July Andrews

The theatre theme continued during July as we went to London to see Paddington Bear. It was a very well presented show, following the storyline of the first film. The Savoy theatre was packed and we managed to get a table in Joe Allen's before the performance, so I am visiting many of my favourite haunts.

Joe Allen moved from its traditional site in Exeter Street about 8 years ago due to redevelopment and they now rent space from the Strand Palace hotel. Unfortunately that means it has to close by midnight. In the traditional spec it could remain open until 03:00am and would attract the post theatre crowd of both audience and performers, so not so much celebrity spotting these days.

We stayed at Lensbury once again and their refurbishment continues a pace. The first evidence of change however is the installation of transport style e-gates into the hotel so stopping non-resident access. Thats a pity as we have often met friends there by just walking in. while we know it will never be what it was in its former life, it is sad to see small changes make such a difference to the previously relaxed atmosphere. we were so lucky to enjoy it for so many years as the old Shell sports and conference complex.

 SWMBO and daughter no 2 and gran-daughter no 2 went off to Greece for a week to 'swim with pigs'. That never happened but they had a great time anyway and returned tanned ready for the English heatwave, corr! what a scorcher......

The aborted holiday to Alaska has been addressed elsewhere, so here's to some good news during August. 

High Line

Might have used that tag before but sums up the few hectic days in New York. Once we were diverted and knew this was our final run ashore we decided to make the most of it as we had been booked into a Time Square hotel for two nights....or so we thought. 

Off toone of my favorite restaurants in the \Big Apple, PJ Clarkes. Just a burger and ribs place but a livly joint and a New York institution. Good time had by both and if you ever visit be sure to check out the mens toilets which are preserved in the early 20th Century style.

Things got a bit tricky on the Saturday. We stumbled upon the 8th Avenue flea market and did a bit of people watching in Central Park and cruised back via St Patricks Cathedral,  the Rockafellar Centre and Radio City but on returning to the hotel we found we had been locked out of the room as the hotel had cancelled all the second night bookings. So two hours of stress failed to resolve the matter so a credit card had to be offered before we could get back into the room. We could then dress to impress as we went out to have our 25th Wedding anniversary a day early. It all went well, and was interrupted by a BA customer service operative who rang to see how we were doing. Luckily he then paid the hotel bill so no excess expense there. It was 01:00 in UK when he ran, so obviously got down to the W's!!

We high-jacked a professional photographer who was working the restaurant for another party so some memories there. 

Home the next day only in Premier Economy and although we had 4 seats to ourselves, the arm rests were static so no stretching out for a sleep.

Now the compo claims start, hopefully they will be resolved in our favour, but goodness knows how long it will take. 

Uncle Albert

 'Can anybody smell carrots?' No, actually it's burning and at 35000ft over the Arctic that's not what you want to smell..  Follow that with 'Captain to the flight deck and, apart from who's flying the thing, you know there is a problem. So do we land on an ice flow surrounded by Polar bears and Ocra's all looking for an early tea, or is there an airstrip which can take us, nearby?

So Baffin island to the rescue. Top most tip of Canada and just closer than backtracking to Greenland, we landed in Iqaluit, formally known as Frobisher Bay. He,of course, was a seafarer and supporter of the Green Army like Sir Francis Drake, although neither knew it at the time.

So 250 passangers offloaded. No hotel rooms as the pesky Eskimo's were holding a conference. So main conversation in the departures hall was whether First and Business class get first dibs over Economy if cannibalism rears its head

The locals did their best to avoid above as the flight crew liaised with HQ to put a rescue plan together. Eventually a flight was cancelled in Toronto and the flight rerouted to iqaluit. That confirmed, the crew buggered off on a convenient Canadian North flight to Ottawa which was a bit shoddy. Baffin Island has no road or rail. Links with mainland Canada so the airport was pretty busy with commuter style twin prop aircraft.

After about 12 hours on the island our rescue flight arrived. Deep joy it was the same configuration so we could all have our original seats back and after another hour we boarded and were on our way. But.......were to?

The original flight was heading to Seattle where SWMBO and I were picking up a cruise to Alaska. We had already found out that we had missed that and USA immigration would not allow us to join later through the itinerary. Our holiday of a lifetime was done so when the new Captain said we were going to Vancouver we had mixed emotions.

