For those of you watching in black and white, the brown ball is next to the pink



I've long been a fan of snooker.  Don't ask me what the rules are because I don't know - it's the serenity of the game; the toc-toc of the white ball on coloured; the silent awe of the crowds and the true personality of the players - something lacking in many other sports.  Well that and the fact that it's usually on late at night which helps lull me into a blissfull state of slumber. 

It all began when I was a little girl.  I was always a bad sleeper (I have the eyebags to prove it) and I suppose I used to wake up at 10:30pm or later and go bother my mum in the living room who would be watching a movie or some such thing.  She would put the snooker on (or in the summer it was baseball - which I also like for the same reason and know as little about) in the hope that it would bore me to sleep.  In fact it had the opposite effect. 

So anyway, snooker has this warm childhood thing about it that stayed with me over the years and with which I have become slightly obsessed.  I used to love the personalities like Hurricane Higgins or count dracula klone, Ray Reardon.  Today the latest icon has to be Ronnie O'Sullivan.  The Liam Gallagher of the game and he plays like a bastard.    When I heard his father was in jail for murder, I needed to know more.

Count Dracula

So the Silverback got me his autobiography.  And I was not disappointed.  Turns out there are a lot of spooky coincidences - not so much between Ronnie and me, more circumstantial.  For example, Ronnie and his dad run a lot of the sex shops in Soho.  I work in Soho and spend every lunchtime picking my way past these very shops to get to Berwick Street for lunch.  I work on the road where one of Ronnie's shop is - I've been in and bought a coaster - nothing too saucy.  And no he wasn't there.

Ronnie also suffers from depression and is, as anyone who has watched him in the past, very open about it.  Put it this way, you don't want to be playing him when he is in this mindframe (or rather you do since he tends not to play well at these times).  But he seems to have tamed that side of himself.  He is fiercely honest about his upbringing and his internal battles.  It's inspirational.

Plus he's a bit of alright which always helps.

Maverick