There was an interesting article in The Times yesterday, based on the subjects we did and did not learn at school, and whether there was anything which one regretted not learning.
I had a think about this and am consistent in my views of twenty years or more, that I wish I had been able to learn a language. The school was run by the Christian Brothers, so Latin was on the curriculum from year 1. I struggled with it and so dropped it in year 2 for Spanish. French was also a problem so that went by the wayside pretty quickly too.
I managed to struggle on with Spanish and sat my 'O'level, but did not pass, so all I speak now is the basic stuff....it got us around Peru, but it would be jolly useful now to be able to speak all three of those languages.
With a new daughter-in-law who speaks Portugese, and the likelihood that any grand children from that direction will also be multi-lingual, that is the language of choice for me now.....I will need to check the evening class schedule.
I suspect most of the problem was the dull and repetitive way the languages were taught in the early '60s. I might fair better with the modern language lab approach, who knows.
If I am allowed more than one choice, I would have liked to leave school being able to play a musical instrument. We did have orchestra lessons, which allowed me to learn to read music, and play the violin, but that seemed to go the same way as the language classes after a while. I plug away on the piano these days but in a crowded room I suspect I am the only one who knows what I am playing!!
It was an all boys schools, so learning a bit more about girls might have been handy as well, mind.
So what was I really pleased I learned at school? My best subject was maths, and that certainly set me up for my career in IBM so that has to be up there. I did Art through to 'A' level and that has certainly stayed with me throughout the years, although I have never been much of a painter, more a creative genius!
Rugby has opened up a world of friendships, travel opportunities and competition, the like I would have struggled to emulate at a football based school, so that was the best of the extra-curricular activities.
And there you have it....in The Times article history and geography featured with a lot of people. I was forced to make the choice for the 'O' level course between physics, chemistry, and biology or geography, history and sociology and went down the science route, but in those days you got a good grounding in all the subjects up to the age of 15 so I never felt I had missed out there.
So what were you're regrets and successes,it would be good to know?
Friday 27 March 2009
Thursday 26 March 2009
Right side of the fairway sir....
I managed to grab a bit of R &R this week, with a couple of rounds of golf round at two of the 'name' clubs in England, The Belfry and Wentworth.
The Belfry is renowned as the course which was the home of the Ryder Cup and swung the fortunes of the GB and Ireland team in the early nineties. The course has always been on my list of those to play, as the 10th hole and the 18th hole are in my book of 1001 golf holes to play before you die.
Many people have described The Belfry as an average course with three or four good holes, and sadly the experience of this week has backed that up. The condition of the course was poor even for the early time in the year, and frankly it was no better than municipal standard. The 10th hole was being dug up and reshaped, so we did not get to play that. The 18th was a long par 4 with two carries over water. we both made the first but found watery lies for our approach shots which was a shame. So tricked off the list but no urge to need to play it again.
One of the captains of the Ryder Cup team during its resurgence, was Bernard Gallagher, father of Kirsty, and long term Wentworth member and professional. As we approached the club on Wednesday his statue is the first thing you notice, as it sits on the first tee.
The Wentworth event was a BMW promotional day, with team and individual prizes. it was competed on the greens of the West course, or Burma Road as it is called, and is the track used for the BMW Masters in May and the Matchplay Championship in October. Consequently it is on the TV all the time, so one feels like you know it as you do the Belfry.
There is, however, no comparison. Wentworth is a natural true Brit course laid down bu Harry Colt using the contours of nature. The Belfry is a man made American style course which modern architects need to use little imagination to develop.
We did not win any prizes, but were fortunate to be afforded the facilities for the day as after the BMW in May, all the greens will be remodelled and much of the course will be given a Spring clean in readiness for the 2010 season. The greens are suffering from 70 years of wear and tear and now is the right time to do the regeneration.
It is likely to cost the Wentworth club £3-4million in expense and lost revenue, although with the East course and the Edinburgh course, the members will still have somewhere to play.......good game, good game, as one of them would say!
The Belfry is renowned as the course which was the home of the Ryder Cup and swung the fortunes of the GB and Ireland team in the early nineties. The course has always been on my list of those to play, as the 10th hole and the 18th hole are in my book of 1001 golf holes to play before you die.
Many people have described The Belfry as an average course with three or four good holes, and sadly the experience of this week has backed that up. The condition of the course was poor even for the early time in the year, and frankly it was no better than municipal standard. The 10th hole was being dug up and reshaped, so we did not get to play that. The 18th was a long par 4 with two carries over water. we both made the first but found watery lies for our approach shots which was a shame. So tricked off the list but no urge to need to play it again.
One of the captains of the Ryder Cup team during its resurgence, was Bernard Gallagher, father of Kirsty, and long term Wentworth member and professional. As we approached the club on Wednesday his statue is the first thing you notice, as it sits on the first tee.
