English cricket is in a bit of disarray at the moment. Jonathan Trott is suffering from a stress related illness which forced him home from the Ashes tour, Graham Swann found the tour too tough and bailed out, England got thumped, and Kevin Pietersen was informed that his services were no longer required by the national side.
Last things first. The Pietersen business is taking up far too many column inches ( including these). Like a lot of South Africans he is first and foremost interested in himself. Yes he has played some magnificent innings for England, but very few have been played with his back to the wall, when the need to bat for 4 sessions or more was paramount. In the Ashes series just gone, he time and again gave away his wicket easily. Rule number one for all school boys is keep your wicket intact....I would have said keep your end up, but the pc police would have had a go at me.....Geoff Boycott would have batted all day for 6 runs if need be. So Paul Downton and his England selectors have done right by me and waved him goodbye. he can go off to India now and earn himself some money.
It is interesting that Eoin Morgan has decided to forego the riches on offer in the sub-continent to try to win a place in the England side. Interestingly Morgan has played more games in the IPL than any other English player.
What to make of Graham Swann though? As news filters out that Jimmy Anderson played most of the tour with an injury, Swann's decision to bail out was a really soft choice. The fact he has been offered a contract on Test Match Special by the BBC has also ruffled a few feathers amongst the traditionalist, and rightly so.
The scene is set, therefore, for the new cream of English cricket to rise to the top of the county game and force their way into captain Cook's side for the Sri Lankan tests to come. It should be straightforward as we play them in April and May when it will be bitterly cold and they will be forced to wear five or six sweaters!!
I wish Trott a speedy recovery, but sense his career may now be over. I also noticed Morgan's Irish colleagues beat West Indies yesterday in a T20 warm-up game in Trinidad. I do hope that does not inspire the Ireland rugger chaps when they play at Twickenham at the weekend.
Thursday, 20 February 2014
Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Pretty Flamingo
So Valentine's Day has come and gone, and hopefully I got away with it again.
SWMBO and I visited Babylon, a Sir Richard Branson owned restaurant in the Roof Gardens in Kensington. I have not visited the Roof Gardens for many years, the last time being a work Christmas party hosted by our marketing organisation. I went with Steve McMillan, an old mucker of mine from our time together at IBM. Steve now lives over the pond, and co-incidentally its his birthday today, so have a good one matey!
The roof gardens were built on top of the Derry and Toms department store which was opened in Kensington in 1933. The gardens were laid out between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock, a landscape architect They cost £25,000 to create and visitors were charged 1 shilling to enter. Money raised was donated to local hospitals and £120,000 was raised during the next 30 years.
The building housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973, and then Biba until 1975, they have been listed as a Grade II site by the English Heritage since 1978.
The Roof Gardens have been rented from their owners by Sir Richard Branson since 1981 and as well as the restaurant, there is a nightclub on the garden level which is divided into three themed area's.
Still its a wonderful hidden gem, which cannot be seen from the road, and it is available to the public to visit whenever there is no private function booked. I commend it to you all if you are in the area.
SWMBO and I visited Babylon, a Sir Richard Branson owned restaurant in the Roof Gardens in Kensington. I have not visited the Roof Gardens for many years, the last time being a work Christmas party hosted by our marketing organisation. I went with Steve McMillan, an old mucker of mine from our time together at IBM. Steve now lives over the pond, and co-incidentally its his birthday today, so have a good one matey!
The roof gardens were built on top of the Derry and Toms department store which was opened in Kensington in 1933. The gardens were laid out between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock, a landscape architect They cost £25,000 to create and visitors were charged 1 shilling to enter. Money raised was donated to local hospitals and £120,000 was raised during the next 30 years.
The building housed the department store Derry and Toms until 1973, and then Biba until 1975, they have been listed as a Grade II site by the English Heritage since 1978.
The Roof Gardens have been rented from their owners by Sir Richard Branson since 1981 and as well as the restaurant, there is a nightclub on the garden level which is divided into three themed area's.
- a Spanish garden, in a Moorish style based upon the Alhambra in Spain, with fountains, vine-covered walkways and Chusan palms;
- a Tudor style garden, characterised by its archways, secret corners and hanging wisteria. Roses, lilies and lavender contribute the rich summer scent to the garden;
- an English woodland garden, with over 100 species of trees, a stream, and a garden pond that is the home to pintail ducks and four flamingos called Bill, Ben, Splosh and Pecks. There are over 30 different species of trees in the woodland garden, including trees from the original planting over sixty years ago, despite having only a metre of soil in which to grow. Although they are on a rooftop, the trees were made the subject of tree preservation orders in 1976.
