Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Well, England crashed miserably out of the World Cup today, and it will be another four years before we can build up the snowball of hype, hope, and expectations again.

Is it really a surprise to see them go out? They played so terribly bad in the group stages, and failed to come in first place – which inevitably means playing tough opposition in the first knockout game. This time it was Germany. Last time it was Portugal.

The simple fact is, England seems to be a team of individuals – great individuals, there is no doubt about that; they are world-beaters and Champions League standouts, most of them – but they are not a team.

Argentina are a team. Brazil are a team; passing in a blur of brilliant speed, and attacking, moving forwards rather than sitting back, ponderous and slow.

England looked a pedestrian side today, and, really, even if they had got through, they would probably get picked apart by Argentina, who play like the team they are, and not like strangers.

I think there is a lot to be learned from Spain, here. Fabregas doesn’t make the Spanish starting 11 for a reason: it doesn’t suit the team. He may be a fantastic player, but it is not about amassing an army of fantastic players, it is about putting together a team.

And until England remembers that, or an England manager is brave enough to remember that, we will still be stuck playing pedestrian football.

Pay day arrived last week, and it’s always a wonderful day.

And now, since summer is here, and my holiday is only a few weeks away, I’ve decided to do a bit of window shopping online.

Well — is it “window” shopping when there are no windows involved? Well, in any case, I have been doing some online shopping and not actually buying anything – yet.

I quite like making mental notes and lists of things that look nice, or that I’m sure I’d like, and then weighing up their pros and cons over a few days, before ultimately deciding whether or not to pull the trigger on the purchase.

Most of the time it happens with books. Books are fantastic for holidays, and I’ll certainly be needing some – but I don’t want to buy something just for the sake of it: I want to be sure I’m going to enjoy it. Or as sure as it’s possible to be, because most of the time you can’t really be sure about such things.

One book I’m almost certainly going to get is STORIES, a compilation of short stories edited by Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio. It has received rave reviews, and sounds brilliant. And perfect to dip in and out of, while abroad.

But there are other, less well known places to shop online, not necessarily for books, but certainly for interesting and often unusual goods. Shiny Shack is particularly interesting, especially when you don’t necessarily know what it is you’re after, or you’re looking to buy unusual gift ideas.

Or you can do the more traditional Kelkoo search: search for a product you know, and let it find the best price for you.

Today, some of my friends were talking about a trip to America they’re planning, and it brought back memories of a recent trip to Chicago: the food, the sights, the sports.

That’s one of the things that’s so tempting about it — that it will be right in the middle of American football season, and not only would we get to watch an NFL game – and probably a very good game at that; we would get to choose the area we go to, after all – but we would get to see a college game as well.

I’ve not seen a college game before, not in the flesh, and the atmosphere and the spirit of them is fantastic from what I can see.

The trouble is, it is difficult to afford it. Especially after paying out so much for my sub-editing course over recent weeks. So I’ve been looking at independent financial advisers to help me put together a plan to combat my penniless state.

It will have to be a big move to afford it, either way. I’ve got my trusty current account and that’s it – I’ve never had to get a loan before, discounting my student one back in the day. And I don’t like the idea of increasing my debt.

I’ve been looking at a number of banking websites and browsing as much financial news as I can, to keep my eye on trends and deals that might help out, but ultimately I think it’ll have to be a loan and the debt that entails – or no trip.

Decisions, decisions…

This week, the Carnegie medal was awarded to Neil Gaiman, one of my favourite writers, for his wonderful The Graveyard Book.

It’s well worth checking out, if you haven’t already. In fact, it has already won the Newberry medal — the US equivalent to the Carnegie. This medal makes him the first person in history to win both for the same book.

And I can’t think of a better book to have won it. The Graveyard Book is about a boy whose family is murdered in the dead of night, but he – then a toddler – wandered out of the house and up a hill into a graveyard.

There, he is raised by ghosts and a vampire, living with and being taught by the dead. It’s a remarkable book, based on and inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book.

But one of the fantastic things about these awards is that the shortlist often consists of a number of authors that I haven’t heard of. While there are some that I’ve seen, some that I’ve read, it’s a joy to discover altogether new books by altogether new authors – most of which are wonderful.

There is a video up here where you can see the winner being read out and hear his acceptance speech.

Some of what he says on cutting library funds is particularly poignant. Cutting library money, he says, might be easy, but it is also “stealing from the future” to help remedy today.

Today should be known as iPhone day. It’s certainly a mammoth occasion, judging by all the queues I’ve seen lining the town.

The phone was released in a plethora of countries today, and there has been the inevitable buzz of interest and frenzied excitement from fans and eager buyers keen to get their hands on the product.

Yet, take a step back for a moment. What is it, really, that’s so different about it?

Yes, it may look nice, but when it comes down to using it, is there much that sets it apart from competitors – or old iPhone models, for that matter?

