Oops

Happy Mothers' day. It is good to be back in Wales to say it face to face even if I have to leave quite early for Poplar Road.

I have got you a card ......... which I have just realised is still on the dining room table back in London in my house.

6 Great Articles about Cows

I am back in Cardiff visiting Mum and Dad,which means I might as well be at Hobbiton in the Shire for all the access to technology I have.

Today's post was therefore queued up yesterday and you will have to amuse yourself with 6 Great Articles about Cows until I get back.

Cows Might Fly by Veronique Greenwood - What Swiss flying cows tell us about the future of the environment
Breeding the Perfect Bull by Jeanne Marie Laskas - “There once was a bull, the son of Cherokee Canyon, the grandson of Make My Day—a noble pedigree. The cowboy who designed him, who chose the semen, selected the dam, prepared and inseminated the uterus, named him Revelation.”
America is Bull by Jeanne Marie Laskas “When you get on your bull, you have to, just, be on your bull.”
The Curse of Cow Clicker by Jason Tanz - The twisted world of social gaming and how a satirical Facebook game became a hit
La Matadora Revisa Su Maquillaje by Susan Orlean (The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup) “People think that because I kill bulls I have to be really brave, but I’m not. I’m a sensitive person, and I can get super-terrified. I’m afraid of staying home by myself, and I get hysterical if I see a spider.”
The Ride of Their Lives by Burkhard Bilger - Children prepare for the world’s most dangerous organized sport

Ralph Brazier

We got an email last night saying that Ralph Brazier, the father of Louis - a former Old Ruts team mate of Ben, had been killed in a cycling accident.

I have dug up the story in the Evening Standard: Father-of-three killed in cycling crash 'after hitting pothole that had not been repaired despite repeated warnings' 

The pothole had been there since 2009. Words fail me.

His boys transferred to Esher RFC after the family moved to Thames Ditton, but I still very particularly remember him pulling a folding bike out of the boot of his car at London Scottish, when the kids played mini rugby and all age groups were at the same venue, so he could commute between pitches on it, watching Louis in our age-group and Louis’s brother Nate in the year below. Initially I thought he was off his head, but the more I thought about it the more I liked the idea. A very sad loss.

When I told Ben this morning, he initially thought I meant Louis Cohen's dad, Mitch. You need to be very careful to be clear passing on bad new like this.

Update: Surrey Police have issued this statement.

NSFW

Ben is with Rutlish at the U15 Surrey Rugby Sevens 2016 today. He will be playing scrum half unless there is a change of plan. It's live on YouTube so I will get a lot done today I am sure.

Results will appear on http://www.schoolssports.com/CompetitionMicrosite/Competition.asp?TID=Surrey-Schools-Sevens&TSID=3107

Living the dream.

On Monday we won the quiz at the Antelope.

Yesterday evening I went on a tour of the Wimbledon Brewery at half past six. Thank you to Charlie, our guide.

Tonight I will take the boys along to U15s rugby training at the Hub in Mitcham and watch the first half of the Arsenal Swansea game over a pint of soda water with lime cordial at the bar while they are being put through their paces.

The insane glamour of it all; it is as if my whole life is the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. The light bulb in my fridge has stopped working.

Madness

Madness are to headline their own festival in London this summer. The band have announced plans for House of Common, a one-day event on August bank holiday (29th) on Clapham Common.

Pre-sale tickets will be released at 9am on 2 March to those who sign up on the event’s website.

Missing In Action

Gareth hasn't come home since the Wales France game, dirty rotten stop out. He ought to realise he isn't the only gnome in town.

Cardiff Blues Garden Gnome: £19.99

Classic gnome in Harlequins colours: £17.50

Living Well is the Best Revenge

I can't remember a lot about last night which is a sure sign Wales still won on Friday.

Pre England game drinks and tasting menu courtesy of The Dairy in Clapham.

SNACKS

Nocellara del Belice olives

Crisp anchovy, lemon

'Lady Hamilton' cod, crisp potato, sea lettuce

Sandy carrot, roasted barley, raisin, sorrel

Sourdough, smoked bone marrow butter, chicken liver mousse, cellar salumi

Toasted grains, wild mushrooms

SEA

'Sweet Promise' mackerel, cucumber, fermented sorrel

Applewood smoked eel, baked potato, monksbeard, oyster creme fraiche

LAND

A choice of:

Wood pigeon, rhubarb, tardivo, hazelnut

or

Chart Farm venison, Brogdale pear, crisp artichoke

(for two; 5pp supplement)

CHEESE

Truffled brie de Meaux, fig & walnut toast, rooftop honey

SWEET

Brown butter ice cream sandwich

Then a choice of:

Roasted quince, buttermilk, burnt meringue, caraway

or

Salted caramel, cacao, malted barley ice cream

or

Ivy House milk tart, Medjool date, apple

Wales 19 France 10

I can't remember a lot about last night which is a sure sign Wales won.

Pre game drinks and nibbles courtesy of The Little Taperia.

