Heros and Villains

Amateur psychologists will be having a field day today following an increase in the looting and rioting which is affecting London, and now, other parts of the Country.

There always seems to be a backlash from the black community whenever their brothers and the police are involved in arms related confrontations, particularly when one of their own ends up dead. Events in Tottenham which led to the death are still subject to the two sides of a story principal, but with the Broadwater Farm estate being a tinder box ready to ignite, it is no surprise that N1 felt the first tremors of unrest.

Should the police have seen it coming, well probably yes, and they probably did, but not to the extent that it flared up there, and then spread like wildfire through most of the deprived boroughs of London.

The looting portfolio surprised me though. Times are hard, and people in these run down areas are affected more than most, so I would have expected most of the looting to be centred on Tesco or Sainsburys to allow them to stock pile food and drink . interestingly it was the electrical stores and clothing outlets which people were filmed targeting, with JD Sports in particular being stripped of clothing fit for a riot!!

The fact that the usual suspects were listed on the news bulletins as being affected by rioting was again a sad indictment of the progress, or lack of it, being made in the inner city areas like Brixton, Toxteth, St Pauls, MossSide and the Bullring area of Birmingham in the thirty years or so since the last great uprising. It is interesting that the youths at the vanguard of those riots are now probably parents in their own right. I wonder whether they fell responsible or let down?

There seems a great will on behalf of the man and woman in the street to not allow these riots to devastate their own neighbourhood. The social networks which are thought to have allowed mobs to congregate in the first place are now being used equally effectively by the Joe Public clean up squads which are being formed in Croydon, Hackney, Bethnal Green and other areas to minimise the damage and debris.

With the police now assessing the use of rubber bullets as a deterrent, I would rather see the Cheshire Regiment or a few Para's just back from Afghanistan let loose on the so called British citizens whose freedom they have been six months protecting. That would clear the streets pretty quickly.

Tunnel vision

I went for an MRI scan last night at the Clatterbridge centre for oncology. There is no need to get worried, the oncology department has the permanent scanner and is quite close to home, and it was some inflammation and pain in my foot which is the problem.

The doctor called it a form of tendinitis affecting the hollow foot tendon. The hollow foot tendon (aponeurosis plantaris) runs from the heel bone under the sole, and is attached to all five toes. The hollow foot tendon is a functional extension of the Achilles tendon, and is instrumental in maintaining the arch running the length of the foot.

I had the classic symptoms; pain when running and playing golf, as well as when applying pressure at the attachment point of the hollow foot tendon directly under the heel bone. The pain is often most pronounced slightly on the inner side of the attachment although in my case it was the outer.

I was prescribed anti-inflammatories, and asked to leave it a while. if there was no improvement then a corticosteroid injection would be necessary. The reason for the MRI was to ensure they knew what they were doing with the needle as a number of injuries requiring treatment can easily be overlooked during a clinical examination. In cases where satisfactory progress is not in evidence, an ultrasound examination is performed as early as possible. Ultrasound scanning enables an evaluation of the extent of the change in the tendon; inflammation of the tendon (tendinitis), development of cicatricial tissue (tendinosis), calcification, inflammation of the tissue surrounding the tendon (peritendinitis), inflammation of the bursa (bursitis), as well as (partial) rupture

I hope none of this is relevant to me, as the initial pain has now subsided and I was able to get out running last night after I came back. If it turns out to be a heel spur or similar I guess I will have to live with that as surgical removal is not usually performed these days.

Anyway, back to the scanner. Its a scary beast which rumbles and grumbles as it performs its analysis. As it was my ankle under investigation I went in feet first and my head was able to stay outside the machine. The process took 45 minutes and hopefully they got my whole foot in the scanning process as my big toe has started to play up and it would be useful if that was diagnosed as well.

That could be gout or arthritis or any number of other things, but that's something to worry about once the results come back. Clatterbridge is under review at the moment, with many of the general hospital functions being relocated to Arrowe Park. The Oncolcogy unit is also rumoured to be moving to the Royal in Liverpool which would be a disappointment as having such facilities close to home is always a bonus.

Father of the Bride

On Friday number one daughter, Rebecca, got married to her long time sweetheart Jon, at a lovely service in Great Budworth, Cheshire, and later there were drinks and merriment at Arley Hall near Knutsford.

The bride looked wonderful, and I got to make yet another speech. This one was in English and a clip of it is here.

The bride made her own speech, something which is at odds with the formal wedding protocol, but the rule book seems to have been ripped up in all walks of life these days, and as she had been planning the event in her mind since she was six years old, who were we to deny her moment.

The lucky couple are now in Barbados on honeymoon, I am sure they are having a wonderful time

The Return of the Jedi

Over three years ago I wrote about Andrew Ainsworth taking on the might of Lucas Arts over the copyright of his storm trooper outfits.

Andrew, you may remember ran a commercial operation selling the kit from a small shop on Twickenham green.

Well I am delighted to report that he won his case, and is now able to expand and continue to provide outfits to all those Star Wars anoraks out there. The helmets can be as much as £500, and the outfits upwards of £1000, but there is the demand, so good luck to him, and its one in the eye for corporate bully boys.

Big box, little box

SWMBO is in Ibiza at the moment on number one daughter's hen 'night'. It's funny how a night can turn into five nights, but that seems the way of it these days. There are seven friends and family who have gone, and it sounds like they are having a rum old time.

The hotel is a bit like Colditz, with the swimming pool area being locked until 08:30. I suspect that is to stop them skinny dipping, their reputation must have foregone them!! The Germans must be frustrated though as they would not be able to grab the sun beds in their usual 06:00 dawn raid.

