European champions! Holy sh*t! Three major trophies in one year, after 119 years without one. Amazing. Well, I guess technically European "Conference League" champions - whatever. I blew off some meetings to watch this game - and it was totally worth it. Not exactly a great game, but we were definitely the better team. When we turned it up a couple of notches at the start of the second half, that showed how good we could be. We only got one goal, but should have got more. And then we were able to comfortably see out the rest of the game and raise the trophy. A fitting way to end the reign of what has arguably been our best manager - certainly our most successful. I don't know what that means for the future - I fear once again not capitalizing on our success and instead struggling to hold onto our best players. But at least we're in the Europa League next year - which we were unfairly disqualified from this year. I think this result more than makes up for our embarrassing FA Cup defense.
I finished watching Sinners this evening. A film that had 16 Oscar nominations (it won 4) and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 97% - so I had high expectations. And I came away... underwhelmed. A good, watchable film - but nowhere near the masterpiece that the critical acclaim would suggest. Did I miss something? It's essentially a horror film, though mixing a variety of themes, with a fairly simplistic plot. I hate to use this word, but is this a woke film? Yes, it is predominantly a black cast with a story told from a black perspective. Nothing wrong with that. But it feels like that has been celebrated over the merits or not of the actual film. I don't know, maybe I'm just not the right demographic for this film. 3 stars.
Well, a 15th place finish is extremely disappointing for Palace. But considering the mid-season turmoil, I guess we should just be happy that we were never part of the relegation battle (even if we finished just above it). But our season will be entirely dictated by how we do in the Conference League final on Wednesday. A win, another trophy and qualification for Europe next season would be massive. And perhaps we can attract a better manager. A loss, and this season will have been a big disappointment - a failure to capitalize on last season's progress, and the loss of our manager and our best players. And we will be serious relegation candidates next season.
Otherwise, I've found the Premier League to be a bit disappointing this season. Disappointed that Arsenal won, and disappointed that Spurs didn't go down. And generally I've been a lot less invested in the ups and downs of the league. I haven't watched many games live, preferring to stick to highlights. And this is despite going to Selhurst Park for the first time ever and catching a game in person for the first time in absolutely ages. Perhaps I've just grown a bit tired of the sport in general. I'm not at all excited by the upcoming World Cup, which I feel is going to drag on with slow and boring games. I don't have any opinions on the England squad selection, because I don't really care. And England will probably have a spectacularly underwhelming showing, which is my early World Cup prediction.
News on the job front. Maybe good news? It appears that I'm not going to be laid off any time soon. Later this year, I am going to transition to a new role - essentially working on a task force that assists on different projects as and when required. This is what I wanted, so I should be happy. Especially as this should give me a degree of job security I didn't have before. But for some reason I am very apprehensive. In light of how I am not coping particularly well when my current workload is intense, I am worried that this new role might be even more demanding and stressful. I'm going to have a new manager (actually my current manager's manager) who I don't know well, and who doesn't know me well. And, if I'm going to be honest, I think I wanted to be laid off (and take what should be some decent severance pay). I'm about to turn 50 - I want to take a sabbatical, I want to enjoy my life for a bit on my own terms, and I especially could do with an extended length of time without the weight of work on my shoulders. I have a couple of friends on both sides of the Atlantic who are between jobs, and I'm extremely jealous. But so be it. I'll give the new role a shot, and see how it goes. If I don't enjoy it, then perhaps I'll just leave on my own terms rather than get laid off. Or at least ask for a leave of absence. But change is good, and I needed something like this to keep me going because I am not happy with my current work situation.
Just in case you're interested, I took a quick photo of the British food section at the supermarket I regularly frequent. Sorry it's not a very good photo - I took it in a rush, because I was very self-conscious of how stupid I looked taking this photo. And as you can tell, I guess it's more of a European food section than a British food section - there is a load of stuff there that I don't recognize.
But if you look closely, you'll see digestives, wine gums, custard powder, aero chocolate bars, mustard, salad cream, hp sauce, baked beans and ribena among the offerings. A disappointingly paltry selection - most of which I won't bother with. And if you look even closer, you'll be shocked by how expensive all these things are.