Gentlemen that reminds me......

I brought a Rag Mag today. I can't remember the last time I did so, but the student doctor, in his scrubs, on the tube did a fine job with his patter and his collection bucket. The rag was that of the London and Barts Hospitals associated charities, and as both hospitals have a place in my life, it seemed reasonable to contribute.

The college rugby team used to go pulling on a Wednesday night at the London nurses home after our games. Those who were out of luck then ended up in one of the local Indians off the Whitechaple road eating chicken on the bone, as it was 50p cheaper. well we were students after all. Barts Hospital looked after my aged Uncle in his later years, when he was a resident of Charterhouse, in Smithfields.

The format of the mag has not changed a whole lot, loads of risque jokes, all very sexist, definitely non-PC and occasionally racist....I love it.

The only things missing from the Rag Mags of old were the letters of support from the Prime Minister, celebrity actors, or other dignitaries. Oh well,maybe next year......

The Fat Lady Sings

So farewell then Beryl Cook
Painter of ladies of grand proportions
She made her name in Plymouth
With images of The Dolphin Hotel
And left us with the feeling
We were all regulars at the bar

Dawn French was a fan
And Fur Coat hangs on my wall
Her exhibitions spanned 30 years
But her ladies never changed
Larger than life
With a smile to match
I wonder if the angels will pose?

After E J Thribb (171/2)

Fore!

I really do wonder why I am still working! I have just spent a very enjoyable week in the Scottish Borders playing golf, and, as with sex, when its good its very good, and when its bad its still pretty good.

I played Hillside just outside Birkdale prior to the tour, to get into the swing of it. Hillside is one of the top 100 courses in the UK and is a very stiff test for anyone who plays it. It took me a couple of holes to get going but all in all I was pleased with the performance.

With that experience behind me, I stepped onto the first tee at Brampton near Carlisle, looking forward to making a good attack on the Nixdorf Masters trophy, an event which I had been runner up on two previous occasions. The course was extremely hilly and we got a fair ribbing from the locals as we huffed and puffed our way around. The event is always played of three quarters of handicap, so for me receiving only 12 shots was a tough ask. I ended up with 31 Stapleford points which was effectively 1 over par so I was very pleased.

That pleasure turned to elation when I found out 31 was the winning score. A good start to the week.......

Next day we played a parkland course at Tolwoodley near Hawick. I battled round that at 1 over too, for 35 points but was pipped by a colleague with 38, but won my match in the Ailsa Craig Cup to keep the momentum going. We then had probably the worst curry I have ever tasted, in a tandoori place in Hawick, ugh!

Wednesday saw the tour move to The Roxburghe course in Kelso, a championship standard course for which Sergio Garcia holds the course record at 66. It was one fo those days when almost everything went right. I played the front 9 in 39 shots, 3 over par gross, and kept the momentum going for most of the back nine, but a few three putts and a couple of poor holes saw me finish with an 86, two under par, but enough to win the day.

Finally we played the Hawick course, another designed for mountain goats. There were four people in contention for the Top Gun trophy, and as I halved my match, all four of us went down the first again in a play-off. Unfortunately I got dumped out there, and with one other dropping out at the second it all went down to the third. Frank unfortunately hit two balls into the woods, so handing Mike his first title win.

The Ailsa Craig was halved at 8 all, so Frank and his team retained it,although I was more than happy with the stash I was able to take home.

Steve and I stopped at Sedburgh on the way back and played a tidy little 9 holer before arriving back in Scouse tired but refreshed.......now, where shall I go for the next trip?

And there is the unmistakable figure of Lester Piggott, or is it Joe Mercer?

Me and the missus went to the races yesterday. Well, it was called Knutsford races, but it was actually a point-to-point meeting in a field at the back of Tabley Hall. It was really quite good fun.

There were eight races in all, and most had between 8 and 15 runners. There were plenty of bookmakers around the place, as well as refreshment outlets and a few retailers selling the obligatory checked jackets, felt hats and designer wellies.

Loads of people were in no need of these, however, as they were well decked out in designer county wear. The car parks were full of Range Rovers, Land Rovers and other 4 x 4 gas guzzlers, each with a boot stashed with booze, barbecues and Belinda or Brian.

One poor child was wearing her pony club top, monogrammed with her name, Tabitha. Her mum was either a Bewitched fan, or thought a spot of magic had conjured young offspring from place or places unknown.

Point- to-Point has been a traditional add-on activity for the hunting and farming community for centuries and is used to keep the horses and riders in some sort of trim when the hounds are not active. Horses used to race cross country between 'flags', the points, taking any route they could to win the race to the finish, but these days the racing is on more conventional tracks, as with the meeting yesterday.

