Pimples

On Sunday, Lewis Hamilton, a racing driver supported by a team of over 1000 people, who races maybe twenty times a year and has only one serious rival, won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award for 2014.

He beat Rory McIlory, a golfer, into second place. McIlroy has probably fifty rivals, all capable of beating him on their day. He plays probably 30 times a year, and is supported by a small team which includes his caddy, coach,  management team and various suppliers and sponsors.

Whether it was the right decision is taking up a lot of column inches in the newspapers at the moment. Hamilton won the F1 World Championship, which he has won previously. McIlroy won the Open Championship and the US PGA championship. No European has ever done that before in the same year. He also won the Bridgestone Invitational and the PGA championship at Wentworth. He was also part of the European Ryder Cup team who defeated the USA.

McIlroy has a personality, Hamilton is a bit dull. So it would seem that petrolhead's took the trouble to vote, whereas golfers didn't.

Sadly it's another sign of the fading star which SPOTY has become. SPOTY has always been a must watch in our family, and I can remember the sixties programmes when the BBC had most of the sporting coverage in the World to use to produce their programme. Henry Cooper won the title twice, and he never really won anything of significance in his sport. David Steel was sent out to face the barrage of West Indian fast bowling and almost single-handedly saved England from ignominy. He won it for true British spunk.

More recently, however, the BBC have struggled to find any sporting coverage to populate the programme with as Sky and now BT, hoover up all the best events. The 2014 show reached new depths with repeated voiceovers by Eddie 'the idiot' Butler, listing the names of great British sports personalities, but showing almost no action at all.

The BBC must have know the writing was on the wall when in 2009, a year with no Olympics, World Cup or Commonwealth Games, the winner was Ryan Giggs, an aging Welsh footballer who is best know outside football for bedding his own brother's wife. Jenson Button came second that year so even the petrolhead's must have been bored with the whole thing.

Aging pop band Simple Minds opened the show on Sunday, and that, sadly,  is a suitable  phrase to refer to the BBC blazers who masterminded the whole thing.

A Prial of Teas

Blimey what a few days we have had. The weekend saw us celebrating SWMBO's fathers 75th birthday, her parents house warming party and the christening of Nell and Ava. Actually it was billed as a blessing  but there was water and cake involved  and with some imagination we managed to combine all three celebrations into one afternoon.

The London branch came up for the do's. Tim and Maya came on Friday and Mike and Val on Saturday, so I was finally able to have a team photo with my five grandchildren.

The previous week Pete and Maria had come up for a few nights as sadly her brother died, but they are now over in Australia for Christmas. Graham then turned up for the Liverpool European Cup tie, meaning we had nine visitors in less than a week.

I did check the guest book for comments, but sadly the pages were empty, but that did not stop SWMBO and I going out for our works Christmas party at the Refreshment Rooms in Rock Ferry last night, and a good time was had by all.

Its a bit off the beaten track on the Mersey in a part of Rock Park which in its day was home to seafaring men, merchants and company bigwigs. Indeed the Royal Liverpool Yacht Club is right next door in the shadow of Cammell Laird ship builders, both sit as a reminder of how Birkenhead used to be the senior partner in the Merseyside relationship.

So now on to Christmas. The tree arrived yesterday and I have already managed to break the top bit off, so not sure where the fairy is going to go, no doubt number one daughter will sort it out.

Christmas bash in Manchester next Friday should be chaos, and I have the annual opportunity to win festive meat at the Wallasey golf club turkey trot on Sunday, and the Seniors equivalent on Monday.
Things are hotting up.

I have no wish to be PM

So said Boris Johnson many times , although the jovial, blond haired serial shagger is still considered by most of the popular press to be lining himself up for a shot at our Dave, once the next elections are out of the way.

I have very rarely dabbled in politics, and my comparisons with Boris Johnson are fairly limited, my hair is grey for a start. It does seem, however, that this may  be changing as I have recently been informed that I am Chairman elect of the Wallasey golf club seniors  section. At the moment the nomination is unopposed although one is usually assured of the majority of the house when endorsed by the outgoing member, as I am.

If successful in March, I will join a line of illustrious Wallasey members, many of them ex-captains, who have held the one year office.  The benefits are wide and varied. I get automatic selection to all the inter-club matches. These include Sandiway, Southport & Ainsdale, Heswall, Chester and Mere.
I get to tee off first with the opposition chairman, captain or senior golfer, the title varies from club to club, and, I get to address both teams as part of the after dinner 'entertainment'.

This speech usually consists of thanks to the host club, my playing partners and the staff. If playing away I  then announce the result of the match, and finally tell a story. It's this last bit that is thwart with danger. Will it be risqué?  Will the home chairman tell my story just before I stand up?should it be a joke, an anecdote or a parable? I will have eighteen such opportunities so hopefully will get the formula right by the end.

