08/04/2009 by Russell.

Here are some snapshots.

The pic of me with my bronze man is a survisor of 9/11….more on this to follow.

Berlin was t-shirt weather, but the evenings cool.  I found the museum of the resistance to the Third Reich in a small museum.  It was very detailed of how the German population really objected to Hitler and his cronies, one notable name amongst 20th century leaders was a young Wily Brandt.  He conducted his campaign from Norway of all places against Hitler.  There was of  course Von Staffenbergs attempt to assassinate Hitler with a bomb (a recent fim documents this event starring Tom Cruise) Von Staffenberg’s office was here aliong with the courtyard where he was shot.  Over 600 people were arrested in response to the assassination attempt. Tragic.  It was a free museum with narrative, beat that British Museum!

Tired now.

my boys lost the final game of the season 7-2, heads were down after a long seaason, but we probably scored our goal of the season, a determined run and cross by Louis and Ben hit it on the volley over his shoulder, great goal, pulling us back to 2-2, then in a blink it was 3-2, downhill from there…

Off to OT tonight for the Champions League versus Porto, c’mon United.

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29/01/2009 by Russell.

What a day, my father had a great send off. over 100 people turned out to say farewell to my father, and I am grateful for those who came along. Imet and chatted to people from my village -Wingerworth - whom I hadn’t seen in years and years. Don of Lydgate farm (now a housing estate), Peter Normans father, John Radford (father of Andrew) and many others who I can’t even remember.  But also, was a bit of a family re-union, seeing some cousins I hadn’t seen since the 1970’s -wow! what a lovely time, then there was Peter, Ian, Karen And Suzanne, the children of Jean and the late Brian Young, wonderful to see them.

Of course it was great to see such friends as Kevin and Anne make the journey from Buckinghamshire to attend the funeral - friends indeed.

A sad but joyous day for seeing so many acquintances, and of course great thanks to Barry and Peter for coming along from Congleton. What a lucky person to have such comrades in arms. Over the past year I have felt alone and it is only now I have found that i do have friends, I have felt this way because of what trauma I have created for the family unit.

Love to Phillip, Kirsten, Emily, and Gregory  and Christine, the day would have been soulless without you there to share his day.  Also Brenda suffered enough with my father, just hope she can get out on the Moors soon.

On the day, i thought I would never make the speech and Barry was there to talk it through, (see post below) courage, or fortitude, i don’t know - but it all flowed as i wanted to remember my father, it was his last stand in the public eye, so I wanted it to count.  God what do you do now your parents have both died? it certainly is a strange experience, they have been there, always there, but now its not a family of three,  it’s a family of just 1………..

So long Dad, enjoy your reunion with Mum

On a positive note, 26th January  also a date when Bruce released his latest CD, what better accompanyment to drive home with eh?

Posted in Buckinghamshire, Wingerworth, Kirsten, Emily, Leslie Preston, Grandad, dad, Phillip, Greg, Uncategorised | Print | No Comments »

01/12/2008 by Russell.

Cor blimey!

Its all downhill to Christmas, have already seen snow and ice, which is a bit of a rareity before Christmas.
Whats been happenin?

Been to London, HRH was out, had to pull my blog on my tv appearance on Eggheads.  The prog is to be aired in March 2009,  suffice to say I played like a turnip and apart from that I contravened my confidentiality statement..can see me on  facebook though lol!

My boys team have only won twice this season, and we are losing 8-6, or 7-5, 0r 6-4, we are so close to many victories, but can’t turn such performances into wins.

Greg is now so keen on shooting he’s off to joing the army cadets - oh my goodness, we had to go ‘cherche’  a bullet down Portobello Road market.  So we came up with an AK47 round. (Not live), and found Banksy pic for Emily’s boyfriend.

Not seen much of United this season, have seen Champions League and an odd league game, so hopefully will get across to see them play Sunderland with Bazil.

My Dad, is now in his third month in a Nursing Home in Clay cross, to be honest it smells, they have had a change of ownership, and it really isn’t my cup of tea, but for my Dad its the safest place for him with all his bladder-kidney-legs-cancer etc.  He is making a fist of it.  It is like a death camp, except no-one knows when the executioner will arrive. No-one leaves except my dad on his zimmer to get out and about.  He has to be out, there is no social interaction, no-one able to be communicate or share a game of cards or even Uno.

he puts on a brave face, Brenda  had to regain her sanity, but my dad wouldn’t be where he is now without Brenda’s efforts. i am just a visitor into his life.

