the first semi-final is set Germany beat Argentina 4-2 on penalties after a 1-1 draw and now play Italy who beat ukraine 3-0 in the other 1/4 final.now we wait and see what happens tomorrow in the other bracket.

The last rest day before the 1/4 finals begin at the world cup.My left arch has been giving me some problems,but seems to be slowly getting better.

For the first time in 2 1/2 weeks there was no football,the 1/4 finals begin on Friday,There was pouring rain in the morning but bright sunshine by the afternoon.It is our busy time at work and so the day either drags or goes really quickly,for me it is time to leave almost as soon as I arrive.

Both Brazil and France seem to be hitting their stride,with Brazil beating Ghana 3-0,and France comming from behind to win 3-1 against Spain.A friend of mine is climbing mountains in Peru and he called on skype,of course we talked about the world cup among other things.

Poor Australia looked like they were trying not lose the game,and finally gave Italy a penalty in the dying seconds to put the game out of it's misery.just when you thought it couldn't get any worse Switzerland and the Ukraine bored everybody to jeers.

It's a rainy cool day in New York and I got soaked on my run this morning.Yesterday Germany showed how important home field advantage is in beating Sweden 2-0 and Argentina showed how patient they can be in beating Mexico 2-1.Today England showed how to win stuggling 1-0 against Ecuador in the heat of Germany,another 1/4 final berth.

staurday morning and it is cool ( relatively ) and rainy,so at the 2 mile race I was once again slow but 3 seconds faster than the last time I ran 2 weeks ago,my time was 16 min's 10 sec's.The first 2 games in the second round of the world cup are today,I will report on them tomorrow.

france who were in danger of not making it out of the group stages,beat Togo 2-0 to finish second in thier group to switzerland and will now play spain in the second round.Tomorrow the second round begins.The weather here in New York is very pleasant with cooler temps and lower humidity,so far we have managed to avoid the thunderstorms that were predicted for the last 2 days.

A nice morning with a steamy afternoon.My friend Abichal has been running for 11 days now and is just ahead of his pace from 2 years ago,I go out and help him every night, also during the day on weekends.but there is still a long way to go and we will see how he holds up.

so it is the longest day!And it's not over yet.Portugal,Mexico,Argentina,and Holland all advance to the second round in the world cup.portugal plays Holland ,mexico plays Argentina.

I see this Egret in a park that I walk through on the way to work,this photo was taken in the afternoon on my back.I left work early again to watch the England v Sweden game at the world cup it was a good game ending 2-2,both teams advancing to the second round.

It's sticky here in New York,the humidity was 90% when I left the house this morning.Very often when it is like this we get thunderstorms in the afternoon and evening,and at last check there were some on the way.Hopefully this will help cool things down a little from the hot last few days we have been having.still some interesting games in the world cup as we approach the end of the group stages and a few places are still up for grabs in the second round.

For some reason yesterday my post would not publish.Anyway today is Fathers Day here in America,and we had a marathon which started at 5am,the humidity was already at 70% when about 40 of us started running.It went well for me for the first 10 miles but then my left foot started giving me a strange pain a kind of numb cramp which would come and go.I managed 8 more miles and then I was done.I came home and collapsed in a heap on my bed.Well it was a good workout.

The weather has now turned warm,low 80's f but is staying dry 28% to 33 % humidity.Stayed home from work though only usually a couple of hours on friday,Watched Argentina demolish Serbia & Montenegro 6-0.Argentina look like the best team in the world cup at the moment in my oppinion.

Today it is 1 year since I started this blog,managing almost 1 entry every day.I only worked 1/2 a day so that I could come home and watch England beat Trinidad & Tobago 2-0 in the world cup,later Sweden beat Paraguay 1-0.Now the final group games will decide who wins the group.

It really is starting to feel like summer is coming,it is becoming warm and humid both during the day and night.I am once again keeping my windows open to let in some breeze,I had them closed for a few days because it was getting cold at night.

In the photo are the baby Canadian geese that I see almost every morning as I walk through this park on the way to work.In total there are six of them and their parents are keeping guard,as you can see it was a beautiful morning.