It's a huge privilege to be asked to take on the role,  given I am a soft Southerner and a relatively new member of the club. I look forward to being elected, and serving the Senior section, and wider Club membership during my year in office, with humour, humility and hospitality. Can't say fairer than that, and gentlemen, that reminds me..........

In at the deep end

SWMBO arrived back safely in London at the weekend after her second trip to Tanzania to help train dental nurses as part of the Bridge to Aid scheme. She was based in the NorthEast on this occasion which allowed her to see some of the Serengeti as she was transported there. Zebra, monkey's and wildebeest were in evidence, but whether one of them was Alice is still unclear.

We then hot foot it to Alexander's christening where the poor soul was submerged in a bath of freezing water by the minister. He was christened at the same Russian Orthodox church as his sister, by the same minister, and it was still hard to watch as this little body was thrown about in gay abandon. Her cousin Ava was looking on and wondering if she had the same fate in store when she comes to getting baptised.

The reception was in the Hole in the Wall in Chiswick and I regaled the gathering with stories of a fireworks party I attended at the same venue, many years ago, when a helicopter firework came adrift and shot into the bar severely burning on of the lady punters. Not nice. Doom Bar was £3.95 a pint. It's £2.80 in the local in Oxton Village!

SWMBO and I then departed for Scouseland leaving the girls to go to Legoland. On arriving home SWMBO was presented with her brand new redecorated bedroom which a friend of mine, Peter, and I had totally rebuild while she was away. She seemed to like it although there does not appear to be enough space for all her clothes to fit back into it, it seems like a clearout may be in order.

Strangely enough I found a rugby shirt from the Protea's club in Zimbabwe which the Wildebeest had given me years ago. Its funny how ends tie up sometime.

Boys will be boys

News that the London School of Economics rugby team have been suspended from playing for one year by their student union really does signal the end of amateur rugby as I and my peers know it.

In these times of political correctness and positive discrimination, one would have expected a group of men who are targeting high profile and influential  roles in society to be a bit more aware of the potential uproar their advertising flyer could have caused.

I found some of the comments amusing in the way I found student rag mags a good way to pass an underground journey in the '70s and '80s. Some of the comments I suspect were also close to the truth. Sadly one has to be so careful these days about going into print with potentially female ( or other minority group) comments which could be taken as not too complimentary.

The event did remind me, however, of the way one traditional rugby club embraced the ethos of new player induction, and the ladies were fully supportive. The team in question had their pitch and clubhouse on the edge of the village, and after the first away game of the season, new members of the club were dropped off on the ring road in just their birthday suit and trainers. They then had to run through the village to the clubhouse while the coach went several miles round the village to reach the same destination. The players were encouraged to get there first, by most of the female population who turned out on this notable date to cheer them on and check out the new talent!  The police turned a blind eye as several of them played for the local team themselves!!

So farewell banter and innuendo based comment, LSE alumni such as John F Kennedy and Ed Miliband can rest easy knowing  that the LSE student union, in the capable  hands of Nona Buckley-Irvine, will make sure these sort of sexist escapades become a thing of the past.

Its interesting thought that the LSE student union newspaper which reported the progress of the issue is called 'Beaver Online'.  Maybe she should be looking to rename that!

Phish out of water

We remain a Great Britain. The Scots have had their vote and elected to say no to the opportunity to become an independent Country. If I had been a Scot I would have chosen the same road. Time and again specific questions were asked of Alex Salmon(d), the first minister, and time and again no concrete facts or data were forthcoming.

What would have happened to job opportunities and associated pensions, how would the NHS have been funded, what is the financial benefit of North Sea oil, what would be the impact of Trident moving South and, of course, what currency would be deployed and would currency rates  work for or against.

The only sensible route was to maintain the status quo and allow Alex and the SNP to negotiate from a position of strength.

All through the campaign I have had no time for Salmond, thinking that he was in this for his own gain and frankly he was saving sod the average Scot in the street. He lost, and look what has happened. he has resigned quicker than a paedophilific radio presenter. There is no I in team, but there is one in king, and by failing to stay in office and fight for his nation he has taken the high road and left the mess he has orchestrated for some other poor souls to sort out. Scotland may well feel they are better off without him.

With uncertainty surrounding the future, and some political posturing over the enhanced powers promise, the Tory party have been quick to seize the moral high ground as far as English law is concerned. This in effect stifles the Labour power base in Westminster. It may even sow doubt into the minds of staunch Labour supporters in the North of England as to whether their party is capable of protecting the interests of the working class Englander. Regularly they see more and more funding at a disproportionate level been passed out to the people of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and are getting unhappy.

