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I liked it a lot. Rain and thunderstorm when I arrived, so I couldn't even leave the flat. Then I could leave it and went the wrong way and found nothing but a store and a busy main road and thought "Wow, what a shitty place". But in the other direction they actually had a really nice park, with a spa hotel, lots of stores, restaurants etc. Also visited Zwickau and Chemnitz. People were super friendly! Will write a detailed report with pictures later!

Late Saturday night my partners waters broke. She blames me creating a party atmosphere after Odsonne Edouard's debut. Anyway the waters broke but my partner never went in to labour. They gave her Oxytocin Monday afternoon which led to abnormally painful contractions. She was in the very small number of people that Epidurals have zero effect on. After 13 hours of being witness to what I can only describe as a live exorcism she had just dilated 3 centimetres as the baby wouldn't put his head in the engaged position and he was now very distressed. The doctors called for an emergency C-Section and thankfully that's where our luck changed. The spinal worked on my partner and Noah entered the world at 0718 weighing 6.7lbs. Him and mother have been doing very well and they're hopeful they'll be released tomorrow.

By the time he's 18 Brian will hopefully be running the firm so he can show him the way.

So, just got back from Eastern Germany (Saxony). My first time in the former German Democratic Republic, and I didn't know what to expect. I was a kid when the Berlin Wall came down, and since then I always heard things about the Eastern Germans, and a lot of negative stigma too. I have to say I was absolutely positively surprised how friendly and warm harted the people were there. Super friendly and funny. Anyway, the town I stayed in, Bad Schlema, was small, but rich in history. It used to be a uranium ore mining town, and after they stopped mining, the whole place was radioactively contaminated. So they just put 8 meters of soil on top of it, to contain the radioactivity. So a big part of the town used to be a lot lower. You can still see the mountains in the background of the sign. But the whole town was just demolished and they put 8 meters of soil on top of it and turned it into a park. Quite a beautiful park too. Then I visited Zwickau, which seriously has one of the most beautiful old towns centers I've ever seen. Lots of beautiful old buildings, mixed with modern stuff, great gastronomy and just beautiful beer gardens were you could sit down and enjoy the vibe of the city. Another citiy I've visited was Chemnitz. It had a nice enough city center with beautiful old buildings. The Red Tower is the oldest building in town, from the late 12th century: But as soon as you left the city center, you could tell that it has it's rough parts too. They had a huge Karl Marx momument in the middle of the city, it was put up in the 70s, when the GDR was in full swing: But also some cute penguins: So yea, very interesting trip, especially when it comes to history. I ate at a Restaurant in a building that was a preschool for kids of the Soviet occupiers in the 50's. Will definitely go back and explore more one day. Anyway, here's a bonus pic of a cat that lived across the street from my flat, that I watched every morning. PS: Oh yea, I was there for Erzgebirge Aue vs. Fortuna Düsseldorf. But I kinda forgot that I was there since I experienced so much else.

That lad in the wheelchair drinking with the RWE flag is my hero.

Scenes!

Also, let's not divert from the fact of how great Eastern Germany is. Brilliant report, @Tommy.

Less than an hour on a speedster to Mos Eisley.

When I was in high school, kids would fight. It'd get pretty bad, rivalries, bad blood etc, it easily could have or would have escalated to gun violence if guns were readily available, but only in the very extreme cases. That is one reason I don't want to raise children in the USA. It's not okay and it's not normal for kids being murdered in school because of a disgruntled student or employee. Kids just take it to the extreme, for whatever the reason it's a method of self-expression to murder the students or try to burn down the school. I couldn't imagine the pain of having a child and then immediately not because of gun violence. Kids get murdered by stray bullets in the city of Chicago, what is this war zone? It's not on for me. It's the one thing I will never accept as a normality. It's the people that @Eco mentioned that I'm least worried about, the hunters, the 1776ers, the recreational shooters etc. They typically practice safe gun techniques, take care of their weaponry, and for the most part store them securely. It's their kids and other family members I worry about, one bad day or several in a row and they know where they can get a gun, probably not use it properly and cause serious harm to others.

