The RFU have managed to upset most of New Zealand ahead of the Rugby World Cup in September by launching a black change kit. Officials had gained the approval of their New Zealand counterparts, amid fears that the use of black would rile supporters of the All Blacks, but it still looks like Johnson's team will be public enemy No 1 when they land in Auckland. The RFU has attempted to justify the choice by saying the traditional white shirt clashes with Argentina and Wales, and I can buy the Argentina point but Wales play in red, which I'm pretty sure doesn't look anything like white.

When Brazil's men missed all 4 of their penalties this evening I didn't sit here and say things like "yeah well they should stick to DIY" or "they'd be better off staying in the pub" - a) because it would be a completely ridiculous and irrelevant thing to say and b) because I'm not a total ass.

I've never really understood why people think that Shakespeare is for 'posh people', but then I've never really understood why everybody doesn't love Shakespeare.  Two years before making his serious stage debut as Othello at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, Lenny Henry summed up his attitude to Shakespeare. “It seemed to me that Shakespeare was very much in the province of posh people,” he said on a Radio 4 series about the Bard. “I’m black, I’m from Dudley, I’m working class. Shakespeare’s not for people like us.”

After almost 11 years of the left side of my face being paralysed I don't really think about how it affects my life on a physical day to day basis anymore, you just kind of get on with it. It wasn't until recently that a conversation prompted me to think of the things that I can and can't do because of my facial palsy.

Back in May I stated the case for returning Thomas Hitzlsperger to his rightful English home in 'My Source Tells Me...' at the time for around £500k, and now it's even better because he's on a free. What's more he wants to come home to Villa Park (told you it was down to a communication error he ended up at West Ham!), so what is the problem?

From Hypnos' poppy potion that induced slumber in Greek mythology to the poppy field which threatens to send Dorothy and her friends to everlasting sleep in the Wizard of Oz to In Flanders Fields by John McCrae the poppy has long been associated with both sleep and death due to the opiate extracted from the plant and  the common blood-red colour, but is also associated with rest and healing. It is one of the prettiest weeds commonly found across Europe and incredibly striking.

Whilst propped on the sofa attempting to cough my lungs right out of my chest this week I have learnt a lot about my photography. I was challenged yesterday to take a fresh look at it and today's #qschallenge of "Street Life" gave me an excuse to further challenge my own perception of a good shot.

I've never really been happy with many of my non-flower shots but a very clever man and excellent photographer challenged me to be less predictable and show a wider range of subjects, so with a little help from Instagram filters here is a selection of my other subjects:

For the first time in almost 11 years I really feel I'm starting to get my smile back. It's not that I've been miserable or depressed for 11 years, far from it, rather that I've had Bell's Palsy three times with very little recovery each time, which has left the left side of my face mostly paralysed.

Reports are that Aston Villa have agreed to pay Birmingham City £2m in compensation with Alex McLeish set to be officially announced as Villa's new manager by tomorrow. Although I admit to having spent a large part of today wishing for some sort of miracle where Randy has just caught up with reading my blog and realised that Quique is a far more attractive proposition, in more ways than one, now is the time to accept that the decision has been made and Quique will forever be the one that got away.

There have been a lot of people labelled the "bad guys" during Aston Villa's protracted managerial search from Randy Lerner and Paul Faulkner to McLeish to Peter Pannu to sections of the fans and even Martin O'Neill (really, get over it), but the media seem to have borne the brunt of it.

Accusations have been flying that they don't know what they are doing, they are anti-Villa and even that they make things up off the tops of their heads and tell blatant lies. Don't get me wrong, I think there are certain news organisations that have distinctly warped moral compasses and certain journalists who certainly seem to have their own agendas, but on the whole they do not knowingly report untruths.

Ok, I think my heart may officially be broken. Randy has completely let me down and failed to deliver on the one tiny little thing I asked for for my birthday, and now I find out that Kinky Florist wants the Villa job!

So after all the rumour and speculation Aston Villa have declared that they are to interview Alex McLeish "imminently in order to make a decision regarding his candidacy to become Villa manager", which is exactly what Villa fans did not want to hear.

While it was just being reported by TalkSPORT and Sky Sports News many fans felt they could just ignore it, as the media are evil people who tell lies and make things up just to upset the fans apparently, or so they've been told about a million times over the past few weeks, but the club statement makes the appointment of McLeish a very real possibility.

Amid the debate and bickering over who people think should take over the managerial reigns at Aston Villa, the phrase "We're a big club" has been used almost as much as Jamie Redknapp uses the word literally; but are we?

What defines a "big club"? Is it the fans? The financial resources? Exposure outside of the UK? The trophies and titles won?