The Wentworth event was a BMW promotional day, with team and individual prizes. it was competed on the greens of the West course, or Burma Road as it is called, and is the track used for the BMW Masters in May and the Matchplay Championship in October. Consequently it is on the TV all the time, so one feels like you know it as you do the Belfry.
There is, however, no comparison. Wentworth is a natural true Brit course laid down bu Harry Colt using the contours of nature. The Belfry is a man made American style course which modern architects need to use little imagination to develop.
We did not win any prizes, but were fortunate to be afforded the facilities for the day as after the BMW in May, all the greens will be remodelled and much of the course will be given a Spring clean in readiness for the 2010 season. The greens are suffering from 70 years of wear and tear and now is the right time to do the regeneration.
It is likely to cost the Wentworth club £3-4million in expense and lost revenue, although with the East course and the Edinburgh course, the members will still have somewhere to play.......good game, good game, as one of them would say!
Monday 23 March 2009
All change please
Well it was off to Twickenham Stadium on Saturday for a lads and dads day at the rugby. It was the second consecutive weekend of rugby there, and for the second weekend, London Overground decided they would close the line between Turnham Green and Richmond and perform engineering works.
Interesting that they discount the fact that 80,000 people will be going to the match and a good number of them will be using the tube. Do they not tie up with the RFU over these sorts of things?
Anyway, we did not let that spoil our enjoyment of another England victory, a victory which squeezed them into second place in the table as Wales faltered in the final furlong. England, therefore, won their three home games and now have some sort of stable base on which to build.
I must say the singing on the bus this weekend was very good, all we need to do now is try to get Jerusalem embraced by the RFU when the stadium is full, and for them not to play that blasted 'Land of Hope and Glory' when everybody is waiting for the game to start.
Interesting that they discount the fact that 80,000 people will be going to the match and a good number of them will be using the tube. Do they not tie up with the RFU over these sorts of things?
Anyway, we did not let that spoil our enjoyment of another England victory, a victory which squeezed them into second place in the table as Wales faltered in the final furlong. England, therefore, won their three home games and now have some sort of stable base on which to build.
I must say the singing on the bus this weekend was very good, all we need to do now is try to get Jerusalem embraced by the RFU when the stadium is full, and for them not to play that blasted 'Land of Hope and Glory' when everybody is waiting for the game to start.
Friday 13 March 2009
Cafe Society
The second print which I brought from The Tup took a while to research, but the job is now done. I had effectively taken a punt on it knowing the pedigree of the other two prints. The signature, however, proved difficult to decipher.
Well, God bless Google is all I can say. After a few hours trying combinations up popped David Schneuer. and further research indicated the print was called 'April Cafe'. it is part of a series of very similar prints with names like Autumn Cafe, Beer Garden, Cafe Dome and Cafe Bastille.
Schneuer was a Swiss who was incarcerated by the Germans during the Second World War and was eventually repatriated to Israel where he worked until his dead in 1989. For some reason he painted typical Parisian scenes, with a touch of Toulouse Lautrec about them.
April Cafe is a huge print, and where to hang it is proving a challenge. it won't go in the car so can't go to Scouse at the moment, so the Chis living room looks fav.
Given the house is still not selling ( at my price anyway) I am going to give the downstairs the treatment during April and May. It should look good in its new surroundings. Its amazing that the place has been on the market for nearly two years now.
Just as I am back from hols,I have been notified that I am being stood down from the RBS project in Edinburgh so that gives me an unexpected few weeks leisure time to tune my golf and potter. It is ironic that, as I write, about a couple of prints I have purchased, Sir Freddie is once more under fire for failing to secure the ABN AMRO art collection as part of the deal which put RBS in the soft stuff in the first place.....
Well, God bless Google is all I can say. After a few hours trying combinations up popped David Schneuer. and further research indicated the print was called 'April Cafe'. it is part of a series of very similar prints with names like Autumn Cafe, Beer Garden, Cafe Dome and Cafe Bastille.
Schneuer was a Swiss who was incarcerated by the Germans during the Second World War and was eventually repatriated to Israel where he worked until his dead in 1989. For some reason he painted typical Parisian scenes, with a touch of Toulouse Lautrec about them.
April Cafe is a huge print, and where to hang it is proving a challenge. it won't go in the car so can't go to Scouse at the moment, so the Chis living room looks fav.
Given the house is still not selling ( at my price anyway) I am going to give the downstairs the treatment during April and May. It should look good in its new surroundings. Its amazing that the place has been on the market for nearly two years now.
Just as I am back from hols,I have been notified that I am being stood down from the RBS project in Edinburgh so that gives me an unexpected few weeks leisure time to tune my golf and potter. It is ironic that, as I write, about a couple of prints I have purchased, Sir Freddie is once more under fire for failing to secure the ABN AMRO art collection as part of the deal which put RBS in the soft stuff in the first place.....
