E V B

Emily tries but misunderstands, ah ooh
She often inclined to borrow somebody's dreams till tomorrow
There is no other day
Let's try it another way

You'll lose your mind and play
Free games for may
See Emily play
Soon after dark Emily cries, ah ooh.......

Our sixth grandchild has finally got a name, Emily Veronica, and she was immortalised by Pink Floyd all those years ago in 'See Emily Play'. That last line could be very true, although I understand she is a very contented soul at the moment.

Our first night in San Fran was uneventful. We found a very pleasant Irish bar, as you do, and had some Guinness to get in the mood for Sunday. Although we will be at sea, I am hopeful there may be a link up to Fox TV.

We then had an excellent steak in John's Grill, an establishment which has over 100 years of history behind it, including a feature role in The Maltese Falcon. It was produced by John Huston and starred Humphrey Bogart.

We also climbed to the top of Nob Hill which got the heart rate up. We will do it by tram next time!

Later today we jumps on our cruise ship so we will be offline for a week or so. Roll on Hawaii.

Woka woka

We are just packing to move on to San Francisco this morning. We did Penn and Teller, and they were a bit old school. The show was not as slick as they appear on TV, but they had some clever tricks and interspersed the act with their usual humour.
Yesterday we took a helicopter to the Grand Canyon and were surprised when we landed near the bottom for a champagne picnic. I will post some pictures when I find a fast WiFi connection. Our pay as you go is working well but is painfully slow.

I last visited the Canyon with Dodgy after our West coast rugby tour in the late nineties and we drove to the South rim via the Hoover dam. That view gave a better aspect of the size of it all, but being in the gorge showed the power of the water and the scale of the Colorado river compared to the depth of the gorge.

We had a good scoff in the evening, watched the Bellagio water show and caught the Mirage volcanic eruption on the way back.

Only down side was the roulette table bet minimum which was $15 so managed to keep our losses to $30. With the minimum bet it just meant we didn't play too long..... probably no bad thing!

Our newest grandchild arrived Monday just as we were taxiing at Heathrow, so more about her once she has a name, poor thing.

Viva Las Vegas

Actually it should be called Viva Las Vegas,as that's where we are so have changed it!. Day 1 was a ten hour flight and a fairly smooth passage through homeland security. Amusingly IBM have a kick off meeting here this week so there were a couple of ex-colleagues on the flight. They were a bit green when I outlined out travel plans!
I should check in with Ginny Rometty, the CEO, now that IBM has lost the latest court battle concerning the pension closures of the early noughties. It would probably ruin my chances of an invite to Augusta now she is a member.
The hotel has a golf course but I don't really have time to play during this short stay. Today we started with a full on American breakfast, then walked the strip from end to end. Paris won the best design award and the Bellagio won best Chinese New Year décor prize. The IBM crew are staying in the Hard Rock so well away from us.
Tonight is cabaret night with Penn and Teller then off to the Grand Canyon tomorrow.

Latest gambling position, I am $10 up.

Ker ching

They say things go in three's and that seems to be the recent case here in Scouseland. A few days ago SWMBO received notification that she had been successful on the Premium Bonds which will boost her spending account when we go on hols later in the month.

 

I received a call this morning to say that the small claims court action I had instigated against Scottish Power has been settled in my favour. So not only do I get the £200 they have owed me since last May back, but I get the court fee's and an inconvenience payment as well.

 

I moved to one of their tariff's in October 2013, and they managed to transfer the gas supply of a different property in the street. They then instigated a standing order to take funds out of my account to pay this neighbours gas bills!! It did take me a couple of months to notice, but nothing like the time it has taken to get them to understand the problem they have caused, and the reason I was a bit grumpy. I must have talked to them 6 or 8 times and each time I was reassured they would sort it. They didn't and in the end I got so frustrated I went to court.....they now say the cheque is in the post!!!

 

Scottish Power have the worst customer satisfaction rating of any of the big 6 power companies, so as soon as I have the money I am looking to move somewhere else.

 

So that's two bits of good news. The third one has just made all the days I spend trawling through tat and rubbish at auction houses worth the effort.

 

On Wednesday I was at an auction I go to fairly frequently when I saw a very odd shaped putter in a bag of 1930's steel shafted clubs. This putter had a curved face and a hickory shaft. I got the lot for £5.50 including commission, and a bit of research indicated I may well be on a winner. It's on e-bay here.

 

The irony of all this is that yesterday I threw away two old mirror's in the tip, they both smashed. So much for seven years bad luck. I can only think that as they were intact when I let go of them that I was not deemed to have smashed them!!

 

Sorry to be missing the England v Italy Six Nations game tomorrow but I feel confident the boy's will do the business. I will return for the France game which will hopefully be the Grand Slam decider.

Hung Jury

Friday was a co-incidental day. I had two legal documents waiting in the post box on my return from London, both were a bit of a surprise.

I had been dan Sarf to help number one son with some DIY on his new house. It allowed me to spend a few days with him which is something I don't do enough of, and to catch up with some old friends.

I got photographed by one of them here. I also took in the football match between Spurs and Sheffield United. The less said about that the better.

So I returned on Friday after easing a few door and shaving some of their bottoms off. My cousin Mike helped with numerous cups of tea and words of encouragement, not to mention a steady hand in the sawing department.

