The Philanderer

Its day 1 in the big brother house

2009-11-23T11:24:00.005Z

Actually its day 6, but as I sneaked back to London last week after four days up North, this is really the first full week.

The big challenge with integrating two houses is the amount of double bubble you have....three extra beds, two extra sofas, clothes, pots, pans, cutlery, glasses, pictures, books and other ephemera, my collection of menus from restaurants around the world being one such.....

So we have a bedroom full of stuff, which needs to be carefully sorted into piles. E-bay, tip and office are the three easiest clasifications to decide upon. Storage or usage are the trickiest. SWMBO has had sole storage rights for a number of years so her space needs to be protected as well.

So far the futon has gone to Emma and Lees spare room, the dressing table has replaced the falling apart MFI one, and most of the clothes have found a way into a wardrobe or three. Emma's bedroom has become the library, but there are still masses of books looking for homes, and just how many dictonaries does one need for practical purposes?

E-bay will take a hammering this week, and Chiswick Auction House has already disposed of some of the lesser art work we will fail to put on the wall....storage items are next.

Guess what though, just as we finish the sorting process we will find a flat in London and start the ' why did we throw that out debate' all over again....c'est la vie.

I told you so.....

2009-11-22T11:58:00.003Z

I have been bleating on about the quality of the product on offer at Twickenham Stadium, as the England rugby team stumble from one shambles to the next. My prediction that the stadium will be half empty before the next World Cup has fallen on deaf ears as far as my chums at the RFU are concerned.

Today, however, in the Observer, Paul Hayward has taken up the theme, and I do wonder if he drinks in the Prince Blucher after the game, and has ear wigged my persistent bemoaning!

Wales and Ireland seem to be able to play exciting rugby even in adversity, England just cannot step up to the plate. I have no idea what the answer is although I do fear the lack of University educated players is on the decline as a result of professional rugby teams and their associated academy's trying to dumb down rugby intellect by brain washing the flair out of players.

The S Club 5 will continue to attend on a casual basis as the day, and indeed, the weekend continues to be a good craic, but the three Autumn Internationals are two too many for us already......I am reminded of the phone call once to Brentford FC....'Hello can you tell me what time kick-off is?......whenever you can get here Sir!'

I do good deal my friend

2009-11-20T12:24:00.006Z

I have just returned from a few days in Marrakesh with some of the BMW golf group, and I must say this retirement business is beginning to have an appeal. We played three courses while out there and the contrasts were fascinating. I was sixth after day one but faded to end in the pack although a steady par round the back nine at Amalkis sent me hope with a smile.

To help the economy, caddies are compulsory, and I know know what an important tool in the professional armoury such a person can be. I had a nightmare on the second day, and, although I have nightmares when playing without a caddie, on this occasion I was in another place.

He gave me wrong clubs, walked me to tees, via the scenic route and was generally a bad vibe. All round I fought my inner self but sadly it won 3 and 2!!!

The bigger disappointment was that this was the day we played Marrakesh Royal golf club, a course laid out in 1920 by the top man of the time, and it has been graces by King Hussain, Winston Churchill and Dwight D Eisenhower

The characters on the tour were an equally eclectic bunch. There was a retired builder who had got his six numbers up, a publisher who spent a lot of time in the old Eastern Block. One of his big titles is 'Wheres Wally?' and the banter on tour suggested he was the role model for the character! Big Rod is in munitions, fabricating the personnel carriers we are sending our boys in Afghanistan and there were financiers, legal eagles, electricians and teachers. It was all very interesting.

So what of the city itself? well Sex in the City 2 was being filmed on location while we were there which will no doubt give a sight of the place when it is released. We really only saw the grand bizarre.It was big, but once you see one carpet stall you see them all, especially when none of them were the flying variety!

Its size inevitable led to my group getting lost in a 'maze of twisting little passages which all looked the same'.Our efforts to keep turning right did not work so we eventually had to pay a local to escort us back to the main square!

We then got taken by a hawker to an authentic Moroccan restaurant, so authentic in fact that it did not sell alcohol. We made our excuses and left. We found another which did, and threw in a belly dancer for free...

