Twins update

It's been more than a year since I last blogged. This is largely because life with twins doesn't slow down.
The challenges change and I'd be the first to admit life with two boys aged nearly two years old is far more interesting and rewarding than life was at the start when the main aim was to keep them clean, fed and alive.
I wrote an article for the Leicester Mercury -
http://tinyurl.com/6hx8yce - about my first year as a dad, choosing to look at the big numbers involved rather than a wistful look back.
It's almost a year since I wrote that article and life hasn't been as simple as taking last year's numbers and doubling them. Some things have gone - babygros and formula milk - and some new things have been introduced like wellies and a child-proofed house.
The boys are now walking, saying their first words, eating us out of house and home and sleeping in little beds and no longer in cots.
This development has proved to be a huge transition and, at the start, quite stressful as two little boys run riot around their bedroom, enjoying a new found freedom.
Things are settling down with that now thankfully.
During the day we are are having to find more and more activities to keep them occupied too, often heading to Leicester's play parks and watching them tackle the slide and giving them a push on the swings.
It may sound like hard work but it's far better than being stranded at home with them all day, so we are making the most of the good weather and getting out.
The rewards during this time have been seeing their confidence grow as they walk and climb, hearing their new words, which seem to come daily, and seeing the interaction between the two brothers.
Socially, Sara and I feel able to go out together a little more, and in the next couple of weeks I'm heading to Berlin again to watch my beloved Hertha play - the third time since the boys were born so I can't complain. I've even escaped to watch Leicester City a couple of times but yet to make it back to Sincil Bank to cheer on the Imps.
So the twins update as they approach their second birthday is that they are still hard work but life is suddenly very rewarding.

Misty water-coloured memories of the way we were...

It is all over. And this time I know it is for real. My love affair with Sheffield Wednesday - which was already strained at the start of this year, has come to an end.

I was wondering how I should break the news. I did consider taking Brian Laws out to dinner and explaining that it's not him, it's me.

Most people cannot understand why I am walking away from the team which I have followed so closely since 1992.

I dont want to get in to the murky details of why I cannot continue my romance with the Owls other than to say I feel very let down by someone very close to me who has done little to improve the situation (well... absolutely nothing, well... the situation is now worse).

As our one common interest is SWFC, I have now decided that I would rather watch Shepshed Dynamo from now on than suffer the indignity of standing in Hillsborough feeling uncomfortable. Incidently Shepshed won 3:2 today away at Osset Albion.

Several of my friends and colleagues have said I should not ditch the Wednesday over this, but they do not know the fine details and I am a man of principle. I ditched my interest in the club a few weeks ago and I am not missing them or looking out for their results.

I would, at this point like to express my sincerest thanks to John Sheridan, the Waddler, Thirsty Hirsty, Paulo Di Canio, Benito Carbone, Kevin Pressman, Chris Woods, Super Guy Whittingham, Alexandersson, Brighty, Pembo, Des, tricky Trev, Pervy Pleat, Big Ron, Paul Sturrock, Brian Laws and the Barmy Army for an amazing time. However, its time to move on.

My two boys are five months old next week, I will be happy to take them to see their home town club, Leicester City, when they are old enough.

When Sheffield Wednesday visit the Walkers Stadium on December 12, I wont be there. In fact I'm planning my trip to Market Drayton Town to watch Shepshed Dynamo away.

I will be continuing my support of Hertha Berlin, who are rooted at the bottom of the Bundeliga at the moment. Hopefully things will look better when I get to the Olympiastadion again after Christmas.

If I was a clever, witty writer I would need to end this with a cliche about romance like love is blind, Sheffield Wednesday was an eye-opener or something deep like: “Relationships are like glass. Sometimes it is better to leave them broken than try to hurt yourself putting it back together.”

However I like this one:

"It's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." At Sheffield Wednesday I loved and lost most weeks.

Falling out of love...

I have had enough of Sheffield Wednesday and want a transfer. Why do fans have to be loyal to one club? Players certainly aren't. In fact when we got relegated from the Premiership in 2000 none of the existing players are there, they couldn't wait to leave and all got a transfer. Now I want one.

In the past six seasons I have seen my new adopted club Hertha Berlin more times than the Owls. It is a bit worrying that I can manage to see a team in a foreign country more times than a team about an hour up the M1 from Leicester. The reason is that I fell out with a good friend who was a co-Wednesdayite.

Although there are still 26,000 likeminded individuals still turning up at Hillsborough, its not the same, so I dont go. I made that decision about two years ago. Since then I have followed Hertha BSC, hooking up with my friends in Berlin for the games - four to six times a season. At the moment that is totally unsustainable, aside from the cost of going to Berlin (its worth every penny by the way and worth saving for...) I'm missing English football.

Until I landed a job which required me to work Saturdays, I travelled home and away to watch the Wednesday (pictured above in 1878) for (almost) every game for eight years. Now I am sort of lost. The recent changes in my work rota will mean more free Saturday afternoons than I have enjoyed for a long time.I want to be a fan again, but cant face Wednesday due to my personal fall out. I live in Leicester, which has a team which looks like its going places.

I cant say I am excited at the prospect of watching them every week. However, I have twins on the way who will be born in Leicester. My wife says our children should support their home town club. By that logic I should support Lincoln City. I spent my childhood on the terraces, standing in the Stacey West at Sincil Bank. So maybe that's what I'll do. Unless the Foxes fans or supporters of any other clubs want to convince me otherwise...