Just a minute

Dining experiences take all shapes and sizes these days and right now I am experiencing their extremes.

Last weekend was the s-club annual pre-Christmas rugby international at Twickenham.

The opposition were the Argentines, and the events during the match have been well documented. Our after match tradition at the moment seems to be a visit to the Richmond Chinese, a place I have frequented for years.
I seem to remember having my 30th and 40th birthdays there as well as celebrating Chinese New Year several times with my late great mate,Figs.  I still have a mud man and monkey puppet the restaurant gave me when they had the artifact shop next door. The same family still run it.

We were a bit revolutionary this year though on the Friday night. We decided to stay at the Farmer's Club in Whitehall, and on my recommendation we went to the Faulty Towers dining experience in the old Charing Cross station hotel, now called the Alba.

The show featured Basil, Manuel and Cybil and was a parody of the famous restaurant scenes from the Fawlty Towers sitcom. It started with drinks in the bar follows by a three course dinner punctuated with comedy sketches. It was both humorous and entertaining, and I would definitely recommend it.

The tickets were £70 plus drinks and its interesting to note it is at the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton in January where prices are £42.50. There are a few seats left for the Sunday lunch, otherwise it too is sold out.

John Cleese is pretty browned off with the show as he and his colleague actors get no royalties.

So onto today, which finds me in a unit in central Liverpool called Ziferblat. Its the name of a new kind of social space where everything is free except the time you spend there. It's 8p per minute and that's it. I have had toast and jam, cake, minced pies, bananas, soup and loads of coffee!. The concept was founded in Moscow in 2011 by a chap called Ivan Meetin. Apparently it means clockface in English and is billed as a tree house for grown ups.

There are two in Liverpool and one in Manchester and its ideal for me as I have just popped the car into BMW for a service, I bet they charge more than 8p per minute gulp!

Put another jumper on....

Life is full of significant moments, and one such arrived for me today. I have just received my first ever Winter fuel payment. I understand this is sent to older people to keep them warm for a couple of weeks during the Winter. I am very grateful to the government for this money, which appears to be tax free.

I am ok for cash at the moment so I am going to put it towards some golf equipment I have my eye on. It will get me out of the house a bit more which will mean the central heating can be turned down so in that respect it will be contributing to lowering my heating outlay!!

I was pointing out to my grandkids recently ( well those who can understand) that you become a Senior citizen when you bend down to tie up your shoe lace, and look around for what ever else you can do while you are down there.......they will soon be trained to do that for me, as well as cutting my toe nails, although I suspect bribery may be involved for that activity to be successful.

So let's hope we have a mild Winter with a good dumping of snow for Christmas and then everybody should be able to use their allowance for something else......ho! ho! ho!

Eddie Butler is a doG....

In 2004,  Premiership manager Mike Newell was particularly outspoken about the fact his team was forced to play a game at which one of the linesmen ( clue in the name) was actually a woman. The comment which got him into trouble contained the phrase '......tokenism for politically correct idiots.....'

Now footballers are not well known for their high IQ levels, and what Newell actually meant was not the term politically correct but positive discrimination. Had he used that he may have just got away with it.

It seems, however, that the idiots he referred to have moved over to BBC Sport.

I have just watched the highlights of the rugby match between England and Fiji, and a commentator by the name of Sara Orchard has just hysterically screeched her way through the game as if she was a soccer mom on the touchline at a little league match in Chicago. Poor Brian Moore was left to add some semblance of calm, sanity and wisdom to proceedings, skills he is well versed at after years of co-commentating with Eddie Butler. Until now Eddie must be the worst rugby commentator ever, but Sara has definitely claimed his crown.

I do not consider myself sexist, or at least,  no more so than other blokes born in the 1950's, I just have a problem with 'jobs for the girls'. I am very anti female vicars although I am not hugely religious. I just think it is a sacred profession which has worked well for 2016 years and could do so for the same length of time in the future. Lady F1 drivers have been tried but just don't work. I would never pay good money to watch a ladies rugby or football match and I only watch ladies golf to check my swing against theirs as they are closer to amateur men golfers in their shot making and distance control than the male pro's are.

Now don't get me onto the subject of equal prize money for lady tennis players at Wimbledon, or elsewhere. How can a 6-0 6-0 match be afforded the same credibility as a 7-6 6-7 6-4 4-6 21-19 men's match?

But back to the main point. Why was a lady commentator awarded the Fiji game? Who listened to her demo tapes and will somebody re-watch and listen and concur that it was a useful experiment, if only to ensure it never happens again.