Here's my report: #travelblogger

Under Frank, Mount seemed to be determined to make his mark on the pitch. I noticed towards the end of last season before matches he seemed to be laughing and joking around. Just wondering if Tuchel needs to have a word as technically he is not one of the best yet his hard work rate is one of the best when he tries. It might be an attitude thing if not Tuchel needs to work on the link up play.

Police Simulator - Patrol Officers. On my first shift I just had to write parking tickets and fine people for littering. Now I unlocked a radar speed gun. Shit's about to get real.

Congratulations. Look at him. Got no idea what he's just put his parents through. Definitely got Millwall written all over him.

Can't figure out who he was passing to, it was no where near De Gea and if it was supposed to be to one of the defenders on that side, they would have been under pressure from the Young Boy's attackers. With 30 seconds left he should have just hooved it out of bounds. You have to wonder if you are used to playing in one colour and the team you are playing are wearing that colour, does it cause problems. I can't remember West Ham playing in yellow , but with so many different jerseys who knows. Maybe Lingard is a little colur blind?

A few of my favorite screenshots of that that short film.

Makes sense. I imagine a lot of that feeling has faded with the gaps in divisions the two teams participate in, and thus rarely, if ever, meeting up again. A massive football party in Berlin sound nice though.

It was a thing in the 90s, but then faded out and now there's only sporadic contact between various fan groups. It started properly in 1994 when both clubs met in DFB Pokal final and the fans of both sides had a massive party in Berlin

What's particularly evident about Chelsea right now is the lack of creativity in the final 3rd, which is frankly bizarre given the talent at their disposal. The two behind Lukaku aren't doing enough, they seem incapable of playing useful passes. What I've seen is when they push just inside of the wing with the wing back moving on the overlap, if a centreback of centre mid joins to create an overload, it leaves the wide attacker with too many outside options and only Lukaku in the box. Without Pulisic no one is busting a gut to get in the box. There's just a lack of movement off the ball. Lukaku's ability to make something out of nothing is massive.

CL Home Zenit St Petersburg I felt Zenit showed excellent discipline throughout the game & for long periods looked comfortable. We helped them by playing far too narrow with our supposedly wide front players Ziyech & Mount almost touching each other in the middle of the pitch. The latter was particularly poor for almost the entire length he was on the pitch. I fully understand when you play 3 at the back your width should come from wing backs, but we failed to release either of them with penetrating balls from our slow retention of possession, something which is evident when we start Kovacic & Jorginho together. We should be thankful for the positive result because while I was sitting in the East Stand I could see the result going the same way as the first game of last seasons CL against Seville 0-0 Antonio Rudiger set a fire under the team with two or three runs storming forward giving us our few moments of excitement. Only two shots on goal in 90 mins kinda paints a full boring picture of the game. Thank fuck for Romelu. Chilwell got an outing & even Reuben Loftus-Cheek showed his face. Felt Werner might have been given a chance alongside Romelu, or even a run out wide to stretch the game. Nice to hear Frank having one of his tunes sung a number of times through the game. I am kinda surprised he is still to surface via punditry as he proved quite adept on BT before his managerial career kicked off. This mornings chuckle came from reading Anthony Taylor was at it again last night only to be saved by onlookers when he sent the wrong guy off. Something new for his thread :)

Leith, Edinburgh, Past & Present. https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/heritage-and-retro/heritage/snapshots-of-leith-past-and-present-merge-in-fascinating-new-book-3382672?fbclid=IwAR1ePnhnVnCYmlozingk2dYSsJUEHGBpKx_MtxoPqk0Ul3LV7FyVtIto3i0

Mount hasn’t been the same player since the Euro’s started. He hasn’t been terrible but hasn’t been performing to the high levels of last season. He isn’t performing as bad as some of his competition in that area but for me he needs a kick up the backside. He’s lucky he’s got competition such as Ziyech and Pulisic.

Elliott's had a successful surgery and he's expected to be able to return to playing later this season. Probably the best news we/he can have regarding that injury. Looked nasty, can't believe he'll be back this season. Similar to Gomes at Everton, though, right?

Me and and wife in Glasgow last night, went there for the Trnsmt festival to watch Liam Gallagher.

Can only he a good thing, I would think.

Some say it’s child abuse. I disagree.

Does any in here still remember this guy, Ricardo Carvalho is so underated