Palace Tweets


  • Finished Cycle with @cyclemeter, on Matt's N Back route, time 30:43, 9.85 km, ahead of worst ride 0:51, see http://t.co/shRnu4UN. #
  • Started Cycle with @cyclemeter at 08:44, on a new route, see http://t.co/shRnu4UN, Cyclemeter will speak your replies to me. #
  • I just finished a 4.28 km run with a pace of 7'00"/km and a time of 30:01 with Nike+ GPS. #nikeplus #
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Palace Tweets


  • Just finished Assassins Creed Revelations and made some pesto. Both are fabulous. #
  • I just finished a 3.10 km run with a pace of 9'09"/km and a time of 28:26 with Nike+ GPS. #nikeplus past 600k #
  • Started Cycle with @cyclemeter at 09:41, on Matt's N Back route, see http://t.co/gym8zpQm, Cyclemeter will speak your replies to me. #
  • Spank! Nice goal from De Jong. Game on. #
  • Finished Cycle with @cyclemeter, on a new route, time 29:56, 9.91 km, see http://t.co/CX1wFjKY, average 19.85. #
  • Started Cycle with @cyclemeter at 16:23, on a new route, see http://t.co/CX1wFjKY, Cyclemeter will speak your replies to me. #
  • Enjoyed trip to Paris using Eurostar app. No ticket, no boarding card, just my phone. Class. But GDN corralling pen is a disgrace. #
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Football: Prem 2012 week 22


Whoops! That Was The Championship That Was.

And then there were two. Admittedly it might have been three if only ‘Lil Defoe’s legs had been that incy wincey bit longer and he’s slid the ball into the net as opposed to not quite reaching it à la Gascoigne against Germany in the semi final of Euro ’96 and sliding himself into the post instead. It might still have almost been three if Man City hadn’t immediately taken advantage of Defoe’s misfortune to romp up the pitch, get a penalty and put Spurs’ title hopes to bed for another season.

So It’s The Manchesters Then?

With the difficult Christmas season behind us we enter what is referred to as the ‘business’ end of the season. Games are coming thick and fast and, you know what, they’re all important. If only because teams don’t have the safety net of another 30+ games to play and the cup competitions are all getting serious. It’s around this time you have those weeks that go, Champions League quarter final, then FA Cup semi (or big team clash), then Champions League quarter final, all in 8 days. Go into a protracted poor period and, like Arsenal last season, your four potential trophies can evaporate in less than a fortnight.

And with four of the top five playing each other and the rest of the top seven failing to win, it was always going to be a defining weekend for the Prem. And once again it was the Manchesters who came out on top. City are now three points clear of United, who are another five ahead of Spurs. Every time you looked at the table Defoe’s legs got a little bit shorter.

A Good Time To Lose If You Are The Arsenal?

Actually that should have read, A Good Time To Play Man U If You Are The Arsenal, but it amounts to much the same thing. Three losses on the trot is not a great way to start the new year, but it’s par for the course for Arsenal, whose form in 2011 was little better than relegation quality and that was before they lost Fabregas and Nasri. And if you are going to lose to Man U, then it was best to do it in a week where all the teams around you lost or drew. That fourth place is now looking a bit dicey, but they remain the best of the challengers for it.

The Fatalistic Predictions Of M. Wenger

So far this season has been Wenger’s nightmare, with his most pessimistic predictions coming back to haunt him in spectacular fashion.

  • First there was the classic, “Imagine the worst situation, we lose Fabregas and Nasri. You cannot convince people you are ambitious after that.” Hardly the best thing to say when you’ve pretty much agreed to both leaving.
  • “We first have to win our next game and we have a chance again when we play Manchester United on Saturday.” Hardly the best thing to say given you’re putting out a defence with four centre backs, one of whom is Djourou.
  • “More than anything else, it is important to finish in the top four.” Will this come back to haunt him too?

That Robbie Keane Eh?

