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  

Room with a view

 Goodness me April has just flown by following the return from Augusta. Round 4 there was spoilt a bit by the storms which had hit earlier in the week, and the course was really quite slippy. I was surprised that it was open given the American approach to litigation and so on, but they must have had so many overseas visitors booked that they took the risk. Of the four courses it was the most disappointing, but that's not to say it was not a decent layout, it was just not shown off to its best.

At least our trip home was less stressed than going out although the trip from the car hire drop off to the terminal building was a bit hairy. we made the flight and that was what mattered most.

The months was peppered with bad and sad news, as first my long term golf partner George Stephenson, had a heart attack and at 87 years old one is never quite sure how he is going to be after recovery. I am delighted to say though that he has recovered and started to play 18 holes again, albeit less frequently. His resolve is a true inspiration to everyone, particularly someone like me who can get so down when the golf is rubbish. At the moment I think I left my game in the States but after comparison with the situation George was in, I now know I brought it back with me, I just need to find where I put it!!

The sad news came some days later when we learnt that our good friend Marion Figgins passed away suddenly but not unexpectedly. She had been mourning the loss of her husband 'Figs' since he left us a few years ago, and she was struggling to live without him. Her funeral is next week so we shall be attending that. They are the first husband and wife friends we have lost so that leaves a big gap in our lives and those of their other friends too.

Socially number 2 son and I went to Wigan to watch Argyle try for a play-off spot. They got a valuable point there but failed to finish the season off well, due mostly to injuries which left the squad running on empty. I then hit Manchester and the Ivy restaurant with a group of ex-work colleagues. The views from the rooftop restaurants are pretty impressive.

Then on Sunday the local village had its annual gardens open day, and on this occasion we were able to climb to the top of the bell tower for St Saviors church where we had the classic ' I can see your house from here' moment. The climb up and down the 99 stairs was not the best therapy for my arthritic knee though. Roll on August when I will be able to see a consultant!!

Other good news on the housing front came toward the end of the month when number 1 son confirmed he had completed on his house in France which is great news. He is between jobs at the moment so once that challenge is sorted out he should be well placed to enjoy his new environment.

So as we move into May, SWMBO is off and running with the Summer invigilator season, I have managed to progress to the 2nd round of two golf knock-out competitions, a rare achievement these days, and golf days are starting to occur at shorter intervals. We need to book a holiday togther so we have something else to look forward to, but we are struggling to know where to go but I am sure we will come to a decision shortly..

It's tough at the top.

The perfect Ten....

This has no reference to events in Wigan on Sunday, but to the annual ten Tors expedition which has been running across Dartmoor this weekend. The route varies with age, but forces the participants to visit ten of the Tors on Dartmoor as indicated on their joining instructions.Teams consist of six people and the route has to be completed by 5pm on Sunday, with the participants spending the Saturday night on the moor. You may recall that last year the whole event had to be abandoned as the weather was so bad. Poor visibility, rain and wind contributed to the decision to evacuate 2,500 kids at short notice. The Armed Forces who police the event acted with military precision to complete the task with minimum trauma to the teams.

This years event had already been marred by the death of one girl earlier in the year while her team were practicing for the walk.

This weekends event, however, went much better. Most of the teams completed the course, and those that were removed from the route early were forced off by blisters or heat exhaustion, as the temperatures this year hit 80- degrees.

All six members of the team need to complete the course to ensure they all get a commemorative medal, and I can remember my pal Stu doing it while we were at school, and telling us stories of how they literally had to drag one of their team the last few miles to the finishing line in Oakhampton in order to get theirs.

So well done to those that completed the walk this year, and to the organisers and the military for sustaining the event into the future.

Vote of Confidence

Footie fans across the Country have been gnashing their teeth with some degree of anguish, as a pre-Christmas merry-go-round of managerial changes have been taking place.Its quite strange though how the managers seem to come off best.

Take Ian Hollowords for example. He resigns from the Argyle, and joins Leicester allegedly for £400k per annum, almost doubling his salary. His wife and kids have just moved into a new house in Plymouth, and now have to leave for Leicester. Not ideal. He gets replaced by Paul Sturrock, who leaves Swindon where he has no money, and no prospects as they stumble from one failed takeover to another. There are no indications of his salary package yet but I suspect he will do better from it than previously.

The rumour mill indicates Steve Cotterill will take over at Swindon. He parted company with Burnley a few weeks ago, with an agreed compensation package, so has not been out of work long. Burnley replaced him with Owen Coyle from St Johnstone, North of the border and Derek Mcinnes has replaced Coyle, a promotion from within the ranks.......

So, all the fans have been frustrated, but the managers seem to have sorted themselves pretty well.

A similar situation is occurring in the Premiership. Wigan part company with Hutchings, who took over when Paul Jewell left the club. Steve Bruce has now left Birmingham to take up the reins. Birmingham have acquired the ex-Scotland boss, Alex McLeish, and Billy Davies, sacked from Derby, indicates he would quite like the Scotland managers job. Meanwhile the aforementioned Paul Jewell steps smoothly into the Derby hot seat, and everybody is rockin' and rollin'.

All we have to do now is fill the England job, but wait a moment Rafael Benitez will get the sack tonight if Liverpool lose in the European Champions League, and the roundabout can start all over again.