It is not unusual to get a fair bit of skulduggery at these meetings, and one odds-on favourite was placed nowhere yesterday, prompting a stewards enquiry. On the whole though it seemed to be good honest endeavour by a predominantly young set of riders. We had a couple of places, although most of the races went to form, so betting on the favourite had no value. That said a 25-1 outsider won the last.

Must put new designer wellies on my Christmas list ready for the meeting next year.

Bottoms Up!

So the name dropping continues......

While walking along the Thames path at South Bank this morning I came upon MP Lembit Opik tonsil tickling his girlfriend, or possibly wife according to some reports, Gabriela Irimia, who is one half of the Cheeky Girls. It was all being capture on film.

Anybody interested? No I thought not.

You want how much?

I have got the hump, and it has been caused by an e-mail which I have just received from Oxfam, concerning their charity shop pricing.

Oxfam have just announced plans to open a 'designer' outlet in Chiswick, West London, a well to do suburb whos' residents can probably manage without second hand clobber. This is really the thrust of my gripe.

Their existing shop sells designer gear donated by well meaning residents like Ant and Dec, and the nearly new shop owner who gives them his can't shift stock. They price it fairly high.

I have been in a few times and tried to haggle and negotiate for items only to be told that the price is the price, so I always walk out empty handed.

So I thought I would e-mail Oxfam and explain to them that they get most of their goods for free and that they are after all, a second hand shop, why will the staff not allow price reductions?

What did they say? Well, they have an obligation to the people who donate the items, and the people the charity supports to get the best price for the items, and so the price you see is the price they want. Furthermore, it would stress the 'old dears' who man the shops as volunteers if they were under pressure to negotiate.

Well as far as the first point is concerned I am sure any price they get is better than junking the stuff, or selling it on e-bay, and the people who donate have no expectation on price, and with regard the second point, the battle axes in the Chiswick branch are more than capable of holding their own when faced with people looking for a bargain.

They then go on to say that if it does not sell they reduce the price, but move the items to a different outlet, Hounslow, Feltham or Bedfont no doubt.

Wake up Oxfam, you are a glorified car boot sale punter, start acting like one!!!

The perfect Ten....

This has no reference to events in Wigan on Sunday, but to the annual ten Tors expedition which has been running across Dartmoor this weekend. The route varies with age, but forces the participants to visit ten of the Tors on Dartmoor as indicated on their joining instructions.Teams consist of six people and the route has to be completed by 5pm on Sunday, with the participants spending the Saturday night on the moor. You may recall that last year the whole event had to be abandoned as the weather was so bad. Poor visibility, rain and wind contributed to the decision to evacuate 2,500 kids at short notice. The Armed Forces who police the event acted with military precision to complete the task with minimum trauma to the teams.

This years event had already been marred by the death of one girl earlier in the year while her team were practicing for the walk.

This weekends event, however, went much better. Most of the teams completed the course, and those that were removed from the route early were forced off by blisters or heat exhaustion, as the temperatures this year hit 80- degrees.

All six members of the team need to complete the course to ensure they all get a commemorative medal, and I can remember my pal Stu doing it while we were at school, and telling us stories of how they literally had to drag one of their team the last few miles to the finishing line in Oakhampton in order to get theirs.

So well done to those that completed the walk this year, and to the organisers and the military for sustaining the event into the future.

A week is a long time in politics

....and a long time not to post a blog entry, so whats been happening?

There have been a number of developments regarding previous stories in the last few days. Most significant has been the election of Boris 'The Spider' Johnson, as the new mayor of London. jolly good show I say as it removes Ken 'The Newt' Livingstone from office and removes the sleaze which allegedly followed him around in the London Assembly rooms.

Tomorrow is the start of my second year of Blog writing, so that means the house must have been on the market all that time, or near enough.We are not really any closer to selling, but there seem to be some new people dragged along by Foxtons to at least show a bit of activity.
I still can't work out the way the hit tracker works, it says 942 people have visited but I am sure it is not counting unique id's so will need to see how to sort that out....something for a quiet day at the office maybe?

There is no Clampitts tour this year, but SWMBO is off with some amigos loco to sunny Spain at the weekend, definitely lock up your husband time. I shall take advantage to play a few medal rounds of golf and make sure my handicap is still kosha. Next week is the IBM national golf tournament qualifier in Ilkley, then its off to the boarders in Scotland for a bit more Ailsa Craig trophy hunting. I must try not to win the Rabbit this year, which reminds me, I wonder where it is? As I was captain of the winning Moose Cup team in Portugal this year, I must be attracted to trophies associated with animals.

Well that's a brief summary of things past, I am just off to get the kids off the bouncy castle and cut all the trees down in the garden, you just can't be too careful these days can you?