Phillip is out there doing stuff when he can, been to Amsterdam on busines already..but does Accountancy grab him?

Then there is me, work, work and a flipin knee ligament injury for 3 weeks. Hobble hobble, no 5 a -side i guess until after Christmas..bck to where I started.

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16/07/2008 by Russell.

Me and the gang are off to Agadir, Morocco, today for 2 weeks. All week the weather on the BBC says ‘rain’ - can you believe it? Another web site says its sun all the way..Either way I have just packed trunks and a beach towel.

Over the past 6 months I have had the pleasure of visiting Berlin (February), Shanghai (March), Venice (April) and Milan for the day in July. The world is out there and it has to be seen.

Shanghai was a trip of a life time, how the Chinese are moving forward is incredible, buildings, cars, shops and of course fakes. Our party of students enjoyed many aspects of the visits, from factory floor visits to seeing silk being made from cocoons, You can see these experiences on you tube - search for rustycarno - and you will see many videos clips.

As for Venice, expensive and can be seen in a day. Top tip - Do not eat in St Marks Sq, unless you are wealthy. Better still don’t eat at all, all restaurants are expensive, who said pasta was cheap.

Bruce was back in town and had my father not been ill - I would have gone to Cardiff to see him for the third time on the tour. Absolutely spot on.

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26/03/2008 by Russell.

Hectic comes to mind when thinking about the year so far.

January passed by without too much effort, a highlight being United beating Arsenal 4-0.

But come February, Berlin was on the agenda. I have been here before, but the visits to KPM porcelain factory and BMW were worth the time taken to visit these factories. KPM procelain is so exclusive, they export to the new found wealth in China - coals to Newcastle and all that. The students werereasonably behaved, late nights are the norm, but all participated well in the organised events. The hotel was next door to a sex shop, aswell as three others in the vicinity, all students paid them a visit, and came out more wiser. Stayed on an extra night with my colleague David, we were so naughty we thought we’d go to a strip club ( never been to one before) for the experience, well there were three girls and us two….yup, nothing happened, no strip, only girls on the game - can’t be bothered with that rubbish, so after one drink we departed..however compared to Shanghai, our hotel had girls on the game in the bar area and in the massage area, now that wasn’t expected.

Shanghai, long flight, and a lot to do on our schedule. the Bund was (river light show) only lit up at the weekends, because of an energy shortage in China. this was incrdible to imagine beforehand, projections at least 300feet high on to the sides of buildings (skyscrapers).

The old market (refurbished) was pleasant until you saw Starbucks on the scene.

The Silk factory was excellent, fashion show wasn’t much cop, but the silk bedding was excellent, so much so, Nick my colleague and i are thinking about importing them, the mark-up is excellent.

The trip on the river beforehand was not particularly scenic, but the smells coming from the water were interesting to say the least, now who’d wash their clothes in that? not I, but the chinese do.

Everywhere we went, we were always seen as easy prey for fake goods, beggers or dealing in the cheap street trading which is commonplace.

Ah fake goods…the students enjoyed the wheeler dealing of haggling with the traders. Yours truly also found the dealing part interesting and part realisation that you were being taken for a ride.

Are my Ray Bans fake? who knows, everythng looked legitimate even down to the after care booklet, but my Patek Philipe watch is fake..

Our next vist was to Bosideng a factory known for its raincoats, although we saw only dresses being made, 900 machinists on one floor, 6 to a room in their accommodation, we brits wouldn’t cope with that, all this shift work for around 150-200 pounds a month (accomodation and food included)

All our visits were accompanied by Sammi - who was on duty with us from9-11pm at night, she made it all very worthwhile, the food she ordered was superb, all for around £4 pp, even went withNick and myself for a foot massage…wow - you should try it.

.

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03/01/2008 by Russell.

What’s going on? 2008 and moving on, new year resolutions/wishes come quick and fast and get forgotten about.

Here goes

For my Dad an easy time of it in hospital over the next 12 weeks with his Chemotherapy

For me? to be determined to grit my teeth, bite my tongue and try to take each day as a new challenge - and to use the cross trainer everyday for 6 months so it becomes habit.

For Greg - to be more determined and to try as hard to be the best he can be.

