This is my first new blog since Reading’s latest play off failure, it’s not because I have been suffering from deep depression or anything, it’s just that there genuinely has not been enough hours in the week lately, mostly due to George playing cricket on Thursday as well as yesterday morning and afternoon, followed by a soggy day at the Lords Test today. The fact is, I had no choice but to get over the Play Off defeat quickly as today, George and I spent the day at the cricket with Basingstoke’s only followers of Swansea City who defeated Reading last Monday. In fairness to them they did not gloat once, probably because I launched a pre-emptive strike last Tuesday by writing them a congratulatory email. It was painfully difficult writing it, but it was actually quite liberating as well, at 43 years old, it is probably the first time I have reacted to defeat like an adult. I might try it again sometime.

All these days out and non stop action have coincided with me trying to work out some sort of recession busting personal spending budget that turned out more depressing than any play off victory, well it would have been if I had finished it. Metaphorically speaking, whilst doing this budget I ran off with the ball when I was 5-0 down, in fact if my budget was a darts match, the scorer would have said…”Bob, you require a fucking miracle!” The last week has cost me £150 for tickets for Lords and Wembley plus another £100 for Harry and I to go to the theatre for his birthday. Add to that train tickets plus beer and food money and the mind starts boggling out of control. I need to restore order soon before it escalates to unimaginable proportions, I don’t carry credit card or loan debts and I don’t intend to either, I spend enough time leaping about in bed worrying about financial survival as it is.

Maybe I should change my ways, shall I just say fuck it, what will be will be and just go and book a summer holiday with the kids that I can’t really afford, as this, more than likely, will be last time George comes on holiday with me until 2040 when he begrudgingly pushes me along Swanage seafront in a wheelchair as I piss myself and moan about immigration, the youth having no respect for their elders and how I used to leave my back door open in Hatch Warren without ever being burgled. Harry is now a teenager as well, so surely I should just book something before it’s too late, everyone else seems to buy things they can’t afford, it is a British tradition that has brought the country to it’s knees, maybe it’s time I got in on the action. However, I have only ever had a credit card debt once and I didn’t like it much, whereas some seem to like the thrill of having multiple debt, it scares me shitless, every time the postman turned up it was like a visit from the grim reaper.

I would just do a camping trip in England, in fact I probably will again, but the weather is such a bloody lottery, today being a fine example. I already do the Broughton trip to Swanage each year which is great fun but has lacked any real holiday weather in the last couple of years and is only really manageable because of the sheer number of people that keep each other company and entertain each others kids. Being sat in a tent with the company of two teenage boys as the rain cascades down the side of a tent is about as appealing a chilli coated red hot poker rammed up my anal passage and I expect the feeling is mutual. However, sitting with a cold beer watching the sun set over Corfe Castle as a couple of mackerel sizzle on a barbecue actually sounds quite appealing. Let’s be honest here, it’s a gamble that features no middle ground, heads you have a lovely rural break featuring barbecues and lazy days on the beach, tails you come home exhausted with trench foot and temple throbbing blood pressure induced by kids that now hate your fucking guts. Any parent who claims otherwise in complete denial.

So, if anyone reading this blog has a sure fire low budget way of how I can have an enjoyable week or two with my adorable, impeccably behaved and lovable children, please let me know. Otherwise it may just come down to a flick of a coin!