In the early days of Sky Sports there was an option to turn off the commentary via the red button and only hear the crowd noise. The BBC also pioneered the option to listen to the radio commentary rather then the television. That was how I avoided Eddie Butler most of the time.  Maybe those options can be reintroduced.

You don't see many referees assistants in the Premiership these days, maybe Mike Newell had a point.

Overheard in a pub....

"My wife didn't like it when I started losing my hair so she bought me a toupee. Then she paid for me to have dental work to straighten my teeth. Then she said I was too small so she bought me a pair of raised shoes for my birthday and then she decided glasses did not suit me and insisted I wear contact lenses. After than she said I was overweight and narrow shouldered so she got me a corset and a jacket with padded shoulders for Christmas and last week she left me because she said I'm not the man she married."

Here comes The Sun

...or maybe not if a very ill advised campaign in Scouseland gathers any more momentum.

The Hillsborough tragedy has hung over the area like a storm cloud,  for many, many years as the families of the victims sought justice for their lost loved ones in light of allegations of  police mismanagement and cover-ups as well as stories of drunken behaviour and irresponsibility on the part of the fans.

That justice was achieved earlier this year when an inquest into the death of the victims indicated they had died as a result of said police actions and that the fans were in no way responsible for the downfall of their colleagues.

The aftermath of Hillsborough continues to have a knock-on effect though as there is now a concerted campaign emanating from the powerful Hillsborough relative group, to ban the sale of the daily newspaper, The Sun, which published derogatory articles relating to the behaviour of fans at Hillsborough, after the event. Their reports have been largely discredited but the after taste remains.

The potential blanket ban on the sale of The Sun would be welcomed by many. It would, however, be a real civil liberties issue. There are many people in the Scouseland conurbation who are not native to the area and who have regularly or occasionally purchased and read The Sun, there are newsagents and other outlets who choose to sell it as it revenue earner.

It has a very well respected racing section, it appeals to a certain demographic who enjoy the eccentric head-line writing and page 3 style journalism, who can forget the 'Phew What a Scorcher' headline when 90 degree temperatures hit the Country, or ' Gotcha' as the Admiral Belgrano Argentine battleship was sunk during the Falkland war?

If Mayor Joe Anderson and his colleagues do ban this publication it will be a sad day for a City which has worked so hard to recover from the cronyism of the Derek Hatton era. It will also go some way towards confirming the remarks of Boris Johnson in The Spectator in 2004.

So lets keep the democratic process, the freedom of the press and the ability of people to buy their periodical of choice and focus on real time problems which we would expect our elected representatives to address on our behalf. Come on Liverpool, you're better than this.

Blind dogs

I am missing my weekly auction visit today, but it gives me a chance to reflect on recent acquisitions and future strategy.

A while ago I purchased a print named "Waiting for Off" byKenneth Ansell

and a cocker spaniel head shot by Reuben Ward Binks. I picked up the spaniel for about £6.50 and some of his pictures from his American period go for over £2000!.This one is more likely to be £200-300 less commission when I sell it in Knutsford in a few weeks. The print might wipe its nose at about £45.

The other coup I had last week was the chance to purchase two claw foot banister posts for £25. This claw foot was the trademark of the builder who built the Shrewsbury estate on which we live. Our neighbours house has one but we didn't. I am unsure whether to retrofit one, or mount it in a glass case in the hall. I will think about that.

Blind drunk

The other side of golf has taken over this week as SWMBO and I lie on a roof terrace overlooking Cascais harbour near Lisbon.
I took the number 12 shirt for a lads tour to Praia d'el Rey and royal Obidos about 60 miles north, at the weekend then joined SWMBO for some r & r. I have always wanted to play said courses but would not rush back. Royal Obidos was the last course designed by Seve Ballesteros and while a good track, it was a bit too tricked up with water hazards and lacked the maturity of Penha Longa close to Cascais, or the Victoria course in the Algarve.

The hotel course was better but the location was so remote that it was difficult to get away. Peniche was the closest village and that took us 30 minutes in a cab. It is one of the main fishing villages for Lisbon so at least we got some good seafood.

The Ryder Cup has been and gone and the result was not too much of a surprise.The Trumpinestas in the crowd did give a view of the future of the USA and it was not a pretty sight. I feel for the good and righteous over there, they really are struggling to know who to vote for. Boris Johnson holds a US passport, maybe he could stand!!

Oh no, he has handed it in so he doesn't get taxed there...bit of a theme!