The Life and Times of Marcus P.

I may of moved away from the Midlands where I grew up but I’ll always be an Aston Villa supporter, my Sky Sports Subscription is mainly for the Villa games that get shown, I might watch a few other games also but If the Villa’s on I will be watching it! I try to catch a game or 2 each year whenever Im visiting home, in fact I used to own a season ticket a number of years ago (1994-95 and 1995-96) the years that;

• Opening day of the 194-95 Season Villa beat Manchester United 3-1 (A young David Beckham getting a the Man U Goal)
• Alan Hansen quoted “You won’t win anything with Kids….” about the United team that we beat.
• We almost got relegated in 1995 – 1996!

Each season has been full of ups and downs, a few success in the League Cup and an FA Cup appearance. Finishing 2nd in the Premiership in it’s 1st year, Europe Qualification. Through the ups and downs I always enjoyed watching Villa play… but this year Im not enjoying any of the games Im watching!

It’s painful to watch Villa for 90 mins, I have no confidence in Villa getting a result against any opponent, out of both cups and the prospect of a relegation battle ahead. “Villa are too good to go down….”? From the games I see, I think it is possible.

I don’t know whats wrong, in fact I don’t care if it’s player power or managerial issues… whatever it is Im not enjoying watching Villa play, we are much better than this!!!

I wish Roberto Martinez had agreed to manage Villa, it would of been fascinating to see the team he would of developed and probably played more entertaining football.

Related articles

• Stilian Petrov defends Alex McLeish’s management style at Aston Villa (guardian.co.uk)
• Aston Villa Underachieving and Unattractive Under Alex McLeish and Randy Lerner (epltalk.com)

This photo reminds me of my Argos rant last year when my local Argos store decided in their wisdom that every house in my street should get an Argos catalogue. It happened to be a very wet day and as a consequence my street was littered by 100′s of sodden wet Argos catalogues, of zero use to anyone. They were not even fit for recycling. I was so angered that I wrote to the Argos head office to express my annoyance and Argos total disregard for the environment.

I didn’t receive a reply.

I then vowed that if a catalogue was left on my doorstep I would wrap it, attach another letter advising them that I didn’t ask for a catalogue, and mail it back to Argos HQ (Without any postage) in a hope my act may make them stop this stupid practice of dumping these catalogues onto unsuspecting households.

Apologies in advance to the Postie that has to collect and deliver this!

Related articles

• Home Retail falls to record low as Argos profits tumble (independent.co.uk)

When did ‘February 3rd’ (Third) turn into ‘February 3′ (Three)?

Every-time I see the movie trailer for ‘Man on a Ledge’ the voice over guy advises that it will be released ‘February Three‘  and it makes me cringe! I do hope it doesn’t catch on as there’s nothing at all wrong with using 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th 5th, 6th etc; with dates.

Where will it end?

Recognise these TV and Movie titles easily?

• ‘Three Rock from the Sun’
• ‘Beethoven’s Two’
• ‘The Four Kind’
• ‘The Five Element’
• ‘The Six Day’

Is it another Americanism that will plague the english language soon?

Americanisms: 50 of your most noted examples

Related articles.

• ‘Man on a Ledge’ Extended Trailer: More Than Meets the Eye (screenrant.com)
• Review: ‘Man on a Ledge’ (mysanantonio.com)

Working on the broken track at Vauxhall today

A cable theft south of Fleet and broken rail track at Vauxhall…. a double whamy of delays this morning on SouthWest Trains. These things happen I guess but the thing that I find hard to comprehend is the way that refunds are calculated for season ticket holders. A number of times in the past 12 months I’ve suffered some MAJOR delays too and from Waterloo but I’ve not been able to claim any money back at all. My season ticket costs over £3000 a year and depending on SouthWest Trains yearly performance I could get a discount when I renew the next year. But SouthWest trains year on year performance has always been within it’s tollerance for refunds every year that I’ve used them, and it’s due to 2 reasons that fail in the real world!

All journeys count.

SWT counts every single journey on SouthWest trains, not just the ones I personally use, which are invairiably delayed and all that is matters to me. But the calulation counts the 99.98% of trains I don’t use or care about.

Then you look at the small print.

Incidents beyond our control have been excluded from these statistics. Excludable incidents include fatalities, vandalism, vehicles striking bridges, trespass etc.

It has to be the biggest get out jail free card that any train service uses! Southwest Trains fail to protect their own assets or police the lines and they can’t be held to account for passengers disruptions. Nice work!

What are SouthWest trains perfomance goals.

Pretty genorous or what, especially when the causes for MAJOR delays are not counted and that it’s calulated on all journeys, not much hope of EVER getting anything back from SWT.

SWT perfomance goals are a big huge Swiz!!!

http://www.southwesttrains.co.uk/our-performance.aspx