Judgement Day

Judgement Day 2014: Dan Fish tackles Jake Ball

Vince called me last night and told me he was bringing Dad, Isaac, Sam and Seb to the Cowbridge game on Saturday. I also went to the pre tour meeting in the club last night where we confirmed the schedule. (I managed to get back for the second part of the quiz in Tooting after and we won that again ThanksForAskin'.)

It has struck me that the 'blog is as good a place as any to publish the weekend's running list in a place were the family can check it out:

Friday 24^th April

17:30  Meet at Poplar Road for pre-departure meal

18:30 Coach departs Poplar road for Cardiff

22:00 Touring Party arrives at Nos Da Hostel

Nos Da

53-59 Despenser Street,
Cardiff CF11 6AG
tel: +44 (0) 29 2037 8866

Saturday 25^th April

08:00 Breakfast at hostel

09:00 Travel to Cowbridge

Cowbridge RFC
Cowbridge Rugby Football Club
Cowbridge

Vale of Glamorgan

CF71 7DB

Tel: 01446 772595

http://www.cowbridgerfc.co.uk/

10:00 Kick-off first of two matches vs Cowbridge U14s

12:00 Lunch for the boys at Cowbridge Rugby Club

14:00 Travel back to Hostel to change

15:30 Walk to Millennium Stadium to watch second match at “Judgement Day III”

19:00 Walk to Restaurant for evening meal

FED

Mary Ann St, Cardiff, CF10 2EN
02920 341501

NOTE: restaurant is a buffet style restaurant with huge selection of food. Should be able to satisfy all tastes

21:00 Return to hostel for early night (!!)

Sunday 26^th April

08:00 Breakfast at hostel

09:00 Pack for journey back

09:30 Walk to Cardiff Arms Park for matches against Llandaff RFC

BT Sport Cardiff Arms Park
Westgate Street
Cardiff
CF10 1JA

10:00 Kick-off first of two matches vs Llandaff

12:00 Travel back to Poplar (lunch likely to be sandwiches) during return journey

15:30 Arrive Poplar Road for parent pick-up

I'm going to have to bin the Car Man tonight after a busy weekend, a night out yesterday, another booked for tomorrow, leaving for Cardiff Thursday afternoon and not returning until the latter part of Sunday or I won't have been in my house apart from sleeping for a week. I suppose I can still get to it in Sadler's Wells later in the company's tour,

It's never over

U14 League 2	Short Format  Long Format
Team P W D L F A Diff B Pts Pts Adjust Warlingham U14s 8 7 0 1 320 115 205 7 43 0 Old Rutlishians U14 8 7 0 1 310 129 181 7 43 0 Chipstead U14 8 4 0 4 167 142 25 4 29 0 Effingham & Leatherhead U14s 8 4 0 4 212 242 -30 4 28 0 Old Caterhamians U14s 7 2 1 4 153 186 -33 5 22 0 Rosslyn Park U14A 7 3 0 4 126 175 -49 3 21 0 Chobham U14s 7 2 1 4 111 164 -53 4 21 0 Battersea Ironsides U14 8 2 0 6 96 198 -102 3 19 0 Camberley U14 7 2 0 5 93 237 -144 1 16 0
Last Updated: Apr 20 2015 9:02AM

The Ruts beat Battersea Ironsides 38-10 yesterday. It wasn't enough to overhaul Warlingham so we finish second in the league, level with them on points but having scored less and conceded more. It is still a successful season though and we will be in league one next year. Here is Jim's report:

Squad,

LEAGUE 5: OLD RUTS v. GUILDFORDIANS - WALKOVER
As Patrick as already said, it is a huge shame we didn't have a chance to finish the season in style. I am sorry you had no play today, but we will come back better ready for action next season. I cannot tell you how much I have enjoyed being involved with the League 5 team this season. You are all a huge credit to Old Ruts and I look forward to more of the same next season.

LEAGUE 2: OLD RUTS 38 - BATTERSEA IRONSIDES 10
What a great day for Old Ruts at Imber Court; 3 games and 3 wins. I want to congratulate all the boys who played today, you were outstanding. Great rugby: ambitious, quick hands, aggressive forward play, superb running. In particular, I applaud your brilliant support play. Next season you will be in League 1, and you will all need supporting runners more than ever. Today we finished level with Warlingham, equal top of League 2, but just behind on points difference. You have had a great season and I am hugely proud of you all.

