The Dinner's in the Dog

Trouble is we never had a dog, so more than likely the dinner was in the bin. So what brought that on then? A bit of history will explain.

It has just come to my attention that a pub in East Croydon, The Porter and Sorter is about to be demolished to make way for a redevelopment. The site of which the pub is a part sits opposite a ten story building which used to house the major London computer centre for IBM.

It was here nearly forty years ago that I first started work. I attended the building for aptitude tests and interviews before being offered a job as a computer operator, working a three shift system for the princely sum of £1200 per annum plus shift premium. Occasionally one was required to work 'float' which meant you covered core hours 10am to 6pm and it was while working these hours that the Porter and Sorter came into its own.

The pub was the hub of the social network of the building. The management team would go there after work, and occasionally the sales director and other high flyers would join them. It was a place where all grades in the Company could go and socialise in a way rarely experienced now. The hours just passed in a blur, but with the station right next door, people would fall out of the pub and not need to think about drinking and driving. The problems occurred when you got home bladdered several hours later than expected.

At one point previous to my employment the brewery decided the pub needed a new name, so they commissioned a competition to find a suitable one. A smart man in IBM suggested The Sweaty Sock for no better reason than he was a Jocko. Word got round that this was the proposed IBM name and consequently it won hands down. The brewery, however, did not feel it was an appropriate name and given the pub sat between the station and the post office, The Porter and Sorter was the name they decided on.

The work ethic of the seventies and eighties was very much a work hard, play hard one, and the pub epitomised all that was good about the office. Sadly all that has now been lost as people work from home or are based on client premises. IBM is closing offices with great regularity now, with the Croydon branch closing nearly 15 years ago. The social fabric of the business is being fragmented as a result. Graduates joining the Compnay now know no different, and with their extensive training programme and intern arrangements, they are one part of the organisation which maintains a community feel.

Its we 'living legends' who watch with sadness as the fabric which we were such a part of crumbles before our eyes. The demolition of the Porter and Sorter may just be the final nail in the coffin. Its work Jim but not as we know it.

Coke en stock

Steven Spielberg is about to hit another rich vein of media revenue when he releases The Adventures of Tintin later this month.

For four years, however, Bienvenu Mbutu Mondondo, a Congolese citizen has been conducting a case of racism against one of the earliest books, Tintin in the Congo. The book was banned in Britain in 2007 for making Africans look like monkeys and talk like imbeciles, however, it is from a bygone age and the publishers when defending the charges have described it as like taking a knife to Charles Dickens works based on his portrayal of Jews.

While Belgium's record on slavery in the Congo still causes emotions to run high, The Red Sea Sharks, the nineteenth of the Adventures of Tintin, written and illustrated by Herge, features the young reporter Tintin and his side kick Captian Haddock as the hero's, when they battle against slavers in West Africa.. Indeed the books original French title is Coke en Stock a codename used by the villainous antagonists of the story for African slaves. This might have been a better book to use as an example of the exploitation of the Congolese population when looking for a racist test case.

Good game, good game.....

You get to know when Christmas is sneaking up on you. The television running order begins to be dominated by programmes, the format of which is decided by viewers preference.

The X -Factor must be the market leader in this particular category, so it is difficult for other networks to pitch against it and expect to do well. As a best effort, the BBC put their own celebrity tomfoolery fest, Strictly Come Dancing, on a tad earlier in the hope of maintaining the audience later into the evening. I doubt it works, and i do wonder how they continue to pay homage to the doddering old fool who comperes it.

Many years ago Bruce Forsyth was a marvellous performer in the old Victorian music hall traditions. He was multifaceted and as a result got many major roles in theatre and television.
He is best known for hosting Saturday Night at the London Palladium in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and hosting high profile game shows like The Generation Game, Play Your Cards Right and The Price is Right. All in all he had a long and successful career.

Not satisfied with that, however, he suddenly decided he should be Sir Bruce Forsyth, and started a very public and, to my mind, distasteful campaign to obtain his ultimate goal. He is a fairly ruthless individual on the golf course, where he takes the attitude that if he is playing everybody else should get out of his way, and he brought the same attitude to his knighthood campaign. He solicited the help of high profile friends and colleagues, and eventually in the 2011 Birthday honours list he achieved his aim.

Personally I think it stinks. I have always thought the award of an honour by the Queen should be something which surprises as much as rewards, and to be blatant about such a thing would immediately disqualify the person from ever receiving it.

Sir Bruce, however, got his award and he continues to crack puerile jokes and struggle to read his q- card every Saturday night, so at least those watching Strictly can see at first hand what a bumbling buffoon he has become. Didn't he do well!

