Am I Bovvered?

Schools are in the news again today with details of new stop and search powers being vested in teachers. It is a sad reflection on the breakdown of school/pupil/parent relations, a situation which can be traced back to several things. Undoubtedly the abolition of corporal punishment was the thin end of the wedge, relaxing the grip which teachers had on pupil discipline during school hours. This was followed by a trend for more families to have two bread winners, and introduced the term 'latch key kids' into society. Children were forced to entertain themselves after school, often in an antisocial way. Finally the removal of the selection process at 11-plus stage grouped all and sundry into comprehensive or community college systems while marginalising the Grammar School system.

David Cameron this week has also indicated his approach to eduction by further distancing government from the Grammar School system, in an effort to attract the blue collar, lower socio-economic voter to his party.

One of Tony Blairs legacies will be that which brainwashed kids and parents into thinking all 'little Johnnies' were bright and intelligent people capable of becoming captains of industry. He introduced uniformity into Polytechnics and Universities in the same way as with the secondary education system in years past.

Unfortunately re branding Polytechnics as University's, diminished their technical and trade status reduced the number of children learning core artisan skills or undertaking apprenticeships. Lets be fair here, plumbers, brickies and electricians these days can name their price for remedial work, and a good carpenter is worth their weight in gold, so it certainly isn't second class citizen work is it?

Many things in society go full circle, often because parents reject the system they evolved under and look at something different for their children. Here's hoping that will be the case as far as education and discipline is concerned, as some sort of intellectual hierarchy is re-introduced and parents become more accountable for, and proud of their children's achievements.

"Well I've been on package tours before....."

I am sure you are all pleased to hear that I avoided winning 'The Rabbit' on the recent golf trip to Wales. It was a close run thing, but close is fine by me.

It was interesting though that the recent bird flu outbreak should be in Conwy on the day I played there, given I am part of the team setting up an emergency response unit for Defra at the moment. No planting of infection was involved, however, and I am sure the team dealt with the requirements more than satisfactorily.

Kierans 21st birthday bash passed off without too many incidents although his 7ft tall Uncle John did get bit squiffy towards the end and started parodying Monty Python in the Travel Agent Sketch... '.... and their Watney's Red Barrel and their swimming pools full of fat German businessmen pretending to be acrobats and forming pyramids and frightening the children....' although in this case the children were 20 year olds!!

We also had an offer on the house over the weekend, but it fell some way below our expectations so we have said to the agent must try harder. It's an interesting hierarchy they have. The sharp suited twenty something with the patent pointy shoes does all the leg work and shows the punters round, then as soon as there is an offer in steps the Branch Manager to claim all the glory for the sale. The sharpie could do with a bit of coaching on how to sell a property, but then they probably have yet to own one themselves so lack the common sense experiences of life in general really.

So a lively ten days, lets see what the next few hold.....

Plastic, Cardboard and Bottled Beer.

I have just spent an hour at the local re-cycling facility following rather an elongated 21st birthday bash. The environmental fall-out has been huge....bbq smoke burning off the ozone layer, young people pickling their livers and laying down NHS overload problems in years to come and the older population hardening their arteries on a diet of sausages, burgers and ribs, with similar NHS implications.

The recycling challenge is geared to helping the environmental challenge surrounding green house gases and global warming. You would think the process would, therefore, be fairly standard, but not so.

Up on t'Wirral we can pop all sorts into our fortnightly collection bin, paper with cardboard, glass and plastic bottles, plastic containers with tin foil. Strangely though at the re-cycling centre you can't deposit cardboard anywhere, nor is there any place for plastics to be deposited.

Contrast that with the Hounslow collection policy in West London. A green box allows card, paper, glass, clothing, foil and batteries to be collected weekly, however, all plastic must be taken to the re-cycling centre.

So as a party location both places have their advantages, but as for disposing of the environmental fall-out Hounslow probably edges it.

The Only Gay in the Village

I am on a golf jolly in North Wales at the moment. There are ten of us playing some cracking courses. Already we have played Conwy, Nefyn and today, Royal St Davids in Harlech. All have most spectacular scenery and are to be recommended to all ardent golfers. I was third in the 'Masters, last yesterday and fourth today, so a bit up and down. We are staying in a small village called Criccieth, which seems to be dominated by gay hoteliers. They are all very hospitable, but mostly resemble characters from Lord of The Rings, rather than Little Britain.

