The Snookerbacker Blog

Hello Everyone. This is a special place where us ladies and men with a softer side can have a nice chat about girly things and I can tell you all about my thoughts on the day and which make up you should be buying.

Here is my diary:

The End of my diary:

Oh well, what an exciting championship this has been this year. Normally I go away on holiday for some sun and relaxation for parts of it, leaving Mr SB to study all the odds and keep everyone updated in his usual and unique way. This year however I have left my passport in the top draw until our holiday in June and I have been glued to the TV since day one (well parts – skip the Rory McLeod and Peter Ebdon match). I even went up to watch the snooker in Sheffield and met some lovely people along the way and had a fantastic time.

From the beginning when writing my world championship preview, when Mr SB and the rest of the blogger most probably laughed at my predictions –I was after a championship that was different than the usual and with some unexpected twists, finalist and eventually a winner.  Ok Steve Lee was totally out there and a big mistake but my thoughts where that I would love someone new and unexpected to get through and generate a buzz, creating a great atmosphere and we got that in the end. Though I would have liked a Williams and Judd final, but let’s be honest all the hype was about Judd and he could have turned up alone and got the same reception for being marvellous throughout the event and for me the overall world championship winner of this year.

The tournament started with the usual eggy crumpets at 10.00 am and a big mug of tea and ended up with a glass of red and a nail biting final. I obviously have had my favourites throughout the competition, Ali Carter being number 1 and I have a new found appreciation of Shaun Murphy even though his walk on song gets right on my nerves and I really would consider changing it! There are much better songs out there – “Could it be magic” by Take That, “Every little thing she does is magic” by the Police, and my favourite “You can do magic.. magic ..” by ??? Oh I don’t know.

I even would go so far to say that I even enjoyed watching Ronnie and I had a good giggle at Pagetts outfit and hair, my mother (who also went with my dad) commented on how well presented and what nice shoes Ryan Day wore and even chatted to Terry Griffiths about toast in the hotel over breakfast which made me giggle as even my mum got into the spirit of it all- something was different this year and it was infectious and good fun all around.

The highs were watching Ali Carter and the lows was to not see him go further. My frustration was with Mark Williams for throwing his final appearance away to Higgins and my elations where watching Judd pot those balls at lightning speed with precision cuing action and generating a buzz of excitement in the crucible and in the homes of everyone watching.

I have to say that I think now I may have gone from a snooker widow to a snooker follower and I am looking forward to watching the players in York in the UK’s. Hopefully I will be able to get to know some of the fun players and people involved in snooker in my section “At home with Mrs Snookerbacker” and hopefully this may become a feature throughout the cycle.(If Mr SB allows this of course as it can’t all be about snooker surely??)

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Now, as it’s all come to an end and I have to give Mr SB some aftercare as the excitement has ended and we get back to normality for a while at least , if you have made any winnings – it’s my last chance to plug my favourite organic website for all things beauty and lovely www.amarya.co.uk so enter my discount codes below so I can get some free stuff from them as it’s not only been Mr SB who has been working hard over the last week – I have too and I think I need a treat!

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Day 14

The Royal Wedding Day

I started this morning having a lovely beach walk with Mr SB and the doggies before getting back for the 10 am start (for me this time) for the Royal Wedding on TV. I am not a royalist at all but the excitement and TV coverage just drew me in and I have to say at parts Mr SB too. As it’s going to be in every paper, magazine, news story, blog etc, I will be quick and keep it short, my word she is and looked beautiful and it was amazing to see the ceremony. William was so sweet and looked like he was trying to make Kate laugh to relax,  it felt at some times like a fairy tale movie, I even described it like Shrek to Mr SB at one part (which happened to be on after the wedding too). Have to say though, still not a good as mine and Mr SB’s last year but I may be 100% biased there.

