Friday 25 April 2008

Mo' money, mo' problems

I have so much to share, home made movies, grasshoppers, lizard watch, being paid less then the missus, bruised feet and crazy Spanish cartoons.
But I have my paretns visiting in about 6 hours so I am getting ready to surprise them at the apartment with bonus alcohol. Cant wait.

I'll share everything else once all has quitened down. Now I'm off to do the dishes so all looks well before our parents view the new casa tomorrow.

Wednesday 23 April 2008

My favourite photos of the last few days

So I have been promising them for a while, but here are my favourite few (15 just to keep it short) photos of the last few days.

Here is us leaving the country
P4091141
I'm not sure where that is, some place close to Southampton I think. Can anyone confirm?

Here is us on the beach.
P4091182
There aren't many photos of me and the missus together. Infact I think this is the only one. It was taken on teh day we had arrive. As you can tell we look very tired and worn out. That certainly was a long day.

One of my favourite things about Nerja is where it is located.P4121252
On a beach, surrounded by lots and lots of mountains. I can't wait to get up there and start having a wonder around those mountains.
When my foot is better of course.

As mentioned above, I love the surrounding beach.
P4121273
I also can't wait for the sea to start warming up so I can have a mess about in the sea. I don't know why but I just love water. I'll have to make sure I don't wear my expensive sunglasses when in the sea as last time a pair got knocked off by a wave.

On of my prettiest photos.
P4131332
This is the area leading up to our apartments, you cannot see our apartments, they're just off the left hand side of this photo.
It took a few attempts to get this shot and I hope to get many more like it, if I can keep still long enough.

Here is a slideshow of my favourite 15 or so photos of the first few days.


You can see all my photos by pointing your browsere here (flickr).

I highly recommend you check out my PANORAMIC photos.

Sunday 20 April 2008

Lizard Watch 20.04

It seems that my lizard spotting always comes in pairs.

The other day on our way down to the beach I spotted a lizard on the steps leading down to the beach.
At first I thought it was burnt and dead. It was all dark and had it's tail off. When I took a closer look I noticed it wasn't burnt but had a dark skin tone.
Tail-less
This was the first lizard I have spotted of this kind, I think its an Iberian Wall Lizard.

At first I didn't want to take the photo as I thought it was dead. But as I leaned closer I seen it move so I figured take a photo quickly.
Once I had taken the photo the lizard hadn't moved. So I tried to budge it. It moved, but not very far. We got a bit concerned that it might get stepped on with it being in the middle of the main steps leading to the beach so I kept trying to push it along but it just wouldn't move to the bushes.
I think that it was in a bit of shock as the tail had some liquid coming out of it so it must of only just let it go.
In the end I had to pick up and move it to the bushes.
Later on when we walked past to go home we had a look were we had left the lizard and he had gone which I think is a good sign.
I hope he was ok in the end.

The second lizard I spotted was just at the bottom of the road leading up to our house. Unfortunately this one only stood still long enough for me to get my camera ready but ran for it as I went to get a photo, so sorry no photo for number 6.

Lizard Watch Count: 6

Saturday 19 April 2008

Games I'm Playing This Week 2

Well my gaming habits have been a little quite last few weeks, but since the weather hasn't been great here and I've not been working I've had chance to get stuck in to some games I bought a while ago.

This week I have mostly been playing No More Heroes.
No More Heroes

I bought No More Heroes a few weeks before we left for Spain. I played a few hours of it and then put it away as it seemed like the kind of game I could spend a good couple of hours playing each day so I thought it would be best left until I had moved.

So this week I've gotten the chance to play with it for a few hours and I'm loving it.
For those that don't know, you control the protagonist Travis Touchdown, who receives a Beam Katana (think light sabre) and wants to become Santa Destroys top assassin (my current position is Rank 5). Queue lots of walking around streets and fighting till the death.

The graphics ooze style and look really good. There is a air of paying homage to retro games. Power ups and save points are highlighted with giant floating large pixeled signs. The leader board looks like something out of Space Invaders. The game also has a great sense of punkishness about it. You can definitely sense that alot of Japanese will be doing cosplay out of characters in the game (although what dont't they cosplay?). And their is a great deal of humour, for example to save the game you have to go the toilet. All very strange.
There isn't a great deal of skill, you hit the A button a few times, carry out a motion sensored final blow and move on to the next guy. The fun for me comes when rather then just one foot soldier attacking you, there can be dozens trying to kill you at once. It's a bit like an old school beat 'em up. Steets of Rage, Golden Axe, those kind of lost games. A whole lot of fun.
There is even one side mission were you have to kill 100 hundred enemies, and your arm takes a little beating with all the frantic swinging.