Marrakesh is about a three day resort which I probably would not return to in a hurry. Paraphrasing Tuffers view of India 'done the poverty, done the camels'

Ode to joy

2009-11-03T13:49:00.003Z

So farewell then soft Limacon
a great theme we stumbled on.......

t'were full of slugs the slimy things
but once rid of them t'were musings

in tasteful remembrance
with a french cuisine semblance

Le Limacon est arrivee - phew!
lets have a buffet and barbecue

and the tradition lasted
while we all got plastered

and toasted the slugs on and on
(actually les limacons in translashion!)

but he's sold the house
and is moving to scouse

but in our mind's eye we'll still see
le limacon .... so r.i.p.

P Figgins aged 8 and a half.....arf.......

Going, going, gone......

2009-10-29T15:36:00.003Z

I started this blog in May 2007 to chart the path I would follow as i put my house on the market. little did I know it would be two and a half years later that I would be reporting the conclusion of the journey.

Yes, I have finally exchanged on the sale and vacate the property on 6th November. I will be leaving London to live away for the first time in nearly 40 years, and will need to locate the nearest source of London Pride or Youngs Ordinary to avoid my liver going into shutdown.

Thanks goodness for the internet which will allow me to follow the local issues and sporting prowess of the team which i have followed for much of that time.

A lot of things have happened in the time the house has been on the market. Maxine and I have become grandparents, our oldest son, Tim has married, and our oldest daughter is engaged. A few friends have passed away, and we have mourned their loss.

We have travelled a fair bit it has to be said. Peru, Brazil, Egypt, Portugal, Chicago, Edinburgh, Rome. Paris and Cyprus have been on our schedule, as well as a cruise around the islands of the Mediterranean. At that should stand us in good stead now that my Company has cast me adrift by making draconian changes to its final salary pension scheme.

I met the CEO yesterday and asked him outright why I should stay in his Company. His reply was hopeless, and as a colleague of mine once said, 'when the lunatics start running the asylum, its time to leave' . I think they are, and I am. ETD is scheduled for 5th February at the moment which will make the England v Wales game at Twickenham the next day a bit of a blinder.

So the blog has fulfilled one role, and now it takes on a new one as it tracks my progress through early retirement, life in Scouserland and potentially a few entrepreneurial projects. Watch this space one may come to a road near you........

Flying the flag

2009-10-15T16:21:00.003+01:00

'The best things in life are free' or so the saying goes. So I was delighted to hear that the London Evening Standard was to be given away from the beginning of this week.

I have always had a soft spot for the only surviving London evening paper. It used to be the source of cheap and comfortable flats when me and my chums were looking for student digs during the mid 70's. Each year we would take it in turns to be in Fleet Street at 9:30am when the first editions hit the street.it was then a mad dash to the nearest phone box to start ringing round and arranging viewings. We did pretty well, getting places in Northcote Road, Clapham, in Tooting not far from the Common and , of course, Devonshire Road in Balham, gateway to the South. Great days.

The London Paper, The Metro and the London Lite have all been given away at tube stations for many years, but they just never had the substance of the Evening Standard, nor its rival, The Evening News. The News perished in 1980 and but for a brief resurrection in 1987, the Standard has been the only local London 'pay to play' paper.

I have to confess I rarely purchased it, but now I am chasing the man at the tube up the street to get my free copy to read on the way home........

The Standard apart, London, and other cities are full of good free stuff, much of it advertised in afore mentioned rag. Most of the best museums are free, the stroll along the Thames thought the West End and the City is a delight, as are the buskers in the Covent Garden Piazza. The Festival Hall has Jazz every Friday night in its expansive foyer, as well as tea dances and other recitals, and the street markets all over London provide a wonderful photographic and cultural experience.

I have lived here 40 years and it will be hard to leave it all behind when I move away in a few weeks, but, hey, its only two hours away on the train, and with plenty of time to kill from next year I suspect the Capital has not seen the last of me, not by a long chalk....now I wonder where that expression came from?

Wilson, Kepple and Betty

2009-10-08T16:25:00.003+01:00

Just back from Egypt and certainly notice the temperature difference. It was 35 degrees in the shade over there, so i stayed in the sun....groan. Did a bit of snorkeling which was pretty sub when compared to the fish and colours on display in Eilat just up the coast in Israel, and one of the little buggers bit me quite hard, drawing blood and leaving me with a mini jaws scar. I had fish and chips for dinner last night hoping I might be getting revenge on their Uncle or other close family member!

The place was full of Russians, as was Cyprus when we went last year, and I hear that some of the Greek islands are going the same way. I have a few phrases of Polish I can trot out as necessary, but had i known i would have learnt the Ruski for 'excuse me there is a queue' or ' no please feel free to open the door yourself'. Still the legs were quite impressive although what they see in their ex-U boat captain partners is beyond me.

