Moving on from the weather to Superbowl XLIII in which my beloved Pittsburgh Steelers were victorious. For me it was the best Superbowl I’ve ever seen, granted I’ve only seen 4 but still. Pittsburgh were immense in the first half completely dominating Fitzgerald, though did allow 7 points and then to turn what was about to be another seven into a defensive touchdown. What a play that was by Harrison! Second half though was where this game came alive, Steelers go up another score to the Cardinals to com back overturning a huge deficit to lead only for Ben to show the rest of the NFL how to do a 2 minute drive up the field. This was then capped by a superb end-zone catch by Holmes. The only sore after the game is yet again hearing some comments from non-Steelers fans saying the refs gave the game to Pittsburgh. Personally it was given both ways with both sides being given contentious decisions. It’s Football the refs are human deal with it. As a sports fan who follows many teams I’ve seen many awful decisions given against only to see them given for. Over a season it balances itself out and you’ve just gotta deal with it.

Finally a word for my dearly departed XBox which RRoD‘d last week. Alhough a refurb/replacement is on it’s way I doubt it’ll be the same box. All the best ‘ol XBox, you will be missed.

After that the rest of the week was pretty much average although unfortunately 5-a-side on Monday and Tuesday was cancelled. Come Friday and well, getting home was quite an experience. It had snowed and rained pretty much all day and this wreaked havoc on the roads. I took the country way back to cut off having to go round Yate and had to slowly drive my car through a part which was completely flooded (coming up over my headlights a couple times). Then I missed the turn I wanted to take as I had been told Winterbourne was hell and ended up one the A38. This wasn’t too bad and only queued where I expect, Almondsbury. Got past this and thought I was home free, oh how wrong I was! Got as far as Pizza Hut’s round-a-bout and from there, two (or three depending one what route you want to do) round-a-bouts from my house queued for the next hour and a quarter. So to summarise, I left work at 4:45pm and got home at 6:50pm; normally I get back at 5:15pm so I was spectacularly late. Still it was an adventure I suppose and gave a talking point for the evening. I had never seen Bradley Stoke this backed up before and it was blocked in both directions.

So to today then and really the only talking point is United’s 6-0 demolition of Newcastle. By all accounts it was a good game once the second half started. It was nice to see us play with some purpose which is what we lacked in the first half and it was also good to see Ronaldo get is first hat-trick for the club. Didn’t do much good for my fantasy team but there you go, can’t have everything. I’ll also be watching the NFL playoffs tonight but unfortunately Pittsburgh isn’t it after losing last week to the Jaguars in the Wild Card match. However I’m looking forward just to watching it and hopefully I’ll see two good games tonight. Tomorrow I’ll be off to see Cirque Du Soleil in London which I’m really looking forward to as I have always wanted to see them live since I caught them on the television once.

Something else also happened today and that was Cati got her exam results back for her ballet. Less to say it wasn’t the result we wanted. It’s a shame as well considering all the effort she’s put in, the hours and so on and I really hoped that she would pass. Although it doesn’t mean the same she passed in my eyes and on more than just marks.

Life in general is going pretty well despite the odd worry but then they’re nothing more that what everyone else probably worries about. It gets me down and recently it’s got me down more than it usually does. The other thing that keeps bugging me lately is I have this feeling that things are just passing me by. I don’t know if they are or why I have this feeling but even as I sit here now I just thinking I could or should be doing something more. Fact is I probably could, I even started writing my part of a story I’m doing with Legionary, hopefully I’ll write more soon. Cat is doing well in her job though right now she’s worrying and stressing about her dancing exam which is approaching far too quickly! Our holiday to Iceland is booked for next year, just a case now of saving the money and damn it’s expensive but there you go, what in this life isn’t?! Still it’ll be worth it and I really can’t wait to go. On another life note, my birthday is approaching again, I tell you it must be improving its ninja skills as it really did sneak up on me this year.

One cool thing though that happened recently was my attendance, along with my good friend Carl, to the NHL ice hockey game in London. The atmosphere and venue (The O2) were superb and the game wasn’t half-bad either. It’s certainly got me buzzing and really excited now about attending the NFL London game for which the tickets turned up the other week. I also managed to get my hands on the Halo 3 Legendary Edition. It’s a seriously cool special edition and, in my opinion, worth it.

Sports wise it’s an up and down start for my teams. The Steelers are doing well in the NFL with their defence really looking the business this season. United have only just started to get in to gear and as far as the Penguins go; such a stark contrast to last season. I won’t mention anything about the Pirates’ baseball season as, apart from the odd surprise win there’s nothing to talk about.

So there you go, 3 months zipped up.

