Today the BBC web-site had interviews with Danny Care (England) and Sam Warburton (Wales) in which they ranked the Six Nations stadia. Their order was:
That is fascinating and from a players point of view they see little of the 'weekend experience' where we have often commented that the game is often the low point of the celebrations. My choice would be this:
They say a week is a long time in politics and so it seems at the moment. It was not many days ago that Bonking Boris was knee deep in Partygate, with the police calling and a swell of opinion increasing towards him facing a vote of no confidence. In the blink of an eye he was then thrust centre stage as the new Vlad The Impaler appears on the block, surrounding Ukraine with every last Russian storm trooper he could find. Then blow me down, even that was pushed off the front pages as Britain was bombarded by three mega storms in less than a week. First Dudley with its eerie Brummie wind tone, then Eunice fresh from the 1920's and a bit of a flapper followed by Franklin, a true moaner if ever there was one.
Now I have long supported Bonking Boris as regular readers will know. This was based on sound evidence from his time as Mayor of London. I lived there under his regime and he was renowned for his ability to surround himself with clever people who basically ran the Capital while he opened things, had photo shoots and took centre stage when it helped team Johnson.
The mess the capital is now descending into under the control of Shere Khan just re-enforces the job he did. Knife crime and teenage murders are increasing, the transport system is creaking and its flagship Elizabeth line is well behind schedule and over budget. I still think it should have been called the Elizabethan line, so as to role off the tongue a bit better....like the Metropolitan or Northern Line.
Finally Khan has thrown a grenade under the bus which is the Metropolitan Police by sacking Cressida Dick and not having a suitable replacement lined up. London faces some tough months ahead.
But back to Boris. He has had a very difficult term in office and is now fighting battles he did not expect to be involved in. I agree he has made mistakes and taken decisions which have been somewhat misguided but he has deserved a few beers occasionally. Unfortunately for him Dominic Cummings appears to have been stalking him and storing up imagery by which to torment the PM at a time when Boris should be taking accolades for the brave COVID decisions he has taken, all aimed at releasing us back to normality as soon as possible.
He is a great fan of Sir Winston Churchill and now has the chance himself to take centre stage in the unified diplomatic process aimed at pushing back at Vlad before we find ourselves fighting another enemy from the East, this time the Eastern block.
Let's hope his initiatives go well otherwise goodness knows how much heating bills will be next Winter. I'm just off to put another jumper on.
Its the awards season again. The Brit Awards were announced last night, and I always used to get the double CD with all the nominated songs on it, but that has gone by the board for several years now as most of the tunes are on Spotify or other download sites.
The Bafta award nominations came out last week, and yesterday we were greeted by the Oscars. They are led by Netflix 'The Power of the Dog' so SWMBO and I decided we would watch it. We may have got halfway through, maybe a boit less, when we reached the conclusion that it's entertainment levels were almost nil.
It does ask the question of the nominating panel as to whether they do take entertainment quotient into consideration or is it all a bit too lovie. The film Belfast does seem to be worth watching, but I am not sure about the rest.
We also spent time watching The Tinder Swindler and again it was a real struggle to feel we were being entertained by women narrating a story about how they had been conned by some chap on the Internet. we have struggled for two years to watch more than a handful of movies through to the end, and now almost play a game as to who would say ' Is this any good' first.
Hey ho, there are always classics to fall back on, so the actors can have their moment of glory at the Oscars and we can continue to search out the hidden gems which do appear every now and again. That's a wrap....
More about that in a moment, but first,
2022 is upon us, and it has started with the selection of my successor as Wallasey Golf Club captain. Tony Davies is the gentleman to whom I will hand over in March. The selection process is a two meeting affair. In November 2021 the ex-Captains met without me to put together a shortlist of names for consideration and after some toing and froing we were presented with a shortlist to consider in a meeting before lunch s a few weeks ago.
After the dinner, myself and SWHBO drove to the new Captains home to offer him the gig. Luckily he said yes and he was then announced to the members at a presentation evening the following Monday. All a bit of cloak and dagger but huge fun.
Then, last Friday we had our annual ball. Three times it had been rescheduled and it was renamed The Frost Ball. It went really well, with a good Soul band, excellent food and good company. The only down side was that a few guests contracted COVID subsequent to it, but luckily nobody seems too unwell.
The following Sunday I then trotted off to Anfield with my cousin to see the mighty Bees take on Liverpool in their first league meeting for a long time..Brentford unfortunately were a bit off the pace, and while they had chances to put some pressure on the home side, they won at a canter. The day was not dissimilar to a rugby day, with a few beers before and after and the match really only being the reason to get out.
It's not Wally you looking for but two West London titans having their 15 minutes of fame on the Brentford FC web site, fan zone....
Good news to report is that my new golf net has arrived and I will be trying to assemble it tomorrow. The first attempt did not go too well as there seems to be a number of difficult operations which the netting does not allow to work, so i am waiting for the manufacturer to come back to me with some help.
So there we go, half way through January, the weather is glorious and I still have two dinners to look forward to. The weight loss programme will kick in in due course.
