Archive for December, 2009

sore throat

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

seriously large lumps of catarrrrrrrrh
coughs that reverberrrrrrate
cracccking ribs and
bending me double.
whisky and water, not really any help but
sounds good. probably needed
the hot lemon accompaniment.
the alcohol makes me wake up
in the night to go to the toilet.
in the morning I am tired and
still have the cough.

Premier League Positions 30th December 2009

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

 

  

PL

W

D

L

F

A

W

D

L

F

A

GD

Pts

1

Chelsea

20

9

1

0

27

6

5

2

3

18

10

29

45

2

Manchester United

20

8

1

1

22

8

6

0

4

21

10

25

43

3

Arsenal

19

8

0

1

28

7

5

2

3

21

13

29

41

4

Tottenham Hotspur

20

7

0

3

26

8

4

4

2

16

14

20

37

5

Manchester City

19

6

3

0

22

13

3

5

2

16

14

11

35

6

Aston Villa

20

6

2

2

17

7

4

3

3

12

11

11

35

7

Liverpool

20

6

2

2

26

11

4

1

5

11

14

12

33

8

Birmingham City

20

5

3

2

8

5

4

2

4

12

13

2

32

9

Fulham

19

6

2

2

15

6

1

4

4

9

13

5

27

10

Sunderland

20

5

3

2

18

13

1

2

7

10

18

-3

23

11

Everton

19

3

5

2

14

15

2

2

5

12

17

-6

22

12

Stoke City

19

4

2

3

11

10

1

4

5

4

13

-8

21

13

Blackburn Rovers

20

4

4

2

13

11

1

2

7

7

24

-15

21

14

Burnley

20

5

4

1

14

9

0

1

9

8

31

-18

20

15

Wolverhampton Wanderers

20

3

2

5

9

15

2

2

6

8

21

-19

19

16

Wigan Athletic

19

3

3

3

10

13

2

1

7

11

29

-21

19

17

West Ham United

20

3

3

4

18

20

1

3

6

10

17

-9

18

18

Bolton Wanderers

18

2

4

4

16

21

2

2

4

10

15

-10

18

19

Hull City

20

4

3

3

13

16

0

3

7

7

26

-22

18

20

Portsmouth

20

3

0

7

12

14

1

2

7

5

16

-13

14

 

the Christmas excess 2009

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

4th December – Lincoln Christmas Market Friday – few pints in the Victoria, bag of chips on the way home, not too late
5th December – Saturday – party at our house, gawd knows what to eat and drink, plenty of singing and music
9th December – (my birthday) lunch with business partners at Belton Woods Hotel, Grantham, Tom’s parents evening at school followed by a few pints in the Morning Star and a takeaway Chinese at home
10th December – ITSPA awards, House of Commons followed by a few pints in the Red Lion and a Moroccan meal somewhere in London
11th December – first class Virgin Train to Liverpool – couple of free beers on the train followed by a couple more in the station bar at Lime Street.
12th December – family meal with Grandma and Grandad at the Dibbinsdale Hotel in Bromborough
15th December – Anne out
16th December – Timico management night out at Olive Branch in Clipsham – mega bender
17th December – Christmas concert at school
18th December – lunch with supplier in London Docklands – boys night out in Lincoln at night – Thai
19th December – out at Carol and Andy’s party
21st December – Pizza Express with Anne and the kids
22nd December – pint on the way home and wine with the meal
24th December – early doors at the Morning Star – it’s a tradition
25th December – Christmas Day!
26th December – Lizzie Slingsby’s traditional Boxing Day birthday bash – unlimited champagne! – out with Tom for early doors for his first legitimate pint on his 18th birthday. Back for steak and chips and a bottle of wine
27th December – down to Holt, Wiltshire for a family bash, champagne, G&T and wine
28th December – glass of red wine with cheese and Ryvita
29th December – quick pint with Robert to discuss Jeeps then off to the panto at the Theatre Royal with Cannon and Ball.
30th December – a beer in the Victoria on way home from work with Terry and the gang
31st December – more food, beer and wine!
1st January – musical afternoon at our house with Joe on trumpet, Ervin the Hungarian concert pianist and Steve on trombone.
2nd January – collapse trying to fit into clothes!

fat bastard

The old knickers on head routine

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Another in the series of Avant Garde creations at Philosopherontap.com where Anne demonstrates one of her old pub tricks.

