Rickyyyyyyyy!!

The BBC soap opera Eastenders, occasionally comes up with some gems as part of its dialogue.

I am reminded of the quote Mo Slater came out with prior to attending one of Ian Beales parties....'I hope there is a cheese and pineapple hedgehog' she said,'it isn't a proper party without one of those'

Memories of childhood came flooding back, when you always dived for the hedgehog, and then removed the cheese before plonking the cocktail stick and pineapple back in the display. I have to say though, that I can't think when last I attended a party which incorporated the hedgehog as part of its running buffet.

My recent golf trip to Portugal though brought one of Dot Cottons philosophical sayings to mind. 'Buy cheap, buy twice', she once said. Now how many of us have suffered from these words of wisdom when buying electric power tools, screwdrivers or sports equipment. These days you usually get what you pay for.

I was team captain of the Sixhitters and needed team shirts and outfits for the match and the final dinner. Given the gear was probably only going to be worn once, and thrown away, there was only one place to go, Primark. Primark is owned by British Associated Foods, and is the flagship brand in their portfolio. It has embraced the Tesco motto previously attributed to food, 'pile em high, sell em cheap', and focused it on the clothing market.

Much of their stuff is crap, but with polo shirt at £5 and £3 for a pair of white shell suit trousers which can double as cricket flannels, I was not too bothered. Neither made the return trip from the Algarve.

If I was in their marketing team, I would be exploring the possibility of opening stores in Aiya Napa, Ibiza and other 'kids' resorts. People could then fly EasyJet with hand luggage only, buy their outfits in the resort, and leave them there on departure. The money they save on hold bags should cover their t-shirts and leggings requirements!!

The way to utilise the Primark brand is simple. Be choosy, select the stuff which will last,both from a fashion perspective and durability, and mix and match them with other more accepted high street or designer outfits. That way you will be dressed individually and at reasonable cost. I buy their mens fashion trousers, but avoid the blue chinos, as they have a tendency to go green after washing, and their cashmere sweaters can last a season. Otherwise I treat Primark like a fancy dress shop. Suits you Sir!

The Moose is Loose

I should be posting more regularly now the vacation silly season at IBM has concluded. In previous years employees were permitted to carry up to five days into the following vacation year, but from 2007 they introduced a 5th April deadline. Use your vacation by then, or lose it. Consequently a large percentage of the Company are away during March and early April. I was no exception.

I have just enjoyed six very pleasant days in Quinta d'Lago near Almancil in Portugal, playing golf for the Moose and Algarve Cups, as well as finding myself embroiled in an unexpected battle for the 'Parrot'.

Twelve like minded individuals participated in the event, and for the Moose Cup they were divided into two teams, The Six Shooters, and The Six Hitters, each player being named after a famous firearm, or a famous one day cricketer. The Moose Cup is competed for each year as a memorial to a previous tourist, Robert Elk, who died some years ago and was affectionately referred to as Moose.

Day one was played on the greens of the Pieneros Altos course, and saw the Hitters take a commanding lead. Day two, on the demanding greens of the Quinta South course saw the Shooters storm back into contention, but a halved contest in the final captains four ball saw the Hitters hold on for a 10.5 v 7.5 victory.

The Algarve Cup is played over four days, with the best three scores counting towards the final total. Scores were low this year, with excess of alcohol and tricky pin positions contributing to the mix. Chris 'Shelter' Anderson ran out winner and his pleasure at winning the trophy was almost matched by his delight at backing himself with the bookie at 13-1 E/W.

I managed to be involved in some notable events during the six days. My co-driver and I were wacked by a Land Rover as we crossed a road in our buggy!!! I managed to drink almost a bottle of Vodka one night, as I was obviously seen as a threat for the title, and nobbled!! and I almost won a trip to Florida for the Greg Norman $10M hole in one challenge, when I pitched my ball six inches from the hole on the nominated qualifying green.

But the highlight of the week was to be presented with the 'Parrot' as a symbol of some outstanding shot making on the course rather than in the bar! Sadly though, the shots mostly went in the wrong direction and I consequently came last. Pretty poor Polly all round!