Still its a wonderful hidden gem, which cannot be seen from the road, and it is available to the public to visit whenever there is no private function booked. I commend it to you all if you are in the area.
Tuesday, 4 February 2014
Training squad
Mon dieu, England hit the bar again in Paris as they lose, win and then lose again in an excellent game of rugby. I did turn to SWMBO when coach Lancaster took off Danny Care and Dylan Hartley, and said I thought it was a mistake to unsettle the side at this crucial stage.
That said, England did make enough line breaks to have the game sewn up after 70 minutes but nobody got up with the breakaway player to take the scoring pass. A true openside flanker would maybe have made the difference. Fair to say though that the French try deserved to win any game and was a throw back to pre-professional days when the French could strike from anywhere on the pitch. Hopefully this will inspire them to try it more often.
Still we did not let an England defeat, or my bad back, ruin a jolly weekend in Paris. We had not been for about ten years, having favoured Rome more recently, but a change is as good as a rest, and Paris always comes up trumps. I dug out my old tourist maps and found six metro tickets amongst them, and after ten years they still worked, that saved us a few Euro's.
We went to a regular watering hole, Chez Paul, near Bastille, after the game and spent a merry few hours with some other Twickenhamites who had also made the trip South.
Sunday morning saw us stroll through the local market where a mixture of fruit, veg, fish and meat was available for the locals to buy for their Sunday lunch. Further down the street was a bit of a flea market but nothing caught the eye.
Our priority had by this time been to search out one of the hidden gems of the Paris culinary circuit, Le Train Bleu, which is basically the station buffet in Gare du Lyon. Beryl Cook painted one of her pictures here, its certainly some buffet.
Our journey home consisted of a two hour Eurostar into St Pancras, a short stroll to Euston and then another two hour into Liverpool. All remarkably easy and something which the introduction of HS2 would be pushed to better .
So it's the sweaties next week in Edinburgh and then Ireland two weeks later in Twickenham, lets hope by then the team has learnt the lessons of Saturday and we are nicely set up for another title decider against the Welsh. More snails anyone?
That said, England did make enough line breaks to have the game sewn up after 70 minutes but nobody got up with the breakaway player to take the scoring pass. A true openside flanker would maybe have made the difference. Fair to say though that the French try deserved to win any game and was a throw back to pre-professional days when the French could strike from anywhere on the pitch. Hopefully this will inspire them to try it more often.
Still we did not let an England defeat, or my bad back, ruin a jolly weekend in Paris. We had not been for about ten years, having favoured Rome more recently, but a change is as good as a rest, and Paris always comes up trumps. I dug out my old tourist maps and found six metro tickets amongst them, and after ten years they still worked, that saved us a few Euro's.
We went to a regular watering hole, Chez Paul, near Bastille, after the game and spent a merry few hours with some other Twickenhamites who had also made the trip South.
Our priority had by this time been to search out one of the hidden gems of the Paris culinary circuit, Le Train Bleu, which is basically the station buffet in Gare du Lyon. Beryl Cook painted one of her pictures here, its certainly some buffet.
Our journey home consisted of a two hour Eurostar into St Pancras, a short stroll to Euston and then another two hour into Liverpool. All remarkably easy and something which the introduction of HS2 would be pushed to better .
So it's the sweaties next week in Edinburgh and then Ireland two weeks later in Twickenham, lets hope by then the team has learnt the lessons of Saturday and we are nicely set up for another title decider against the Welsh. More snails anyone?
Friday, 31 January 2014
..then you simmer for 20 minutes on a low gas
So just when you think the England cricket tour to Australia can't get any worse, you switch on Radio 5 Live Xtra for ball by ball commentary and you get a couple of 'Shiela's doing their best to make it interesting. One was clearly an England Ladies past or present player, the other was just a female commentator. I am sure they are well versed in the lovely game, but neither of them had a radio voice, their inflection and pitch were awful.
Now as an 'old git' I do think positive discrimination has been overplayed in recent times, three out of four Wirrilian MP's are women, for example, with only one being gay. Frank Field would probably be replaced by another woman if he was not so high profile. Positions of power should be earned by right. Women priests, lady firefighters and linesmen being renamed assistant referee's to allow women to wave the flag at football matches are all manufactured positions aimed at appeasing the equal opportunities campaigners. The opportunities are there provided you are good enough not just for the job, but in the job.
