Sad to hear of the demise of Aaron Spelling, who died in Los Angeles on Friday aged 83.  Spelling was the most successful and prolific television producer in history, responsible for inflicting upon viewers such series as Charlie's Angels, Dynasty, Starsky & Hutch, SWAT, The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210, all of which epitomised trashy glamour and were inordinately popular.

More details in the Telegraph

After much time, stress, worry, angst, panic and all the other emotions that are part and parcel of buying a house we have finally succeeded.

Up to now I've resisted tempting fate by posting anything on the blog, but yestoday we exchanged contracts to buy a home in the country.

All we have to do now is pay for it.

Ouch.

 

Looking more like a scene from some tornado riddled state in the mid-west of the United States, this is actually Bradwell on Sea, Essex.   And it is what happens when landlord and tenant relationships go awry....

The owners of the property were owed £1,000 in rent by a man who turned up at with a large mechanical digger and, having driven over a police car in their driveway, proceeded to demolish their house and two cars.

Unbelieveable.

A few days ago I did speculate as to who would win the battle for the front page during the Jules Rimet; politicians or footballers.

Well, as of Monday night and former Home Secretary Mr Potato Head's petulant whingeing I think the score is 1:0 to the politico's.   They look set to extend their lead today as Toni and Gordi continue to chat about succession once the PM makes it to 10 years in office. 

And Mr Potato Head, once a Toni accolyte, seems to be edging over towards the man in No. 11, in order to secure himself another Cabinet spot after the transition.

Oh yes, 2:0 already.

 

Don't get your hopes up.   Not here.. but in Hong Kong:

Sai Kung had a high of 38.8 deg. C.

But Shek Kong had a high of 41.6 deg. C.   Ouch.

More here

After an early start on Sunday, getting cars ready for a little drive out to a pub for lunch, the weather let us down by raining hard on the way there and forcing us to do an emergency pull over and roof up job.  Always fun.

After a splendid lunch marred only by the staff's initital refusal to offer us dessert as they were closing the kitchen in 5 minutes (... we suspect due to the footie) we went on a little drive down to Pewsey Vale and back up towards Marlborough.

Now my old Midget has a dodgy fuel pick up (well that's what I think it is anyway) and it always runs out when the needle get to 1/4 full.   Given this knowledge you would expect I would have the wit to carry a spare fuel can, perhaps even with some petrol in it.

So anyway, the inevitable happened and we left the car at the side of the road and Big Mike and I roared of in the Aston in search the needful.   Red face for me then.

It was still raining when we got home so consequently an hours lethargy in front of the telly was in order.   Somehow we managed to watch the World Cup.   England vs. Ecuador.  Now I will freely admint to not being an expert in matters of the round ball game, but as a slothful spectator, in the mood to be entertained, I was wholly underwhelmed.   What a load of dross.

And looking at the picture of Becks on the front page of most of the newspapers this morning, you'd have thought we'd won the Jules Rimet outright.

Even in the eyes of this armchair incompetent, we need to try harder, after all; England expects.

A minor victory for common sense this week.  And a hopeful (ok, that was totally naieve) sign that Nanny is finally getting the message that ordinary folks are really fed up with her controlling and over prescriptive approach.

This victory is close to my heart and represents a considerable change in attitude by the nice people who run TFL.   That's Transport for London (one of the better oxymoron's in my view).   Long suffering readers will recall my dispute with them concerning payment of congestion charge - I wanted to pay it a day late; they said you can't, I sent a cheque, they cashed it and then tried to fine me.   Much argument ensued.  Finally they dropped the case.   Queue much celebration.

Well now it seems they have either seen the light or, more cynically, someone (probably a lawyer) has told them that the approach they have been taking for the last 3 years was not entirely legal.   It most certainly was not equitable, but then, TFL were really only interested in collecting fines as the system doesn't even break even without them.

As of Monday June 19th you are now able to pay the charge a day late.   There is a slight increase from 8 to 10 quid, which is pretty reasonable to me.   I could be a little more cynical and suggest this is to smooth the way for the Western extension of the scheme, which will be rolled out in February 2007.   But then again, when has Major Ken ever given a fig about public opinion?

