Christmas Festivities

Well Christmas has come and gone for another year and it has been a great one yet again. After all the countless hours of shopping in expensive retail shops for the presents for everyone it has come to an end. For me the highlight is always Christmas dinner where once again I filled myself up until I felt like exploding only to top it all off with a few too many chocolates, profiteroles & alcohol.

As great as Christmas has been this year it has been slightly weird and hasn't really felt like Christmas at all. No snow hasn't helped create the christmas atmosphere but everyone seems to have lost that christmas spirit also. Whether that is because I'm now an adult and the joys of opening presents has slowly lost its appeal and become less important, I'm not sure but it never felt like Christmas was round the corner until the actual day yesterday.

Boxing day is normally the same and over the past few years has become slightly better than Christmas Day yet this year I am working and so I cannot stuff myself with another roast and spread of food to feed a thousand. That is until I get home and pick at the leftovers which my family were so kind to leave me after a hard days work.

Even the buzz of the boxing day sale seems to have been lost down to, in my opinion, the recession which has left the majority of us with less money than what we used to have. Advertisements on television seem to have been few and far between with companies also starting to feel the pinch especially with how much advertising on television costs.

Although things haven't felt like Christmas it was still a great one as what its all about is spending time with your families and loved ones.

Boxing Day football now...what I personally look forward to the most so enjoy today as I sure will !
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All Rhodes Lead To Hillsborough !

What a game yesterday between my beloved Huddersfield Town and Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough. An eight goal thriller which ended up with both teams sharing the points after a game which both teams gave it their all to try and maintain their position in the League 1 table.

Jordan Rhodes scored all four goals for Huddersfield Town which is fantastic stuff but I'm a bit concerned with the defensive side of Huddersfield who seem to be leaking in far too many goals for a team which are challenging for automatic promotion this year. Lee Clark has brought in Alex Bruce on loan to try and strengthen this area but it doesn't seem to be working especially when conceding 7 goals in just 3 matches.

When you score four goals away from home you expect to be coming back with all three points yet we failed to do so and even though Sheffield Wednesday are a top, top side we were two nil up and should of shut the shop and managed to hold on to all three points. However, we conceded four goals without reply until Jordan Rhodes decided enough was enough and popped in another to complete his hat-trick and make it a nerve racking last few minutes for both sides.

Rhodes completed the comeback deep in to stoppage time (in fact 7minutes into stoppage time) to send the fantastic Huddersfield following in to a frenzy!

I couldn't make the game on Saturday due to work commitments but it seems as though Rhodes really shone through and had a massive impact on the game. Indeed I am happy with the point away from home but I just think we have a massive defensive problem which needs sorting out before we lose vital points against teams who we should be taking all three from.

All credit to Jordan Rhodes and the question is...will he still be a Huddersfield Town player after the January transfer window?
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500 Litres Of Water Per Day !

Very interesting fact whilst watching Countryfile this eveing. A family of four will use on average, 500 litres of water per day! Staggering amount of water and just makes you think of how much we rely upon water without even noticing we have it until something goes wrong.

We cannot live without water but the amount we waste is ridiculous. Leaving taps running or standing outside the shower whilst its still spraying out water is just a few examples of the things we do which waste vast amounts of water. I do exactly the same so I am as much to blame as you that is reading this. However, according to Countryfile we may one day run out of water! I mean a world without a natural source of water!

The program was trying to encourage householders to switch to water meters as houses with water meters use 10% less water and are more aware of how much water they are using. This is ultimately because on a water meter you pay for the amount of water that you use. Most water companys will fit one for free as well so its well worth it and everyone should start being on a meter especially if it works out cheaper for all of us.

Start being careful now and it will save us from worrying even more about water in the future.
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Tree's Next To The Roadside

High gale force winds have been blowing up a right storm here in Huddersfield and undoubtedly some trees have not been able to withstand it and have collapsed causing quite a few problems. Now when in the car I noticed something which I believe needs to be immediately addressed and something done about and this is the location of the majority of the trees around Huddersfield. They are all on the roadside right next to the road, on the pavement!

