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 

  

Movember

It is quite amusing to see the pubs and bars full of blokes who look like porn stars with their best efforts at growing facial hair all in a good cause, falling short in some regards!! Good on them for trying though.

So whats been going on Up North this month?

First off was another visit to the Hill Dickinson stadium to watch england v Australia rugby league. I have not been to a league game since the London Bronco's used to play at Griffin Park. My then girlfriend of the time was a big Wigan fan so we went to see them rather than the Broncos. the Paul brothers, Jason Robinson, Shaun Edwards and others were in that great team.

The match at evertons new stadium just confirmed my view that its a dull form of entertainment where you watch the same game every week. England were well beaten,

The next day SWMBO and I went to see Dara O' Briain at the Liverpool Empire. He was very good value and I would well recommend seeing him if he comes your way. Next day saw me packed and off to Lisbon for a three day golf break with 'the teachers', a group of members from Wallasey and beyond. We stayed dry and I came second on the final day which got me some money from the winning pot.

We are in the lucky position of having a reduced price holiday in 2026 by virtue of Rory McIlroy winning the Masters and our travel agent running a competition based on him doing so. Happy days.

On my return I needed my eyes testing before enjoying the 25th anniversary beer festival at port Sunlight with some friends and fellow real ale buff's

As we ponder how and when to downsize, November allowed us to look at a couple of houses which could be possible targets for us. One we saw was a Bank reposession and would have been idea, but the people vacating the place has stripped it bare. No kitchen, no bathrooms, electric wiring all over the place and no doors on any rooms. All could be overcome, but the Bank wanted a 28 day exchange period and there was no way we could sell and fund the works in that time, so sadly it will have to pass.

Things wer ethen a bit sad for a day or two as we attneded the memorial for our good friend Ailsa who passed suddenly after suffering a stroke. There was a great turnout at twickenham RFC where her family and friends spoke well of here and gave her a really fittin sendoff. She was a great photopragher and many of the old pictures from rugby tours, dinners and other memorable events were there to browse through. She will be sorely missed.

The month then ended with a IBM lunch in Manchetser where I met up with some colleagues I had not seen for a while, and the on Saturday we had the St Andrews dinner, a red coat event at the golf club.

So, all in all a pretty busy month.  

Octogenarian

 Wow, what a month October has been as it draws to an end 

I managed to acquire a ticket for the Everton v Tottenham Hotspurs fixture at the new Hill Dickinson stadium in Bramley Moor Dock in the Liverpool derelict water front regeneration zone. It is certainly an mpressive building witha fabulous viewing area and pitch, but I was underwhelmed by the concorses and facilities for the fans. It all seemed a bit sparse with a lack of the wow factor which the new Tottenham stadium has. It was a good 150 steps up the seats too but I know where the lifts are now for next time!!

Spurs won 3-0 so that made the day enjoyable.

I have had three formal dinners during the month too. One featured John Parrott as the speaker who was particularly good. He explianed in early days he was one week in Vegas at the Nevada open and the next week in Wigan for the North of England championships. it was there that he discovered the two places were twinned as they are the only places in the World you can pay for sex with chips....!!

SWMBO and I have also embarked on a look/see with regard to moving home. We have agreed we do need to although neither of us really do want to. We are rattling around in it and it is becoming more and more costly to do even minor repairs. The problem is that there is no stock on the market at the moment, and any decent stuff, or large bungalows are snapped up quickly. we think we probably have two or three years to find something so hopefully the Labour government will lay off home owners in the November budget and we can find something next year.

There was a sad ending to the month yesterday as we attended the funeral of my dear friend George. George was 93 and had had a terrrific life, almost signing for Liverpool as a16 year old, missed out on a boxing spot in the Olympic Games due to injury and played golf to a very high standard.

George and I played every week for over ten years and he was instrumental in my integration to Wallasey golf club, and he was  my proposer for Captain. He will be sadly missed, and the good turnout at the funeral showed how much people thought of him as a person.