The thing I have most enjoyed about the game is all the sidemissions and objectives. Kind of like miniassasinations, take out various pizza owner's, 100 man war (mentioned above) or even fighting a pack of enemies and you can only take one hit, that's when a bit of skill and a lot of luck comes in. For example I've done Free Missions 1, 3 and 4, but keep losing on level 2. Damn you level 2, damn you.

I expected a lot from this game, I was looking for something meaty and enjoyable and it has delivered.
Now I'm off to see how high up the leader board I can get before my preordered Mario Kart Wii arrives and that is permanently stuck in my Wii.

Thursday 17 April 2008

Whats going on with you then?

Well things are now getting in to their stride in Nerja. We've gone from taking little steps and finding our place in this town to strides.
We've done a proper big shop (although the next big shop is at a different mercado just to test their prices - neither sell spit roast chicken which would easily tip the scales in favour of that establishment)

My feet are getting much better. I was able to walk down to the beach today in my sandals.
This may not seem like a great deal, but I have lately been walking around with as much padding on my feet as possible to stop too much pressure being put on my heels. That has meant I have been walking around in my hiking boots, not ideal for Spring time on the South coast of Spain.

The missus has been getting better sleeping. We underestimated how cold it would get of a night and didn't pick up a thick enough blanket. That's been fixed thanks to the blanket we bought off the airline. (Until a permanent fix can be found or it warms up)

We had interviews for are jobs today. I was told by the girl who we applied through that we both had jobs.
When I got to the interview/meeting thing, the gentleman I was talking to didn't know about the interview. Although he did seem pleased with me he said that a position had just come up. Which put me off as I was expecting to be told I had a job anyway regardless of someone else leaving.
I was told I'd get a call back today about starting Monday. I've not heard from them. We have spent the afternoon on the beach, but they had my mobile number which is excepting calls.
We've inquired about this so hopefully will know more tomorrow morning.
What I do know is that the person who interviewed us doesn't hire people, his boss does. Who was the person that greeted us at the beginning and was expecting us and also interviewed and hired the missus. So hopes are high.
Regardless of the outcome though, once I do have the call I'll start applying for bar work as extra income/socializing reason/practising Spanish.

We also got a video camera as a gift. It hasn't really been used yet. I'll try and get on to that and upload some videos soon.
Oh and sort out a photos post of my favourite photos up to now.

Monday 14 April 2008

Lizard spot 14 April

So I'm sat at home. We've sorted out the first half of our "Official Governmenty stuff," and got online banking sorted out. Phew.
Now I'm just chilling out, its a warm Spring day. About 18C. I've got the front door open letting in a cool breeze. I wish I could say there were romantic Spanish noises coming from the outside, like flamenco dancers and such, unfortunately there is just the noise of a half or so dozen construction sites, high pitched scooters racing up and down the main road towards the beach and a Spanish guy outside talking loudly to someone in the apartment above. I have just gone to the door and gave him the "stare." The missus is in the bedroom trying to sleep as she hasn't had much sleep.
But like Primal Scream have just sang over the iPod, "This is a beautiful day. It is a new day."
Things are really started to look up in Spain.

I really enjoy nature. Not in the way that I know all the animals and plants names and their favourite hobbies, but just the fact that there is wildlife all around us.
One of my favourite things about Spain is the difference in nature. Like I say, I'm not a massive follower of plants and animals, but I like the difference over here. Especially lizards. I think reptiles are pretty cool. This might have something to do with me being allergic to animal hair and reptiles not having much of this.

My favourite hobby when visiting Spain is lizard spotting. Last summer I was gutted I didn't see a lizard while on holiday until the last day. That made up for me not seeing any.

So I will start Lizard Spot. This is my way of letting you in on one of my favourite fun activities.
I'll record my attempts at spotting lizards. Not hunting them down ala Steve Irwin style, but just seeing if any race across rocks or even in restaurants (which happened last on holiday).
I'll almost always have my phone on me so I will always try to get a photo of the lizard, but it depends if the camera loads up fast enough and I can get a clear shot.