Either way, this must really rankle with those folks who paid the 75 quid fine, simply because they forgot to pay on the day..... but at least now some common sense has prevailed.   Don't expect it to catch on.

So, at last all can be revealed.   Big Mike has traded out of his Bentley and up to a Roller.   Oops, sorry, that should be 'Royce'.  

We said the Bentley had altogether more sporting pretensions and did rather look the part... while the Royce is - how shall I put it? - somewhat less subtle?

His riposte was in two parts - at first reminding us that deep down he is still from across the Atlantic and therefore does have an errant predeliction for such styles ... and second that this was no ordinary Royce.   No sir.  It's one of only 50 RHD turbocharged Royces ever made.   A Flying Spur.  And it has its' own number to boot.

All other doubts fled my mind Wednesday night, when for a brief moment he put his foot down.   There is not the instant flight and flat scream of my 911, merely the briefest hestitation before 2 tonnes + of a nearly 20 ft long car lunges at the horizon very quickly indeed.   Noise remains incredibly muted, with just a whiff of induction rush to remind you that under the bonnet the oily bits are getting real busy.

I can see why he was smitten - it's a beautiful car.   Add to that a rich ebony black paintwork (I'm sure it had a fancy name, but basically, black is black right?) and a cream hide interior that cost about 20 cows their coats.  Their sacrifice was worth it.  It's long wheelbase and even the back seats recline....

Big Mike's new motor outside Fabrizio's in Clerkenwell.   The owner of the scooter we nearly crushed while parking, offered us £8,000 for the car.  Cash.  Right.

June 21st was the longest day.   My grandfathers' birthday.  Prince Williams' birthday.   The day that US troops took Okinawa.   And the day Big Mike got his new car.

Well, not exactly new.... as regular readers will know we don't do new cars as we fear depreciation more than another labour government.  But it was new to him and rather special too.

We went out in it last evening for a bit of a drive, ending up at Fabrizio's for a bit of nosh.  I even took a picture outside the restaurant with our chef, the car and it's new owner.

I also promised to publish said picture on the blog.

And if I had not left the camera in the restaurant there would be a picture with this post.

So, dear reader, you will have to wait until tomorrow to find out more details.   It will be worth the wait.

Driving out of London on Friday I was listening for the first time to the excellent new album from Snow Patrol, Eyes Open, when the following lyric in track two caught my attention:

Put Sufjan Stevens on / I'll play your favourite song / Chicago bursts to life

Guess what the next CD in the stacker is?   Yup.   Sufjan Stevens, Come of feel the Illinois... and track 9 is Chicago.

Spooky.

And it is also a great album...

The evils of the nanny state have taken a frequent bashing on this site... so in order to provide a modicum of balance (I know, quite out of character) I offer this picture.  Taken from Building magazine, they are running a contest to choose the most dangerous worklpace.

This had my vote.

Obviously one Risk Assessment short of a demolition contract.

Given that the Wander this year is headed to Wales... this is a topical picture.

Suggested captions please ... in the comments section.



And keep them (reasonably) clean.    This is a family site!!

Sorry to hear of the death of Billy Preston, who many of you may remember only for his duet with Syreeta, 'With you I'm born again'.  He did a great deal more and was the only musician ever to share a performer's credit with the Beatles. .... from the Telegraph:

Billy Preston, who died at Scottsdale, Arizona, on June 5 aged 59, played keyboards alongside almost every major name in pop music; he was most closely associated with the Beatles, and performed on their records Let It Be, the White Album and Abbey Road, but was also a regular sideman with the Rolling Stones, playing on five of their albums and touring with them several times.

Preston's colossal Afro hairdo was a regular fixture on stage beside figures as diverse as Ringo Starr, Elton John and Mahalia Jackson, and he was perhaps the most highly-regarded session keyboard player of his generation.

He was no slouch as a songwriter either, writing You Are So Beautiful for Joe Cocker, who secured an American Top 10 hit with the song, nor as a performer, teaming up with Stevie Wonder's ex-wife Syreeta on the ballad With You I'm Born Again.

