All about horse

Today is all about football. I played 5-a-side this morning, during which I was compared to both Ibrahimovic and del Piero. Sadly, it was Keith Ibrahimovic, a plumber from Aylesbury, and Jennifer del Piero, a postgraduate history student from Boston. Still: it’s a start.

And just now, I’m going to put on my big boy pants and brace watching United at Wolves. Such is the injury crisis at Bramall Lane, I think Keith and Jennifer are both on the bench.

But if today is all about football. And it is – I just said that – yesterday was all about horse.

An early start in the grey, drizzly conditions out at Hout Bay for Little Miss 6000 to take half a ton of well-muscled ex-racehorse around the course at a show there:

And then quickly home for a shower and a change before heading out to Kenilworth Racecourse to watch Mrs 6000’s favourite horse come second in a very, very competitive field.

It was an amazing result.

A great day out then, although the weather was distinctly un-February-like: cold, wet, grey. But once you’re wet once, you’re wet. And the fun takes away the cold.

Sort of.

He’s Not Wrong

Sean Dyche makes a good point:

It’s true. Kids are very impressionable. When I were a lad, whenever we saw anything different or exciting in the football over the weekend, there would be loads of us trying it out in the playground on Monday morning. I wonder how many kids were “moving the ball” (and the foam) before taking their free kicks, after Ivan Toney did it, and after it was praised so roundly by all the pundits?

As we remarked at the time, moving the ball might have been seen as being “a bit clever”. But as soon as he moved the foam as well, well, it was clear that he knew he was cheating.

Sure, it’s not the biggest thing in the world, but it is symptomatic of the way that some bits of football are going. And the well-paid, “celebrity” pundits sitting in the cosy, warm studios are – for some weird reason – encouraging it.
So why not start with the small stuff and actually note that Toney was deliberately breaking the rules, rather than admiring his actions? Just say that it was wrong. You don’t have to want him to be banned for 8 months: he can do that himself.

Also, I quite enjoyed this quote because he’s basically taken three whole paragraphs to just say “Fuck you, Michael Owen”.

It’s something I regularly find very easy to condense into just those four words.

Oh, and also, one more thing: I put this graphic up on our football team Whatsapp group this morning and no fewer than six people agreed with it. All of them dads. We’re bringing up our kids right. Forza.

Alkali metals in water

The girl child came home buzzing yesterday after a Chemistry lesson in which they got to chuck some Sodium into some water. This reminded me of that iconic Open University video where they do the same demonstration with a number of Group 1 Metals, namely Lithium, Sodium, Potassium, Rubidium and Caesium.

Don’t bother with the first bit (unless you really want to). The fun starts at about 1:06, so scroll straight through. And it’s definitely worth a minute or so of your time, so do bear with it, even when they insist on putting the equation for the chemical reaction across the screen, 1970s style.
And do put the sound on so that you don’t miss the deadpan commentary, with lines like:

You can see that things become gradually more terrifying as we go down the group.

The involuntary whistle and abrupt end to the video are perfect. It’s not like they didn’t know what was coming, and yet…

We’re going to need another beaker, Ted.

I miss those carefree (by which I mean “H&S-free”) days in the laboratory.

An experiment

Here’s a post which will mean very little to anyone except me, but I’m just conducting a quick little experiment to see if my daughter reads this blog. I know that she sometimes does, but putting a random post in here might just answer the question as to how often.

Sort of, anyway.

So if you’re reading this blog post and you know my daughter, please don’t contact her to tell her to read this blog post. That would ruin the experiment. I’ll know if she reads this blog post because she will tell me.

All I will need to provide is this image of a car in a Cape Agulhas car park, untouched by the magic of Photoshop…

…and I know that she’ll be in touch as soon as she sees it.

(Like I said, this won’t mean anything to the rest of my readership (even to the rest of my family), but MMIRIM, and it’s just one of those father/daughter bonding things that will ruin our relationship forever amuse us both.)