Meet Vern

Meet Vern the Ford Ranger Truck!

Had a small water leak to cure around the third brake light



Made a nasty mess of the headlining




Sealed around the lamp with some silicone

and now it's all good (so far:))

Down Ilinois Way

President Lincoln's Neighbourhood in Springfield Illinois




On a recent trip to the States we visited the capital Springfield and the restored neighbourhood where Lincoln used to live.

As you can see his wife had quite garish taste in furnishings!!


Very interesting and free of charge !!

A lifeline for the Royals!

After a run of really good away form it all comes down to the last day of the season.

It would be ironic if after last seasons relegation via goal difference, we were to be promoted the same way!!

You never know...

April form

A Coventry City D 0-0
H Sheffield Utd L 0-1
A Blackpool D 2-2
H Barnsley D 0-0
A Derby County W 2-0
A Norwich City W 2-0

Two smart headers and a very professional performance saw us beat Norwich at Carrow Rd.

This sets us up with a glimmer of hope of automatic promotion on Sunday.

Any chance of a decent player surface?

Palace 0 Reading 0 and Run of Results

Crystal Palace 0 Reading FC 0

March 21, 2009

Steve Coppell's men had to settle for a draw away at Selhurst Park this afternoon.

Reading looked the more composed side during the first half but it was Palace who had three shots on target while their own keeper was untroubled.

The Royals started the second half brightly but failed to make the most of their chances.

Liam Rosenior was send off 27 minutes into the half for a second bookable offence leaving Reading with their backs against the wall for the last 15 minutes.

Palace threw everything into a frantic last five minutes but Reading held on and will have been glad in the end to pick up the point.

Wolves extended their lead at the top of the Championship beating Nottingham Forest 1 - 0 while Birmingham City could only manage a draw at home to Norwich.

Liam Rosenior sent off and now will be suspended for a game

7 Mar Plymouth A 2-2

10 Mar Charlton H 2-2

14 Mar Ipswich H 0-1

17 Mar Doncaster A 1-0

21 Mar Crystal Palace A 0-0

Away form good, home form causing us to blow it!

Luckily Birmingham also making a mess of things

Good to see Andy D'Urso is keeping up his standard of refereeing!

List of shocking decisions

• Chris Armstrong should have gone
• Clear pen for foul on David Kitson
• Stephen Hunt kicked all over the place and then gets booked
• Moses should have been booked for a blatant dive....
• Liam Rosenior's first yellow
  

All in a days work for Mr D!

Championship Table

	Team	P	W	D	L	F	A	W	D	L	F	A	GD	PTS
1	Wolverhampton	36	11	4	3	37	20	9	3	6	30	26	21	67
2	Reading	34	12	3	3	37	11	6	5	5	23	19	30	62
3	Birmingham	35	11	3	3	23	13	6	7	5	18	18	10	61
4	Cardiff	33	10	4	2	26	12	4	10	3	20	18	16	56
5	Preston	36	13	2	3	28	16	3	6	9	21	30	3	56
6	Sheff Utd	34	8	4	5	24	17	7	6	4	23	15	15	55
7	Burnley	36	9	5	4	27	21	6	5	7	23	29	0	55
8	Bristol City	35	6	9	3	24	19	8	3	6	20	18	7	54

But wait !!! Sheff Wed 1 Reading 2

Kevin Doyle and Shane Long finally ended Reading’s depressing goal drought as Steve Coppell’s men returned to winning ways last night.

Up until Doyle popped up with his 18th goal of the season on 56 minutes, no Royals player had managed to find the net in nearly 10 hours of action.

Then with nine minutes to go, fellow Irishman Long added a second to seal victory.

Reading 0 Notts Forest 1 the last game was not as bad as it gets, this was worse!!

Steve Coppell made three changes to Reading’s starting line-up but his side continue to falter in their push for promotion.

Apart from the first 20 mins, this was a truly awful performance.

The promotion dream is slipping, luckily all the rest of the contenders are also choking!

Wally Downes said: “There are still 13 games to go. It is a matter for us to turn things around.

“There has been no damage in the league as the other sides haven’t won, so the Forest game is just another one chalked off.

“It is a 13-game league now and if we win that league then we will be fine.”

Reading 0 Bristol City 2, as bad as it gets

We were awful, suprised? No!

We have not actually put in a decent performance since before Christmas despite the excuses.

Today it was :

The Pitch

The Ref

The two week break

The fact that we are playing like the Wimbledon of old and we have players that are chosen regardless of how they perform of course has nothing to do with it!

The time has come to try and win a game instead of trying not to lose, use the midfield as a midfield not just an extra layer of defence(even when 2-0 down) The time has also come for the stubborn loyalty shown to certain players to end. Please remember that this type of loyalty got us relegated last season!

My thoughts on the team for Notts Forest

Goalkeeper

Marcus Hahnemann

Has his faults, but can organise and chastise the defence when required.
We also need to stop being reliant on Adam's big thumping kicks forward.

Defence

Julian Kelly

Liam Rosenior is just way off form.

Chris Armstrong

Only player to emerge from the Bristol debacle with any credit.

Michael Duberry

Playing well enough

Stefan Andre Bikey

Just play him, gives us an extra set piece threat, more experience than Alex Pearce who has done well.

Midfield

Kalifa Cisse

Will be OK if James Harper is out of his way, also carries a goal threat.