We got back in time for Idwals funeral and it was a mighty turnout as had been expected. there was much singing and merriment and I am sure he would have looked down satisfied in the way his life was celebrated. During the eulogy it became evident how little people knew of his life outside the rugby club, he was a Labour candidate in the local elections, a strong charity worker and loving grandad to his extended family.....he also campaigned hard in recent years for an independent state for Palestine, so I wonder how he would of reacted to me in the suk's of Sharm al Sheik pointing out that they had left Israel off their maps of the middle East...seems they assume the Palestinians have a state of their own already!

Big Mac and large fries please......

2009-09-20T11:38:00.003+01:00

We stayed in a Hyatt hotel while in Chicago. It was on Ronald Avenue in, wait for it, the campus of Hamburger University. This whole campus had been developed by the McDonalds Corporation to embrace their head office, training centre and local community leisure facilities.

Everything was geared towards the golden arches. The paintings and prints on the walls all had subtle, or not so subtle, images of Big Macs, Ronald himself, the arches or the produce. It was an amazing tribute to the mass market cardboard burger which has contributed so much to the American, and other countries, huge obesity problems.

So I wonder what sort of degree you get from a hamburger university?

Bachelor of Southern Style Crispy Chicken Sandwich, Master of Tarts or Doctor of The Pattie?

I'm lovin' it......

Idwal Morgan

2009-09-17T18:54:00.006+01:00

I lost a very good friend while I was away in Chicago. Idwal Morgan and Peter Thomas, two life members of Twickenham Rugby Club, were walking together in Spain, when they were caught in a rock fall. Idwal sadly did not survive, and the effort Peter made to get assistance was admirable but unfortunately the rescue team were not able to revive Idwal. He will be sadly missed.

I first met him when I joined TRFC in 1981.he was an ex-1st XV player who was now plying his trade in the 2nd and 3rd XV, but his skill levels and commitment were evident for all to see. He only had one eye so you never knew which way he was looking or who he was looking at. This helped when he was selling dummies, or facing up to an agressive opponent when he invariably came out on top!

I have a lasting legacy from Idwal as he broke my cheekbone a few days before Christmas in the mid '80s. Christmas dinner through a straw was an interesting experience!

I also toured New Zealand with him playing in the Golden Oldies festival in Aukland. We played Maori teams, New Zealand internationals and 85 year old Japanese players, and ate and drank like kings. We returned via Hawaii where we played golf, joshed with the ladies of the night (business was quiet) and used Idwal's British Gas id card to gain entry to the most exclusive clubs and bars. He was proud of his involvement with British Gas and the joy on his face as he presented it and exclaimed in his soft Welsh brogue were a life memory.

He will leave a huge vacuum at the rugby club, and his wake will reflect the love and affection in which he was held. I often wish one could have ones wake while still alive as its often the best party you would ever go to. Idwal's will be, the members will see to that. Sleep well old son.....

Call that a half Simon?

2009-09-15T00:08:00.007+01:00

Now a week is a long time in politics, and I think I have said that on here before, but just imagine that one weekend you are attending the Patterdale Show in the Lake District, and then paddling a raft in a race, dressed as a viking.

The next week you are teeing it up with the greatest golfer of modern times, Tiger Woods, in the BMW Championship at Cog Hill near Chicago.

Next week its Brentford v Bristol Rovers, but hey ho!!!

So first the show. Well my mucker 'Off the record' Dick has reported the events at the show and on the river here in his blog of 31st August, and a fine summary it is too. There were sheep and dogs, and shepherds and shepherdesses, if one is allowed to call them such these days. To my mind thought the best Sheep were the Black ones I consumed throughout the evening!!

I was excused duties on the raft to be honest as it was unclear whether our new design would take the weight of five of us. As Dick points out in the end it would only carry three such. Still we took part and by all accounts have kept the race alive following our pirate escapades last year.

So myself and SWMBO arrived home on the Monday to be presented with (almost) the trip of a lifetime. I got a call from the BMW golf office in London telling me there was a space at the pro-am prior to the third leg of the FedEx Cup and could I get there?

