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

Park the bus

Yesterday I was at Anfield to watch the mighty Green Army take on Liverpool in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. It was 0-0 so Liverpool are now forced to travel to Plymouth for the replay next week.

I was lucky enough to be in a box in the Centenary Stand with a variety of commercial and professional people, all but one were supporting Liverpool. It is quite interesting how people who are good ( or excellent) at what they do seem to become so one eyed when they enter a football group!

At half time the Liverpool fans and pundit Steve McManaman were complaining that Argyle were not giving it a go, and were, therefore, spoiling the game as a spectacle.  Clearly nobody told Argyle the were supposed to attack in a kamikaze manner, allow Liverpool to score five goals and send everybody home happy!

No, this was the equivalent of  Argyle's first leg away from home in a major European Cup competition. Imagine they were Red Star Belgrade. Their only objectives were to be still in the game at half-time and ideally take Liverpool back to Home Park next week for the Second Leg. It is one thing for a manager to set out the tactics and strategy, but another altogether for the players to execute, especially when they are 66 positions and three divisions between them.

Argyle and their 'spoiling' tactics were not the problem. The young Liverpool team did not play with any pace or imagination and were almost like a fly trapped in a spiders web.

The two games will be worth almost £1m to Argyle. They have only recently paid off all their remaining debts from their period in administration, they have attracted new money through an additional director and a share/bond redistribution and that has allowed them to purchase their ground and now announce plans for a new grandstand and associated  revenue earning facilities on the fourth side of the pitch.
Argyle have one of the last surviving Archibald Leitch main grandstands, and an elegant Art Nouveau entrance to the ground. Plans are said to include both these features in the new stand. That is a noble gesture these days, when so much heritage is demolished in the name of progress.

Things are definitiely looking brighter for Argyle now, they must just ensure they get promoted this season so that the Green Army waggon can keep on rolling.

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.....

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?

Margaret Thatcher

So, the Iron Lady is dead. At 87 she was the same age as the Queen and my mum, both iron ladies in their own way
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All the commentators are indicating that there is no grey area surrounding the ex-prime minister, you either loved her or hated her. For my part, I was a fan. While the three day week and other trade union disruptive behaviour was an inconvenience, it highlighted a part of Britain which needed to be reigned in, she obliged. Her alliance with Ronald Regan cemented that special relationship with the USA which Tony Blair did his utmost to tear asunder.  That relationship went a long way to ending the Cold War, and the threat which the Soviet Union posed to the West. Gorbachev became a fan too. She was also strong in the face of Argentine aggression towards the Falkland Islands, and stood toe to toe with the IRA. Their bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton only re-enforced her resolve and her unwillingness to be turned.

Closer to home, as the first lady prime minister she end out a message to women that there was no glass ceiling, and what you strived for could be achieved, whatever gender you were. I suspect Cheryl Blair benefited in no small way to the Thatcher pioneering process. A wide and varied range of council house tenants are now home owners as a result of her 'right to buy' initiative and while her Keynesian oriented social reforms were not overly popular, they were what the Country needed at the time.

It is sad to see celebrations in the streets of Glasgow, to mark her passing, with many of the participants too young and blinkered to even understand the climate in which she operated. The miners will continue to hold a grievance as they are of the view that she destroyed their industry. Time has shown that coal was a dying commodity and the lack of investment in the Country's energy policies after that became apparent lies very much at the feet of the Labour government which followed her.

We are all suffering the effects of the nationalisation of British Gas, but most of her other decisions have been vindicated over time as successive governments have not repealed her policies.

She will for ever be seen as the villain of the piece up here on Merseyside, and Derek Hatton was rolled out yesterday to continue the assault on her character, God he looked a mess. It was she, however, who continued to support Liverpool after the Toxteth riots, and whose vision helped to the City  to become what it is today. There are many who blame her for the cover-up over the Hillsborough disaster, however, she had used the police creatively during the miners strike and was unlikely to let them be crucified by the victim's relatives at that stage. It wasn't her who opened the gates or made questionable decisions on the day, but difficult  decisions she did make all her term in office.

