Rockall, Boxing, Inverness, Tony Curtis - four totally unrelated words/subjects/topics but four that conspired to prevent our team winning the latest Bawburgh Golf Club quiz last night. It was one of those evenings when we kept getting right answers and then changing them to wrong ones and as a result we finished fourth. Not changing the above would have given us first place.
These are really excellent and thoroughly enjoyable evenings. We haven't finished in the top three for a few months but I think we have won a couple of this year's events. The questions we messed up on were: What sport did Andre Agassi's father compete in in the Olympic Games beginning with the letter B (we discussed badminton and boxing, decided on boxing and then changed it to basketball). What is the UK's most northern city (we discussed Inverness but plumped for Aberdeen), Who played the part of the Boston Strangler (considered Tony Curtis and ended up with Boris Karloff). Can't remember the exact question relating to shipping districts but we suggested Rockall and then changed it to Malin.
Talking of quizzes, I am currently writing one for the 21st April at Hethersett Junior School to raise money for the coming June Old English Fayre on Hethersett Memorial Playing Field on June 3rd. So far I have written about one-third of it -so two thirds to go.
Suggestions that David Cameron and Barack O'Barma this week discussed how to cut fuel prices made me chuckle. Fuel prices in both countries have been rising steadily. Occasionally they drop slightly for a matter of days and then carry on rising. That's just what will happen this time. Prices may well drop by a couple of pence a litre before starting their upward trend again. My guess is that by August a litre of petrol will hit £1.50. I will either apologise or say I told you so in August. Meanwhile our esteemed leader will once again claim that his Government has cut fuel duty to help the mythical "Man in the Street." As they say in some circles "Yeah Right."
I have just started to read one of my Christmas presents - The Smell of Football by Mick Rathbone. This is a football biography highly recommended by both newspapers and readers' reviews on Amazon. I am reading it on my Grand National Kindle. I call it my Grand National Kindle because it was bought with money won on last year's Aintree classic.
Anyway The Smell of Football is anything but an average sports autobiography. For a start Baz (the nickname came from the actor Basil Rathbone who was the best ever Sherlock Holmes) went through a period as a raw youngster when he tried not to get into Birmingham City's first team. He couldn't even pass the ball to his hero Trevor Francis, a player he idolised. Baz pulled his career, and indeed his shyness, around when he joined Blackburn Rovers and went on to become "head of medicine" (nice fancy title) at Everton. He speaks highly of former Everton player and manager Howard Kendall whom he says was a real gentleman who had time for everyone and was loved by all and lit a room up by his presence. I can underline that. In a former life as sports editor of a weekly newspaper I covered Norwich City matches for both that newspaper and the now defunct News of the World and used to be at after match press conferences given by managers. Indeed I wrote an article about the different characters of managers. Some were shy, some reticent, some uttered few words and some talked non stop. I remember Howard after one match. I have no idea now what the score of that game was but he was asked the obvious question by one reporter: "How do you feel your team performed today Howard." He then gave a full and considered view of the game, his own team and the Norwich performance and came over as an intelligent, erudite and honest man in love with the game. I think I still have some of those newspaper articles. Must look them out and put them on my web site.
Anyway the style of Baz Rathbone's book started me thinking that I could write one of my own. I suddenly realised that football has been a major part of my life since the age of about eight. Although I never played it at any great level I have reported on it, coached it and been an amateur football club chairman for more years than I can remember. So I'm going to set it all down as "Notes from the Sidelines." I may change this less than catchy title later. My aim will be to write 1,000 words a day for roughly 60 days and then see if I can get a publisher interested. If I can't find one I will self-publish. So the idea is to have the book out in one form or another by the end of the year. I am also in the process of cleaning up another book (that's from a grammatical point of view) that I wrote about 30 years ago. It's a silly little tale about a young reporter in a seaside town. Any resemblance to my own career is purely co-incidental (yeah right). Anyway once this has been tidied up I am going to try and publish it on Amazon.
Was very surprised yesterday when a friend pointed out that the lovely Adele track "Make You Feel My Love" was actually written by Bob Dylan.I think that comes under the heading of "not a lot of people know that." So I looked up the original. Not sure who has the better voice Dylan or Adele - it's a close thing (not),
Strategy, plan, vision - not sure what order they come up in. I do know that I recoil when I hear the words. They should be replace by thought, deeds and action. I have in the past worked for a number of organisations where management speak is the order of the day. I built up a hatred of certain words and phrases and these three would be somewhere near the top along with blue sky thinking and thinking outside the box. But let's start with strategy, plan and vision. Somebody who has a vision then seems to turn it into a plan which is used to formulate a strategy. The problem is most of the strategies I have been involved with were never put into action. Most stayed in a dusty folder on shelves. When the proverbial shit hits the fan there's no time to consult folders and strategies. So let's talk not about those who write things down and claim to have a strategy but the people with true vision who think things out (either slowly or, in the case of an emergency, quickly) and then act in everybody's best interests.
As for thinking inside and outside the box. What a load of twaddle. The best comment I ever heard during a meeting was "Personally I don't think inside or outside the box, as far as I am concerned there is no f-----g box." I think he was a no nonsense northerner.
Tomorrow I will be spending much of the day around Hethersett Social Club for the first ever Hethersett 30-60 event. Basically it's a charity bike ride through South Norfolk starting and finishing in the village. Riders can either do one circuit (30 miles) or two (60 miles). I will be there to take photos for the Media and the village web site. Looking forward to it as long as it doesn't rain. My last camera gor ruined by rain - on the Great Wall of China!!