Tonight we are off to a friends 60th birthday with a Halloween theme. I am going as a skeleton and SWMBO will be Cruella Deville. Should be a blast  

Septeverus Snape

 As with most things Harry Potter, September is memorable for large moments of invisibility. A couple of wet days in the lakes at Cartmel, car maintenance, painting the upsatirs bedrooms and losing in the final of the Visionaries knock-out golf competition consigned the month to Room 101, roll on October where there might be some real news.

Augustus John

 August was a month dominated by golf. The Liverpool Society of Golf Captains had their annual four day trip away this year to Harrogate, and a jolly splendid time was had by all. One of the Wallasey crew picked up a day prize and generally speaking the hospitality was very good.

A group of us at Wallasey  hosted a team from Colmar in the Alsace region of France. The last two years they had hosted us so it was fitting we were able to reciprocate. They enjoyed the English courses but not so much the weather, even though Alsace is billed as the dryest part of France!!

We will try to go to Colmar again next year, but WMBO and I are scheulde to have a mid-week break there in December and do their Christmas markets.

I also had my eyes tested for new glasses and as we enter November I am still awaiting their correct calibration. Maybe I will get them in time for said French trip. The optician does have a pleasant bedside manner, which may be the only saving grace at the moment 

 Joyeaux Noel 

Black Day in July

 New philosophy to try to keep posting news....monthly updates!!

So to finish off Cyprus, wedding was fine but I caught a virus which helped me lose a bit of weight, no need for fat jabs on my watch, managed to get on flight home which could have been a bit of a frightner but alls well that ends well.....

Had a week off while Maxine went with the kids to Greece. Most strange arrangement though. She couldn't fly from Cyprus to Greece and meet up with the UK crew, even though it was less than an hour. If she was not on the Manchester flight, Jet2 would have cancelled the whole package so she had the flight back to Blighty then back to greece the next day. Still they all seemed to enjoy it.

I just played a bit of golf and helped out at the English Amateur golf tournament which was being hosted by Wallasey and Royal Liverpool. Wallasey came out of the week very favourably.

So all in all July eventful, but routine!! 

Cypres creek without a paddle

 So here I am with SWMBO in Pathos on the island of Cyprus. Its 35° and there is no golf scheduled, how on earth did that happen?

It all started a long, long time ago when Donna, probably SWMBO's longest friend, was widowed at a young age, leaving her with the Company business and three sons. Luke, the middle one, decided to get married in Cyprus and SWMBO thought we should go to offer moral support, rolled with it as here was a chance to wear my white jacket for the third time.

First for no2 daughters wedding, then at Lord's.

That worked OK but long blue linen trousers did not!!

Anyway the wedding went well and guests partied long and hard. We can now have some down time.

So I will add to this as the days pass as its tricky writing in bright sunlight.  Hey ho.

I think I got away with it!!

With the world in turmoil it seemed sensible to take advantage of a golf trip while I still can. This one was to Brittany, an area of France I had never been to before. It soon became evident why!!

Living in Plymouth, it was always easy to hop on the ferry to Roscoff or St Malo and after an overnight crossing you were there. We never did though. So trying to get there from Scouseland was interesting!!

Ideally a flight to Jersey and a short hop on the ferry to St Malo would have been ideal, but the ferry and flight times did not dovetail so that was ruled out. No body fancied driving to Portsmouth so we needed to look for other flight options.

Rennes was the nearest airport ot our golfing destination but to get there we needed to fly from Manchester to Skipal and then to Rennes, hey ho! So five intrepid explorers set out with five sets of golf clubs and 5 suitcases. At Rennes, the travellers arrived as did the golf clubs, but only two or the suitcases appeared. "We will deliver them tomorrow" the lady service rep said. 

In the meantime it was into Decathlon to get some essential playing kit, and into Dinard Golf Club to buy some hugely inflated tops and shorts. Let the games begin.

This tornament, The Roberts' Cup has been played for a number of years on a home or away basis against six French chums. I took the number 12 shirt s few years ago but this was my first away gig. The company is first rate, the course was very testing and enjoyable albeit we played it three times, and a good time was had by all.

