So a Bank Holiday full of sporting activities comes to an end. Rory McIlroy won a cool $15m for winning the Fed Ex golf championship in Atlanta, Ben Stokes re-ignited the Ashes cricket with an unbelievable rear guard action in the test match at Headingley and Newcastle United parked the bus and snatched three points from Tottenham yesterday in a game I suspect Match of the Day struggled to find any highlights.
So guess which one I went to? Yes , with SWMBO playing Shirley Valentine in Greece, I thought I would just pop down to London and explore the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium for the day. The train down was fine, and then came the 35 minute slog from Seven Sisters tube station in 34 degree heat, a walk I have done many times in the past but not for a few years. I got to the stadium praying I would have a seat in the shade. Luck was going my way as, yes I did, on the fifth tier of the North stand. Looking around at the amazing auditorium it was clear they had reserved the sunny seats for the Georgie boys so they could get their kit off and fry. I bet there were some very sore bellies this morning.
The game was so dull that the lady sitting next to me left at half time, and her husband did the Express crossword through out the second half. I left early to ensure the walk back to the tube was not rushed as was the case.
The new stadium is huge. There are bag checks and security checks everywhere, and even when it was as hot as yesterday you could not take water bottles inside. The bars and food stalls were doing a roaring trade, and the sensible thing if you are local is to wait around afterwards , have a few beers and then head home. White Hart Lane station has been completely refurbished with Club money but I am unsure whether there are extra trains to get people away form the ground quicker.
The Club were sensible enough to have the cricket on the TV screens which made for a very different match day experience than would normally be the case, but I was delighted to watch the highlights again when I got home. I was disappointed with Virgin rains that the first class lounge now charges for alcohol. This I was informed is due to too many people getting drunk for free before their train leaves. Never mind that its all free on the train anyway!! So I had a pint of Pride in the pub next door. If you are going to pay may as well have something you like.
On Saturday I played golf at 07:15, a time I was unaware was part of Saturday morning!! I was pleased how I played, and there were three 1's in our group. I got an 11 at hole 13 and one of my partners got a hole in 1 at the 5th. Drinks all round!!
Today I played again and was 5 under par after 6 holes, slipped to 4 under after 10 and finished 2 over, very much a nearly round, hey ho! Tomorrow is a day of rest which will probably involve cosmetic cleaning and ironing just to show willing, before the golf starts all over again, weather permitting.
Monday, 26 August 2019
Friday, 16 August 2019
Deja Vous all over again
We are on the train back to Liverpool, following our annual trip to London for the Lord's test match. This year is an Ashes year but our hopes of seeing Jofra Archer throw a few down at the Aussies were dashed once again by the weather.
This is the second year running that we have had a complete washout following a similar experience when India were the visitors.
We adjourn to Crickets on such occasions, although it is disappointing that they have removed Fullers London Pride in favour of some pale imitation of an IPA. We did our usual trick of purchasing an umbrella from one of the numerous charity shops in St John's Wood high street, and SWMBO and I both purchase some clobber so not a totally wasted day.
After an early dinner the night before at The Duke of Sussex in Waterloo, we went to see 'The Bank Robbery That Went Wrong' at the Criterian Theatre. It had some very clever and amusing moments interspersed with periods of dullness, but that is farce for you.
Yesterday we met Cousin Mike and Val at the Ivy Cafe in Richmond which very pleasant. Marion joined us for a drink later before we deferred once more to Waterloo for night cap.
So all in all a good three days, and the refunded entry fees should cover all the r & r!!
This is the second year running that we have had a complete washout following a similar experience when India were the visitors.
We adjourn to Crickets on such occasions, although it is disappointing that they have removed Fullers London Pride in favour of some pale imitation of an IPA. We did our usual trick of purchasing an umbrella from one of the numerous charity shops in St John's Wood high street, and SWMBO and I both purchase some clobber so not a totally wasted day.
After an early dinner the night before at The Duke of Sussex in Waterloo, we went to see 'The Bank Robbery That Went Wrong' at the Criterian Theatre. It had some very clever and amusing moments interspersed with periods of dullness, but that is farce for you.
Yesterday we met Cousin Mike and Val at the Ivy Cafe in Richmond which very pleasant. Marion joined us for a drink later before we deferred once more to Waterloo for night cap.
So all in all a good three days, and the refunded entry fees should cover all the r & r!!
