Football Team Selection

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If you’re American, no, I’m not talking about that kind of football. I’m talking about the kind that everyone else in the world calls football—or association football. For most of my life, though, I called it soccer.

When I was little, my parents encouraged me to be active and take up a sport. I wasn’t naturally good at sports, but I did play soccer from around age five until I was about 11. I wasn’t the best player, but I knew how to play and genuinely enjoyed it.

Despite playing soccer, I never really followed professional sports. Sure, I had favorite teams in American football, baseball, and hockey, but I didn’t actively watch games or check the standings. I never even had a basketball team. Among all the major U.S. sports, I liked hockey the most. There was something about it—maybe the fast-paced, low-scoring nature of the game. You had to stay focused on the action, even during quieter moments, because if you looked away, you might miss a goal. Baseball was just too slow for me, and I could never get into basketball. American football never fully grabbed my attention either—I’d watch, but I was never really invested.

When I moved to England, not much changed at first. In the first year or two, I didn’t follow any sports, just like I hadn’t in America. But as I started chatting with people, I used sports as a conversation starter. I would ask if they preferred football or cricket. To my surprise, the question was wrong—the real question, they said, was football or rugby. Even though it wasn’t the perfect icebreaker, I learned about people’s favorite teams and why they supported them.

Out of curiosity, I eventually watched an England women’s national team game, and to my surprise, I really enjoyed it. The same reasons I liked ice hockey seemed to apply to football as well. It’s a low-scoring game, and if you step away for a snack, you might miss a goal. But the real challenge came when I tried to pick a team to follow. Talking to locals, I noticed that many people supported a team based on family tradition or where they grew up. As an expat in London, I didn’t have that kind of loyalty. There were three Premier League teams that could be considered “local” to me, and one was particularly popular in my neighborhood.

Some colleagues suggested I support Manchester United, but these were colleagues from India, not locals. I had to explain that living in London, I wanted a team that felt more local.

A lot of people in my neighborhood were West Ham United fans, and their stadium was nearby in Stratford. But I never really felt drawn to West Ham, even though I had nothing against them. Supporting them would’ve been the easy choice, given how popular they were locally.

I knew a couple of people who supported Tottenham, and their history intrigued me. I seriously considered them. I also had friends who supported Arsenal, and I considered them too. For about two years, I was torn between Tottenham and Arsenal, though for much of that time, it was more of an academic debate since I wasn’t watching much football.

Then, the Women’s Euros and the World Cup came along. We watched the England women’s team, and we really enjoyed the games. We also watched several matches from the men’s World Cup. By this spring, I knew I had to make a decision.

In the end, two factors helped me choose. Between Arsenal and Tottenham, Arsenal seemed to have more of a historical edge—by that, I mean they had old records of winning streaks that stood out. Tottenham had always been a strong team, but they didn’t have that same kind of legacy. It’s hard to explain, but it just felt like Arsenal had more history behind them. 

The final decision came when I was out at lunch with the girls one day. We talked about it, and since it was going to be a family decision, I let them weigh in. They agreed on Arsenal, and just like that, we became Arsenal fans.

We don’t have any team gear yet, and we haven’t been to a game either, but I’m looking to get tickets for one of the women’s matches at the Emirates this fall. I think it’ll be the perfect introduction for the girls to live football since they’ve already seen matches from the Euros and World Cup, both men’s and women’s.

I was surprised at how much I’ve come to enjoy watching football. When I think about it, the similarities to hockey explain a lot of it. Now, we’ll see if I keep up with the games during the season.

I wrote this over the summer. I figured it was time to post since we are going to our first match tomorrow. More on that another day.

Jack Johnson is The Soundtrack of My Kids Childhood

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Today being T’s twelfth birthday I thought about this topic a bit as I put a playlist on our speakers when the girls were getting ready for school.

I’ve said more than a few times that Jack Johnson is the soundtrack of my children’s childhood so far, and I couldn’t be happier about it.

Of course, we listened to plenty of other children’s songs and artists—music for the girls. But when it came to music for me, especially something relaxing, it was Jack Johnson on repeat. He became my go-to for calming playlists.

It all started with T’s first-year cake smash photo shoot. When she turned one, we arranged a session to capture her smashing the cake and just general pictures with her. That photographer ended up becoming our family photographer until we moved to England. During that first visit to her studio, she played a channel that I instantly loved. I had to ask her what it was. She told me it was a Pandora channel called Jack Johnson’s children’s music, and I was intrigued. We had Pandora at the time, so I immediately started listening to that channel.

From there, it expanded into his general music. It was soothing, easygoing, and quickly became my “happy music”—the kind I’d put on when I wanted to unwind but wasn’t in the mood for classical music.

Before we moved to England, M and I got to see him in concert at the Forest Hills Arena near our apartment. I think M still teases me occasionally for how much I play his music. Even now, when I’m not sure what to put on, Jack Johnson is still my default.

While he’s mostly my go-to, I do have playlists that fit within the same laid-back genre.

W Sisters and OMG

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Both of my kids have started saying “OMG” lately, and I’m not sure where they picked it up from. But when I figure out who’s been saying it around them enough for it to stick, I’ll be sure to express my gratitude in a fitting way.

Saint Michaels Mount

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The only way on this island is by boat or walk across at low tide. I warned the girls that when it was time to go we either left to walk out before the tide came. The alternative was they could stay with mommy and take a boat back. We all made it back to the mainland without any boat trips!

A Friends Friend

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I didn’t know Joey and Chandlers dog had a friend? And they ran off together to the hotel the Beatles stayed at in Cornwall!