Do we holiday there or go to Seattle as planned but return early? In a short period of time the decision was made for us. Change of plan said the Captain, crew are out of hours so we are going to New York,

This is being written in the Executive lounge at JFK after a hecltic weekend in the Big Apple. More on that later but for now here is the ,Press coverage

GOAT

 

Jennifer Juniper

 Peter Kay was the primary event in June, the concert was good and he was in good form. We managed a pre-theatre meal and spend a bit of time in the Albert Dock which was very enjoyable.

Much golf again featured and we were able to see gran-daughter Emelie in her school play and Archie in his sports day in which he was very successful

We had a very pleasant Sunday lunch at Formby golf club with our fellow year group golf captains as the  rest of the month drifted into the next. 

May Be

....or maybe not, was it an interesting month?

Well it started off really well with a busy weekend involving the golf clan, The Visionaries, having Sunday lunch at The Red Fox in Thornton Hough. This village was built by Lord Leverholme for his management while he build the Port Sunlight village close to his soap factory for the blue collar and other ranks. I then played in a charity golf day organised by Rob Palmer of Sky TV fame. He raised over £20,000 for Stick'n Step a Cerebal Palsey charity. well done Rob.

House viewings were scattered throughout the month, but nothing is jumping out at us, and the stock level seems very poor at the moment with people sitting on their hands as they wait to see how the World energy crisis resolves itself.

SWMBO and I did attend A Question of Sport , the stage show, and while Matt Dawson and Phil Tuffnell were good value, the four local football players they had were a bit sub. 

I did manage to plan out another Cultural Tour of Liverpool for the golf gang but we will probably have to wait until September to explore the hostelries as the year gets busy from here on in.

Nothing much else to report except I got food poisoning which precluded me embracing our French golf colleagues who were over to play for the Roberts Cup. I will have to wait until next year but the England team did win for a change....maybe because...... 

April flowers

Ooops a bit behind here as it will soon be time for May Be. Still quite a lot to get through.

 With Easter week always comes the Port Sunlight beer festival, a four day extravaganza sponsored by oe of the big real ale pubs in Liverpool. I always plan to go on the first day, a Thursday, and meet up with fellow golfers and some of their mates.This year was particularly good for me as the selection of Amber bitter was extensive and most of them were very drinkable.

Sociability seemed the theme during the month as there was the first Red Jacket event of the year at the golf club followed by  another very enjoyable lunch with my ex-work colleagues in the Wreck Bistro. That was followed by another trip to the Institution Club which you will have read about during February. The Liverpool Society of Golf Club Captains then had their annual dinner at which 300 Red Jacket clad individuals dine out and listen to the Captain of the R & A, and England golf .

I am not really allowed to say this, but the Captains of the R & A can be fairly dull, although this year he was quite amusing.  In previous years we have had a sheep farmer from North Wales and a low land sheep farmer from Fife, neither entertained the audience with amusing and risqué stories of sheep and Wellington boots if you get my drift. Within the Society however we have several rectal oncologists who think of nothing better than to tell a few 'stories' of their own professions if you know what I mean. Everyone to their own.

 The month was rounded off with a day trip to London to see the oldest member of  The S Club, namely Stanley, who we had not seen for ages. Seamus travelled from Huddersfield and 'off the record' Dick from Nether Wallop. we visited Soho and ate in L' Escargot  which was an excellent choice.

So a very sociable month all round, however, two major events also occurred in April and they deserve their own entry so stay tuned.  

Back to the Future

10th May 2007 to be precise, the day I made my first venture into the world of Blog, and the topic?

Well I had just put Silver Crescent on the market and planned to use the social media platform to chart my progress to completion. Little did I know that almost 19 years to the day I would be publishing the same story.

Yes we are looking to down size and have started to look at possible homes to move into. We will not however put Weathers Towers on the market until we are confident we have somewhere we like to move into.

There are some scary parallels. The house next door is for sale as was the case in 2007, but they have a buyer, only trouble is they have sold for considerably less than we would expect to ask .  19 years ago  there was a financial crash which affected real estate prices in the same way as the Ukrainian and Middle |East conflicts are doing so now. Add the fact that every time Kier Starmer opens his mouth it somehow costs me money, and there could be a bumpy road ahead.

So lets see what sort of journey we embark on. Initial impressions indicate there is low stock available as people bide their time, and the houses which SWMBO does like tend to be in areas we would not wish to live. So we search the perfect (or 80%) property and then lets see who wants ours.

On that front, the pool has sprung a leek so we need to fix that first, it never rains but it pours!!   