The trees branches are already overhanging the roads and the pavements which tons of people use every day but the disturbing fact is that they are also overlooking playgrounds, schools and other highly populated or regularly visited areas. Winds such as those which are currently in Huddersfield have these trees swaying and only today did I get told of one which came crashing down onto Manchester Road which is extremely busy.

Its only when you think about the location of these trees is it when you think...who planted/allowed these trees to grow in such ridiculous places? It doesn't take a genius to see that someone is going to get seriously hurt if these trees naturally fall over either by dying or being thrown over by gale force winds.

Yet every year we get instances of trees falling onto cars or pedestrians and either seriously injuring them or in worse cases, killing them. Its normally just the one or two people/cars but what if a tree was to be blown over right on top of a school where young children are inside? There would be uproar then but it would be too late so its right now that the council have to do something about these trees to prevent an incident such as this from ever occurring in the future.

I'm not saying destroy forests but simply cut the trees which hover dangerously over side walks and roads down before its too late!
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BNP Poster Attracts Dispute

Walking to work the other day I noticed a new billboard poster had appeared beside a busy roadside heading into town. 'Say NO To The EU' was the motto at the top of the billboard followed by an image of barbed wire on top of a wall.

At the bottom of the poster sprayed in black spray paint are the words 'Racism' and other fasciast sayings/slogans. Now when I looked closer, in smaller writing on the poster, I could see that it was a BNP poster from one of the parties members in Huddersfield but what annoyed me was the individuals who had sprayed all over the bottom half of it. If it had been said by any other party in the United Kingdom nothing would have been sprayed at the bottom of it but because it had been said by BNP it was immediately classed as racist both certain individuals.

Now I think the majority of us agree with not beeing part of the EU and so do I but if BNP says what everyone is thinking then it gets classed as being racist. The poster is just one of many circumstances where this has happened yet really the majority of the things they say are what the majority of the public are saying but darent say aloud.

Now I aint no BNP fan but at the end of the day they are an official national party and deserve respect as if any other national party had put that very same poster up, nothing would of been sprayed on it to ruin it. Free speech should always be allowed as long as it does not offend anyone or a certain religious group and 'Say No To The EU' is not offensive what so ever so why the spray paint?

I will try and get a picture of it next time I walk to work, that is as long as it hasn't been taken down by the council or wrecked completely!
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Fake Fans During A Night In With Beyonce ?

Was it just me or were the audience/fans on A Night In With Beyonce very strange?

I mean they reacted like they had all won the lottery when she stepped out at the start of the show. Fair enough its Beyonce but things started to get suspicious when the crowd knew exactly what movements to do during the 'to the left, to the left' without even being told by Beyonce or even being hinted at what to do. Not only that, the camera would also always be on that one person in the crowd who was going 'way over the top' screaming and shouting during a Beyomce song. Fair enough a normal person would have a dance and a scream but it was just funny how these people were picked up just at the right time by the cameras only to flick back to Beyonce a few seconds later.

I may be completely wrong but it all looked a bit fishy to me. As if they had all been told what to do, when to do it and to make Beyonce look as good as possible.
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Misha B Falls At The Last Hurdle

This week was the X-Factor semi finals and with it all being down on public votes it was always going to be close. Remaining contestants Misha B, Amelia Lily, Marcus Collins & Little Mix all sung average and not one shone out of the crowd and made me go wow and want to pick up the phone.

But to be honest, when do they ever make me vote? In fact who does pay to vote for these contestants because I have never known anyone who does apart from those that are family or close family. Well after 'thousands' of supposed votes had poured in it came down to Misha B & Amelia Lily in the bottom two. Not unusual really that both of the best singers in the competition are in the bottom two as this is normally the case. Misha B ended up leaving the competition just one week before the finals.

Surprised? I wasn't. She had been tarred from the very beginning after being found out to be a so called bully and that will never win you votes will it! Previous rounds had seen her in the bottom two multiple times only to be saved by the judges who obviously knew she was one of the very best the competition had ever had. The bullying claims had done their damage and the whole nation knew about them as well due to the media plastering it all over the front pages & news.

