You pay for Sky Sports, Then pay again for Pay per View, then they have the cheek to screen endless adverts.

You pay for Sky Sports? *cough*dodgybox*cough*

Hi Rod, so nice to hear from you. Great photo.

It's lovely to remember times spent with your old man isn't it? Keep remembering and keep telling the stories.

What are you up to these days? Do you consider yourself an old fogey yet?

Definitely in the old fart territory, a few of my schoolmates are grandparents and I'm being invited to other mates' kids weddings.

Growing old disgracefully though, still up for a mosh pit & going to as many concerts and football matches as I can fit in.

My middle niece is in the Ireland team for the Euro Taekwondo Championships in Sarajevo in April, so that'll be another trip to a new country/city. Last year it was Lublin in Poland, a beautiful small city that I loved.

It was further from the hole after the drive.

  You're nearly the type of golfer I loved in Bermuda as a kid Red. I lived near the green on the dogleg 2nd of the St George's Holiday Inn course. There were always golf balls to be found in the wood the dogleg went round.

BUT when we (Dad & I) were short of golf balls we went elsewhere... to the highly exclusive Castle Harbour course. My dad would give me a shake about an hour before dawn, 'we're going for golf balls'. I'd throw on a pair of trunks, and a pair of shorts, grab something (hopefully cake) out the fridge and we'd be away in the car.

Click to see full-size image.

Before dawn we'd drive down the rough to the sea beside this hole, and be into the water just as it was getting light enough to see the brand new (this being where I reckon you wouldn't have been my favourite;) ) golf balls the yanks would hook off the hilltop tee into the drink. We'd dive for them, the only worrying part being the fact that Castle Harbour was the route for the sharks that had been scavenging rubbish in the harbour overnight to head out to sea. As a scrawny 8 year old seeing sharks bigger than you cruise by was a bit disconcerting. On alerting Dad he said 'They're full, they don't want a skinny thing like you!'.

A bucket of balls filled we'd be off, stopping for a breakfast on the way home.

Excuse the ramble, you just sparked a memory of the old fella.

OK. I'm doing the hedges again and I've just been attacked by a huge dark coloured wasp that seemed determined to sting my face.

I jumped off the ladder and ran around waving my arms and screaming, (As per my special forces training) but it wouldn't go away.

"Oh my God" I thought, "It's one of those Asian hornets that was on the news"


Eventually I calmed down enough to realise it was just a privet leaf attached to the peak of my cap by a strand of spider Web.

 

 

Now I was cool, but every time I looked at the trees I was staring directly into the sun.

Click to see full-size image.

It was terrible. I felt like I was trying to trim a Messerschmitt. (A little WWII fighter pilot joke there for those of you old enough to remember).

Surely a Fokker by this point....

Also, do I wash up after every meal, or once a day, or when I run out of crockery?

It isn't necessary to single-use crockery.  Only those used for sticky or greasy foodstuffs need washing. Cups can just be used several times by rinsing them out with cold water. Plates etc that def need washing can be rinsed and left in the basin till enough have accumulated to require that you set aside your important business and deal with them.

Lovely to read your updates again.

Click to see full-size image.

Apparently (according to Tiktok) many American families only use paper plates....

It was hearing the Sopranotheme tune that introduced me to Alabama 3. Been a fan ever since. Seen them several times one if the best live bands in the UK.

Travelled over to Ireland to see them (and Big Country) at Forest Fest. Rained for hours but 2 brilliant sets. Devlin Love is back & in top form, go see them if you get a chance Kev!!!

English Longhorns, lovely & some of the best beef around!!

Up round here you get them in the long grass, the bushes, the rushes wherever, espcially in hot weather. Problem is when the calves are hidden like that, you've got to watch out getting too close, especially with some of the aggressive buggers up on the hills. I'm too old and fat to jump barbed wire fences on the run...

^ ^ ^

It might have been me Rod - Exile on Coldharbour Lane has been a favourite of mine from well before The Sopranos nicked that song.

Jon is the one that springs to mind, think I'd have remembered you saying that, but I could be wrong. Exile is one of the finest first albums I've heard from any band any genre of music, great songs throughout.

You certainly beat me to them though, it was a good few years later I got into them. Funny enough I never watched the Sopranos.

I've never watched a "Box Set" or any of that crap in my life. After I got my posh new Telly, with NetFlix & all that stuff, I somehow allowed Tom to talk me into watching the Sopranos. Oh my, how good was that? And I was only 25 years late. So that was 6 Series & 86 episodes.

Click to see full-size image.

I finished that, & then he forced me to watch Breaking Bad. Incred. Loved the characters, & soon, like Jesse Pinkman, I was adding "yo" to the end of every sentence. Pretty sure the checkout girls at Tesco were impressed. Here's my ClubCard, yo.  So that was 5 seasons & 56 episodes.