These cool mornings that we are having at the moment are really nice,the rain that we have also had is making this a great spring.Of course it is also nice to be able to watch some great football games from the world cup.I will say that the USA did notlook good losing to The Czech republic 3-0 in their first game of the tournament.Congrats to Australia who won their first ever game in the world cup finals 3-1 against Japan.

An early start for me.My friend Abichal is running in the worlds longest race the 3100 mile race here in Queens,it started today at 6am.After the start I ran 7 miles then came back and watched the Serbia & Montengro v Holland game a classic european style game ,with Holland winning 1-0.If you want to check out the 3100 mile race click on the multiday.com link then click on 3100 mile race link.I am an Englishman in New York and passionate about football ( soccer ) so for the next few weeks there will be a lot of talk about the World Cup.

Did not feel so great this morning but decided to run the 2 mile race anyway,and ran a sluggish 16 min's 13 seconds.I think the England Soccer team must have felt the same way winning 1-0 against Paraguay in a lack lustre performance in their opening World cup game,but a win is a win.

One of the runners from the 6 day race came out to visit today,she had lunch with Abichal and myself.Then we took her on a tour of the 3100 mile course,which Abichal will start running on sunday,I will be his handler again this year.It turned out to be a nice day,and the world cup has started with Germany the hosts beating Costa Rica 4-2 in the first game.

We are still experiencing the wetness of spring here in New York,but not as bad as in previous days.The trees will be thick and heavy and hopefully we will not get strong winds like last year and blow the other tree in front of my house down.Well anyway the World Cup is starting tomorrow.

Today was a day for umbrella's,rain gear and wellies ( wellington Boots ),from the moment I stepped out of the door to the moment I stepped back in,it was raining.In the last couple of weeks I have been visiting a site called youtube,where people post videos of various types and people from all around the world can view them.So I took my digital ( still ) and made a short video, no sound and put it up there as an experiment.You can see it if you want by going to youtube.com and entering anuday in the search window,then just click on my video.

Well everyone is making a big deal about the date 06/06/06,all I know is that the day went quite fast at work.And right after I got home from work it started to rain.Here is the photo I wanted to post yesterday,I walked past this house every day I was in San Francisco last year.

The weather has turned decidedly cooler and I have to say it is quite pleasant,just across the street a group of builders are constucting an extension on an already large house.This is becoming the new thing here in New York,supersizing,they are taking advantage of the weather and working away quite noisily.This time last year I spent a couple of days on San Fransisco,so I am posting a phot I took when I was there. Well it seems that the photo does not want to be posted at this time,so you will have to wait until tomorrow.

After all the rain of the last 48 hours,it was still overcast this morning as I met Utpal on the corner and the temperature was only 59 f .I was slightly under dressed but soon warmed up.the run was good with a lot of banter and we stopped for our usual coffee and mufin on the way home.It has been an interesting Spring so far and summer is only 3 weeks away.

Well it was my turn to be the guard at our tennis ground today.The day was a mix of rain and no rain.The rain ranged from a light drizzle to a strong downpour and the no rain was overcast.The day of course was un- eventful,but while I was doing that England cricketers were struggling against Sri lanka and the England soccer players were beating Jamaica 6-0.So everything was happening somewhere else while I was having a quiet day.

I am not quite sure what it is, but it seems that rain inspires me to write.On the way to work this morning it was trying to rain after quite a lot of thunderstorms during the night.I have been planning to write something about my latest 6 day race for a running magazine,suddenly it started writing itself in my head as I was walking in the rain,many of my poems have come to me in the same way.So after a few hours of work and breakfast I sat down to write my piece,which of course was already in my head so it was quite easy to write.This is the process I use in everything I write these days,allowing myself to be the instrument.

OK so I got about 4 and a half hours of sleep last night,but my walk to work was quite lively.At work we recieved a container full of frames from China and it is quite a job un- loading and putting them away,it was my job to keep track of everything,which can be hard when your still half asleep.I managed it but left 1/2 an hour early.Poor me,Ha Ha Ha.