Five years about to become six?

Good to see justice done in the Carling Cup Final with Birmingham winning after Arsenal getting away with murder at the beginning of the game. Well done Blues, but where do the gooners go from here? The Emirates trophy cabinet remains virgin, and for how much longer? Talking of getting away with things, did you see Rooney going unpunished for elbowing to the head? Hardly surprising that Mark Clattenburg was the referee, ask any Tottenham fan about him favouring Manyoo. Anyway, 2 weeks into the diet Im still 19 stone so I'm on reduced carbs from tomorrow and I'm still 9 weeks out! My target is to be as cut as I was for the Universe but to compete weighing a stone heavier, which is going to be very hard work to say the least.

Todays moan....

It seems that almost everyone is unwell at the moment, even I have the sore throat and cold that's going about. My poor baby daughter Natalie has it too but I think that hers is just a reaction to all the fake tan and peroxide! Of course things could be worse, we could be living in the Middle East where everyone seems to be rioting. Maybe it is the countdown to the end of the world in 2012 as per the prophecy, who knows, but however it all ends out in the Middle East one thing is for sure, one by one they will all come cap in hand to the good old UK for money for their new regime. Why? Because as it says in the song "That's just the way it is, some things will never change" (Bruce Hornsby & The Range)

Happy Birthday Steve!

I am already feeling the pain of a show diet combined with a killer leg session that I did on Tuesday, it doesn't seem like its been almost 3 months since I last dieted but it is so I will just get on with it. Anyway, more importantly, today's blog is dedicated to my Son Steve, who is 27 today. If my GF is reading this, yes I was only 11 years old when he was born! I never tire of telling people just how proud I am of Steve, he is a great son, a brilliant partner for Amy and an incredible Dad to Lilybelle; he also does a superb job of looking after this website! Happy Birthday mate, Im looking forward to taking you out for a big Birthday shopping trip very soon! Finally, well done to the mighty Spurs and (grudgingly) well done Arsenal too.

Time to pack away the passport

So how many Valentines cards did you get? I had a great long Valentines weekend with the GF in Verona, Italy. It was her idea to spend the made up holiday in the place that is the setting for Romeo and Juliet and I have to say that she made a very good choice. I was very pleasantly surprised at what a beautiful place Verona is, we stayed at a fantastic hotel and saw some amazing architecture including a Roman ampitheatre, where I made friends with the gladiators as you can see in the picture. Needless to say I sampled lots of the local pizza and I made the most of what was my last holiday for a while as from today I am officially dieting for my first show of 2011 on April 30th. Tonight sees Tottenham playing AC Milan at the San Siro, what a great season it has been so far, let's hope that tonight makes it even better, but it is a big ask.

Nearly Valentines day!

Yes I know that it's a made up holiday but I'll take any excuse to get some time off. This year I have something special planned which I will tell you about when it's all over next week. Also next week sees the new edition of "The Beef" magazine, the best magazine to review British bodybuilding and see what events are coming up. I don't know if there will be reports and photos from my last 2 shows, the NAC British and NAC Universe, it would be nice if there was and even better if they published some photos. Here's my write up from the last edition, top of the second column of page 41, nice words, but the disappointment at being placed 7th is not forgotten.

http://emag2a.pressmart.com/Beef-Magazine-704/emag/index.aspx?vIssueId=1417

Finally, had to laugh at Robbie Anchant getting blacked out on "Take me out". Forget it monster, the girls obviously didn't like bodybuilders!

And so the rebuild begins

Today was my first serious training session for over a month, many thanks to BNBF champion Martin Duckett. Martin and I will be doing a lot of work together this year for our respective shows. I had the best playtime ever with Lilybelle on Saturday, my little Princess is growing up so quickly and she is just absolutely perfect in every way. Tonight sees the new series of "Two and a half men". As Charlie is my role model and some say that we share the same DNA I have already seen the whole series. Sadly the show is way past its best now. The premise that the whole show is based on becomes even more unbelivable in his series and I'm sorry to say that Charlie Sheen appears to actually be turning into the character that he plays. Ah well, watch it anyway and decide for yourself.

Still thinking holidays!

What is going on in the world? Last year they were rioting in Greece, last month it was Tunisia and now it's Egypt. It's worrying me as it's beginning to limit my holiday options! I'm off to Italy soon, let's hope that the pizza munchers don't all kick off any time soon! I'm backing England to win the six nations Grand Slam so lets hope that they make a good start tonight in Cardiff, that Millenium Stadium is a great venue but an intimidating place. Finally, happy birthday to my darling daughter Natalie who is 24 tomorrow and gets more beautiful every day. She took Caden to the cinema the other day which meant that I had Colby all to myself for the afternoon. As you can see from the photo he is as much a little poser as his Mum, Brother and (some might say) Granddad!