The Varsity rugby match has traditionally been the start of my Christmas build-up. It used to be the only game of rugger I could temp my old mate Figs to go and see. We would have a belter of an evening and things kicked on from there.
These days the pre-Christmas alcoholically dominated lunches are few and far between so I have to make extra efforts to find and attend them. There have been a couple of Turkey Trot events at the golf club, and we have just returned from the London branch Christmas party weekend which was very enjoyable.
With only a few days to go though, I might be a little bit too sober for the Christmas festivities, of which I am less and less a fan as I enter my twilight years. I am off to Chester tomorrow to continue an IBM Northern tradition of red wine and lunch with Cookie. We have been doing this sort of thing for years and as neither of us could make the bigger do in Manchester last week we are having a cosy twosome in a suitable establishment.
Last night I went to the Liverpool Anglian cathedral where oldest ankle biter, Ava, was in her school choir. They were very good but most of the other choirs were not, and at times it felt we were in a requiem mass rather than a jolly Christmas event. Come on Radio City, buck your ideas up for next year.
Ava was amazed by the cathedral however, and she had every reason to be. It is the largest cathedral in the UK, and the fifth largest in the World. It was completed only as recently as 1979 and took 74 years to complete. Giles Gilbert Scott, a 22 year old, won a competition to design and build the cathedral, and he had to wait until 1942 before he could lay the final stone on the massive tower, which at its highest point is almost 100 yards above the cathedral floor. He sadly died in 1960 and was unable to see his life's work completed. For a choir of seven and eight year olds to bash out a few carols in such a structure must have been an amazing experience, as it was for us to watch Ava and her class mates do so.
I have one problem with the cathedral, and that is caused only by my warped mind. Above the great entrance there is a neon sign in the handwriting of Tracey Emin. It is therefore a prominent work of art. It reads ' I felt you and I knew you loved me'. Strange words to have in a church, given the current trend for tabloid exposes of the clergy!
Tuesday, 19 December 2017
Tuesday, 21 November 2017
Georgia on my mind
In 1996 SWMBO and I were fortunate enough to be volunteers at the Olympic Games in Atlanta USA. Our brief was to help man the Georgia Dome, a multisports venue which, at the time had been purpose built for the Atlanta Games.
We worked some long and hard shifts from 06:00 in the morning to gone midnight some days. venue was split in two and was used for the men and women gymnastics and the men and women basketball events. We were lucky enough to be on duty in both halves of the arena at various times.
We met the world during those two weeks, which nearly became three, as the pre-qualifiers began before the opening ceremony and the finals of the basketball were held in the second official week.
I chatted to the CEO of Delta Airlines who was happy with a bit of man chat while his wife and three daughters became engrossed in the women's gymnastics. SWMBO was vetted for a visit by Bill Clinton, but that never came off which was a pity. Our uniforms were awful, but did get us lifts home in the rain on a couple of occasions.
Today, therefore, marks an end of an era, as the Georgia Dome was detonated and reduced to rubble in the space of very few seconds. It was a 21 storey building and the biggest indoor sporting arena in the World when it was built. There are , no doubt, plans to erect something else in it's place, but a bit of our heritage seems to have disappeared with the building today. Our memorial bricks are still in Centenary Park and some parts of Buckhead remain, like The Five Paces and Mike and Angelo's but progress has no time for sentiment so accept today for what it is and move on! An anniversary tour in 2021 might be a goer though, y'all.
We worked some long and hard shifts from 06:00 in the morning to gone midnight some days. venue was split in two and was used for the men and women gymnastics and the men and women basketball events. We were lucky enough to be on duty in both halves of the arena at various times.
We met the world during those two weeks, which nearly became three, as the pre-qualifiers began before the opening ceremony and the finals of the basketball were held in the second official week.
I chatted to the CEO of Delta Airlines who was happy with a bit of man chat while his wife and three daughters became engrossed in the women's gymnastics. SWMBO was vetted for a visit by Bill Clinton, but that never came off which was a pity. Our uniforms were awful, but did get us lifts home in the rain on a couple of occasions.