We live in uncertain times as events in the Middle East indicate daily, but closer to home things are equally unsettled. The old adage 'Don't ask questions you don't want to hear the answer to' has been broken by Salmond, the yes/no factions have now got to get back in bed together and what Scotland took as a given as far as devolution is concerned,  may now be less attractive than once it was.

Alexander the Great

So, welcome to the world Alexander. Our fifth grandchild popped out at about 11:15 yesterday weighing in at 9lbs. He is Tim and Maya's second child, and he is now responsible for keeping my strand of the Weathers name in the public domain.

It's an depressing world he is becoming part of, war ravages the Arab states, with Russia trying once more to flex its muscles in Ukraine. Suspicious packages are being detonated in UK airports, and the likelihood of Great Britain becoming smaller as Scotland votes for independence, is on the horizon. His introduction to the world did see a marked improvement in the England football team performance last night, and the cricketers are winning occasionally, but his opportunity to use jumpers as goalposts and chalk cricket wickets on neighbours wall's are unlikely to materialise.
Still, Alexander, you have a lot to look forward to and we will be helping wherever we can, along the way. Who knows, in 2030 all will be looking rosy once more.

It is interesting, though,  how the male strand has been diluted overour last three generations. My father was one of three boys and a girl. Between them the three boys fathered two boys and a girl. My cousin Mike and I then fathered a boy (Tim) and three girls.
Strangely, Mike's sister Jennifer produced two boys, neither of whom has any kids yet. Mike's three  have so far produced four girls.

So that means Alexander has a sister and four girl cousins on my side and two girls and a boy cousin on Maxine's side. Tim has three girl cousins.

My five-a-side football team looks to be shaping up to have Nell in goal, Sofia and Ava in defence and Archie and Alexander up front. Our sixth is due in March so I might have to alter the line-up at some stage, but having a sub is always useful.

Liverpool Pals

The City has been experiencing giant fever for the last few days as the street theatre group, Royal de Luxe, returned to Liverpool with their giants. They were here last time for the Titanic memorial weekend, and this time headlined the World War 1 commemorations. Grandma Giant joined Little Girl Giant and her dog Xolo as they toured the city evoking memories of the build up and longevity of the Great War.

We went on Sunday to the finale as the two giant humans were placed on a barge and sailed out of the City from the Albert dock. On their final parade through the centre, the giants were joined by actors dressed as the Liverpool Pals, and WW1 officers in a tribute to the hundreds of locally recruited soldiers who lost their lives in the regular hand to hand conflicts of the war.

The Pals were groups of friends, co-workers and factory owners who were galvanised into action by Lord Derby. He wanted the City to answer the call from Lord Kitchener, that 'Your Country Needs You'. Within weeks of the announcement of war, Lord Derby, put forward the idea of a battalion drawn from the Liverpool business workforce, and even wrote to employers asking that they encourage their employees to enlist. So many turned up that in the end four battalions were formed. These troops were officially the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Service Battalions of the King’s, but known as the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th  Pals.

Other cities followed Liverpool's lead and Pals regiments became widespread. By April 1915 the Pals had been formed in to the 89th Infantry Brigade and on 31 October, 1915, it was announced that the Pals would be leaving for France and in a letter to his brother Lord Derby gave his view on how the war could be won, “This war is only going to come to an end by killing Germans, and I am perfectly certain that at that game, the 89th Brigade will more than hold their own.”

The Pals would go on to fight in some of the most costly battles of World War I, taking part in the ‘big push’ at the Somme in 1916.
Almost 200 Liverpool Pals were killed going ‘over the top’ on 1 July, 1916, over 300 more were wounded, captured or recorded as missing.
Of the four original Pals Battalions who sailed to France in November 1915, twenty per cent would be dead by 1919, if the figures of wounded and those transferred to other units are included the casualty figure is closer to seventy five per cent.

The effect of these losses on Liverpool was highlighted on Sunday by a guard of honour of widowed mothers and sweethearts dressed in black,  who lined the procession route.

That Liverpool, and the rest of the Country can find ways of keeping these sacrifices in the minds of our people is a credit to them. Over 1 million people took to the streets in the last four days, many of them young children and teenagers, many with parents and grandparents. The storytelling will continue and with it the pass down of memories and understanding.  It was  heart warming to be part of it.

A thrash round a field

Rory McIlroy had just come back from a boys weekend in Ibiza, before he went on to win the Open Championship at Hoylake last week. Clearly that sort of break can do your golf the world of good.

I was one of the volunteer marshal's and did seven or eight shift from the Tuesday onwards. It was fascinating to see the players close up and wonder at how they hit the ball so far with apparently little effort. I am told something's called timing and practise are to blame!

