A tale of two saunters

With a major walk planned in June, and a bit of cross country skiing in February, the training programme needed to be upped a notch.

We started off with a pioneering climb up to the top of Moel Famau in North Wales. It's 1800 feet and a fair slog for us. We had about 100 yards visibility when we set off, but only about 50 by the time we got to the top. We stopped at the Jubilee Tour and did not strike out for the trig point. we will save that for another day.

 You can see I am at the top as my finger is in shot!!

Today we tried for something a bit different, a bit nearer home and with local history interest. We yomped up to the top of Bidston Hill, on which stands a windmill, and an observatory. Neither are working any more but that was not always the case. The hill is  281 feet high but full of history.

The windmill has been there since 1685, although the current stone building was erected in 1800 when the wooden ne got blown away. It was very productive as it's high position allowed it to utilise every ounce of wind, but cart owner had a real problem getting up to the top of the hill. The mill is now an educational source and opens to the public one day a month.

The Observatory was built in 1866 when Liverpool Observatory had to relocate due to the expansion of Waterloo Docks. The building was made using the stone mined during the creation of the cellars, the deepest of which (36 feet or 10.97 metres) maintains a constant cool temperature. Over the last 140 years the Observatory has undertaken a diversity of tasks, many of ground-breaking importance.

At the turn of 1929, the Observatory and the Tidal Institute were amalgamated and became the leading authority on tidal predictions. Bidston Observatory was deemed of national importance during the Second World War and predicted the tides for the D-Day landings amongst other things. In 1969, the telescopes housed in the observatory, which were previously used to watch planetary bodies in order to calculate the exact time, were donated to Liverpool museum. The exact time was needed for nautical navigation and was transferred to ships in the dock by the firing of the one o’clock gun; the gun was fired for the last time on the 18th of July 1969.

The Observatory was sold last year and the plans are to turn it into artist studios and a craft centre.....we shall see.

There is also a lighthouse visible behind the domes of the observatory, this was used for navigation purposes until 1919, when the channel nearest to Birkenhead became too silted and shipping was moved North to the Crosby channel.

Bidston Hill was also once home to more than 100 flagpoles. Most were erected between the lighthouse and the windmill but there were a further 8 flagpoles on the other side of the lighthouse which were reserved for the British Admiralty and Excise Services.

In 1763 the signalling station was built near to the location of the modern day lighthouse and functioned using the flagpoles as a complicated early warning system. As merchant ships rounded the Point of Ayr or sailed past Formby Point the ship would be spotted and identified. Flag runners were employed to watch for ships and had 11 minutes to raise the correct company’s flag on the right pole, followed by the correct cargo flag. This enabled supervisors in the docks to ready their work force to unload the ship (and it meant the workers would be paid only for the time they spent working). Each flagpole was 30 ft (9.14 m) tall and made of Baltic Pine.

So that's the end of the history lesson regarding Bidston Hill. We returned home via Flaybrick cemetery but that's one for another day.

Park the bus

Yesterday I was at Anfield to watch the mighty Green Army take on Liverpool in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. It was 0-0 so Liverpool are now forced to travel to Plymouth for the replay next week.

I was lucky enough to be in a box in the Centenary Stand with a variety of commercial and professional people, all but one were supporting Liverpool. It is quite interesting how people who are good ( or excellent) at what they do seem to become so one eyed when they enter a football group!

At half time the Liverpool fans and pundit Steve McManaman were complaining that Argyle were not giving it a go, and were, therefore, spoiling the game as a spectacle.  Clearly nobody told Argyle the were supposed to attack in a kamikaze manner, allow Liverpool to score five goals and send everybody home happy!

No, this was the equivalent of  Argyle's first leg away from home in a major European Cup competition. Imagine they were Red Star Belgrade. Their only objectives were to be still in the game at half-time and ideally take Liverpool back to Home Park next week for the Second Leg. It is one thing for a manager to set out the tactics and strategy, but another altogether for the players to execute, especially when they are 66 positions and three divisions between them.

Argyle and their 'spoiling' tactics were not the problem. The young Liverpool team did not play with any pace or imagination and were almost like a fly trapped in a spiders web.

The two games will be worth almost £1m to Argyle. They have only recently paid off all their remaining debts from their period in administration, they have attracted new money through an additional director and a share/bond redistribution and that has allowed them to purchase their ground and now announce plans for a new grandstand and associated  revenue earning facilities on the fourth side of the pitch.
Argyle have one of the last surviving Archibald Leitch main grandstands, and an elegant Art Nouveau entrance to the ground. Plans are said to include both these features in the new stand. That is a noble gesture these days, when so much heritage is demolished in the name of progress.

Things are definitiely looking brighter for Argyle now, they must just ensure they get promoted this season so that the Green Army waggon can keep on rolling.

Just the ticket

We were fortunate to have a very enjoyable  2016, albeit we lost some dear friends and relatives during its course. We now enter 2017 hoping to experience new and rewarding adventures at home and abroad, while maintaining our health and that of those closest to us.

The first thing I have to look forward to is a trip to Anfield on Sunday to see Plymouth Argyle take on Liverpool, and to see how the Green Army fair against the Kop. Argyle see themselves as a Championship side at minimum, but some of the build-up surrounding the game, and the ticketing in particular has been non-league at best.

I appreciated I did not have first dibs for away end tickets as I am not a season ticket holder, nor a regular attendee. but as a registered member I was able to obtain tickets when they went on general sale on Tuesday. Now, up until Tuesday, the tickets were available via the club website hosted for them by Ticketmaster. As of Tuesday though they were only available to the general public by telephone. Five hours I tried to get through before I managed at least to get in a queue. when I got through there were only restricted view seats left but at £11 each I could not really complain.

Subsequently I have been invited into a box to watch the match, so I will do a bit of Green Army and a bit of corporate as a mix 'n match.

Following on from Anfield we have a stamina building weekend in Snowdonia before our skiing trip later in February, then it's off to Portugal for the El Tel Cup before a couple of weeks warm weather training in Barbados. Slot in a few rugby internationals and that is the first part of the year taken care of. Decorating and gardening might have to be delayed for a few months!!

One sad piece of news emanating from Wallasey Golf Club, however, was the notice informing members that Neville Thompson passed away earlier in the week. Neville was 104 and up until the last couple of years had been a regular figure in the Club at lunchtime.

Neville was the last surviving Wallasey member who can recall watching Bobby Jones play the links in 1930 on his way to qualification for the Open finals at Hoylake. He won there and went on to complete the grand slam of golf in the same year, a  feat which remains unique to this day. 104 is a good innings. Golfers always hope to one day shoot a gross score lower than their age, many never do it, some do it with regularity, hopefully Neville was one of the successful ones. Either way he remains a modern day legend in the Club, in the way Bobby Jones was in the world of golf,  all those years ago.

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."