Education, Education, Education
Mar 23rd, 2009 by 'holic
As weekends go, that was not at all bad. Grandson (one of six!) was unbeaten in two matches for his under seven team on Sunday, but Saturday was more important for his footballing development.
A shopping excursion in the morning saw Granddad fork out for an HDMI cable (sixty quid! It’s a bit of wire for Christ’s sake) so the kids can watch HD movies from the laptop on the TV. We needed to test it. Oh dear, Fulham against Manchester United is on Veetle, but wait. Fulham are one up. ‘Quick, lad, come and watch this.’
‘I didn’t know you could get football on the laptop, Grandad’. I’m not sure Mum and Dad will be best pleased I have shown him how. ‘Will Arsenal be on later?’
‘Oh yes!’
There is some pain for him as United concede a second and I am making all the right noises. ‘Never mind mate, at least you’ll see your other team win later.’ The Rooney sending-off could not have been better timed. Father and grandfather confirm what a bad example the idiot is setting. Manchester United are self-destructing in the eyes of a seven year old, and I am chuffed to mintballs!
At St James Park Manuel Almunia does his best to get us off to the worst possible start. I pray to a higher authority that he saves the penalty. A lad leaps for joy when the prayer is answered. I’m confident we will take over in the second-half, but Veetle crashes and we’re scrambling for another stream.
Some Chinese channel comes to the rescue, and a grainy image reveals the scoreline, Newcastle 0 Arsenal 1. Old and young share a thumbs up and a smile. Apart from the fact we have missed the goal, everything is going to plan, but wait. Martins is gifted an equaliser. This shouldn’t be happening.
It is imperative that a hero comes to the rescue. Fabregas is the name on ‘holic minor’s shirt, but Diaby is the name he screams when Abou scores that wonderful second. Now we can relax and enjoy again. A proud grandfather almost drools over every pass. ‘Did you see what Arshavin did then, son?’ is followed by ‘that Nasri is a bit special, eh?’
Nasri is indeed special as he hammers home the third and a comfortable win is completed. We get to see the first goal at last. ‘I like Bendtner, Grandad’. I suspect quite a few have a better opinion of Nicklas than was apparent just a week earlier. I’m pleased for him too.
Most of all though I am smiling smugly because this was very definitely a battle won. The Fabregas shirt had to be washed and dried in record time on Sunday because it was required wearing. Arsenal are his team this week. The war will only be won, however, when that Arsenal shirt is a permanent fixture.
I suspect I need to make a few more trips yet…
26 Responses to “Education, Education, Education”
First Booze!
Priceless stuff that! Some of your black stuff then landlord…
Keep up the good work – there is nothing like corrupting the young!
Fantastic stuff, ‘holic !
I’ll have a celebratory malt of your choice 🙂
Delete corrupting – substitute educating!
Very well done ‘Holic! Your great work, however, wouldn’t have been so impressive without some help from Scholes and Rooney (and Schwarzer)! 🙂 Great week all round eh?
hah. funny it must be pretty weird to be a grandad. are you ancient holic? sounds like your doing some great work to further the cause. keep it up (i know you will)
The three Rs: Reading, writing, and the Arsenal.
lovely blog
Heh. Great work agent ‘holic.
Excellent blog, principal holic.
Well done Holic! Glad you didn’t try it a few months back, wise timing by the management…
Stats bit: we’re well on our way to a premiership all-time record this season. 15th (Arshavin) and 16th (Diaby) shot on the frame last Saturday.
I love reading this blog.
Good old Holic is back…thou I don’t drink anymore have one on me kind Sir!!!
Educate those younglings they need to be Educated to know Arsenal is Eduaction!!!
nice one Holic!!! I wouldnt be worried if i were you tho… He will see the light soon. when he hits 12 im sure he is going to witness a really really special arsenal team. My one will be 7 by then and i hope he can be as spoilt by his arsenal team as i was a few seasons back…
All positives have been mentioned all weekend by all bloggers and media, but i just want to highlight one of them again…. From Russia with love… and do i love this player? you bet your ass i do!!! what a sight he is!! now for our spittingly good captain to return… exciting times…
peter, it depends on your definition of ancient, but not in my eyes 😉
Thanks all for your kind words. I will not be beaten on this one. I must bequeath another Gooner to the world!