William Everett Preston was born in Houston, Texas, on September 9 1946 but, after his parents divorced, grew up in Los Angeles, where his mother played the organ at a Baptist church.

By the age of three Billy had begun playing the piano, and by 10 had accompanied the great Gospel singer Mahalia Jackson.

He was spotted by a film producer and in 1958 played the young WC Handy in the film St Louis Blues (Nat King Cole played him as an adult).

During this time young Billy became devoted to Ray Charles, who gave him some lessons, and began to work backing Sam Cooke (for whose SAR label he recorded) and Little Richard.

He made his first overseas trip to play with the pair on a tour of Britain and then encountered the Beatles at the Star Club in Hamburg in 1962.

That year he released his first album, Gospel in my Soul; soon afterwards, he joined the house band for the American television show Shindig, where he worked again with Ray Charles.

He toured with Charles around America and Europe, providing the catchy driving organ riffs on such popular tracks as Billy's Bag. He also played on the Everly Brothers' album Beat'n'Soul, before releasing his first charting record, the instrumental The Most Exciting Organ Ever (1965), which was quickly followed by Early Hits of 1965 and The Apple of Their Eye.

In 1967 Billy's Bag became a hit in Britain, and Preston relocated to take advantage of his popularity here, while continuing to work with Charles's revue.

In 1969 George Harrison brought in Preston to work on the recording sessions for Let It Be, and he played on the single Get Back: his contribution was sufficiently valued for him to receive billing on the record - the only musician ever to share a performer's credit with the Beatles.

Harrison later suggested that without Preston's influence on the other members of the Beatles, who were violently at odds during the recording of the album, it might never have been completed.

The sessions on which Preston worked were being filmed for a documentary, and he featured in the finished product, Let It Be, which was released in 1970.

It was chiefly noted for the "farewell" concert which the group played on the roof of the Apple building, their company headquarters in Savile Row.

Preston contributed to the Beatles' next album Abbey Road and signed to the Apple label, and Harrison produced two albums for him.

The first, That's the Way God Planned It (1969) resulted in a number 11 single with its title track, while the second, Encouraging Words, released the following year, included the first version of Harrison's song My Sweet Lord.

Preston continued his association with Harrison by playing at the guitarist's charity concert in aid of Bangladesh, alongside such performers as Eric Clapton, and in 1970 played both on Harrison's record All Things Must Pass and the John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band project. The next year he worked for the first time with the Stones, on Sticky Fingers. He also opened concerts for Aretha Franklin and Ray Charles.

But by this stage the Beatles' relations with each other had broken down, and in the process the Apple label began to fall apart. Preston decided instead to sign with A&M, which had been set up by the trumpeter Herb Alpert.

There he had a successful run of hit singles, including Outa-Space, which reached number 2, the chart-topper Will It Go Round in Circles (co-written with Bruce Fisher) and Space Race, from the album Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music.

In 1974 Nothing from Nothing was another number 1, and Cocker's cover of You Are So Beautiful became a hit. Preston continued to tour with the Stones, and also played as a sideman with Sly and the Family Stone, while turning out a series of solo albums on A&M. As if to demonstrate his versatility, he recorded and appeared with Sammy Davis Jr and played on Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks.

He fell out with Mick Jagger, whose reputation for being careful with money was already well established, in the late 1970s, after a dispute over fees for touring, but he finished the decade with the romantic duet With You I'm Born Again, which he performed with Syreeta, and which was drawn from the film Fastbreak. On the back of its success, they recorded an album in 1981, the first of several records on Tamla Motown.

During the 1980s Preston experimented with Gospel and Hi-NRG, but much of his time was spent indulging in cocaine and alcohol, which had been a problem for several years. After 1986's You Can't Keep a Good Man Down, he recorded little until the early 1990s.

In 1991 he was charged with a morals violation and soon afterwards accused of assault with a deadly weapon.

This jolted him back into work of a sort (he appeared on a Ringo Starr album that year), but in 1997 he received a three-year jail term after breaking the terms of his probation by testing positive for drugs.