Today, therefore, marks an end of an era, as the Georgia Dome was detonated and reduced to rubble in the space of very few seconds. It was a 21 storey building and the biggest indoor sporting arena in the World when it was built. There are , no doubt, plans to erect something else in it's place, but a bit of our heritage seems to have disappeared with the building today. Our memorial bricks are still in Centenary Park and some parts of Buckhead remain, like The Five Paces and Mike and Angelo's but progress has no time for sentiment so accept today for what it is and move on! An anniversary tour in 2021 might be a goer though, y'all.
Thursday, 19 October 2017
Madeira cake
Hey, Wal hope you read this one....
Just back from a golf tour with the Twickenham lads. We do two UK tours followed by an overseas trip and this weekend it was away to Madiera, 8 of us go and that gives us four football matches for the Dom something or other trophy.
Wally and Gino were victorious with Adam snatching the individual in dank and misty conditions on the last day.
The first night was a Sangria sesh with mega pizza and silly drinking games. Somehow I became Original for the evening based on some resemblance to a famous brand of toffee. Others had cricket based nicknames like Freddie and Beefy. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur.
Day one golf was up the top of a mountain. This is not unusually for Madiera as it's volcanic and has limited flat bits. The evening was fancy dress with a nautical theme. I went as a shark and felt a bit underdressed compared with Nelson, Hagar the horrible, Blackbeard and Roger the cabin boy. Seamen Staines also came along.
Day two golf was also up a mountain and was a prelude to cocktail night.
I can remember Majita's, Capeira's, Aperol Spritz and possibly a Jasmine. Campari was defo involved somewhere.
The evening then moved more into my comfort zone with Brandy Alexander and Irish coffee before finishing with Gin and tonic.
I have never drunk G & T and can't quite work out how it is a cocktail.Fines were involved so I just got on with it.
Last day was up the same mountain as day two and was spoilt a bit by low cloud cover, rain and a temperature drop. Still it did not stop the trophies being decided, a bit of scoff being consumed and then an interesting flight home with hurricane Othelia blowing us back quicker than expected.
All in all a great three days but I get home to find SWMBO has disappeared off to Tanzania to see if the rumour are true. Is dental charity work a bridge too far?
Just back from a golf tour with the Twickenham lads. We do two UK tours followed by an overseas trip and this weekend it was away to Madiera, 8 of us go and that gives us four football matches for the Dom something or other trophy.
Wally and Gino were victorious with Adam snatching the individual in dank and misty conditions on the last day.
The first night was a Sangria sesh with mega pizza and silly drinking games. Somehow I became Original for the evening based on some resemblance to a famous brand of toffee. Others had cricket based nicknames like Freddie and Beefy. The rest of the night is a bit of a blur.
Day one golf was up the top of a mountain. This is not unusually for Madiera as it's volcanic and has limited flat bits. The evening was fancy dress with a nautical theme. I went as a shark and felt a bit underdressed compared with Nelson, Hagar the horrible, Blackbeard and Roger the cabin boy. Seamen Staines also came along.
Day two golf was also up a mountain and was a prelude to cocktail night.
I can remember Majita's, Capeira's, Aperol Spritz and possibly a Jasmine. Campari was defo involved somewhere.
The evening then moved more into my comfort zone with Brandy Alexander and Irish coffee before finishing with Gin and tonic.
I have never drunk G & T and can't quite work out how it is a cocktail.Fines were involved so I just got on with it.
Last day was up the same mountain as day two and was spoilt a bit by low cloud cover, rain and a temperature drop. Still it did not stop the trophies being decided, a bit of scoff being consumed and then an interesting flight home with hurricane Othelia blowing us back quicker than expected.
All in all a great three days but I get home to find SWMBO has disappeared off to Tanzania to see if the rumour are true. Is dental charity work a bridge too far?
Monday, 9 October 2017
Party streamers
This has been a strange weekend technologically speaking. For some time now we have had a KODI box, often referred to as 'a dodgy box' connected via the internet to our television in the main living room. It has been used to stream football, rugby and cricket from a variety of sources on the net, and has meant we have not had to subscribe to SKY or BT Sports.
Slowly but surely these organisations have picked away at the sites which host these feeds, closing them down or making the signals encrypted so that people cannot receive them without the correct technology. It's a game of cat and mouse, as people love a challenge and for every roadblock SKY put in front of these illegal streamers, the streamers look for another way to circumvent the restrictions.