In the first half today we played some of our best rugby all season. The forwards in particular were awesome, punching the ball up, keeping it tight and sucking in the Ironsides defence. Of course, once the ball went wide they had no answer to our pace and power. Inevitably, as we made changes throughout the game, we lost a little shape. It was a shame we allowed them to cross our line, but fair lay to Battersea for keeping their heads up and did not give up in the second half.

There is much to look forward to. Next weekend we will have a brilliant tour to Cardiff - a chance see just how good we really are. Next season, League 1 awaits. We are ready.

Jim

The game kicked off half an hour late so we just couldn't make it to athletics. Alex and Matthew finished second and third in the javelin with personal bests and the Harriers won the event overall so I didn't feel too guilty. The next competition is May 2 in Crawley. As rugby is finished then I wonder if Ben will start competing in the 300m as well.

The Flying Burrito Brothers

My burritos went down a storm at Andy and Ollie's barbecue yesterday so I thought I should record the recipe and procedure for posterity and future tweaking.

First off, I rubbed two Sainsbury's basics boneless pork shoulder joints in Dunn's River All Purpose Seasoning and popped them in the fridge.

Next I filled my barrel smoker's water pan, put it on the draining board in the kitchen and added a couple of handfuls of Jim Beam oak barrel smoking chips.

A couple of hours later, I fired up the smoker with an instant lighting charcoal pack and then when that got going, added the soaked chips to it, put the water pan back, added the pork, closed the lid and left it for the magic to work overnight.

In the morning I took the skin off, wrapped the joints in foil and gave them a couple of hours in the oven at 150 degrees.

After that I shredded the meat and added two cans of Green Giant Mexican Style Sweetcorn, grated cheese, Hang Fire Kansas City Barbecue sauce, Louisiana hot sauce, lemon juice and more seasoning.

The burritos were assembled (five table spoons of filling to a tortilla) and wrapped in Bacofoil easy wrap single foil sheets. I got fourteen.

At the barbecue we just heated them up on the grill. Contentment ensued.

(I tried to make Chicharron by deep frying the skin I took off the meat after smoking. It was disgusting and  I ended up throwing it away. In the process I think I lost a lot of savoury smoke ring bark. Next time I will remove the skin before I apply the dry rub. Experiments in the creation of scratchings will continue but not at the expense of my pulled pork.)

Addendum
I have remembered that the burrito mix also contained savoury rice boiled with turmeric and chilli flakes, and that each filling was also topped with coriander leaf. I guess that this mea culpa proves it was worth trying to write it down.

Ultra spiritual

It was my three hundred and thirty third yoga session this morning, and though, judging by the mirror that always lines the front wall at a Bikram session, I still turn into Red Skull before he first water break I must be improving. For the second week in a row my locust pose was praised and offered as an exemplar by the teacher. When I consider that when I started I couldn't raise my legs at all in it I am rather chuffed.

A year ago, I went straight to the studio after coming back from the Bomber's Old Ruts end of season rugby tour and fell asleep (can't imagine why, I'd only been up boozing for three days) before the lesson even started. I was woken by a stern woman whose blissful egolessness had been disturbed by my snoring.

These days I would have explained to her that ‘prana’ refers to the universal life force and ‘ayama’ means to regulate or lengthen. Prana is the vital energy needed by our physical and subtle layers, without which the body would perish. It is what keeps us alive. Pranayama is the control of prana through the breath. Why you gots to be the hater pouring salt on my game you no-skillz beetch?

The Gas Man Cameth

Not only is my heating working again. I can now control it from my iPhone.

O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy.

Sing Something, Simple

Manny Pacquiao's official fight song for his upcoming match against Floyd Mayweather Jr. is a masterclass in power balladry.

If I was Mayweather, this is how I would hit back.

Any activity becomes creative when the doer cares about doing it right or better.

There is a cookbook on the market compiled by a chef who “has never tasted a single morsel of food.” Watson, IBM’s cognitive system that famously defeated two human grand champions to win the US quiz show Jeopardy, has turned its attention to the kitchen.

