jonnybaker

FA cup winners!

congratulations chelsea on winning the FA cup!

so it's scolari

so it's scolari

it's only a game

that's what i am trying to tell myself - absolutely gutted

text exchange

last night of course i was in the pub watching the football with mike, joel and harry. meantime jen was at the grace knitting group - yes  apparently it is the new rock and roll! a selection of our text messages... mine are in italics and i'm sure you'll detect the smallest hint of irony in the replies!

1- 0 chelsea
how exciting!
1-1
oh no!
gone to extra time
wow - we've all stopped knitting and are praying for you
2-1 chelsea
our prayers worked!
3-1 woop woop
at this point a message from kester - torres off? what is the tinker man doing?! see you in moscow!
3-2
we'd better get praying again
victory
phew
at this point a message from a fellow chelsea fan - praise jesus!

i am a happy man - finally we get to see off liverpool in a champions league semi final at the third time of asking... can't wait for may 21 and the texts will be flying no doubt. blue is the colour...

blue fortress

it's been a very strange season for chelsea so far with morinho leaving, injuries, grant and so on... but today beating man united 2-1 is a very sweet result and it sounds like it was deserved. i missed it as i was doing a training day for the diocese of bath and wells but will look forward to match of the day tonight! so level on points but needing man u to drop some points because of goal difference...

following on from the convincing draw with liverpool (well it was about time the luck went the other way ;-) ), it's part two on wednesday night to see if we can also make it to a champions league final which would be amazing...

another semi final against liverpool

so chelsea will play liverpool in the third champions league semi final in four years. chelsea turned it round last night with a 2-0 win - whilst it wasn't the greatest dispaly from the blues it was job done... it was my second visit to stamford bridge this season - i like the big european games. this time round the first leg rather than the second is at anfield which may mean we can break the reds jinx on us in europe!!

agony for arsenal fans last night who with 7 minutes to go were through (ouch)

congrats spurs

congrats spurs on winning the carling cup final and beating chelsea - you must be happy! i have yet to see it as i was watching joel play at the big chill bar but i'll drag myself to watch the highlights later...

goodbye josé mourinho

i was shocked to wake today to find that

Chelsea Football Club and José Mourinho have agreed to part company today (Thursday) by mutual consent.

this quote from the chelsea web site doesn't exactly give a lot away. josé took chelsea to winning the premiership twice, the FA cup, and the league cup twice all in three years. what more could you ask for?! i thought he was fantastic as a manager - fun, entertaining, arrogant, a wind up merchant, and brought a real edge to the premiership. it's easy to forget that when he arrived man united and arsenal were dominant. chelsea fans will be absolutely gutted.

no doubt stories will come out about why - the rift with abramovich, a stuttering start to the season, too many chiefs and not enough control given to the manager... but it makes no sense and i would guess the players will be gutted (apart from shevchenko maybe).

(bbc | guardian)

blue is the colour

congratulations to chelsea lifting both cups this season!

wonderful to beat man united in the final of the FA cup :-) and drogba has been amazing all season so delighted he got the winner...

croatia for a week

quite a few years ago now (i can't exactly remember what year) i did a few training sessions at a european yfc conference with a friend richard on mission and postmodern culture. at the time it was new territory - i think it was the first time we had taught on it. hard to believe now. anway some friends from croatia were there and it ended up setting them off on a route of rethinking what they were up to. 7 years or so later i've been invited over to join them for their annual get together for leaders where we'll talk about culture, improvisation, mission, alternative worship, emerging church and all that... it's the first time they have had someone from outside croatia so i'm feeling honoured and really looking forward to it. i've no idea what the internet situation will be where we are so if the blog is quiet that's why.

i need to find a tv next tuesday evening to watch the second leg of chelsea v liverpool in the champions league semi final. chelsea won the first leg 1-0 tonight which is a great result especially not giving away an away goal so i strongly fancy our chances of making it to the final now. we should have put the tie out of sight in the first half but didn't. drogba was brilliant!

on our way to wembley

chelsea make it through to the FA cup final at wembley on may 19 winning in extra time 2-1 over blackburn setting up a final against man united. can't wait!

chelsea through!

chelsea deservedly won against valencia in a tense second leg in the european quarter final of the champions league with a last minute goal from michael essien. this sets up the enticing prospect of a semi final against liverpool (assuming they don't throw away a three goal advantage tomorrow night). man united thrashed roma so it is looking like 3 of the last 4 places will go to premiership sides...

2-1!