I did not exactly meet the world but I did see David Clarke, an ex-Twickenham RFC lad with whom I used to play golf. He was caddying for Cameron Tringale, who had two steady rounds but was unable to make the cut mark.

David must be one of the most unlucky caddies around, he was with Justin Rose when he turned pro, and went through the hard times with him. They parted on good terms some time later but before Justin started winning big. He was with Michelle Wie when she had totally lost her game, and then moved on to VJ Singh for a while, and VJ has never been the fame force since his deer antler scandal.

I did appear on the BBC news at 7pm on the Sunday as a lady reporter did a piece to camera. I had my back to her and looked like I was perched on her shoulder like a parrot. We got £12 food allowance which did not buy too much food at the prices they were charging, so I saved mine up and got a bottle of champagne from the beer tent...every little helps.

So after Rory played so well after his boys weekend away, I wondered what difference my trip to Lisbon had made, and the formula seems to have worked. I went round Southport and Ainsdale yesterday in 82 shots, helping Wallasey to gain an honourable 4-4 draw. Interestingly when I consult my records I see that during our Southport flog expedition in 1988, I birdied the first hole and then went round in 103, so I seem to be improving!

Summer lovin'

What great weather we are experiencing at the moment. If we could guarantee this every year then who would need Turkey or the South of Spain. Its glorious.

I did take advantage of Portugal though, a couple of weeks ago, when I went to Lisbon for a stag weekend. 25 blokes aged from 45 to 63 all there for a few holes of golf , some sardines and gallons of sangria. I stuck to the very pleasant white wine and consequently lasted better than I was expecting. It was the stag's second go at matrimonials, and with a nickname of Wally, what other theme could there be!!

That's me at the back, with a black and white hat on! For some reason I got the golf colour code and the evening colour code mixed up!!  The man at the front with no hat was a local who was in the hotel celebrating his divorce, bit of a dichotomy really!  He picked up the bar tab so we had to include him in the picture.

I arranged the whole trip, given I was the only one 'not working' and it was quite an experience to do that. Transfers proved to be the hardest and most expensive part of the trip, given everybody makes their own way to these sort of things. They all land at different times and at different terminals, but everybody got there and a good time was had by all.

Better than a hole in one!!

No posts during May is a bit of a let down, but was due in most part to a holiday trip to Turkey with some of Maxine's mad mate's, one of whom was celebrating her 60th birthday. I took my bats along and managed to get five rounds in including two on the Montgomerie course which will be hosting the Turkish Open later in the year. It was a very well turned out track and I played it pretty well.

I always remember when I was off on vacation from work, little of my backlog got cleared while I was away, so there was a huge work effort when I returned and the holiday quickly became a distant memory.

The same thing happened this time, although the backlog was a series of golf matches which needed to be played in short order, when I got back. The schedule finished yesterday with a rare win in the first round of the Nike match-play. I worked out that I have played nine rounds in 12 days.

The highlight of those rounds has to be a gross 79 which I hit in the Twickenham Legend's v Hero's match at Hersham Village Golf Club. It was the first time I have ever broken 80 and did feel just a bit special. especially as I travelled down and back in the day!!

Other matches saw a second place at Wallasey, a win against Prestbury and a defeat away at the West Lancs course close to where we used to live in Waterloo.

So now I am putting my feet up for a while before I tackle some decorating and other little jobs which are building up.

Interesting the football fixtures have just been released and I can see the mighty Green's at Tranmere this year, as well as at Morecambe and Accrington Stanley. Might even get to Wigan to see Brentford.

The standard of football will be a little bit lower than that on display during the World Cup, but I am sure the quality of refereeing and playacting/cheating will be the same. Such is the price we have to pay for 'the beautiful game'.

That was the week that was

I am writing this as I watch the final holes of the Masters golf unfold at Augusta National. It's a course I would love to play, but have little or no chance of doing so. It is one of a few around the world where you can't just turn up, pay your green fee and play. I don't know any members so have resigned myself to missing out.

The week started interestingly with a dry run of the stag weekend I am attending in Lisbon during July. It was held at Twickenham RFC to co-incide with their winner take all match against Old Priorians. Up until this game T's had only lost three times in two years, all had been to Old P's. Sadly they have now lost four as they went down 20-28 to a very good side, in a proper game of rugby where no quarter was given or taken. Priorians will now be promoted by right, and T's will engage in a play-off against Saffron Waldron. If they win they will move into London 1, the highest level they have ever been in, Hopefully they can turn over Priorians next year.

