Football upgrade

I don't usually do one off match reports, but today's Cardiff Draconians game was a bit special. In the week they had two new stands delivered for the Orange Llama Stadium.

New stand selfie

I made Nick pose for a selfie too

In a quirk of scheduling, the Dracs' previous home game was against the same opponents as today: Cwmbran Celtic. Two weeks ago they played each other in the Welsh Cup. 

A fortnight on from these teams meeting in the cup and it was a case of deja vu, with the Dracs trailing 1-0 at half time and then coming back to win. But there were some changes - the new stands being the main one. And it wasn't pouring down with rain this time despite Storm Amy doing her worst. (We had a squirrel pitch invader at one point and he could well have been blown out of a tree!)

Cwmbran's goal was a bit flukey; a lob from a tight angle that went in. 9/10 times it would have ended up anywhere but in the net. The striker didn't have any other options but to go for it and maybe it was wind-assisted. I don't think the visitors had another attempt on target all game. Dracs had several chances. Low crosses on the six yard line went begging. A certain goal was cleared off the line. And so on.

Just before half time the Cwmbran goalscorer came off worst in a collision with the metal guard rail. He didn't reappear for the second half. Dracs made a change too, bringing on their number 9, Sam "Robbo" Roberts. He changed the game, charging onto two long balls and slotting them home to put the Dracs 2-1 up. 

The Dracs then kept fluffing really good chances to make the game safe, despite having a player advantage after the Cwmbran captain got shown a straight red card for an off the ball elbow. The last couple of minutes saw the Dracs really having to dig in to defend their lead and keep hold of all three points.

This win means the Dracs have taken 16 points from their last 6 league games. With other results going their way and some games being cancelled they are now up to fourth in the table, which is one slot below the promotion places. This is much better than anything I expected at the start of the season when I bought my season ticket.

And we didn't even get rained on.

A dozen Christmas Cards from the ACCA '17

There seems to be some competition among people who send us Christmas cards as to who gets their card featured on the blog. One or two people have asked me about it. So, in the spirit of competition, I've picked 12 out of the 90 we received to showcase in this year's ACCA supplementary post.

First up, as regular ACCA readers will know, I audit the number of religious and secular themed cards that we get. Most of the religious ones this year were a bit dull, but I really liked this one produced by Oxfam. I'm a little concerned about the blonde Aryan baby Jesus, but overall it's a really nice card.

I like robins in real life and as a Christmas card theme. This card also had glitter, which is a card feature I started counting this year for the first time.

It's not quite a robin, but I thought this was a charming Christmas cockatoo, on the card from my Australian cousin, Trefor.

The other birds to feature heavily on Christmas cards are, of course, penguins. We have had a lot of penguin cards over the years and they did well as a theme this year. Cathy really liked the funky penguins on this card, and I have to agree with her.

But how about penguins commandeering a bus to go Christmas shopping? Sounds like an awesome concept, doesn't it? I really liked it.

Several schools produce Christmas cards as a fundraising scheme, featuring artwork from kids. My friend Sarah's daughter drew this tree, which was also the only card to wish us Happy Christmas in Welsh. Christmas trees were one of the most popular themes.

Snowmen are also a well-performing theme, as you would perhaps expect. I liked this card from my sort-of-cousin, Sue, as she keeps chickens and so the card was very apt.

One of the themes that again was sadly lacking was 'dogs in Santa hats'. However, like last year, we had a card with behatted sheep to make up for it. Also featuring a pun!

'Christmas food' is an odd category and I've thought about dropping it. However, last year we had the really great puddings card and this year a cheery, cheeky walnut.

Keeping on the theme of nuts, Cathy gave me a card covered in squirrels and with a pun(!) on it. I love puns.

These days, it's not the festive season without the release of a Star Wars film. I liked this Star Wars theme Christmas jumper mash up card.

But I have saved the best until last. The moment I opened this card, I knew it was going to be my favourite card of the year. Surprisingly, it also got counted in the religious side of the audit. It's one of the very few cards to actually mention Jesus, and it was sent to us by Cathy's cousin Adam and his wife, Bonny. (I'm not sure if naming them is giving credit or blame, to be honest.)

So, here you go... click on it to see it in all it's glory.

VILE

Following on my recent post about becoming vegetarian I had an interesting back and forth in the comments with Clare. So I sent her this link to a recipe for Squirrel Melts, which kind of proves my point about the animals you eat being a rather arbitrary choice.

Her response: "That is VILE!" (Hence the title of this post)

And if you do go get the recipe for Squirrel Melts, note the part where she adds the pecans, because "you know how squirrels love nuts".

Yes, when they're ALIVE.