Being all inspired by the Royal Wedding, I have decided to put my 2 vintage wedding dress possible choices ( I had three in the end) I was going to wear as my wedding dress last year on EBay along with an outfit I wore to the races a few years ago. You can view them here, here and here.  Seeing as wedding season is upon us, I hope they go to a good home.

Feeling all nice and glowy, something about watching a wedding makes you just feel all nice and remember your own, arrrr… come here Mr SB and give me a kiss xx,

Even better, an advert has just come on for the start of The Apprentice on the BBC! Yay!!

Day 13

After a lazy day yesterday I got my skates on and decided to go the launderette (again) tidy the house (again) and do something I have never done in the 5 years of living at Snookerbacker Mansions … wash my car. I know it’s terrible but my car only gets clean when I visit my mum and dad’s and my dad gives it a full valet and magically it comes back smelling of a fresh summer breeze and all shiny instead of the usual wet dog, sandy, spaniel slobber smell I have to put up with until I give it to my dad again to wash it. But today when the sun moved out of the garden I decided to do it myself. I am really house proud but when it comes to my car I just can’t be bothered with it. It’s my first one and it was brand new when I bought it (8 years ago) and people can get a bit funny about them by giving them silly names – me I just use it to get from A-B and gave up the car pride as soon as the doggies took lodge in the boot for car journeys.

So now I have just had a nice bath and waiting for the Mark Williams game to start. I think my overall aim today was to work really hard to justify sitting on my bottom to watch the snooker this evening as I have to admit I had a little snooker fatigue yesterday and felt really lazy. So I can now relax and I have my comfy clothes on, gave myself a mini pedicure/manicure and just about to paint my nails… ahhh…girly bliss x

Day 12

I have to admit, I have been a little hungover today so not much to report. I have spent the day napping, eating chocolate, napping again and then eating more sweets. To try and redeem the day I decided to make some tapas for dinner. I made a lovely pepper and mushroom frittata, scallops, gambas pill pill and some garlic mushrooms. I actually have to say that I am quite good a cooking tapas now, it’s all in the timing and I am good at multitasking so think that’s why it’s easy to do.

Also on a positive note I have my next “At home with Mrs Snookerbacker” interview confirmed, so I am looking forward to starting and some lovely questions. Mr SB has told me that I have to include some snooker questions so I will just let him write those ones and get them out the way before I start mine.

Oh, and I have also managed to get myself involved in some community stuff! I think my neighbour saw my weakness and pounced knowing I would say yes to anything as I was half asleep. I am going to have to do some baking or something for helping raise money for the local parks; for tidying and maintenance etc… I know it’s a good cause but, not when I am hung over, but isn’t that why we pay a huge amount of council tax every month?? I am such a grump when tired… Mr SB will confirm… and don’t even start me on bins!!!

My Birthday

I have had a lovely birthday today and have got lots of nice things plus my new shoes which I need to wear in for our holidays. Firstly I went to see Mr SB’s mum and had a glass of pop and a natter then followed on to see my mum and dad in town for some lunch and a catch up. I just managed to purchase the shoes then received a worried call from Mr SB to say he had picked up a computer virus, luckily I had done all the shopping I wanted to for the day and headed home to help Mr SB sort the laptop out and take to the local IT people.

I have had lots of well wishes from my friends and some lovely birthday goodies and even the BBC boys wished me happy birthday which was nice. By this point it was time to crack open a bottle of bubbly with Mr SB and nearly had a new shoe disaster with spillage. I have forgot to mention my lovely homemade card made from Mr SB, he does every year, he is either really personal and caring or really lazy and could not find the time to go and buy me one, either way I love the home made cards and here is it…

Plus he got us tickets to go and see one of my favourite blokes and celebrity crush Stephen Merchant in concert and I can’t wait. I have warned Mr SB that I would probably end up being like the odd people who hang around stage doors to get a photo – but I love him that much I think I will be there with my camera and autograph pen at the ready. I hear he is looking for a wife but Mr SB has reminded me that I’m married to him and I can’t swap him… oh well… never mind… but if you’re reading this Stephen and you like snooker… I am your woman!

