Having recently moved to a new house in rural Essex (well, a village outside Brentwood feels pretty rural to me), we've yet to acquire curtains. As a result the sunlight comes streaming through the windows by 4.30 and its sound accompaniment is both the dawn chorus and the distant crowing of a demented cockerel.
We've either had or are about to have the longest day of the year and next season's fixtures have just been announced. Seeing a home game against Doncaster brings home the reality of relegation, and much as Pornographer No.1 says he's looking forward to the new season, the fixture list hardly sets the pulse racing. Although Cardiff, Leeds, Birmingham and Millwall promise a level of violence to a season not seen since I were nowt but a nipper.
It's also the time of year when the scrolling news of transfers is fascinating. No surprise that Demba Ba is off after half a season to the Barcodes. More surprising is Kevin Nolan coming the other way, and it's a better piece of transfer business than we managed last season when we had aspirations to retain a Premier League place. If Scott Parker goes (and the talk has turned to 'if' rather than 'when' of late), he's a more than adequate replacement on paper - unfortunately, games are played on grass rather than paper, as our last squad too good to go down proved - and if The Superman stays they should be more than a match for any other Championship midfield.
And, of course, we have our new manager. He seems to me a brilliant appointment when you look at the alternatives available and his track record with Bolton and, to my mind, Blackburn.
Of course there is the little matter of his half-season at Newcastle but I'd not derive anything from that shambles.
Funny the connections, though. With Alan Pardew their manager - and the rumours that his low basic salary is supplemented by a percentage of transfer business income certainly give a fresh perspective on the transfers of Andy Carroll and now Nolan - and us having previously bought Super Scott (the good), Lee Bowyer (the bad) and Kieron Dyer (the absent),
as well as selling Demba Ba.
But if the next connection is an instant return to the Premiership, I shan't complain.
Just one thing, though. Big Fat Sam obviously likes people he's worked with before - Nolan, Faye signed, Gardner would have but failed a medical, and Macdonald as the assistant manager. Please no El Hadj Diouf. I sit too close to the front of the Chicken Run to escape the gobbing.
