Goodness me its a bit chilly up here in Scouseland. That said, it was definitely brass monkey weather in London on Saturday. I am seriously in need of a spot welder.
I took it on myself to take the lads to Twickenham en masse, as the opportunity presented itself. So both sons, Tim and Kieran together with my nephew Matthew wrapped up warm and set off.....except Matthew but more of that later.
First stop had to be the Prince Blucher to allow the two boys a beer before kick-off. Then it was the standard hike through the Stoop to the ground and a chance for Kieran and Matthew to see their first England international game.
England got battered up front, and seemed unable to do anything about it. I still do wonder whether a plod at the helm is the right intellectual leadership criteria, and maybe new chief executive, John Steele , may think Johnno and Rob Andrew need some more help. It seems, though, that the latter is in more danger of dismissal.
With the game over it was back to the Blucher for more amber nectar, some friendly chit chat and back to our respective abodes.
So, Matthew was having his first taste of Twickenham and indicated that he had a good time. I did wonder though. The lad is only 12 and was at an all night party on the Friday ( well 22:30 which probably seemed like all night, I know it is for me these days!!), then he went to a paint ball party at 09:00 Saturday morning in Swindon, then to the match, then home.
He turned down the opportunity to wear his coat at the match as it is not cool to be so dressed up, I can't help thinking there is a Newcastle United supporter in their waiting to get out. That or he was hoping to catch a cold and have a few days off school in the snow.
Anyway, a good time was had by all, and when Matthews dad MSN'd us on the Sunday morning from Afghanistan I was able to tell him his son had been Bluchered, but the chance of turning him from a Wales fan to England had not worked so well due to the result. He indicated that it was good training for following the Dragon in the coming season of 6 Nations games. We shall see.
As part of the evening entertainment we searched out a few YouTube video's. Check out this one, a history of music in 3 minutes.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Sunday, 31 October 2010
trouble at mill
The variants of the English language, and the dialects associated with different cultures and regions was brought home to me at the weekend.
We had flyer from a new curry house through the door, the Himalaya, and they had some interesting sounding dishes on the menu. Consequently we decided to give it a go at the weekend.
SWMBO had her usual biriyani, with madras hot sauce, and I by way of a change ordered the Chicken Naga.
It took ages to arrive and I had to ring to remind them, not a good sign. Eventually the food arrived and the biriyani looked great, but imagine my suprise when instead of Chicken Naga I opened up Chicken nuggets and chips.
When I rang up again they said they had trouble understanding my accent...great, like, ay pal.....
We had flyer from a new curry house through the door, the Himalaya, and they had some interesting sounding dishes on the menu. Consequently we decided to give it a go at the weekend.
SWMBO had her usual biriyani, with madras hot sauce, and I by way of a change ordered the Chicken Naga.
It took ages to arrive and I had to ring to remind them, not a good sign. Eventually the food arrived and the biriyani looked great, but imagine my suprise when instead of Chicken Naga I opened up Chicken nuggets and chips.
When I rang up again they said they had trouble understanding my accent...great, like, ay pal.....
Friday, 15 October 2010
"Parker?" "Yes m'lady"
A school in Stockport has withdrawn the use of fountain pens from their students as the school scanners are struggling to interpret the decimal point in maths papers.
Is this the end of yet another traditional and important aspect of communication, the hand written letter or report?
I have been a keen fountain pen fan, from times far back where I am fast struggling to remember. My father had a classic gold cased Parker pen and pencil set, and signed his name in a flourish which resembled a caterpillar, the P of Paul being the head, and the continuation with a (for Alexander) and weathers with a small w making up the body.
I had several pens presented to me on my 21st birthday, the Parker with the italic nib I still have 35 years later. It was a present from the kind couple who lived below us in the flat in Balham when I was a student which I shared with three other chaps.
I have wheeled and dealed fountain pens on eBay over the years, selling some I have found about the house and some acquired from car boot sales. Parker continues to be the sought after brand, although Cross are a more modern collectible, and Mont Blanc have more recently established themselves as market leaders in the 'poseur' market populated by estate agents and bankers.