How far?

26 miles and a few yards actually, yes, as alluded to during March, No 2 son was running the London Marathon, so SWMBO and I went down to the smoke to support him.

We went down the Saturday afternoon and caught up with some old rugby friends before a reasonably early night in Lensbury. It was under refurbishment so a bit disappointing that we had not been told, but hopefully it will be finished when we next go down and stay. 

Never mind that, we were off bright and early  on the Sunday to hopefully catch up with him three or four times during the race. It all started so well with parking purchased near Gunnersbury station and a short 30 minute tube ride to Westminster. As it turned out this was my only chance to sit down all day!!

A couple of stops later we were at the 8 mile mark and managed to catch him there but hen our plans all went out of the window, stations were closed due to volume of people, there were extensive queue's and standing only on rush hour packed tubes and DLR trains,

So, we were lucky to catch him again after about 17miles and then headed to the finish to meet up with him. What a joke that was as everybody was piling off at St James to meet up near Pall Mall, only to find there was no way of crossing the track into the park. Big logistical error by the marathon organisation team as it took an hour to walk around the park up to Piccadilly and back to Pall Mall, only to then get bounced from the building he was supposedly meeting us in.

Anyway all ended well as we met up, he showed off his medal and did a respectable time of just under 4 hours. Longer than his target but it was very hot and most people were below their PB when they finished

.

All except the elite winners that is who broke the World record.

The escape from London worked well though as from Gunnersbury we were on the motorway home in 5 minutes and another adventure got ticked off. 

March hare

 Bit of frustration this month as far as rugby concerned. No not the form of England more the opportunity SWMBO and I lost as a couple.

Firstly we appeared to be jibbed by our regular travel companions who went to Rome with a different crew, but more dramatically, a bucket list item was potentially lost forever.

So what would that be?

Well, in the 26 years of the revamped 6 Nations championship, when Italy were introduced, England have never played away in Rome one week and Paris the next. Until this year that is, and that's where the bucket list kicked in.

It was always a dream to go to Rome then take a road/train trip from there to Paris in the intervening week. Bordeaux? Province? La Rochelle? who knows where else, but we missed out and wonder whether the opportunity will present itself again. Hey ho.

We did manage a long weekend to Harrogate for my birthday which was very jolly, a friends 70th and a bash for no1 daughter.

We contributed to no2 sons London marathon campaign by arranging the house treadmill to be used at his school where he spent the day teaching on it. It made the local press and allowed him to burst through his £2000 sponsorship target which is good.

The month ended  with a very enjoyable pre-match lunch at the Birkenhead Park v Waterloo rugby matcgh with 280 people sitting down. An excellent  climax, to  a hectic month.

Four week February

 So the Six Nations was back in town with England handed a home banker start against off colour Wales. The red rose did not disappoint as they stuffed the Welsh and started to look forward to a successful campaign.

Err! It all started to go pear shaped after that. The  usual stress of a trip to Murrayfield kicked in within minutes as a fairly harsh yellow card meant England were buried (again) before they had even broken sweat. Another maybe year beckoned

Still the S Club ventured into Bath for the U20 fixture against Ireland with the England side unbeaten after 2 games and having not conceeded any points in both second halves. Bit of cockiness maybe but they never looked like matching the Irish game plan which was more out of the French playbook than the traditional paddy approach. England were given a good stuffing.

I arrived back in Scouse in time for the kick-off  for the main event as the trains all seemed to work fine for a change. Birmingham New Street still provides a bit of a challenge  but I settled down to watch a cracker. But no, England provided the sort of opposition we have been used to for many  years and to be honest, the Ireland U20 of the previous night would have beaten them. Back to the drawing board for Borthwick and crew.

The month was finished off with a Visionaries golf crew cultural tour around Liverpool's East Village.

The five pubs which were selected were:  

The Cracke.     A pub we have visited before but which has now changed hands and had a clean-up. Still has the War Room and the Beatles and political memorabilia, but loads more beers and central heating        which works!! It was good to see it full even at 2:30 on a Thursday afternoon. The War Room got its name from the Second World War when gentlemen of a certain age met to read the redacted papers every day.