So please BBC will you protect us from these lady commentators who have hugely irritating voices certainly not fit for radio, and who add nothing in the way they paint pictures of the game. Let's return to the traditional calm tones of an older statesman, able to add something to the listeners enjoyment of the match whether it be a 20 over slog or a 6 hour rear guard action to save a test match.
Brian Johnston must be turning in his grave, probably a leg break!
Now as an 'old git' I do think positive discrimination has been overplayed in recent times, three out of four Wirrilian MP's are women, for example, with only one being gay. Frank Field would probably be replaced by another woman if he was not so high profile. Positions of power should be earned by right. Women priests, lady firefighters and linesmen being renamed assistant referee's to allow women to wave the flag at football matches are all manufactured positions aimed at appeasing the equal opportunities campaigners. The opportunities are there provided you are good enough not just for the job, but in the job.
So please BBC will you protect us from these lady commentators who have hugely irritating voices certainly not fit for radio, and who add nothing in the way they paint pictures of the game. Let's return to the traditional calm tones of an older statesman, able to add something to the listeners enjoyment of the match whether it be a 20 over slog or a 6 hour rear guard action to save a test match.
Brian Johnston must be turning in his grave, probably a leg break!
Thunderbirds are GO.....
I attended the Wirral emergency volunteer scheme kick-off meeting last night. It was hosted by Wirral council in the Floral Pavilion in New Brighton. There were over a hundred people there and we heard the head of risk management, Mark Camborne, outline how we could help out in times of unexpected events and emergencies. He was backed up by speakers from the blue light services. It was all very professionally handled and did give a level of confidence that the Council do know what they are doing, although it doesn't always get done in the way it's planned.
There are training sessions scheduled for later in the year, so I will be enrolling for snow clearing, manual handling, rescue centre management and stewarding, then I can sit back and wait for the phone to ring.
I am already planning to be a steward at the Open golf in Hoylake this year, but that will be a course based role. The Council will be managing the roads and facilities outside the Club.
The Council did all they could during the high tide alerts in early December but the regeneration project at New Brighton was flooded out, with Morrisons, the Travelodge, the casino and most of the restaurants under water for several days. The storm force winds also washed away the Black Pearl, a pirate ship built on the beach, out of drift wood.
There are training sessions scheduled for later in the year, so I will be enrolling for snow clearing, manual handling, rescue centre management and stewarding, then I can sit back and wait for the phone to ring.
I am already planning to be a steward at the Open golf in Hoylake this year, but that will be a course based role. The Council will be managing the roads and facilities outside the Club.
The Council did all they could during the high tide alerts in early December but the regeneration project at New Brighton was flooded out, with Morrisons, the Travelodge, the casino and most of the restaurants under water for several days. The storm force winds also washed away the Black Pearl, a pirate ship built on the beach, out of drift wood.
The Pearl will be reconstructed during the coming months, and I now have my hiviz vest so FAB Scott.
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Storming round
Yesterday was a very wild Saturday up here in Scouserland, although it did not stop me playing golf. We got 14 holes in before the skies darkened and we headed back to the 19th hole for an all day breakfast and coffee. They were two wise decisions. Firstly, some moments after adjourning to the bar, the heavens opened and shortly afterwards a procession of drowned rat golfers came scurrying in, all looking enviously at our scoff.
Having that was the second wise decision, as later in the afternoon SWMBO and I were attending a wedding in St Georges Hall. It was a 4;30pm start so solids would not be available much before 7pm.
The wedding was a civil ceremony held in the small concert room. The room is a small amphitheatre which holds about 500 people and was restored to its former glory between 2000 and 20007, its centrepiece is a crystal chandelier which is made up of over 2,800 pieces .It was in this venue that Charles Dickens held many of his readings.
St Georges Hall is a magnificent building, and one of the finest neo-Grecian buildings in the World. It holds a Civil Court and a Crown Court although neither are used in anger now, but they do feature regularly in TV and cinema drama. The cells in the basement are also maintained for the same purpose.
Its most impressive feature though is the grand hall. The hall boasts the third largest organ in the country after the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall. Its floor is constructed of Minton tiles and is protected by special flooring for all but two weeks a year when it is exposed and put on view for the public.
We went into the wrong end of the Hall when we arrived so we were lucky enough to be walked along the gallery of the grand hall, and saw that it was laid out for a 500 people Burns night dinner that evening.
We were all taxi'd to the reception in another elegant building in Water Street, and bailed out in the early hours. Luckily the storm had passed by the time we left, but the joy of weddings is that there always seems to be one brewing the next morning, only time will tell.
