Karl Pilkington – Pilkipedia

Karl Pilkington, from the Ricky Gervais radio show and podcasts, truly is a font of all wisdom. To rival Wikipedia, there’s Pilkipedia.

Some of my favourites:

Seals would probably not be missed if they became extinct, because they are “already between a fish and a dog”. He also fails to see why seals continue to “hang about” in the Arctic – “Why aren’t seals going ‘Do you know what – it’s cold, I’m sick of it here, it’s windy all the time and whathaveyou… and I’m getting a club on the head’?”

Karl believes that because jellyfish are 97% water, we should “give ’em another three percent and make ’em water – it’s more useful”.

He would not like to meet his doppelganger because “how would I know which one I was?”.

Karl Pilkington – Pilkipedia

New Telegraph Fantasy Football season

The new Premiership season starts today, and with it the Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football. After winning the SEH superleague last season I need a good start.

For the start of the season, my team is:

Player Team Cost
Reina Liverpool 3.6m
J Terry Chelsea 5.0m
N Valente Everton 3.1m
A Gardner Tottenham 3.1
J A Riise Liverpool 4.6m
S Gerrard Liverpool 5.0m
S Davis Portsmouth 2.8m
I Campo Bolton 2.8m
T Henry Arsenal 9.0m
A Cole Man City 5.1m
R van Persie Arsenal 5.6m
Total 49.7m

Gardner’s already out with an injury, so that’s a good start. Otherwise there are a few players I’m not so sure about, including van Persie for Arsenal, Valente for Everton, and most of my midfield except Gerrard.

I think Liverpool are going to have a very good run this season, though, but it’s hard to pick a striker when they don’t really have a single clear choice. Especially now with the news of signing Dirk Kuyt.

Arsenal should be scoring goals but how consistent they are is yet to be seen – they seem to be having another season of upsets already with Cole and Campbell seemingly both upsetting things.

I don’t see Frank Lampard having as good a season as the previous two alongside Ballack; I think Ballack will take goals away, and we also saw in the World Cup how Lampard doesn’t seem to play so well sharing the up-front position. So this is my first season starting without Lampard in the team, which could be a risk.

Daily Telegraph Fantasy Football

Le Mercury, Upper Street, Islington

I first went to Le Mercury in 2004 after meeting an ex work colleage across the road in the Old Parr’s Head. The pub (Parr’s Head) seems to have closed down, which is a shame, but Le Mercury is still there. It serves a fairly rustic-style of French cuisine but my particular reason for liking it is that it’s one of the few places I’ve found to serve confit de canard at a reasonable price.

One of the attractive qualities of Le Mercury is the pricing, in that all starters are one price, all mains another. (I can’t remember the details but it’s something like £4 and £7 respectively.) They do make a bit back on the wine list, however, which starts at about £13 upwards.

The food maybe isn’t quite as good as I remember it, but perhaps that’s memory as much as anything else as I don’t think this place has ever been renowned for the food. It’s still good value for money, though, and pretty much what you’d expect for a low price evening out.

Le Mercury isn’t somewhere I’d choose for a big night out but for an occasional low cost treat it’s one of my favourites.

Le Mercury on London Eating

Le Mercury on LondonTown.com

SEH Summer Party 2006

Friday was the SEH summer party of 2006, and a very good day it was too. Lots of food, lots of drink, quite a few people, and a few boats. Punting in Oxford may not be quite as good as punting in Cambridge but it was all good. Here are some photos:

Nick punting:

A full punt:

Bin punting:

Samir punting:

Renato with a punt full of ladies:

A sychronised mooring manoeuvre:

The picnic (or one half of it):

The other half of the picnic:

Nawed sitting in a punt with his son:

Me nearly punting:

Me actually punting:

A dragonfly:

After the picnic there was a fair amount of lazing around:

Renato took a trip into the river. It seems to be tradition for him to get soaked every year, but luckily he had a spare pair of trousers:

Caroline in a punt:

Martin in a punt:

Videos

Alessia circling before making her way in

Jason decided to rescue the situation for his punt once food appeared

Pedal boats didn’t look like much less effort to me

Leyton Orient 3-2 Bournemouth

Leyton Orient 3-2 Bournemouth
The second home match of Orient’s League One campaign was a cracker. It started well with the home site dominating the first half, but going in with only a goal to show for it. Still, there hadn’t been any real scares and although the single goal lead didn’t make us feel entirely comfortable the team were playing well. Even Joe Keith, who had such a poor game against Millwall, played pretty well and took on a few defenders with more success than he’d had the other night. The pairing of Steele and Alexander upfront was maintained and Alexander’s goal proved that it was working well.

The second half was a complete change with Bournemouth doing all the pressing early on and there was a sense of foreboding in the air. Soon after Bournemouth scored on the break, and then five minutes later Orient were 2-1 down. But slowly the team started to lift, driven largely by the front-men, it has to be said, and the attacking midfielders as the defence continued to struggle. (With the exception of Lockwood who again had an excellent game.)

After much pressing, and a few decent chances missed, Lee Steele headed in from a corner to bring us back level. Soon after Steele was faced with an open goal after an excellent move involving Shane Tudor but he somehow stood on the ball and a Keystone Cops style farce was acted out in the six yard box which results in the ball being cleared. A final well-taken goal erased that memory and Orient finished the game strongly with a 92nd minute strike from Steel to take the three points in a 3-2 victory.

That leaves the team 9th in the table after the first three games, and with six points. A very respectable start for a newly promoted team.

Leyton Orient vs Bournemouth match report on the BBC site