That said, each of our children was presented with a Mont Blanc fountain pen for their 18th birthday, and I do have one which I use myself for special communications. On a day to day basis I use a Lamy or one of my two Rotring Core pens. They are all cartridge powered now, although i do still have an ink converter for the Parker.
There is still no better sight than seeing a hand written envelope in the daily post tray, an image which leads to it being the first item opened. I do hope the fountain pen survives into the future, I wd h8 it 2 b ex'd
Is this the end of yet another traditional and important aspect of communication, the hand written letter or report?
I have been a keen fountain pen fan, from times far back where I am fast struggling to remember. My father had a classic gold cased Parker pen and pencil set, and signed his name in a flourish which resembled a caterpillar, the P of Paul being the head, and the continuation with a (for Alexander) and weathers with a small w making up the body.
I had several pens presented to me on my 21st birthday, the Parker with the italic nib I still have 35 years later. It was a present from the kind couple who lived below us in the flat in Balham when I was a student which I shared with three other chaps.
I have wheeled and dealed fountain pens on eBay over the years, selling some I have found about the house and some acquired from car boot sales. Parker continues to be the sought after brand, although Cross are a more modern collectible, and Mont Blanc have more recently established themselves as market leaders in the 'poseur' market populated by estate agents and bankers.
That said, each of our children was presented with a Mont Blanc fountain pen for their 18th birthday, and I do have one which I use myself for special communications. On a day to day basis I use a Lamy or one of my two Rotring Core pens. They are all cartridge powered now, although i do still have an ink converter for the Parker.
There is still no better sight than seeing a hand written envelope in the daily post tray, an image which leads to it being the first item opened. I do hope the fountain pen survives into the future, I wd h8 it 2 b ex'd
Wednesday, 13 October 2010
Careful, careful.....
I am delighted the Savoy is reopening in stages over the next few weeks, and will make the point of dining in the Grill and having a few cocktails in the Thames bar when I am in town and able to do so.
It always fascinated me as a lad that Savoy Street was, and still is, the only street in London where traffic drives on the right hand side of the road. It was to ensure the drivers could alight on the pavement and open the door for their clientele to do the same.
Such style.
It always fascinated me as a lad that Savoy Street was, and still is, the only street in London where traffic drives on the right hand side of the road. It was to ensure the drivers could alight on the pavement and open the door for their clientele to do the same.
Such style.
Bah! bumbug!
I don't believe it. Two Christmas trees have just been erected in one of the offices I am using in London. Our finance team have a weird approach to the festive season and seem to do this sort of thing every year.
Its gloriously sunny outside, and here I am faced with one artificial and one real tree. They have even started humming carols as bemused salesmen and women look on with expressions crying out 'get a life chaps'
I am a bit of a stickler at home, having educated the kids to mention Christmas only after bonfire night has passed, but with the increasing commercialisation of the festive season by department stores and the like it has been a struggle. The rule used to be that anything they asked for before 5th November they would not get.
After a few tantrums, they soon worked out that the stuff they definitely did not want was the stuff they asked for early...crafty buggers.
Anyway, the turkey and tinsel season has definitely started early here, I must hang my stocking up.
Its gloriously sunny outside, and here I am faced with one artificial and one real tree. They have even started humming carols as bemused salesmen and women look on with expressions crying out 'get a life chaps'
I am a bit of a stickler at home, having educated the kids to mention Christmas only after bonfire night has passed, but with the increasing commercialisation of the festive season by department stores and the like it has been a struggle. The rule used to be that anything they asked for before 5th November they would not get.
After a few tantrums, they soon worked out that the stuff they definitely did not want was the stuff they asked for early...crafty buggers.
Anyway, the turkey and tinsel season has definitely started early here, I must hang my stocking up.
Sunday, 3 October 2010
Tarmac yer path guv?
We are very nearly the owners of a brand new kitchen. It has been a long journey , about two months in total, and we still await the covings from Poland, via Spain....yes really, and a new tap to replace the leaking one. Then I think we are done.