As I have already outlined in previous blog entries, becoming a golf club captain in the Liverpool area automatically allows you to embrace 27 new friends, and develop a lifetime of experiences with them. Through time the group will diminish as people become ill, move away or fall out of love with golf, but there is always hope that those moments are still far away in the distance.
Sadly for the Visionaries we have already lost one of our own. News reached us a week or so ago that James 'Jim' Nimmo, our year group captain representing West Derby collapsed in the shower at home and despite best efforts of neighbours he never recovered consciousness and died yesterday. He was 67.
Jim was a true gentleman and one of the good guys. We had only known him for short of two years but we had all grown to love him and call him a friend. He battled adversity at his golf club and fought tooth and nail for the traditions and heritage of the place to be maintained, at a time when others had different ideas. These battles on their own made him waiver when he was offered a second term as Captain, however, with the knowledge that he could spend time with the Visionaries and enjoy golf away from West Derby, he agreed to continue.
He had some health scares last year but we all assumed the treatment he received had stabilised him, but that sadly was not the case. We will all miss his smiling face and charming manner. I was lucky to play early with him in his initial year as Captain, and then again recently when he showed off the progress West Derby were making in tackling drainage problems, and re-routing challenges brought about by stray golf balls peppering the neighbourhood. I played with him at Wallasey only three weeks ago and dined with him at S & A more recently than that.
We, as a group, will discuss how best we can remember Jim, and ensure he stays in the hearts and minds of the Visionaries, but for now our thoughts are with Brenda, his partner, and his children.
Sleep easy Jim we will miss you dearly.
Once more we are faced with a COVID dilemma as a new strain first noticed in South Africa, sweeps across the world. The new virus spreads very quickly but according to the Saffers it has mild symptoms and few people are dying from it. Yes South Africa has a younger population but they are less efficient with their vaccines than we are, so what are we and the Government to make of it?
Generally I do not think the British people have gone one step beyond to have two vaccines and a booster just to sit at home starring at the wall. The booster programme in particular was designed to allow a normal lifestyle to be embraced. If you feel poorly, then stay at home you might have COVID, you might have the flu or you might just have a cold. If you feel well then get on with things. Even if you are asymptomatic you are not going to influence the speed at which this thing is already spreading and as long as deaths and hospitalisations are maintaining a flat rate , or even slowly increasing, then the speed of the booster programme should come to our aid.
There will be people who see the opportunity to call in sick over the festive period as a bonus, almost an extra few days on the national holiday,and businesses or public services will have to close as a result.There will be health workers hugely frustrated that the majority of people in hospital are not fully inoculated but a virus has a life too. It does not plan to wipe out every host it infects. That would be destroying the very environment it need to breed, multiply and eventually mutate. This Omicron variant sounds a lot like a cryptocurrency and COVID seems to be behaving much like one too. Huge peeks of infection followed by big falls.
It is good to see the Government calling it's bluff at the moment even if the scientists and health professionals say we are about to be hit by another tidal wave of infection. The vast majority who make it to our TV screens seem to be from the Dad's Army school of doomery, each one grasping for that key nugget that they can use in a 'told you so' moment in the future.
Let's enjoy the festive break and everything that goes with it and tackle any new challenges which 2022 may hold for us, full on.......or should that be mask on!!!
Merry Christmas and happy New Year to all of you.
The rugby Varsity match would always signal the start of Christmas as far aa I was concerned and it was usually played on the second Tuesday of December. I then tried to have some sort of party to go to every day from then until Christmas Eve. The build-up to Christmas was always much more enjoyable then the day itself. Things have changed and now the match will be played in late March and I think trying to start my Christmas celebrations then would be a bit tricky.
So my new kick-off event has been the golf club turkey trot, a competition played in pairs for which the top three prizes are turkey. Last weekend myself and my partner came second and so I was in amongst the prizes. The Senior men also had a competition on the following Monday and again me and my partner came second. Only wine for prizes on this occasion though.
So now the countdown for Christmas has started in earnest, but the news of a new strain of COVID is making it difficult for me to go out every day and be sociable. I did manage to go to Gino's skybar again last night with a few of the Visionaries. It was an excellent night which I think a few of the cry-offs might now be regretting not attending. Today I brought the Wallasey golf club green staff a drink in the clubhouse as a small thank you for all the hard work they have put in on behalf of the members this year. The rest of next week is looking a bit sparse though, as the latest government statistics and press conferences have put people on the back foot.
I am concerned that the information we are being given is not allowing people to make the right choices. We are never told how the death rate at the moment compares to the 2019 five year average for the same time period. We are not told how many people in hospital do not have the recommended number of jabs, and by their own admission nobody has indicated how severe the latest strain is. Indeed the data from South Africa indicates it could be quite mild.
The virus has no reason to kill all the hosts it is mutating on as that will be self defeating as eventually it will die off. If the side effects are minor then we are just facing another flu or common cold Winter challenge but there is no need to shut everything down just for that. Get on with life, get jabbed and live life for the reason it exists.
So back to the diary and address book to see who I can go out with next week!!
