Football

I know, you’re probably thinking “Huh?”

Well, despite not really being into sports (a good candidate for understatement of the year if ever I saw one), I end up watching sports accidentally ever so often (or, if I can help it, seldom, but never mind). One such occasion occured last Saturday – we popped in to Three Lions for luch (and a pint) before the show (Ice Age 2, as reported), and realised pretty quickly that we’d either have to watch football og go somewhere else. We opted for the football (I mean, where else is there?). It was, uhm, bear with me, I’ll remember in a mo… I think it was Everton vs. Liverpool. I also think I opted to root for Everton (sorry, Pondus), though that left me in a minority in the audience (actually, I suppose you could say I opted to root for Everton because it left me in a minority). It didn’t really make much difference, as we were going to have to leave at half time to make the cinema on time. We didn’t miss the half time entertainment, though, Will got his head shaved as a result of loosing a bet he’d made that Chelsea wouldn’t win anything at all this season (or something of that order, you can’t expect me to come up with correct team names and events every time, you know). That was fun.

Anyway, on with the musing and the original purpose of this post: With football there is this big hoo-ha about the offside rule and how it’s supposed to be so difficult to understand, especially if you’re a woman. Now, don’t get me wrong, when I do, on occasion, watch football, I can’t necessarily tell whether a player is “offside”, in that I sometimes get quite surprised when the whistle is blown or whatever. This comes – I suspect – of there being a lot of players on the field and me only being half-way interested (and more interested in whether Team A’s right forward is better looking than Team B’s back and whether that means I really should be rooting for Team A). But the rule in itself and the reason the rule exists seems straightforeward enough. For the purpose of discussion I found an explanation here – now, tell me, what’s so terribly complicated? I suppose the phrase “in the opinion of the referee” makes it somewhat more iffy than a simple “unless you’re the goalkeeper you should keep your hands off the ball”, but still. What am I missing?

So much for the ramble, now for a little rant…

I need a new bag. My favourite all-round bag has a zipper that no longer works every time, which is a pain. (In fact, I’m never buying a Bj