The French retained the Cup, bandits, but we will be prepared next year to win it back. So on being deposited back in Rennes we had to stay one night in an AirBnB before our flight the following day, and we found ourselves in a Toxteth highrise area which the Uber drives described as very bad but we had a good run ashore in rennes town and arrived at rennes airport unscathed only to be reunited with our baggage from a few days ago.

It all got on the plane at Rennes, but you've gust it, only 4 sets of clubs arrived in Manchester. They were repatriated the next day so all that remains is for the airline to pay for the extra clothing we needed. They have agreed my clam so I am just waiting for the money to hit the bank account.

I can see a return trip to Brittany in the future it certainly is a beautiful part of France coupled with the history from WW2, but we won't mention the war!! 

Roaring Rory

What a dramatic Sunday at the Masters this week, as Rory McIlroy embraced his life work, emotional rollercoasters and good golf shots with exceptional, and at the same time, awful shots as he cruised to the win, gave it back and finally staggered over the line.

He became the sixth winner of the 'Grand Slam' and the first European to achieve the feat. Bobby Jones won a similarly rare accolade when he won the US Amateur and US Open together with the Amateur and the Open in 1930. He then went on to design Augusta National and instigate the Masters, and the Green Jacket winners prize.

Having spent almost 5 hours watching events unfold, it got me thinking about other sporting occasions which got the National off their feet either live or in their iwn living rooms. Here is my list, I am sure you can think of others.

Football World Cup 1966 has to be up there near the top, Botham's Ashes and Stokes World Cup winning feats lead the cricketing memories, and Johnnie Wilkinson going to extra holes to win the Rugby World Cup is also a contender.

There are probably Olympic events which others will add to the list, mostly athletics based such as the Coe and Ovett duels, the Mobot, Daly Thompson,  and  the women decathletes but also rowers Pincent & Redgrave, swimmers like Duncan Goodhew and Winter Olympians Torvill & Dean.

Finally I have to add Andy Murray to the list, he is almost more like Rory than Rory, but his Wimbledon winning  efforts had the whole Country united behind a Scotsman, no easy feat in itself!!

Diesel fitter

Busy day today. Up with the larks to take my car to the garage for a safety upgrade and gear box oil change. Managed to convince them neither took very long so they had it done by 2pm. In the meantime I decided to spend the time in Liverpool rather than go home.

Then I had a thought......Everton's new football satdium was just down the road so I thought I would go and stare through the fencing and see it in all its glory. Its a mighty fine structure but not quite up to the Tottenham Hotspur stadium level. It is built in the old Liverpool dockland on the site of Bramley Moore dock,  and is bordered on one side by the Mersey on another by Nelson Dock and on the third side by the old dock wall.

This dock wall extends into Liverpool from Seaforth and it was here that my investigative journey started. I wondered how long it would take to walk to the nearest (but 1) Metro station, one I can reach without changing trains. 35 minutes was the answer. So it has some similarity to aforementioned Tottenham stadium.

Both are over 30 minutes away from a mass transit underground system and both have an unfit for purpose overground station much closer. In Evertons case it is Sandhills which is small old and decidedly unsafe for 60,000 fans every fortnight. Interstingly the nearest tube station to the new Brentford stadium, Gunnerbury, is closed on match days exactly for safety reasons. Why do authorities let these large stadia be built without the infrastructure to allow people to get home safely. Wembley is another example.

The area around the stadium is comprised of cleared land and dereliction with the exception of a gin distillery and Ten Streets Social, both of which should make a killing on match days.

So let me finish with a bit of culture. While walking the dock wall home, I passed several drinking fountains imbedded in the wall. These fountains were installed by a Liverpool philanthopist, Charles Pierre Melly, in response to the dockers need for fluids which were being met by a stroll across the road to the beer and spirit outlets which sprung up to meet the demand. Dockers were arriving back after their break drunk and dangerous so Melly felt something had to be done to address the problem. A very enlightened solution in 1854!!