He also faced bankruptcy and further charges when he confessed to a series of insurance scams, including an attempt to burn down his own house.

Jail, he later maintained, "was a great lesson, an awakening. I needed to reflect, to get rid of some of the dead weight around me.

You take the bitter with the sweet and I have to say it was my faith that kept me going. I had nothing else to fall back on."

In 1997 he returned to touring with the Rolling Stones and played on Bridges to Babylon; he also began to pop up regularly on American television shows. In 1975 he had been the first ever musical guest star on Saturday Night Live, and he made a number of appearances in - mostly indifferent - movies, such as the disastrous Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978) and Blues Brothers 2000, an ill-advised sequel to the successful Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi comedy.

In 2003 Preston returned to the concert stage in a performance in memory of George Harrison, which was subsequently released on video, and earlier this year he worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their latest album Stadium Arcadium and with Neil Diamond on his record 12 Songs. He also worked with Steve Winwood and played again alongside Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr.

Billy Preston's drug and drinking problems took their toll on his health, and he suffered from kidney failure towards the end of his life.

In 2002 he underwent a kidney transplant, but the operation was not a success, and he was reliant on dialysis thereafter. His condition deteriorated, and the last months of his life were spent in a coma.

He was unmarried.

Bet you didn't know that the original Jules Rimet Trophy was stolen in 1966 in London from a Stamp exhibition? 

Well, several days of anxiety and frustration followed the Cup's theft, as you can imagine.

Brazil said it was a sacrilege that would never have been committed in Brazil where even its thieves loved football too much.

But the trophy was eventually found by Pickles, a mongrel dog, out for a walk with his owner, on 27 March in south London.

Later that year it was England who won the World Cup, but four yeasrs later in 1970, Brazil was allowed to keep the trophy for ever, after winning the competition for the third time.

The replacement trophy remains the prize for the World Cup to this day.

The Jules Rimet cup kept by Brazil in 1970 was stolen again in 1983 - in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

It has never been recovered.

Tut.  Tut.  

Over the last few weeks there has been a terrible rise in the amount of publicity given to knife crime.   I choose my words carefully, as I am far from convinced that knife crime has suddenly leapt up the tables to be so quickly in the spotlight, but rather the problem has been growing for some time.

Recently too there have been several incidents of cirminals re-offending when either released from or spared jail, as steps taken to respect their human rights.   Much discussion has then been held, rather awkwardly, after the event of their latest crime, the victim of whom has now no rights at all, as they are dead.

To me we seem to have this stuff a little back to front.   True, some criminals need to be locked up for good - and not in some apology for a sports hall - but in the main we just need to get the punishement to fit the crime.   Patently things are out of kilter.

As with an illness, the most effective long term treatment is to address the cause rather than the symptom.   This is why we need to consider how to supplant peoples' 'rights' and replace them with 'responsibilities'.   The weakness of socialism (especially as practised by the incumbent government) is that it seeks to take responsibility from the individual and attempt to impose it collectively via its' own offices.

This does not work.

Allowing people to take responsibility for their own lives is one area where the Tories could put distance between themselves and the neo-stalinistas of NuLabour. A policy of less interference in private lives, with the declared intention of limiting government to traditional functions would do much to persuade doubters that Cameroon is not "new labour lite".

You never know, it might catch on.

 

 

Apparently there is an earth shattering event about to commence.   One of such magnitude that it may change our lives forever.   It has already occupied many hours of media time and is set to occupy much more over the coming weeks.   The war in Iraq?  Pah, not worth the column inches and to be relegated to the depths of page 5.

This is an event of such national import that Top Gear will be off air for 5 weeks.   Millions of flags have been printed.  Car stickers, hats, furry dice, pens and pencils, scarves, hats, mascots and all manner of assorted tat have been produced and flogged to the nation, the residue of which is set to clog up warehouses from here to Holland in about a month from now as this ephermeral nationalism will surely fade faster than Chantelle's fame.

