Where’s the Tour de France
On a day, when we’re going to win France’s most prestigious sporting trophy, where is the action?
Radio 5 has some golf and you can only get fleeting bits between the adverts on ITV4.
The Black Prince, Henry V, Hawke, Cochrane, Nelson, Wellington and John Churchill will all be spinning in their graves. I suspect too,that even the French won’t be very pleased, as I think they’d prefer to see France shown at its best to Les Anglais and also as they’ve rather taken to our Bradley. Perhaps we can all take a leaf out of his book and learn to speak better French.
Welsh Policemen On The Streets of London
I took this picture this morning at the Angel
Welsh Policemen On The Streets of London
It shows two Carmarthen policemen on duty.
In some ways, it’s an appropriate area, as the statue of Hugh Myddelton, the Welshman, who four hundred years ago, built the New River to give London its first fresh water is at Islington Green, a hundred metres or so away.
The Death Of A Friend
I lost a friend yesterday.
I was once told in all seriousness by an old horse coper, that if you think you’ve got a good horse, could you have charged tanks with him, if the Nazis had invaded.
Vague Shot was such a horse! Although, his most notable success, in the Royal Hunt Cup at Ascot in 1987 under top weight and in heavy going, was before C and I bought him, he brought us a lot of pleasure. He would have been thirty on the first of January next year, but sadly he had to be put down yesterday, because of that killer of many horses; colic.
I think it is true to say, I’ve never seen a racehorse, who was treated with so much affection by those who owned, rode and cared for him. And he always repaid their affection with kindness! I remember once, where the great Steve Cauthen, who’d incidentally ridden him to victory in the Royal Hunt Cup riding for us in the Newbury Spring Cup. Most jockeys have a short chat with the owners and trainers and then they get quickly mounted. But not Steve that day, as he had to have a chat with the horse as well. But then there are jockeys, great jockeys and Steve Cauthen!
I am not the greatest of riders and certainly aren’t now, but one of my strongest memories of riding, was exercising Vague Shot, or Cyril as everyone called him, around the lanes when we lived at Debach. Remember, he was an entire horse, but when I did this, I would have a pony mare called Sally, with an eight-year-old girl aboard, on a lead reign. She would make eyes at him, but he knew his manners and just made sure she was tucked in behind, where she couldn’t taunt him.
In one instance, we met a large grain lorry on a lane with no space to pass. It rather noisily screeched to a halt.
A horse’s standard defence mechanism is to side-step and run away. I just sat tight, making sure the pony was secure, anticipating being dragged sideways through a rather thick hedge.
But Cyril did something, I’ve never seen before or since on a horse. He turned deliberately left towards the hedge, putting himself between the truck and pony. When he was sure that the truck had stopped moving, he deliberately picked his way along the side, leaving just enough space for the pony to his left. He did point his head at the driver as we passed, but I think, he’d already got the message.
I said he was my friend and he was. In times of stress, I would often go out in the dark and find him to tell him my troubles. But I suspect, I wasn’t the only person who did that, as he always listened. This picture was taken a few years ago.
Vague Shot on a Crisp February Day
There are those that criticise thoroughbreds, but there can’t have been many horses, who could be judged on a human scale, as highly as Vague Shot. He will be sadly missed by all of his friends. And especially, by one person, who looked after him for over three-quarters of his life.
How Do You Get Away From The Golf?
My two favourite channels, BBC 1 and Radio 5 Live are both broadcasting continuous golf. Now I will watch it in moderation, but I’m not keen to have it rammed into both my eyes and ears.
Admittedly, I have the cricket on Sky and soon the cycling will start, but the sooner the Open golf goes to Sky, the better.
As someone famously said, golf is a good way to ruin a walk.
The Olympic Torch Relay is not even on the red button!
Return To The Hippodrome
Yesterday, I went to the newly-reopened Hippodrome Casino to see Kate Dimbleby perform in a musical entertainment written in collaboration with Amy Rosenthal, called Beware of Young Girls: The Dory Previn Story.
I must be one of the few people of my age, who have memories of the old Hippodrome Theatre, that previously stood on the site. I didn’t actually go, but in the early 1950s, I regularly had to go to the Royal Dental Hospital in Leicester Square. My mother, who had been to the theatre before the war, and I used to come up from North London on the Tube and get off at Leicester Square, where we exited the station at Hippodrome Corner. It was then a short walk to the actual square and the dental hospital. One day the builders were in and you could see right through the windows, which told how what was happening was the talk of the town. I can’t remember it actually opening as the nightclub called, The Talk of the Town, as we finished going to the dental hospital. It’s since had a bit of a chequered history, with good and bad times and now it has been turned into a casino.
I think they’ve made a good job of it on the construction and furnishing side. As to the gambling side, I don’t gamble in a casino. I would though, if someone was fool enough to set up Canfield. But after my stroke, I doubt I still have the prowess I used to have. I do bet on horses, but only when the odds are longer than they should be. I once had Terimon at 500/1 each way for the Derby. He came second.