On the Wednesday I was down in London again for a retirement lunch for my long time work colleague and golf companion Chris Finden-Browne. It is very easy to do London to Liverpool in a day, so I took the advantage to catch up with a few friends I had not seen since I left IBM almost 18 months ago.

Friday saw me having another lunch with IBM colleagues, this time in Manchester, and I sensibly retired hurt about 5pm, as I had a golf competition on Saturday morning and wanted a reasonably clear head. As it happens I was 68th out of about 150, not good, but could have been much worse. The Wallasey wind was blowing and it was a real battle to get round.

During the week, the RFU also issued instructions on how to obtain tickets for the Rugby World Cup matches in October next year. I have no appetite for the kick-off times, or the prices, so will be encouraging the usual subjects to look at alternative entertainment options which will allow us to watch the games on TV but maybe in Ireland or France.

So it's been a pretty full on week, and I am now looking forward to a more restful one coming up.....

The batsman's Holding, the bowler's Willey

Trips to London are less frequent than they used to be these days, but no less enjoyable. On Friday I had the opportunity to attend a lunch at Lord's cricket ground to celebrate the start of the 150th anniversary season of Middlesex county cricket club.

The room was littered with players from past years, many of whom I grew up watching from the stands as an impressionable schoolboy, and more recent players who are trying to emulate those true legends.

The afternoon was compere'd by Bob 'the cat' Bevan, an after dinner speaker of some note. He was joined on stage by Geoff Miller, a recent England selector, who told tales of Derbyshire cricket in his own inimitable style.

It was a very good way to welcome in the cricket season, even if the weather is still more suited to football.  The World T20 competition does continue in Bangladesh but England have no further interest in that after the usual last few overs they bowled flew all over the field. Quite why England persist with Dernbach in those situations, I have no idea. He also dropped a 'dolly' in the match against Sri Lanka, using the new catching technique adopted by the modern players where the palms face away from the body.

We were always taught to have the fingers facing skywards and the palms towards the body. I did ask Angus Fraser at the dinner why the catching art had been tampered with, but he was a bit grumpy so did not give me any plausible explanation save that apparently the players can watch the ball straight into their hands, or in Dernbach's case onto the grass.

A little something for the weekend....

It's been a long time since I have had to pay for my car to be serviced, and it was not the shock I was expecting it to be, that is, until they inspected the tyres. One off-side tyre  had a bulging inner wall and the other had a split which showed the steel wiring. At £200 each, that did blow the service budget a bit. I am sure rubbers were cheaper than that the last time I brought some.

Oh well, it had to be done, you can't mess with 'elf and safety or the possibility of 6 points on yer license.

While the car was in the garage, I took the opportunity to go and explore the new Liverpool central library which has recently undergone an expansion and face-lift. I have to say the place is fabulous.

The old parts of the library incorporating the Picton reading room, the Hornby library and the Oak room have been fully restored, and a whole new section has been built to house local history reference, a kid's discovery area and a gaming pod all within the infrastructure of the traditional lending library concept.

The is a café, at least 50 public internet stations and a roof top viewing gallery and terrace. It really is a magnificent building.

The older rooms referred to above house displays and exhibits from the Liverpool archives, which change every few months. The current displays include the original Henry II seal of office, the oldest surviving Liverpool city seal, letters from Charles Dickens and a photographic history of the Adelphi hotel.

Many old manuscripts and illustrated volumes were also exhibited so anyone wandering around could view them.

It's definitely worth another visit, and next time I will be investigating the archives in more detail to see if I can find more information about the early occupants of Hill House. 

Tally Ho!

The rugby six nations competition came to a dramatic end on Saturday, as a forward pass in Paris denied England the Championship, and handed it to an Ireland side who England beat a few weeks ago. C'est la vie.

England needed to beat Italy in Rome by a massive score, to put pressure on Irelands superior 'goal difference'. They scored seven tries but unfortunately gave a soft one away and consequently fell ten points short. A series of second half  substitutions disrupted the flow of the England game, as had been the case in Paris on the opening day, and coach Lancaster really needs to look long and hard at himself and decide whether they really do add value.

Everybody knows what Tuilagi can add to the side, but his introduction for Burrell served no purpose other than to irritate Burrell and disrupt the England mid-field. Far better to try him on the wing in place of Johnny May who has still to show he has the game for international rugby.

I can't help feeling that if New Zealand had needed to beat Argentina by 50 points to win the Southern Hemisphere equivalent tournament, that they would have done it and kept most of their starting XV on the pitch for the majority of the game. England still have a few steps to climb to be at their level.

I watched the Saturday games unfold with a few mates in the Lake District. The day began with a visit to the local hunt, where we watch the pack of hounds follow a pre-laid scent trail up down and over the fells. It was all conducted on foot, and it found out my lack of fitness very quickly.