There is much that’s wonderful about these smartphones. But when it comes to actually calling, actually using the telephone part of the phone, they aren’t anything special. And you can’t really go wrong to buy digital dect cordless phones instead – if you want to make a phone call that doesn’t disconnect if you hold it in the wrong way, or if you want a good, crisp connection on your call.

Indeed, while there is an array of apps at your disposal with a smartphone that make them handy for work – they still pale in comparison to a computer. Which you tend to have at work more often than not. They are not really phone systems for business, when you think about it – more phones for play. Phones for enjoyment.

And there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just that there is a large range of telephones out there that actually telephone better than smartphones, but they suffer from not getting anything near as good publicity.

Unless you’re BT, of course. These BT phones grace our television every day. But I’m with BT, and, well, that’s probably a blog for another day.

There is not much longer to wait before the England game. I say “the” England game, because now there is just one; just one game – win or go home. And I can feel the excitement building, feel the tension rippling in the air.

So much for the group being easy, eh? The group was supposed to be a breeze; and yet, the squad found a way to struggle, playing like strangers against Algeria, and letting in a tame goal against the USA.

The players don’t even seem to be having fun out there, and this is the World Cup – the pinnacle of their careers.

Just as there is much we can learn from Brazil and Argentina – moving forwards with the ball, not backwards; passing to ourselves, not the opponents – there is much we can learn from South Africa, enjoying themselves on the pitch. Having fun.

There has been a trend brewing in the competition recently, though, and thankfully it favours England and it favours Wayne Rooney, our talisman.

Everyone started off badly. The good teams, the good players – they all struggled, at least in their first game. But now Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Lionel Messi – three of the “big four” – are getting involved, having fun, taking crisp, brilliant shots.

Wayne Rooney is the fourth member of that club. Surely, surely, it’s time for him to step up, too?

This is the World Cup, after all. The great players – the truly great players – rise to the big occasions, rather than wilting in the spotlight.

There are more brown bears than professional footballers in Slovenia – this is not just a game we must win; it is a game we surely should win. I can see Rooney stepping up and having a big influence on the match. And I can see England winning fairly comfortably.

And then, I suppose, all this terrible performance nonsense will be forgotten, and all will be right with the world again!

Increasingly, newspapers and online news publications are reporting that a growing number of parents are breaking the law in a bid to help their children get cheaper car insurance.

Apparently as much as 41% of parents deliberately lie when filling out policy applications.

Essentially, when they ring up or fill in forms for car insurance, they claim to be the main drivers on the policy, when in fact it is one of their children who is the main driver, or owner of the car. – a practice known as “fronting” – which usually offers large savings, but could also lead to prosecution.

According to numerous sources, Co-operative Insurance found that almost half of the nation’s parents were actually fronting policies, while 61% admitted that they would do so in the future.

The industry is warning that it is an extremely risky practice – indeed, there is a number of law society websites and these sorts of legal services that have to deal with this so called “fronting”, as well as a growing number of car insurance fraudsters.

Tim Franklin, of Co-operative Financial Services, said: “The view that motor insurance fronting is harmless and does not hurt anyone could not be further from the truth.”

He added: “Parents who believe they are helping their children to save money by fronting are not only risking prosecution, but harming their chances of obtaining insurance in the future.”

But the real scam, I think, is the insurance companies themselves.

They charge extortionate rates to these young kids passing their tests. How are they supposed to stump up thousands of pounds, when they are 17 years old, and have just shelled out all their money on a car?

Never mind growing accident claims for compensation or the plethora of claims for whiplash injury compensation – the real problem is the fact that these people charge way too much money. It’s no wonder parents are resorting to “fronting” to help save money.

The issue seems to be being tackled in precisely the wrong way. Cut down the costs, and there will be no fronting to worry about.

It has been three months. Three months of annoyance, three months of waiting to hear something – and inevitably hearing nothing. And now I have decided to never buy an HP laptop ever again.

I suppose I should have looked into it a little more before I bought my most recent one. There are complaints over the net that they tend to need repairing a lot.

But I was lured in by a very fancy thing with a swivelling screen that can make it form a sort of tablet computer, looked nice. It felt nice, and it even worked very well – while it was under warranty, that is.

But then, almost as soon as the warranty expired, it broke. Inevitable, I guess. The screen went black, and I couldn’t do anything. So I turned it off, and then it never properly turned back on again. It hummed a little, and the lights came on, but the screen never did.

So I got it fixed, and everything was fine again for a month or so. But then it broke again: exactly the same way as it had done before.

Now, I’ve waited three months for them to repair it. At first, they were just being slow. Then they said they needed to fly in a chip from China – and then the volcanic ash cloud stopped that from coming for a while. And when they did finally get the chip, it didn’t do anything. After three months, they have told me it will need a new motherboard, and that is rather expensive.

So I suppose I’ll just have to see if I can get the hard drive turned into an external HDD. And start looking for a new computer. I’ve been so long without it that I can’t even remember if there’s anything worth keeping on there.

But I do know this: I’m not going to be getting an HP again.