KODI boxes themselves, though, are not illegal, so we have just installed a second box in our bedroom, where we are suffering freeview service degradation. The KODI box allows us to watch the mainly ITV based channels which are pixelated in clear view, but has the added benefit of providing on demand services via ITV hub and the BBC iPlayer so we can watch catch-up as well.
We are now, therefore, pretty well full on wired round the house. We can get films from various sources like Netflix and Amazon as well as Genesis and Pheonix via KODI.
So, you ask, how was the weekend strange?
Well using all the resources at my disposal, I identified via LiveonSat.com that Plymouth Argyle v Fleetwood Town was being shown on a Serbian sports channel on Saturday afternoon, live from Home Park, so I watched that. Then a friend of mine who has a son playing second division rugby in Italy sent me a streaming link, www.retebiella.tv, to watch his match live on Sunday afternoon. Beiella won 25-0 and Connor kicked 13 points. Happy days.
It's all out there on the web, and in the dark web too if you know where you are looking, but I am sure SKY have their technicians trying to shut off another loophole as I typ.......bugger they got me!!
Slowly but surely these organisations have picked away at the sites which host these feeds, closing them down or making the signals encrypted so that people cannot receive them without the correct technology. It's a game of cat and mouse, as people love a challenge and for every roadblock SKY put in front of these illegal streamers, the streamers look for another way to circumvent the restrictions.
KODI boxes themselves, though, are not illegal, so we have just installed a second box in our bedroom, where we are suffering freeview service degradation. The KODI box allows us to watch the mainly ITV based channels which are pixelated in clear view, but has the added benefit of providing on demand services via ITV hub and the BBC iPlayer so we can watch catch-up as well.
We are now, therefore, pretty well full on wired round the house. We can get films from various sources like Netflix and Amazon as well as Genesis and Pheonix via KODI.
So, you ask, how was the weekend strange?
Well using all the resources at my disposal, I identified via LiveonSat.com that Plymouth Argyle v Fleetwood Town was being shown on a Serbian sports channel on Saturday afternoon, live from Home Park, so I watched that. Then a friend of mine who has a son playing second division rugby in Italy sent me a streaming link, www.retebiella.tv, to watch his match live on Sunday afternoon. Beiella won 25-0 and Connor kicked 13 points. Happy days.
It's all out there on the web, and in the dark web too if you know where you are looking, but I am sure SKY have their technicians trying to shut off another loophole as I typ.......bugger they got me!!
Sunday, 17 September 2017
Air today gone tomorrow
We have just packed off four lads who have been here for the weekend as our latest Airbnb guests. They were in Liverpool for some sort of Game Of Thrones convention. They were no trouble at all and departed after breakfast. A few more bob deposited into the SWMBO account and hopefully their feedback will be good to allow us to maintain our gold hosting standard.
Our guests seem to be falling into three categories. One, like the lad's , is people visiting Liverpool for an event, festival or concert. Two is people staying with us while they visit relatives who live locally, and thirdly is people working or participating in some sort of sporting event.
Sadly none in the latter category has embraced the midweek golf profile we were targeting when we set the enterprise up, and most of our attendee's are weekenders. Still we get to meet interesting people and enjoy being able to share the home now the kids have vacated the top floor. We had two NASA scientists staying with us last week while they popped over to the Isle of Man for the classic TT events.
Sadly we can't help the people who need rooms in Oxton for New Year but it would probably be easier to cater for than the 20 we are expecting for Christmas Day and the fifty odd for Boxing Day.
Four people for New Year? No problem!!
Our guests seem to be falling into three categories. One, like the lad's , is people visiting Liverpool for an event, festival or concert. Two is people staying with us while they visit relatives who live locally, and thirdly is people working or participating in some sort of sporting event.
Sadly none in the latter category has embraced the midweek golf profile we were targeting when we set the enterprise up, and most of our attendee's are weekenders. Still we get to meet interesting people and enjoy being able to share the home now the kids have vacated the top floor. We had two NASA scientists staying with us last week while they popped over to the Isle of Man for the classic TT events.
