Heroes and Villians

It's been a long-standing joke in my house at least that I am a one-man goal drought when it comes to playing FIFA. In fact, that pretty much covers any football game I've ever played. I remember playing the Pro Evo league at work over 2 years ago and recording the only 2 0-0 draws of the whole tournament, and six 1-0 wins (out of a total 16 games played.). Basically, I don't score. Ever. But I rarely concede either.

Anyway, rambling about that aside, I was taken by a friend to see my very first ever proper real-life football game in a proper stadium with Bovril and everything to watch Aston Villa vs West Ham in Birmingham last weekend and the score was, as predicted, 0-0.

The irony in this came home with me when my housemates jumped on my goal drought extending to real teams but not only that but it was really rubbed in four day later when Villa produced a 10-goal thriller at the same stadium, defeating Blackburn 6-4 in a Carling Cup game which, incidentally, I did not attend.

Typical.

I guess if I'm to become a proper Aston Villa "fan", (and I'm still not there yet, although there's only one team I like nearly as much as them...and it's NOT Arsenal) then I'd have to go see them more often than once, and hopefully see some goals in the meantime, although as yet I have no desire to start chanting or buying replica kits, so "fan" status is probably still a fair way off yet.

With that said, the game itself was good fun to watch live. It's a very different atmosphere to Sky Sports and I'll not be waiting another 25 years to go back.

What I can wait another 25 years for is another stocktake. Some people who know me know that the day after Tuesday, quite possibly the most difficult day I've ever experienced in my whole life, is not the best day to be having this 13-hour shift whereby the entire second half was taken in near-silence scanning every barcode in the store. I hated the whole thing. Hated it. It was wholly neccessary and the ends justified the means but getting to that end point and having to be up for a 7am start the following day practically finished me off.

When I worked in the Lighthouse in Edinburgh 12-16 hour shifts were common. I used to lap them up. In fact there was a time I'd request them because the hourly pay was a godsend, and the tips I'd earn doing a double shift were well and truly worth it. not only that, but I lived a 3-minute walk from the pub itself so travel costs were nil. It was ideal in every way, even if the guy that ran the company was a complete douche. I don't know if I'm getting old or lazy or what, but 13-hours the other day just felt longer than any shift I ever pulled in there and I was seriously tiring out at the end of it. I really hope it's not age as I'm only 24 and if I start getting old now then I'm screwed in the years to come.

In fact that's not even worth thinking about.

I've got plenty of Villa games left in me yet.