The Copenhagen Sock Summit

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Tom’s Handprint

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

Copy of IMG_8477

Happy Birthday Lizzie Slingsby

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Lizzie

Saturday, December 26th, 2009

Oft mistook for a figurehead, Lizzie
walks tall despite her five foot something,
at the birthday bash, always a huge success
an annual event not to be missed,
friends gather to celebrate,
as they do each year, the homage on Boxing Day,
corks, deafening, pop and glasses sweetly ring,
the guests consume dutifully, and ease
themselves into another day of indulgence,
the old year merges seamlessly into the new.

or

When asked what it’s like to be Lizzie
She replied in a manner quite dizzy
On my birthday she said
It goes right to my head
This champagne that we drink is so fizzy.

To mute or not to mute? B flat is the question!

Friday, December 25th, 2009

That Snowy Christmas on Greeba

Sunday, December 20th, 2009

Looking north from the top of Slieau Ruy.

slieau ruy in snow reduced

It never snowed at Christmas when I was a boy

Saturday, December 19th, 2009

Unlike the idealised Dylan Thomas childhood it never snowed at Christmas when I was a boy. I think I can only remember one white Christmas which was when I was an adult and home for the holidays. We walked up Greeba mountain behind the house that year trudging through the snow and getting our feet wet. We were unprepared for the conditions. Also it hadn’t been our intention to make it all the way to the top but we just kept on going and before we knew it we were there. It wasn’t a particularly big mountain.

The view for the short time we stayed at the summit was terrific. It was a crisp clear day and of course there was snow all around. Coming back down was not easy going but we made it back to Ballagarey Road red cheeked and frozen to dry our feet, warm up and get festively comfortable.

Christmas during childhood followed a pattern that evolved over the years. When we were small, in Dolgellau, I recall the bottle of Babycham that we were each allowed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and Dad making badges for us out of the tops of Pale Ale bottles. Not much else from those days although the piles of presents were large I seem to remember. Being the older of the three my large pile got smaller over the years far more quickly than the girls’ in line with a maturing choice.

When we lived in Cardiff I remember sitting in Ann and Sue’s Wendy House watching slides from some sort of projector. Dad, as I found out many years later, had spent half the night trying to put it up, a feature of Christmas that I have since discovered in my own house. That, I think, was the year Ann broke my new Subbuteo rails. She was trying to be helpful by snapping them off instead of pulling them apart. Ah well! Do they still do Subbuteo?

I’m not sure we often had a visitor at Christmas in those days. Nana used to go to Anti Mair’s in London but she must have come to us sometimes as well. These days with my own family we have always had one set of parents or other to stay and it seems strange this year when we have been on our own again. At least we have the children 🙂 .

I do remember the year that the Amos cousins from Carlisle came to stay when we lived in Waunfawr although my main memory of that occasion was stumbling across some Airfix modelling kits in a cupboard. There was nothing that could be hidden from us kids…

The Isle of Man is where most of my memories come from though those are somewhat clouded by the fact that that is also where I discovered the pleasures of beer. Christmas in those days always included drinks at the Crosby on Christmas Eve. The Crosby Silver Band would come in to entertain us and it was a great evening. Everyone was so friendly. The beauty of Christmas Eve at the Crosby was also that mam would come and pick me up, saving the one and a half mile walk back, the last half of which was up the back lane in pitch darkness.

There were also journeys into town for pub crawls that would end up at Simon Willoughby’s dad’s church for midnight mass, the crates of beer left in the foyer covered with coats. We rarely found a party. Doesn’t seem the thing to do on Christmas Eve but the age of built in irresponsibility the idea that people were busy preparing for the next day didn’t seem to occur to us.

There then came a time when mam and dad’s circle of friends would throw party on Christmas morning, each couple taking it in turns to hold it every year. They were great starts to the day although I remember the first one that we had Tom old enough to appreciate the joys and benefits of Christmas I woke up with a stinking hangover, did not enjoy the present opening and sat out most of the breakfast in the car. That stopped the period of overindulgence on Christmas Eve once and, hitherto, for all.