Sadly we can't help the people who need rooms in Oxton for New Year but it would probably be easier to cater for than the 20 we are expecting for Christmas Day and the fifty odd for Boxing Day.
Four people for New Year? No problem!!
Tuesday, 22 August 2017
Not funny bone
Lots of golf has been taking up too much time recently, so I instigated a shed clear out project while the marquee was still up after our family barbecue.
I moved everything out of the shed and then stripped off the roof. It was a plywood roof which had rotted beyond repair in about four years.
I have now relaid the floor to wood and used shiplap to redo the roof. The felt is on and it just needs the tar to fill the gaps and a few clout nails to baton down the sides. I was hoping to finish that tomorrow, however, disaster struck today while playing at Chester golf club.
One of my opponents decided to play an unusual shot called a shank which basically travels unintentionally at 90 degrees to the expected direction. On this occasion it travelled about 30 yards at 30mph at three foot off the ground and struck an unsuspecting victim right on the elbow. That victim was me and goodness it hurt. I am hopeful nothing is broken but tonight might be a bit uncomfortable.
The final shed repairs and the restock might have to wait a while, but I will definitely apply a keep, sell, tip philosophy to every item that came out, before it goes back in. Tiger balm anybody?
I moved everything out of the shed and then stripped off the roof. It was a plywood roof which had rotted beyond repair in about four years.
I have now relaid the floor to wood and used shiplap to redo the roof. The felt is on and it just needs the tar to fill the gaps and a few clout nails to baton down the sides. I was hoping to finish that tomorrow, however, disaster struck today while playing at Chester golf club.
One of my opponents decided to play an unusual shot called a shank which basically travels unintentionally at 90 degrees to the expected direction. On this occasion it travelled about 30 yards at 30mph at three foot off the ground and struck an unsuspecting victim right on the elbow. That victim was me and goodness it hurt. I am hopeful nothing is broken but tonight might be a bit uncomfortable.
The final shed repairs and the restock might have to wait a while, but I will definitely apply a keep, sell, tip philosophy to every item that came out, before it goes back in. Tiger balm anybody?
Thursday, 13 July 2017
King of the castle
Day four over and the Czech us out tour comes to an end. Today we were at Karlstejn, an ex European tour venue, and a lovely course. It is high in the hills about an hour from Prague, and really would not have the infrastructure for a major tournament these days.
Cookie and I played another match play for our Virgin Atlantic league, and I had a rare win against him. Back to back birdies at 11 and 12 got my nose in front and a steady back nine saw me through to victory.
The course is built in the grounds of Karlstejn castle built in the 14th century by Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV and it is one of the best examples in the Czech Republic.
Last night was the gala dinner at which prizes were dished out. We came home empty handed but the experience has still been worthwhile. As far as a festival of golf goes though it was not quite what we expected.
There were tour reps from China and Germany, and a guest of one of the Germans ran a Porsche golf events team. Four Scots had won the trip in a golf magazine competition. One Frenchman owned a hotel with two golf courses in Bordeaux and another typical French raconteur lived in Aix Les Vains. He had a restaurant in Mirrabelle and skied in Japan.
So there were very few paying guests, but we held our own had a good time and would come back. It's a golf tour destination of the future. Now all I need to do is repack my suitcase for EasyJet. Hey ho!!
Cookie and I played another match play for our Virgin Atlantic league, and I had a rare win against him. Back to back birdies at 11 and 12 got my nose in front and a steady back nine saw me through to victory.
The course is built in the grounds of Karlstejn castle built in the 14th century by Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV and it is one of the best examples in the Czech Republic.
Last night was the gala dinner at which prizes were dished out. We came home empty handed but the experience has still been worthwhile. As far as a festival of golf goes though it was not quite what we expected.
There were tour reps from China and Germany, and a guest of one of the Germans ran a Porsche golf events team. Four Scots had won the trip in a golf magazine competition. One Frenchman owned a hotel with two golf courses in Bordeaux and another typical French raconteur lived in Aix Les Vains. He had a restaurant in Mirrabelle and skied in Japan.
So there were very few paying guests, but we held our own had a good time and would come back. It's a golf tour destination of the future. Now all I need to do is repack my suitcase for EasyJet. Hey ho!!
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