When they signed Tevez and Mascherano I said to a mate West Ham would challenge for trophies. His dad replied 'They'll mess it up, they're West Ham'. How right he was.

Great read. So much more hope with Southend these days. As the piece says, it's great that fans can worry about normal things again. Now it's moaning about results rather than whether the club will exist in a week.

@didau.bsky.social hi David, I've got a question about marking for SPaG research. I was wondering if I could message you about it.

Such a good film but not sure I'll ever watch it again.

Just catching up on Traitors and I'm glad to say I knew how many characters die in Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet. Justifying being an English teacher.

That's awful. Hope you've been able to process it.

Ah mate, that's so lovely but sad. I still remember our miscarriage so vividly and it still upsets me thinking about it, despite having 2 healthy kids. A mad thing is that I didn't take any time off work (my choice) despite being told by my boss that it was ok to grieve; in hindsight I should've.

Best non-fiction book I read in 2024.

Put that on the cover.

What's annoying about this is this need to have everything all of the time. Like, instead of growing the economy in other, more sustainable ways, we just resort to opening up everything 24/7. Whereas it's actually ok and beneficial to be restricted in certain ways. It creates a want for that thing.

Amazing book.

I feel as sorry for him as I did for an ex-girlfriend who after dumping me said it was really difficult for her to deal with.

My son has brought a new reading book home.

This is fantastic. The Cheers title cards are imprinted into my brain so it's great to find out where they're from.

I suppose it doesn't matter in terms of creating chances as we're creating them anyway. But it's not lending any defensive stability anyway so not sure what the point is.

It's really weird how they're not over/underlapping at all.

Totally agreed. No need to panic and there's plenty to be hopeful about. I'm not convinced by some of the tactical changes but a lot of the issues are more to do with mistakes and not having the connections. Time will help.

Hello Anne Diamond!

There have been a lot of individual mistakes which have caused problems which points to underlying reasons like confidence.

I'll echo the shouts for Rio Bravo (action, comedy, camaraderie) and A Fistful of Dollars (sleekness and duels). If he doesn't mind an older film then Stagecoach.

I'd invest in free school meals (all healthy) for all and not even means test it. There are so many kids who don't qualify for free school meals but are poor. And if bringing your own lunch was banned, as it is in some schools, you'd have a generation of kids regularly eating a healthy dinner.

Absolutely agree on being too slow and lacking precision. So many mistakes made when in the final third.
The defence is open and needs protection. A different RB every game and the more attacking Wirtz instead of Szobo doesn't help.

Now reading Bernard Crick's biography of Orwell. I've owned it for 2 years so I'm proud of myself for starting it.

ME FINISHING A BOOK: there are thousands of incredible books out there! I could read anything! The world is my oyster!

A FEW MINS LATER LOOKING AT MY PILE OF UNREAD BOOKS: I don't want to read any of these. Why can't there be book specifically for my taste in this second right now?!!

Share? Fuck off!