These are really excellent and thoroughly enjoyable evenings. We haven't finished in the top three for a few months but I think we have won a couple of this year's events. The questions we messed up on were: What sport did Andre Agassi's father compete in in the Olympic Games beginning with the letter B (we discussed badminton and boxing, decided on boxing and then changed it to basketball). What is the UK's most northern city (we discussed Inverness but plumped for Aberdeen), Who played the part of the Boston Strangler (considered Tony Curtis and ended up with Boris Karloff). Can't remember the exact question relating to shipping districts but we suggested Rockall and then changed it to Malin.
Talking of quizzes, I am currently writing one for the 21st April at Hethersett Junior School to raise money for the coming June Old English Fayre on Hethersett Memorial Playing Field on June 3rd. So far I have written about one-third of it -so two thirds to go.
Suggestions that David Cameron and Barack O'Barma this week discussed how to cut fuel prices made me chuckle. Fuel prices in both countries have been rising steadily. Occasionally they drop slightly for a matter of days and then carry on rising. That's just what will happen this time. Prices may well drop by a couple of pence a litre before starting their upward trend again. My guess is that by August a litre of petrol will hit £1.50. I will either apologise or say I told you so in August. Meanwhile our esteemed leader will once again claim that his Government has cut fuel duty to help the mythical "Man in the Street." As they say in some circles "Yeah Right."
I have just started to read one of my Christmas presents - The Smell of Football by Mick Rathbone. This is a football biography highly recommended by both newspapers and readers' reviews on Amazon. I am reading it on my Grand National Kindle. I call it my Grand National Kindle because it was bought with money won on last year's Aintree classic.
Anyway The Smell of Football is anything but an average sports autobiography. For a start Baz (the nickname came from the actor Basil Rathbone who was the best ever Sherlock Holmes) went through a period as a raw youngster when he tried not to get into Birmingham City's first team. He couldn't even pass the ball to his hero Trevor Francis, a player he idolised. Baz pulled his career, and indeed his shyness, around when he joined Blackburn Rovers and went on to become "head of medicine" (nice fancy title) at Everton. He speaks highly of former Everton player and manager Howard Kendall whom he says was a real gentleman who had time for everyone and was loved by all and lit a room up by his presence. I can underline that. In a former life as sports editor of a weekly newspaper I covered Norwich City matches for both that newspaper and the now defunct News of the World and used to be at after match press conferences given by managers. Indeed I wrote an article about the different characters of managers. Some were shy, some reticent, some uttered few words and some talked non stop. I remember Howard after one match. I have no idea now what the score of that game was but he was asked the obvious question by one reporter: "How do you feel your team performed today Howard." He then gave a full and considered view of the game, his own team and the Norwich performance and came over as an intelligent, erudite and honest man in love with the game. I think I still have some of those newspaper articles. Must look them out and put them on my web site.
Anyway the style of Baz Rathbone's book started me thinking that I could write one of my own. I suddenly realised that football has been a major part of my life since the age of about eight. Although I never played it at any great level I have reported on it, coached it and been an amateur football club chairman for more years than I can remember. So I'm going to set it all down as "Notes from the Sidelines." I may change this less than catchy title later. My aim will be to write 1,000 words a day for roughly 60 days and then see if I can get a publisher interested. If I can't find one I will self-publish. So the idea is to have the book out in one form or another by the end of the year. I am also in the process of cleaning up another book (that's from a grammatical point of view) that I wrote about 30 years ago. It's a silly little tale about a young reporter in a seaside town. Any resemblance to my own career is purely co-incidental (yeah right). Anyway once this has been tidied up I am going to try and publish it on Amazon.
Was very surprised yesterday when a friend pointed out that the lovely Adele track "Make You Feel My Love" was actually written by Bob Dylan.I think that comes under the heading of "not a lot of people know that." So I looked up the original. Not sure who has the better voice Dylan or Adele - it's a close thing (not),
Strategy, plan, vision - not sure what order they come up in. I do know that I recoil when I hear the words. They should be replace by thought, deeds and action. I have in the past worked for a number of organisations where management speak is the order of the day. I built up a hatred of certain words and phrases and these three would be somewhere near the top along with blue sky thinking and thinking outside the box. But let's start with strategy, plan and vision. Somebody who has a vision then seems to turn it into a plan which is used to formulate a strategy. The problem is most of the strategies I have been involved with were never put into action. Most stayed in a dusty folder on shelves. When the proverbial shit hits the fan there's no time to consult folders and strategies. So let's talk not about those who write things down and claim to have a strategy but the people with true vision who think things out (either slowly or, in the case of an emergency, quickly) and then act in everybody's best interests.
As for thinking inside and outside the box. What a load of twaddle. The best comment I ever heard during a meeting was "Personally I don't think inside or outside the box, as far as I am concerned there is no f-----g box." I think he was a no nonsense northerner.
Tomorrow I will be spending much of the day around Hethersett Social Club for the first ever Hethersett 30-60 event. Basically it's a charity bike ride through South Norfolk starting and finishing in the village. Riders can either do one circuit (30 miles) or two (60 miles). I will be there to take photos for the Media and the village web site. Looking forward to it as long as it doesn't rain. My last camera gor ruined by rain - on the Great Wall of China!!
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