Journal – June 2004

Here’s another selection of posts from my journal, with my last month of exams for my Accounting & Finance course at university. Euro 2004 has also been getting everyone excited, and I’ve found another top 100 list that I wanted to share. So I hope you enjoy going through this latest set of entries!

Tuesday June 1, 2004

The revision’s still going well. My next exam is this Thursday, and should go ok.

BBC Radio 2‘s listeners have been voting for their favourite songs of all time, and a top 100 has been produced. Many surveys of this nature have been done, I know, but it’s always interesting to see what people come up with. So the BBC Radio 2 Sold On Song Top 100 is as follows, with a surprising twist at the top:

1. A Whiter Shade of Pale – Procul Harum
2. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
3. Angels – Robbie Williams
4. Hero – Mariah Carey
5. Imagine – John Lennon
6. Move It – Cliff Richard
7. Stairway to Heaven – Led Zeppelin
8. Bat Out of Hell – Meat Loaf
9. Everyday – Slade
10. Good Vibrations – The Beach Boys
11. Hey Jude – The Beatles
12. Live Forever – Oasis
13. Bridge Over Troubled Water – Simon & Garfunkel
14. One Sweet Day – Mariah Carey & Boyz II Men
15. God Only Knows – The Beach Boys
16. One – U2
17. Meet on the Ledge – Fairport Convention
18. Mr Blue Sky – ELO
19. Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks
20. Halfway to Paradise – Billy Fury
21. True – Spandau Ballet
22. In My Life – The Beatles
23. When You Say Nothing At All – Ronan Keating
24. Home Thoughts From Abroad – Clifford T Ward
25. Hotel California – The Eagles
26. Born to Run – Bruce Springsteen
27. Dancing Queen – Abba
28. Thunder Road – Bruce Springsteen
29. With or Without You – U2
30. Wuthering Heights – Kate Bush
31. Downtown – Petula Clark
32. Streets of London – Ralph McTell
33. Free Bird – Lynyrd Skynyrd
34. Yesterday – The Beatles
35. Careless Whisper – George Michael
36. Nights in White Satin – The Moody Blues
37. Like A Rolling Stone – Bob Dylan
38. A Day in the Life – The Beatles
39. Love Will Tear us Apart – Joy Division
40. Wonderwall – Oasis
41. Barcelona – Freddie Mercury & Monserrat Caballé
42. I Can’t Make You Love Me – Bonnie Raitt
43. That’s Entertainment – The Jam
44. Unfinished Sympathy – Massive Attack
45. Wish You Were Here – Pink Floyd
46. You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me – Dusty Springfield
47. American Pie – Don McLean
48. Baker Street – Gerry Rafferty
49. Let it Be – The Beatles
50. Annie’s Song – John Denver
51. Teenage Kicks – The Undertones
52. That’s Alright Mama – Elvis Presley
53. Layla – Derek & The Dominos
54. Alone again (Naturally) – Gilbert O’Sullivan
55. Don’t Dream it’s Over – Crowded House
56. It Must Be Love – Madness
57. Life on Mars – David Bowie
58. Romeo and Juliet – Dire Straits
59. Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay – Otis Redding
60. Suspicious Minds – Elvis Presley
61. I Am the Resurrection – The Stone Roses
62. Miss You Nights – Cliff Richard
63. My Sweet Lord – George Harrison
64. Something – The Beatles
65. Stardust – Nat King Cole
66. Strawberry Fields Forever – The Beatles
67. Your Song – Elton John
68. Everybody Hurts – REM
69. I heard it through the Grapevine – Marvin Gaye
70. Smells Like Teen Spirit – Nirvana
71. Feel – Robbie Williams
72. Fire and Rain – James Taylor
73. Hunting High and Low – A-Ha
74. Same Old Rock – Roy Harper
75. Heroes – David Bowie
76. I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That) – Meat Loaf
77. Martha’s Harbour – All About Eve
78. Who Knows Where The Time Goes? – Fairport Convention
79. Beautiful – Christina Aguilera
80. Being Boring – Pet Shop Boys
81. Billie Jean – Michael Jackson
82. Don’t look Back in Anger – Oasis
83. Every Breath You Take – The Police
84. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues & Kirsty MacColl
85. Losing My Religion – REM
86. Wanted Dead or Alive – Bon Jovi
87. Witchita Lineman – Glen Campbell
88. All Along the Watchtower – Jimi Hendrix
89. Closer to Fine – The Indigo Girls
90. Comfortably Numb – Pink Floyd
91. (Everything I Do) I Do It For You – Bryan Adams
92. I’m Not In Love – 10CC
93. Puppy Love – Donny Osmond
94. Somewhere Over the Rainbow – Eva Cassidy
95. Summer of ’69 – Bryan Adams
96. Surf’s Up – The Beach Boys
97. This Charming Man – The Smiths
98. Tracks of my Tears – Smokey Robinson & The Miracles
99. Without You – Harry Nilsson
100. Brown Eyed Girl – Van Morrison

