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Relegation zone
He runs, he shoots, he scores…not
It’s only a game

Notes:

1. The haiku is probably the easiest form of poetry for the beginner. If you don’t usually write poems, why not give it a try?
2. I am not an active football fan — i.e., I do not attend matches. I’m more of an armchair fan; stuff the match — just look up the results on teletext later.
3. And that last line is sure to cause controversy. As former Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly once said, “Football’s not a matter of life and death … it’s more important than that.”

The Lincoln area awoke to a sharp frost yesterday morning. We’re used to it by now, of course; in fact, compared to December and January, yesterday was relatively balmy.

But it did prove one thing: I’m one heck of a worrier. Why else would I have suggested, on looking out onto our back garden, that “perhaps we should put a cold frame or a cloche over our weeds”, or “protect our delicate baby nettles with a fleece“.

However, besides being a worrier I am also (no surprises here) a real meanie. Hence, there’s no way I’m forking out (little gardening joke there. Get it?) for ‘proper’ horticultural fleece when I can save money by using a fleece I already own.

Let’s just hope our fashion-conscious exotic weeds don’t realise they’re wearing a surplus hoodie.

Remember that full set of Babylon 5 DVDs we bought ourselves for Christmas? Well, we’re already into the fourth series. (Only one more season after this one — boo hoo!)

This might be a good time to point out, for the benefit of anyone else who is about to purchase the boxed set, that the discs you buy might not be arranged in the best viewing order. In fact, they might not even be packaged in a sensible order at all. So, before you even insert the first disk, go and get the Babylon 5 master list. We cannot guarantee, however, that it will help you to learn to speak Vorlon.

Just make sure it’s switched off when you visit.

Puzzled? Let me explain…

Having let it languish on the shelves for a couple of years, I’ve just started reading John Todd’s ‘Race for the World‘, and it’s already thrown up some amazing facts, including this bit where the author is describing his journey through Canada:

The single disappointment was Niagara Falls, which had been turned off while some repairs were done. [A] large notice informed me that this was the opportunity of a lifetime, to stand where normally thousands of tonnes of water cascaded down.

But what if you’d actually come all that way just to see the water?

I’ve never heard of Niagara Falls being ‘turned off’. It’s never cropped up in a TV general knowledge quiz or trivia book or anywhere; once heard, it’s something you’re unlikely to forget. And, in case you doubt, it’s also absolutely true.