Thursday 1st December 2011 - Rich has just awoken to the realisation that today is the first day of December – and would therefore like to take this opportunity to salute all of the thousands people out there who spent the last month diligently cultivating moustaches for the noble cause that is ‘Movember’! No doubt there are many men across the land who are very excited this morning at the prospect of finally being able to shave off their itchy face furniture..!
Friday 2nd December 2011 - Rich is starting to feel quite festive, having come on an outing this evening with some of his favourite people to Lincoln’s Christmas market! About to partake in a warming Gluhwein – just the thing you need when your day at work has been about as much fun as stapling angry scorpions to your own legs!
Saturday 3rd December 2011 - Rich just walked past his local branch of Greggs – & is sad to see that they appear to have stopped selling the starfish-shaped chocolate-covered biscuits that were previously a big favourite in the Fisher household. Was always a thing of great hilarity to be able to go into a mainstream high-street bakers and utter the immortal words “Can I have a chocolate starfish please?”
Sunday 4th December 2011 - Rich enjoyed an excellent evening up in Merseyside last night at a fancy dress housewarming party thrown by his great friends Paul & Betty! The dressing up theme was ‘horror movies’, & so decided to attend as evil henchman Malachi from ‘Children of the Corn’ – a pretty straightforward outfit that simply involved donning a long ginger wig & carrying a scyth. Most important outfit accessory though was actually the wife – who, game legend that she is, dutifully spent the evening dressed up as a corn on the cob!
Monday 5th December 2011 - Rich is looking forward tonight the latest instalment of his new favourite TV programme. No, not ‘Desperate Scousewives’ (please!) – rather, a series on The Travel Channel called ‘Trabant Trek’, which follows the adventures of a group of people attempting to drive all the way from Hungary to Cambodia in a fleet of three Trabants! Has brought back a lot of memories of the Mongol Rally..!
Tuesday 6th December 2011 - Rich is amazed by what a small world it is sometimes. Had tonight’s episode of EastEnders on the goggle box earlier this evening, and felt compelled whilst watching it to post on Facebook about what a truly sinister individual Doctor Yusef is. Turns out from subsequent comments on that post that the actor who plays Doctor Yusef is not only from Nottingham, but also attended Greenwood Dale Comprehensive..!
Wednesday 7th December 2011 - Rich read a really interesting article the other week in the men’s magazine ‘Esquire’ about Queso de Cabrales – a Spanish blue cheese that, according to legend, has been known to make people hallucinate! Was so intrigued by this claim that decided to order some of the cheese online… and excitingly, the delivery arrived yesterday! As it turns out, hallucinations have been lacking – though to be fair, that’s probably for the best! A bloody nice cheese though…
Thursday 8th December 2011 – Rich notices that mullet-headed rock legends Def Leppard are playing in Nottingham tonight at the Capital FM Arena! Went to uni years ago with someone who knows one of the traffic cops who attended the scene of drummer Rick Allen’s infamous car crash – & ended up being the person who had the grim job of having to retrieve Allen’s missing arm. Can anyone beat that as a rock’n'roll claim to fame?
Friday 9th December 2011 - Rich is is aching this morning from his weekly Thursday night game of five-a-side football – though is savouring every minute on the pitch at the moment in light of the news the other week that enforced retirement from playing is likely to be an imminent prospect. Was explaining this to some of the kids at work the other day, which resulted in a classic comment from one of the boys: “Never mind Mr Fisher, you could always take up playing bowls instead…”!
Saturday 10th December 2011 - Rich is watching last night’s episode ‘Come Dine With Me’, as filmed in Nottingham. You kind of hope that your home city will be well represented – alas though, these people are at best a bit dull & at worst quite unpleasant. Left feeling all the more baffled at the fact that Andrea Wells – brilliantly entertaining friend of the Fisher family & amazing party host – never got on the show a few years ago when she applied…
Sunday 11th December 2011 - Rich & the wife have just arrived at the Doncaster Dome, & are looking forward to an evening of live darts – following a spontaneous decision earlier earlier today to get tickets for the semi finals & final of the PDC Players’ Championship! If any of you are staying in & wanting some proper entertainment instead of the chuffin’ X-Factor final, then tonight’s action is being televised live on ITV4. Let’s! Play! Darts!