The productivity of the nation is about to halve as vast numbers of people turn into couch potatoes to enable them to be glued to the television as if their lives depended on it.   There is national joy as we learn that Wayne's metatarsal has healed adequately for him to rejoin the team.   Hurrah!   Ten million people learn more ...   more »

Poor old Johnny two jags.   He's been on the receiving end of a lot of criticisim this last couple of weeks... but it seems whatever he does, he just can't win.  

When photographed playing Croquet he was lambasted by the lefty press for 'not being in touch with his constituents' and 'betraying his working class roots', whilst the right wing press were horrified that he 'was improperly attired and not wearing a jacket'.

So, while most of the UK struggles by own one home, Johnny has agreed to cut down from three to two.  Aaaah.

And in the background, the wolves are gathering and suggesting that were he to give up his position as deputy prime minister, they would throw their hats in the ring as candidates.... that's politics for you.

But I can't see why he would give up this post (voluntarily at least) as he doesn't have anything else to do now does he?

Unless you count standing behind Toni keeping the knives out of his back as a real job.

 

The Three Castles was a first attempt at rallying for Shivs and me.  I'd done the Rally of the Tests with Big Mike and had a good idea of what goes on, but for Shivs it was a total first.

This rally is much easier than some; there is no map plotting and the whole thing runs from a series of 'Road Books' providing times, distances and little diagrams called 'tulips' to guide you at each junction.   Sounds straightforward ... and generally it is .... but not when you are running late and there is traffic and the tulips are very close together....

After the safety briefing on the Prelude day, we checked the calibration of the Retrotrip (a device rally cars have to measure distance very accurately) and then did a trial run.

The trip was running about 1% fast against a  measured mile and we decided it was too risky to tamper with it.. which was just as well, as when we went back to the start we found they had taken the marker post down anyway...

The first day we went to Anglesey, had four driving tests and two regularities.   Two of the tests were on the Anglesey circuit used in Fifth Gear.   We had to run two laps at exactly the same speed, between an average of 27mph and 32mph.   The regularities, where you must maintain a precise average speed over a fixed route on public roads, went well and we were luckier than some who were held up by local traffic.

At then end of Day One we were 28th and feeling quite pleased with ourselves....

The second day was in Snowdonia and included a hillclimb up a damn wall access road - with periodic stop / starts to ensure you don't go too fast on the hairpins.   One instruction was annotated:  Beware:  Fresh Air Drop.   There were two regularities, one of which was an hour and a half.. which is a very long time to concentrate on navigation, timing and trying to work out how much lateness to carry forward to the next section....

Despite a frustrating queue of 3 or 4 cars at some controls - some crews were miles out on timing and were running late - we went well and moved up to 20th overall at the end of the day.

A very early start (07.26) on Day Three took us down the Lleyn peninsula to Abersoch with two more regularites and a driving test.   We were baulked by tourists at the end of the last, dropping 12 seconds, otherwise we would have 'cleaned' that one....

We finished mid afternoon and headed back to Llandundno promenade for the finish to find the place awash with tourists all taking a keen interest in our old motors.   Standing around in the sun, gassing about cars with a glass of ice cold Stella in your hand... I was in heaven.

Our final finishing position was 16th with a score of 603 points, third in class and a surprise team win with a BMW 3.0 CSL and a Porsche 911E.   Well pleased.

The rally was organised sensibly and, despite some early starts, there were coffee and tea stops, decent lunch venues (like the one above) and evening entertainment to tempt you to over indulge.   We were allowed access to the promenade for parking during the day, which meant our cars were directly in front of the hotel and for the most part the marshalling was friendly and very helpful - a few were clearly overwhelmed by having to deal with over 100 cars arriving in relentless succession!

For those looking to start rallying, or to see if they might like it, this is a perfect event.   Easy enough to cope with and not be totally baffled, but challenging for the more experienced crews.

See you next year.

What a great rally.   And a particularly good one for newcomers like us.   First, the result.   We were 16th (out of just over 100), third in our class and won the team prize overall.

The car performed faultlessly, the weather was perfect and teamwork in the car spot on.

I'll post some pictures later and a bit of a write up on each day if I get time.

Still grinning!
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