Having that was the second wise decision, as later in the afternoon SWMBO and I were attending a wedding in St Georges Hall. It was a 4;30pm start so solids would not be available much before 7pm.
The wedding was a civil ceremony held in the small concert room. The room is a small amphitheatre which holds about 500 people and was restored to its former glory between 2000 and 20007, its centrepiece is a crystal chandelier which is made up of over 2,800 pieces .It was in this venue that Charles Dickens held many of his readings.
St Georges Hall is a magnificent building, and one of the finest neo-Grecian buildings in the World. It holds a Civil Court and a Crown Court although neither are used in anger now, but they do feature regularly in TV and cinema drama. The cells in the basement are also maintained for the same purpose.
Its most impressive feature though is the grand hall. The hall boasts the third largest organ in the country after the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral and the Royal Albert Hall. Its floor is constructed of Minton tiles and is protected by special flooring for all but two weeks a year when it is exposed and put on view for the public.
We went into the wrong end of the Hall when we arrived so we were lucky enough to be walked along the gallery of the grand hall, and saw that it was laid out for a 500 people Burns night dinner that evening.
We were all taxi'd to the reception in another elegant building in Water Street, and bailed out in the early hours. Luckily the storm had passed by the time we left, but the joy of weddings is that there always seems to be one brewing the next morning, only time will tell.
Thursday, 23 January 2014
SR-N1
It seems that the Wirral is about to embark on a pioneering water transport system which will see passenger carrying hovercraft take people to the North Wales holiday resorts (some mistake surely) of Rhyl and Llandudno as well as to Blackpool further up the Lancashire coast.
The service is due to be launched in 2015 and will use the New Brighton lifeboat slipway as the embark and disembark platform. Travel times are due to be in the region of 30-40 minutes which in all cases is considerably quicker than making the journey by road. It will be interesting to see how the enterprise maps out.
Sir Christopher Cockerell was thought to be the forefather of the hovercraft principle, and most young boys in the late 1950's and early 1960's had a model of the SR-N1 as part of their play group. The concept has been used for passenger transfer before, of course, primarily across the English Channel. It was first used though when the passenger-carrying hovercraft , Vickers VA-3,in the summer of 1962 carried passengers regularly along the North Wales Coast from Moreton, Merseyside, to Rhyl. So it seems the new service is trying to resurrect the old.
This is another initiative generated as a spin off from the investment in the Wirral waterways, by Peel Holdings. This large land developer has the objective of making the North West of England the leading economic region in the Country. It first built and managed the Trafford Centre shopping complex near Manchester, but it has sold that as it now focuses on the Ocean Gateway.
This project is aimed at linking the new port of Salford with a new port called Liverpool 2, via the Manchester Ship canal which it owns already.It is also driving the development of Wirral Waters and Liverpool Waters, the first of which is already underway and has approved planning permission for a trade centre and other early return projects. The Chinese are already active in their involvement with it.
To complement these developments Peel Holdings have acquired Liverpool John Lennon airport, the Lowry shopping complex in Salford and own and built the Salford media city into which the BBC recently moved.
Interesting times for the North West indeed.
The service is due to be launched in 2015 and will use the New Brighton lifeboat slipway as the embark and disembark platform. Travel times are due to be in the region of 30-40 minutes which in all cases is considerably quicker than making the journey by road. It will be interesting to see how the enterprise maps out.
Sir Christopher Cockerell was thought to be the forefather of the hovercraft principle, and most young boys in the late 1950's and early 1960's had a model of the SR-N1 as part of their play group. The concept has been used for passenger transfer before, of course, primarily across the English Channel. It was first used though when the passenger-carrying hovercraft , Vickers VA-3,in the summer of 1962 carried passengers regularly along the North Wales Coast from Moreton, Merseyside, to Rhyl. So it seems the new service is trying to resurrect the old.
This is another initiative generated as a spin off from the investment in the Wirral waterways, by Peel Holdings. This large land developer has the objective of making the North West of England the leading economic region in the Country. It first built and managed the Trafford Centre shopping complex near Manchester, but it has sold that as it now focuses on the Ocean Gateway.
This project is aimed at linking the new port of Salford with a new port called Liverpool 2, via the Manchester Ship canal which it owns already.It is also driving the development of Wirral Waters and Liverpool Waters, the first of which is already underway and has approved planning permission for a trade centre and other early return projects. The Chinese are already active in their involvement with it.
To complement these developments Peel Holdings have acquired Liverpool John Lennon airport, the Lowry shopping complex in Salford and own and built the Salford media city into which the BBC recently moved.
Interesting times for the North West indeed.
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