It was strangely jarring to find this out on the same day that my copy of "Franklin Barbecue: A Meat-Smoking Manifesto" arrived. Aaron Franklin and  Jordan Mackay's book is available only in hardback, there is no ebook at all. Cracking the spine on a new volume is something I haven't done for a long time and it was good to get involved with instruction and memoirs based on years' worth of hard-won knowledge as opposed to theory for a change.

It echoed as well with The World Beyond Your Head, which I started to read on the exercise bike this morning. That advocates skilled practices as a way of engaging with the world in a more satisfying way and gives the examples of a cook, an ice-hockey player and a motorbike racer as people whose roles force them to deal with material reality; no representation can replicate the feel of the puck on ice or gravel under your tyres at high speed. Each relies on good judgement of a complicated subject and the ability to manage the presence of others in the same space.

Whether this applies to my BBQ technique of putting something in the smoker in the evening then buggering off and picking it up in the morning is probably moot.

I could go and see Matthew Crawford next Tuesday, but that - given the giddy social whirl - is also my only chance to catch The Car Man at Wimbledon. If I have got his proposition right, he would probably advise me to go and learn to appreciate the embodied skills of the dancers rather than him.

Reading too much into it

I have just finished reading Matthieu Ricard's The Art of Meditation and am about to start on Matthew Crawford's The World Beyond Your Head: How to Flourish in an Age of Distraction.

I kid myself I chose books on a whim, but maybe my subconscious is telling me that going stir crazy waiting for the gas man to arrive is symptomatic rather than a problem in itself.

The Gas Man Cometh Not

I have been sitting here like a lemon since 8 o'clock this morning waiting for a British Gas engineer to arrive and look at my boiler. He was due between 8 and 1 so he is late.

I've called the company. They say he is 'dispatched' and I am his next job. To wait or not? There are things to do in the office and I have to take the bomber to the dentist later.

a combined Christmas and birthday present?

NEWS

EVERYMAN COMPLETES THE PG WODEHOUSE SERIES

30 March, 2015

Stop Press: The Everyman edition of the complete works of PG Wodehouse has now been completed with the publication of the last three titles - to wit ‘The Prince & Betty’, ‘Louder & Funnier’ and ‘Sunset at Blandings’. If you would like to purchase these books or are interested in the whole series please contact Venetia Vyvyan.

Pretty much everything I read these days is on the Kindle but a bookcase with all of Wodehouse would be thing of beauty and a joy forever as well as a wonderful legacy s on, for:

Mr. Wodehouse's idyllic world can never stale. He will continue to release future generations from captivity that may be more irksome than our own. He has made a world for us to live in and delight in.

You're darn tooting Evelyn Waugh.

Man finds food

John and I watched Chef the movie again the evening after we met Shauna Guinn (Icons passim) Aaron Franklin is in it as himself and so - under the assumption that the universe is sending me a message - I have ordered his book from Amazon. The image above was the clincher as the map on the left contains all the BBQ joints I can remember Shauna recommending during our chat.

I fired my smoker up for the first time this year and did a shoulder in it overnight. I will work it up into some pulled pork with Carolina mustard sauce later. This is a dry run for Ollie's birthday barbecue next Saturday. She actually asked me to bring some long to it earlier this week when I was having a crafty pint with the Hendries and the Goddings. I was flattered.

I have also decided to go down to Cardiff's Brew Dog on 23 April for the Hang Fire Smoke House takeover. I will go on the train and meet up with the Ruts for the rugby tour on Friday.

This means that I will have go and see Matthew Bourne's Adventures in Motion contemporary dance company on the Tuesday. To sit here writing that sentence when I have already been to yoga this morning and after a paragraph about BBQ and rugby feels rather strange. It takes all sorts I suppose, and I am all sorts just on my own.

"I predict a return of hot sauces to American cuisine. With color TV, the entire sensory life will take on a whole new set of dimensions."
Marshall McLuhan 1966

How right he was.

Initials BB

The Bomber went along to javelin training last night, for only the second time since 2013 as he missed last week with swollen tonsils, and told me afterwards that he had done 42m with his best throw. That is not too shabby as the best at U15 in the UK so far this year (though it is early in the season) is 42.21m according to the Power of 10 website.

