Dughall's stuff

@dughall

This is a place where I share pictures, writing and stuff

25 posts

Autumn walk 2

Autumn walk 1

Cliffe House - venue for camped14

#camped14 #cliffe house

Kirklees College

#2013 #kirklees #kirklees college

Croak

Cold call

"Hello, my name is Lisa, can I speak to Mr McCormick"

"Speaking"

"I'm not selling anything, I'd just like to ask a few questions..."

"Before you start, can I ask you how you got this number?"

"Are you in a call preference arrangement?"

"We are, because we prefer not to receive..."

"Click. Brrrrrrrrrrrr............"

Broken

Evening light

Bry's Christmas baubles

Proper Yorkshire

Sheffield City Hall

Bryony's quiche (Taken with Instagram)

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#56

I am an occasional contributor to a weekly writing challenge organised by Julia Skinner. She provides a stimulus/prompt and we then produce 100 words.

This week's prompt is to include the following:

...being clear is essential to...

Here's my piece:

Being clear is essential. To illustrate this, I’d like to provide you with a few useful examples:

Firstly, there is the problem of ambiguity: Children can make delicious snacks. Red tape holds up new bridge. Don’t let worry kill you, let the church help.

Secondly, the importance of punctuation: Danger! No swimming allowed! Or: Danger? No! Swimming allowed! Let’s eat, Grandpa. Or: Let’s eat Grandpa. The man dropped the bullet in his mouth. Or: The man dropped, the bullet in his mouth.

Thirdly, capital letters: I helped my Uncle Jack off the horse.

Finally, grammar – the difference between knowing your shit and knowing you’re shit.

I cannot take the credit for these examples as they are readily available via a simple internet search and no one person seems to be an obvious originator of any of them.

For the image, credit goes to orangebrompton on Flickr under Creative Commons Licensing.

#100WCGU #100wc #writing #2012

12 Sporting Months August 2011 - August 2012

A record of the sporting events I've attended in 12 months between August 13th 2011 and August 3rd 2012

13th August 2011 Wigan vs Norwich City (1-1) The one event at which I failed to take a single picture or anything...

27th August 2011 Chelsea vs Norwich (3-1)

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We left my mum's house in the west of Ireland at 7.45am and missed the 3pm kick-off by 10 minutes having had an epic journey including a flight from Knock to Leeds, dropping off eldest at home in Holmfirth before driving to Rickmansworth where we parked the car at Drew Buddie's house before taking a tube that we eventually bailed out of at Baker Street when we realised there would be a chance we might miss the whole game. A London taxi took us the last few miles and provided commentary via the radio. Spent a lovely evening with Drew and his kids post-match.

17th September 2011 Bolton vs Norwich City (1-2)

Victory!

1st October 2011 Manchester Utd vs Norwich City (2-0)

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An impressive performance from City, missed a few great chances and could have had a draw at least. "We've come for our scarves!"

22nd October 2011 Liverpool vs Norwich City

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My favourite sporting experience thanks to the kindness of Pete Rafferty and others. Read all about it here.

5th November 2011 Aston Villa vs Norwich City (3-2)

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If we knew then what we know now... (Paul Lambert's departure to Villa).

26th November 2011 6 Days of Ghent Track Cycling

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Another memorable 'away' trip - this time abroad. A full account can be found on John Sutton's 'Irontwit' blog where I wrote a guest post.

3rd December 2011 Manchester City vs Norwich City (5-1)

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Something of a humiliation by the eventual league winners.

17th December Everton vs Norwich City (1-1)

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A brief Youtube from this one, too:

2nd January 2012 QPR vs Norwich City (1-2)

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7th January 2012 Revolution Track Cycling Manchester

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Having enjoyed the cycling in Ghent, we went as a whole family to the Manchester Velodrome.

14th January 2012 West Bromwich Albion vs Norwich City (1-2)

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The first of two victories over West Brom in as many weeks.