So I have been in Spain now for 6 days. Just under a week. My lizard count is an astonishing 4. I'm made up with that. It's still not hot here so I wasn't expecting to see any, but four already is pretty aces.
And luckily I have been able to photograph them all. See if you can spot them.

P4111237
Pretty easy. This was found just outside our house. Two days after arriving. We were heading down to the beach and I heard a rustling in the shrub by a wall and spotted a lizard. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with the camera. But a few seconds later I spotted this guy.

Two lizards again
We spotted my next two at a bust stop heading back home. This was today in fact. We had just been to sort out some bank stuff and while waiting for the bus I seen a lizard rush across the dirt. He stopped and then carried on and stopped again. The next thing I spotted was a second lizard, right in front of him swinging his tail about and hitting the first lizard in the face. Then a little brawl kicked off. But I think I scared them out of their fight when I went to take this photo. Can you spot them?
I did spot a third lizard a few minutes later. But he was running from the direction of the other two, so I'll just say that he was one of these two.

Also I'm not sure what kind of lizards these are? They are very small, quite common around South Spain. I think they are Iberian Wall lizards, but if anyone can confirm this it would be great.

So there is your first episode of lizard hunting. If I spot any other animal then I might start a different section (I'm talking about you snakes). But we have a friend that lives in the campo, which is like a rural area. He said that he had to move a massive chameleon out of the dirt track leading up to his house. If I spot one of them I'll be over the moon.

Hooray for wild life in Spain.

Sunday 13 April 2008

Segunda parte

Following on from yesterdays blog, here is the rest of my catch up.

On Thursday morning we had planned to go and sort some official stuff out, but because of the long and tiring first day we decided to take it easy. I volunteered to walk up the shop and pick up some breakfast.
The shop was still closed at 830, so I made my way back home. I tried to find a short cut as the shop is just behind us and the route I took was not very direct. After a few minutes of walking I spotted out apartments, but it was over some railing and down a slope. I decided that I'd take this route and give up on finding a shortcut and for the rest of the time here just go the long way.
When I got to the bottom of the slope there was a small drop, a few feet. A dropped down and landed really hard on my heels. I felt a sharp pain shooting straight up my foot. I immediately thought "I hope I haven't broke anything as I don't know how we would cope then."
I felt really sick as the pain wouldn't go away.
After a few minutes lying on my back I started to wriggle my toes and move my foot around. Everything seemed to be working fine. When I tried to stand up I kept getting a pin in my heels when I stepped on them. I hobbled half way home before feeling very faint and lying down. Then I continued the remainder of the very short walk across the car park to home where I collapsed on the floor, feeling sick, in pain and very very stupid.

The last few days it's been painful walking on my feet. I'm pretty sure, like 99.99% that I've just bruised my heels. One foot has a giant bruise underneath, but feels good. On sorer foot the bruise has just started to appear today. I'm confident this will be a huge bruise. But hopefully the bruise means there is nothing broken.
I've had to wear large walking boots that have a lot of support in them to get anywhere. It's been pretty comical. Although when we were down at the beach I was able to walk about pretty normal on the soft sand.
One foot is feeling much better today. The right one the feels more sore is taking its time to heal. I hope it doesn't interfere with too much of our "holiday time."

We also keep finding offer tiny problems that come along with a new flat. Like I found some teabags and decent milk in some Englishy store, but when I got home I found out we had no kettle. We also got some ham and cheese to make a toastie, or what is know here as a york'eso, but when we got home we found out there was no toaster.
Also the mobile phones are being insane. I can call everyone, but the missus doesn't receive calls. But she can call me. We can both call the new land line we have and that can call me but not the missus. I've been able to send texts, some to my parents which I know they have but I haven't had a reply from them even though I know they have sent some. It's mind boggling and frustrating. The Orange store that is in town has said there is a problem with the network. We were are is pretty much like being in Scotland or Wales. Somewhere where telephone and mobile companies don't concentrate all their efforts. So we hope that the phones sort themselves out soon.

Also another major problem we have is we have been watching too much Seinfeld. I packed three series of DVDs with me. We are on disc 3 of 4 of the last series. We have some more DVDs making there way over in a few weeks, but I hope we don't run out of things to keep us entertained while I still can't walk.

But other then the feet, the scare that we got when the missus couldn't get out money, the phones, the weird creaky bed and the DVDs, things do keep feeling better each day. Especially with the sun making and appearance and being able to hit the beach for a few hours.

