onionbagblog

Woh. Where to start with this one? We were led to believe before KO that Sunderland’s Dutch ‘keeper Roefs was half decent. He wasn’t. Forest were relentless in the first half, and then shut up shop in the second. Jame Redknapp described this as “the performance of the season” over on Sky. For once I agree with what some of the mainstream talking heads come out with.

I lost track of the first half goals tbh. I tried to track them and keep pace with my BOOZE. Points, first pints later, yeah? But at 4-0 up at HT, there was never any real danger that Forest would mess up. It was more likely that my own BOOZE situation might create a little mess.

Finally we seem to have mastered the art of set pieces. It’s only taken four years in the PL to work this one out. MGW was magnificent once again. I can’t see how he can continue to be ignored when it comes to the World Cup squad selection.

The fifth and final goal for Anderson was a special moment. The Geordie boy scoring against Sunderland probably meant all the more to him than it did to the Forest fans. It was a touching moment after what has been tough personal patch for him.

You know something special is happening when the telly cameras focus in on the scoreboard in the ground, with 5-0 illuminated in bright LED. It’s a symbolic image of what has been achieved, without the expectation of such a battering. There’s an incredible stat that 20% of Forest’s PL goals this season have been scored in the past two matches. Yep, it’s been that kinda season.

Are we safe from relegation? The brains behind the OPTA super computer thingy seem to think so. Never trust an algorithm, Comrades. A lot will depend on the #lolspurs and West Ham results later this weekend. I can’t see either of them catching us if they fail to pick up three points. All focus can then turn towards Europe.

In too deep: Inside the messy, lucrative collapse of a lido empire

Cracking read on the collapse of Fusion, via The Londoner

“Indeed there are seven former Lambeth Labour councillors now sitting as MPs for the party: a number of alumni in the Commons matched only by Manchester city council, which covers double the population. That contingent, and the various other branches of the so-called “Lambeth mafia” that run through the Labour Party and trade union movement, will feel the council’s loss most sharply.”

Come the Glorious Day, Comrades. via, erm, The Times.

Twee, cute, dreamy.

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I had plans to cycle off to Lidl to cash in my Thursday Lidl app cheapo coupons. But the Estuary Wilds sun was bloody lush. It was too good an opportunity to resist a bicycle ride, on the Brompton, natch. Abandon Lidl! Let’s roll out along the lanes instead.

I managed to avoid rush-hour - although every hour seems to be rush-hour around these parts of late. Tenpenny Hill was fine. A dickhead then close-passed me on the approach towards Thorrington. Fast forward 24 hours later, and Essex Police had already put the driver on a course. Job’s a good ‘un.

Some pretty fierce crosswinds hit me as I ventured further out into the great unknown. Random Church bells were ringing - odd for mid-afternoon on a Thursday. They weren’t the Bells of Doom, either.

A decent ride. I even ended up at Lidl. You can take the man out of Lidl, etc. Chapeau!

AI-powered robot beats elite table tennis players

via The Graun

This is a real mixed bag. The opening Salty Dog track is quite a statement. What then follows is some genre hopping taking in rock opera, the blues and sea shanties. I have no idea what it’s all about but I quite enjoyed the grandness to it all.

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A sunny, albeit rather windy walk along the estuary for Wednesday morning. There was a need to leave the house. The builders were banging away. wfh was proving to be problematic. And so we strolled out instead to the end of the world, aka Alresford Creek. Solace was within reach.

The estuary footpath was relatively quiet. We did have to make way for what is the biggest dog in Weird Wiv to pass through. We’ve clocked the fella before whilst plating wiff waffle. He’s the size of a medium rhino.

This didn’t feel like a mid-April walk. The conditions were incredibly dry. It would have been possible for even the most OCD-obsessed runner (OH HAI!) to run along the trail and towards the Creek. Usually I wouldn’t attempt this until late May. Injury is keeping me away, for now.

It was also radiantly green everywhere. Spring has truly sprung in Weird Wiv. The landscape is also changing. One of the big private houses overlooking the estuary has undergone a spot of gardening for the first time in at least fifteen years. Tress have been felled, brambles have been pulled back. There’s even a ditch that has been dug to run off the rain water.

The highlight of the short walk was being startled by a little lizard. At least I think it was a lizard. I didn’t hang around to get a closer look. SHOUT OUT to Flat Bloke, as ever.

And so farewell Leicester City. Piss off back to the old Third Division where you belong. Harsh? Yep. But you try living for a year or so in the City of Death and not coming out of the whole experience feeling slightly unhinged.

Leicester are a club that deserves to be relegated. Careful what you wish for, etc. At the end of the we always win, and all that. But the club itself has been a disgrace over the past three seasons or so.

I admit to being caught up in the PL winning love in team of a decade ago. You always like to see the underdog win. The 2015/16 team was a side that you couldn’t but help admire. Come back and have a conversation when you have won two European Cups though.

Since winning the FA Cup five years later, the club has had a shocker, on and off the pitch. Some pretty tragic personal circumstances didn’t help. But that’s no excuse for the mismanagement that followed.

The way the fans and players treated Steve Cooper was poor. It may not have been the wisest decision by Cooper to head off down the Fosse. But posing for photos with signs saying they miss their old manager wasn’t a classy look.

Then there was the PL PSR dodge. Suck it up, fellas. Forest had to in the PL. We managed to overcome this and survive. Some creative accountancy at Leicester allowed them to carry it down to the Championship.

The relegation from the Championship to the third tier is all the more sweeter, knowing that the delayed points deduction has pretty much finished them off.

And do farewell Leicester City. Shame about the Derby play-off push as well.

Live albums rarely work. I want to hear the music, not the whooping. Once the audience gets settled, My Morning Jacket have some cracking tunes. It sounds like the melodies however are cranked up for the live crowd. I would have preferred an unplugged format for this album. It worked for Nirvana - probably the best and only decent live album.

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I never really got the whole ska punk thing. Slapstick does little to convince me otherwise. I love ska, I love punk. But only in their purest forms. You’re better off listening to Sandinista! from start to finish. So there

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