Yes, Revell's fantastic blog is back for another season! Here it is.....
Revelling In It
This week starring:
Adam ‘sat nav’ Barrett
Lee ‘the doctors friend’ Barnard
Clark ‘you know Revs, you don’t half scrub up’ Masters
Is it me or has time flown by since the end of last season? I know for a lot of people the summer holidays are only just beginning but for us it’s well and truly back down to business.
Saying that, one piece of Club work I especially enjoy is my Blog and I’ve actually missed not doing it – it’s funny, so much has happened since May time which I’ve vowed to tell you all about, but now it comes to writing it down I’ve forgotten most of it!
No doubt though that the highlight of my off-season has been the whole experience of getting married.
First up was my stag do which took Barney, Clark Masters, Macca and myself to Portugal for a few days. For those of you who have seen the film The Hangover, you’ll be able to relate to my time away, minus waking up with a tiger in my bathroom and getting in a fight with Mike Tyson!!!
In fact I got off quite lightly considering who’s company I was with. I’ve kept all of my hair, I wasn’t tied to any lampposts and the only time things got a bit worrying was on the evening I had to dress as a woman and Clark Masters took a shine to me, so I had to give him a slap, with my handbag of course!
And then there was the wedding itself which thankfully went to plan. The only point of note was that, because the other half’s family are all doctors there were a fair few at the ceremony and while I didn’t know all of them, they were all on first name terms with Lee Barnard, who by the looks of things seems to have met every doctor during his playing career!
The only other minor incident was Captain ‘I still haven’t grasped this technology malarky’ Barrett who went to the wrong church and blamed his sat nav for sending him to the wrong place! However, for all you romantics out there Adam told me that the bride had worn a very dashing dress with four foot tail whilst the groom and his entourage wore top hat and tails with a plum cravat, and apparently they looked a great couple – thanks for that Adam!!!
Anyway, back to my big day…..
They say that no matter how much you plan, there will always be one crisis in wedding planning and ours came through a phone call two days before the day itself. On the other end of the phone was someone from Stringfellow's who embarrassing informed me that he’d doubled booked the wedding reception (although I think the missus was behind it really) so we'd have to look elsewhere.
After we turned down McDonald’s invite to have the reception at their fine eatery (they couldn’t guarantee us all a tour around the kitchen in true party style) we found a nice country hall that could accommodate us thankfully.
The evening do provided us all with the real reason Captain Barrett has no hair. After Revellinho provided the crowd with a truly magnificent routine with the wife which would put Brendan Cole to shame, Mr Barrett took it upon himself to show off his break dancing routine, climaxing in a head spin which would have taken any last strands of remaining hair clean off! Saying that his river-dancing was quality - very Stavros Flatley’esc!
I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to anyone who was in accident and emergency anywhere in London that evening as it seems like anyone with any medical experience was at my do, but it did have a silver lining as one elderly lady fell over and looked worryingly ill – the first casualty of the night.
It was only after Columbo Masters had inspected the fruit juice she’d been drinking that we realised she’d been drinking from the alcoholic fruit punch bowl as opposed to the safe one. Saying that, we should have seen the signs earlier as she challenged Adam to a dance off, started a fight with Clark and then asked where the nearest kebab shop was, but we decided to give her the benefit of the doubt at the time.
I won’t indulge you too much into what happened on our honeymoon afterwards, although we did have our first ‘tiff’ as Mr and Mrs Revell, as it became apparent that she was a tiny (ok, a lot) better than me at surfing. This put me in a mood for quite a while especially as whenever it was my turn to go I seemed to be dealt waves that were half the size of those I’d found in my rehab pool a few months earlier, never mind an ocean!
We had a nice relaxing two weeks away which was exactly what I needed, especially as pre-season has been anything but relaxing.
Luckily (or unluckily) I’m now pretty much fully fit which has enabled me to join in all of the first team sessions, which has mainly been training for the sequel to Chariots of Fire 2!
We’ve had no ‘pukers’ to date which is a tell tale sign that everyone has kept to their off-season programme, and personally things have gone well as I haven’t had to drop out of any sessions to date.
However, we all know the real hard work starts now and everyone is buzzing for the games to start.
I couldn’t go through this week’s column without mentioning Peter Clarke and all the strengths he brought to the team throughout his time here. We’d all like to wish him and his family all the best for the future.
This is football though and there are people here who will step up to fill in for his shoes and with a few more new faces we are confident that we won’t fall short like we did last campaign.
You’ll be pleased to hear that I’ll be continuing to provide you with your weekly culinary fix, and for the first one of the 09/10 season we’ve got a belter:
Dish of the Week – ‘Thai noodles with sticky sweet chilli chicken’
Revs’ tips – coat the chicken in flour before you fry it and it’ll give you a crispy batterlike taste to it
While we are talking food, I get many people asking me about a potential cook book as well as seeing it mentioned on the forums. Well as a Blues Insider exclusive, if anyone has the means or would like to publish a cook book for say Christmas, I’d be willing to do it as long as all proceeds go to a worthy cause such as our Youth Department or a chosen charity. If you know someone or would like to do it yourself, email in to marketing@southend-united.co.uk and we’ll see if we can make it happen.
Anyway, take care everybody and I look forward to seeing you all again at the Club events occurring over the next few weeks.