Nice work Grandad, or should I say Gradgrind
Ah. People say the ancients had many of the answers that time has forgotten. Our season has revived, and this ancient has renewed confidence. Aston Villa? Pah! We signed Arshavin, they signed Heskey. Its been interesting to peruse the villa forums, which are mainly filled with doom and gloom. One contributor said he`d changed his mind about Heskey; he`s shit! he opined. We were helped on Saturday by Owen`s non appearance, as he surely would have scored from the spot, and a goal for Newcastle at that point would have made things difficult for us. It is fascinating to see how dramatically our GD position vis-a-vis Villa has dramatically altered in less than a month from a 15-13 deficit to a 21-7 advantage. We ought to have the beating of Villareal once more, and given that on our day we are still capable of beating any team, I`m even dreaming of another final. Oh how stupid we old fools are!
Frankly, ‘holic, I blame the parents. When the young stray from the path of football righteousness, it is the parent, not the missionary from the deep south, who needs to put his foot on the ball and have a quiet word (Mike Reilly like?) into the youngster’s ear. Sounds like the your visit came just in time to a avert a young future spent in football’s badlands. May I respectfully propose you make this a twice monthly, at least for the next half year to ensure no devergence from path to goonerdom.
I’m way behind you on the grandson stakes and have only Henry Ace, age 2, to my credit. He’s already a fully signed up “Junior Gunner” and wears his number 14 Henry strip and matching gooner hat with great pride. Me and his dad fancy a few games in the family enclosure, we’re looking forward to going to the Junior Gunners visit to Emirates on training day and personally, I’m looking forward to getting a bit better acquainted with Goonerthaurus (who for some time now, I have suspected to be Old Rednose Alex Fergie himself in a snooping disguise….will keep you posted).
I’m on a Thai island in the Andeman Sea. Fortunately they have cable so I saw Saturday’s game. The tide has turned, ‘holic. Just for laughs, when I type “Goonerholic” into the search engine here, you come up in Thai, mate. Did you know that you’re ambidextrous?
Hi BtM.
Yes, I have seen the imposter. I cannot buy up all of the Goonerholic domains, so I just have two of them, and that enterprising little snipe has pinched one of the others. Arseblog also has an imposter, in Denmark, I think.
I take it you are chilling out? I know a lot of the pro golf caddies head that way in the new year to recharge their batteries. Good stuff. Hope you have a good journey back when the time comes.
Take that HDMI cable back mate!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/1-8M-HDMI-Cable-Gold-Connectors/dp/B0017RW94A/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1237992980&sr=8-2
I purchased one of these for £3 and it works perfectly!
Haha, thanks Tom. Seems I paid over fifty quid to get a five metre cable rather than a 1.8! I’m so glad you showed me that 😉
Missed this…..
Crackin’ write up, ‘holic
One day he will truly be converted. Otherwise you have failed ‘holic!
If only someone had shown me the light. Took 18 years to find out about football (“soccer”, whoops) but only two months to fall in love with the Arsenal. Too late to watch The Invincibles, but with Walcott-Arshavin-Cesc-Nasri (or any combination of similar parts) in the middle of the park, I suppose this team will be truly invincible soon.
Awesome story.
Fiszman sells, Arsene stays? It’s all madness.
I’m off to the glory, glory totts. Now there’s a club with er . . . lots of inexplicable cash; or something.
Oh, sorry, I thought it was April 1st already. Goddamn interlull. Get rid of this international crap and get back to real football.
p.s. never mind education, education. How did one of yours end up in the Black Country? That’s practically mancland – give or take 300 miles to Torquay!