We are awaiting chairs from IKEA, they were out of stock when we ordered them, but are now available in store, but as we ordered by mail order they have to come from their main distribution centre in Rotherham. Oh well lets hope the wait is worth it.
We next need to sort out the bathrooms which are all well old and starting to develop problems. We need to sort them out before we can redecorate, much like the roof.
I would like to do a bit of work on the swimming pool as that is also in need of attention, so I dropped into CRS a pool company near Tarpoley to see if they had been the initial installation company. They were singularly unhelpful and asked me all the questions I was hoping they would have the answers to. I was firing buying signals at them all the time but they were totally oblivious to them, so have lost any chance they had of getting the refurbishing contract. Given pool maintenance companies are few and far between though, I will have to do some more research.
The highlight of the redevelopment so far though has been the work paving Dave and his mate Tony have done to turn our front path from a sloping Winter death trap into a fine set of steps which match in with the patio and house character very well....they are about to grout all the flags at the mo but are getting frustrated by the constant rain fall which is slowing them down.
I call him paving Dave as the kitchen fitters have Dave the sparks, Dave the tiles and Dave the odd job man, far too many Daves!
We are awaiting chairs from IKEA, they were out of stock when we ordered them, but are now available in store, but as we ordered by mail order they have to come from their main distribution centre in Rotherham. Oh well lets hope the wait is worth it.
We next need to sort out the bathrooms which are all well old and starting to develop problems. We need to sort them out before we can redecorate, much like the roof.
I would like to do a bit of work on the swimming pool as that is also in need of attention, so I dropped into CRS a pool company near Tarpoley to see if they had been the initial installation company. They were singularly unhelpful and asked me all the questions I was hoping they would have the answers to. I was firing buying signals at them all the time but they were totally oblivious to them, so have lost any chance they had of getting the refurbishing contract. Given pool maintenance companies are few and far between though, I will have to do some more research.
The highlight of the redevelopment so far though has been the work paving Dave and his mate Tony have done to turn our front path from a sloping Winter death trap into a fine set of steps which match in with the patio and house character very well....they are about to grout all the flags at the mo but are getting frustrated by the constant rain fall which is slowing them down.
I call him paving Dave as the kitchen fitters have Dave the sparks, Dave the tiles and Dave the odd job man, far too many Daves!
Thursday, 2 September 2010
Four men on a raft
August Bank Holiday at the moment means only one thing to us, the annual Bampton raft race. This is the third year we have participated and we feel quite proud of the fact that we have revitalised the race and seen a marked increase in participants.
This year though it took a bit of a step backwards as the village was divided as to how it should be managed. The crew who have done it for years served notice of their retirement a couple of years ago, so this time there was no entry fee, no starter, no b-b-q or bar at the end, and no presentation of trophies. It all left a bot of a taste in the mouth, over and above that of the river!
Hopefully next year they will have their act together and it will be another true village event. We are already into costume design, with jolly jack tar's the theme for 2011. we have won the best dressed raft title twice in three years so need to keep up appearances.
The race itself was gruelling with the river too low to paddle the whole way. Pulling the raft along the river bed for several hundred yards put the lashings and our stamina to the test. i have to say our stamina stood up tot he task better.
Our thanks go to the ladies raft members who we overtook in the final stages, to avoid being last. We really do need to give some thought to a low draught raft for next time.
This year though it took a bit of a step backwards as the village was divided as to how it should be managed. The crew who have done it for years served notice of their retirement a couple of years ago, so this time there was no entry fee, no starter, no b-b-q or bar at the end, and no presentation of trophies. It all left a bot of a taste in the mouth, over and above that of the river!
Hopefully next year they will have their act together and it will be another true village event. We are already into costume design, with jolly jack tar's the theme for 2011. we have won the best dressed raft title twice in three years so need to keep up appearances.
The race itself was gruelling with the river too low to paddle the whole way. Pulling the raft along the river bed for several hundred yards put the lashings and our stamina to the test. i have to say our stamina stood up tot he task better.
Our thanks go to the ladies raft members who we overtook in the final stages, to avoid being last. We really do need to give some thought to a low draught raft for next time.
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