Reading Roars!

“Who the fuck are Man U-ni-ted, whoo the fuck are Man U-ni-ted..” Chanted the throng of Reading FC followers, packed inside the Three Guineas pub, adjacent to Reading Station. And why not? It was the second half and the Royals were still leading the Red Devils by a goal to nil in their first league encounter.

With Reading already claiming significant scalps - Middlesbrough and Man City - fans were daring to believe. Indeed, I had to pinch myself. I was walking past a taxi rank when Kevin Doyle slotted in a 48th minute penalty to give Reading the lead, and a cheer erupted from the parked cabs. Naturally, I rushed over to investigate. When I heard the news, I felt like kissing the driver, but held back when I remembered I wasn’t gay.

Sadly, Cristiano Ronaldo, darling of England fans everywhere, brought the score level in the 73rd minute of the game with a powerful strike. But then they did have plenty of chances - 18 goal attempts versus Reading’s four.

So the dream continues. It’s still early in the season, but Reading are winning respect and looking good enough to stick about in the top flight for a while longer. As Roy Collins of the Telegraph wrote in his sesli sohbet acil kuryematch report, the team “seem to be getting the hang of [competing in the Premiership] pretty quickly.”

YouTube is a treasure trove of mad videos and “Chicken fun” is exceptionally mad.

A couple of lads find a briefcase in a skip and buy a chicken and spaghetti from the supermarket. They then put spaghetti inside the briefcase before playfully dragging the chicken about on a piece of string around Town Hall Square in Reading. And the briefcase? “We’re gonna drop it and see what people do.” Bonkers!

Watch the video.

Spam.  Dontcha just love it?  I received the following very pleasant email this evening from Alisa M (any relation to Boney, Alisa?):

I just received my watch yesterday. It looks exactly like the picture on your website, no difference at all. This was actually my first time ordering from the internet, and I’ve heard so many bad things about online companies, but ordering from you and receiving my watch was a great first time experience. I really wish all internet companies were sesli sohbet acil kuryelike yours.

Who needs Amazon?

Johnny Depp and Reading’s Sweeney & Todd pie restaurant on Castle Street. what’s the connection? Give up? Ok, Johnny Depp is to star in a Tim Burton movie of the Sweeney Todd story, upon which the restaurant theme is based. Mr Depp has also played a pirate, and a pirate is what I saw when I went to Sweeney’s on Tuesday night. Read on. (more…)

A second-string Reading FC side dumped Darlington out of the Carling Cup - but only just. The second division side lost 4-2 on penalties.

The Royals fought back characteristically during the game, levelling the score three times - their third goal coming in the 86th minute, courtesy of Peter sesli sohbet acil kuryeMate’s right arm(!). Reading’s two other goals were scored by Leroy Lita.

It took longer than usual to get to work (Thames Valley Park) this morning. Road traffic was heavy. In fact, the situation, in my opinion, has never been so bad. Even August, an historically quiet month, was far from ideal.

There seem to be too many of us and anyone who wants a car (and is licensed to drive one), can pretty much have one. Reading’s notorious bottlenecks don’t help matters, either.

But why drive to work in the first place? These are exciting times. Technology now allows you to work remotely (you can surf the web or check email from home or Starbucks, if that takes your fancy). Why surround yourself with grey walls and pervasive office talk when you can sit at your kitchen table and work? It makes sense to me. And kids, why not walk to school?

The other day, I spotted a very still (and quite possibly dead) rat by The Oracle. Today I saw something even more disturbing.

Walking past the Italian restaurant Nino’s at Market Place, I saw a pile of thick, dark fur wrapped around a post. This, too, wasn’t moving (and thankfully so, as it was a grotesque-looking thing). It was about the size of a dog but without any recognisable features. No eyes, no head, no tail.

Did it come from space? Is it rising from the bowels of Reading? Can someone either take it to the Natural sesli sohbet acil kuryeHistory Museum for identification or bin it? It’s really not the sort of thing you want to see before entering a restaurant!

I was feeling very pleased with myself until Sheffield United’s Rob Hulsa scored against Reading FC this afternoon. You see, I had predicted a 2-0 Reading win last night on Reading 107 FM. But whatever, it was a Reading victory and their first away from home this season.

Kevin Doyle put Reading ahead after just 16 seconds. The second was rammed home by South Korean star Seol Ki-Hyeon after 25 minutes. It was his first goal for the club. Hulsa scored for the home side in the 61st minute.

Read the match report on BBC Sport.

National treasure Raymond Baxter, a BBC broadcaster who presented the science show Tomorrow’s World, introducing to viewers the credit card, microwave and video recorder (remember them?), passed away yesterday at the Royal Berks hospital in sesli sohbet acil kuryeReading.

Read the obituary on Times Online.

Reading Roars! hit the airwaves yesterday evening, when I was invited to talk about this blog on local radio station Reading 107 FM.

Questioned by the talented Joff Hopkins (himself a blogger), I unveiled what this blog was about and proceeded to explain a little more about the quirky stories I covered during the week: the broken defibrillator at Reading Station, the Duke Street rat and international man of mystery Patrick Khoo.

Over the next few days, I will make the radio recording available to download on this site as a podcast, so that you can listen at your leisure.