There are plenty of great tracks in there, and a few I don’t know too. And I’m not disappointed that Queen aren’t at #1, as they’ve topped so many polls before anyway. Having said that, while Whiter Shade Of Pale is a good song, I’m not sure that I’d put it at the top. The Beatles appear to have the most entries, which is hardly a surprise, given the sheer number of songs they’ve made. There are no tracks by The Who though, which is a shame as I’ve been getting into them quite a bit recently. We could argue for ages about songs that didn’t make it though, there are just so many great tracks that have been produced over the years. But on the whole the list would make a great CD compilation – although I suspect most people (like me) own most of the songs already on other collections.

And another quick music fact – Elvis has spent more time in the UK charts than he did alive. That’s according to Guinness World Records this week. He’s spent the most time in the charts, while Queen were in 4th place.

Friday June 4, 2004

The most important thing to remember this week is that it’s the 60th anniversary of the D-Day landings. Although the England flag is currently flying for Euro 2004, it should also be flying for all those brave men and women who fought for the freedom we have today. Without their sheer bravery and skills, we could be living in a very different world today, and we thank them for that.

As for my own achievements, I did my Financial Management exam yesterday. And it went reasonably well, I think. We’ll soon find out anyway. Only 2 more left to go – I’ll have finished this time next week!

As I mentioned though, Euro 2004 is fast approaching, and England’s first match is on June 13th. I’m probably not going to watch the matches, unless we reach the late stages of the competition, but I’ll keep an eye on how we do, of course. Still, call me pessimistic, but I can’t see us winning it. Then again, miracles do happen – Tim Henman has reached the semi-final in the French Open tennis championship, and he’s the first British man to do that for 41 years. Perhaps that will give him a boost for Wimbledon, but don’t get your hopes up too high!

This, of course, means there’ll be a lot of sport on the TV over the next few months, causing many people to moan no doubt. I don’t watch much sport anyway, but I can always find other stuff to watch. Indeed, I’ve got something more interesting to watch this weekend, as we’ve been lent the second Harry Potter film (The Chamber Of Secrets) by one of Dad’s friends from work. We borrowed the first one this time last year, which was good fun, so the second one probably is as well. If it is good, perhaps I’ll buy them for myself. I’ll let you know what I think anyway.

Sunday June 6, 2004

It’s exactly 60 years after D-Day took place, back on 6 June 1944. I sincerely hope the celebrations go well for everyone today. There will be some sadness as well, as we remember those who gave their lives for the freedom we have today, but everyone feels proud too. All the stories that we’ve been hearing this week show just how brave all our troops were. And yet, we’ll never know just how scary it was at the time, it’s just unimaginable.

It was such a huge operation, to storm Normandy’s beaches like that (Operation Overlord, to be precise). The Allies had to go to enormous lengths to fool the Germans, particularly making them think they would land somewhere else. They had to fool the German’s army, navy and spies, and somehow, they did it. And D-Day should actually have been on June 5th, but was postponed by a day due to the weather. Had the Germans got wind of the truth in those extra 24 hours, the outcome for us could have been very different. But they didn’t and, while many lives were lost, it marked the start of the end of the Second World War. We cannot thank our brave men and women enough.

On a happier note, England beat Iceland 6-1 in a friendly match before Euro 2004 yesterday. I doubt they’ll hammer any teams by such an extent in the championship, but we could do reasonably well. Also on a sporting note, Tim Henman lost the semi-final of the French Open, but you can’t say he didn’t try. He’s just too unpredictable – he can do really well in one set, and then badly in the next.