Trains Planes and Automobiles
After the excursions of the last few days, we based ourselves in a Eco Hotel in the Peruvian cloud forest, not far from Macchu Pichu. We chilled out chasing photos of humming birds, learning about the sexual life of orchids and the medical properties of herbs and partaking of first class Peruvian hospitality.
We did not meet any of Paddingtons ancestors, nor were we ravaged by mosquitos, so we arrived back in Lima in good order.
The sea level terrain restored my metabolism almost instantaneously and Maxine summarised our holiday thus:
We did not meet any of Paddingtons ancestors, nor were we ravaged by mosquitos, so we arrived back in Lima in good order.
The sea level terrain restored my metabolism almost instantaneously and Maxine summarised our holiday thus:
- 9 flights
- 2 train journeys
- numerous cab rides
- 5 hotel rooms
- 2 bottles of win (some mistake shurey?....ed)
- 2 pints of London Pride (Brazil prices)
- 1 fab wedding and
and we tried to drink Brazil dry of Brahma!
Sounds a good summary to me. 15 more hours in the air and we should be home!!
Paddington Bear
People used to say 'can you name three famous Belgiums?, with Hercule Poirot being top of the list. Well, we tried with Peruvians when SWMBO and I arrived in Lima, for our onward trip to Cusco. The most famous Peruvian spectacled bear and Tupac, the last of the Inka kings came to mind, but a third failed to pop out.
We arrived at Cusco to get acclimatised to the high altitude for our visit to the magic kingdom of Macchu Pichu, and boy did I need it. I have never felt so wrecked as I did at 10,000 feet.I had no energy, could not get my breath and was basically in the oxygen deprivation zone. Maxine on the other hand revelled in it, real role reversal from sea level in the UK.
We stayed in Cusco for two days, three probably would have helped me, by which time we were all churched out saw masses of Inka gold and silver but still had no idea where the Macchu Pichu hoard went. Hirem Bingham must have had the same feeling.
We then travelled by trail to Aguas Calientes at the foot of Macchu Pichu before taking a bus the final few hundred feet up to the mountain city. We were afforded the luxury of a good guide who helped us to all the major parts of the site in the morning, except the guardhouse. he left us this challenge for the afternoon and while Maxine made it, I fell about 100metres short. it would have been good to walk to the Sun Gate but that would have been another 90 minutes uphill hike and so we thought best to remember the place in a positive light.
The back packers who walk the Inka Trail to arrive at Macchu Pichu do so at the Sun Gate. it must be a fabulous feeling and more than worth the four days of yomping which are involved in getting there.
We arrived at Cusco to get acclimatised to the high altitude for our visit to the magic kingdom of Macchu Pichu, and boy did I need it. I have never felt so wrecked as I did at 10,000 feet.I had no energy, could not get my breath and was basically in the oxygen deprivation zone. Maxine on the other hand revelled in it, real role reversal from sea level in the UK.
We stayed in Cusco for two days, three probably would have helped me, by which time we were all churched out saw masses of Inka gold and silver but still had no idea where the Macchu Pichu hoard went. Hirem Bingham must have had the same feeling.
We then travelled by trail to Aguas Calientes at the foot of Macchu Pichu before taking a bus the final few hundred feet up to the mountain city. We were afforded the luxury of a good guide who helped us to all the major parts of the site in the morning, except the guardhouse. he left us this challenge for the afternoon and while Maxine made it, I fell about 100metres short. it would have been good to walk to the Sun Gate but that would have been another 90 minutes uphill hike and so we thought best to remember the place in a positive light.
The back packers who walk the Inka Trail to arrive at Macchu Pichu do so at the Sun Gate. it must be a fabulous feeling and more than worth the four days of yomping which are involved in getting there.
Thursday 12 March 2009
The Road to Rio
Phase 2 of the South American tour saw Tim drag the new Mrs Weathers to afore mentioned Murphy's for the Carling Cup final between United and Hotspurs. It was a reasonable 0-0 cup final between two under strength teams but there was only going to be one winner when it went to penalties.
Murphy's is owned by an ex-Twickenham resident and Spurs supporter who moved to Sao Paulo in 1987. It also sells London Pride albeit at £8 a bottle. The guv'nor was curious why I had not dropped in when I was there in 1989....it might have had something to do with working Monday to Friday and then going to Rio for the weekends....some things never change as me, SWMBO, Kieran and Becky and partners headed there for some r & r, as Mr and Mrs Weathers II headed to Kenya.
SWMBO and I were staying in a five star on Copacabana, the kids were in a hovel a few blocks back, moaning a bit. I explained to them they had to earn the right to stay in a five star, but sagging in to use the facilities, as they did, is fine.
