Norman Ralph

Blackpool 2 – Yeovil 0

That insignificant looking scoreline made yesterday into a great day in the seaside resort of Blackpool’s history. Their football team is playing in the top two flights of English football for the first time in thrity years. Yesterday afternoon’s League One Play-off Final at Wembly was a great game. Blackpool played the best football, they passed and moved and generally played at a Championship level, their footalling home for the next season at least, Kiegan Parker’s second goal being absolutely sublime – curling it round most of the Yeovil defence and goalkeeper from twenty-five yards!

Following the conclusion to the football game, Liz and I hopped on the 95 up to Woodies to meet Chris Clarke and do a mini Otley Run. Playing “no repeats” rules, we made our way through Three Horsehoes and New Inn. Due to the fact there were three of us we decided to give Arcadia a whirl, it is a small Wine and Ale bar just next to Somerfield in Headingley. We were so impressed with it we stayed for two drinks!

The Arc and Sky Rack were absolutely heaving, so after a swift drink in Headingley Taps, the Box and Original Oak we jumped on the bus and headed to Hyde Park Corner. We were planning to keep going on the Run, but having done some negotiating we headed up to Izzy’s to help her celebrate her 22nd birthday.

There was a house full of people when we got there, a mixture of Leeds and Kirkham folk. Inf act it was a remarkable turn out. After a Dutch courage drink, I decided it was time to bury the hatchet with Izzy. I hope I got my message across, the right mixture of apology, sincerity and humility yet maintaining enough dignity for the apology to carry some weight. I cannot be sure of the outcome of what we talked about, I think we decided not to dwell on it there and then as it was the middle of a party. We did, however, get an invite to the after party in town. Unfortunately, the afternoon’s excitement had taken its toll on Liz so I had to take her home.

Having just Googled my name, I have discovered that www.normanralph.com is the first result returned! That’s quite cool. I did the same for Liz and her site is the fifth result returned. I should probably know this but does anyone know how Google’s ranking works?

On a different note, I found Liz’s limit last night. Cryptic? Yes, it is meant to be.

Seetickets.com have also excelled themselves, I bought The Who tickets last night and they arrived this morning! That is service. Just waiting on another delivery now, which I hope will come this week.

Anyway, off to watch Blackpool lose to Oldham in the League One Playoff semi-final then hopefully see Man Utd beat the crap out of Chelsea in the FA Cup later on.

Regular readers of my blog will be aware that I have recently embarked on a new relationship with a lovely young lady called Liz. Well, for the past week I have been staying with her at her Nan’s house whilst her grandparents are away on holiday for a couple of weeks. The reasons for me staying are two fold, a) it gave me an opportunity to spend some real and quality time with Liz away from the pressures of Leeds, friends and family and b) it gave me an opportunity to recharge my batteries and take stock of my life in a relaxed atmosphere.

I think both reasons have worked out for the very best. Liz and I have really gotten to know each other this week in the way you only achieve through spending time together. Having the house to ourselves was a real bonus, it has led to our relationship really developing into a beautiful adult relationship. Liz is a pretty good host too, she brings me cups of tea in the morning! Although, to be fair, I have actually done most of the work in terms of cooking, cleaning, washing etc and I have decided that Liz only really wants me for my car – it seems my chauffering skills are second to none, literally as there is no one else!

The second reason has almost been as amazing. I have really gotten to know myself through letting Liz get to know me. I think I am now in a position to move forward with my life, to start again as it were. The future holds many challenges for me and until recently I would have shied away from them and stuck my head in the sand. Now it is different. I am up for the challenge, I am relishing the challenge and most importantly I am willing to fight for what I want and fight to win.

The week in Potter’ has been relaxed although not entirely without action. Liz and I arrived from Leeds on Sunday afternoon and chilled out for most of the afternoon, we had take away – which wasn’t really up the high stabdards of Milano’s but not entirely inedible, after watching some telly we ended up going to bed relatively early. Monday was fairly standard too, didn’t really do all that much apart from a bit of shopping and some work. Tuesday saw me head back to Leeds for the morning, I picked up some quality newvinyl which gives m an excuse to update my hi-fi system, which is in the process of coming to fruition. We ended up going out into Lincoln with Liz, Edd and some of Edd’s friends to a club called Sugarcubes. It was a dive. Your standard student rock based night. Cheap drinks though at £1 for a bottle of lager/soft drink. Liz got very very drunk and I took her home. We were both quite ill on our return and as I hadn’t been drinking I wasn’t convinced it was the alcohol.

Liz returned to work on Wednesday after a few days off due to stress. Whilst she was there I did some reading and caught up with some work. A few problems occurred during the evening, none of which are really suitable for discussion here. Thursday was a faily quiet day, we watched the Lincoln City vs Bristol Rovers play off semi-final 2nd leg and I was a little dismayed to see Lincoln lose. Lincoln are not my team, but as I have several connections to the city, I have a certain affection for the club. A couple of films and a late night later we arrive at today, Friday. Liz is at work from 4-9pm this evening and then I imagine we will be heading back to Leeds.

Our plans for the weekend include watching he Blackpool game on Saturday, followed by the FA Cup final then Wendy House. Sunday will be a chilled out day then liz will head home whilst I get on with some chores and errands. Finally, I thought I would mention the fact that I have tickets to see The Who!!