Well a quick call on Tuesday to the boss, then Virgin Atlantic and finally to Octagon in Chicago and we are both on our way. We arrived to be greeted with a chauffeur and a logo'd BMW and so it went on for the week....shopping madam? we'll drop you off, just call when you need a pickup.....off to the course sir, let us take you....and for three days BMW did us proud.

The highlight arrived on the Wednesday when I got to play the pro-am. The previous night my German colleagues and I attended the partner party where we got to choose who to play with. They fancied a European, but by the time our number came out of the hat they had all gone.

I suggested we went for Lucas Glover. That would sandwich us between Tiger and his team and Sergio Garcia. It would also give us a first tee start and Lucas is after all the US Open Champion. They went with it and that's how we got to be in reception inthe hotel at 5am with the Tiger man himself. He signed a few autographs and drove himself to the course (in a Buick!!).

We followed his group all the way round, and beat them by 4 shots, coming a creditable 4th out of 52 teams, but sadly just outside the prizes. All in all though, a great day, which I shared with Lucas Glover, my caddie Joe, a Chuck Evans Scholar, and a few hundred other people who were gracious enough on the 18th green to applaud my approach putt.

As I mentioned in my blog only a few days ago, golf is one of those games where you can tread the boards on which perform your hero's. On this occasion I was able to do it at the same time

general update

2009-08-26T10:20:00.002+01:00

At last, I have accepted an offer on the house in Chiswick, and with a following wind the transaction should be completed by mid-October. The stock of flats seems to be in short supply so may keep my powder dry for the time being and see if there is a glut of buy to lets which come on the market over the Winter. In the meantime it will be The Lensbury Club for accommodation.

Work continues to be a nightmare with the imminent closure of the final salary pension plan. 20% of employees are affected and the water cooler discussions centre on nothing else at the mo. There are likely to be several hundred employees who will leave in march next year, so i am lining my ducks up as I am likely to be one such.

I am relatively OK in terms of pension but do feel sorry for the fortysomethings who will be seriously affected by this move.

As a combination of the above, this blog will be going silent, and may go off the air for a while as i move from the London server to the scouse one, which may mean there will be a change of blog address in the future. I will update when normal service has been resumed.

Third isle down on the right sir.....

2009-08-13T15:51:00.003+01:00

I have got myself a few months work in London at the moment, which is a welcome change from being on the bench since the Edinburgh gig finished. It may, however, be my last engagement with my current employer, as they propose to pull the plug on my, and others, pension scheme in April next year. If the porposals go through unchanged, I would have to work until i am well into my 62nd year to reep the benefits which I can walk away with now. That kind of seems a no brainer to me and alot of other people in a similar position.

The house situation is possibly improving with a couple of second viewings this week, but if it is still unsold by September then I think I will rent it out and use the income to supliment any pension I choose to draw down.

The golf club membership probably won't move much before the end of the year, but I have got holidays planned through September, October and November, as well as Camp Pete 2009 which is scheduled for the upcoming Bank Holiday. We are Vikings this year and will be looking to retain our 'most imaginative raft' title, won by the pirates last year.

Now where did I put that orange B & Q overall?

Thats a nice pear

2009-08-10T15:23:00.003+01:00

I've got to get this off my chest (grin), but I am getting a bit fed up with adverts for pear cider. I know I am on a campaign to protect old gits English when I reach for my 1956 National Benzole sponsored edition of the Collins English dictionary to look something up. Well I did, and I have.

It quite clearly states that cider is a drink made from fermented apples, not pears, not loganberries and certainly not strawberries, but what do I know about modern day linguistic applications of good old Anglo Saxon.

A drink made with pears is called a perry as every self indulgent Babycham drinker should know, and if its good enough for Vyvyan in the The Young Ones, then its good enough for me.......

Green army

2009-08-04T08:15:00.001+01:00

Check this out.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tuVGST_1gE

I said left, not right......

2009-07-31T12:17:00.001+01:00

I am pleased with my new car, and I hate to say it, but one of the best bits in the sat nav. I have always resisted buying a TomTom or similar, as i think part of being a bloke is the right to get lost. its all part of the adventure.

"yes I know where we are", "No you don't, why don't you stop and ask?" "Its fine we will be there is a few minutes", "The kids are getting upset".....and so it goes on. You always manage to get there in the end though, and feel really pleased with yourself.

The sat nav has taken all that challenge out of driving and I must say I quite enjoy it.It calculates the ETA, it lets me know if there are traffic problems and can plan diversions. That was particularly useful in Lancaster last week, and it shows golf courses, petrol stations and hospitals if you want it to. Although now we don't argue about directions, i don't need the last category as much as I used to.