Christmas Day was spent eating, drinking and afterwards watching the obligatory Mary Poppins or James Bond movie followed by Billy Smarts Circus. For a period of time, where Dad’s social and moral consciousness drove us to the local Methodist Church for the morning service we were well and truly punished with a visit from the Rev Wilf Pierce and his family who would turn up as we were settling into post lunch beer, quality street and the movie.

Off would go the television and out would come cups of tea, Christmas cake and the presents to “proudly” show off. Everyone liked Wilf but his devotion to duty and to the welfare of his flock on the pagan holiday latterly known as Christmas Day was to most of us well beyond the call of that duty and a totally unnecessary step. My return from Bangor University and stubborn refusal to go to church sorted it out. Either we all went or none of us did so we ended up, to Dad’s disappointment I’m sure, with a longer lie in and, result, no visit from Wilf.

On Boxing Day dad and I would sometimes go and play golf. On one occasion some people came back to our house for lunch and I recall two full bottles of armagnac and cognac being presented for comparison. Four of us polished off the bottles, for me, just in time to be picked up by the lads to go into town for the evening!

Christmas rolled on in this familiar vein each year until the time came when, with a family of my own, it became too much of an expedition to travel away and we settled into the more recent routine of hosting the extended family ourselves. The change of venue brought little change to the actual routine. Different destinations though. The Cathedral Carol Service for some, the Morning Star for others and for a while, until time and corporeal degeneration got the better of the willing brain, the Boxing Day rugby match. Dad still buys the rounds when we go out but I am looking forward to the day when I take over the mantle and am buying the beers for our 4.

The piles of children’s presents seem as huge as ever and they still shrink according to age of the owner. The dissatisfaction of others with my ability to time the cooking so that it all came to the table cooked, still hot and at the same time meant that I was relegated to lighting the fire and drinking the champagne in the front room. Result.

The meal is always a huge success and my snoring grows louder every year as afterwards I hog a settee and fall asleep. I still love Christmas but it never ever snows.

Instruction

Friday, December 18th, 2009

It’s over, not in the Dickie Bird sense.
Scrambling breathless to the white tape we are.
Of the conductors in the audience, how many are tired beyond their memory?
How many different levels are there of conducting? –
Daughters to brothers, brothers to sisters, brothers to brother.
And why should you stray from the xbox and instruct?
Unlike those who play the games, do the twittering, enjoy the deadness of arguing, YOU are a team.
Have a family break. Enjoy the mix. It’s not eternal.

Irish Telephone Exchange Areas

Thursday, December 17th, 2009

Claremorris
Clonmel
Cork
Dingle
Donegal
Drogheda
Dublin Central
Dublin North
Dublin South
Dundalk
Dungloe
Ennis
Ennistymon
Galway
Killarney
Killenaule
Killorglin
Kilmacthomas
Kilrush
Letterkenny
Limerick
Manorhamilton
Mhuine Beag
Mullingar
New Ross
Portumna
Rathmore
Roscommon
Sligo
Thurles
Tipperary
Tralee
Tyrellspass
Waterford
Westport

Cock-a-doodle-doo

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

That place between sleep and full consciousness is a lovely one to savour. The dream hasn’t yet been forgotten and the usual neighbourhood morning activity outside is only starting to become apparent. Car doors slamming, engines starting up, rubbish vans reversing far too quickly up the one-way street beeping as they go, the odd bird jumping about on the slates above my head. This morning there was a cockerel. It wasn’t part of the dream, it was a proper, real, cockerel with as good a cock-a-doodle-doo as they get. I wonder if Cardiff City council are re-introducing them in an attempt to bring nature back to the inner city. Or perhaps it’s just another installation by the local art centre. Either way, it was good to hear. If it’s still there in six months in can add its voice to all the other birds (mostly seagulls) that wake me up at 4am every day.

Stockings

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Soon my stocking will be full,
its just hanging empty at the mo,
I’ve slept a night and now its full to the brim,
So I’ll spend the morning opening them,
And thanking everyone for my pressies,
So now you know what a stockings for go and use yours!!!!!!!!