So that was my day completed, although a bit frustrated that my car now says it needs an oil change in 1300 miles. Why could they not have done that at the same time? Hey ho, thats BMW where even the steering  wheel is extra!! 

Putins AD Vance helped by JD

 Goodness me, already the 2025 blog content is focusing on Donald Trump again. There is an expression used up North,  'Always the victim, never the blame' and I suspect that might just have crept into the presidential word bank, goodness me there is enough room for it.

Was Zelensky ambushed, or did he just misread the situation? US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, implied that the 30 minute exchange behoind closed doors did not go well and that Zelensky was the blame. Then Brian Glenn, a white House correspondent highlighted Zelensky's combat clothing as being disrestectful. Does he not do his research very thoroughly? If he did he might have found this.

Trump is a bully pure and simply, surrounded by likeminded people, many of whom  are on the Worlld stage for the first time. They are used to getting their own way and so the rest of the World are in for a rocky time in the short term. Maybe the Saudi's or Isreali's could advise on how to make people disappear?

Putin will be delighted to be Trump's new best friend and must already be working out how the Ukrainian Earth minerals can be divided up. Hold on to your hats we are in for a bumpy ride.

Dave 'Dodgy' Jones (1954-2025)

 I heard the news yesterday that my great friend and social activist Dave Jones passed away recently. I can't say that I will miss him, as I have already had that experience while he has been shut away in a dementia care home in Teddington West London for close to 15 years. I visited on occassions when other reasons took me down South, but as is always the case, his memory of me or SWMBO diminished to nothing very quickly. One has no idea if the visits do register as certainly the exchanges indicate they do not, but I was advised to keep going as long as I was able, to keep the care home on their toes, and in case there was some cranial activity I was stimulating.

Dave was a long standing member of the Tuesday club, a group who convened at 9pm in The Prince Blucher in Twickenham, and pretended we had all been rugby training and needed a recovery pint or three. Clearly in our fourties, our rugby training days were long behind us, but the social couple of hours were always rich in stories and memories.

There were memories for SWMBO and I as well. We would often meet him in Paris when England were playing, although his allegiance was always to Wales!! We stayed in his apartment in Amsterdam and in Rome when his work with Cellnet took him away for months at a time, but most memorable, we were with him in Atlanta during the 1996 Olympic Games as he was liaison officer for Helen Rollenson of TV fame, and we were working in the Georgia Dome. Dave sorted accomodation and had a good knowledge of  Buckhead and its bars and restaurants and we had a real blast for two weeks. 

The World was always a livelier place with 'Dodgy' around, and I felt priveliged to call him my friend. May you finally be free .

Trumpton

 One consistency during our Caribbean adventure was the unanimous loathing the Americans have for their new President. He would almost seem like a US equivalent of Enoch Powell, the Midland MP who would gain support for his controversial policies by preaching to the less intelligent members of society who were easily led.

Trump is clearly targeting the'good old boys', rednecks and others of a similar outlook to fuel his radical approach to changing the World. His pardoning of the Senate rioters looks like it will set the scene.

There may be trouble ahead!

The great British belly

 So off we go with the second blog of the year, SWMBO and I have just returned from ten days in Barbados, our first proper holiday since our Safari two years ago and first visit to the island since before Covid.

There are several theme's to expand on but the one which captured my interest was the ability to study a cross section of the UK population, and understand the challenges facing the NHS now and in the future.

There were huge beer bellies, chain smokers of a nature I had not experienced for years, and tattoo's a-plenty and that was just the women. It is clear the population has an obesity challenge, and it extends further than Birkenhead, where thunder thighs are a common sight amongst young girls and probably genetic.

There is much talk of the elderly bed blocking in our hospitals, so why I wonder does the Government not reintroduce the Nightingale hospital programme and use then to free up main hospital beds. Student nurses can train on the job under the supervision of an old fashion Matron and its a win-win situation

Kenneth Williams eat your heart out!

