HNY from AF in HK

Happy New Year & best wishes for 2013.

Andy

2012 - That was the year that was...

Good

1. Chelsea winning the Champions League
2. England winning Test series in India
3. Bradley Wiggins winning TDF
4. The Olympic Games
5. Blur at Hyde Park
6. Skyfall
7. Ryder Cup
8. Rediscovering Absinthe
9. The sun setting over the Sussex downs
10. Having a significant birthday and loving it

Bad

1. The sacking of Roberto Di Matteo
2. The continued selfishness of the banking world
3. The death of Tony Greig, Fontella Bass, Adam Yauch & Dave Brubek
4. Losing to South Africa in home test series
5. The global obsession with reality TV
6. Queen's Diamond Jubilee nonsense
7. Mayan Doomsday Conspiracy
8. Poor availability of Marmite in Australia
9. Likewise a decent pair of shoes
10. The lack of follow up from the Occupy Movement

Snow in Sun - Scritti Politti

Correspondence or coherence
I am calling, I am calling you.

I was getting me down, took a train into town
And the sun was shining brightly
Though the snow was falling lightly too.
Made me think of brave you are 
and how come I have strayed so far
and why everything came apart
in my head and heart now love
You will never be without me
You will never need to doubt me
There'll be something good about me soon
Like sun in the city snow
Like snow in the city sun

I was watching you sleep
I've been watching you dream
Should we be beset with trouble?
I would never let you come to harm

Looks like maybe we'll lose our home
Out of pocket and all alone
I should have worked and I should have known,
Seen the dark clouds coming in
But you will never be without me
I'm beside you never doubt me
There'll be something good about me soon
Like sun on the London snow
Like snow in the London sun

Undetermined, inessential
I am calling, I am calling you.
You...

Lyrics - Green Gartside

Poll Results - The Best English batsman of all time

Despite the new evidence and the very poor turnout...

Wally Hammond	(66%)
Jack Hobbs	(33%)
Geoff Boycott	(0%)
Sir Len Hutton	(0%)
Alastair Cook	(0%)
Kevin Pietersen	(0%)

Poll Results - Who would have made the best James Bond?

No contest!

1. Roy Kinnear - 100%
2. Bob Latchford - 0%
2. Steve Peregrine-Took - 0%
2. Ivor Cutler - 0%

The name is Bond... etc

The audience applauded and cheered when the DB5 appeared.

Marvellous!

Going to see James Bond "at the pictures"

Skyfall hasn't quite made it over here to Australia (but then neither has Marmite, broad racial tolerance & an abundance of good dress sense but hey-ho!).

However, I'm going to see the film on Saturday and it reminds me of the anticipation I had back in the day before heading off to see a double-header of Thunderball & Doctor No at the Classic Cinema along Seaside.

The whole Bond experience from the false beginning, exotic theme scene through to the very last frame which announced...

James Bond will be returning in On Her Majesty's Secret Service

The whole thing was magical and as for the time when James Bond assumed the pseudonym Peter Franks (my fathers and my middle name) the whole picture was complete. It was inevitable, one day I would become Agent 007.

And the great thing is, I still believe it is only a matter of time!

Poll Results - Who do you think you are kidding?

1 = Mr Hitler
1=  Rupert Murdoch
1=  George Osborne
1=  David Cameron

Martello Melancholy...

On a Sunday night on the other side of the world, six years into exile. A 10 second news report on a local station and I'm gone... lost. 

I miss you.

Walmington-On-Sea

It just so happens that I've spent the last month watching daily repeats of the exploits of Captain Mainwaring and the 1st Walmington-on-Sea Home Guard. From the bumptious Captain via the Laconic Sgt Wilson (who reminds me of my Grandfather), Walker (who didn't), Fraser, Jones & Pike through to the wonderful Mr Godfrey. 

Ironically, apart from thoroughly enjoying the actually rather good ensemble acting, I was thinking how good it was that Clive Dunn was still hanging on in there and then the news wires filled with news of his passing.  

Inevitable, I know. But sad all the same!

Things I miss fact: I went to the same school as Captain Mainwaring!

Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
The gunpowder treason and plot
I know of no reason
Why the gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot!

Ka Boom!

Silence

When the buses stop running,
the waves cease pounding,
the rain stops pouring and
the wind stops wrapping itself
around the legs of the pier

we take a short breath and hold it
whilst all around us
the silence of our memories
continues to bury themselves
into the foundations of our future...

The rise of the Golden City

I have been very fortunate over the past few years to be present at a number of great events: Chelsea winning the Champions League, the last ever gig by The Jam, Sussex winning the County Championship for the first time in their history, Slim Gaillard at the Wag Club, the Two-Tone tour, England bowling Australia out for 98 at the Boxing Day Test 2010 and the time when Barry at The Old Coffee House undercharged me.

However, the two and a bit weeks that London hosted the Olympics most probably go down as the most enjoyable fortnight I've most probably ever had. The cynics had left town, the whingers had shut up and everyone else was just up for it.

London was everything we've always known it could be! It was perfect!

Blur - Hyde Park

 It was a glorious night & I was bloody there!

Highlights: Beetlebum, Tracey Jacks, Under the Westway and The Universal 

+

Massed Mobot, the kiss, Tea Lady, Phil D

 Lowlights: The thought that this really was going to be the last time...

It just does not get much better than this...

Comeback #1 - The Stone Roses

They sort of passed me by actually, which is funny considering they include the following; Jingly-jangly sixties guitars, a very vaguely moddy look (pre-Uberbaggy) and occasional references to the Paris 68 riots. All of which would normally score quite highly in my book. I'd given up on guitar bands by the mid 80's. Jazz & funk were decidedly where it was at. The Smiths were gone, Orange Juice too and there was nothing to do but subsume myself in Blue Note.

By the time I woke up to the fact that it was possible to like both Jazz and guitar pop The Stone Roses were mid 5 year sabbatical, the Happy Mondays were sorting themselves out with decent habits and Blur were just about to remind me that Modern life was (indeed) rubbish.

I'd missed Spike Island and the full-on Madchester nonsense and was not in any way attracted to the possibility of The Roses coming back with a Jimmy Page influenced second album. I'd heard Mani with the Primals but avoided Ian Brown's solo stuff and The Seahorses. It was only in about 2002 that I listened to their first album in full and found myself quite wrapped up in their MancScally Pop. I'd always known that 'Fools Gold' was a nailed on cracker but the rest of their set was a mystery. Their second album was as plodding and as leaden I'd feared but the first album was great.

So I plonked them in the cracking debut basket and thought no more of them until they announced (oh the surprise) that they were about to reform. It'll be interesting to see what they do, not least whether they'll manage to complete all their tour dates without killing each other. For their hardcore fans it must be brilliant. I certainly don't begrudge any of them making a complete bundle out of the whole exercise.

As for the prospect of them recording new material. Well, this is where I stop and ponder. One great album and one plodder. Do they really want to risk ruining the memory of the former by producing another latter? I'd like to think they'll stick to the story as written (with maybe a live DVD to show us how well they've aged!?) but I get the distinct feeling that they'll want to write another chapter and that is where we could question whether being the resurrection is actually a good thing after all!

Where have all the new posts gone?

Sorry for the delay in anything new. I had to buy a new computer to enable me to use the new version of Blogger. Well, as good as.... Fear not new stuff on the way.

Poll Results - England Manager

1 - Harry Redknapp
2 - ...The Rest

Funnily enough this poll took place before a decision had been made by the FA. However, we are only able to release the results now as an injunction was in place. The fact that Harry Redknapp is now unemployed has no bearing on the timing of this announcement!

Home of the HIts - 10,000+

And to think that when I started this blog back in 1886 the internet was barely a flicker in the imagination of two deranged Finnish Merchant Sailors. Thank you very much! PS. Plenty more where this came from. I just need to stop circumnavigating the world!

England Manager - Here we go, Here we go, Here we go... again!

Ladies & Gentlemen of the press, please rise for England's new coach - Roy Manager

Poll Results - Best view in London

1 - Primrose Hill 2- Alexandra Palace 3 - Crystal Palace 4 - London Eye