It’s the European Elections on June 10th in the UK, and there are local elections too, and I’ve voted in both (by post). There have been trials in some areas for 100% postal voting – i.e. there are no polling booths, everyone votes by post. This has resulted in some cock-ups though, with errors on the ballot papers and, therefore, delays in getting them out. Many people just, and only just, got theirs in time.

Oh, and one more piece of news – ducks have regional accents apparently!

As for me, I’m still revising for my last 2 exams. I also saw the second Harry Potter film last night, and enjoyed it. Despite being long (2 and a half hours), it keeps you watching until the end, like the LOTR films. I’ll read the books one day I expect.

Tuesday June 8, 2004

I had my Economics exam today, and it was the best of the lot so far. I’ve been most confident about that one, and the questions were good. Plus you get a choice of 4 out of 12 questions to answer, which is pretty generous. So I should get a good mark from that one. Just one more exam to go! My last exam is on Thursday afternoon, and it’s the shortest one (only 2 and a half hours). Then I’ll be free! Woohoo!

Friday June 11, 2004

I’ve finished!!!!!

I had my last exam yesterday, and it went better than I expected. We had new people teaching the course, so we couldn’t really go on past exam papers to get an idea of what we would be doing. The module also relied heavily on reading articles – not easy, but I think I’ve got by. The results are out on June 30th. I think I should have passed them all, so I shouldn’t have to do any resits. Here’s hoping anyway!

The news has been marred by 2 deaths in America this week – former US president Ronald Reagan has died from Alzheimer’s aged 93 the other day. and now blind musician Ray Charles has passed away aged 73. Lots of people have been going past Reagan’s coffin in the US to pay their last respects, as he was loved by many Americans. I know very little about him myself, other than the fact that he was an actor long before he became president.

Euro 2004 starts this weekend, so best of luck to the England team! And I’ve got bits and pieces to do – I think a tidy-up of my paperwork is in order to start with, now the exams are over!

Monday June 14, 2004

Well, that’s just typical! Damn you France!

It’s probably pretty obvious what I’m on about. England played their first Euro 2004 match last night. We’ve never won the opening match of the European Championships, and France were a tough team to start with.

Lampard scored for England in the 38th minute with a great header. It was 1-0 to us at half-time, and in the second half nobody scored for the main 45 minutes. So with all 90 minutes of the match gone, England had it in the bag… or so we thought…

Injury time was upon us, 4 minutes of it… France gets a free-kick in the 91st minute, Zidane takes it – and scores! Fair enough, at least we get a point for drawing…

France then get awarded a penalty (perfectly fairly). Zidane takes that too – and scores again! 2-1 to France! The match ends, England fans go home in shock!

England were so close, yet it just slipped away. It’s a great shame, and it now means we’re at the bottom of the table. Still, all is not lost. We’ve got 2 more games to go in Group B, and could still go through. It’s not over yet. Our next match is on Thursday.

The only other thing in the news is the European elections. Smaller parties, such as the UK Independence Party (UKIP) have been getting a larger share of votes, with people protesting against the government over the Iraq war. There’ll be a general election next year, so it will be interesting to see how long that lasts. The British National Party thankfully didn’t win any European seats. UKIP are a bit extreme as well though. But I didn’t vote for either of those anyway. We should be in Europe, but I think most of the country doesn’t know or understand much about it, because we aren’t being told enough, and people don’t trust the government enough either. That’s largely why people are reluctant to vote. I did vote, as should everyone else, but it’s not easy to know who to go for.

Friday June 18, 2004

That’s better England! We’ve beaten Switzerland 3-0, with 18-year-old Wayne Rooney becoming the youngest person to score for England. He scored twice, and did a handstand-somersault in celebration after his first goal, so it was lucky he didn’t injure himself! We have to play Croatia next on the 21st, and we only need a draw to go through. Any of the teams in Group B could go through though. If we win, we definitely go through.

As for me, I’ve had a good week. On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, I met up with two friends of mine from school in Exeter. One of them is my mate who’s come down from Bournemouth, where he’s finished his first year at uni, while the other is a friend who lives locally, and we saw her flat. We met up for lunch on Tuesday, went ten-pin bowling on Wednesday, and played pitch and putt on Thursday, so it was good fun. We also met a couple of members of a bowling club for visually impaired people on Wednesday, and it sounds like they have a great time. They meet on Wednesdays, but when I get a job I doubt it would be possible for me to get along to that. Weekends wouldn’t be a problem, but they don’t meet then unfortunately.