She will be afforded the funeral she deserves as one of the great British prime ministers, and the one thing her death has done is get people talking about politics again. Currently Parliament lacks characters, and like her or loathe her, a character she definitely was. Where would Spitting Image have gone without her?

SuperLambBanana

Well the Liverpool Capital of Culture team have at last made a difference which all of joe public can enjoy.

125, two metre tall replicas of Taro Cheizo’s iconic SuperLambBanana sculpture have been painted, decorated and adorned by local artists, schools and community groups, to create a free to view, open air, public art spectacular.

The sculptures will only be on display until 25 August after which they will be auctioned off, and there is a web site dedicated to them or read the wikipedia entry.....and follow this map link This is a picture of the original.......

The Long and Winding Road.....

Last weekend saw the start of the year in which Liverpool will be the Capital of Culture. The beginning was marked by two events in the centre of the city.

The first, on Friday night was billed as the peoples opening and took place outdoors in front of St Georges Hall. The event was pretty average to be honest, and a bit disjointed, the highlight being the appearance of over 100 guitarists on top of the Hall, the nearby shopping centre and Lime Street station. It tried to emulate Brian may when he played God Save the Queen from the top of Buck Pal, for the Queens Jubilee.

The event was beamed live around the world, except to the UK of course, as Liverpool shot itself in the foot by failing to agree sufficient performing rights deals to allow that to happen. So all the UK saw were highlights on the news, and a review programme on Sunday evening. The sign of things to come perhaps?

Phil Redmond, of Grange Hill and Brookside fame had been running the organising committee, and he described the whole venture as similar to putting on a Scouse wedding, lots of fighting in the buildup but a great party on the night. Trouble is, this has become the byline for the whole event, and its a bit tiresome to hear every commentator or pundit using the expression. The wedding is over, get on with married life!!!.

The second event on Saturday was in the brand new Echo Arena in the Albert dock area of the City. We managed to blag tickets for the event.....good old e-bay......and the arena certainly matched the occasion. It holds about 10,000 people and it was packed.

The Liverpool Philharmonic provided the backdrop to the event, being presented vertically on a wall of scaffolding behind the set. Amongst the acts were Echo and the Bunnymen ( good choice for the arena!!), The Wombats, The Christians and the Lightening Seeds. They were good, but the orchestra stole the show, and I had the chance to sing Jerusalem, although nobody else seemed to join in.

There was also no rendition of 'Ferry Across the Mersey', or 'You'll Never Walk Alone' and where were the Zootons?

Headlining both nights was Ringo Starr, who cemented his reputation for being the Posh Spice of the Beatles. When he sang 'A Little Help from my Friends', you just hoped Joe Cocker would suddenly appear to help him out.

Still, all in all a good night out, finished off with a pint of bitter in the Baltic Fleet, and a scoff in Chinatown. The Arena does not sell bitter, the only down side I could find in the venue.

Schools out for ever

Our youngest , Kieran, has just sat his final, finals, so as his mother says, today is the last day of school, ever. I think he has other ideas, however, as he sees a Masters beckoning. That will, of course, depend on his final degree grading, and the Faculty's willingness to take him, but with a following wind, and a good mark for his dissertation, he should make it. He is reading History at Liverpool Uni His bro and two sisters all spend an extra year in full time education so I guess it is only fair he does too.

Fairness is something we think increasingly about with the four of them, as one wants money for a house deposit, another wants money for this or that and so on. You can't give one without giving all, certainly where hard cash is concerned.

As a result Kieran is feeling pretty cheesed off at the moment as he has just been offered a ticket to the Champions League final in Athens, by his Grandad. His Uncle turned it down, and sadly he had to too, as the whole package would have been about £800. Still he is young enough to enjoy another Liverpool glory night in the future. he also has two holidays booked in the coming few weeks, so something had to give!

Still he is 21 in a few days, hopefully he can celebrate a Liverpool win at the barbecue we are putting on. These events are some of the rare times all the kids are in one place so we treasure the moments for what they are.

I play the mad chef and everybody else gets trollied!!