Click to see full-size image.

Finished that & it's then mandatory to watch Better Call Saul. 6 seasons, 63 episodes. So so good, crisp dialogue, great acting & characters.

Click to see full-size image.

I mean, how good is this?




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rArzMrhTxF8



 

You might be interested in the band that wrote the theme song for the Sopranos, an interesting bunch, I'm sure I remember someone else (Jon?) on here being a fan.

The Alabama 3 despite the name aren't from Alabama and there are more than 3 of them. I've been a fan for years, seeing them in various places, from concert halls to night clubs, pubs, festivals, church halls in tiny villages, and abandoned closed down snooker halls.

I've stood edgie (lookout) while Rob Spragg had a quick spliff in the toilets of the church hall, and was once dragged to a pub by Nick Reynolds (son of Great Train Robbery mastermind Bruce Richard Reynolds) who plays harmonica in the band.

Nick had fallen out with the rest of the band in Dublin & recognising me from the pub before the gig dragged me back into the pub after it to keep him company for a few. I told him I'd an early flight the next morning, 'You'll be fine he said', we sat in the pub while he regaled me with stories from his early childhood on the run in Mexico, Canada, France & Torquay his time as a diver in the Navy, and in the band. He also talked a bit about making death masks, he's made them for his Dad, various other 'villians', Alabama 3 band mate Jake 'Dwayne Love' Black, Peter O'Toole, Malcolm McLaren and others. I've never been offered as many drugs, from people trying to get into the conversation with the star. And I can see how musicians get alcohol and drug dependencies  - if they were free all the time I'd be on them more too , although Nick buys his round when he's in one. So I missed my flight, got one later the next day, but it was a cracking night.

Another night saw me trying to buck up Rob before they played their first gig since Jake's death, in Jake's home town Glasgow. For the lead in a band who've been touring for years he was really nervous that it be seen as suitable by Jake's people. I said we were his people too, that everyone would be approaching this a proper wake for Jake & that everybody was on their side. The  gig (in front of a massive Jake Black statue comple with death mask) was an absolute belter with tears, laughter and a great crowd singing for Brother Dwayne!!

Anyway, got carried away there, but I think you might like the music (a sweet blend of country, blues, and acid house). I know you'd be interested in Nick, there's a few articles with him on the web.

Laid Mother to rest today Teeks.

One of the gentlemen who carried the coffin played in an F A Cup final.

Care to hazard a guess ?

Clue , he scored twice in the quarter final and twice in the semi final.

So sorry mate 

Prior to me going to Bermuda in the early 80s i had never played golf.Since returning home i have not played golf.
But  whilst in Bermuda i played 18 holes every Sunday morning followed by a Champagne brunch,and i absolutely loved it.

Proberly the only golf photo i posess.( me in the burgundy trousers)

Got to ask Booder, what course was this? Looks a bit like the high tee at Castle Harbour, but it's over 40 years since I played there/stole golf balls out of the sea there 

Cheers Red.

Was pulled up today for using Gypsy, and told the World Roma Congress have declared it a slur.

Have things changed?

So the following week I rang the surgery again. Message-queue-Vivaldi... Hello, can I speak to Dr Turner's secretary please?

The secretary's name was Sarah Connor.
COME WITH ME IF YOU WANT TO LIVE.
No, not that one, and it turned out that she was expecting my call. She had been fully briefed by Dr Turner and was ready and willing to help.
I told her that the best way forward was for her to contact Kim Leggett and this she agreed to do.
A couple of weeks later I asked Kim Leggett If Sarah Connor had been in touch and apparently yes she had, but they hadn't managed to speak to each other because one only worked on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday and the other only worked on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. They left messages for each other but coudn't manage to hook up.
Eventually I got Kim Leggett to email me the instructions and I printed them out and handed them in to the surgery marked FAO Sarah Connor.

A couple of weeks later I got a letter with an appointment for the Loughborough Campus clinic, HOORAY! but it was for a different Doctor and not Dr Kluzek as I had requested, and it was still for almost two years in the future, BOO!

I rang the clinic.

Yes, I did have an appointment and it was for almost two years hence.

"Well Dr Kluzek's secretary told me that he could see me almost immediately" I wailed.

"Ahh.." She said, "Both Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire Hospitals have teams that work here. Dr Kluzek is on the Nottingham team, you have been referred to the Leicestershire team".

"Can't you transfer me?" I pleaded.

"NO," She replied, "You will have to ask your GP to do it"......

I want to scream in frustration at just reading that!!!

I'm getting experience with the NHS bureaucracy with my new(ish) job, the bigger the NHS region & the bigger the hospital the slower things get done (with an exception for Glasgow who are very helpful & responsive).

They all want the pager system working but don't want to run cables, allocate space for kit etc.