But I do, see shows in a casino and once saw Siegfried and Roy in Las Vegas. I’ve been to Vegas several times and I’ve never gambled on anything there, which must be some sort of record.
So how was last night’s show?
I enjoyed the show and it brought back memories of Dory Previn’s show at the Donmar Warehouse in the last 1980s, where I saw her with C. The set was similar too and I wonder if Amy’s mother, Maureen Lipman, who is thanked on the program, saw that show at the Donmar too!
I don’t think there are any original videos of Dory Previn singing, although there is this video on YouTube. It was taken on a toy camera, when she opened an Arts Centre in Springfield a couple of years ago. The songs are Jesus Had A Baby Sister and Twenty Mile Zone. Her last recording incidentally was Planet Blue, which can be downloaded free from here.
I should also say that I liked the venue too Acoustics were good and from where I sat, I had a good view.
I didn’t actually eat, but the food seemed to be reasonably priced and as a coeliac, some of the snacks were gluten-free.
I’ll probably go again, when an artist I like is appearing. Top class style it definitely has, but the prices aren’t out of the range of a sensible fan.
A Clash of Cultures In Suffolk
Nothing serious or untimely, but I found this charming tale in the Daily Telegraph about the Rwandan athletes settling into their base in Bury St. Edmunds. Here’s the opening couple of paragraphs.
When Robert Kajuga was served a plate of food shortly after he arrived in Bury St Edmunds earlier this month, there was one item in particular upon it that he did not immediately recognise. It was certainly not anything he had encountered in his home country of Rwanda.
Thus it was that Kajuga, a 27 year-old distance runner who will compete in the Olympic 10,000 metres final on Aug 4, became acquainted with the concept of mashed potato.
“The potatoes,” he says in broken English. “They change the potatoes into, like porridge. Puréed. In our country, we just cook potatoes. We don’t do that.”
Let’s hope that the links forged result in something lasting and positive. Perhaps, we should sent someone like Delia Smith to Rwanda to teach them how to make mashed potato. Especially, if their athletes do better than they’d expected to on the strange foreign food.
Does My Bum Look Big In This?
Just watching the Tour de France and one guy is riding in an outfit with BigMat across his bottom.
It doesn’t do much for his figure!
Smart Bank Managing
When David was Metier’s bank manager, he did not put us in the bank’s database as a software company, but as a computer leasing company, as we leased the hardware and software as a package. He once told me, this was because those that be in the bank considered computer software to be decidedly high risk, but computer leasing, which was generally huge mainframes to FTSE 500 companies was a low one. He didn’t point out to those-that-thought they-knew-better, that some of the bank’s biggest losses had been in computer leasing. But then David had trust in his customers and knew those that would deliver. We did!
When David once asked me what was the difference between hardware and software, I told him, that the former hurts when you drop it on your foot and the latter doesn’t.
What Do You Do If Your Bank Is Taken Over?
Now that the Co-operative Bank is going to take over 632 branches from Lloyds TSB as is reported here, the question is what do you do?
If I apply my late friend David’s rules, there isn’t too many problems.
The Co-Operative Bank is owned by its members and domiciled in the UK.
The Co-Operative Bank is now probably of a size not to worry David, about the bank ending up being controlled by a forcefull and misdirected individual.
I’m not sure where they do their processing, but are they immune from an RBS/NatWorst problem?
On the other hand, just as some people feel that too many banks are close to the Tories, some might not like the fact that the Co-Operative Bank could be too close to the Labour party.
In fact that last point might make lots of customers go elsewhere, if they were to be transferred without asking their view. It’s like ordering a new Ford and getting a Vauxhall delivered.
And that is the heart of the matter. Can your bank account be transferred from one bank to another without your approval?
It strikes me, that this could be another part of banking, with rich pickings for lawyers.
But let’s face it most banks are the same to the general public. All they do is pay bills from on-line accounts. I bank with Nationwide, and I haven’t been into the bank for a banking purpose since probably November last year and that was to pay in a cheque for a few pounds. I do go into their branches sometimes to use a cash machine, as they often have comfortable chairs, where I can sit down to organise where I put my money.
Now here’s an idea!
Let’s put cash machines into coffee shops like Starbucks or Costa. Abbey National did have some Costa branches in their foyers, but then along came Santander and stopped it.
It would be interesting to see where I get my money out of cash machines. I’ve used these a couple of times in the last few weeks.
- Barclays by the bus stop at Islington Green, where I sometimes get off the bus.
- Nationwide next to Starbucks in Upper Street.
- Lloyds by the bus stop at the Angel, where I get the bus to come home.
- One of the machines in the subway at Kings Cross station.
So no real pattern there except that all these machines are of course free! I would never use me a cash machine that charges me for the privilege of accessing my own money.
Smoking And The Open
I just heard on the BBC Open commentary, that Lee Westwood is puffing away between holes.
Surely, this should be banned, as it sets such a terrible example.
Imagine what would happen if Gareth Bale or whoever, had a quick cough and a drag, every time they had a long run upfield.
The Anonymous Widower 