So we finished the night with a take away and I decided to get all creative (that tends to happen when I have a glass of bubbly) and I have made my short list on who may possibly get one of the Mrs SB Willies Awards this year and even better, I decided that I am going to hand make them and how to do it, I even have sketches.

My type of guy.

I am going to start my prototype tomorrow… unless anyone reading this is an engineer and can do for me some CAD modelling plus also have a rapid prototype machine. Oh and some materials… I may have to settle with egg cartons, pipe cleaners, plasticine and paperclips

Day 10

When I woke up Mr SB announced there was no snooker on until 1pm so I took my opportunity to get him to come with me and offer me a hand at the laundrette and for some food shopping – as you can imagine he was ecstatic about that. Luckily he had his phone on him so he was able to keep up to date with the goings on and he was not at all interested in how the machine’s work and the added benefit of the extra spin machine to cut down on drying time for 0.40p,  it was like talking to a brick wall.

Not much to report on today, I left Mr SB in his makeshift press room with a large screen TV and his two lap tops and I caught some sunshine in the garden. I am however concerned about our whippet as he has been a bit down today and I think he may have a little bit of hay fever or he may be coming out in sympathy with Mr SB and his man flu?

Having a chill out tonight watching Ronnie and munching away an entire box of Celebrations even though I don’t like what’s left. Maybe it will be a more interesting day tomorrow when it is my birthday and I turn an old age of 32.

Day’s 7-9 in Sheffield:

My Sheffield Experience

After my catch up with a good friend and not a hangover in sight (we were very good plus I gained an Easter egg!) I literally just caught my train up to Sheffield to reunite with Mr SB. I was not too sure what to expect. I have to be honest I stated to doubt if I had done the right thing leaving as the weather was so good back home and I was looking forward to a lounge in the garden in the sun in need of some rest and relaxation from work.

It seemed like a bit of a struggle as I has to drop the doggies off with their grandma and then with 20 minutes to go drive into town, park my car in work and walk up (or as on the day run up) a big hill to get to the station, buy my ticket and get on the train whilst carrying my rather large luggage loaded with scones!

I had just made the train and managed to get my transfer up to Sheffield. I could now relax and as it was now officially the start of my holidays. From chatting to Mr SB and following the tweets I was getting quite excited and I did not know what to expect. I had been to the Crucible a few years ago and it was an odd experience – I think a football match was on and they closed the centre and I remember it just being cold, deserted and we also stayed out of the centre so a bit quiet. Mr SB had told me it had changed and I would really enjoy it, he seemed excited but he generally is when the World Championship is on.

When I pulled up in the taxi that Mr SB greeted I could feel the atmosphere, there was a real buzz around the place and it felt like a real community. Mr SB was in his element and told me about what he had been up to, who he had been chatting too and how the matches were going, I think his excitement was rubbing off on me and I was so happy he had been having a great time and I was looking forward to watching some snooker too.

In the afternoon Mr SB showed me the press room and backstage. I saw Rob Walker and his energy is incredible. I would have liked to say hi, but he is such a huge character and I can get quite shy so I just gave a little smile, maybe he knew I  was quite nervous by hiding around Mr SB back. I also met Andy from Betfred and he was a lot younger than I expected but was very nice and then we caught the last few frames of the Trump match then I left Mr SB to have a nap in the hotel.

After a quick freshen up and change of outfit, I met Mr SB and his snooker buddies in the Graduate. I met the lovely Matt from Pro Snooker Blog, Handsome Tom from Snooker Bingo and his friend Adam and super chatty Roland from Snooker Island. Wow…can they all talk!! … It was really cute as they are all so passionate and love the game so much it was nice to see their enthusiasm and to share a G&T with them all.  I was also really excited as we were about the watch the Ali Carter game and I would get to meet his manager Steve and watch one of my favourite players in action.