Tuesday June 22, 2004

ROONEY! ROONEY! ROONEY!

What more needs to be said? He’s only 18, yet he’s had some cracking goals in Euro 2004. That helped England beat Croatia 4-2 in last night’s match. That means that we go through to the quarter-finals, where we have to play Portugal (the hosts) on Thursday, so that should be interesting. Rooney’s a great player, and he’s taking it all in his stride. He can’t lose his temper really, he’s already got a yellow card from earlier in the tournament – one more booking and he’s out for the championship, and we need him.

I’ve got some more stuff from Amazon. First, there’s the Deluxe Edition of The Who’s debut album (My Generation), with plenty of bonus tracks. I’ve got it on now, and it’s sounding great so far. Secondly, I’ve got the complete set of Rising Damp (4 series) on DVD, with an unbroadcast episode. I’ve also got The Who’s Live At Leeds on the way, and the first 2 Harry Potter DVDs, as I enjoyed those films. As I didn’t read the books first, I’ve got nothing to compare the films to, which perhaps makes them more enjoyable.

Friday June 25, 2004

I knew it was going too well for England. No sooner have our hopes been built up, then they’re dashed again. Our match against the host country Portugal last night was over 2 hours of high drama, and luck was not on our side.

We did score early on, with Owen taking an early chance. It looked to be going so well. Halfway through the first half, however, Rooney’s boot came flying off, and he ended up getting his foot tangled up with a Portuguese player. Despite trying to continue, Rooney was clearly unfit, and was substituted. Having been taken for x-rays, we now know that he’ll be out of action for a month. Not that we’ll need him now, but things could have been different if that accident hadn’t occurred. A great shame.

Our hearts were dented, but we were still winning for most of the game. However, Portugal then equalised and, at the end of the game, the score was 1-1. It should, however, have been 2-1 to us. We did score another goal towards the end of normal time, with a great header from Sol Campbell near the goal. But the Swiss referee disallowed it! He wasn’t a great referee in the whole match, to be honest, and many of his decisions were questionable. Portugal seemed to get the advantages from him. Had our second goal been allowed, which it should have been, we would have been through to the semi-final. But, it was not to be…

Being the quarter-finals, a score of 1-1 meant extra time. Nobody scored that elusive ‘silver goal’ in the first 15 minutes, so another 15 minutes were required. Portugal scored. We thought it was over, but the 15 minutes were not over. Amazingly, we equalised! Extra time ended with the score on 2-2.

It’s great that we equalised, but the match couldn’t be over with a draw. Someone had to win. It all came down to those 2 words we all dread – “penalty shootout”. Partly skill, partly lottery, the tension could not have got any higher by this stage. David Beckham started for England – and missed completely, a mistake which he’ll never live down. The penalty spot was not satisfactory for many players during the shootout, but as everyone was playing in the same conditions, you can’t argue that it was unfair. It’s a sand-based pitch at that stadium, which doesn’t help, but it’s not the spot’s fault.

Of course, Portugal fired home their first penalty, and we were trailing by a point. Then, Portugal missed, and the penalty score came to 5-5. So it was now sudden death. Darius Vassell shoots for England… but the Portuguese goalie saves it. Portugal now have to take their penalty. Whotakes it? Their own goalkeeper! And he scores! Not unexpected, but a great shame for all England fans.

All in all, it was an interesting match. Some odd decisions by the ref didn’t help things. But, in the end, it has to be said that Portugal were the better side. They did deserve to win, as they were just playing better than us for most of the match. Our players are good, but not good enough. Beckham in particular is not on form. He’s not injured, but he just doesn’t seem to be as alert as he used to be. He maintains that he’ll still be Captain though, and Sven has stated that he will stay as the manager for the team’s World Cup campaign in 2 years time. Let’s hope we can improve by then.

Apart from that, I went to a careers fair at the university on Wednesday and picked up plenty of information. I’ll go to the careers advisors next week to sort out my CV and other things. At the moment, I’m just looking at the information that I picked up, plus various websites, to give myself things to think about.