Monday, 29 July 2019
Cool man, said Dylan
A lot of comment in the media at the moment about the legalisation of cannabis has also pushed the legal aspect of the drug to the forefront of many peoples thinking. The likelihood of cannabis plants being grown legally in everybodys loft or garage is unlikely to happen shortly, but members of a Government task force who have just returned from Canada are optimistic that the same process the Canadians use could e copied successfully here.
One of the current challenges is how to decide what is legal and what is not, Customs officers appear to confiscate some supplies of CBT Oil which parents in particular are bringing into the Country to try to treat afflictions like seizures in their young children. At the same time International rugby players George Kruis and Dominic Day have launched a Company selling the oil to fellow athletes for remedial and recovery purposes which seems all above board.
Small amounts of CBD Oil can be obtained fairly easily by mail order. Our oldest has an interest in a Swiss company which exports to the UK. You can check it out here. I have used it for some time to ensure my PSA readings are maintained in the safe zone as far as any prostate cancer traces are concerned. So far so good.
So it all seems to be confused and unco-ordinated at the moment, but if you need to try any out yourself give Kannaroyale a go at the link above
One of the current challenges is how to decide what is legal and what is not, Customs officers appear to confiscate some supplies of CBT Oil which parents in particular are bringing into the Country to try to treat afflictions like seizures in their young children. At the same time International rugby players George Kruis and Dominic Day have launched a Company selling the oil to fellow athletes for remedial and recovery purposes which seems all above board.
Small amounts of CBD Oil can be obtained fairly easily by mail order. Our oldest has an interest in a Swiss company which exports to the UK. You can check it out here. I have used it for some time to ensure my PSA readings are maintained in the safe zone as far as any prostate cancer traces are concerned. So far so good.
So it all seems to be confused and unco-ordinated at the moment, but if you need to try any out yourself give Kannaroyale a go at the link above
Sunday, 28 July 2019
Pocket Style
As I continue to fight the case for Boris as PM up here in Scouseland, with, I admit, limited success, I am delighted that one of his cohorts, Jacob Rees-Mogg has struck a blow for the reinstatement of the Queens English by issuing a style guide for his newly allocated government office.
Regular readers of this blog, most notably 'Off the Record Dick' and my late departed mate Figs,will be surprised and fascinated to learn that I developed one such style guide for the members of the IBM consulting and professional services organisation in the early 90's. The Company was just branching out into the consulting arena and it was considered important to ensure our reports and the presentation material surrounding them were of a consistent format, hence the need for some grammatical guidelines. I must admit to lax usage of the apostrophe and comma, however it is very interesting to look back at some of the guidelines presented at that time. Here are a couple:
Issue: Avoid using the word issue unless referring to a paper or journal. Use problem or concern instead.
Simplistic: Use simple-minded or naive, or simple if that is what you mean
Verbs: Do not use nouns as verbs; for example, 'IBM solutioned the problem'
One of the great sources of style was produced by The Economist for its journalistic staff. It is interesting that Boris himself was the editor-in-chief for this organ for many years!!
This guide was later published and sits on my bookcase along with 'The Complete Plain Words' , 'Big Elephants Are Useful', a compendium of mnemonics and idioms and 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' a modern punctuation bible.
Can any or all of them solve the greatest grammatical challenge regarding what people from Argentina are called? Answer, from The Economist is that they are Argentines not Argentinian. Phew! glad we cleared that up.
Regular readers of this blog, most notably 'Off the Record Dick' and my late departed mate Figs,will be surprised and fascinated to learn that I developed one such style guide for the members of the IBM consulting and professional services organisation in the early 90's. The Company was just branching out into the consulting arena and it was considered important to ensure our reports and the presentation material surrounding them were of a consistent format, hence the need for some grammatical guidelines. I must admit to lax usage of the apostrophe and comma, however it is very interesting to look back at some of the guidelines presented at that time. Here are a couple:
Issue: Avoid using the word issue unless referring to a paper or journal. Use problem or concern instead.
Simplistic: Use simple-minded or naive, or simple if that is what you mean
Verbs: Do not use nouns as verbs; for example, 'IBM solutioned the problem'
One of the great sources of style was produced by The Economist for its journalistic staff. It is interesting that Boris himself was the editor-in-chief for this organ for many years!!