Entry fee extra....

There has been much discussion lately about the rising cost of air travel, with talk of increased landing charges for Heathrow and Gatwick and fuel charge supplements affecting most major airlines. Couple that with the cheap airlines like RyanAir and EasyJet adding-on for hold baggage and golf clubs, and the whole scene becomes extremely confusing. people are up in arms about early boarding charges and 'long leg' premiums. All are classed as stealth charges making cheap ticket prices a misleading selling ploy.

Luckily the Office of Fair Trading has clamped down on these practices so that at least the surcharges are included in the price, if not the luggage charge. Now lets turn our attention to something else which continues to irritate me.

I regularly use TicketMaster for concert and sporting event tickets. They have hidden charges too. This week I ordered six tickets with face value £15 each for a rugby game at Twickenham. I was then charged a booking fee of £2.40 per ticket, and postage of £2.20. As I could only order two tickets at a time that cost me postage on each transaction. The whole package was £109.80, a 22% premium on their face value.

So, I went directly to the RFU box office as I was passing, but they were not selling tickets for this event, it was TicketMaster or nothing. What I want to know is why don't they just say the tickets are £18.40 including P & P, up front, so we all know where we stand, or in this case, sit?

Canon to left of them, canon to right of them....

You can read about the latest Six nations Rugby weekend on my chum Dicks blog here. The focus of the evening was once again centred on The Prince Blucher public house, and at the bus-stop as we waited for our big red carriage to take us home, Dicks son Robert asked who he was.

So who is he and what do I know about the pub?

Well, Prince Blucher was actually a Prussian field marshall who led his army against Napolean I the Battle of Nations at Leipzig in 1813 and at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815 with the Duke of Wellington. Indeed had Bluchers army not intervened at Waterloo it is likely that Wellington would have been defeated. In that particular action, however, Bluchers army was directed there by General August von Gneisenau who assumed command of what remained of Bluchers army, after a defeat at Ligny. Blucher was trapped for several hours under his dead horse and assumed to have been killed in action. He dies in 1819 aged 76, however, in recognition of his service to, and support of Wellington, the British named a steam train after him. Better that than having to put your Bluchers on when it gets muddy!

So what of the pub? It has been in the ownership of Fullers brewery for many years. Rugby memorabilia adorns the walls and a plaque commemorates the founding of Twickenham Rugby Football Club in the pub in 1867. They no longer play their games on the green opposite the pub of course, but you can re-enact history during the summer months and bring your beer with you.

Members of the club still drink in there regularly, although it ceased to be the gathering place for the majority when 'Holty Corner' was removed to be shortly followed by the landlord John Geller, who subsequently moved over to the Sussex across the road. James, the manager who took over, was very tolerant of our Sunshine mountain at the weekend, although I think weight of numbers was in our favour!!

The pub used to have a bar top which was made up of old pennies, but the Health and Safety Executive had something to say about that and it was removed in the early Eighties . Some of it survives now in the Fullers museum in Chiswick.

It has sadly made the national news for all the wrong reasons in the last few years when Levi Bellfield, was recently convicted of killing Amelie Delagrange and Marsha McDonnell. Amelie was killed on the Green outside the pub.

Prince Blucher was also part of my life when we purchased a house in Waterloo, a suburb of Merseyside, just North of Liverpool. Not surprisingly there is a Wellington Street, a Blucher Street and Picton Road, named after Sir Thomas Picton, one of Wellingtons trusted lieutenants who was killed in the battle.

Colonel Fuller, commander of the King's Dragoon Guards, was also killed in battle, I wonder whether that influenced the brewery to recognise the battle in the Prince Blucher pub name?

Terminal velocity

Continuing the aeronautical theme, I was interested to see that the new terminal 5 at Heathrow airport was opened by the Queen on Friday. I try to avoid flying from Heathrow whenever possible as it has become a bit of a nightmare, but needs must and when they get it right, then its fine. Living only 15 minutes away from terminal 1 is a great advantage, but I suspect access to terminal 5 will be impossible from the M4, so a drive of indeterminate length will be required to arrive at and leave from the new building. The main problem is that the access to the terminal is a spur from the M25 motorway at one of its most busy points between the M4 and the A30. On a bad day a 15 minute journey could become an hour or more, not good.

