Oh yeah - the football season

Okay, so it's been summer.

We enjoyed a fun World Cup, an eventful NBA free agency and some downtime from sport.  And it seems as though it's back.

And I just cannot get excited.

The plight of Bolton Wanderers is the main cause.  We're in a torrid situation.  We've made no moves of note in the off-season and seem intent on begging, stealing and borrowing our way to mid-table mediocrity.

And then you immediately go a goal down once the season begins, in a tricky away tie against Watford.

Sigh.

And for some reason this means the world - well, twitter - caves in.  20 minutes into the football season and we seem to have earmarked it as a bad one.  20 minutes into the season and we have the first (serious) "Freedman Out" post.

Which is great for the players, right?  The first error or the first sign of a bit of adversity in the 2014/15 season and we don't roll our sleeves up, pump our chest and vocally back the players.  No.  We chunter and moan and blame.

I'm not sure at which exact point us Bolton fans decided we were better than mid-table championship and to expect to keep up with the £18m Hull have just been able to spend.  I'm not sure when an away defeat to Watford became the harbinger of doom.

Could be the uninspiring signings.
Could be the uninspiring manager.
Could be the 3 or 4 previous uninspiring managers, back to back
Could be the ridiculous debt we have.
Could be that if our chairman had been decisive that fatal season and ousted Coyle then he might not have had the chance to take us down.

Fuck it, there's loads of reasons.

But whatever the cause being a Bolton fan isn't a lot of fun at the moment.  It offers little joy.  And certainly a League Cup struggle against Bury isn't going to change it.

Can't we all just get along?

Raptors v Nets - Up in the Air

The Toronto Raptors' unexpected season is up in the air, and due to freak circumstances so will I be when the crunch game 7 concludes on Sunday.

Last night a fortnight of staying up late and watching the games at 1am European time with split-shifts on sleep (3 hours before and after) caught up with me and with a heavy heart I turned the game off halfway through the 2nd with the team down 16.  It seemed I didn't miss much as the team didn't get closer than 10 of the Nets.

This is how the alternate-universe "Tank Raptors" should have performed.  They couldn't defend, couldn't score and only impossible buckets from DeRozan kept them anywhere near sight.  The sight of Jonas getting into foul trouble with two senseless offensive fouls, the sight of panicked rotations, jumping on pump fakes and watching the team walk into half court and then fail to even penetrate the three-point line was a tough a watch as I've had in my time watching this team.

Now they face the game of their lives, a matinee tip off at the Air Canada Centre which means 6pm in the UK - where I fly from - and 7pm in the Netherlands, where I fly to.  I land Dutch time about 9pm, and won't get to home or good wifi til gone 10.  By then the series will be over and I'll miss the drama, the nerves and the excitement of the game 7.

I'm absolutely gutted.

Watching these games live in the middle of the night has been an incredible experience.  I found myself punching the air at Kyle Lowry 3s and DeRozan's charges, I've found myself yelling at imaginary refs for poor calls and I had the pit of my stomach completely sick at the sight at a 20-odd point lead evaporate in game 5.

I'll get to Haarlem on Sunday and will already know if my adopted Toronto Raptors will be headed to Miami or headed home.  If we're going to Miami, I'll smile, I'll probably re-watch the game in League Pass and I'll read all the reports twice over.  If we lose, I'll feel numb like it's not happened.  And like that, the season will be over.

I think they can win.  My worry is that they don't think they can win.  They keys to each of the games Toronto has won has been aggression from the start, it's been Jonas's involvement at both ends and it's been Kyle Lowry's sheer grit.

I'm yet to hear conviction from the Raptors camp that they can do it, they must be completely in a daze over the last 5 quarters of basketball.

The good news is that they are at the Air Canada Centre.  Could those 20,000 fans inside (and around half outside) provide the spark and the lift needed?  Coaches will tell you that the fans won't influence these games.  I don't buy it.  That wall of Canadian noise that greets every dunk or three-pointer, the rendition of "O Canada" and the taunting boos whenever Brooklyn get a call - I think the Raptors will feed off it, and I think they'll go to Miami.

Let's Go Raptors.

KingsDay 2014 - Amsterdam and Haarlem

By result of an unhappy accident I found myself staying in the Netherlands on the first Kings Day bank holiday in over a 100 years.  I couldn't miss the chance to see for myself the colour, the boats and the street party.

This is the picture you will see all over the tourist websites and social media promoting the event.  And it's exactly how you find the festivities.  There are plenty of spots where the boats face a traffic jam and the sheer number trying to get through means things soon pile up.

The boats were all shapes and sizes, from little 2-man dingy's to the big tour-boat things.  Including some full of Japanese tourists who didn't quite know what to make of it all!  What the photos struggle to capture is the noise and atmosphere by the canal.  Each boat had a sound system, some had a DJ spinning the decks and all were high-spirited.

Scenes like the above were common, with people selling each other various goods whether it be food - or mostly alcohol.  One of my favourite accessories was the couch below.  You definitely would - and it's orange to boot.

Getting out onto the streets they were full of second hand stalls.  It was common to hear people barter on even a 3-Euro item of clothing.  My favourite moment of the day was clocking a proud looking young kid, maybe 4 or 5 years old with her home-made lemonade.  10 cents a glass.  I got 5 meters past her and made up my mind paying for a glass would be enough to make her day and a group of British girls in front had obviously had the same thought and scurried back to fuss over her.  Elsewhere there were hog roasts, burgers and chilled beers everywhere.

The streets weren't as crowded as expected, but I didn't head to the center of the city, I stayed around Jordaan.  I headed back to Haarlem to find that as lively.  The usually quiet main square had a fairground and a full on street party outside Cafe XO.  That was 3 in the afternoon.

Overall - I'm glad I saw it.  I think to do the day in a group would be amazing.  There are parties everywhere, DJs, drinks and everyone in such good spirits.

I just couldn't imagine a day like this in England.  A day where everyone just had the same, simple idea, and a day where you can be proud of your nationality without judgement.  There's no way that many people would be by the canals or on the boats without throwing things at the crowd or vice versa.