28th January 2012 (FA Cup 4th Round) West Bromwich Albion vs Norwich City (1-2)

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1st February 2012 Sunderland vs Norwich City (3-0)

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A miserable mid-week evening fixture. A long journey and bitterly cold. Norwich failed to turn up... I really felt for those fans that had travelled all the way from Norfolk.

17th March 2012 England vs Ireland (6 Nations Rugby) (30-9)

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Amazing experience, only marred by the result.

18th March Newcastle Utd vs Norwich City (1-0)

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The stadium that impressed me most. Also another 'take an away fan to the game' experience. This time we met up with Liam Murphy.

9th April 2012 Tottenham Hotspur vs Norwich City (1-2)

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The winning goal:

(Must remember to hold the phone the right way round...)

A sweet, sweet victory.

21st April Blackburn Rovers vs Norwich City (2-0)

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Having ensured top flight survival, this felt like players' hearts just weren't in it.

26th July 2012 Olympic Football, Old Trafford United Arab Emirates vs Uraguay (1-2) Great Britain vs Senegal (1-1)

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A strange but nevertheless fulfilling experience. I wrote about it here.

3rd August 2012 Olympic Park and Ladies' Basketball Angola vs Croatia (56-75) Russia vs Australia (66-70)

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An experience never to be forgotten. The teamimg throngs on the Olympic Park, the buzz, the friendliness and the basketball itself all bathed in beautiful sunshine.

An amazing 12 months.

#2011 #2012 #basketball #cycling #football #london2012 #ncfc #olympics #sport

Wing clipping

100 Word Challenge for Grown Ups – Week#51

Here is my submission fro Week 51 of The 100 Word Challenge for Grownups a creative writing project run by Julia Skinner. The challenge, to include the words:

...the line was drawn...

His pen shifted methodically and delicately over the paper. An image steadily began to emerge. A perfect circle, a square. Arms positioned in symmetry, four legs, then the details: hands, hair, face, genitals, three of the feet. Yawning and stretching he looked momentarily out of the window. Before him was the Piazza San Marco, bathed in early evening light. At that moment, the bells in the tower peeled their customary twilight call. Carefully he completed a final fourth foot adjacent to where the line was. Drawn with the skill and accuracy of a true master, his work was finally complete.

...

...

...

#100 word challenge #100wcgu #2012 #vitruvian man #writing

Two left feet?

We had a lovely family day out at the football at Old Trafford but it left me feeling slightly strange and I’ve been wondering why.

I think part of it is that I am a regular football goer anyway and the experience was very different to my usual.

Firstly, I’m accustomed to a tribal affair with clearly demarked ‘camps’. This tribal aspect lends itself to singing, chanting and general atmosphere-building. This I think is what was missing last night. The impressive crowd of 72,000 were unrehearsed, hadn’t got to know each other and lacked a slickness and familiarity out of kilter with what was on the pitch. We were like a bunch of well-meaning amateurs thrown together at the last minute who were unsure of the dance-moves or who didn’t know the set list. There was clearly a will, as was demonstrated by the hearty cheering of the GB team, celebration of the goal and warm recognition of scorer Craig Bellamy as he departed the field. But that ‘will’ was unable to express itself in getting behind the team in a conventional way. There were occasional half-hearted ‘GB’-orientated chants but it was a far cry from an impassioned local derby, say. I suppose the ultimate expression of this neutering of the crowd was the regular (often unsuccessful) Mexican Wave efforts.

None of this is to say I didn’t enjoy the experience. From a purely footballing perspective, it was an enjoyable spectacle – although the first game between United Arab Emirates and Uraguay was perhaps the better of the two encounters (sad, when Team GB featured in the other, against Senegal). It was great to see the plucky underdogs of UAE competing well against favourites, Uraguay. I also enjoyed the family feel to the night as well as the rainbow diversity of club shirts represented in the crowd – great to see club rivals bantering and united through the sport.

I suppose it was just ‘different’ and had its own virtues as an event.

#2012 #football #old trafford #olympics

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