Must do better

 Did I really only do eight posts in 2024? It wasn' t that dull was it? Well maybe it was, Do my reader's really want to hear about me winning golf trophies, well only one actually but it is impressive and 98 years old, More to the point have I got many readers left, I can check see how many hits l get but I can't even be bothered. Its all done as a friends update, a bit like the Christmas Round Robin, but drip fed and a historical record of grandad if the grandkids ever want to know what I got up to.

Interestingly l could not have done a Round Robin last year as I was without technology for a few weeks as l got hacked. I was financially compromised earlier in the year and lost a few hundred pounds. The Bank re-imbersed me but as a tech savvy chap l was well pissed off that l got duped, imagine then how l felt the second time?

I manged to disengage before we got to the finance bit however the left some ransomware behind as a free gift. After a lot of effort l had no success removing it so had to reload from scratch. This is the first blog since then as all bookmarks and cache entries were well corrupted 

Anyway I am back and news will start to flow more regularly, starting now.

Light at the end of the Tunnel

 Liverpool will not fail for want of trying. There is always something going on, or being planned for, and, after the Eurovision Song Contest, this weekend is the Festival of Light. It consists of a series of art sculptures either based around light, floodlit or just plain light oriented.

Here are a few examples. We were fortunate that it opened on Friday when we were in town, just to be in town, so we got a sneak preview.

 

I am in town again on Wednesday, when my golf Captains group are having a pub crawl. I took the opportunity to show Maxine the first venue, The Vine, or 'Big House' as the locals call it. It is one of a number of traditional pubs which a group has taken on and refurbished. they concentrate on wet sales so it will be interesting to see how they make end's meet

The Sands of Time

 Has my life got so mundane or routine that I struggle to post on here? Do people really want to hear about me winning golf tournaments, supporting Wayne Rooney, landscaping the garden or getting merry at beer festivals, because, to be honest, they seem to be the major acivities dominating my life during the Summer. with no posts throughout July and August and only a couple in May or June, there has been less to bring to the attention of my regular readers.

So what has happened that's different and news worthy about me, or the World in general? Me first.

Well number 1 son is now a qualified fitness instructor, earning a crust in a gym in Geneva. Its a tough school with the need to build up the client base the big challenge. So far so good though. He tied in his qualification by taking Tay to a Taylor Swift concert where he did the one knee thing and got engaged. We are down to Bristol in October to meet Tay's family which should be good.

SWMBO continues to try to recover from a very unique hamstring injury which occurred during a Park Run in March. Rather than the hammy snapping, the tendon to bone attachment tore and the bone splintered. It's tricky to treat so the recovery process will take some while yet.

I have been trucking along during the activities listed earlier, although I had a scare when I got into difficulties trying to climb the Worcestershire Beacon near Malvern. Just me thinking I was still 40 and could do serious climbing with nil preparation. Lesson learnt. 

Number 1 grandaughter has jibbed off  her football chum and hooked up with a guitarist, so she is now a groupie. She has GCSE exams next May so all focus on those.

Number 1 grandson has moved to senior school and seems to be finding time to fit lessons in between rugby, golf, swimming and football.

Talking of rugby ( you see what I did there), the S-Club have finally knocked Twickenham weekends away on the head. There have been several reasons for that. Twickenham ( or the Allianz as it is called now) is full of corporate or non-rugby types, who are up and down to the bar all match. The ticket prices are around £120 pounds and until recently the product on the pitch was not worth that price. The kick-off times are also less conducive to a good post match run ashore somewhere. Factor in one or two nights hotel at £150 and rail tickets prices and it becomes an uncomfortably expensive trip.

So all good teams have a plan B and ours is to embrace the Champions Cup in 2024 and the U20 fixtures in 2025. First up is Bristol v Leinster where hotel, travel and match tickets are less than the cost of a ticket to Twickenham. who can't love Bristol. It has an Ivy restaurant and a Fullers pub although it takes three trains to get there these days.

SO probably more changes ahead as SWMBO and I are setting up a few visits to see houses with a view to considering whether we should be downsizing. No reason to at the moment but better to do it when fit and able than when one is infirm and it becomes a struggle. Watch this space.