This guide was later published and sits on my bookcase along with 'The Complete Plain Words' , 'Big Elephants Are Useful', a compendium of mnemonics and idioms and 'Eats, Shoots and Leaves' a modern punctuation bible.
Can any or all of them solve the greatest grammatical challenge regarding what people from Argentina are called? Answer, from The Economist is that they are Argentines not Argentinian. Phew! glad we cleared that up.
Saturday, 27 July 2019
George Stephenson
I have had a very difficult year of golf so far. I have had some niggly injuries, some runs of bad luck and an inconsistent swing which is so frustrating as to make me almost give the game up for a while. That last emotion has, however, been balanced by my ability to find some form in a few team competitions.
I have been fortunate to come second in the Wallasey Invitational event and win some money, John Porter, a major player when New Brighton were a formidable rugby team, and I came second in the Old Padeswood senior open where we won money and golf balls, and my team ,"Shoeless Joe's", managed to win the Wallasey4Wirral charity golf day where we won £100 each,together with wine and meal vouchers in the raffle. A very well done to Neil Bennett and his son who continue to run an excellent day and raised over £6000 for various cancer related charities
All of the above were very welcome, but none so much as the round which allowed me to qualify for the BMW Golf Cup International UK final to be played on the Castle course at St Andrews. I played in the BMW owners golf events for many years until BMW pulled the plug on them, and this is the second year I have been able to try to qualify for the finals as an independent. I had it won with four holes to play at Woburn last year but grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. This year at Hillside I was able to keep my composure and finish in second place. That gets me an all inclusive stay at the Old Course Hotel for a long weekend, and I will hope to get a chance to play the Old Course while I am up there.
The only down side is that it clashes with the Twickenham Rugby weekend away which this year includes three rounds at Minehead GC and three nights at a tribute band extravaganza at Butlins!! Another year perhaps!
So why the heading for this particular post? Well, when I first joined Wallasey GC as a soft Southerner who knew nobody, George took me under his wing, and week on week we have played together every Saturday for nearly ten years. George extended similar comradeship to Peter Ellerington and Phil Gedman. George is now 86 and only two weeks ago went round the golf course in 82 shots. To beat your age is a target every golfer aims for. The pro golfers look to do it in their early 60's, good amateurs in their 70's and people like me hope to live until the y are 90 and are still playing golf!!
As a thankyou and a late 85th birthday present, we took George this week to play at Royal Birkdale, rated as the top course in England. It did not disappoint. The welcome was first class and the course was laid out in excellent condition. We played variable golf, but George was so focused that he and I managed to beat Phil and Peter after I had put us into an early lead and they had pegged us back on the back nine. SO, whenever I go through the emotions outlined at the beginning of the article, I just think of George and his single mindedness, never mind that he is giving me 20 years and three shots. He is a legend and I value him as a friend, long may we share the fairways.
I have been fortunate to come second in the Wallasey Invitational event and win some money, John Porter, a major player when New Brighton were a formidable rugby team, and I came second in the Old Padeswood senior open where we won money and golf balls, and my team ,"Shoeless Joe's", managed to win the Wallasey4Wirral charity golf day where we won £100 each,together with wine and meal vouchers in the raffle. A very well done to Neil Bennett and his son who continue to run an excellent day and raised over £6000 for various cancer related charities
All of the above were very welcome, but none so much as the round which allowed me to qualify for the BMW Golf Cup International UK final to be played on the Castle course at St Andrews. I played in the BMW owners golf events for many years until BMW pulled the plug on them, and this is the second year I have been able to try to qualify for the finals as an independent. I had it won with four holes to play at Woburn last year but grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory. This year at Hillside I was able to keep my composure and finish in second place. That gets me an all inclusive stay at the Old Course Hotel for a long weekend, and I will hope to get a chance to play the Old Course while I am up there.
The only down side is that it clashes with the Twickenham Rugby weekend away which this year includes three rounds at Minehead GC and three nights at a tribute band extravaganza at Butlins!! Another year perhaps!
So why the heading for this particular post? Well, when I first joined Wallasey GC as a soft Southerner who knew nobody, George took me under his wing, and week on week we have played together every Saturday for nearly ten years. George extended similar comradeship to Peter Ellerington and Phil Gedman. George is now 86 and only two weeks ago went round the golf course in 82 shots. To beat your age is a target every golfer aims for. The pro golfers look to do it in their early 60's, good amateurs in their 70's and people like me hope to live until the y are 90 and are still playing golf!!