Tonight we will be eating out. We have been walking to and from the shops too much the last few days. We still haven't done a big shop. Plus we don't know if any shops are open today. So we are going to treat ourselves. I think it's needed.

So I think that's pretty much up to date with everything. Now I can start letting you know all the good things that happen, like the other day when I spotted a lizard. There should be some good adventures and photos coming along soon.

Saturday 12 April 2008

Hola de espana

So we have arrived in Spain. Things could be going better. I'm walking like a cripple. We have and are still experiencing some mobile technology problems. Not to mention the BBC looks really weird outside of the UK. Also Spain has had some of its worse flooding in a while. We have spent probably more time indoors then out and it's all been very emotional up to now.
So much to say I guess the best place is to start from the beginning.

So Wednesday morning I got about 4 hours sleep. I woke up 2 hours before my alarm was to go off and decided to stay up as I was far too excited.

After saying goodbye to the missus family we headed for the airport. Everything went pretty smoothly in the airport. We got through check-in and security rather quickly. Although we did have to pay an extra £40 as we were carrying to much.

The plane ride wasn't the most fun. I was extra squashed on this journey as I had giant heavy boots on and a bag at my feet which left my legs with not a lot of room.
Arriving at the airport was a little bumpy. The weather outside was drizzly. The sky looked horrible, but the air warm as we stepped out. It wasn't the greeting we wanted, but it was OK.

We picked up our keys from the estate agents and made our way to the apartment. The area seems really residential. I guess we were expecting more of a holiday home, which it is not.
We were even more disappointed to find out the communal pool is more communal then we had expected. It's shared between two apartment blocks. It's empty and closed at the moment so we don't know what to expect when its full. I hope there is room to chill out in the summer.

We didn't have a lot of time in the apartment as we had to leave to go pick up some new fresh bedding and towels.
The trip to the nearby centro commercial was a bit of an adventure. We had no idea where to get off the bus or where to get the connecting tram. We played it cool and managed to time our bus departure correctly and get off in the right area. There was no problem with finding the large shopping centre and we quickly had picked up our bed stuffs and were about to head home. When we got to the tram stop there was a message on the electric board saying the tram was out of service. We hung around for a bit and nothing changed. So we decided to walk back down to the bus stop, it seemed pretty straight. But we soon realised that there was no path. So we went to a near by bus stop. There was no bus timetables or route numbers. We wondered about hoping to find something to help us. Eventually we bumped in to some Spanish people at one bus stop and had to ask in basic Spanish if we were at the right bus stop. We were told we were. Phew.
A bus ride later and we were at the main bus stop and had a ticket for the bus back home to Nerja. Only problem was we had to wait around for 45 minutes.

It was pretty emotional day altogether. We were in a foreign town. Tired. Sore feet. We had been up since 2 in the morning and hadn't eaten since before our flight. And the flat wasn't all we had dreamt.

We had a nice meal that afternoon. Ate out. When we got back we pretty much went to sleep immediately hoping that our first day would be are only bad day and that our views on the apartment and its areas were clouded by the fact we were tired, hungry, feeling lost and running on empty.
But day two had its own twist. More about that later.

You might spot my flickr is updated. All the photos need to be tagged and labelled. I'll post some of the better ones soon. For now though here is a panorama view of the distance from our house to the beach.

Home and Burriana
Click here for the full size.
If you want to know where we live, are apartment is the high rise that is towards the left edge of the panorama. If you can spot where the photos are stitched (which should be easy as the images have different brightness) we are just to the right of the edge of the first photo.

Right I'm off to read all of you. My RSS feed says I have 96 new messages. I'll be a little busy.

Tuesday 8 April 2008

Now it's time to get excited.

In less then 24 hours I'll be a few thousand feet above France.

Destination: A new home and a new life.

Me and the missus have been planning this move for a few months. The excitement has slowly built up like a snowball being rolled in the snow.
The last three weeks have been a bit tiring. We've travelled up North to say goodbye to my family, had to get rid of the pet fish and said goodbye to various friends and more recently the missus family.
All this saying goodbye wasn't fun. Obviously there are downsides when moving country, like not taking your loved ones with you.