Marek Matejovsky

We need a play maker not a back passer, take the risk!

Steven Hunt

Will be OK if Marek in the side to provide service

James Henry

Adds some youth and fire, also can score goals

Forwards

Kevin Doyle

Start with him as he plays well with Noel Hunt, however if his apparent interest level does not improve...

Noel Hunt

Has some craft and plays well with Kevin Doyle

Spring and (congestion) is in the air!

This morning is a lovely morning!

However look at the amount of trails from the air traffic, and we have another runway on the way!

Is this a good idea?

I'll send this to my MP

Food for thought

"If the bank called in our overdraft we would be in severe difficulties."

Sir John Madejski

Reading FC BBC Article

You can find an excellent article here on Reading's adjustment after relegation from the Premier League, and the push to get back again.

Kevin Doyle OK after head injury scare

Kevin Doyle Ok after nasty collision with the Preston goalkeeper on Saturday in the 0 - 0 draw

Bore Draw 269 minutes without scoring!

Reading 0-0 Preston

Reading again failed to find the net as they were held to a goalless draw at home to play-off hopefuls Preston.

After a great first half of the season, where they averaged two goals a game, the Royals have now gone 269 minutes without scoring.

Despite dominating they could not score and were denied a penalty when Youl Mawene appeared to clear Jimmy Kebe's cross-shot off the line with his hand.

John Parkin had a chance to win it for Preston he blasted his shot wide.

This is starting to look horribly like a few seasons back, no Christmas refresh, ran out of steam!

Luckily the Wolves and Brum results have not damaged us too much (so far)

I hope I'm wrong?

Herald Alternator Update, Good old eBay!

I had been keeping an eye out for the correct alternator bracket for the Herald as I wasn't happy with the bodged up dynamo bracket.

A Dolomite 1500 was being broken for spares and I managed to buy the alternator mounting and adjusting brackets.

These as expected fitted well, and the belt adjusted correctly.

The belt pulley run also looks straight and the original belt can still be used,

Herald Next Update 8 Track!

I have dug out an old Blaupunkt that I was given in Canada during the seventies!

It's not quite period but I think it will look quite good in the Herald :-)

I have about ten cartridges,not sure if they work or not??

Bye Bye Bobby and Graham ???

Sad news today

Bobby Convey has left the club by mutal consent, I would like to wish him good luck for the future.

He was a major part of our initial Premier promotion team and in his pomp was an excellent player!

Still a young man, perhaps moving back to the States and becoming a major star in the MLS and rebuild his confidence for another go in Europe?

On another interesting note, Graham Murty has extended his loan at Charlton.

Liam Rosenior has looked very shaky over the past few week, and it was thought that Murty may return to the side when fit?

Perhaps there is a coaching job going at Charlton:-)

C'mon you Royals!

After a hard fought physical battle with Wolves at the Mad Stad and then a tough 0 - 0 draw at Loftus Rd with QPR, we are still occupying second place in the Championship table.

Both games were marred by rough weather conditions and absolutely awful pitches particularly at the Mad Stad, How long can we continue to watch the level of winter football imposed on us due to the damage caused by the egg chasers? It could well cost us promotion, pay them and get them "off our land" :-)

Now, Loftus Road for our £30 ticket we got an absolutely awful restricted view seat on the left of the top tier. When booking or on the ticket the words "restricted view" of course fail to appear!!

We had a youngster with us who was very disappointed to be unable to see most of one goal...

The stewarding was some of the most ineffective and aggressive that I have experienced in some years, that's when they are not standing in the way of an already restricted view!

Beer was being consumed in plain sight of the pitch, but the stewards ands particularly the "Response Team" (bouncers??) were more interested in throwing out fans who were standing to try and watch the game from their restricted view seats and very aggressive with it!

This was not confined to Reading fans however, as we could see the same happening to QPR fans in various parts of the stadium. "Customers" are obviously not too important at Loftus Rd?

Ah well at least we didn't lose, QPR look a pretty good side and I think will be there or there abouts come the end of the season.

Current Cost Meter and Other Power Savings

We have one of the current cost meters that are either available from e-on or for purchase direct from Current Cost or eBay.

The meter monitors domestic electricity use via a wireless connection to an inductive clamp attached to the mains cable near the electricity meter.

The unit is very easy to set up and a USB cable can be purchased for connection to your PC. Free software written by Dale Lane The software is here The cables can be purchased here

You can export the data and manipulate it however you want and even connect to the web to compare data with similar situations to your own. It really does make you think about your power usage!!

I am also using one of the e-on powerdown plugs.

This unit offers surge protection and also shuts down connected peripherals once it senses that your PC has shutdown, thus saving standby power. These are also available cheaply on eBay.

Triumph Herald Steering Wheel Change

I managed to pick up a really nice period Mountney Steering wheel for the Herald. I found the car a little difficult to drive with the original "big" wheel. I'm currently battling with getting the horn push working. I think it looks quite snazzy!!

Reading Hanging In!

After a disappointing 2-0 FA Cup loss away at Cardiff and then an easy 4-0 home win against Watford, followed by a 2-0 loss at Swansea it has been a mixed few weeks for the Royals.

The signing of Jay Tabb I think is a positive step, a bustling, strong and hard working player is a good addition to the squad.

Now let's get ready for what could be a season defining game against Wolves on Tuesday at the (Sir) Mad Stad!