There was a hunt within the hunt too, as the locals kept an eye on the hunt saboteurs as they tried to disrupt proceedings. The police seemed disinterested and certainly sided with the local farmers, who were out to ensure minimum damage to their flock during the lambing season. Hunting is a country ritual which the city dwellers would do well to leave well alone.

We saw one fox, but the hounds were high up near the snow line and failed to pick up its trail, so it lived to fight another day.

All in all a fascinating insight into fellsmanship and life in a farming community.

Ashes to Ashes

English cricket is in a bit of disarray at the moment. Jonathan Trott is suffering from a stress related illness which forced him home from the Ashes tour, Graham Swann found the tour too tough and bailed out, England got thumped, and Kevin Pietersen was informed that his services were no longer required by the national side.

Last things first. The Pietersen business is taking up far too many column inches ( including these). Like a lot of South Africans he is first and foremost interested in himself. Yes he has played some magnificent innings for England, but very few have been played with his back to the wall, when the need to bat for 4 sessions or more was paramount. In the Ashes series just gone, he time and again gave away his wicket easily. Rule number one for all school boys is keep your wicket intact....I would have said keep your end up, but the pc police would have had a go at me.....Geoff Boycott would have batted all day for 6 runs if need be. So Paul Downton and his England selectors have done right by me and waved him goodbye. he can go off to India now and earn himself some money.

It is interesting that Eoin Morgan has decided to forego the riches on offer in the sub-continent to try to win a place in the England side. Interestingly Morgan has played more games in the IPL than any other English player.

What to make of Graham Swann though?  As news filters out that Jimmy Anderson played most of the tour with an injury, Swann's decision to bail out was a really soft choice. The fact he has been offered a contract on Test Match Special by the BBC has also ruffled a few feathers amongst the traditionalist, and rightly so.

The scene is set, therefore, for the new cream of English cricket to rise to the top of the county game and force their way into captain Cook's side for the Sri Lankan tests to come. It should be straightforward as we play them in April and May when it will be bitterly cold and they will be forced to wear five or six sweaters!!

I wish Trott a speedy recovery, but sense his career may now be over. I also noticed Morgan's  Irish colleagues beat West Indies yesterday in a T20 warm-up game in Trinidad.  I do hope that does not inspire the Ireland rugger chaps when they play at Twickenham at the weekend.

Pretty Flamingo

So Valentine's Day has come and gone, and hopefully I got away with it again.

SWMBO and I visited Babylon, a  Sir Richard Branson owned restaurant in the Roof Gardens in Kensington. I have not visited the Roof Gardens for many years, the last time being a work Christmas party hosted by our marketing organisation. I went with Steve McMillan, an old mucker of mine from our time together at IBM. Steve now lives over the pond, and co-incidentally its his birthday today, so have a good one matey!

The roof gardens were built on top of  the Derry and Toms department store which  was opened in Kensington in 1933. The gardens were laid out between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock, a landscape architect  They cost £25,000 to create and visitors were charged 1 shilling to enter. Money raised was donated to local hospitals and £120,000 was raised during the next 30 years.

The building housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973, and then Biba until 1975, they have been listed as a Grade II site by the English Heritage since  1978.
The Roof Gardens have been rented from their owners by Sir Richard Branson since 1981 and as well as the restaurant, there is a nightclub on the garden level which is  divided into three themed area's.

• a Spanish garden, in a Moorish style based upon the Alhambra in Spain, with fountains, vine-covered walkways and Chusan palms;
• a  Tudor style garden, characterised by its archways, secret corners and hanging  wisteria. Roses, lilies and lavender contribute the rich summer scent to the garden;
• an English woodland garden, with over 100 species of trees, a stream, and a  garden pond that is the home to pintail ducks and four  flamingos called Bill, Ben, Splosh and Pecks. There are over 30 different species of trees in the woodland garden, including trees from the original planting over sixty years ago, despite having only a metre of soil in which to grow. Although they are on a rooftop, the trees were made the subject of tree preservation orders in 1976.

Unfortunately the Flamingos were tucked up in bed for the night when we went, and only the terrace shown in the photo was open. London was being battered by high winds and I think a flying lady was the last thing Virgin and Sir Richard wanted that night.

Still its a wonderful hidden gem, which cannot be seen from the road, and it is available to the public to visit whenever there is no private function booked. I commend it to you all if you are in the area.

Training squad

Mon dieu, England hit the bar again in Paris as they lose, win and then lose again in an excellent game of rugby. I did turn to SWMBO when coach Lancaster took off Danny Care and Dylan Hartley, and said I thought it was a mistake to unsettle the side at this crucial stage.

