Oh come all ye faithful

The Varsity rugby match has traditionally been the start of my Christmas build-up. It used to be the only game of rugger I could temp my old mate Figs to go and see. We would have a belter of an evening and things kicked on from there.

These days the pre-Christmas alcoholically dominated lunches are few and far between so I have to make extra efforts to find and attend them. There have been a couple of Turkey Trot events at the golf club, and we have just returned from the London branch Christmas party weekend which was very enjoyable.

With only a few days to go though, I might be a little bit too sober for the Christmas festivities, of which I am less and less a fan as I enter my twilight years. I am off to Chester tomorrow to continue an IBM Northern tradition of red wine and lunch with Cookie. We have been doing this sort of thing for years and as neither of us could make the bigger do in Manchester last week we are having a cosy twosome in a suitable establishment.

Last night I went to the Liverpool Anglian cathedral where oldest ankle biter, Ava, was in her school choir. They were very good but most of the other choirs were not, and at times it felt we were in a requiem mass rather than a jolly Christmas event. Come on Radio City, buck your ideas up for next year.

Ava was amazed by the cathedral however, and she had every reason to be. It is the largest cathedral in the UK, and the fifth largest in the World. It was completed only as recently as 1979 and took 74 years to complete. Giles Gilbert Scott, a 22 year old, won a competition to design and build the cathedral, and he had to wait until 1942 before he could lay the final stone on the massive tower, which at its highest point is almost 100 yards above the cathedral floor. He sadly died in 1960 and was unable to see his life's work completed. For a choir of seven and eight year olds to bash out a few carols in such a structure must have been an amazing experience, as it was for us to watch Ava and her class mates do so.

I have one problem with the cathedral, and that is caused only by my warped mind. Above the great entrance there is a neon sign in the handwriting of Tracey Emin. It is therefore a prominent work of art. It reads ' I felt you and I knew you loved me'. Strange words to have in a church, given the current trend for tabloid exposes of the clergy!

Viva Las Vegas

Actually it should be called Viva Las Vegas,as that's where we are so have changed it!. Day 1 was a ten hour flight and a fairly smooth passage through homeland security. Amusingly IBM have a kick off meeting here this week so there were a couple of ex-colleagues on the flight. They were a bit green when I outlined out travel plans!
I should check in with Ginny Rometty, the CEO, now that IBM has lost the latest court battle concerning the pension closures of the early noughties. It would probably ruin my chances of an invite to Augusta now she is a member.
The hotel has a golf course but I don't really have time to play during this short stay. Today we started with a full on American breakfast, then walked the strip from end to end. Paris won the best design award and the Bellagio won best Chinese New Year décor prize. The IBM crew are staying in the Hard Rock so well away from us.
Tonight is cabaret night with Penn and Teller then off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Latest gambling position, I am $10 up.

4077 M*A*S*H

I am not a great social networking user. Facebook and Twitter don't really add to my day to day routine. The only one I do register with is LinkedIn. The main reason for this is to keep abreast of any changes people may make to their e-mail contacts, or other aspects of their life I may be interested in.

Today I have just been doing a bit of tweaking to my profile, and have added a link which will hopefully allow people to see the film which inspired the IBM living legend comments.

It's called 'Doggin Around' from 1994,  and stars Elliott Gould as a beaten up American jazz pianist who comes back to England to do the Northern club circuit. The support cast is a who's who of British character actors and it is a good view if you get the time.

Elliott Gould utters the immortal words which inspired my by-line, when asked by a young lady whether he was one of those American musical old timers, to which he replied, " Where I come from mam, we like to call them living legend"

I had cause to use it face-to face in IBM when a female colleague similarly enquired of me in a derogatory tone. I was in the company of my business director when the exchange occurred and he too adopted the retort,  particularly when summing up individuals careers  at retirement parties.

It ranks up there with the wonderful line from the film, 'The Likely Lads' which charted the holiday adventures of Bob and Terry one particularly wet week in Scarborough. "Eh",  said Terry, "lets go to Boots, there's always women in Boots"

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.

Skype's the limit

I have just purchased a NetBook computer, one of the machines which has a 9" screen, and can just about manage internet browsing and a bit of word processing. I brought the HP model 2133 much to my sister-in-laws disgust, but neither IBM or Lenovo make one close to the spec and price.

It comes with Linux, and I was hoping I would be able to embrace that operating system as a learning exercise, as more and more people seem to want to move from Microsoft and so avoid costs and royalty payments. Its proving more difficult than I thought but i am persevering in some of the slack time which I have at the mo.

Unfortunately though, the HP machine does not support microphone support for Skype, and that was another reason I purchased. Our number two son spend over £200 on phone bills when he was recently in the Dominican Republic. That would have paid for him to have a NetBook with Skype on it.

So I am now trying to sort out dual boot with XP and either SUSE 10 or Ubuntu Net Mix, or maybe all three, and then I will have to sort out a foreign trip to see if the grand plan works.

Rockin' all over the world

I played golf on Thursday. Nothing unusual about that you say, and generally you would be right.

I arranged to meet my old mate from work, Rog, as we had a bit of business to conduct. Rog took the Kings shilling from IBM some time ago, lucky bugger, and it is rare these days to catch him in the UK. Catch him I did though, and as we approached the 1st tee at Wyke Green golf club, a member known to Rog, came up, said hello and joined us for a friendly three ball.

Now I had never met Kevin Hurry before, or even seen him much around the club, but it turned out that in the late 80's, early 90's he was a top DJ. So I have googled him. Seems he shared gigs with Paul Oakenfold, who I had heard of, and was part of D.O.P and a big player in Guerilla records. He had to stop DJing on doctors advice, so Rog told me, and now works with his dads business hanging silk wallpaper. A very specialised job by all accounts.

I am no stranger to playing with music celebs, as I had the pleasure of playing with Andrew Ridgley, yes, of Wham fame, in St Enedoc some years ago. I recall how passionate he was about this golf, to the extent that after slicing two consecutive drives into a cow field at the 14th, he proceeded to snap his £200 driver over his knee.

When we ordered him a club sandwich in the bar afterwards and asked him if he wanted it cut in half, he nearly saw the funny side of it.

As an aside, the Ladies section of my golf club is referred to as Dyke Green by other clubs in the area. I can't begin to think why.

Whats in a name

Well I am off and running, but have I got an audience, and how does one build up such a following? I supect a good name might help, and I have plumped for The Philanderer for historical reasons I will come onto. A few were discounted though.

'Stormy Weathers' was the first to spring forward....

All very well having a play on words I thought, but not really the oldie playing young theme. That name conjures up Victor Meldrew images, and goodness I have been accused of having those moments in the past.....

Le Limacon was another consideration.....

Le Limacon is the nomenclature used on my annual barbecue invites. Its an event which has been cancelled for the past few years, so resurrecting it as blog title may put the 'fluence on the regularity and consistency of the page.

So The Philanderer it is then.......

While this photo does not do it justice, this brass plaque, listing me as said philanderer, has adored the front of my house for 25 years, so for continuity of product, it seems the right choice. Whether I still am still practicing or not is, however, open to conjecture.

As for spreading the word on the web, that's my next challenge. Hopefully good content, interesting anicdotes and a certain sauciness will all contribute. Stumble!, Google and other techno stuff will help as well.