That was the week that was

Hi everyone (or am I just down to one reader now?)

Right, so, where was I?

Oh, thats right, college started back on Tuesday evening and I did some writing. Not really any new totty to report either (I knew you'd ask so I thought I'd better get the answer in first). So anyway as it was the first night back after Christmas the class kicked off (as always) with a spot of monkey writing. Now sometimes we're given a word to write around and sometimes a scenario. This time it was a word. And that word was....

Aubergine.

No, me neither.

But I managed to write something. Not that it will be expanded on nor, in fact, remembered much passed this blog. So then we came to the main writing exercise of the night which was using memories as a way to create something new. The finale of which was that we were to try and create a new short story from one of our distant memories. Now we could write it into a genre we like or take a chance and be given a genre from the tutor. Me being me opted for the latter and was given the romance genre. Yes thats right romance.

So I had to create a short story in the romance genre.....
using the memory of playing in an under 9's football game.

Anyway, here is what I came up with.. (reproduced word for word with no editing)

The boys were running and chasing the ball with every ounce of their being. The rain was hammering down but they didn't care. They had a league title to win. For the parents, however, it was a different matter. Lined up on the side of the pitch they stood in ones and twos or small groups, clutching thermos flasks or driving their hands into coat pockets trying to stave off the terrible conditions, shouting out encouragement to their respective offspring every now and again.
Geoff shouted to his son
"Come on Sam! get that tackle in! That's it son!"
His eyes caught a drop of water on the peak of his cap and with a shake of his head it was sent with many others careering down to the earth.
"Your son made a good tackle there" said a womans voice beside him
Geoff looked around at the big thick hooded red coat standing next to him.
"Yes, he's not a bad defender is my Sam. Needs to be a bit meaner and harder in the tackle but that will come. Which is yours by the way?"
"The boy that got tackled" she replied
"Oh.. so you're with.." 
"The opposition" 
Geoff couldn't see it properly but felt sure that the woman was smiling at him,
"Well he's a nippy little winger is your lad" Geoff said feeling a little uncomfortable
"Yes" she said "he takes after his father in that respect"
"Good runner is he?" Geoff asked
"You could say that. As soon as he found out that I was expecting he was off like a shot. I'm Sue by the way. My son is Daniel."
"I'm sorry to hear about the father" Geoff said, finding that he wanted the conversation to end
"What about you if you don't mind me asking" Sue said
Geoff shuffled from foot to foot willing the ground to open up and swallow him whole.
"Well I , er, I.." he stuttered
"I'm sorry I've embarrassed you haven't I? Stupid me" Sue said. She adjusted the hood of the coat and Geoff saw her face. From underneath the hood poked a few blonde hairs which rapidly became wet. Her blue eyes beamed a look of concern and he felt his face become hot and suddenly realised that he must be blushing.
"No, not at all. Just not yet used to asking me that" he said, "I'm in the middle of a divorce."
"That's terrible" Sue said, "It must be awful for Sam"
"We're trying to keep things civil for his sake" Geoff said, "It isn't easy though."

And that was as far as I got. And probably as far as it's ever going to go. But not bad for about 15 minutes or so spent on it. So what do you think?

So what else has been happening?
The big thing that caught my eye was actually a couple of moments on the same theme.

Cheating in sport.

The bigs news event in the sporting world was the interview conducted by Oprah Winfrey with the now disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong. It transpires that he won the tour de France by using illegal means. But one phrase stuck out me. 'Win at all costs'.

In football, the Liverpool striker Luis Suarez, admits to diving to get his side a penalty in a game against Stoke.

In a snooker tournament, when a match was finely poised, the player Ricky Walden called a foul on himself even though no one else had seen it. Walden went on to lose the match.

Now in which, out of those three incidents, does the person involved come away with the most credit?

To me its the third one. Walden could have kept quiet, said nothing and maybe gone on to win the frame and then the match. We'll never know because he took what he saw as the fair and sporting option. 

So why would anyone cheat in professional sport?

I think its coming down to one thing: money
I don't know about the cycling, I can only go on what I read and heard on the news. But in the premier league football the vast sums of money being thrown around must bring about huge amount of pressure to, and here comes the phrase again, 'win at all costs'. And its not just Suarez either and its not just diving that goes on. All manner of goings on from shirt pulling to blatant play acting happens in what is supposed to be a sporting arena. 

Now maybe I'm being fantastically naive but is it time to say enough is enough and that we should return to a time when playing these sports in a true sporting manner was more important than winning at all costs, even if it means some of the big tv corporations, whose wealth gives the players untold riches but seems to detatch the clubs from reality, will withdraw their funding? Which would you rather have: a club that wins by using underhanded methods or a club that comes close but missed out by playing fair? It's a tough call with no easy answers.

Ta ta for now