That said,  England did make enough line breaks to have the game sewn up after 70 minutes but nobody got up with the breakaway player to take the scoring pass. A true openside flanker would maybe have made the difference. Fair to say though that the French try deserved to win any game and was a throw back to pre-professional days when the French could strike from anywhere on the pitch. Hopefully this will inspire them to try it more often.

Still we did not let an England defeat, or my bad back, ruin a jolly weekend in Paris. We had not been for about ten years, having favoured Rome more recently, but a change is as good as a rest, and Paris always comes up trumps. I dug out my old tourist maps and found six metro tickets amongst them, and after ten years they still worked, that saved us a few Euro's.

We went to a regular watering hole, Chez Paul, near Bastille, after the game and spent a merry few hours with some other Twickenhamites who had also made the trip South.

Sunday morning saw us stroll through the local market where a mixture of fruit, veg, fish and meat was available for the locals to buy for their Sunday lunch. Further down the street was a bit of a flea market but nothing caught the eye.

Our priority  had by this time been to search out one of the hidden gems of the Paris culinary circuit, Le Train Bleu, which is basically the station buffet in Gare du Lyon. Beryl Cook painted one of her pictures here, its certainly some buffet.

Our journey home consisted of a two hour Eurostar into St Pancras, a short stroll to Euston and then another two hour into Liverpool. All remarkably easy and something which the introduction of HS2 would be pushed to better .

So it's the sweaties next week in Edinburgh and then Ireland two weeks later in Twickenham, lets hope by then the team has learnt the lessons of Saturday and we are nicely set up for another title decider against the Welsh. More snails anyone?

..then you simmer for 20 minutes on a low gas

So just when you think the England cricket tour to Australia can't get any worse, you switch on Radio 5 Live Xtra for ball by ball commentary and you get a couple of 'Shiela's doing their best to make it interesting. One was clearly an England Ladies past or present player, the other was just a female commentator. I am sure they are well versed in the lovely game, but neither of them had a radio voice, their inflection and pitch were awful.

Now as an 'old git' I do think positive discrimination has been overplayed in recent times, three out of four Wirrilian MP's are women,  for example, with only one being gay. Frank Field would probably be replaced by another woman if he was not so high profile. Positions of power should be earned by right. Women priests, lady firefighters and linesmen being renamed assistant referee's to allow women to wave the flag at football matches are all manufactured positions aimed at appeasing the equal opportunities campaigners. The opportunities are there provided you are good enough not just for the job, but in the job.

So please BBC will you protect us from these lady commentators who have hugely irritating voices certainly not fit for radio, and who add nothing in the way they paint pictures of the game. Let's return to the traditional calm tones of an older statesman, able to add something to the listeners enjoyment of the  match whether it be a 20 over slog or a 6 hour rear guard action to save a test match.

Brian Johnston must be turning in his grave, probably a leg break!

Thunderbirds are GO.....

I attended the Wirral emergency volunteer scheme kick-off meeting last night. It was hosted by Wirral council in the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton. There were over a hundred people there and we heard the head of risk management, Mark Camborne, outline how we could help out in times of unexpected events and emergencies. He was backed up by speakers from the blue light services. It was all very professionally handled and did  give a level of confidence that the Council do know what they are doing, although it doesn't always get done in the way it's planned.

There are training sessions scheduled for later in the year, so I will be enrolling for snow clearing, manual handling, rescue centre management and stewarding, then I can sit back and wait for the phone to ring.

I am already planning to be a steward at the Open golf in Hoylake this year, but that will be a course based role. The Council will be managing the roads and facilities outside the Club.

The Council did all they could during the high tide alerts in early December but the regeneration project at New Brighton was flooded out, with Morrisons, the Travelodge, the casino and most of the restaurants under water for several days. The storm force winds also washed away the Black Pearl, a pirate ship built on the beach,  out of drift wood.

 

The Pearl will be reconstructed during the coming months, and I now have my hiviz vest so FAB Scott.

Storming round

Yesterday was a very wild Saturday up here in Scouserland, although it did not stop me playing golf. We got 14 holes in before the skies darkened and we headed back to the 19th hole for an all day breakfast and coffee. They were two  wise decisions. Firstly, some moments after adjourning to the bar, the heavens opened and shortly afterwards a procession of drowned rat golfers came scurrying in, all looking enviously at our scoff.

Having that was the second wise decision, as later in the afternoon SWMBO and I were attending a wedding in St Georges Hall. It was a 4;30pm start so solids would not be available much before 7pm.

The wedding was a civil ceremony held in the small concert room. The room is a small amphitheatre which holds about 500 people and was restored to its former glory between 2000 and 20007, its centrepiece is a crystal  chandelier which is made up of over 2,800 pieces .It was in this venue that Charles Dickens held many of his readings.

