@davidflewellen.bsky.social
Chess player (ECF rating: usually 1600+; Club: Epsom; County: Surrey). Bristol Rovers supporter. PL/EFL 43/92. Fan of bands like Depeche Mode, the Manics and The Cure. Political views: wanting the world to be a better place for all of humanity.
I’m not saying that I’m doing a lousy job of supporting #BristolRovers at the moment, but I mistook the striker they sold yesterday for the one who netted a hat-trick on New Year’s Day.
My favourite bit of winter is when I steal old Sean Lock jokes and submit them as anonymous confessions.
In "celebration" of thr Pepto Bismol ad now being on the radio, I took some popular radio-friendly songs and added the "Diarrhea" guy.
Or not a fucking idiot, as it turns out… #UTG
In today’s episode of Stranger Things, Bristol Rovers have taken the lead in a game of football.
Bristol Rovers FC really ought to change their name to Bristol Stool Scale FC, in recognition of the many different ways in which they’re shit. Today’s exhibit: happily 2-0 up at home at half time, then one of our players gets sent off, and you can guess where the next three goals went.
I survived Whamageddon 2025. Now to just get through Christmas 2025. Merry Christmas to you all.
Sad to see Chris Rea has died.
A tiny bit of me had always hoped that he’d team up with Mark Knopfler, and form a supergroup called Dire Rea.
I actually would have loved to tick off Crewe Alexandra from my list of the 92 tonight, but if you think I could be bothered to spend time in the same county as the footballing shambles that is the current #BristolRovers squad (never mind the same postcode), you’re sorely mistaken.
I think there’s something corrupted on my phone. It just displayed a goal notification for #BristolRovers where they’d actually scored.
Or it might have strayed across from an alternate universe, like the one I had in FM21 where Callum Morton banged in bucketloads of goals for the Gas.
I played #chess for Epsom 6 away at Surbiton 3 this evening. Messed up the opening and was toast for the whole game. Kept fighting, and it eventually paid off when I swindled a perpetual check draw. Our more lowly-rated team played out of our skins to score a 4.5-1.5 win in the SCCA Minor Trophy.
I see that #BristolRovers have appointed Steve Evans as their new manager whatever.
After a run of dreadful results, #BristolRovers have sacked manager Darrell Clarke. Everyone still associated with the club ought to be deeply ashamed of themselves for the part they’ve played in reaching this point. As it stands, they don’t deserve my time, attention, money, or affection.
Seeing a news story about a Bristol C*ty football ultra who has sadly died from injuries sustained in a fall from a lamppost. I’m trying my best to be a better person, and part of that is showing empathy in a tragic situation - even in a case where my viewpoints are so diametrically opposed to his.
Headed home early from an away trip this evening with my team losing 4-0. This would have happened if I had gone to watch #BristolRovers at Barnet, but instead it happened in the chess match in which I played for Epsom 3 at Richmond. My 200+ point rating disadvantage had me on the back foot.
I have pity for the community to which he has to give 200 hours of service to.
This is precisely what Trump looks like
Gradually rediscovering my chess mojo after my rating took a hit earlier this year. Played some county chess today - mine was one of seven Surrey U1650 wins in a 11-5 thumping of Middlesex U1650. My live rating has now snuck back over 1600 for the first time in many months.
My 2025 year of listening to music lines up pretty well with my actual music taste.
Dutch and Chess are my main areas of learning. Maths is just to farm XP, although the magic square puzzles are good for calculation and pattern recognition skills.
I’m going to see My Bloody Valentine tonight. They’re a band that passed me by when I was younger, and I only got into them a couple of years ago. I’ve always been a fan of alternative music, and they struck me as being an archetype of the genre that somehow eluded my ears for decades.
Won my first #chess game of the season this evening. Earlier this year, a local international master recommended to me that I stop playing a particular opening. My rating then plummeted. Tonight I decided to break the promise that I made to him (that I no longer play it). Result: easy win.
Not just an ex-footballer… an ex-football manager too. I can’t see any sort of pathway for Joey Barton to make any sort of legitimate future living from football, and that’s exactly how it ought to be.
Boo! were always at their best when Ampie Omo was doing the translating for Chris Chameleon. Got to see them as a two-piece in Putney a few years back. Still had a fair dose of the magic.
The Doors! There’s a blast from the past. Think I last went there at the end of 1992.
There was a really vibrant music scene in the late 1990s there, and I was fortunate enough to be living in Observatory, Cape Town then. Remember being utterly blown away by the Springbok Nude Girls when I first saw them at the Purple Turtle in 1995. This was long before they went adult rock.
Being a nightclub DJ catering for Pretoria’s white Afrikaans-speaking population is the easiest gig in the world. Just put a copy of Roxette’s Greatest Hits on shuffle, and that’s your evening’s work done.
As a member of Generation Kiss, I get really embarrassed when I hear people referring to it as “Generation Ex”.
Tiniest minor quibbles about #DepecheModeM would revolve around a couple of song choices. I can’t stand Soul With Me, and no sign of key tracks Walking In My Shoes and Home. Otherwise, I loved it and the memories of purest bliss it brought back. #DepecheMode
Just watched the #DepecheMode Memento Mori tour film #DepecheModeM. Impossible for me to review in any kind of objective sense. It was Depeche Mode, and that’s all it needed to be. Where I live is clearly not a hotbed of Mode fandom, by the way.