But each visit to a family member or friend has had the conversation about how excited we are, but knowing that we still have day even weeks left. The excitement, being honest, has gotten a little tiring. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to step off the plane. Actually I can't wait to get our essential first few days out of the way and take the short 5 minute walk down to the beach. But those that have moved will know that feeling of all the anticipation having built up over months and you just want to get rid of it.
I just want so see the new house. Want to start my new life. I want to be able to take sunset walks down the beach in warm weather. Go to weekly farmers markets and haggle, badly, in Spanish.

Then there has been my constant daily checking of facebook groups for Nerja and message boards which has only increased my excitement to very high levels.

But there isn't long left. 23 hours and we will be taking off. A few more hours and we will be dumping our bags and enjoying the new beach and mountain scenery.
The anticipation will then be able to trail out of us the closer we get to the house.

The excitement. Well that's going to stay for some time.

Although there are a few things I could moan about, and that could make any jealous people smile. The Euro is at it's highest against the Pound ever. We won't be getting as much for our savings. Although we will be getting in jobs in Spain so hopefully not spend to much of the savings.
And the forecast for the first few days is going to be rain and mild temperature. It might not be until after the weekend that we see some really good "go and hang out at the beach weather."

Right I'm off to unpack my suitcase to see if I have packed everything.
The next you hear from me I'll hopefully be blogging my from my back garden.


But if we haven't got wifi, I'm sure there will be plenty of bars by the beach that we can use :D

And for those that missed it, make sure you check out my previous blog about many different ways to follow our adventure.

Wish us luck and I'll see you on the other side.

Thursday 3 April 2008

Is that it?

It's getting pretty close to the move. So close infact my phone now displays the calender entry on it's front screen.
Ready to move?
Everytime I look at my phone I see this

We moved the fish yesterday too. Unfortunately due to us panicking a bit about the fish we forgot to pick up the camera to celebrate their Big Move to a garden pond.
Annie and Pebbles before the move
Tank before the move
Tank after the move
Empty tank after the move
There werent any problems with moving the fish in the end. It might be hard to spot Annie (the bigger white fish) as about 50% of the fish in the new pond are big and white like her.
But they seemed to like their new surroundings. The cutest moment was Larry the Loach, after being let out of the bag, came up for a little mouthful of air before disappearing to the bottom of the pond, where he will most likely spend the remainder of his time playing at the foot of the waterfall in the bubbles. I hope he is enjoying himself
I'd love to see him, and the other three, again some time in the future.

So I've started my packing. I've already sent off about a third of my clothes to my mum so I can use some of the baggage allowance she had spare. The remainder of the clothes here are slowly filling up my brand new, to be used only once, suitcase.
Suitcase half full
The case looks like its about half full. But I know its not close to being full as every time I close the lid it drops down and closes without any resistance at all. I'm not close to filling it.

There isn't much more to pack. I have a few work pants and shirts hanging up. A few other things, a tshirt or two and pair of jeans. Basically anything that is coming back from the washing machine clean is going straight in to the suitcase.
Empty wardrobe
Now we have loads of hangers that have no use

There has been a bit of debate over the packing management too. I've packed my clothes by rolling everything. The way I see it things may be a bit taller, but they are not as wide. The missus on the other hand has gone for folding everything. Everything may be flat, but it's also longer. There is a bet going on as to who can fit in the most in the suitcase - without going over the 20kg allowance.

It's only a few more days now. Less then a week in-fact. I've got 1 more day in work, a weekend with the missus family then two days of cleaning up the flat and turning in to a giant stick of excitement. Can't wait!

Ducky
Ducky looking lost. Guardian of the fish no more.

Making a dash for The Future and Teh Interwebs

UPDATED 08 APRIL 2008

You might of noticed a few small changes to the layout of my blog recently.

With moving to Spain I've started to embrace new technologies to enable my family to keep more in touch with me.

Some new features to my blog are you can now easily digg any of my blog posts if you so please.

You can also find my Digg (what I am reading online), Twitter (what I am upto at this minute) and Flickr (what I can see) badges on the side and if you use either of these why not add my to your list of followers/diggers/contacts/friends. The more the merrier.

EDIT: We have now found a decent website for our videos. Check out robbiesherman.blip.tv for video updates of what we are up to.

Wednesday 2 April 2008

Get rich fast and die trying

I have found a new favourite website.

Starnow.

You can find jobs for a variety of different media vacancies, like being Miss England, being a TV extra, a musician or photographer.

Some of my favourite are from the Magazines and Newspapers section. This really is were journalism sells out. I'm not sure if this is a contributing factor to the state of journalism today or a product.
Basically you will be paid for writing stories of various problems you've had or things happen to you.

