I don’t know what the tiredness equivalent of what *boilk* is but I’ve got that this morning.
Plus a touch of actual *boilk* too but not enough to actually make me *boilk*. Last night at The Tollington we launched the book – So Paddy got up – an Arsenal anthology, and first and foremost I want to thank all the people who came along, bought a book and had a beer or two. Not only that, the queues were mad for quite some time so not only thanks for coming along but thanks for all your patience too.
To the contributors who were happy to sign books, to Tony for all his help in getting things set up (and Nic for fine company), to the hard working Mrs Blogs (on her birthday too!), Mugsmasher and Shelley who did the selling and packaging, and to Martin, Louise and all the staff at The Tollington for keeping engines oiled and all the rest, thank you very much indeed.
It was fantastic to see lots of familiar faces but equally great to meet so many people for the first time. I’m also aware I didn’t get to see some people who I would have liked to but it was really quite hectic. Hopefully, if you’re around, we can make amends for that at the Everton game. For those who have asked before and since, there will be copies available in the Tolli on Saturday and I can give you more details on that in the next day or two.
Details of online sale will be made over the weekend – and the book will only be on sale from arseblog.com from Monday.
If you’re after the digital version you can get it now from iBooks, also through Kobo and the Amazon Kindle version should be available in the next 24 hours or so (depending how quickly they get things sorted at their end).
So, while there was a fantastic buzz and atmosphere last night it was added to by the hilarity of the Champions League football playing on the TVs in the pub. From time to time a huge cheer would go up and as the games went on various songs about Channel 5, Thursday nights and something about someone called Nasri being a cunt rang out. That’s when people had stopped laughing long enough to sing.
Clearly the Arseblog book is a good luck book and you do have to laugh at the idea of Nasri going all the way to Manchester, ostensibly so he could be more successful, only to find himself playing the Europa League. Ok, they might well walk the league title this year but that doesn’t make last night any less hilarious.
And Basel, heh. You have to laugh. All in all most amusing indeed and that it was enjoyed with a backdrop of Arsenal fans having a great laugh made it all the better. It really did add to what was a fantastic occasion and thanks again to everyone for making it so great.
Moving on to the little bit of Arsenal news there is around this morning, and Yossi Benayoun believes that recent results will help Arsenal fans move on from the summer departures. He says:
The supporters now understand that we have a good team with a lot of quality, and I think they have forgotten about the other players already. We are only two points from Chelsea now, Tottenham and Manchester United are not that far ahead.
He’s referring, obviously, to Cesc and Nasri. And he’s right too. Players move on all the time, the clubs have to keep going and the best way for any team to do that is win games. And the best way for old players to be forgotten is not to be involved in hilarious Champions League exits, eh Sami? Can’t really blame Yossi for not bringing that up though.
He also spoke about how he’s kind of been on fringes since joining on loan from Chelsea but he knows you don’t change a winning team:
The only thing I can do is to wait for any chance I get – it doesn’t matter if it is 15 minutes or I get to start. I have to prove myself any chance I get and I am sure I can do it. You come here and you know there is a lot of quality so you want to prove yourself.
He’s an interesting player really. He scored a great goal the other night but while I don’t think he’s quite strong enough to carry other fringe players around him he’s certainly good enough to add something to the first string when needed. And the manager’s willingness to use him in the final 15-20 minutes of games to help secure points shows that.
Beyond that not a great deal going on so you’ll forgive me if I this is a bit of a shorter blog than usual. I’ve got to drag my tired carcass back to Dublin this evening and then put together some kind of Arsecast later on. Which should be interesting. I might make it the first ever Arsecast done entirely in sign language, 30 minutes of silence. Revolutionary.
Thanks again everyone, till tomorrow.