St Georges Hall is a magnificent building, and one of the finest neo-Grecian buildings in the World. It holds a Civil Court and a Crown Court although neither are used in anger now, but they do feature regularly in TV and cinema drama. The cells in the basement are also maintained for the same purpose.

Its most impressive feature though is the grand hall. The hall boasts the third largest organ in the country after the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall. Its floor is constructed of Minton tiles and is protected by special flooring  for all but two weeks a year when it is exposed and put on view for the public.

We went into the wrong end of the Hall when we arrived so we were lucky enough to be walked along the gallery of the grand hall, and saw that it was laid out for a 500 people Burns night dinner that evening.

We were all taxi'd to the reception in another elegant building in  Water Street, and bailed out in the early hours.  Luckily the storm had passed by the time we left, but the joy of weddings is that there always seems to be one brewing the next morning, only time will tell.

SR-N1

It seems that the Wirral is about to embark on a pioneering water transport system which will see passenger carrying hovercraft take people to the North Wales holiday resorts (some mistake surely) of Rhyl and Llandudno as well as to Blackpool further up the Lancashire coast.

The service is due to be launched in 2015 and will use the New Brighton lifeboat slipway as the embark and disembark platform. Travel times are due to be in the region of 30-40 minutes which in all cases is considerably quicker than making the journey by road. It will be interesting to see how the enterprise maps out.

Sir Christopher Cockerell was thought to be the forefather of the hovercraft principle, and most young boys in the late 1950's and early 1960's had a model of the SR-N1 as part of their play group. The concept has been used for passenger transfer before, of course, primarily across the English Channel. It was first used though when  the passenger-carrying hovercraft , Vickers VA-3,in the summer of 1962 carried passengers regularly along the North Wales Coast from Moreton, Merseyside, to Rhyl. So it seems the new service is trying to resurrect the old.

This is another initiative generated as a spin off from  the investment in the Wirral waterways, by Peel Holdings. This large land developer has the objective of making the North West of England  the leading economic region in the Country. It first built and managed the Trafford Centre shopping complex near Manchester, but it has sold that as it now focuses on the Ocean Gateway.

This project is aimed at linking the new  port of Salford with a new port called Liverpool 2, via the Manchester Ship canal which it owns already.It is also driving the development of Wirral Waters and Liverpool Waters, the first of which is already underway and has approved planning permission for a trade centre and other early return projects. The Chinese are already active in their involvement with it.

To complement these developments Peel Holdings have acquired Liverpool John Lennon airport, the Lowry shopping complex in Salford and own and built the Salford media city into which the BBC recently moved.

Interesting times for the North West indeed.

Y H M Q P R

Yesterday was moody Monday, so called because it's when most people go back to work or school after the festive break, but, of course, I don't do that any more. I am imagining that retirement is a bit like farming, it doesn't change just because it's a weekend or a Bank Holiday, everyday there is something to get on with, although unlike farming, in retirement, it can wait until tomorrow.

Anyway it's a new year, so it's a new pair of glasses, and as chance would have it, my latest venture into the world of commerce allows me the opportunity to be paid to have my eyes tested. Yes, I have become a secret shopper but please don't tell anybody!!

Tomorrow is my first assignment when I have to attend at a branch of a well known optician and act like a well intentioned punter, then feed back against a number of criteria towards which the shopping experience is geared. I had a test booked anyway, so why not earn some beer money while I am about it.

The objective is to get free holidays, meals and merchandise but I guess you have to start somewhere. I have already earned 70p filling in a couple of on-line surveys.

I'm playing something called 'flying snooker' on Friday. Apparently all the colours are set up as are  a limited number of reds, and as a group you have one shot each in rotation. If you miss a ball you're out, and it's play to a finish. There is an all day breakfast to follow so that will be my detox January compromised almost before it starts.

I would like to tidy the garden, but the weather has been so inclement that it might be another week or so before I can do that. The garden would probably benefit from a week of thick frosts  to kill off the bugs who have thrived so well in the last couple of mild Winters. There seems to be an up side and a down side to everything these days.

Mentioning down sides, I was saddened to hear that my old mate from rugby days, Derek Forrester, died suddenly of a heart attack just before Christmas. Although only 55, he had packed 155 years of living into that short timespan.

He was a class one tourist, and a bit of a lad in his day, although he had settled down into fatherhood and become a very caring family man. He was a six foot eight second row who you always wanted on your side, could hold his ale and debate politics whenever required. I remember him almost biting his wife's nose off on one tour to Paris, and when the ambulance turned up they would not take them to hospital without a police escort......those were the days.

Sleep well my friend.