Fork 'andles

I've a rugby club golf trip coming up shortly and one of the evening themes is ecclesiastical dress.
I just popped into the local fancy dress shop and asked for a dog collar, she passed me a collar for a dog!
I felt like The Two Ronnies!!!

Once a policeman, always a policeman

When I started this blog in 2007 there was a Rugby World Cup scheduled, in France, and my trip to Bordeaux was documented, as were other aspects of the event. England you may recall got thumped by South Africa in their group game, were panned by the press, had a player revolt and eventually reached the final where they lost again to South Africa.

This year England stuttered through the group stages before they lost yesterday to an average French side in the quarter finals. To describe the French as average may be heaping too much praise on them, only their performance against Wales in the semi final will see whether I am being fair or not.

One expects French teams to have you on the edge of your seat every time their three-quarters get the ball. Alas that has not happened for a number of years as constant rule changes have seen the space on the field condensed into narrow corridors of opportunity which are swiftly snubbed out by brick outhouse size players.

Consider the game today when Australia beat South Africa. South Africa had 74% of the possession and Australia made a whopping 147 tackles in the game, that's nearly two a minute.
It was exciting but for totally gladiatorial reasons. There was little running rugby in the match.

England, of course, can't play running rugby. They are often starved of the ball by the opposition and the good sides use that superiority to run England ragged. Ireland in Dublin this year, New Zealand and South Africa at will, and now France.

The boys do go out on the lash occasionally in reverence to the old game of rugby which I and my peers played, but unfortunately the British press, particularly the red tops, are less inclined to reminisce about the good old days. Its a game for today and sadly England are a team for yesterday.

The coach Martin Johnson has not yet fallen on his sword, and with the RFU without a CEO and CIO equivalent, there is nobody to unsheathe it for him. Rob Andrew is a chartered surveyor by trade. You would think he would be able to identify the structural damage which the Johnson era is causing to the English game.

He indicated in his press conference that this group will get better as they are a young side. I suspect Cuerto, Shaw, Tindell, Thompson, Deacon, Easter, Moody and Wilkinson will be flattered by such accolades. There were young players Johnson could have picked, but he builds a team in his own (public) image, dull, grumpy, unimaginative and uninspiring. Move over and let someone else have a go. The game is still the low point of a day out at Twickenham, it needs to change

Move that aerial a bit will you......

Today was a pivotal one in so far as the broadcasting of Premier League football in pubs and bars is concerned.
While it may now allow these establishments to screen events for a much cheaper rate, and ensure some of them stay as viable businesses, let's not lose sight of the wider implications.

It is, after all, great news for Greece, perhaps they can now use the income from their cheaper signal decoders to reduce their budget deficit!!!

Take a bow son, take a bow....

I have been wondering about the quality of sports commentators over the last few weeks.

I have always been very negative towards Eddie Butler when he has tried to commentate on rugby for the BBC. I think I am justified too. He is an ex-captain of the Wales 1st XV and as such should have a good grasp of the Laws of the game, and some sort of tactical nous. He demonstrates neither. His side kick Brian Moore is a very clever narrator and writer, but he adds nothing to the Stadler and Waldorf double act which they have long been.
I was relieved, therefore, that neither are being involved in the ITV coverage of the Rugby World Cup in the coming weeks.

I am now seriously considering my position. The ITV coverage is awful. Its not all their fault of course, well actually yes it is, but neither ITV or BBC have sufficient regular commentary opportunities given most of the day to day rugby is on Sky. That said, Phil Vickery, son of Cornwall and all , adds about as much specialist insight as Gabby Logan would. Poor old Steve Ryder must wonder how he manipulates his panel of experts such that they do not resemble a bunch of Muppets.

So rugby has a challenge, but in a few weeks normal service will be resumed and Sky will be back in the driving seat. You have to feel, therefore, for Sky. Last season they sacked Andy Gray and Rob Key from their prime time football slots for inappropriate sexual comments which were caught on mike, off air.

I suspect now they wish they had disciplined them and left them in their roles. Why? well they have been replaced by Geoff Snelling, and there is no problem there, but he is being supported by Gary Neville and Ray Wilkins.

Now if I was an insomniac, the chances of me staying awake through a Sky televised footie match would be absolutely zero. You could train Neville to say all the right things, but an accent and the associated inflection are inbred. He is the dullest, least emotional, man you could wish to have on commentary. Maybe if Snelling dressed in a referee outfit you might see some rage out of him, otherwise its all gloom and doom.

The same is true of Wilkins. He brings his own brand of English to the role, and his comment is as bland as his play was. Come on Sky sort it out.

On BBC there is at least the option to listen to the radio commentary rather than the TV. I do remember Sky having a 'crowd noise only' option, I wonder if they still do?