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I don’t mind Manish too much, even if he’s part of the BBC Leicester conspiracy, and whilst Claridge has the charisma and presenting skills of a lump of coal, he is pretty knowledgable unlike the Match of the Day pundits.

It’s the Lizzie and Clem nonsense that is an utter waste of time. Forest’s highlights were reduced to the goals, ignoring some other cracking footy, in exchange we get to hear Lizzie reading out texts and emails from morons, and ‘Clem’ galavanting around Huish Park like a big bald camp irritant.

Why not maximise the cash you paid to show the highlights? Save a bit by getting rid of the considerable chaff on the payroll. As football fans we want to see the action, not half-baked trivia from a bald dude nor the opinions of idiots read out by a token lady.

Anyone who read my previous blog entitled ‘The C Word‘ may remember I wrote about the father of one of my friends.  David was a man who was diagnosed with cancer but rather than give up, he battled, formed a charity, underwent countless treatments as well as volunteering for tests of potential new treatments.

It’s with great sadness that I must note he passed away a few days ago, his hard fight with that evil disease finally over.

If you read that, you should read this too.  Indeed, anyone should read this – well, not my words, which are ultimately fairly flaccid and redundant, but they should click through and read this, his final blog entry, and this, a tribute from his similarly amazing son, Martin.

To me he remains an inspiration, a hero and somebody I greatly admire – which is rather good going for somebody I never had the pleasure of meeting.  Next year a friend and I have pledged to take to a Windsurfer in his honour, which should prove entertaining as neither of us have any experience of such things!

If David’s fight and inspirational attitude moves you as much as me, then please donate a few pounds in his memory to W4CR.  You can do so by clicking here.

Rest in peace, David.

There aren’t many subjects on which Derby and Forest fans will find an accord, but there are two highly notable individuals who were pivotal to the history of both provincial clubs.  All but the most football-ignorant of people will probably be able to name them – and today Derby County FC officially unveiled a fantastic statue of them in Unity Plaza, just outside their Pride Park stadium.

Rich and I popped along today for the advertised 1pm unveiling, only to find the statue already uncovered presumably from when it was revealed to a select group of family and organising committee yesterday.  I thought I was cunningly hiding my Forest shirt from the surprisingly sparse crowd only to later realise I had a small Forest badge on my coat!

There wasn’t a ceremony as such but legendary Derby player and later manager (and indeed, former Forest manager) Dave Mackay made an appearance as the clock wound round to one, and quite a crowd had gathered to take in the new addition to Derby’s home.  It’s a lovely statue, and a fitting tribute to two very special football characters.

Obviously the most glaring difference here is the inclusion of Peter Taylor – someone who is routinely ignored by the powers-that-be at Forest due to the nature of his departure (as they see it) then re-emergence as Derby’s manager.  Pretty childish if you ask me, the man had such a huge impact on our history too, it’s terribly sad he’s not remembered appropriately by Forest.

The other difference is the pair are elevated on a 9ft plinth rather than being at ‘interacting’ level as the statues in Middlesbrough and Nottingham are.  I think given the football ground setting that works quite well, and at the base compass points mark out landmarks where the pair made impacts – including the City Ground, and indeed the sites of Forest’s European Cup triumphs.

There seemed to be mixed views on these inclusions from the assembled Derby fans once the statue was opened up for people to fully approach – it took a while before I was able to grab a photo of the City Ground plaque as there was quite a bit of jocular ‘stamping’ going on.

All in all, another fantastic monument to Clough and an overdue one for Taylor – I would hope one day Forest officially see fit to commemorate both men in such a fitting manner – with Nottingham’s statue of course being very much a tribute from the people of the city rather than club-led (not that it wasn’t aided by the club).

Of course, Derby’s statue was also as a result of a fans petition, and it was great to meet Kalwinder, a Derby fan who has been pivotal to the whole thing.  A real statue to be proud of for Derby fans and wider football fans alike.  For fans of my fledgling media career I also gave a short interview for BBC Radio Derby, no idea whether it aired or not though!

Not that c word.  The other one, the worse one.  Cancer.

I’ve been very lucky that – touch wood – it’s not impacted my nearest and dearest to a great extent.  It was with a massive degree of inspiration I read the blog of one of my friends’ fathers though who hasn’t been so lucky. 

Whilst I can’t empathise quite with this illness specifically, with recent heart-related scares in our family of late I’m reasonably well versed in coming to terms with the fact that we are all very much mortal beings.  It’s a scary realisation, none of us are here forever – we know that – but it’s not nice to have unexpected reminders of that.

I would urge you to have a read – I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting David, my mate’s dad – but am amazingly inspired by his reaction to the shitty hand that fate seems to have dealt him.  Just as we can be prone to over-reacting to relatively trivial events, I am full of admiration for how he is the exact opposite – remaining positive and upbeat in the face of perhaps the least trivial news you’re ever likely to get.

As well as this, he has taken positive action to raise thousands of pounds to promote both awareness and early diagnosis of cancer, as well as cancer research.  It’s truly staggering and incredibly humbling – and really helps to bring things into perspective when you get a little bogged down in day-to-day mundanities that shouldn’t really worry you as much as they do.

If you feel as moved as I have been then there’s a link to donate to ‘Windsurfing for Cancer Research’.  I was tempted to say a legacy to be proud of, but in his own words:  ‘Sod my life expectancy progress – I will be there.’  I really hope so.

I was quite excited by the jailbreak when it was announced, then it didn’t work.  Of course, I love my iPhone 4 just as it is, but the temptation to unleash whatever things Apple might not want unleashing is always tempting to me for some reason.

Sadly the demand for the website ‘jailbreakme.com’ meant that my initial attempts weren’t a success – however, thank to Pip I followed the steps below with first time success, so if you’re struggling – give the following steps a try:

1. Close the tab in Safari of the jailbreak page
2. Exit Safari
3. Go to Settings -> Safari -> Accept Cookies
4. change Accept Cookies to ALWAYS
5. Go back one menu step and click on “Clear Cookies” and “Clear Cache”
6. Go back into Safari and go to jailbreakme.modmyi.com

Ah, Cydia, how I’ve missed thee.  Rather sadly, my number one reason for jailbreaking is to have the five icon dock again!