Criccieth itself must have been a pleasant seaside resort in its time, but is now dominated by Chavy type people, and is quite run down. Whatever they do with the village though, it will always remain in Wales, so there is not a lot of hope for it.

Tomorrow we play Porthmadog before returning home, I need a good score to avoid winning the 'Rabbit'

Cash in the Attic

My e-Bay rating has now tipped over the 300 mark.......my next star rating kicks in at 500 so I still have a way to go. Given though, that one in four people leave feedback I have shifted quite a bit of stuff. "Its to declutter", I tell everyone at home. "Why does the house still look cluttered then" they reply, cheeky gits.

I have sold an eclectic portfolio on e-Bay. The fire-escape from the Scouse House has to take pride of place, closely followed by a brand new hot water storage tank. Most of my sporting memorabilia has gone, together with many clothes I have grown out of ( or have they shrunk in the wash!). LP's, books, old electrical appliances, cartoons, and general bric-a-brac have all found new homes in the UK and beyond.

I have a very simple philosophy, it goes on e-Bay twice and if unsuccessful both times it is consigned to the car boot sale box. This weekend saw the first attempt to empty said box, and Chester Rugby Club was the preferred venue.

Our last attempt at car bootie was at Chiswick Community School, at which you would expect a high class of punter, but no, the Eastern European community from Hammersmith, and the Asian population of Hounslow seemed to make up the vast majority of 'bargain hunters', and boy did they want bargains. If you dare to ask more that 50p for a designer jacket retailing at £80 they looked at you as if you had two heads. Needless to say we did not have the greatest of days.

Sunday, however, restored my faith in this tremendously effective recycling process. We sold broken computers, unheard of LP's, dogeared paperbacks, magazines, bags, shoes, bangles, golf stuff, stamps, just about everything we took. The joy, however, was that people were prepared to accept the real value of the items and battle hard to negotiate a good price......that's the real attraction of the day.

Job done, we repaired to Bistro Jacques in Hope Street, Liverpool and got nicely mellow over Sunday lunch, paid for by a bunch of strangers.

Schools out for ever

Our youngest , Kieran, has just sat his final, finals, so as his mother says, today is the last day of school, ever. I think he has other ideas, however, as he sees a Masters beckoning. That will, of course, depend on his final degree grading, and the Faculty's willingness to take him, but with a following wind, and a good mark for his dissertation, he should make it. He is reading History at Liverpool Uni His bro and two sisters all spend an extra year in full time education so I guess it is only fair he does too.

Fairness is something we think increasingly about with the four of them, as one wants money for a house deposit, another wants money for this or that and so on. You can't give one without giving all, certainly where hard cash is concerned.

As a result Kieran is feeling pretty cheesed off at the moment as he has just been offered a ticket to the Champions League final in Athens, by his Grandad. His Uncle turned it down, and sadly he had to too, as the whole package would have been about £800. Still he is young enough to enjoy another Liverpool glory night in the future. he also has two holidays booked in the coming few weeks, so something had to give!

Still he is 21 in a few days, hopefully he can celebrate a Liverpool win at the barbecue we are putting on. These events are some of the rare times all the kids are in one place so we treasure the moments for what they are.

I play the mad chef and everybody else gets trollied!!

Come on you Greens

I am a huge Plymouth Argyle supporter, having supported them since 1962, when my dad took me to the Argyle v Spurs FA Cup 4th round tie at Home Park. How my dad got tickets I don't know, but he seemed to have the ability to magic them from somewhere, be they for England at Twickenham, Wembley or Lords. Its an ability I am pleased to have inherited, and look forward to going with my eldest son to Wembley in a few weeks time for the England v Brazil game.

I remember being devastated for a Royal Marine who offered my Dad ten bob for the two tickets, in the pub one night. i was really saddened that the poor man did not have a ticket of his own. Oh the innocence of youth.

Anyway back to Argyle. Today they broke their all time transfer record by paying £400K for a Hungarian international left winger, Peter Halmosi. Their squad now consists of three Hungarians, 3 French players, a Dutchman and an Australian, as well as several Devonians, and assorted Brits. It is certainly a sign of the times.

Given that Steven Gerrard has just been awarded £120K per week in wages though, paying £400K seems a bargain.