I still take the occasional wrong turn just to upset the lady doing the voice over, but she has not resigned from map reading just yet.......time will tell.

Ring, ring......

2009-07-31T12:11:00.004+01:00

My 200th post, well that's good going........and what a great moment to celebrate it with the news that number one daughter Rebecca, got engaged yesterday in Rome.

John, her childhood sweetheart, proposed in traditional style in a restaurant in Rome. No news yet whether the whole place clapped and cheered but lets hope so.

She is there to meet her mad mates from Oklahoma so I am sure they will all be drinking the local fire water well into the night.....I wonder if they will make it to Jonathans, near Plaza Navarrro it would be a fitting place to go.

How many can a man have?

2009-07-30T15:58:00.002+01:00

Well, a week ago I had no BMWs, and now theoretically I have two!!

Regular readers will recall that in October last year my virtually new BMW was stolen from outside my house in Chiswick, West London. I had the keys so indications were that it had been towed away. The deal was that I had to wait six months for it to be an insurance right off and I could then order a new one. That I duly did and it is sitting outside with 800 miles on the clock having arrived last week.

So you could knock me down with a feather this morning when the Metropolitan Police called me to say the original car had been identified. They had found it in a hotel car park in Dublin Airport.

Well that's not strictly true. The hotel contacted their local BMW dealer to say it had sat there for three months and could they get it shifted. On checking the dealership found it was stolen and contacted the Guarda who contacted the Met. Its still in the car park and the owner of the hotel wants to know who is going to pay for the three months parking charges!!

As an aside, the car was taken from a street about 50 yards from the Chiswick Moran hotel. The group have recently acquired the Bewley chain of hotels in Ireland, and yes you've guessed it, the stolen car was in the Bewley, Dublin Airport, hotel. Seems like somebody wanted a lift home!!!

Ava Harris, age zero

2009-07-24T12:45:00.003+01:00

Celebration last night as Emma finally parted company with her bump and allowed new grand daughter Ava to pop out into the world, at a healthy 8lb 2oz. Both mum and baby had a bit of a battle but she was delivered au natural. Pictures will be delayed, therefore, until mother and baby are a bit more photogenic.

The Scalextric and train set had to be returned to Argos, looks like My Little Pony and dolls will be purchased in their place.......

...and he's got this downhill tester to win the Open

2009-07-20T12:59:00.003+01:00

Well what a sound weekend of sport it has been, as I type, the last Aussie wicket falls and England win a test at Lords for the first time since 1936. A Michelle for Freddie which gets his name on the honours board again, and England go 1-0 up with three to play . The missus and I went on Saturday and had to put up with the bar room stewards who all said, why did we not enforce the follow-on, look at the slow run rate, etc etc, but we experts knew the game plan and it has worked a treat.

Second event on the menu was the wonderful Open Golf Championship at Turnberry, won from behind by Stuart Cink, who was never alone in the lead, but got to the front when it mattered to beat 'Old' Tom Watson in the four hole play-off. How the world would have loved to see Tom win, as he had previously done as 'young' Tom Watson, in 1977, but it was not to be and he was gutted as you would expect.

So too was Lee Westwood who was two ahead at one stage but bogeyed three of the last four holes to blow his chances.

The Turnberry track was wonderfully turned out, and it drew me back to a may day in 1989 when I played it with a couple of friends, Figs and Greg, as part of our Scotflog tour that year. Golf remains one of the few games which joe public can compete on the same playing field as the heroes of the sport. I guess swimming and cycling share that ability and there may be others. So I thought, given Tiger had a horror day on Friday, I wonder how I would have done against him hole for hole. Well given I am an anorak in a few areas, and golf being one such, I was able to fish out my card from 20 years ago and compare..... And here we have it, I parred three holes which Tiger did also, and I bettered him on 10 and 13, deep joy!! Interesting we both struggled around the turn eh!! My comments in the diary indicate Iactually played better than the score suggests.......

A little bit of everything Sir?

2009-07-10T13:15:00.006+01:00

Not to be confused with a little something for the weekend......

I was transported back in time yesterday when I caught the Virgin trains Liverpool to london express yesterday. it was a short notice work trip so there was nothing for it but to travel 1st Class. You could have blown me over with t feather when i found out it featured the 'full English' on the menu.