Meeting Steve was lovely, as the old phrase goes, lovely to put a face to the name. He kindly got us great seats with him watching Ali up in the balcony with a superb view of the table and views of Ali and his opponent Dotty.  I love watching Ali’s games, one of the things I like to observe is the body language and facial expressions of the players; Ali is so expressive and communicates with the crowd; you can feel his highs, lows, frustrations and triumphs and in my opinion this maybe one of the reasons why we take certain players to our hearts and want them to do well.  Ali played well in the session and we had a quick drink with them both afterwards before off to bed for an early night, both excited for the next day and wishing Ali lots of luck for his next round and becoming a big manager Steve fan as he is just so nice.

The next morning we both awoke really excited the watched Ali again, we had a lovely morning having breakfast and lunch sitting in the gardens catching up and chilling. Steve kindly arranged for our tickets to see Ali again and we had great views and we were both gutted for Ali when it came to the end and his championship ended on a cross double.

Overall I have had a wonderful time in Sheffield, the atmosphere has been electric, I have met some really nice people (spotted lots of snooker players around and about especially in the Mecure, I even saw Statto!) and even though it was sad not to see the Captain get further I am still excited to watch the remaining matches. I’m already planning to come to the UK’s in York with Mr SB and thinking of all the Christmas shopping I can get done when I am there.

Day Six:

Just a quickie today. Glad to sign my out of office for a whole week and started my weeks holiday with a lovely Japanese meal in the sun with a nice glass of rose for lunch. I think I got a little sun burnt as my face is a bit pink. Then I came back home for some minor tidying up and to water of the garden. I am pleased to report that my little seeds are starting to grow and I have begun to regularly see the blue tits in the mornings when heading out for our early morning walk.  For me summer has officially started today.

Not much time to talk as one of my good friends is coming around for dinner and I have to some chopping and make sure the wine is perfectly chilled. Can’t wait for a good catch up and a natter.

I am still yet undecided about what to wear for the snooker. I am thinking jeans and t shirt for the day sessions and a day dress for the evening; it’s one of my favourites and has big bright flamingos all over it.

Well better go and pop some garlic bread in, tonight we are having gorgonzola linguine with green sprouting broccoli, yum one of my favourites and Mr SB’s (sorry you I will do you some for when you get home xx)

Day Five:

Got up to walk the doggies really early today at 6 am and got into work very very early, so I could come home quicker and see some sunshine. Though I decided because I was finishing early to get my haircut for when I meet Mr SB in the crucible on Friday but ended up spending my lovely early afternoon dart waiting around inside one of the local hairdressers who spent more time chatting than cutting hair.

I have also decided against taking the dogs out for their afternoon walk as I thought I will look rather silly with my new bouncy blow dry walking them along the beach with hair prepared for an evening out sipping a few cocktails with the girls, so instead I have decided to sit with my big WAG blow dry in a pair of sweat pants and Mr SB’s t- shirt and have a beer or two instead.

So my evening plans are to make myself a beetroot and gorgonzola salad for tea and catch up on the snooker events and blogs until the evening session starts again at 7pm. Well at least my hair will calm down for Friday. There must be something about local hairdressers in this area as I remember Mr SB actually laughed at me when I walked through the door and I had to try and calm my backcombing beehive down, maybe I will stick to city centre high prices at least they don’t talk to you and you get in an out and they assume everyone wants’ to look like Alex (Steven Gerard’s wife or girlfriend??)

Hmm ….but then again I am quiet partial to the odd flick or two….maybe I am more scouse than I think??

Right, of to make dinner and crack open a beer..

Day Four:

This is just a midpoint diary entry as I have just realised the time and thought Mr SB will be getting in touch with me soon for this entry. The reason being is I have not stopped cleaning since I have come home from work and yet to finish and have my bath, wine and dinner.

