Not The Nine O’Clock News
The BBC is showing a program about Not The Nine O’Clock News.
We enjoyed it at the time.
They’ve just shown a clip where they took the piss out of Mugabe. Some things never change. And rightly so!
Did you know that Mugabe backwards is E Ba Gum?
All Bar One
Before Nowhere Boy last night, I had a drink in All Bar One in Cambridge. I was interested to see that they now have Aspall’s Cyder on draught. It would appear that many bars stock it as it is in the on-line Beer menu.
Even if the bar doesn’t have Aspall, they mention lots of other proper ciders and no mentions of the dreaded chemical ones with added nastiness.
Most All Bar One usually have newspapers to read and some even have the Beano. There is also usually something on the menu that is gluten-free too!
Italian Style
I have made comments about the sacking of Mark Hughes at Manchester City, but I’ll admit I have a sneaking admiration for his replacement, Roberto Mancini. I still don’t want to see them make the top four of the Premiership.
He has a certain style, reminiscent of Francesco da Mosta, who has made some wonderful programs for the BBC.
I’d love to know where he got the cashmere scarf in blue and white he wears. One in royal blue and white would do me for Ipswich Town.
The Internet is a mine of information. There’s one here.
Graham Alexander
Graham Alexander is one of those footballers, who do a good job and keep going year after year. This year, he is playing for Burnley in the Premiership at the age of 38. I think he was the oldest player to make his debut in that league.
Piers Morgan in the Daily Mail put him in a poll for his footballer of the year. And guess what he’s leading. Vote Alexander to make sure he wins.
Sir Sydney Camm
How many people know who Sir Sydney Camm was? According to the Telegraph there is now a campaign to remember the designer of the legendary Hurricane in his home town of Windsor.
Camm was one of a small group of engineers, scientists and an odd-ball who were responsible for providing the tools that enabled the RAF to win the Battle of Britain.
- R. J. Mitchell was the designer of the Spitfire, who had died in 1937 at the age of only 42.
- Henry Royce is credited with the initial design of the Merlin engine, following on as it did from the successful R type engine, that had won the Schneider Trophy in 1929 and 1931.
- Ernest Hives was the engineer at Rolls-Royce, who had the forethought to create the production lines for the Merlin engines that powered the Hurricanes and Spitfires.
- Robert Watson Watt may not have been the sole inventor of radar, but he made it work, so that fighters could be used efficiently and directed towards targets in the battle.
And then there was the odd-ball, Lady Houston.
How to Encourage Binge Drinking
This story from the Telegraph shows how those in charge of the nanny state haven’t a clue.
The “app”, which measures drinks in alcoholic units, has sparked something of a craze among drinkers to get the highest score.
The NHS drinks tracker was launched at the start of December and is designed to help people avoid overindulging.
It works by converting drinks into units to show drinkers when they have gone over the recommended daily limit.
But within days of the tracker being released it was being described on the internet as an “awesome game” and users were boasting about trying to beat their “top score”.
If you produce a drink-o-meter for an iPhone, you could have bet your life that people will attempt to create a record score. Someone should be fired for being stupid. But I doubt they will be.
Nowhere Boy
I went to see the film, Nowhere Boy last night. It is all about John Lennon growing up and was well worth seeing.
Whether Sam Taylor-Wood intended it I don’t know, but I found it an almost claustrophobic film as it was mainly set inside. Only in a few cases were Liverpool’s magnificent buildings and parks shown. Having been in Liverpool just a few years after the period of the film and visited several times lately, there are still a lot of places that have hardly changed since Lennon was growing up. I would have used these settings more.
But it is only a matter of personal taste and the fact that I knew Liverpool at that time and Taylor-Wood did not, as she is too young.
I wasn’t too sure where Lennon was actually brought up, but after looking it up, I found it was within walking distance of our first marital home at Rosehill Court in Woolton. Quarry Bank High School which gave the name to the Quarrymen, the forerunners of the Beatles, where he was educated is now Calderstones School. That wasn’t too far away either. But in those days of 1969, you knew the Beatles were good, but didn’t want to doorstep where they had lived.
I often think I owe a lot to Lennon, the Beatles and Liverpool. I wonder what would have happened to me, if I had gone to say Nottingham, Exeter, Southampton or even Cambridge Universities. I may not have acquired my robust attitude and could have wandered into research, which may have suited me, but then I don’t suffer fools gladly and there are many of them serving time in Universities waiting for their pension. I certainly wouldn’t have acquired my wife, who put up with me for over forty years.
I hope though that I wouldn’t have ended up a nowhere boy. But I know that I could have! Luckily I was rescued by Liverpool and my late wife.
Perhaps, I am frightened of ending up sad and lonely for the rest of my life.
The Anonymous Widower 