Monday 12th December 2011 - Rich is sad that an excellent weekend is over. Along with a very entertaining evening last night at the darts in Doncaster, a notable highlight was a trip into downtown Nottingham on Saturday afternoon to have a go on ‘The North Star’ – the 200-foot high fairground ride that’s the centrepiece of this year’s Christmas market. To someone who is an unabashed wuss when it comes to rides, it was a slightly terrifying experience – however, the views of the city from the top were amazing!
Tuesday 13th December 2011 - Rich has had a pretty good day at the office today! Got observed teaching a lesson this morning as part of annual performance review… & happily, it went pretty well. Suspect that this may all be down to the decision to psych oneself up during the journey to work this morning by playing ‘Eye of the Tiger’ in the car on full blast!
Wednesday 14th December 2011 - Rich is very excited to report that him & Emma are moving into a lovely new house next week! Actually accepted an offer for Fisher Towers way back in October… & then found the new place & agreed a price for it a few days after that. Have been deliberately keeping quiet about it all however over the last few weeks, out of a paranoid fear of jinxing everything! Finally exchanged contracts though yesterday – so it looks like the move is definitely happening..!
Thursday 15th December 2011 - Rich & various members of his family spanning three generations enjoyed a tremendous evening last night being entertained by a man who has long been a massive hero to them – yes, the great Rolf Harris! Rolf was in Nottingham performing live at the Royal Concert Hall – & as well as singing all of his hits, he also did a massive painting like the ones he used to do back in the day on Rolf’s Cartoon Club! Epic…
Friday 16th December 2011 - Rich is currently sat at a table in one of the hospitality suites at Nottingham Forest FC, enjoying his annual work Christmas do! Given how bad Forest have been this season, it really makes quite a lovely change to be able to come to the City Ground safe in the knowledge that you’re not going to have to sit through 90 minutes of really shit football. Anyone up for a drunken kickabout on the pitch later, Nottingham Academy folks?!
Saturday 17th December 2011 - Rich really should be packing boxes right now in readiness for Monday’s house move… but instead, is actually up in Manchester with some of his favourite people, enjoying Malaysian crisps & some top-draw live music courtesy of indie rock legends Half Man Half Biscuit! Drove up this afternoon across the Peak District – the hills looked amazing covered in snow…
Sunday 18th December 2011 - Rich had an excellent night last night watching the mighty Half Man Half Biscuit! Very entertaining journey back from the gig too – on the way back to the car, walked past a pub from which came the sound of a live band playing a thrash metal version of ‘Rasputin’ by Boney M. Random! Then stopped at Maccy Ds for food – amusing due to 90% certainty that the bloke serving was actually moon-faced posho Tom Chaplin from mid-noughties indie mediocrities Keane! How the mighty have fallen..!
Monday 19th December 2011 - Rich has just awoken from his final night’s sleep at the current Fisher Towers! Actually quite sad in many ways to be leaving the place after nine years – though certainly WON’T miss the noisy chav pondlife next door… and very excited to be finally on the way to the new house! Off shortly to collect hired white Transit van – via the newsagents of course, in order to buy the obligatory copy of the Daily Star to leave lying on the dashboard..!
Tuesday 20th December 2011 - Rich & Emma were very excited to wake up this morning in their beautiful new house! Moving day yesterday was inevitably hectic, & the constant drizzle didn’t particularly help matters. But it’s all done now! Unpacked boxes everywhere – but now have all the time in the world to sort them out…
Wednesday 21st December 2011 - Rich & the wife are about to embark on their second trip to Ikea in less than a week, in order to acquire more stuff for the new house! Hopefully there won’t be a repeat of what happened on the previous trip – when so much stuff was bought that, after loading the car, there was only actually room for one person to get in! Em drew the short straw & had to be abandoned at the retail park..!