It’s not been a bad day really, work as per usual but I am missing my husband and so are the doggies plus I am missing the extra help around the house.  Mr SB left for the snooker this morning all excited and I wished I had a few days off too but never mind I will be there on Friday to take in all the excitement!

Well the rest of the evening for me involves putting new sheets on the bed, running a bath and washing my hair with the lovely John Masters Organic Shampoo and Conditioner that Amarya sent me – having an extra large glass of wine and settle down to watch the snooker whilst cuddling my whippet and probably telling our spaniel to b quiet!

Well … best get back to it…a woman’s work is never done… Or so the saying goes???

Day Three:

I have to say it was so hard to leave Mr SB and the boys to go to work this morning. It was a nice sunny day, Mr SB was off and there was a good day of snooker ahead and I must say after winning my first £20.00 I kind have got the bug for it.

Mr SB kindly let me have a morning off from feeding the boys and took them out for their morning walk without me as I did not sleep too well last night maybe that’s the curse of the highs and lows of the crucible and popping a few quid on a few matches. So I had a chance to take my time and get ready for a change and use a few products I never have the chance to use in the rush to get ready. This morning I went for a simple face serum by John Master Organics to give me an extra moisture boost after my day in the sun. Oh the joys of getting ready in a man free and dog free environment if only every morning was this calm……

But I went to work and had a normal Monday work day excited about the snooker match and winning another £20.00. After a few technical glitches with email I had an email from Mr SB saying I had won again and then in a good mood decided to spend my remaining budget in work of over 60K in half an hour! It was a good day.

So I rushed back having an early dart to catch the last climaxes of the Ronnie match and the remaining session of the Hendry and Perry.  Well I was stressed out at the possibility of winning another £20.00 that Mr SB reminded me I had a double and I then knew I could not watch… but I did and now I am ecstatic.

So with Mr SB going away I have just made sure he has placed my rest of the bets on before he leaves for Sheffield and I have a feeling I will be watching it while he is away .. again hiding under my jumper at the match ball frames… just in case I get the big one!!

Don’t forget girls… if you get a winner…. Give yourself a treat, I know I will be this weekend!!!

See further down for the discount codes at Amarya

Day Two:

Today has been far more relaxing as it should be.

I had a lovely night sleep last night, I must admit I got a bit sleepy and went to bed leaving Mr SB to update me on the action when he came to bed.

When I woke up this morning I had received a missed call and a text from my dad with updates as he’s staying on the hotel all the snooker players and the BBC are staying. Hoping to get top gossip from them both in deep with all the action….so far I have found out that Willie Thorne is really big and tall and my mum had a conversation about toast with Terry Griffiths as an incident occurred where the toast at one stage looked like it could possibly burn… and this morning text update I found out that he also likes marmite.

Again we had a lovely walk this morning and we decided to drive a bit further up the coast. I love our weekend walks as we can take our time and walk for longer than we can mid week. The doggies had a good stretch of their legs and we did too. After that we had a nice cup of tea and marmite on crumpets for our breakfast in the garden. That’s when I decided to spend the day and forsake the snooker leaving it up to Mr SB.

Today I managed to plant my hanging baskets, pot some rosemary, iris bulbs, poppy seeds, basil and Jasmine and make some hanging pots out of left over dog food tins filled with lobelia’s which happen to look really nice and feeling fulfilled, grubby and little sun burnt.

That’s one thing I didn’t do today was to apply sun screen – for a blonde, pale, freakily person who’s skin has not seen any sunlight for the past year.. today would have been a good day to apply it.

I am a little red faced at the moment and thought that it was a good job that the nice people of Amarya have sent me some of their Lavera after sun which has made me a whole lot better, cool and refreshed. Though I have noticed they do have a sun care range so maybe because I have mentioned their site again they may send me some to trail?? Well one has to try!!!