As a thankyou and a late 85th birthday present, we took George this week to play at Royal Birkdale, rated as the top course in England. It did not disappoint. The welcome was first class and the course was laid out in excellent condition. We played variable golf, but George was so focused that he and I managed to beat Phil and Peter after I had put us into an early lead and they had pegged us back on the back nine. SO, whenever I go through the emotions outlined at the beginning of the article, I just think of George and his single mindedness, never mind that he is giving me 20 years and three shots. He is a legend and I value him as a friend, long may we share the fairways.
Sunday, 21 July 2019
Water babies
SWMBO and I have just returned from Geneva where we visited number one son, his partner and our two overseas grandchildren. We took number one grand daughter,Ava, with us, and nearly came back without her!!
More on that later. We were royally looked after in the food and drink department, and reciprocated with a few meals out. Tim has recently lost his job which is making things a bit tough financially, although he is around to look after the children during their Summer holidays. Hopefully he will get something sorted come September time.
As the driver and ideas man, he enabled the children to swim each day we were there, once at a large sports complex with multiple pools and slides, once on lake Geneva and today in a tributary of the river Rhone.That last one was a bit taiters though.
We had lunch in a local pizzeria before we left and Ava ate most of her pizza by hand. When she went through the security scanner at the airport it picked up suspicious substances on her which led to suitcase searches and other checks which quite upset her. Clearly she has had an airport incident previously to sow a certain nervousness about security checks in her mind. I wonder what it was though?
We were also asked in Geneva and Liverpool to produce backup information about our relationship as she is a Harris and SWMBO is a Collins. Mum is a Smith but had given us an indemnity letter which did the trick both times.
Sofia and Alexander are both into skate boarding now so Ava had a go at that which should bode well for snowboarding in the Winter.
Keep that casualty bed free!
More on that later. We were royally looked after in the food and drink department, and reciprocated with a few meals out. Tim has recently lost his job which is making things a bit tough financially, although he is around to look after the children during their Summer holidays. Hopefully he will get something sorted come September time.
As the driver and ideas man, he enabled the children to swim each day we were there, once at a large sports complex with multiple pools and slides, once on lake Geneva and today in a tributary of the river Rhone.That last one was a bit taiters though.
We had lunch in a local pizzeria before we left and Ava ate most of her pizza by hand. When she went through the security scanner at the airport it picked up suspicious substances on her which led to suitcase searches and other checks which quite upset her. Clearly she has had an airport incident previously to sow a certain nervousness about security checks in her mind. I wonder what it was though?
We were also asked in Geneva and Liverpool to produce backup information about our relationship as she is a Harris and SWMBO is a Collins. Mum is a Smith but had given us an indemnity letter which did the trick both times.
Sofia and Alexander are both into skate boarding now so Ava had a go at that which should bode well for snowboarding in the Winter.
Keep that casualty bed free!
Wednesday, 19 June 2019
Ulster
I am in the North of the Irish Republic This week playing in and around Rosapenna. Rosapenna is in Donegal and it is a little known fact that not only does Ulster embrace the counties of Northern Ireland but also those of the North of the South. So Donegal is in Ulster and Eire
The golf this week has been tough, with nobody so far playing to their handicap. I think I am third going into the final day, but first and second are comfortably ahead of me, with pack closing in behind.
Donegal is quite rugged and sparsely populated. We went to the Singing Pub last night but luckily did not have sing for our supper. Tonight we are going to The Old Glen in Glen and if its as good as last night it should be great.
I do feel for the youngsters who seem to have limited opportunities for work and recreation, but it is clearly not new to be in that environment and people find a way, be it in the leisure industry, fishing or retail. They all seem happy and friendly and that's the main thing. fáilte agus fáilte roimh chách
The golf this week has been tough, with nobody so far playing to their handicap. I think I am third going into the final day, but first and second are comfortably ahead of me, with pack closing in behind.
Donegal is quite rugged and sparsely populated. We went to the Singing Pub last night but luckily did not have sing for our supper. Tonight we are going to The Old Glen in Glen and if its as good as last night it should be great.
I do feel for the youngsters who seem to have limited opportunities for work and recreation, but it is clearly not new to be in that environment and people find a way, be it in the leisure industry, fishing or retail. They all seem happy and friendly and that's the main thing. fáilte agus fáilte roimh chách
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