Thursday 22nd December 2011 – Rich is counting the minutes until 3pm tomorrow, & the long-awaited end of what has felt like the longest school term in history! Much of the last few days has been spent getting the KS2 kids rehearsed for their carol concerts this afternoon and tomorrow morning – with this year’s songs including Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want for Christmas Is You’ & Boney M’s ‘Mary’s Boy Child’! The KS1 children meanwhile did a nativity play the other day – a performance which included, brilliantly, a Rolf Harris song!
Friday 23rd December 2011 - Rich fears his mind may be scarred forever by this week’s disturbing tabloid revelations about evergreen children’s entertainers The Krankies, & the fact that they are basically a pair of sex-crazed swingers! If any of you want to see the stories for yourself, just type ‘Krankies’ and ‘swinging’ into Google. Though it’s probably a good idea NOT to do this at work – it may lead to you being asked some VERY awkward questions if your employer screens internet usage..!
Saturday 24th December 2011 - Rich is overjoyed to have finally finished work for Christmas! Final day of term yesterday saw a respectable haul of presents from the children, though nothing quite as good as one of gifts received LAST Christmas from one of the kids – a pack of novelty socks, each one with a picture of one of the Muppets on it. A brilliantly backhanded way of telling your teacher that you think he’s a bit of a muppet!
Sunday 25th December 2011 - Rich wishes everyone a Merry Christmas! Just done present-opening with the wife, & pleased to report that Em was very pleased with her main gift – a trip to Frimley Green in January to see the opening day of the Lakeside World Darts Championship! Looking forward now to heading out later to meet the family for Christmas dinner at the Dog and Duck – a lovely pub out in the Nottinghamshire countryside…
Monday 26th December 2011 - Rich had a brilliant Christmas Day yesterday, with quality time spent with the family… & great generosity shown by the tubby fella in red with his gift offerings! Off later meanwhile to see the OTHER tubby fella in red – yes, Andy Reid & his hapless Nottingham Forest team-mates, who have a Boxing Day match against Peterborough. Sadly, if the Reds’ recent form is anything to go by, this afternoon’s 3pm kick-off is likely to be the point where all festive cheer is killed stone dead..!
Tuesday 27th December 2011 - Rich sadly proved to be correct in his prediction about yesterday’s visit to the City Ground – with Forest so poor that him & his brother stopped watching the match in the second half, in order to have their own game of mini table football! Big thanks to Cassie Wright, from whom the table football game was received as a Christmas present. It may have to be brought along to every Forest game from now – might be the only way of getting to see any goals..!
Wednesday 28th December 2011 - Rich & the wife had an excellent ‘second Christmas Day’ yesterday with Emma’s sister Laura & her husband James! One of the highlights of the day was watching Laura & James’ two-year-old boy Archie open his present from ‘Aunty Emma & Uncle Rishy’ – a ukelele, no less! The grooming for future rock stardom starts here..!
Thursday 29th December 2011 - Rich & Em partook last night in one of the obligatory rites of passage for any people who have just moved into a new house – yes, going for a drink in their new local pub! This will be lost on the non Nottingham-dwellers among you, but the boozer in question is the Traveller’s Rest on Mapperley Plains – & very nice it is too! As a seasonal special, they are currently selling mulled ginger beer wine!
Friday 30th December 2011 - Rich & the wife are up at silly o’clock & sat in the departure lounge at Liverpool’s John Lennon airport… & are muchly looking forward to a week in France visiting Emma’s mum & her husband Peter! A big ‘up yours’ though to the conniving scrotes at Ryanair – not only did apply a £24 surcharge for paying for the flights on a DEBIT card, they also just tried to scam an additional £40 for Em’s suitcase being 0.38kg over the 10kg limit!
Saturday 31st December 2011 - Rich , after a busy couple of weeks, is loving how chilled out everything is in rural France! And as is customary when New Year’s Eve arrives, have spent some time this morning reflecting on 2011. The year has certainly had its ups & downs – however, what with getting married & moving into a lovely new house, it has overall been a largely happy time. Lots to look forward to in 2012 too, what with tickets having been bagged for both the Olympics & the Stone Roses! Happy New Year, everyone!
