Thursday 18th October 201

And hello again. And as we are now over what is now apparently called hump day, this is what ‘the kids’ call Wednesday, apparently.

Big news this week has been the racist chants and fights at the end of the England u21 game in Serbia. That Serbia has since claimed that there was no such chanting and all the fault was on Danny Rose who was vulgar. Having listened to the sound of the crowd at the end of the game, the monkey chanting could clearly be heard. And we thought that such things were a thing of the 20th century. But no. In Ukraine, being openly gay is being outlawed, and this is considered alright by most people who live there. Gay activists are beaten up. Filmed whilst being beaten up. And the world plays with its fingers. A school activist in Pakistan was shot by the Taliban as she had been campaigning for schooling for girls. And in the US of A, defenders of freedom, a billionaire is running for president who declares that the poorest 47% are workshy democrat voters who want everything for nothing. And admitted to paying 14% tax over the previous three years. Nice bloke, he’s religious you know.

Oh, in Britain, the disabled are to lose up to £45 a week with the ‘streamlining’ of benefits. Because, let us not forget, we’re all in this together. The Speaker of the House is once again refusing to release details of MP’s expenses, which shows that nothing really has changed since 2009.

But let us move on from that and deal with the real pressing issue, that of the mouse.

The mouse.

What did you do at work today? I took a mouse to work.

Oh yes I did. It’s very simple, but unbelievable, but then coming a month after the camera lens/mouse incident, maybe it’s all too familiar.

We came down from bed this morning to see various items had been dragged from the pouch in my work bag. Clearly, a mouse had been about, got in there and the cats had tried to scoop it out. I thought nothing of it, put the stuff back in, put in my lunch and headed to work. And nothing happened for many hours. And then as I was working away, a thought popped into my head: what about if the mouse did not get out? Could it still be in the bag?

I start to take stuff out of the pouch, papers, pens, etc. And nothing. But wait; there are two shiny black eyes, whiskers and all attached to a small brown mouse. I close the top of the pouch up, and carry the bag downstairs and out the gate so I can deposit the mouse in the rough ground. I can’t tip the bag upside down as the other compartments are full, and thought I could grab it. I do it all the time at home.

But, as I make to grab the mouse, he panics and dives to the bottom of the pouch and disappears. And I empty everything out of the bag, turn it upside down and shake it. Nothing comes out. As the bag had a broken strap, the only real choice was to throw the bag away and get a new one. The only other choice would be to undo the stitching to find where in the bad the mouse was. And then catch it. And if I didn’t find it soon, the mouse would die of thirst and then the bag would begin to stink.

So, I have ordered a new bag from Amazon, and will now wait for that to be delivered.

Tell me readers, is it just our house where this stuff happens?

One thing I did do yesterday was to work out how much energy it would take to head up the world’s oceans by one degree. You see I am not convinced global warming is real. I believe the world is heating up, but I don’t believe it is all down to mankind. We could argue about it, maybe we should. But I was told that the amount of energy (latent heat capacity) needed to raise the temperature of 1 litre of water is surprisingly large. Turns out water is the hardest material to heat up. Anyway, turns out it is a frighteningly large amount of energy, and bear in mind temperature has been estimated to have risen by nearly two if not three degrees,. So, this is the number:

5,630,460,000,000,000,000,000,000 joules. That’s 5.6 million with 19 more zeroes after it. And that’s just one degree.

Anyway, just something for us all to think about.

The cost of the cheapest ticket in professional football in England and Wales has increased by 11.7% in the past year. The cost of this lowest ticket is now some £21.24.

In 1986, a season ticket in Norwich’s River End cost £50. Something like just over two pounds per game, which these days sounds like something of a bargain. Not only that it makes something my Granddad would say it cost during the war; am I getting that old?

Yes.

In the 1983-84 season, a seat in the main stand, as it was then, cost the princely sum of £4. Looking at the figures for this season, the most expensive ticket at Norwich is now £50.00. Now, I don’t know much about economics, but I’m sure that inflation has not risen 1250% in the intervening 28 years.

As I have written before, I cannot and will not attempt to justify professional footballer’s wages. Some are earning something like £300,000 a week. That is more than I will earn in nearly 11 years. All for kicking a bag of wind about. There will be those saying it’s an international market for players and these are the going rates, but cost of tickets in Germany seems to be something like a quarter than it is here in England. The Premier League says that over 92% of tickets are sold season on season; that Match of Day shows expanses of empty seats week in week out at places like Wigan, Sunderland, etc shows that the picture is not as rosy as they would like to paint it.

One would hope that with next season’s 66% increase in TV revenue for the Premier League clubs, something of that windfall will be pushed in the direction of fans; but we know that is never going to happen. Players wages are increasing something like 15% year on year, and this will only accelerate with even more money in the trough.

So, for this season, I am not paying for Sky Sports, which has been difficult at times; but I am used to it now, and have grown to like the hissy reception of radio 5 on my transistor radio; just like the old days, really.

The most expensive club to follow is Arsenal; they do have a shiny new stadium to pay for after all. The cheapest matchday ticket is £24, but then a Gooner tweeted that he has never seen tickets on the Arsenal website at that price. And the most expensive is £124. Season tickets are even worse, at £985 for the cheapest and £1,955 for the most expensive. The club will tell you that that includes 7 cup games of your choice included in the price. Even still, two grand for 26 games of football featuring a team that has sold most of its best players in the last four years; no wonder the fans are beginning to revolt. Or baulk. Or both.

Not only is it in ticket prices are fans being fleeced; I heard from a Spurs supporting friend of mine that they have three kits for the league and another two for Europe. This is getting plain crazy. Of course, we don’t have to buy kits, buy drinks, pies, programs when we go to games, and as ticket prices rise maybe many more will be taking packed lunches and a thermos. Or maybe, like me, they will just say they’ve had enough and not bother. Not having Sky Sports saves me £30 a month, and not buying a replica shirt is another £50. The last game I went to, it is very hard to get tickets at Norwich these days as demand outstrips supply, was at Chelsea, and that cost £50. And then there was the cost of getting to London, £36. And after a beer and a sandwich, that’s £100 for 90 minutes of football. Not good value, and something I refused to do again this year.

One day, the TV bubble will burst, and the flood of money will leave the game and then clubs will have to value, rather than take for granted, their fans. But that day Lucifer will be going to work on ice skates.