I hope he will be able to make it to the Ebbisham League match Sunday week and lay down an official marker. I can't be 100% sure though as the last Old Ruts league game of the season is on that day as well and - although the boys are already promoted - they are still in with a sniff of winning the whole thing. An earlyish morning kick off would be OK as javelin is not until about half past three in the afternoon.



I have told him, to his bemusement, that we will be sampling Serge Gainsbourg's Initials BB for his theme song. Just as Gainsbourg used the Adagio from Dvořák's New World symphony and Danger Mouse and Black Grape sampled Serge in turn.

I have been looking for a project to try out FL Studio and Deckadance you see.

The Car Man

Matthew Bourne’s internationally acclaimed dance thriller was first seen in 2000, winning the Evening Standard Award for ‘Musical Event of the Year’.

The Car Man is loosely based on Bizet’s popular opera and has one of the most thrilling and instantly recognisable scores in New Adventures’ repertory, brilliantly arranged by Terry Davies.

The familiar 19th Century Spanish cigarette factory becomes a greasy garage-diner in 1960’s America where the dreams and passions of a small-town are shattered by the arrival of a handsome stranger. Fuelled by heat and desire, the inhabitants are driven into an unstoppable spiral of greed, lust, betrayal and revenge.

It is at the Wimbledon Theatre the week after next. Maybe it could serve as a sort of Streetcar Part II for me.

The Day My Pad Went Mad

Last night, as I was boiling some sweet potatoes and listening to Led Zeppelin IV, my dish washer - which has been on the blink for months - suddenly started working again. I was bewildered. I don't even remember switching it on. Perhaps I rubbed up against it while gyrating to Rock and Roll or Black Dog. I will get some tablets on the way home and cross my fingers that last night's come back wasn't temporary.

Then when I woke up this morning I found that the boiler had been on all night and wouldn't switch off from the control in the airing cupboard. I called British Gas. They can't come until Monday but they have told me how to attempt to switch off the device itself directly.

Oh, and Man v. Food's Adam Richman has been vegan for three months.

“If you've done 6 impossible things this morning, why not round it off with breakfast at Milliways, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe?”

Artistry/Technology

I mean to watch this later, so I may as well pop it up here to share with the world.

The F.B.I. Fitness Test

The New York Times

For the first time in 16 years, the Federal bureau of Investigation is requiring that its agents pass a fitness test, consisting of four exercises separated by a five-minute break.

That doesn't look so bad. I might have a crack at it later this week.

It is the minimum though. Aiming higher, here are the Special Agent requirements - https://www.fbijobs.gov/explore-careers/sa-pftprotocol.asp.

All together now in fantasy land!

WILLARD (V.O.): The more I read and began to understand, the more I admired him. His family and friends couldn't understand it. And they couldn't talk him out of it. He had to apply three times, and he put up with a ton of sh1t, but when he threatened to resign, they gave it to him. The next youngest guy in his class was half his age. They must've thought he was some far-out man humping it over the course. I did it when I was nineteen, it damn near wasted me. A tough motherfxxker. He finished it. He could've gone for general, but he went for himself instead.

Penylan (there is a barber showing photographs)

John and I took his girls, along with mum and dad to the Penylan Pantry yesterday for a social coffee and cake and also to stock up on the Hang Fire Smokehouse (see Icons passim) sauces we had read that they sold.

When we got there we discovered that Shauna Guinn of the smokehouse was there along with her sauces, so we had a long chat where she really lit a fire under us about Texas BBQ. She knows Aaron Franklin of Austin Texas' Franklin Barbecue who helped develop their Texas Espresso sauce and spoke of Lockhart - a city in Caldwell County - proclaimed by the Texas Legislature Lockhart as The Barbecue Capital of Texas.

Jules: [laughing] Oh, man. I'm going, that's all there is to it. I'm fxxckng going.
Myself: Yeah, baby, you'd dig it the most

Will The Circle Be Unbroken?

I finished off Dave Eggers' The Circle when I woke up this morning, though I fell back to sleep afterwards. It is a dystopian novel for the age of Google and Facebook, and worth a read for all it is a little heavy handed for my taste. The symbolism of the transparent, omnivorous shark; Enough already.