Star Trek PADD’s are not as good as an iPad Mini 6

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Years ago, when I was working in New York, I got my hands on one of the first-generation iPads. It was fantastic. Right from the start, I knew this device was going fit a tech gap I didn’t even realise I had until I saw it.

One memorable day, my boss called me into his office. As usual, I grabbed my iPad—I often used it to jot down notes or show something relevant during discussions. Walking into his office, I felt a bit like a character from Star Trek, carrying something essential. I couldn’t resist sharing this thought with him: “I totally feel like Commander Riker walking into Picard’s office to discuss something important.” It earned a good laugh and lightened the mood.

Recently, this memory came back to me while I was thinking about how indispensable my iPad mini has become. It’s with me almost everywhere, serving as a book, a large phone, or a general input device. Comparing the sleek design of the current iPad mini with the clunky Star Trek PADDs from science fiction 30 years ago, I couldn’t help but appreciate how far technology has come. Back then, they only thought about each PADD doing seemingly one thing since people walked around with many of them. 23 century suckers, my iPad mini can multi-task.

Reflecting on these advancements, it’s clear that our modern ‘PADDs’ have far surpassed the sci-fi visions of the past.

W Sisters and a Child a who Is Bored of McDonalds

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As a child, I was an extremely picky eater. Let’s face it, even as an adult, I’m still picky, albeit to a lesser degree. However, today I want to discuss something different—my children are picky eaters too, and I’ve had to come to terms with that.

What’s peculiar is how they’re picky. My pickiness revolved around eating very plain things repeatedly. My kids, however, will eat something regularly, then suddenly get bored with it and refuse to eat it, only to possibly want it again later. This issue is more pronounced with one child than the other, but both share this tendency. There was a time when my children didn’t want to go to McDonald’s because, as they put it, “we’re bored with it.”

I cannot relate to being bored with fast food as a kid. I vividly recall in university, my friend Sean would drop by and ask, “I’m going to the mall, do you want to go to McDonald’s?” Even if I had just eaten or was eating at that moment, my answer was always, “Yes, let me get my coat.” Based on that, I can’t quite understand children who say, “I don’t want McDonald’s.”

It’s not just McDonald’s. There was KFC, Burger King, and even Nando’s had its phase. I’d prefer if they just wanted to eat chicken nuggets all the time, but they get bored of those too—except at certain restaurants. Which ones? It seems to change day by day. Keeping up with their ever-changing preferences is challenging. I’m sure my mom is delighted I’m getting a taste of my own medicine, but still, I’d like to know if other parents have this problem of children getting bored with fast food instead of constantly craving it.

Another example is pizza. Our kids stopped liking the really good pizza from our local place and insisted on going back to Pizza Hut. Ironically, we started going to the local place, Fire Away, because they grew tired of Domino’s. These are just a few examples.

If we offer pizza more than once a week, our kids will complain. It’s rare that we do, but it sometimes happens, especially on holiday. This is baffling to me and M because both of us would be perfectly happy eating pizza two or three times a day. While I haven’t done that in ages, it’s certainly possible, and I wouldn’t get bored with it. So, when my kids refuse to have it twice in one week, I find myself scratching my head.

Look, I don’t think we’re bad parents. We don’t offer fast food every day, it’s more of a once-a-week treat. Some weeks, we don’t offer it at all because it’s so difficult to get them to agree on the same thing.

Another thing I never had living in America… Milk Deliveries

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A while ago, I wrote several articles about the some observed differences between living in England and the US. Recently, one such difference came to mind: milk. Yes, you can get milk in both countries, but the experience can be quite different.

M had wanted milk deliveries for a while. I was reluctant at first but finally agreed about 3 years ago. This idea initially struck me as something straight out of a 1950s sitcom. However, after some research, we discovered at least two companies that offered home milk delivery in our neighborhood.

Though it’s about twice the price of regular milk, we decided to go for it. Now, we have milk delivered in glass bottles left at our door 3 times per week. It’s pretty cool and something I’m not sure is still common in the States, at least not in big cities. While there is an option to save a bit of money by getting milk in plastic containers, we prefer the glass bottles. We simply wash them and leave them out for the delivery person to collect with the next delivery.

This service is quite clever and as close to getting fresh milk as you’re likely to get nowadays, which makes it pretty awesome.

Should We Have Named Grogu B.A. Baracus?

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As a kid growing up, I loved the TV show, The A-Team. Yeah, I know, it’s not that realistic. Even then I kind of realized that they spent a lot of time shooting things and never hurting anybody, but I digress.

One of the gag’s that they always pulled was how they always found a way to get B.A. Baracus (Mr T) on a plane. He hated flying but they always tricked him into drinking milk or something. Whenever it’s time to give our cat his flea treatment every month, I feel like he’s B.A.

We get him and cuddle and snuggle up with him and wrap him in a blanket pretty snugly, and then one of us will put the medicine on his head, and then he finally realizes it as we’re finishing and slithers out of the blanket and runs away. The damage is already done, though, and he’s got his flea treatment.

Yet when I take him to the Vet he now knows not to eagerly get out of the carrier and will hiss at the vet straight away. He never hisses. He’s a smart cat, but he falls for our blanket trick every time.

Everyone Gets an IP Address

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I just got a new internet provider (might blog in more detail about them another time. One of the reasons I like them is they are not restrictive. I get a static IP address on my router. Nothing is filtered. I even get a /64 IPv6 range. Now I am trying to figure out how to use that many addresses. To non tech folks it’s never. That is how much it is.