Good morning chums. I had a birthday dinner last night with my daughter and after we saw a movie. Then I stayed up to midnight watching the recap of all the Champions League matches and writing my By the Numbers piece for Arseblog News. Today, I have a long, 13 hour, day ahead with work followed by a 4 hour class on Lean Six Sigma, then it will be off to bed with me and up again to do it all over.
When I picked my daughter up from after school care yesterday she smiled at me and said that I couldn’t look in her backpack, she had a surprise. I asked her what it was and typical to my genes she struggled to keep the secret slowly letting out bits of information.. “I’m going to make you something.” Yeah? “It takes about one and a half hours.” Really? “I need boiling water.” You’re going to boil something for one and a half hours? Now I’m confused, so I just ask, what is it a cake or something? “No! It’s jello! Star Wars jello. See, it has BB-8 on it. I wanted to make you a dessert for your birthday.”
We like to cook together and so it was a touching moment. A little girl wanting to make her father a dessert and picking something that she knows she could do on her own. These moments don’t come that often and like 6-0 wins in football they should be savored.
Arsenal are clicking right now and it’s great to see. It’s great to be in this moment. There will be tough games ahead but last night’s match, with Özil’s first ever hat trick, and a sublime chip from Alexis to get the scoring going was something that we won’t get to see very often. We should just enjoy it for the moment.
Tim, allow me to raise a toast to you on your birthday, albeit belatedly. You spent it in the best way possible, with that special one in your daughter. Through the prism of your blog, you’ve given us several peeks into her growth and how that has impacted on you. As for Arsenal, we must applaud her ongoing rejuvenation. Something has clicked in this bunch of players and I sincerely hope they can deliver on the abundant promise of this early part of the season.
Theo scoring the second goal just before half time to depress the visitors was crucial too.
I hope this new version of Theo is here to stay.
Happy birthday Tim. Your daughter is a gift, thank you for sharing these moments with us.
Happy Birthday 7am, wishing you a great year.
The By The Numbers piece emphasises how well we sharpened our counter-attacking teeth on a very technical Ludogorets side. At about 60-65 minutes we were edging possession 55-45%. By the end of the 90 they were in front 44-56%. To counter-attack efficiently, we have to be comfortable defending for long periods and this team is showing real growth in that area.
It’s funny you say that, because I thought the defending at times was desperate, sometimes comically so. There was a 20-30-minute spell in the first half when we looked unhinged. I haven’t seen us play that badly as a defensive unit for almost a year. Thankfully, we sharpened up in the second half. Coquelin was absolutely brilliant throughout, though.
Coquelin has shown that he belongs in this team. He’s a warrior and you need warriors in order to win championships.
Happy birthday to you, Tim. Glad to hear it was a special one. These peeks into your life have a way of uniting us readers, showing us that in the end, all of us are really quite same, and in a world going to the dogs, is a ray of sunshine.
Cheers to you and your daughter, mate. May you have many more magical birthdays together.
Happy Birthday, Tim!
Enjoy the jello.
Happy birthday Tim. May this year be as enjoyable to you and your daughter as vintage Arsenal should be.
Happy birthday Tim and thanks for sharing that beautiful moment with us.
A tip of my hat to Coq for yesterday’s performance. In a day where Ozil got his first career hattrick, it says a lot about Coq that he put in a MOTM performance. What he lacks in technical ability, he more than makes up with his drive and intensity.
Happy birthday Tim!
Happy birthday, Tim. Your daughter is the gift that keeps on giving.
I am loving this new theme. Enjoy the moment. Arsene career is coming to an end. Rubuilding arsenal is almost complete. Just enjoy while it lasts.
Happy Birthday, Tim! I know I’m preaching to the chorus, but treasure those moments. I have a wonderful picture on my dresser that my then 10 yr old daughter drew me for Father’s Day. She asked what I would like that year and I responded that I’d just like to spend time with her. The result is that hand-drawn picture of just the two of us under a tree spending time together. I smile every time I see it.
Happy birthday Tim!
Happy Birthday Tim 🙂
Happy birthday Tim. Thanks for sharing your moments with your daughter. I have one too and time with them is truly special!
The only thing better than being with your kid(s) on your birthday is celebrating a huge Arsenal win in the Champions League and you got both! Enjoy some good times and let’s hope for many more to come.
Happy Birthday!
Happy Birthday! Hope the jello was a 6-0 victory for you and your daughter.
Happy Birthday.
I’m in Lean too! Just got my yellow belt. Why are you doing it?
Work: we have a lot of processes which could use some cleaning up and its part of our strategic plan to get a little leaner.
Fyi, the opposite of lean is robust. People have a tendency to underestimate the likelihood of rare events that upend their assumptions. If you’re done with Baudrillard I have another book for you. Nicholas Taleb, Antifragile.
Happy birthday Tim.
Happy birthday Tim 🙂
As I said a couple of weeks ago, anyone who isn’t excited by the trajectory of this team should go and watch something else.
If we can negotiate the next couple of weeks, we head into a difficult November in good shape.
I’m a black belt myself so welcome to the club as and when you graduate. I ran some green belt training courses when my son was a baby so I’m familiar with how troublesome the stats are for many trainees … I’m guessing that you are the class swot!
She’s not focusing on stats, which I found rather disappointing. Maybe next year I’ll get my office to pay for the black belt class so I can get some proper stats work.
One of the oddest things about lean six sigma is just how variable the course content can be.
Without the stats element it is more like a structured project management qualification… that’s good but combine the two and you have something very powerful.
Happy Birthday! Thank you for the short and sweet share, and for all your writing!
Happy birthday, may the jello be with you!
Happy Birthday Tim and thanks for all the insights. But 4 hours of lean six sigma…, I’d rather spend 4 hours watching a team managed by Mourinho play another team managed by Mourinho while sitting next to Mourinho who spends the whole time telling me how great he is.