Copacabana is a fine place, a beach by day and a sports arena by night, people still playing footie at 3 am.
We did Sugar loaf, Christ the Redeemer and the Girl from Ipanema bar, where Antonio Carlos Jobin wrote it. Rio named their airport after him which struck a cord (sic) with the scousers and John Lennon international.
Highlight for me was the row in the street with the taxi driver after ordering everybody out at the traffic lights. Don't think SWMBO and Kieran were too impressed but the cabbie did finally get in the car to get me change, not get a gun and shoot me once we had settled our differences in language neither of us understood.
That was the only flashpoint of the whole tour, Sao Paulo and Rio are just like London, but with weather.
Murphy's is owned by an ex-Twickenham resident and Spurs supporter who moved to Sao Paulo in 1987. It also sells London Pride albeit at £8 a bottle. The guv'nor was curious why I had not dropped in when I was there in 1989....it might have had something to do with working Monday to Friday and then going to Rio for the weekends....some things never change as me, SWMBO, Kieran and Becky and partners headed there for some r & r, as Mr and Mrs Weathers II headed to Kenya.
SWMBO and I were staying in a five star on Copacabana, the kids were in a hovel a few blocks back, moaning a bit. I explained to them they had to earn the right to stay in a five star, but sagging in to use the facilities, as they did, is fine.
Copacabana is a fine place, a beach by day and a sports arena by night, people still playing footie at 3 am.
We did Sugar loaf, Christ the Redeemer and the Girl from Ipanema bar, where Antonio Carlos Jobin wrote it. Rio named their airport after him which struck a cord (sic) with the scousers and John Lennon international.
Highlight for me was the row in the street with the taxi driver after ordering everybody out at the traffic lights. Don't think SWMBO and Kieran were too impressed but the cabbie did finally get in the car to get me change, not get a gun and shoot me once we had settled our differences in language neither of us understood.
That was the only flashpoint of the whole tour, Sao Paulo and Rio are just like London, but with weather.
Ding Dong The Bells Are Going To Chime
Well number one son did the deed last week and married the lovely Lili in a wonderful church in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I was there with my wife, my ex-wife (both featured in this photo, together), three of Tims siblings,( two, Hannah and Rebecca, also featuring) , the mad mother-in-law Tim has inherited, 
vari
ous friends from the UK and elsewhere and the randoms from Brazil who made up the numbers.
vari
ous friends from the UK and elsewhere and the randoms from Brazil who made up the numbers.The service was wonderful, the bride looked fab, there was a free bar and I made my speech in Portugese, much to everybody's amazement. It got some laughs but I am not sure if that was a result of mispronounceation or that they actually got how diffciult it is to surf the net of 'famous Brazillians'!
The Brazillian wedding culture is quite strange. For example, I spent all of the Saturday until just before the wedding (5pm) in a beauty salon with the bride, bridesmaids and others. I was there to provide male company for Tim and this is an expected ritual. The bridal party all left from the salon, and for somebody who take 20 minutes to get ready it was a bit of a strain, especially with the Ireland v England rugby match on the tele at Murphy's down the road.
That said, it was a superb event and apart from the conception, it was the first life moment I have been at for Tim. For that alone, it will be the Special One.
Under the Hammer
I have been drinking off and on in a pub in Twickenham called The Tup. The rugby club use it after games on Saturdays, but Gillette Ray and I usually pop in for our Tuesday night club if there is a footie match on.
It has been a bit idiosyncratic as far as decor is concerned. A series of tup related cartoons have been blended with several prints by Beryl Cook, Jack Vettriano and others.
I have always vowed to offer the builder for some of them should the pub ever get a make-over. I already own a few Beryl Cooks but the one in The Tup would not be my first choice.
Imagine my surprise, therefore, when a couple of Tuesdays ago I walked in and the 'Beryl' was missing. I looked round quickly and saw that both the others I liked had price tags on them. Further questioning of the new manager indicated that they were taking up too much wall space and did not fit the new Tup image. He clearly did not know what he was selling, so a quick deal was struck and they now reside in Chis. the manager was happy as he needed a new glass washer and he the 'Beryl' was the pick of the bunch, but how wrong could he be.
Only a select few of her screenprints command decent money, most of her litho's can be picked up for a few hundred pounds.
No, the one I wanted was 'The Partys Over' by Jack Vettriano and it became a Valentines present for SWMBO .Jack Vettriano is a Scottish artist who's most famous work, The Singing Butler sells more posters and prints than any other artist in the UK. The original recently sold for £750,000. He, like Beryl Cook, is frowned upon by the establishment as not really being a proper artist and consequently you will not find either hung at the Tate Modern.
Jacks pictures do have a smouldering sexuality about many of them and consequently the beer drinking Ruggers who frequent the Tup will now have to fantasise over something else.
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