How wonderful, a rare chance for me to see my beloved Oxford City at Court Place Farm, and they did me proud with a 2-0 win over Bashley Town. What started as a crisp sunny winter afternoon descended into a freezing second half once the sun went down, but the hoops were quick out of the blocks with a 2nd minute goal from Jamie Brooks and added another in the second half from Craig Faulconbridge for a convincing win. Crowds are not quite so big as at CD Tenerife, in the British Gas Premier Division (that’s the old Southern League) , the only good thing about only getting 217 people in, is you can be sure to get a burger at half time.

Anyway the visit to Oxford descended after the football, into a few days of drinking, well I do miss the real ale, but at least I managed to squeeze a little work into my trip, meeting up with Pablo Gonzalez de Chaves Fernandez, a young student from Santa Cruz. Pablo is studying Sports engineering at Brookes University in Oxford, funded by a grant from the Fernando Alonso Foundation, it made a good story for the local Oxford paper.

On Monday I headed back up to Manchester and Pam’s welcoming arms, before heading out to catch my Monarch flight back on Tuesday. Before the flight we spent the morning at the Trafford Centre, not so much a shopping hall, more like a village. What a mammoth and extravagant place, full of elaborate ballastrades, balconies and statues, it’s even got it’s own cinema and a new extension with an Italian style piazza, complete with mermaids drinking out of a huge fountain. The only thing it was lacking was customers, the cleaners outnumbered the shoppers, obviuosly not impressed by Gordon browns latest ploy to make them spend, spend, spend.

The flight was on time and smooth, although barely two thirds full – another sign of the times. It’s good to back in Tenerife, now the catch up starts – and of course CD Tenerife at home at the weekend – not a bad life is it.