On to this week then and so far I have been to the Gym and played football today! I’m trying to get my weight and body fat down a little so hopefully the more I do the better, time will tell on that I guess. I’ll be in Uni and at the Gym again tomorrow. I have a Gym buddy in my friend Rich who I’ve known since I started Uni so there’s someone there to push me and keep me going which helps alot.

In other news, United had a great weekend but a horrible evening tonight. On the weekend we won and our rivals lost but tonight we lost to Southend. Credit to them though they were good for their win and in my opinion deserved it far more than United did. Pittsburgh have gone to 2-6 now having lost again on the weekend. Sky is showing another of their games this Sunday in their double header and though I love watching them play I don’t know if I could handle four bad defeats in a row. I probably will watch but I’ll at least panic about it for a little while.

I also received a large amount of money for my birthday which has allowed me to do two things I’ve contemplated for a long while. Firstly, to replace my ipod as I’ve been dying to get my hands on one of the current gen ipods; and secondly to buy an iMac. I will still be keeping my main PC as it has the most storage (around 500GB) and has a lot of stuff on there that I couldn’t put elsewhere but since I bought my iBook last year I miss a lot of the functions that MacOS offers. Quite often I’ll be hitting F9 or alt+w whilst at a Windows machine and well, I do like Macs. So yeah, I’m really looking forward to that, should arrive by tomorrow if the despatch information is correct. I haven’t used the new ipod as I’m going to connect it solely to the iMac so I’ve had to be a good boy and not connect to my iBook or PC.

On other, rather sad news, a family friend of ours who Catrin knows more than I do is very, very ill and, according to all news, may not last much longer. It’s been a big drain on Cat and with her visiting her mother tonight no doubt it’ll be the topic of the conversation on the trip from the Convent to Seend. It’s been a big test for the both of us as something this big so early in our marriage has been a bit testing. The problem being is I’m sort of detached in a way from the situation. Although I know the person and have met them a few times I don’t have the connection that Catrin, Mair and her mother have. It has caused a couple mini-disagreements between us and while it’s nothing major I’m just slightly annoyed with myself. It’s always major to lose someone you know even more so when you’re heavily involved in the situation as Cat is. I know that she knows I’m here for her and everything it’s just every now and then I wish I know what I should be saying.

Switching topic as that is way too sombre a way to finish a blog post I’ve been most chuffed with United’s last two performances. We beat Liverpool and then, yesterday, we demolished Bolton in a very clinical way. Shame the Steelers can’t match them as last week we lost again. The match was a gripping one and I really thought we’d done enough to win. However it went into overtime and we lost as they scored on the first drive with a field goal. Oh well, I guess that’s sport for you I just hope we can turn it around soon ya know?! Long ways to go in the season in both respects but I feel United could be a real challenge for Chelsea this season. Finally though on a side note, Morton (where a lot of my relatives live), lost they’re unbeaten record this week losing 3-2 yesterday. Shame really but we’re still top and that’s key and with any luck we could be going up to the Scottish First Division, time will tell no doubt.

Today is just going to spent relaxing and chilling out, lots of sport to watch. Right now I’m watching United Vs Liverpool and currently we’re 1-0 which is good! Later I’ll be watching the Steelers play Atlanta and hopefully we can win again this week as convincingly as we did last week. Then I’ll probably watch the episode of Robin Hood I missed yesterday and then Match of the Day. Finally there is also the possibility of watching the Grand Prix either live (whilst watching the Steelers) or the highlights after MoTD. Either way it’s going to be a day mostly filled with sport.

In closing I just want to thank those who sent cards/presents for my birthday yesterday, I don’t want to embarrass but you know you are and thank you muchly!

Aside from that the eagle eyed among you may have noticed that I’ve finally upgraded WordPress to version 2.0.4 and my theme to Beta 2. I did actually try Beta 2 of Squible a while back but I had too many issues with it so decided to keep with the old version. However, a recent spate of annoying bot comments, pushed me into upgrading to see whether they were exploiting a bug (they were able to post comments on a topic where you couldn’t). So I decided to start fresh and give Beta to a whirl again. This time there hasn’t been any issue expect one with Flickr which I hope to resolve soon (i.e. it doesn’t seem to retrieve my pics instead it pulls random ones). Either way I’m up-to-date now and that’s a bonus I suppose.

In other news I signed up at 360voice.com to give my XBox 360 a “blog” of sorts and it’s an amusing read, anyone who really wants to see what my 360 says about me should visit this page. My NFL team, the Pittsburgh Steelers, have gotten off to an indifferent start to the NFL season. They’ve currently won one and lost two and just don’t look as good a unit as they did last season. Granted we no longer have Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, Randle El or Kimi VO but you’d have thought we’d be a lot better. In contrast United has gotten off to one of the best starts I’ve seen in a while though at the moment we’re stuttering. I think that’s mainly due to Giggs being out but then we should still perform better than we have been doing.