I have been reading Dave Eggers since 2000, when a came across an extract from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius in a newspaper I picked up in a bijou hotel where we weekended in Boston on the way back from skiing in New England. So now you know.

At Risk?

I am going back to Wales for the holiday weekend. Tumbleweed may drift through these abandoned pages if I can't get to a wi-fi connection.

We'll be back in Cardiff again in three weeks for the Old Ruts end of season rugby tour. While I am there  this time I am going to visit some of the venues as part of the trip's risk assessment.  I had never heard of such an exercise before, but apparently it has been a thing since 1999.

Personally I consider the population and environs of Cardiff to be more at risk from the Old Rutlishians U14 rugby squad than vice versa.

Here is the current thinking on tour jacket options and designs so you can identify them and get out of the way.

Stop Ballet Aching

The last time my brother John was up in London on a weekend visit early in February, he mentioned that he had been to see a ballet company in Wales and that it was "amazing". Probably because we were in the pub, I can't even remember how we got on to the topic, but after that revelation it was my turn to be amazed; no disrespect to him, but he is about the least likely balletomane I can imagine.

Since then I have been looking for a painless introduction to the art. The Scottish Ballet are at Sadler's Wells this week doing a version of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. It is a collaboration between theatre and film director Nancy Meckler and choreographer Annabelle Lopez, and features a specially commissioned jazz score. I've seen the play on the screen and the theatre and know the story inside out, so last night I went along.

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scottish Ballet, review: 'tugs at the heart-strings, shreds the nerves'
Scottish Ballet's version of A Streetcar Named Desire does Tennessee Williams's steamy, pitch-black masterpiece full justice, says Mark Monahan.

I agree. Five stars from me too.

Garden parties

Hello, I've just received an invitation to attend one of the three Buckingham Palace Garden Parties, being held this year on Tuesday 12th May, Wednesday 20th May and Thursday 28th May 2015 and to bring a guest. Who wants to come?

One for the scrapbook

England's Marcus Watson is tackled by Dan Fish of Wales, Cathay Pacific-HSBC Hong Kong Sevens, Hong Kong, March 27, 2015

Not such a good tournament though, England beat us and we eventually went out 34-0 to Scotland in the semi-final of the Bowl.

The gadget show

As an Amazon Prime member, I got the chance - which I took - to pre-order - an Amazon Fire TV stick for £19 last week. As someone who has has installed Windows 3.0 from a stack of floppy disks about a foot high back in the day I still find even the idea of a streaming media stick close to miraculous.

Back in the work-a-day world, both my slow cooker and my Actifry broke over the weekend. I don't imagine I will be able to replace either at a tenth of the original cost or size.

Another Thousand Clowns

That is this afternoon's entertainment sorted out then (see Icons passim).

Worth waiting for

Wales have taken a step closer to Euro 2016 with a brilliant away win over Israel thanks to an Aaron Ramsey header and brace from Gareth Bale on a famous night in Haifa took Chris Coleman's side to the top of Group B.

Victory has given Wales 11 points from their opening five qualification matches, and Coleman feels a further nine points from their remaining five games will be enough to take them to the Euro 2016 finals in France.

Wales' remaining Euro 2016 qualifiers
12 June: Belgium (h)
3 Sep: Cyprus (a)
10 Oct: Bosnia (a)
6 Sep: Israel (h)
13 Oct: Andorra (h)

javelin

Mid week rugby training at the Ruts having finished as the season starts to run down, the Bomber has returned to Herne Hill Harriers and the javelin (see Icons passim) for the first time in more than eighteen months.

The Harriers now have a regular javelin coach, Nick, who trains a small squad of juniors from 7-8.15 on Thursdays.

Ben went last night and enjoyed it, so I guess that is where we will be most weeks from now until the end of August.

the black spider

The UK's highest court has refused to overturn a ruling which paved the way for publication of letters written by the Prince of Wales to government ministers.

Supreme Court justices in London rejected a challenge by the Attorney General, the Government's principal legal adviser, against a decision by Court of Appeal judges that he has unlawfully prevented the public seeing the letters.

From the BBC's coverage:

The prince is heir to the throne and, as the royal family's own website explains, it is central to the British constitution that the reigning monarch should remain politically neutral.