Last year, when joining West Ham, he was a byword for ineffectiveness, skying balls all over the place, missing the sitter of the season and never finding the net as he helped ensure the Hammers played another season of Championship football. Today, a year older and having played another year in the MLS retirement home, he comes back to Villa and promptly boffs in two fabulous outside the box strikes against Wolves. The second was a great on the turn volley into the top corner that would have pleased any striker. Whodathunkit eh?

Newcastle And Liverpool Hit Brick Wall

You could argue, that with the three teams below them all losing, Chelsea’s draw with Norwich was a good point gained away from home. But you can’t argue that both Newcastle and Liverpool were caught out this week. Newcastle have hit that point where they have somehow overachieved, but are no longer serious top four contenders. Their 5-2 beating at Fulham showing their lack of strength in depth. While Liverpool still don’t appear to have recovered from the slump in form that coincided with the end of the Benitez regime. All that money spent and they are still suffering. And while Newcastle look more likely to keep Demba Ba having just bought his fellow countryman Papiss Demba Cisse, Liverpool’s grip on their star striker seems far less assured. If they don’t get that fourth place spot, I don’t think they’ll be keeping hold of Dirty Suarez. If I were Real Madrid or even Barcelona, I’d be looking at him very seriously.

Dead Cat Bounce?

QPR beat Wigan, but is that really the start of the Mark Hughes effect or just the realisation that there is at least one team in the league less talented than they are? Wigan are so bad they have a worse negative goal difference than they have points. And that’s never a good position.

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Palace Tweets


  • OK el Classico, with Barcelona's fouling and play acting slightly less irritating than Real Madrid's fouling and play acting. #
  • Why do Wolves and Brum call it football when they both spend so much time hoofing the ball into the sky? #
  • After SOPA the American Taliban goes totally insane http://t.co/EFmXEzCc These guys are the real threat to Homeland Security. #
  • To be fair I could watch the first half of the Second City Shitefest if I really wanted to drive myself to suicide. Or not eh? #
  • Hmmm let's see, Wolves v Brum on ITV or Real Madrid v Barcelona on SkySports2? That's not even a decision to be honest. #football #
  • I just finished a 4.00 km run with a pace of 8'21"/km and a time of 33:25 with Nike+ GPS. #nikeplus double difficulty too #
  • Web daily Europe – apparently 15mb data while abroad for £1.50/day. An honest to goodness good idea from a mobile company? #thatsafirst #O2 #
  • I just finished a 2.09 km run with a pace of 7'41"/km and a time of 16:04 with Nike+ GPS. #nikeplus more hard yards. #
  • Sweet piece of critical level grafitti. One for Simon Barnes at the Times. Check the RHS http://t.co/Mj9J8Uw8 #
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That Running Playlist


Yes, yes I know, New Year, new resolutions. This time I’ve decided to push on with the running. Previous attempts have been variously successful, running the gamut from months to weeks in length. There was a point when I was even doing semi-regular 5k races each week at the Parkrun in Finsbury Park.

All through there’s been a subtle helping hand from Nike+. I love its stats and record keeping and it’s got a fairly adequate set of training programmes. And obviously the Nike+ GPS app for the iPhone doesn’t hurt. Admittedly, I’d love it if I could set training times into it, so it let me know when my sets were over, but maybe that’s something they’re developing.

But best of course is the music. So here’s my current iPod playlist for running.

  • Seventeen (Soulwax Remix) – Ladytron
  • Downpipe (Radio Edit) – Mark Knight & Underworld
  • We Are Your Friends (Lee Cabrera’s Lower East Side Remix) – Justice vs Simian
  • Kansas City Shuffle – J. Ralph
  • Mountain Song – Jane’s Addiction
  • Spaceface (Tomcraft Remix) – Simple Minds (yeah, bizarre I know)
  • Toxic – Mark Ronson
  • Barrel Of A Gun (Underworld Remix) – Depressed Toad
  • Sexy Boy – Air
  • Let Me Go – Heaven 17
  • Wrote For Luck (Vince Clarke Mix) – Happy Mondays
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