Up the Blues!
Revs
Revelling In It
This week starring:
Adam ‘sat nav’ Barrett
Lee ‘the doctors friend’ Barnard
Clark ‘you know Revs, you don’t half scrub up’ Masters
Is it me or has time flown by since the end of last season? I know for a lot of people the summer holidays are only just beginning but for us it’s well and truly back down to business.
Saying that, one piece of Club work I especially enjoy is my Blog and I’ve actually missed not doing it – it’s funny, so much has happened since May time which I’ve vowed to tell you all about, but now it comes to writing it down I’ve forgotten most of it!
No doubt though that the highlight of my off-season has been the whole experience of getting married.
First up was my stag do which took Barney, Clark Masters, Macca and myself to Portugal for a few days. For those of you who have seen the film The Hangover, you’ll be able to relate to my time away, minus waking up with a tiger in my bathroom and getting in a fight with Mike Tyson!!!
In fact I got off quite lightly considering who’s company I was with. I’ve kept all of my hair, I wasn’t tied to any lampposts and the only time things got a bit worrying was on the evening I had to dress as a woman and Clark Masters took a shine to me, so I had to give him a slap, with my handbag of course!
And then there was the wedding itself which thankfully went to plan. The only point of note was that, because the other half’s family are all doctors there were a fair few at the ceremony and while I didn’t know all of them, they were all on first name terms with Lee Barnard, who by the looks of things seems to have met every doctor during his playing career!
The only other minor incident was Captain ‘I still haven’t grasped this technology malarky’ Barrett who went to the wrong church and blamed his sat nav for sending him to the wrong place! However, for all you romantics out there Adam told me that the bride had worn a very dashing dress with four foot tail whilst the groom and his entourage wore top hat and tails with a plum cravat, and apparently they looked a great couple – thanks for that Adam!!!
Anyway, back to my big day…..
They say that no matter how much you plan, there will always be one crisis in wedding planning and ours came through a phone call two days before the day itself. On the other end of the phone was someone from Stringfellow's who embarrassing informed me that he’d doubled booked the wedding reception (although I think the missus was behind it really) so we'd have to look elsewhere.
After we turned down McDonald’s invite to have the reception at their fine eatery (they couldn’t guarantee us all a tour around the kitchen in true party style) we found a nice country hall that could accommodate us thankfully.
The evening do provided us all with the real reason Captain Barrett has no hair. After Revellinho provided the crowd with a truly magnificent routine with the wife which would put Brendan Cole to shame, Mr Barrett took it upon himself to show off his break dancing routine, climaxing in a head spin which would have taken any last strands of remaining hair clean off! Saying that his river-dancing was quality - very Stavros Flatley’esc!
I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to anyone who was in accident and emergency anywhere in London that evening as it seems like anyone with any medical experience was at my do, but it did have a silver lining as one elderly lady fell over and looked worryingly ill – the first casualty of the night.
It was only after Columbo Masters had inspected the fruit juice she’d been drinking that we realised she’d been drinking from the alcoholic fruit punch bowl as opposed to the safe one. Saying that, we should have seen the signs earlier as she challenged Adam to a dance off, started a fight with Clark and then asked where the nearest kebab shop was, but we decided to give her the benefit of the doubt at the time.
I won’t indulge you too much into what happened on our honeymoon afterwards, although we did have our first ‘tiff’ as Mr and Mrs Revell, as it became apparent that she was a tiny (ok, a lot) better than me at surfing. This put me in a mood for quite a while especially as whenever it was my turn to go I seemed to be dealt waves that were half the size of those I’d found in my rehab pool a few months earlier, never mind an ocean!
We had a nice relaxing two weeks away which was exactly what I needed, especially as pre-season has been anything but relaxing.
Luckily (or unluckily) I’m now pretty much fully fit which has enabled me to join in all of the first team sessions, which has mainly been training for the sequel to Chariots of Fire 2!
We’ve had no ‘pukers’ to date which is a tell tale sign that everyone has kept to their off-season programme, and personally things have gone well as I haven’t had to drop out of any sessions to date.
However, we all know the real hard work starts now and everyone is buzzing for the games to start.
I couldn’t go through this week’s column without mentioning Peter Clarke and all the strengths he brought to the team throughout his time here. We’d all like to wish him and his family all the best for the future.
This is football though and there are people here who will step up to fill in for his shoes and with a few more new faces we are confident that we won’t fall short like we did last campaign.
You’ll be pleased to hear that I’ll be continuing to provide you with your weekly culinary fix, and for the first one of the 09/10 season we’ve got a belter:
Dish of the Week – ‘Thai noodles with sticky sweet chilli chicken’
Revs’ tips – coat the chicken in flour before you fry it and it’ll give you a crispy batterlike taste to it
While we are talking food, I get many people asking me about a potential cook book as well as seeing it mentioned on the forums. Well as a Blues Insider exclusive, if anyone has the means or would like to publish a cook book for say Christmas, I’d be willing to do it as long as all proceeds go to a worthy cause such as our Youth Department or a chosen charity. If you know someone or would like to do it yourself, email in to marketing@southend-united.co.uk and we’ll see if we can make it happen.
Anyway, take care everybody and I look forward to seeing you all again at the Club events occurring over the next few weeks.
Up the Blues!
Revs
