Oh I say!

There is a programme on Eurosport that seems to specialise in allowing Annabel Croft to show off her not unattractive limbs. Occasionally she appears to allow former and current female players with enormously large teeth to interview each other. Evidently Mats Wilander appears in a pink shirt from time to time and passes comment.

I think this genre of tv sport may require further study?

A long, long time ago....

Well there you go. 10.15 on a Thursday night (tempted, very tempted to plagiarise and/or paraphrase The Cure's famous line...) and I am no longer a wine merchant. Not really sure if I should feel sad or optimistic?  I left the office, having handed over my keys, and walked across the road to the very conveniently located pub. An ex-colleague thrust a pint in my hand and I spent three hours catching up with old colleagues and local friends, more pints were consumed, obviously.

Not really sure what to add to this, feel a bit weird, so here's a picture of the office of the business that consumed the last 8 and a bit years of my life.

Thanks to all those of you who have been part of the last 29 years, some will be part of the next chapter I am sure. It was a blast most of the time.

Off to sit in the kitchen sink (if you don't get it google The Cure) though hoping the telephone won't ring.

Books and covers

Life is weird. Kid gets on the bus earlier; full of testosterone, angst and noisy bins.  He's maybe 15 or 16 and to a middle aged tubby like me a bit scary (potentially), so I ignore.  Trouble is I have had a three bottle lunch with shock and ORR and I get a fraction lairy. First option is a hunched neck which gets me a dagger stare back. Give it another 2 minutes (well this is a fricking teenager), then I give a real dagger back. He looks a mite uncomfortable and drops decibels by like 20% (sorry people less than 45 read this drivel too, so modern colloquial parlance is en vogue - those of you less than 45 may take a moment...), so I ignore.  Three minutes later "thing" has turned it back up and the third bottle and second brandy has taken effect, I look back and stare, he looks back with distain and I glare.......ding ding ding ding ding Ruddy hell!!!!! I have sent his walkman (yeh I know its not called that now, but hell!) to a quiet carriage. I spend the remaining 15 minutes of the journey looking hard, whilst pretending not to be concerned. I get off bus at requisite stop and nod at him on the way down the stairs.
Its only on the way down the road that it dawns on me that the poor fuc**r was more scared of me than I was of him. Tribal, methinks.......

Wind from sails

Surely ITV must have a way of working out the comparative percentages of each of BGT competitors winning? Likelihood is that a computer programme does it? Well some moron switched it off tonight! How, in all that is holy, can millions be voting on some person on a guitar, name forgotten already, against another rather average dance act, when last night 4 acts potentially could have won? Twist an Pulse worse than nu skool? I ruddy think not!

Modern chic or faded glory

L'Anima is an oasis of civilisation in the rocky gastronomic outpost that is EC2, delighted that Mrs P suggested we celebrate the score there. A swim via taxi to a more recognisable quarter of town finds us in Belgravia and in my favourite watering hole. The Blue Bar at the Berkeley may lack the swish je ne sais quoi of other establishments, but the rattle of the cocktail shaker, the soft nature of the charming staff and the questionable respectability of my fellow patrons make it the sort of dubious oasis that we all need...

Best 20 years

It's a long time, but twenty years flies by when it's with the right person,so without making this unduly soppy, many thanks to my best friend and wife Kate. Looking forward to another 20 and a life less ordinary (sometimes).

Ok that's the last personal post of putrid nature for at least 5 years. Get over it people, it needed to be said.

No, no, no!

Sorry proctor and gamble you are not and will never be a British sponsor or a reason for us to follow you, so get lost and stop pathetically trying to steal our support, frankly to put it in British vernacular - Bugger Off! We have genuine British companies that we would prefer to swing their hips against the GB Olympic team. On yer bike USA.

Balanced reporting?

Surely I am not the only person who has found the BBC's gloating over Murdoch's public wrist slapping by a completely unimpartial group of MPs, who cannot even agree on the conclusions of this exhaustive publicly funded witch hunt, distinctly seedy? Barack Obama's key note speech on the future of Afghanistan? Second rate news, whilst Auntie lambasts and ridicules Murdoch.....European implosion of fiscal and financial stability? No, no! Let's gets Rupert. A new French President come Sunday? Who are you kidding?  We've got News Corp to shoot at! Maybe someone should remind them that no one died over phone hacking. The appalling behaviour specifically related to Milly Dowler is utterly reprehensible but please let's have some perspective and balanced reporting dear old Auntie, you are, after all, not without faults....