It is interesting that Beijing has opened its new terminal at about the same time, in preparation for the Olympic Games, here are some comparisons. Heathrow Terminal 5 (T5) is the size of 50 football pitches. Beijing (B) is the size of 170!!. Both claim to be built on time and to budget. T5 is the largest free-standing building in the UK , B is the second biggest structure in the World, and has 17% more floorspace than all of Heathrows five terminals combined. Unfortunately nine villages were flattened and 10,000 people were displaced to allow for its construction.

The Olympic angle is interesting as the plan at Heathrow is now to demolish the Queens building and terminals 1 & 2 to allow redevelopment for the super jumbo's and other services offered by non-BA airlines. Recent announcements have indicated the planned redevelopment cannot now be completed in time for 2012.

I wonder how many villages will be flattened if the plans for the third runway at Heathrow gets the go-ahead.

We apologise for the delay to flight EZ1234.....

We flew with GB Airways when we went to Cyprus. They are an interesting airline in as much as they were, until recently, in the private ownership of the Bland Group, with BA operating them as a franchise. The Bland brothers have now agreed to sell the airline to EasyJet, who will acquire the routes out of Gatwick and Manchester, but not the slots at Heathrow more's the pity.

The aircraft seemed to be standard BA stock although it was interesting that the seat pitch was greater flying out than it was flying back when we had those seats that stuck into you somewhere whenever you tried to get to sleep.

I have always been curious of the sub-culture which exists on aircraft. I can rationalise that they never show the Airplane movies or other flight disaster movies, but tell me this, why do you never get chips with the meal?

Cyprus creek

Well as the out-laws are sunning themselves on their golden wedding cruise around South America, the missus and I decided to try the delights of Cyprus for a week. I had wanted to try out this Aphrodite Hills Resort which had a renowned golf course, and a spa for the ladies, and neither of us had been to the island before, so off we went.

Its a funny island in as much as it is divided by a UN separation zone between the Greek side and Turkish side, and the crossing point near Nicosia is like a front line was zone. The Turkish side is poorer, but many Greeks left and lost land worth thousands of Euro's when the invasion occurred, and they were forced to move South.

Now I have heard of Agia Napa and the various British enclaves which cover the military bases on the island, but other than that it was a voyage of discovery. Did you know for example that Mount Olympus in the Troodos mountains is nearly 2000m high? Well, we drove to the top up some very basic roads, and had we been in the mood, we could have skied in the substantial fresh snow which had fallen earlier. As it was we continued to the monastery at Kykkos, which is impressive, but not quite such a feat of engineering as those on Mount Athos, an area which is called the Autonomous Monastic State of the Holy Mountain in the Macedonia region of Greece.

The golf course which I played four times, was a sound test of golf, particularly when the strong wind blew off the Southern plains of the Sahara. Over the course of those rounds, I played with Dutch, German and Russian partners, such is the cosmopolitan attraction of the area.

Many people, the Russians and English being prime, are purchasing holiday homes on the island, although I certainly would not fly over Portugal or Italy to do so. The island has a serious water problem and is discussing shipping water in from Lebanon. Pathos is already dominated by 'English' bars in the same way Agia Napa attracts the young crowd with its night clubs, and with limited transportation and few activities which could maintain ones interest in the long term, I fail to see the attraction of living there.

Now the locals try hard and are tremendously helpful and friendly, but I can't help but feel the tourist board send people around the island to look for interesting sites to drag tourists to. A natural spring has been called Aphrodites bath, a rock in the sea off Pisseria has been called Aphrodites birthplace, and so it goes on. All have the obligatory tourist shack but little else.

The mosaics at the World Heritage site by the harbour are impressive but they are an exception, and I suspect most of the visitors are there for the sun, Fat Mama's and the Rose and Crown. Ah well, everyone to their own.