Now in days gone by, when I travelled regularly in the chocolate and cream coloured coaches pulled by brunswick green locomotives like the Cornish Riviera express and the Flying Scotsman, I would regularly have time to grab the 'full English' between Paddington and Bristol or Bath.

The meals were served from huge silver platters by attendants in smart red and black uniforms, and the opportunity for an extra rasher or two eggs was always available. It was like a gentlemans club as the staff took great pride in their work and knew many of the regulars by first name terms.

So what of the modern equivalent? Well the menu could not be faulted, cereal, fruit juice, tea and coffee, toast and croissants followed by 'full English' or bacon or sausage baps. Both the sausage and bacon were top drawer, and the potato rosti with fried egg just hit the spot.

The only thing lacking was the 'service' mentality of the staff. Many of them were struggling to raise a smile or pass the time of day with their clients, and all gave the appearance of a jobsworth just waiting for it all to end. There was no opportunity to have extra tea or coffee if you missed the urn run, and it would have probably been unwise to ask for an extra banger. Hey, lets be positive though, it was a great start to the day, and at £129 for the ticket, probably the most expensive breakfast I have ever eaten!!

The journey home though was a nightmare, as the train was declassified due to route cancellations. So 1st Class was chocka and no food service was available except from the buffet car, the train was an hour late into Liverpool as it stopped at additional stations in and near Birmingham, consequently the £57 fare home did not even come close to value for money. I could have gone cattle for £12!!

Still the Wifi is fab and that kept me sane, and it was better than spending 7 hours on the motorway, after all, and it was not Virgins fault some little scrot wrecked the signalling system in the West Midlands, was it?

I'm still standing, yeah ,yeah , yeah

2009-07-06T11:06:00.004+01:00

SWMBO and number one daughter ran the Race For Life round Birkenhead Park yesterday. She had been training very hard for it and completed it in a very commendable 31 minutes. About 4500 people took part and as you can see each of them got a medal . This seems to be the modern trend these days, and in this case I do wonder why any of the finishers would need one. It would probably save the charity a few bob as well.

In childrens sport the trend became known to me at the end of a Twickenham RFC mini rugby day when the awards were given out. The coach of the Welsh side, which had been battered by all the other teams asked where his boys medals were? Eh, you did not win any was the reply. This apparently was not good enough, as all the children were expecting them. Its what happens. So hurried searches for more were made and the boys went back happy.

It all seems to be part of the 'nobody loses' theme that continues to run through the school curriculum at the moment, and don't get me started on the school that banned parents from sports day in case a paedophile turned up in the crowd......do get a grip, please .

Anyway, very well done to 'er indoors, I am just off to see if I can run the route quicker. I am not feeling too confident though, I have a zero and two record where SWMBO and I go head to head on the running stakes!

Knock, knock, knocking on heavens door.....

2009-07-03T13:14:00.004+01:00

The property in Isleworth owned my Mr and Mrs Expenses, the Keens, previously highlighted here in early 2008, has been occupied by squatters, as it has remained vacant for some time. Here is the transcript of a letter circulated to neighbours, by Anne Keen.

"I am sure that you are aware that our home on Brook Road South has been taken over by squatters. The law to deal with squatters is complicated, but we are taking legal action to regain possession as quickly as possible. We would like to apologise for any disruption to your life and any inconvenience you may have experienced. After major difficulties with the architect/builder we commissioned to carry out refurbishing work and a loft conversion, we were very badly let down and the company recently went into liquidation. We are now in a position to bring in a new firm and work is scheduled to start within two weeks. We look forward to moving back in during the summer. "

"We have lived in our Brentford home for more than 22 years and we own the house - all mortgage payments and building work have always, of course, been paid by us personally. It is our home and has been very special to us for a long time. Alan started work on the Great West Road, Brentford in 1963 and I, as a nurse, spent a substantial part of my working life at the West Middlesex Hospital. Long before I was elected to Parliament in 1997, first as a nurse and then as a candidate, our door was always open for people to ask for help. "

"We find it extremely upsetting to know that our house is occupied by squatters who appear to believe that they are entitled to do what they wish in our property. Anyone who has experienced the feeling of violation after being burgled will understand the distress caused by intruders who refuse to leave. Obviously, we are working to resolve the situation and get our house back as quickly as possible and would like to thank all those who have expressed their support and sympathy over the last few days - it has meant a great deal to me. "

The comment about their door always being open may have contributed to the current problem!!