Oh well, anyway, I’ll be down in Bournemouth again this weekend for Ruth’s birthday. Should be a laugh as it has a bouncy castle and everything, should definitely be a good weekend!

BBC SPORT | Other Sport… | American Football | Steelers seal Super Bowl victory

MVP Hines Ward (left) and Jerome Bettis had cause to celebrate. The Pittsburgh Steelers won their first Super Bowl since 1980 by beating the Seattle Seahawks 21-10 in Detroit.

Seattle had the better of the first half, but ended it 7-3 down after a controversial touchdown by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger.

Willie Parker then ran in a 75-yard score, setting a Super Bowl record.

And although Jerramy Stevens gave the Seahawks hope, Antwaan Randel El sealed the win by executing a brilliant trick play to MVP Hines Ward in the endzone.

It brought about career-defining moments for veteran running back Jerome Bettis – who retired immediately afterwards – and for long-term coach Bill Cowher, neither of whom had won a Super Bowl before.

I was there to watch at the Superbash and my word was it amazing. I even appeard on Sky Sports 1 just after the end of the 3rd quater (I was one of the Steelers fans jumping up and down, on the right iirc). Anyway the night was amazing, the game was fantastic and I still can’t get over the fact that we won!!! I met some really cool people and the atmosphere of the night at the Superbash really made the whole event that more special. I will probably watch a lot more Superbowls but whether any of them can match last night (not just for us winning but where I was for it) is unlikely.

Still it’s back to life and Uni now but for a few hours last night I felt I was at Ford Field watching the game.

Dear nfluk.com member,

Congratulations! You have been selected as one of the lucky registered nfluk.com members who will join us for Super Bash III at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire on Sunday February 5 for the biggest Super Bowl party in the history of the UK.

In addition to the whole of Super Bowl XL on a gigantic screen, you can look forward to an incredible night of live entertainment featuring chart toppers Liberty X, the Cuban Brothers with their live band, and the New Orleans Saintsations cheerleaders – all hosted by Vernon Kay.

So rather than watching at home and stressing about getting my TV in and other stuff up and running in time to watch it I will now be watching it at this coole SuperBash thing. I’m really looking forward to it, got the trains booked and a place to crash for a few hourse, and now all I gotta do is wait. I’m just can’t wait for the Superbowl as I think it’s going to be fantastic.

The other thing that happened today was that when I went in to town I heard someone singing Elvis songs. Upon futher investigation I found that the person singing was, in fact, a Elvis impersonator. Added to this was the fact that this guy was Chinese Elvis the only one in the UK registered with the UK actors guild apparantly! He was really cool, very friendly (as you can see by the photo in which I look quite bad) and well, very good at his impersonation. The point of all this is that its Chinese New Year and Sharwoods were doing something called, I think, “Wok in the City” or something like that. What they were offering we free noodles, which I wasn’t interested in and some light entertainment (Chinese Elvis) to pass the time. All quite cool if you ask me. So there you go, quite an eventful day!

Pittsburgh and Seattle will meet in Super Bowl XL after both teams comfortably won their title play-offs.

The Steelers beat Denver 34-17 in the AFC title game while the Seahawks beat Carolina 34-14 in the NFC decider.

It is the first time Seattle have reached the Super Bowl while it was bottom-seeded Pittsburgh’s third straight play-off victory on the road.

Wahey!! Steelers did and I can’t wait for Superbowl XL now as my team are in it. I really give them a chance as they’re on a roll now and I think they could go on to win it. In other sport news Man Utd saw off Liverpool but only just. In truth the match was awful and it was quite hard to sit through all 90mins. You see since I was home this weekend for my mums 60th my Dad asked if I wanted to go with him to watch the match. In hindsight it may have been best to stay at home. Utds passing was awful, in the final 3rd we were a joke (though not as much as a joke as Cisse’s shot for Liverpool). However, in the 90th minute Ferdinand got on the end of a free-kick by Giggs and put it past Reina to win the game for Utd 1-0.

The weekend was pretty good although I didn’t get much sleep on Saturday as I was sleeping on the downstairs couch and well, it didn’t let me get much sleep. Aside from that however the weekend was a great laugh and lots of enjoyment was had. Back home now and University from tomorrow onwards. Signing of contracts for the new house next week so a lot is going on though its very exciting. I also upgraded my wordpress theme to the newest version of Squible (I even got a mention on the documentation page!). The updates are fantastic on it, especially the ability of editing what you see a lot more easily. Basically it’s all done with drop-down boxes etc rather than me having to hack away at the files that comprise the theme. I have, however, lost my buttons and the links to chat to me but, to be honest, I don’t think anyone would’ve used them anyway. Roll on the move and Superbowl XL!