The Rosemont Loving

Why would Michael Owen join a team that is 19th in the Premiership table? Would it be to push for a Champions League place? Or would it be to get regular first team football before the World Cup finals? I think it is neither - Michael Owen is a keen golfer as is Alan Shearer. Shearer is Owen’s best friend, you do the maths. It was a very strange transfer.

Tonight I witnessed a disgraceful act of plebeian behaviour. On the way back from work I saw a bunch of youths giving abuse to a 70 year old man and then one of them, as a sign of him being extremely macho, threw a fire extinguisher outside of the tube window and down two stories below. I couldn’t believe was I was seeing and decided it was time to step in:

“What the hell do you think you are doing?”
“F**k off you wanker.”
“Do you have any brain cells, two perhaps?”
“That’s enough for me.”

And that was indeed enough for him, he left the tube with his ‘well-hard posse’ back to his Hammersmith ‘ghetto’, not forgetting to do a huge spit right in the middle of the carriage…Boyakasha!

Has Mourinho’s ship sunk? Both Robben and Carvahlo have complained in recent days for the manager’s rotational system. I’m particularly happy to see this, hopefully it will lead to unhappiness at the camp and to lost points. Chelsea need to realise that they can not buy themselves trophies and happiness, pricing out all the competition along the way. If you buy two international-quality players in each position there will always be problems, I think this will be the start of a few issues for Chelsea. Let’s see what happens at Stamford Bridge against Arsenal tomorrow, an Henry flurry perhaps?

Feeling slightly worse for wear after my company’s Summer party, I fancied watching a really depressing and emotional film. Crash is exactly that. Films about racism have often been full to the brim with cliches but this, alongside American History X, are two fine exceptions. What is great about Crash is that there are so many great performances from actors willing to put their careers on such risky but appropriately-timed content. Matt Dillon is awesome as a racist LAPD officer, Sandra Bullock does her best work as a hard-nosed and confused housewife. Don Cheadle also continues to seriously impress me, his performances are always full of emotion. The whole ensemble is amazing, a absolute classic.

If this film isn’t in the running come Oscar time it will be a travesty. At a time when there is such friction in London and in other parts of the world, this film has truly touched my heart and if you let it, it will do the same to you too.

After a productive week of Web surfing, I have two websites I thought I would flag up. TV Genius is the best TV guide I’ve seen on the Internet, while Wikipedia is the encyclopedia to end all others.

So the UK is relaxing its drinking laws and apparently we should expect a huge increase in rapes, domestic violence and assaults. Personally I don’t think this will happen. The people who are currently getting drunk will continue to get drunk but you can’t get more paralytic than paralytic, can you? Obviously people will go a bit crazy at the start - “Wow! I can now drink for as long as I want so lets get wasted!” - but the novelty will soon wear off and I envisage a situation, like that in Spain, where people drink but are not pressured by closing times. It is a much more relaxing and enjoyable atmosphere.