Barewires

2009-07-03T12:24:00.006+01:00

Went to see John Mayall last night in a speakeasy kind of blues club in Scouseland. The roof was held up with factory metal pillars, and it had the feeling of a 'sweat shop' in more ways than one. I hate to think what it was like before the public smoking ban came into force!

Mayall is not on my bucket list, but having been introduced to him in the sixties by the Blues from laurel Canyon album, I had always wanted to see him live. He is 75 years old now and looks a bit like Rolf Harris with a pony tail! He banged out a few tunes with his band Rocky Athos and Joe Yuele among others. These guys were probably hoping to be spotted like many of the previous Bluesbreakers were.

Eric Clapton, who along with Jack Bruce, left Mayall to for Cream, referred to him as a musical university. He spawned Fleetwood Mac, with Mick Fleetwood, Peter Green and John McVie all being ex- Bluesbreakers, and also Colosseum, from whence came Hiseman, Reeves and Heckstall-Smith. Other names such as Jeff Beck and Mick Taylor also studied at the university of Mayall, before graduating and moving on. Clapton, Taylor and Beck did back Mayall at his 2003 Liverpool concert to celebrate his 50th year in the business.

The set last night was OK although it was a bit like standing in somebodies front room as four guys jammed away together, before turning round and saying 'oh, sorry I did not see you come in'

Andy Sharrocks and the Smoking Jackets were the support act last night, which gives a brief insight into blues concert hierarchies, as Mayall himself had just finished supporting the 83 year old BB King on his short tour of the UK.

...but some are more equal than others

2009-07-02T10:59:00.002+01:00

Fascinating. Here we are again into the back end of Wimbledon fortnight with the women's semi's and final looming, and to be honest, who cares? Can you name a memorable women's match which has kept you on the edge of your seat, and apart from the Venus sisters can you name a women player who isn't an ...eva,...ova or....vic. Yep some of them are good looking, but worth the same prize money as men, well forget it.

The men's tennis has been fantastic by comparison. Even Roger 'the hat' has played stunning stuff without being stretched, and the other three quarter finals all had drama, characters and crowds who wanted to, and did, get involved. Couple that with the thriller which was Murray's Monday match and the chaps have been earning their money and most of the ladies as well. I would suggest two things..... give the grass back a bit of pace to encourage more serve and volley, and give the girls their own week, then we will see who brings in the crowds.

Chicken Korma and a pint of Pride

2009-06-30T13:30:00.003+01:00

Well it was off to Lords on Sunday with number one son and wife for a spot of Twenty/20 cricket. With Middlesex having won their previous two games there was a smell of renaissance in the air, given they had lost their first seven contests. Things looked good with Sussex needing 26 off the last two overs, but as Chris Nash smashed Chris Silverwood all over the ground Middlesex finished as they started and are bottom of the South and South East group, and destined for second division 20/20 next season.

The trip did, however, allow me to see what developments had taken place at Crockets Folly, a wonderful establishment close to the ground, which had been a regular drinking hole at the test matches for me and many good friends, between the luncheon and tea intervals.

The building was constructed originally by one Frank Crocker, and was to be names the Crown Hotel. Frank knew his development was going to be a success. After all, the new railway terminus was going to be built opposite, how could it fail? Imagine Crocker's despair when the rail terminus was built, half a mile away at Marylebone. Broke and broken, so the tale goes, he threw himself from an upstairs window. The Crown became Crocker's Folly. Frank Crocker was a successful entrepreneur and the Crown a lavish testament to that. He was no newcomer to the pub trade either, having run the Volunteer in Kilburn which must have been successful for him to have the Crown built. The public bar is vast, the billiard room grand, but the jewel-at-the-Crown is the entrance hall saloon.

A late Victorian feast of marble, using fifty different kinds, covering not only the counter, but almost the entire bar. The chimney-piece is marble and has marble columns. Even the walls are lined in marble. All this, beneath a rich plaster relief ceiling.

So Folly or not, the place is now in major disrepair as it clearly struggled to survive on two or three major matches at Lords per year. It was purchased by an Indian takeaway chain who had a view of turning it into a restaurant, but my recent inspection showed leaded windows broken and the front of the property boarded up. It is grade two listed, and there were lights on upstairs, The new owners vans also populated the forecourt. Lets hope, therefore, that some new use can be found for the property before its magnificent interior falls into disrepair.