"Brothers, what we do in life, echoes in eternity."

With exactness grinds He all

I got in last night and decided that a chicken lasagne was the best match with the contents of my fridge and kitchen cupboards, only to be blown off course when I discovered that I didn't have any flour to make a bechamel sauce.

As I pondered this disaster, a vague memory that the Nutribullet I bought four months ago had come with a "milling blade" interrupted my reverie.

And so it came to pass that I ground then made a roux from my own rice flour; very good it was too as well, though I would probably sift it before cooking next time.

A new era of home made powders and pastes dawns. Be very afraid.

put a stop to all this fxxxking élan acquis

We were pipped at the post into second place at the quiz last night so we have failed to match June 2013's five on the bounce and have to live with ourselves after four wins in a row and then a silver medal. As runners up we only get a £25 bar tab for next week.

Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.

And is there honey still for tea?

Send to Kindle for Google Chrome is a great little tool.

If I come across a long article, like Save the Honeybee, Sterilize the Earth by Josh Dzieza, that I want to add to my reading list I just click a button to reformat is and send it to my Paperwhite.

Josh Dzieza's piece is worth reading by the way.

In the US the bee keeping industry makes more money from migratory pollination than from honey sales.

Today, to pollinate California’s almond crop alone requires the services of up to three-quarters of all the managed honeybees in the United States. And they don’t get to the valley on their own; the bees are trucked in by the billion from as far away as Florida each January, just before the trees begin their brief fortnight in bloom.

This has happened because when farmers began planting larger plots with one crop, the natural balance of pollination was distorted. A monoculture, as it’s called, can’t sustain all the wild insects it needs to pollinate it, because there’s nothing for the insects to eat when the main crop isn’t in bloom.

Bumblebees have been disappearing since at least the 1990s. In 2009 and 2010, researchers visited locations near Carlinville, Illinois, where 120 years ago a naturalist studiously recorded which bugs visited what flowers. They found that almost half the bee species were gone, and only saw one American bumblebee after 447 hours of observation. Many of these native bees also pollinate crops, and do so more efficiently than honeybees. As these native bees die, managed honeybees pick up the slack, and we become more reliant on a single species. “Bees aren’t a canary,” Marla Spivak told me. “They’re a mirror, telling us our agricultural system is out of whack.” She added, “We just need to let up the throttle a bit.”

But honey bees can also become malnourished from foraging in monocultural conditions, as opposed to natural habitats or even cities, where parks and gardens provide diverse sources of pollen. At the Beekeeping Federation conference last winter in Baton Rouge, Pettis explained that even pollinating a crop like almonds, which provide abundant and nutritious pollen, is “like living on nothing but broccoli”—in other words, not a balanced diet. And that’s during the two weeks the crop is in bloom; before and after, the bees must rely heavily on artificial supplements, usually mixtures of brewer’s yeast, sugar, and vitamins. The feeds provide protein when natural pollen is scarce, but they aren’t yet as good as the real thing, and bees can’t live on them alone.

This is barking mad. They are going to end up with no pollinators at all apart from a single sickly species of clinically selected and industrially reared honey bee that will be intensely vulnerable to a new disease because of the lack of genetic diversity in the breed. Load up on almonds now. You may not be able to get any in the 2020s.

The greatest day?

Italy 20-61 Wales
Wales entered the game with a points difference of +12, 25 behind England. Warren Gatland’s side scored 47 unanswered second-half points and George North scored three tries to boost their points difference to +53.

Scotland 10-40 Ireland
Ireland, on +33, were the closest to England in terms of points difference and this romp ended Wales’ hopes. Jonny Sexton kicked 16 points, putting them on +63 at the summit. Over to you England. You need a 26-point win over France.

England 55-35 France
England knew what they had to do: win by 26 points and the title was theirs. But each time they crossed the line, France did the same. At the end they needed just six points for glory, but their inability to stop conceding was their downfall.

If only I could remember any of it.

Chorus kids with bad knees

Rod is back on a break from policing the Ukraine. We met up last night in the Marquis of Angelsey, and ended up eating at Joe Allen's, a theatre hangout I've never been before.

