John's 2025 year of New Beginnings - Part One

Please pop along and join the fun, news of books, reading and of course Tea drinking, there might be a bit of Cricket mentioned.

Hello everyone, this is my Thirteenth year being part of this wonderful group. I am John, 61 years old and married to Karen for 40 years and counting. We have two lovely children, Rob and Amy. Rob lives with his Fiancee Louise, daughter Hannah who will be 14 in February. Amy married Andy in 2015 and they now have a cat called Combie and Elliott who was born on Star Wars Day. We also have a mad Cat called Felix and we love him, he is Five.

Please come along and leave a message and let's see what fun we have.

I love books and currently have 3,254 books on my shelves, and this doesn't include my Cricket collection which stands at about 500 books. While reading I do enjoy the odd pot or two of tea.

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Thread now open.

Welcome back, John! I hope this one’s a better year for you and yours.

Happy new thread John!

I hope your health issues get effectively addressed before the new year gets far along.

Welcome back dear John. Look forward to tea and cricket and books and family in 2025.

Give to love to Karen and I hope to see you both soon.

Welcome back John - I hope you had a lovely Christmas and have a Happy New Year.

Hello, John! Here’s hoping that 2025 will bring you much more joy than 2024.

>11 drneutron:, Hi Jim, mate. Thanks for the welcome back, i am sure that 2025 will be a better year, hopefully i will get my outpatient appointment soon and find out what my options are.

>12 quondame:, Hi Susan my dear, i also hope for the same dear friend, i hope my outpatient appointment comes soon and options for treatment are forthcoming.

>13 PaulCranswick:, Hi Paul, mate. I am looking forward to a good year all round, only 98 days until the Championship season starts, not my stat but from a friend on Bluesky. It was lovely to see Yasmyne on Christmas Eve and looking forward to seeing you when you get back over here.

>14 SandDune:, Hi Rhian my dear, we had a lovely Christmas, especially seeing Elliott's face as he opened his presents. I hope your Christmas has been good so far my dear.

>15 Matke:, Hi my dear, i am sure that 2025 will be a lot better than 2024, it could not be worse.

Happy New Thread and New Year, buddy!

Glad to hear you had a lovely Christmas; i can just imagine Elliott’s shining face.😀

Love and hugs from Debbi and me to all of you, mate. Let’s have some fun this year!

>18 johnsimpson: I was happy that Yasmyne made it across to you on our behalf, John, as Hani didn't have transport. Hope that you and yours enjoyed our humble gifts.

Happy New Year, John! I'll skip the cricket as my game is soccer (football to you guys over there on the other side of the pond). I will stop in for a spot of tea, though. Thanks!

>23 SqueakyChu: I would guess that football is not John's favourite subject at the moment as he inexplicably supports a certain club from across the Pennines who are doing a little bit less than well.

>24 PaulCranswick: My team here in DC (DC United in the MLS) was so bad this year that they did not make the playoffs…even though our striker, Christian Benteke, won the Golden Boot Award. My 11-year-old grandson is now playing soccer on a winter team! As much as I love the game and watching him play, I will not sit outside for two hours at the games when it is 30 degrees F!!! :O

I saw the Telegraph put up their World Test XI yesterday, John.

Here is mine for what it is worth:

Jaiswal (India)
Root (England)
Williamson (NZ)
Kohli (India)
Brook (England)
Head (Australia)
Pant (India)
Jadeja (India)
Cummins (Australia)
Henry (NZ)
Bumrah (India)

In order to find a place for the best batsmen Root would open. I would actually try to persuade him to do this for England next summer in lieu of the hapless Crawley.

>25 SqueakyChu: I always looked out for DC firstly because you do and secondly because you had Klich with you who was much loved at Leeds, although I see that you have traded him to Atlanta.

I don't blame you for not sitting through two hours of freezing temperatures but you could of course run up and down the touchline! (maybe not xx).

>27 PaulCranswick: I can't believe that DC United traded Klich away!! He was such a good player. Of course, they keep trading my favorite players away (Paul Arriola, Lucho Acosta, Alex Bono, Julian Gressel) and always bring in players I don't like! There is only one player left on my team that I truly like (Aaron Herrera). I hope my saying that doesn't put a jinx on him so that he'll be gone by the time the season starts again. :(

It certainly was not me who traded Klich to Atlanta!!!!!!!

More to my liking is to exercise at home by dancing in 15 minute intervals to "Grow With Jo" on Utube. :D I'll simply skip the running back and forth along the pitch sidelines. I'll leave that to my grandson's parents until warmer weather arrives! :)

>28 SqueakyChu: Wise lady. I keep an eye out for both your team and Erik's since football enthusiasts in the group are to be cherished.
Karen (karenmarie) keeps in view the EPL.

>29 PaulCranswick: Meanwhile some of our USMNT players are doing great in Europe (Christian Pulisic, Antonee Robinson, Weston McKennie). Finally we have some real soccer talent in the USMNT!

>30 SqueakyChu: Brenden Aaronson is doing fine for us too this season and we sit at the top of the Championship (Second tier) with a full stadium every home game.

>31 PaulCranswick: He is great..as is his brother Paxton Aaronson as well.

Hi there, dear Sir!! Starred for 2025. : )

>21 jnwelch:, Hi Joe, mate. Welcome to my humble thread, it was great to watch Elliott opening his presents and seeing his face light up when he saw what they were. Amy took him to see Santa at a local church hall before Christmas, he was very good and told him what he was wanting. Once he was done, Santa gave him a gift and they moved across the church hall where he opened his gift. Amy said his face was a picture when he was confronted with a super hero figure and the look he gave his mum was, well this isn't a hot wheels as i requested, we just laughed when she told us.

I concur with you Joe, let's have some fun this year.

Love and hugs to you and Debbi and the family from both of us dear friend.

>22 PaulCranswick:, Hi Paul, it was so lovely to see Yasmyne and we loved our gifts mate.

>23 SqueakyChu:, Hi Madeline my dear, skipping the Cricket is fine my dear, i am fine with Football (soccer) even though my team (Man Utd) are not having a good season at all.

>24 PaulCranswick:, Hi Paul, it is what it is at the moment mate, i do think Amorim will turn things around when he gets a chance to have time with the squad for some good training sessions. I think he will be running the rule over the players he has inherited and deciding who can go and who he would like to recruit. I think the decision to let Rashford go is the right one, he is not in the right frame of mind and a change may do both of them some good.

I do believe that if they give him the time, a la Ferguson, then he will bring back the glory days, they cannot keep chopping and changing, some semblance of continuity has to be found.

>26 PaulCranswick:, you seem to be a bit heavy with Indians, i would replace Kohli with the young Sri Lankan who did well for them against England during the summer and we have enough in that XI doing the ramp that i would be putting Pant as 12th man, not sure who i would put in his place. I must add that India are not my favourites at the moment with the Champions Trophy palaver. If they won't go to Pakistan then they should forfeit their place and if they get to the final which is scheduled to be played in Lahore, it will be moved, not fair to Pakistani fans. It is about time that the ICC grew some and stopped kowtowing to the BCCI.

>33 Berly:, Hi Kim my dear, you are very welcome in these parts dear friend.

>37 johnsimpson: I think your analysis on your football team is right. Amorim is the real deal and if they persevere with him they will get the rewards. I don't much care for the antic of the Indian cricket board either but they do have some exceptional players. England played in Pakistan without any issues and I agree that if India don't want to go there someone else should take their place.