For Emily - to be my beautiful daughter again who wants to see her Dad

For Kirsten - to be my beautiful daughter and give her dad a cuddle

For Phillip - to achieve at least a 2:1 and to tell me about it and talk to me

For Barry - to shout at me what he really means

For BB - to be happy

For Christine -to never forget

For Kevin - to be solid as a rock

For Gary & Dinah - to remember

For Strides U13s to get promoted with more players

For Peter - to take time to see me before May

Above all for everyone to healthy and to help each other.

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24/12/2007 by Russell.

What a month. The boys have played two games so far - each with 9 versus 11, and we have yet to lose, again we should have won a pulsating 5-5 draw, but it wasn’t to be. We were up 3-0 inside 15mins.

great firewoerks in the park we had some great rockets and other fireworks. I love my fireworks. Celebration launch attended by Greg and Barbora

Graduation at the College was a happy occasion and we received a letter at the college this week from a parent who mentioned my name in despatched which was a tonic.

Have seen ‘Once’ which was a great little movie based in Ireland, music and a honely story. it isn’t on general release,so look out for it in Blockbuster next Spring.

At the moment I don’t know where I am going, or if I will still be around in a sane sense. I have no sense of purpose except the realisation I have hurt many people and can’t shake that in some respects. It seems I am looking for something which never existed. Or does it exists and I have yet to unlock it?

As some of my readers know - haven’t been up the road to OT for a while now, and thanks to Pete he manages to sell my tickets. The next fixtures are rather awkward, Monday night versus Fulham….erm not quite apealing is it?

My Dad is still keeping the wolf from the door as much as I am containing the wolf here.

Have just paid my summons taday for council tax, am spitting over that one.

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07/10/2007 by Russell.

Who’d have believed it? “We’ve only got 9 men..we’ve only got 9 men” and we won 4-2.

We played with good Discipline, Loius scored a good first goal although he fouled the opponent to get the ball. Our captain Ben contributed a hat-trick, our other Ben had the goal of the game disallowed, a cross after a mazy dribble by Greg. Courageous Keiran, ran the defence with able support from Will, who played a captains role in defence. All in all a great team performace by all 9, even Themor did his job in goal.

As for other things, United capped a fine second half performance.

Greg and I had some open words, but at the core of all this was XBox 360 usage. It was open discussion, and upon my return I had a response top my Blog from my greatest friend which just made me realise what i have done, it has taken until this time for the wake-up call to which I was very much beside myself.

I hope I can improve.

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27/09/2007 by Russell.

Well , well, well…….time flies and already the holiday is long gone.  Time to start blogging again.

Got a chq from my Dad and that was about it, Greg sang a chorus f ‘Happy birthday etc…etc…’ and that’s about as far as it got.

A bit grim, disappointing my kids couldn’t take the time to phone, email etc in todays information highway.  I guess that’s my punishment.

Have had happier birthdays.  Always used to cry at my birthday as a kid, thought I’d grown out of that, but my colleague at work was on hand to guide me through my melancholic moment.

Whats new? BB is cheeesed off with me because i sit on the fence.  I can’t guarantee anything.

Work, in the routine, but do I want routine?  All I have is questions and no answers….

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11/08/2007 by Russell.

Arrived at the posh Sheraton hotel at our final destination.  A self contained shopping street outside the studio we will visit on Saturday.

Have been up to Universal for a stroll and found ‘Bubba Gumps’ and an 18 screen cinema, we might go to the movies on our final night.  We can watch Harry Potter on an IMAX here.

Earlier today we visited a Hollywood cemetry, couldn’t find Edward G Robinson or Peter Lorre, but saw Cecil B deMille, Johnny Ramone and Jane Mansfield.  Strolled Hollywood and found Rodeo Drive, Have got a map of all the celeb’s addresses which we will check out on Sunday morning, we have found Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Angeline Jolie, MM,  John Wayne, Steven Spielberg are among the A list celebs homes we will visit.

This might be the last post before returning home, our expensive Internet willrun out by the time we have finished at Universal.  We shall do the tour of the sets aswell as the Mummy experience , Back Draft and of course Shrek.

E and G in great spirits, will go tothe studio before breakfast again to get a good full and final day.

If we organise ourselves properly with the freeways we hope to have a closer view of ‘HOLLYWOOD’ sign.

Goodbye Hollywood

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