I'll be brief......

I have felt lousy today, with just about every function in my body not working properly. Couldn't play golf, can't eat without chucking up, a headache like a carving knife into the frontal lobe, bunged up, sore throat, deaf in one ear. Most of the extended family have had this at some point this week, but it seems to relish in picking me out on the weekend. It's not as if I can go sick tomorrow when I have been drafted in to give a presentation for the Mysterious M because he is off. Why accept the request and then take a days leave? Thats why I like the bloke, because thats exactly the sort of thing I'd do, and then dump onto someone else. So, it's loads of Imodium, Beechams Flu Plus, Gaviscon and Ibuprofen for me and hope it carries me through, because if I feel like this afterwards then I'm going to fuck off home and back to my bed.

Which is where I've spent today. It's hard when you're feeling so shit to find any chinks of light in amongst the literal gloom of such a shitty day. In fact it barely got properly light here today, plus it's fucking cold as well. However, I heard a song that is really bugging me because I really like it, but as usual the knobber DJ didn't announce it, or name check it afterwards. It's a slow -ish record , almost Coldplay like, but the only thing I know is the chorus which goes...

"Ohhhh, look what you've done, you've made a fool of everyone"

Anyone know who thats by? You'll have my gratitude for at least 10 minutes or so!

Secondly, I took the opportunity to watch a film someone lent to me. It's called The Football Factory
and Christ, did it keep my attention. It's directed by a bloke called Nick Love, who seems to be the "enfant terrible" of British movies. If I put my art critic head on I might be inclined to say the film was a 2 hour onslaught of violence and foul language (yes, I know....but let me finish for fucks sake) upon the senses . However as a football fan, and a fan of the Club the "hero" follows I found it compelling, exciting, funny and ironically repulsive. It has an almost "punk" feel to it, with it's massively politically incorrect overtones. I've followed Chelsea for years and the brand of violence portrayed in the film, in my experience, does not exist in the Premiership these days by virtue of the fact that the real nutters have been priced out of the game. Having said that, I remember Donal Macintyres expose a few years back which seemed to show me how wrong I was. But at every game I go to these days the fans do mix outside the ground, so if these "firms" do exist then it must go off somewhere other than the ground.

Back to the film. The language is bad, peppered with liberal use of the word "fuck". But what really stands out is the liberal use of the C word. Now, some may question whether this word is ever used so frequently, and I only use it in this blog when someone or something really gets my goat (Simon Cowell, Iraqi terrorists, Maggie Thatcher, Davina McCall, Car Park attendants, Doctors receptionists etc), who can only be fittingly described using the C word. But go to London, stand in The Mitre just up the road from Stamford Bridge, and yes you'll hear as many C's as F's. No one uses the MF phrase because none really think they're Americans. Besides, it's too long a word for most. The story is simple, the usual "footie fan lives for punch ups on Saturday, likes casual sex, drinks Lager and does a few lines or tabs but starts to question his existence" and follows a narrative stream starting with his nearly being beaten to death by Millwall fans. Cue flashback 3 weeks and the events leading to the beating start to unfurl. Like I say, lashings of violence, realistically portrayed, with dark humour and some spot on acting, especially from the superb Frank Harper as Billy Bright, the psychotic number 2, and Tamer Hassan as the leader of the Millwall boys. The argument they have at their sons football match is priceless. Overall, a 9/10 and worth it even for the "Making of.." documentary where the language is just as bad, and you discover the fight scenes were shot using real, well known former hooligans.

Not one for the girls though...unless they are very broadminded and not squeamish.

Later, GrocerJack