Surrey Mirror Headline...

...dunno about you, recon the Surrey Mirror was a bit worried about spelling vusu, zuvu, vuvuzela...? ;)

England Game...

...okay, the deal here is - Work through lunch today and go at 1430hrs (in time to get to the pub for the game) - or - get Friday afternoon off...

Background fact - My (single remaining) colleague is a big football fan...

So I've got half a day off on Friday - aren't I nice... ;)

*finkangel peers around looking for where his +1000 karma reward has fallen*

Wimbledon vs World Cup

...one TV in the Advertising Department (high on the wall), remote control in the hands of the PAs and Wimbledon Tennis on it right now...

I (confidently) predict a riot when all the sales guys get back from the pub... ;)

World Cup update...

...to this post...all the TVs in the office are turned on, and tuned to the action (volume extremely quiet, but audible)...

Now unable to turn and avoid football...wondering if this was anterior motive for said object's installation earlier in the year... ;)

World Cup Office Watching Policy

I remember back when I was contracting at GE during the World-Cup-before-last (2002 was it?) in order to avoid staff calling in sick during their countries matches (it was a huge, multi-national team) *all* the matches were shown in the office...various groups of people would scuttle excitedly off to one of the TV equipped meeting rooms from where (for 90-odd minutes) there would emerge a string of swearwords and expressions of joy in various languages (terribly educational) followed by either a miserable procession back, scarves trailing behind (followed by lunch at the pub) or whooping, hugging and flag waving (followed by lunch at the pub)...

I'm not *entirely* sure what's going to happen here in my office, but one thing did spring to mind (not being a great fan of football)...if the England matches (at the least) are put onto the TVs that hang off our office walls, doesn't this set some sort of precedent for grounds of discrimination against other world sporting events? Am I not supporting "England" (in a way) by following Jenson Button on the Friday practice in the F1? Okay, bad example...but what about those fans of other international sports that happen to take place during the week? Or those workers that aren't fans of any sport in particular and are completely left out in the cold to answer everyone else's telephone?

There's no easy answer as to exactly what the *right* way to handle this is... <:S

In other news, I drew Brazil in the office sweepstake... ;)

Shit...

...we're out... :(

Update - it's sad, spotting England car flags laying by the side of the road... :(

Kings Cross - Helicopter with huge St George's cross spotted

You'll have to zoom right in as it's not a brilliant photo (the helicopter was miles away) but it was zig zagging over Kings Cross dragging a *huge* St. George's cross behind it during lunchtime with the words "Come on England" in the cross itself... ;) Wonder who paid for that?

England Car Flags, the World Cup etc.

It's still 16 days to go, but it's now almost impossible to leave the house without passing at least one car sporting not one England flag (like we saw become popular during Euro 2004), but *two*...I think Tesco are partly to blame for stocking a "Value" range of England supporter accutrement (still not sure that is entirely appropriate) meaning it is possible to bedeck your vehicle with the double St. George for the princely sum of £1.98 *and* throw in a large silk-style England flag, to be worn batman's-cloak-when-you-were-a-kid fashion with an otherwise naked torso (prefarably sporting some nice celtic tattoos) while yelling "IN GA LUND", for only another 99p (I didn't spot red and white face paint, but I'm sure it was there somewhere)...

Anyway, all this means that there really isn't very much excuse not to sport some sort of England supporters kit, especially if begging small children are in any way involved during the trip around the supermarket (as I saw happen the other day)...the tired resignation to the fact that you are going to have to drive around everywhere looking like a bit of a prat just to keep the kids happy, and the quiet hope that we get knocked out early so things can just get back to normal were all evident in the look just before the flags went in the trolley (joining the crates of beer) and the kids started jumping up and down cheering (as dad may have secretly done later)... ;)

I, for one, will be watching as many of the England matches as I can (mais sans drapeau, as I think wishing your contries team well is sufficiently implied by your continued residence) I'm not normally much of a football fan (preferring motorsports) but the World Cup is something a little bit different...I am, however, wondering how the company that I work for at the moment is going to handle it...when I worked for GE (during the last major football occurence) they universally resigned themselves to the fact that a number of people are quite fanatical about their sport and would probably fall mysteriously ill/take lots of holiday/vanish for periods of time during the working day or a combination of the above *regardless* and so basically decided to turn over several of the meeting rooms to be TV rooms and every member of staff was free to go and watch during any match featuring their home team no matter what time it was on...the result? People were coming in *early* to catch the start of their matches, no-one went off sick or vanished or took any time off and the office continued pretty much as normal...clever lot at GE... ;) Certainly in the opening rounds this time though we have got off pretty lightly, there's only one England match that looks like it's going to impact on the working day, and that is at 5pm on Thursday 15th June when we play Trinidad and Tobago...