So now I am just chilling out with a cold beer and a packet of my favourite crisps while watching Hendry gets it 2^nd century of the match. At least I have predicted that right… if only Mr SB had put a bet on that for me… oh well never mind I have the matches tonight I am hoping to get right as I have seen a few things online I would like to buy for my holidays as today has put me in a sun shining holiday mood.

Mmmmm …yummy…  I can smell our roast dinner cooking that Mr SB cooks every week- did you know that Mr SB makes the best roast potatoes in the world and this is honestly one of the reasons why I agreed to marry him?

Before I forget…here are the discount codes for some money off, especially to top up on sun care.

Snookerbacker5 for £5.00 off when you spend £25.00

Snookerbacker10 for £10.00 off when you spend £35.00

Enjoys this evening snooker … I’m looking forward to it tonight, though I may just have a little nap with all the fresh air I have had today…

Day One:

What and exciting and jam packed day it has been. Firstly Mr SB woke up as excited as a child at Christmas and said the most important thing was for him to be back for 10 am and that he had his favourite breakfast – eggy crumpets as a treat. I knew I had a busy morning ahead of me as I also wanted to be back for 10 to watch the introductions and also to see if I could spot my mum and dad in the crowd. Plus it was going to be a great day of snooker and I was looking forward to the all the matches ahead, especially Ali Carter and Neil Robertson.

So we headed off for our usual lovely morning beach walk about 7.30am with our two dogs.  The walk was lovely, morning is by far the best time of the day to get the most out of nature, a bit a peace and quiet and a good run for our whippet and a nice walk and sniff for our little old spaniel. However, it was close at one point I had to suddenly distract him seeing two rabbits, but I don’t think he has it in him anyway to chase them let alone want to eat them. Then I got worried as I only saw one goose fly over our heads and feared it may be lost – but later in the walk another two flew over and I could finally relax and think how everything is just ticking along fine… as was the time…

In preparation for the morning ahead I got Mr SB to gather his washing so I could take to the laundrette as we still have not got around to getting our new washing machine yet, picked up the 7 light bulbs I needed to exchange at the local DIY store and made sure I had extra cash for some ingredients for the dinner for what I was going to cook later on in the evening.

As I left with a multitude of task to get done before 10am Mr SB reminded me to make sure I was back in time for eggy crumpets!

Washing done, shopping done and exchanging light bulbs and picking up a washing line and pegs for the washing that now needed to be hung up, I headed home with 30 mins to go. I somehow managed to remove Mr SB from the chair and his lap top to put up the washing line while I prepared eggy crumpets, made a cuppa and hung all the washing outside. By this time the intro’s where over as Mr SB forgot to tell me they were on, so I finally settled down with a cold cuppa to watch the snooker. 30 mins later Mr SB made me a hot cuppa. I am a snooker widow I thought.

The rest of the day has been pretty calm, I have been wearing in my new shoes for summer, and I sat in the garden and pleased to report the blue tits are back nesting in our bird box. I have cuddled the whippet at least 30 times and settled down for a lovely bath at the midsession interval using my Amarya products they kindly sent me – a fantastic Pinks Boutique body scrub which smelt divine and has left my skin super soft in preparation for summer and a treat of pure indulgence face cream by Ananné. Well I had a busy morning – I thought I deserved a treat.

So now I am all refreshed with a glass of wine, smelling sweet and skin soft, with all my washing done for the weekend.. deciding to get a take away listening to Morrissey and thinking of the blue tits that have come back to nest and thinking about our lovely walk which we will have again tomorrow…

Oh and yes… the great snooker too.

xx

PS..Things that Mr SB did do today.
Brought me a morning cup of tea
Supplied me with regular cups of tea and biscuits throughout the day
Made me lunch
Done all the washing up and cleaned the living room/stairs
Fed the dogs twice
Brought up the wine we are now drinking

(See he is not that bad after all and he is really busy at this time a year – and it’s the only time a year he can get away with it)

See you tomorrow.