It just shows how powerful the media is in this country. It can literally wreck hopes and dreams of every single one of us regardless of if what's printed is the truth or not. To the journalists, or should I say vultures, every potential story grabs another few thousand readers and that means more money in their back pockets as we as a nation love to read a good story especially when its revealing something about someone in the limelight. Misha B was just another victim of the media as her history came back to haunt her.
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Euro 2012 Draw

England have been drawn in the same group as Sweden, Ukraine & France. Seems like an easy way through to the knockout stages with only a difficult match against France to get through. The other two should be straight forward but knowing England, that's will not be the case.
Still very clear in the back of my mind is the disastrous World Cup 2010 campaign which saw us getting dumped out by a very strong Germany side. Yes, we all remember Lampard's goal (well shot which crossed the line by a country mile only to not be given) which caused huge controversy across the nation and revived the shouts of goal line technology to be brought in. Well apparently that's too expensive for a multi-trillionaire industry to afford so let's hope the goal line saga doesn't haunt us again in this campaign.

What will be even more interesting for myself is seeing who Fabio Capello will take to Poland/Ukraine. Its got to be a mix of both youngsters and the older, more well known generation of English players that will give us the best opportunity to finally bring a piece of silverware back home to England.

Euro 2012 will also be Capello's last major tournament with the international squad and the players and himself will most definitely want to go out on a high and prove why they are all top world class players and rated so highly by the English public. Too many times they have underperformed in major competitions yet this time round its a s if a new generation has been found with the likes of Scott Parker & Stewart Downing featuring regularly instead of just playing the pointless friendlies that mean absolitely nothing. Capello has moulded together a squad which really does seem to perform and hopefully this will carry on into the Euro 2012 group stages.

Fabio Capello has done a great job in my opinion for England and although we flopped in the World Cup it was mainly down to the players who simply were not good enough and believed they would walk over sides which are lesser known in the footballing world. There are no longer any easy games regarless of what nation we are playing and the quicker England realise this the better we shall perform.

I mean we defeated the World Champions so surely this competition will be a walk in the park! :D
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Living...An Expensive Thing

So seen as though I have finally managed to get a day off work I thought I would take a well earned trip into Huddersfield Town centre to have a look round and get some important Christmas presents. Well I may as well have not bothered as the prices of near enough everything is just ridiculous. How these large stores ever make any sort of profit, or for the matter of fact any sales, is beyond me.

Designer clothes from stores such as BANK, Burtons, Topman etc have always been considerably higher as you are theoritically paying for the brand name but the worrying thing is other more basic clothes stores such as Sports Direct are getting the exact same way. I mean we all know the price of fuel, increase of VAT and other various factors all contribute to a price increase but not this much. Yet who blames them? They are still huge amounts of us who actually go ahead and take these overly priced goods to the till and spend our hard earned money on them! In my opinion its simple, if everyone refused to pay these prices then stores/brands would have no option but to either drop their prices to a reasonable amount or close down!

Our nation is full of people who lay down and daren't 'not buy' or say boo to a goose and its about time we changed. Why should us as consumers be intimidated by large multi-millionaire companies when they are much cheaper alternatives available at our fingertips via the internet & online shopping.

Rant over!

Very First Blog

Well i have finally got around to  doing it. After continually thinking about creating a blog, i have decided to actually go through with it his time and here am writing my very first blog post.

Now I know I aint the best writer in the world or for that matter a really interesting writer but whatever I 'blog' has an interest to me. Not only that but the sole purpose of me becoming a blogger is to allow me to share with all of you my opinion on whatever I may be blogging about. Whether this will be about politics, sport, worklife, social life or just whats been going on in Huddersfield/United Kingdom/World, I can guarantee I shall be speaking (or should I  say 'blogging') my mind regardless of who it may offend or include. At the end of the day we are all entitled to the freedom of speech.

Well I think that's quite enough for my first blog post. Thanks for reading and they will most defenitely will be more posts to follow as the days go by.