There is much I could pass on of Mackenna's wisdom born of decades in the firing line, and of my conversation with the restaurant's lady piano player, but I have only just roused myself from the sleep of the just and Wales kick off against Italy in half an hour; needs must.

Joe Allen being Americana (I had ribs, slaw and fries), here are some Route 55 place markers.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/11483813/Shrimp-n-grits-What-Prince-Charles-can-expect-in-the-Deep-South.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/cruises/riversandcanals/11474604/Highlights-of-a-Mississippi-cruise-in-pictures.html

Only last week

Time flies eh? Hat tip, Karen.

Random Jottings around the Route 55 project

Will Self's search for the Mississippi delta blues.

Southern food from Munchies.

belles-lettres

Telegraph

The writer and commentator Brooke Magnanti – better known as the former high class call girl Belle de Jour – is reportedly suing her former boyfriend for libel on the grounds that he has suggested she was not a prostitute at the time of their relationship.

Dr Magnanti’s legal team is expected to argue that such a claim would be instead damaging to the reputation of a woman who made her name writing a blog about her time working as an escort, which went on to become two bestselling books and the successful TV series starring Billie Piper, Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

The claim appears to have been lodged in response to her ex-boyfriend Owen Morris, a former RAF officer identified only as The Boy in the book, who in 2013 began proceedings against her for defamation and breach of privacy, claiming the publicity surrounding the book destroyed his air force career and damaged his reputation.

The news website Vice has reported that papers lodged at Edinburgh’s Court of Session show Dr Magnanti has decided to counter-sue, claiming her reputation was damaged by doubt being cast over whether she had been a call girl.

Should it go ahead, Dr Magnanti’s libel claim could well be the first in the UK from a woman claiming she was defamed by suggestions she was not a prostitute.

One for Mr Justice Cocklecarrot, methinks.

Super Sunday

Team P W D L F A Diff B Pts Pts Adjust Warlingham U14s 7 6 0 1 280 115 165 6 37 0 Old Rutlishians U14 7 6 0 1 272 119 153 6 37 0 Chipstead U14 8 4 0 4 167 142 25 4 29 0 Effingham & Leatherhead U14s 7 4 0 3 212 202 10 4 27 0 Old Caterhamians U14s 7 2 1 4 153 186 -33 5 22 0 Rosslyn Park U14A 7 3 0 4 126 175 -49 3 21 0 Chobham U14s 7 2 1 4 111 164 -53 4 21 0 Battersea Ironsides U14 7 2 0 5 86 160 -74 3 18 0 Camberley U14 7 2 0 5 93 237 -144 1 16 0

Last Updated: Mar 16 2015 12:25PM

The Ruts ground out a 22-19 win away against Chipstead on Sunday, finally prevailing with a last minute penalty from Sid. It was an ugly but ultimately creditable performance with five first team players out; sevens and rugby league seem to take a toll on the squad at this time of year.

At the same time, Rosslyn Park were beating Warlingham (the only side to prevail over our boys this year) by 34-21.

Old Rutlishians and "the mighty Warl" are both already promoted for next season, but Rosslyn Park's sterling efforts leave us (as you can see from the table above) with at least a chance of ending up on top when the dust settles on April 19 after the last league games of the year.

Warlingham will be playing Effingham & Leatherhead then. E&L have been on a four game winning streak since we thumped them in January and taken the scalp of Rosslyn Park along the way.

Old Ruts will be playing Battersea Ironsides who we beat as I recall rather handily in an informal pre season friendly.

I can dare to dream. If we can thump the Ironsides and get a bonus point while Effingham hold Warlingham to less than four tries the fact that they have scored eight more points than us and conceded four less will be irrelevant.

Further, and regardless of the outcome come April, for the first time ever next season Old Ruts will feature in Division 1 at U14, 15, 16 and 17 which is absolutely remarkable.

Come, my friends,
’Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset

Ah Bartleby! Ah humanity!

Back in the office for the first time, after a week on the slopes, I am pondering my lifestyle.

