Saturday 10th October 2026

It am the weekend. Again.

Once upon a time, when dinosaurs ruled the earth, I used to be able to sleep in until ten in the morning. Sometimes into the afternoon.

But not any more.

Fifteen years in the Air Force, then almost weekly travel for work, having to catch the train to London at six in the mornings, means I am used to waking up early.

It was half five this morning. The alarm would have gone off at six anyway, but this gives me an extra half hour to wake up and prepare for phys.

No need for Tesco as I went on Thursday, so we could just go for phys, and come home and relax, drink a brew.

Which is what we did.

And also, this day saw the return of the kickyball, with the "joys" of Norwich on the tellybox at half twelve.

So during the morning, after a shower I made a huge pot of pasta salad, as I had bought yogurt instead of cottage cheese for Jools, so it needed using up.

So we have to eat early, so I could watch the game, I cooked breaded aubergine, taking half hour to prepare and ten minutes to fry. This is a recipe my first wide taught me, and is cheap, and full of flavour. And a single 69p aubergine can along with the pasta can provide a full meal.

In fact the pasta will do us for at least four meals, or as many until we get fed up with it.

And to the football:

I had high hopes for this season, after the fantastic second half of last season. But with another injury crisis, and those playing making basic mistakes, means this has been disappointing so far.

And even after going in at half time one up, City were so poor that half, with Swansea spurning a good half dozen golden chances, so it wasn't a surprise when Swansea came out turbo-charged after the break, and quickly scored two goals.

City had no answer.

But then the main games, with me listening to Radio 5 and watching the videoprinter on the BBC, for me it was a perfect afternoon. Scully lay beside me, sleeping happily.

The warmth of the day faded in the afternoon, so windows and doors closed, before the heating put on.

For the evening there was Manchester Utd v Tottenham, two clubs which have not had good starts, and a 1-1 draw pleases neither one, though Spurs scoring in injury time, means they'll be the more pleased of the two teams.