They think its all over..............

Well my final teaching placement is over now, and I have gained qualified teacher status! Just have to wait for a bit to gain the Post Graduate Certificate of Education.

Welcome Mr Holloway

So Argyle have appointed Ian Holloway the new manager. Well this comes as a massive shock to some of us (or not as the case may be!) Let's hope he does well - as he did at QPR. For now its welcome and good luck and lets see what the new season will bring.

Match assessment - better, must do better still!

Sorry if you really can't stand football - but I love it!
So England are through to the quarter finals, where we will undoubtedly get knocked out by Portugal. My reasons for thinking this - well, judging on recent performances we wont beat a better class of opposition, which Portugal are. Also, its Luiz Felipe Scolari and he's knocked us out in the quarter finals in the last World Cup and also in the European Cup. One difference, in both those games we took the lead early via Michael Owen. Yeah well - he wont be scoring any goals for a long time to come! I wish him a speedy recovery, and hope he will return to the quality player that he is. Somehow I think he may have played in his last World Cup though - I can't see him still playing for England in 4 years time.
We did play better against Ecuador though, and we have shown that we can score goals in the second half. However now we're in the quarter finals, we need to step up a level.
Ok footie rant over. Am trying to organise a trip to Plymouth in August, but the stupid FA decided that having home games the weekend either side of camp (where I could go down and see them and then head on up to camp - only in Barnstaple) would be LAUGHABLE! Instead they've put a home game the weekend during camp. I haven't spoken to Owen - but I can imagine he's not happy about it. Last year we missed 2 home games, and this year we're missing 1. Opps - I said footie rant over, never mind. Ok so footie rant is over now.
Really it is!

News Flash - I DIDN'T GO TO THE PUB!!!

Well - this weekend was training weekend for the camp that I'm doing this summer. It was cool to catch up with some of the other leaders - and get to know the new ones. It's weird to think that I am now the longest serving female leader - apart from the three who are the management team, who have actually only been doing it a couple of years longer then me. Anyways - was also busy winding Owen up (who was apparently broke so couldn't afford to come) about the stuff that I'd volunteered him for - like doing arts and crafts, life guarding etc (things that he would really hate doing to say the very least!)
As is normal on training weekend, we went and did some "evangelism with the locals" (commonly known as a trip to the pub) on the Friday night. However, this weekend we had the option of going on the Saturday night as well. Normally, as some of you might have guessed I would have jumped at this chance, but not this time. This time I was far too tired and stayed with some of the other guys watching Narnia. I hope this is not a sign of things to come!
Training weekend was cool, busy and hectic as always but cool fun.

Match assessment - must do better!

Having just watched the England Trindad and Tobago game I have say WE WERE RUBBISH!!!!!!! Ok so we won, but we played soo badly that we could have lost - and saying that against Trinidad and Tobago is huge. If it takes us until the 81st min to score against them, what hope have we of scoring against a better side - like Brazil for example! Sven - SORT IT OUT! Having said that- we are through to the knock out stages so YEAH! I'm sure more England related posts will be written over the course of the next month or so.

Good bye Mr Pullis

Well, finally the announcement that we all knew was coming has finally come. Tony Pullis (Argyle manager) has left the building! He has done a good job, but if he wants to go back to the club that sacked him, fair play to him. I hope the board make the right decision about his replacement. There are of course the usual rumors about replacements going around - some interesting characters are apparantly in the frame. Ah well - will wait and see, but for now goodbye and thank you Mr Pullis.

Forgiveness

Last night I saw a really moving play called the Hiding Place - based on Corrie ten Boom's book of the same name. It is all about how her Christian faith, and her belief in God helped her forgive a Nazi soldier who she had seen beating other women up in a concentration camp.

The book is set in Holland during the Second World War, Corrie and her family hid Jews and did some resistance work. Eventually she got arrested, put in prison (where she tried to convert the chief officer) and then sent to a concentration camp. After she got released, near the end of the war she went round Europe preaching about forgiveness. On one such occasion, a man came up to her, and told her he was a guard at that concentration camp, and has since become a Christian. He then asks her to forgive him. She prays that Jesus will help her to forgive him, and says that she will shake his hand. As she shakes his hands, she is suddenly able to forgive him.

It got me thinking - if she can forgive him for that, how is it that I find it hard to forgive people that do lesser things?

Madness I tell you!

Having written about standing in the pouring rain waiting to see Westlife - here is the proof! This is a picture of Gemma and me standing waiting to go in. Most people ended up getting the macs - in whatever colour the woman was selling them in at the time.