Wales 23-16 Ireland

I got back from Austria yesterday just in time to see Wales beat Ireland. I had it in my diary for today so, what with being "off the grid" for a week I nearly missed it. A text from Andy asking me if I was going to be watching it down at the Standard was saved me from my own stupidity,

John Graham Chambers

John Graham Chambers (12 February 1843 – 4 March 1883) was a Welsh sportsman. He rowed for Cambridge, founded inter-varsity sports, became English Champion walker, coached four winning Boat-Race crews, devised the Queensberry Rules, staged the FA Cup Final and the Thames Regatta, instituted championships for billiards, boxing, cycling, wrestling and athletics, rowed beside Matthew Webb as he swam the English Channel and edited a national newspaper.

As I am travelling and semi-detached from the interwebs, you may have a Welsh Born Icon nominated by my brother John. They certainly crammed a lot into whatever little time they had on the planet, those Victorians.

I'm off to Saalbach, bach

The Bomber is back from skiing with the school and I am off without him on my annual trip. Here we all are together from five years ago. It is strange to think that he is now at least as tall as anyone else in this picture, and that I have borrowed his jacket this year.

We are meeting at the White Hart in Whitton at midnight and then getting a coach to the airport in the early hours of the morning. Thence to Saalbach in Austria where we will be staying at the Berger's Sporthotel.

As a rule I maintain radio silence when I am away on the piste, but this year I will have a Surface Pro with me and wi-fi in the rooms so it is possible I may tug on your sleeve about something even though I am out of the country.

For what it is worth, I have also got the Saalbach Hinterglemm Mobile App and the 79p Ski Tracks on my iPhone.

Just put your iPhone in your pocket and Ski Tracks will record all your mountain movements and analyse your performance and even provide Run-by-Run analysis of your whole day.
Add photographs to complete you day.

Maybe triathblog will be updated from Austria as well.

I will be back in Gatwick South at 11:10am Saturday week.

Hang Fire

Look what I found. In Cardiff of all places! We've missed Feb (Texas John C will be gutted) but could March or April be possibilities? Thursdays are school nights and I am in London but I am sorely tempted.

Also, as I am going skiing on Saturday I will miss the finale episode of Reginald D Hunter's Songs of the South.

In the final part of his road trip, Reginald D Hunter takes a leaf out of Huckleberry Finn with a trip down the Mississippi from Memphis to New Orleans through the Delta to learn about the birth of blues and how it manifests itself today.
In Louisiana Reg takes a detour to a bayou to learn about Creole culture and zydeco before winding up in New Orleans to meet the city's musical triumvirate of Dr John, Allen Toussaint and Irma Thomas.
Also featuring Stax musicians Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd.

Catching up with that on the iPlayer should be the first thing on my list when I get back. If I was ever to set out somewhere from Memphis after flying in to Chicago I would probably take a riverboat cruise from St Louis to Memphis first.

And by the way, googling "Songs of the South" for the TV details above I came up with Rolling Stone's Southern Comforts: 25 Best Songs About the South which was only published three days ago. I need to run that past my Spotify playlist.

You can only go down from here

It has struck me (if being told by someone else counts as striking) that the Ruts U14s are already promoted to Surrey League 1 for rugby next year. Surrey's rules give you one point for losing a game. I think the idea behind this is to make not turning up (zero points) a worse option for a struggling team than getting beaten.

Thus even if we lose the next two games (a highly unlikely scenario) we will still have get two more points and a total of 34 so we can't be caught.

Congratulations to the Bomber et al. Now that they are good I can finally get off my chest that in their first game at U11 (the age group at which kicking is allowed) KCS Old Boys scored against them from what seemed like every restart and I thought we would never amount to anything at all.

Also I was out at the tour committee meeting for Cardiff at the end of April last night, so I will just link 'blog the state of play for that.

24 April: Coach from the club to the Nos Da Studio Hotel and Hostel.
25 April: Game at Cowbridge RFC, Judgement Day III at the Millennium Stadium (maybe just the second match), dinner  at Fed.
26 April: Game against Llandaff at the Arms Park.

(I wonder if www.thesmokehaus.co.uk/location/cardiff can be fitted in too? It is in the same street as Fed.)

Your Eyes Are Full of Hate, Forty-One

We won the Antelope quiz last night for the second time in a row after a barren few weeks.

Four down at the interval but sterling work on the music and film rounds made up for it after the break.

 I won't be able to share the £50 bar tab prize next week as I am away skiing.