Plus ca change...

I have just gone to my dictionary and torn out the page with 'optimism' on it. I no longer want that word in my vocabulary. I have simultaneously turned the corner over on the page with 'pessimism' on it so that I might be sanguine much less frequently. I know that anyone that knows me will say that if I see myself like that I am also deluded but I'm talking specifically about football because... I was the one, on the way to the ground up at 'boro yesterday, predicting a 3-0 win for us. Pre-season (as usual) allowed me to build up those false hopes and make the stupid optimistic prediction. It's not so much the optimism itself that is the problem but the anguish that comes with having to fall so far back down to Earth once reality kicks in.

The despair is such that I can't be bothered to explain what the problems were but the Guardian do it very well actually http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2008/aug/17/premierleague.middlesbrough . The fan comment at the bottom is pretty accurate too. It didn't help that we'd met up with a boro supporting mate before and after the game. Karma kicked in as it always seems to with footy. The first thing he said to me when we met up post match was: 'I've been looking forward to this since you took the piss after the Cardiff defeat in the FA Cup'

Incidentally, by removing 'optimism' I also manage to lose 'opprobrium' which can't be a bad thing. I will probably miss 'optical' and 'optician' though being as I'm already uber-shortsighted (as they say in Germany). Very interestingly though I also lose 'opposition'- I think that this is probably the only way that the less than mighty Spurs will come anywhere near fulfilling my (and my son's and my girl's and, in fact, most Spurs fans) fanciful expectations.