In the 45 years I have followed the Argyle, I have seen them win at Wembley and lose in three Cup semi-finals. In league terms they have fallen from the Second division, to the Fourth division and climbed back up to the Championship as it is now called. In all that time they have never played in a league called the First division. Next season is already being anticipated with great expectation, however, the recent slump of Nottingham Forest and 'dirty' Leeds only goes to show that expectations and achievements can be a million miles apart.

Think I'll go and eat worms.....

Estate agents have an interesting reputation, don't they? Unloved, unpopular and unable to live up to their promises. I am reminded of a newspaper report from some years ago.......'a man walked into a high street outlet and shot dead the estate agent. The police are looking for a motive.' ......yeah right......
Well I interviewed five organisations in Chiswick. they all promised the world and the spread of prices which they quoted as reasonable was more than £100k apart. They work, of course, on comparibles, but this is what happens when there are none. So I set my own price, and appointed the outfit who sent the lady round. Well a philanderer would, wouldn't they?

So whats happened so far?
Nice glossy brochure, several promises of viewings which have not materialised, me hanging around for no reason, little communication unless I instigated it, and finally a few people have been shown round.

No offers yet but it looks like one of my viewers has offered on the house next door, which will be good, as it takes the opposition out of the frame, and it is a snip.

You'll never walk alone

Sport plays a big part in my life albeit these days I only manage a bit of running and some golf. Talking about it does seem to take up most of the conversation on the regular early evening sesh at the Prince Blucher on Twickenham Green, though.

This weeks Friday topic centred around the lack of tickets the Scousers got for the European Cup Final. Now rightly or wrongly, season ticket holders are up in arms that fan card holders have got preference if they had 7 or more coupons. That means they went to (or purchased tickets for) at least one away game.

What season ticket holders pay for is the right to watch all home league games and gain priority to buy for other home or away games in the various cups. Fan card holders get second dibs.

So if the season ticket holders do not buy up all the allocation, fan card holders do. Many of these fan card holders can't get season tickets, or live too far away from Anfield to atttend every week, so they see their priority as supporting the team on the road in Europe. Seems a good wheeze to me.

All the season ticket holders have to do is buy an away ticket, like Galatasaray for a fiver!!, get their coupon, and not travel. Maybe next year they will get smarter.

Whats in a name

Well I am off and running, but have I got an audience, and how does one build up such a following? I supect a good name might help, and I have plumped for The Philanderer for historical reasons I will come onto. A few were discounted though.

'Stormy Weathers' was the first to spring forward....

All very well having a play on words I thought, but not really the oldie playing young theme. That name conjures up Victor Meldrew images, and goodness I have been accused of having those moments in the past.....

Le Limacon was another consideration.....

Le Limacon is the nomenclature used on my annual barbecue invites. Its an event which has been cancelled for the past few years, so resurrecting it as blog title may put the 'fluence on the regularity and consistency of the page.

So The Philanderer it is then.......

While this photo does not do it justice, this brass plaque, listing me as said philanderer, has adored the front of my house for 25 years, so for continuity of product, it seems the right choice. Whether I still am still practicing or not is, however, open to conjecture.

As for spreading the word on the web, that's my next challenge. Hopefully good content, interesting anicdotes and a certain sauciness will all contribute. Stumble!, Google and other techno stuff will help as well.

One small step for man.....

Inspired to try blogging by 'off the record' Dick, I am now faced with how to start the blasted thing off. I need a thread which will grab peoples interests, and keep me motivated to carry on. What better way then, than to tie in the launch of the blog with my entry into the house selling market.

and....Gosh I have timed it well......

• base rate likely to go up another quarter of one percent today



• my neighbours sale has fallen through, so two houses are on the market beside each other and



• both are viewing Saturday

That last point might work to my advantage, but the fact my house is on the market for £75,000 more than theirs, might not!!

Still, I think their house is under priced, albeit they have a loft conversion and loads of other additions which mine does not. Hmmm, the fact mine has not been on the market since 1950, when my Aunt purchased it at auction for £875.00!! does at least give buyers a blank canvas. It is as built in terms of lay-out although few original ceilings, walls, pipes or electricity cables remain.

It has many other features which date back to its construction, not least the fireplaces and plasterwork.

So lets see what happens on Saturday and progress from there.