 

There in the box was the confirmation that I have served a notice of recompense against Scottish Power for the sum of £200 plus additions. They have owed me this money since May, when they took four unauthorised payments from my account before I noticed and stopped the direct debit. I filed the paperwork in the small claims court over the internet and it was all straight forward. My only concern was that their registered offices are in Glasgow and I may, therefore, have to pursue them in Scotland using their less efficient system. As luck would have it, however, they do have an operating office in London so the summons was served there. They have until 4th February to respond so we will see what happens.

 

The other letter was a notification that I am required for jury service in February. As it happens I am away for the time they have requested so I was able to politely decline. I have offered them some alternative dates in December and January next year by which time they may have become disinterested in me.

 

I have done jury service before about 35 years ago in Upper Norwood near Croydon in Surrey. I was on one trial which was concerned with stamp theft. It went on for six or seven days so we were excused after that. It was quite interesting  but hopefully at some point during my next stint, the judge will reach for his black cap and indicate that the defendant be taking to a place to be determined and there be hung by his neck until dead.

 

Not sure that will happen though, hey ho!!

Shed therapy

What a wonderful day it was on the Wirral today, and I was fortunate to have the chance to play golf with Eric Hirst and Simon Birtles. Eric is the oldest ex-captain of Wallasey still playing golf at the age of 82, and  knocks it round off a respectable 19 handicap. His job these last few days has been to manage the whole community of ex-captains in their selection of the new Captain for 2015. This will be announced this evening after which the new incumbent will be in the bar to buy drinks. It's not a cheap experience being golf club captain and this is just the start of a year of lunches, speeches and copious drinking sessions. It needs a man with a strong constitution to cope.

Simon has just returned from five weeks in New Zealand where he visited all four corners of the Country. It was sad to hear of the sorry state in which Christchurch remains. Shops are trading out of portacabins, no progress has been made to either rebuild or demolish the cathedral which was extremely badly damaged during the earthquake almost four years ago, although there is a pop-up cathedral which has temporarily taken its place. People are moving away and it is in danger of being a shadow of its former self. Simon, however, seems to have had a great time, sunbathing in the North island and skiing in the South. Quite a contrast really.

Yesterday I took to the shed. This is the original shed, not the one I built in 2013. I have installed solar powered lighting which seems to be working well, and cleared a large number of unwanted storage jar which I was keeping 'just in case'. I can now see the work bench and most of the floor, so just need a rainy day when I can go through my screw tin which contains all shapes and sizes,  and grade them for use as and when needed. I use hair gel containers for this, but now number two son has moved out, that source is harder to come by.

I am not over keen on this dry January fad to be honest, but I am trying to drink healthy home made juices at the moment as we had a new juicer as a present for Christmas. The orange and ginger shot first thing in the morning is a definite wake up call. This is all part of the pre-holiday tone up programme aimed at trying to return home in March, roughly the same weight as we were on 1st January. Time will tell.

So the year is up and running, no new years resolutions as such this time, just  a good and content time surrounded by friends and family. Here's hoping.

Old Year reflections

SWMBO and I reverted to our traditional date night in for New Years Eve. I get the privilege of cooking, and we reminisce the year past. My speciality this time was weeping lamb with boulangere potatoes with French onion soup to start, and it was all yummy.

So what did we see as the years highs and lows?

Starting on the family front, we were blessed with our fifth grandchild, Alexander, who has now maintained the continuity of the Weathers line, blending a bit of Bulgarian into the Irish and English gene pool. A welcome surprise on Monday was the news that my cousin Mike and his long suffering partner Valerie, has finally tied the knot and were officially Mr and Mrs Weathers. SWMBO's mum also got over a major health scare which we were all delighted about.
SWMBO and I both lost relations towards the end of the year. SWMBO's Uncle Kevin died after a troubled few years, in his early sixties, and my Auntie Betty passed away on Christmas Day morning after a short illness. She was 92 so had had a fair old innings.

Domestically, the years highlight was the redesign and construction of a new bedroom for SWMBO, in less than two weeks while she was in Tanzania. We had a good family barbeque and both Tim and Kieran moved into new homes in the later part of the year. Kieran's move left us rattling around on our own in Chateau Weathers. Maxine survived a full year without working!

It was good to be involved in Wally's stag 'do' in Portugal and to be visited by friends and family from London, on a regular basis, but an acrimonious holiday in Turkey meant we have lost Lou, one of SWMBO's long term work colleagues, as a friend.  They say love is blind, and in her case she is the only one to be able to see any good in her new partner, Martin. Pity.

On the sporting front, I was delighted to break 80 on the golf course for the first time. I also fired a 82 around Southport and Ainsdale which was pretty special, and I am chuffed to be Chairman elect of the Seniors section at Wallasey next year.

We saw the year as routine when we started discussing it, but as you can see a lot happened.

So now we are into 2015 and I have 23 blog entries to try to beat to allow me to reversze the downward publishing trend. what can you look forward to then?

We are off to the States for a month in March going from Las Vegas to Hawaii and back to New York. There are two trips to Ireland, one for the Causeway Classic golf festival and one to coincide with the rugby world cup. I will be attending some of the world cup games too.

I end the blog as I started, with news of grandchild number six which should arrive sometime in February. So do stay tuned it will be another exciting year.