2-1!

wonder strike

enjoyed our first chelsea game of the season yesterday (we only do 2 or 3 becuase of the price!). the last 15 minutes were sensational. arsenal looked like they might end chelsea's unbeaten run at the bridge but essien's wonder strike levelled it and chelsea then hit the woodwork twice in the last 5 minutes. one arsenal fan said in a text to me 'relief' after the final whistle which summed up the way the flow was towards the end.... but it was a great game in spite of drogba and lehman's laurel and hardy routine. there's a long way to go to the end of the season - but man united have created a gap of 8 points (5 if chelsea win on weds). i reckon we'll catch them but we'll see...

congrats JT

congrats JT

blue is the colour

champions!

chelsea secured a second premiership title in a row. it was made all the sweeter because victory came with a 3-0 defeat of man united - wish i had been there.

poor old kester ( a man united fan) had to suffer watching the third goal with me in a pub at lunch on the blah... leadership day

chelsea vs barcelona and onedotzero free night - looks like a good week ahead

am delighted to say i have got tickets for chelsea vs barcelona on weds night. can't wait... sadly i only got two tickets so harry has to stay behind (sorry harry!). the game last year was fantastic - i love the big european games...

if you are in london this week and want a good free event, the V and A museum have a late night event transvision on friday with onedotzero and VJs in galleries - it really looks like it should be good. it's my birthday the next day so a few of us are going along and then on to abbaye which is about 10 minutes walk away for belgian ales afterwards. if you are around see you there. the blurb on the web site says

for this one-time event, onedotzero has invited over 20 key creatives from diverse fields, representing the full breadth of moving image programming that onedotzero explores.

across motion graphics, music videos, short films, interaction design, live audio–visual performances, music, and architecture, featured artists will include airside, hi-res!, trevor jackson, allofus, the light surgeons, d-fuse, intro, jason bruges, neutral, peepshow, phillip o' dwyer, pre-loaded, sennep, tank.tv, universal everything, usman haques, and united visual artists.

Technorati Tags: onedotzero, V&A

victory at the bridge

my brother gave me an early birthday present of taking me to see chelsea v liverpool today which chelsea won 2-0 - convincingly in the end. after a good start liverpool just seemed to run out of ideas. the blues are still 15 points clear at the top of the premiership...

i've added a few pictures i took to flickr , but i love this one of my brother looking slightly pyscho after chelsea's first goal!

20 points!

i don't blog about football much because some people aren't into it and it's too tempting to gloat when you win, but occasionally you just have to...

i remember last year blogging when arsenal lost to bolton and chelsea went 10 points clear. that was the day i was finally convinced chelsea would go on to win the premiership which of course they did. well yesterday chelsea beat arsenal 2-0 in a good contest, but ultimately one in which chelsea looked the better side in virtually every department. it seems astonishing that chelsea are now 20 points clear of arsenal and it's not even christmas! seems like man united and liverpool are the only two sides who have any chance of stopping chelsea making it two titles in a row.

the champions league has put chelsea against barcelona again. i hope to get tickets for the home leg in feb. i love the big european games - some of the most exciting i've ever been to...

come on the blues!

Technorati Tags: chelsea

fun weekend...

friday night i went to see a production of on the waterfront at wimbledon studio theatre put on by synergy theatre (review here). synergy was set up by my wonderful youngest sister esther who works in prisons and with ex offenders. i have seen various productions in prisons and theatres over the last few years. every time it is a very moving experience. the sense of pride and dignity the lads have frm pulling off a play is amazing. in the programme notes one of the prisoners had written about esther that she has an amazing ability to see the worth and goodness in every person - i thought that beautiufully sums up esther - she is amazing. my older brother dave and family also came and stayed with us friday night which was fun...

i got a result saturday afternoon of a free visit to see chelsea vs newcastle - it was via a business contact of my younger brother steve. the company has two corporate seats and no one was using them so when they were offered to steve he said he thought i could use them... i took harry. it was the first time i've sat in a padded seat at a football match! chelsea won 3-0 - without owen and shearer newcastle really didn't have much threat...

sat evening i went to see the latest harry potter film - having read the books and seen the first three i thought i would keep it going. i wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised and thought it was brilliantly done and had a great evening. ron was excellent. the film was pretty magical all round.

today joel was doing a 10k run in brighton with my brother steve. it was a beautiful day - sun coming through the fog over frosty fields as we drove down the A23. the fog cleared by the time we got to brighton. the run was along the front - the sea was still, the sun spakling on the water and joel and steve clocked 46mins which was pretty good. joel was doing it as a sponsored thing to raise money for his school trip to new york next feb.

jen has been speaking at the youthwork conference in eastbourne and has just got back. i think we'll watch motor cycle diaries on dvd tonight which has been on order from sofacinema, the dvd club we belong to, for about 3 months and has finally arrived (we are becoming increasingly disillusioned with them and may try another company as any interesting films on your list never seem to get sent). i almost feel like i've been on holiday it's been such a good weekend...