watch the games I want to play instead! I have a recurring nightmare where I referee a game and suddenly forget myself and tackle a kid and score. The kid is seriously hurt and everyone yells at me......wow I have weird dreams.........