The crew have found a beach bar and restaurant where they can relax away from the Essex crowd, it looks a bit Pete Tong to me though, and last night they had a bop till they drop night at Pasha, one of the super clubs which San Antonio is famous for. It opened at midnight and SWMBO was most put out that the others bailed out at 05:00 as she wanted to go through to the close. I guess you got breakfast then, on the way home!!

All this just shows that the wedding is close at hand, I better practise my speech more this time in case that ends up on YouTube too!!! I think the piano playing will go out the window though.

Dead as a Dodo

We have just returned from our annual holiday, this year choosing Mauritius instead of our usual St Lucian resort. St Lucia suffered badly in the recent hurricanes so we thought we would give it a year to re-establish itself. Add to that the fact the golf is not now all inclusive and it was time to look around.

So, as well as some golf nearby, all inclusive was the preferred option, and swimming and spa treatments were the ideal choice for SWMBO. Now Mauritius has many luxury 5 and 5+ star hotels, but getting all inclusive options is a problem. The beer and wine at establishments which are half board, for example, can make the cost rocket.

We were delighted therefore to fall upon the Tamarina hotel. It is a new boutique hotel which opened on New Years Eve. it has 50 rooms, a spa and is attached to the Tamarina golf club. The golf club wends its way through an estate of tasteful one level villa's and is a very good test.

It also had an all inclusive option which included spa treatments, green fee's and local brand drinks, so we were sorted.

We flew overnight 12 hours both ways with Air Mauritius which was fine, although I would not have liked to do the flight during the day. Their service and on board entertainment were a bit nineties and would have struggled with the attention needed if you were awake. Still we got both ends refreshed and ready to go.

The hotel is about 45 minutes from the airport and is nestled between a deer park and the beach. when we arrived there were about 35 people booked in, and that fluctuated to a low of about 16 so it was really quiet. There were honeymooners and grey pounders mixed together and it worked well.

There were a couple of problems, one being the food selection which was pretty limited, but the staff did try to do variations on what resources they did have. The pools were not really conducive to swimming in either as they were built for looks rather than practicality, but the sea was warm and very shallow so that was fine.

Local wine was included, but we did splash out a few nights, and given the villa clientele was predominantly Saffa's and Frog's the wine list was excellent, if somewhat pricey.

One of the honeymoon couples was hit hard by the collapse of their holiday company while they were there, but the hotel did the best it could to continue to make their stay pleasant. The hotel gets paid 30 days after the holiday ends, so the collapse cost them all of the May revenue from that company. Their price was cheaper than the price we paid, but that was probably the reason why!

As well as playing the local golf course, I took a trip inland one day to play the Gymkhana Club.
It was laid out in 1844 by the Royal Navy, and having played Royal Marrakesh which was designed at about the same time by a British Army officer, I felt I needed to complete the double. The course was average and quite short, I suspect the initial 9 hole layout was better than the extended 18, as there is really insufficient land, but it was interesting to see the memorabilia in the clubhouse. It included a letter dates 1889 from General Gordon explaining the King's view of the place.....'.tell him to go to hell'....'but Sir, we have no posting there!'.....' right. then send him to Mauritius'......and also had a moustache spoon , glass mounted on the wall. I love looking at honours boards in golf clubs and here, Major this and Colonel that were listed as prize winners up until the mid-Twentieth century when more traditional Mauritian names started to appear.

But back to the hotel. The group which owns it also runs a rum distillery. They have a new product, Pink Pigeon, which they launched recently in Monte Carlo. The pink pigeon is a rare bird native to Mauritius which was in danger of going the same way as the Dodo in the mid 1970's. It was saved by the action of Gerald Durrell and his team at Jersey Zoo, and now 350 pairs are restablished in Mauritius with backups, if you like, at the zoo still.

The night we left they were having a big 'do' at the hotel so we missed that unfortunately, but we have brought some back from Duty Free. It's interesting that the island is still covered in sugar cane plantations. You expect Al Pacino to burst out of one of the fields any moment. These days it is used in the rum making business as very little sugar is now exported. That gap in the economy has been filled by tourism.

So all in all a good run ashore. We would go back, particularly for the golf, but maybe as part of a two centre holiday and stay at one of the more lively resorts as well. We have been back over a week now and it seems like we have never been way, ho hum!

Judges got talent?

I was brought up on good old variety shows on the tele when I was a lad. They were common in the clubs and theatres around the country, as the walls of the Old Packhorse public house will demonstrate. It stands next to the site of the old Chiswick Empire and lists many of the acts which performed there on a regular basis.

Saturday Night at the London Palladium and The Good Old Days with Leonard Sachs were family favourites as we all gathered round to look at the audience of the latter dressed in period attire, and watch the acts of the day, be they dancers, comedians, jugglers or magicians. A real variety in fact.

As a result I have enjoyed the Britain's Got Talent set of shows in the last few years, but sadly I will not be watching any more, as the judges or the contestants seem to have lost the plot big style.

This year in the first two shows to identify finalists, the public and the judges put through two average pianists and two child singers. The trick cyclist and the magicians were excluded by the judges vote. They followed a weird dad dancing guy, somebody with dancing eye's, except they didn't, and a couple of extras out of The Matrix, I , II and III. A poor substitute for JLS and three dog acts also got too much air time, and then the winner was announced as a Scot with a very powerful voice who Simon Cowell had rejected at boot camp in the X-factor last year.

The prize, apart from £100.,000, is a place at the Royal Variety Performance to sing for the Queen. Good for him, but there is a clue in the name, just where are all the comedians, ventriloquists, magicians and jugglers. A good old fashioned circus act would not go amiss either particularly if it featured a lion tamer or a few seals balancing beach balls on their noses. Arf, Arf.