Some of my favourite ones are;

Did Computer Games Make You Turn To a Life of Crime?
A national newspaper wants your story and will pay hundreds of pounds to the right person.
Write a few lines about how computer games turned you to crime and if it's something we like, we'll call you straight back.

"Yes I was playing Mario Kart when I decided to go joy ride and chuck turtle shells at people in front of me. Although the downside was someone through some squid ink in my eyes and I couldn't see for 30 seconds."

My brush with facebook
Have you missed out on a job opportunity or discovered your partner was having an affair through using facebook?
Have you been sacked because of a silly picture you had on your site?
A woman's glossy weekly magazine wants to hear from you and will pay for your time and trouble.
Please apply now to take part or for more information.

I can imagine everyone, of you female readers, will be able to add 2cents to that.

Playing the same lotto numbers for more than 10 years and never won?
Have you been playing the same lotto numbers for ten years or more each week but are not giving up.
I need your story - I need to speak to you for a series I am doing for a women's magazine
Please include your phone number in reply as it is often not in the profile.
You'll be interviewed on the phone, need to provide a couple of pics as well
Please apply now to take part or for more information.

There is something great about loyalty. But you have to learn when to change.

Weird and wacky weddings
Did you opt for something out of the ordinary when you tied the knot?
A women's magazine is looking for brides who bucked the white wedding trend. So maybe you made your big day fancy dress, your dog was a bridesmaid, or you got married with dolphins?
Whatever your story, if you haven't appeared in a women's magazine before then please apply today....

What are the chances Jordan is thinking "damn it, if I change my name to Jordont will anyone recognise my wedding photos"?
If any story can get printed without a personal quote from the bride saying "people have always said I'm a bit mental hehe" then I will gladly except that journalism is only just hitting it's peak.

Is your name Jesus or do you have a birthday on 25th Dec?
Is your name Jesus first or middle?
Do you have a birthday on Dec 25th?
I would love to hear form you for a UK womens magazine story.
You will be interviewed on phone, need to send pics and possibly take part in photo shoot.
Please include your phone number I reply as I am under deadline
Please no time wasters - only apply if you are prepared to be involved in the article.

I don't even know where to start with this.
How did they get this idea past the editor?
What made them think this would be good?
Have they already cleared some space above the fireplace for their Pulitzer?
What made them think writing "please no time wasters" would deter anyone?
Do they have the internet in Longview Psychiatric Unit?
Will this be there lead story?

Anyway, I highly recommend you check out the site. You might be able to make some extra cash. If your story gets published just remember me ;)

Tuesday 1 April 2008

A little bit of Radiohead news.

Not content with distributing In Rainbows in their own way, Radiohead have another way of marketing their singles.

With the release of Nude just around the corner (next Monday on CD single or can be downloaded now at some online stores) Radiohead have set up a website so people can buy seperate components of the song, ie bass, voice, guitar and remix their own version. If they want to people can also upload their creation and have everyone vote on them.

radioheadremix.com

Thats much better then just sticking it Capital Radios 8 song playlist.

Neat.

PS Radiohead take over BBC Radio2 today with a whole bunch of live performances and interviews. It all kicks off at 2.

Happy April Fools

Happy April Fools day people. This is always one of my favourite days as I like taking part in, reading about, seeing practical jokes.

Unfortunately I haven't got the chance to carry out any practical jokes as the missus was far too asleep this morning to realise I would even be speaking to her.

But really it doesn't get any better then this

The Cottingley Fairies.

I salute you Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright, great work. Genius stuff from some creative kids.

Obviously some modern day ones are taken far too seriously, like this one from The Sun saying Fabio Capello can't be bothered learning English so has told the England squad to learn Italian.
Some of the 'Reader Comments' are pretty idiotic. Football fans at times can be a proper stupid bunch.
One fan Man United fan said "The clue is in the job title, "England Manager", if you cant lean it, take a hike!"

What has been your favourite practical joke, either in popular culture or something more personal to you?
Have you done any pranks this morning?

PS, I'd just like to add, my favourite piece of news today, in a non-joke way, is the reports of the man who lost his house over the weekend when the plane crashed in to it. With the greatest respect to the pilot and crews families, I couldn't help but smile at news that the man of the house won't be returning home just yet as he is finishing off his golfing holiday and his wife has good taste so she can do the decorating.