The Mayflower in Pilgrim Street. This is a new addition to the areas drinking scene having been added by   the 1936 Pub Group to their portfolio. It sits above the Pilgrim which is still aimed at the student market. The Mayflower though is a traditional wood and glass boozer aimed at the grey pound and real ale crew, as well as the Green Army ( Pilgrim, Mayflower, work that one out)

The Grapes on Knight Street    Opened in 1904 which is another traditional wood paneled pub not to be missed

Pogue Mahone    No cultural tour is complete without an Irish bar and this is top drawer as far as  Liverpool is concerned. The name translates to something rude!!

The Royal Institution Bar    You would never know it was here! Established in 1814 and opened in 1817  the Liverpool Royal Institution  was a learned society founded by William Roscoe to promote literature, science, and arts.It held significant art exhibitions, including  Audubon’s Birds of America in 1826, the originals of which are now in the Walker  Gallery but the lounge bar, whiskey bar and sports bar are all hung with reproduction art work from the same exhibition. Don't miss the flamingo in the foyer!!.

 

Dry January

 Not for me though, life seems to carry on regardless. After returning from Disneyland Paris, the next task was to store all the Christmas decorations in the loft. It is a task which seems to get harder each year. This is due to my lack of the flexibility needed to navigate the roof space, and the reluctance of SWMBO to discard some of the decorations which have been superceeded by new purchases. Who knows, this might be the last Christmas in Hillhouse at which point a good clear out can take place.

The first major event of the year was the meeting to identify the new Captain of the golf club. those of you who have seen Enclave, the movie about the appointing of a new Pope, will have an idea of what we have just been through. A good candidate was identified and I am sure he is in for a cracking 2026.

Other than that, I had a variety of 'Well Man' checks, shingles jabs, and asthma assessments which all seemed to go well, and played the usual golf competitions where I hit the bar a few times but no cigar.

Finally SWMBO and I booked a cruise for later in the year when we fly to Seattle and then visit Alaska, something which has been on our bucket list for some time. We are travelling with Virgin Voyage so it will be interesting to see if we fit the demographic given we hear report of the ships being party boats.

There might still be life in the old dog yet1! 

Decemation

 Christmas always dominates December, and this year was no exception. It was a big Christmas so 18 family members sat down for lunch as SWMBO slaved away in the kitchen turning out the grub. We utiised two party/lazy susan's this year to try to make serving a bit more straightforward, but I am not sure it worked as we hoped. We had a young adult overflow table of five as well, although in two years time they will be canvasing to be on the 'grown-up' table so that will be a bit of a challenge. All in all the day went well so that's something to be grateful of.

The month started with the arrival of three new sofa's, the first for about 15 years, and they do give the lounge a fresh feel as well as being a tad more comfortable than the previous ones. Nobody wanted them on the free giveaway websites so a man and a van from the council took them away/

I then had a trial run pub crwal around Scouseland with the main event to be scheduled in February to compensate for dry January. The golf captains group visited Matou on the peirhead in Miverpool again for the Christmas meal. They look after us very well, with the private room ideal for our needs. A couple of golfing opportunities to win a Christmas turkey passed me by, and after that I had a few trips to look forward to.

First up was a boys trip to Glasgow to watch Glasgow v Toulouse in the rugby Champions League equivalent. We have started these provincial trips to replace our usual outings to Twickenham which have become too expensive and far too busy for my liking. It was a funny game with the French side taking a 21-0 half time lead. We thought we would give it 20 minutes into the second half and beat the rush into town for a sherb or two. Glasgow, however, mounted the comeback of all combacks to have us routed to our seats almost to full time as they won 21- 31. Our run ashore was curtailed somewhat but still very enjoyable,

Less so the journey home which was another horendous day as some storm eminating from France took exception to the rugby defeat and caused a mass of train cancellations. Hey ho!

The next weekend saw me take SWMBO to Colmar in the Alsace region of France to sample the Christmas markets. It was her birthday present, and a couple of typical bistro dinners and three days browsing the shops and stalls go us nicely into the Christmas spirit.

So then we had New Years Eve to contend with, but not any NYE, oh no. SWMBO had missed out on a mass family trip to Lapland when the grand-kids would most appreciate it, so replacing that on her bucket list was EuroDisney Paris courtesy of the Bank of Mum and Dad....where was Dave when you needed him?

We  were fortunate that Tim and his French family could join us making 16 in age range 2 to 72!! yes I went on a few thrills and spills rides but I don't do upsidedown which ruled me out of a few. I have to say we had a great time. The hotel was fine, the flights were on time and the theme parks were of the standard you expect of Disney, and NYE was a magical experience. I just wonder where she will want to go to next