Keeping the lid on it

The Principality Stadium will have the roof closed when Wales kick off against France at five past eight tonight. For us, it’s a chance to keep the Six Nations dream alive after a draw in Ireland and victory over Scotland in Cardiff. Win and we should go to Twickenham in a fortnight to face Eddie Jones’ England with a lot of confidence; lose and we are all but out of the title race.

There is also some previous with a few of the players. In a 2008 Under 20 Junior World Championship match which Warburton described as “the best moment of my life” at the time, Wales came from 19-9 down with three minutes remaining at their home tournament to beat France thanks to a Leigh Halfpenny try. Jubilant scenes at the final whistle were interrupted as a mass punch-up between the two sides broke out.

Wales' squad that day also included Dan Biggar, Rhys Webb, Jonathan Davies and Justin Tipuric. Among the French, Yoann Maestri, Rabah Slimani and Benjamin Fall have all progressed to Les Bleus' senior outfit.

Slimani, who starts at tighthead prop tonight, was banned alongside Jeremy Braille and Djibril Camara, who is also set to win his first senior French cap at the Principality Stadium.

Seconds out, round two?



In other rugby news Rutlish came second in yesterday's 16 team 7s tournament, with Ben scoring seven tries from scrum half in the four games they played. I've never known him to play that position before. This morning he was bemoaning a failure to execute, from some good positions in the final and thinks they should have nicked it.

J'emporte malgré vous, et c'est. . . mon panache.

The Importance of Being Earnest can be classified with Cyrano de Bergerac. If you are capable of watching a production of either without enjoying it then you are so jaded that you should be forbidden from the theatre.

Who wrote that? Oh, that's right, it was me. U15s rugby training was cancelled last night. (Probably no bad thing on balance as there is a schools 7s competition today.) So, finding myself at an unexpected loose end I half-houred up the Northern Line to see a new production of Cyrano de Bergerac which has just opened at the Southwark Playhouse.

As a rule I am not a great one for poncing about with famous works, but this all female version has an interesting framing conceit; the story is told - and thus acted out - by the other nuns to a naive novice at the convent to which Cyrano’s beloved Roxane retires from the world after Christian is killed, and at which he visits her daily.

Cyrano de Bergerac is the most deliriously romantic play ever written, and I think that presenting it as what a young girl would imagine as she heard the story, bumps that essential quotient up even further. You can't - for example - present the fight with a hundred men that sees Lignière safely home realistically because its impossible, but it can work as a fantasy.

The critics don't like it; "a squandered opportunity" blah, blah, blah. Don't even get me started on "while having an all-female cast is an interesting decision and can shed new light on perceptions of gender in a play, it’s not clear what purpose it serves here."

I thought it was tremendous fun, and that - after all - is surely the point.

Rugby gnome exegesis

Well we staggered back to my house

Shouting "Go the whole hog, Mog!"

Where we sat and watched "Grand Slam"

Laughing at Maldwyn and Caradog

The immortal Grand Slam being set around Wales playing France, now that I've found it on YouTube, I think we almost certainly will stagger back to my house and watch it after the equivlant game this Friday as well. I don't feel any piracy guilt as I've already bought it twice; once on VHS and then again on DVD.

Prodnose: Rugby gnome exegisis?

Myself: Exegesis, from the Greek ἐξήγησις from ἐξηγεῖσθαι 'to lead out') is a critical explanation or interpretation of a text, particularly a religious text, or alternatively of some old David Bowie inspired doggerel of mine.

Prodnose (looking like a fool): Ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα

Between Scylla and Charybdis

John,

The plan for Friday and Saturday is as follows:

Friday night: watch Wales v France in the Charles Holden (Andy and Ollie have booked a table)
Saturday morning: Virgin Active Gym
Saturday lunchtime and early afternoon: seven course tasting menu and The Dairy in Clapham
Saturday late afternoon: watch England v Ireland in the Standard strategically supporting Ireland as Welsh people in an Irish pub

Wait a minute, look what I've found!

pic.twitter.com/9xSmJJ6pIw

— BikramYogaWimbledon (@BikramYogaSW19) February 13, 2016

They actually want me to bring my brother for free and this weekend is the last chance. So you could replace Saturday  morning in the gym with an hour and a half of yoga in a room heated to 40 °C (104 °F) with a humidity of 40%.

While you decide:

Scylla and Charybdis were mythical sea monsters noted by Homer; Greek mythology sited them on opposite sides of the Strait of Messina between Sicily and the Italian mainland. Scylla was rationalized as a rock shoal (described as a six-headed sea monster) on the Italian side of the strait and Charybdis was a whirlpool off the coast of Sicily. They were regarded as a sea hazard located close enough to each other that they posed an inescapable threat to passing sailors; avoiding Charybdis meant passing too close to Scylla and vice versa. According to Homer, Odysseus was forced to choose which monster to confront while passing through the strait; he opted to pass by Scylla and lose only a few sailors, rather than risk the loss of his entire ship in the whirlpool. Because of such stories, having to navigate between the two hazards eventually entered idiomatic use. Another equivalent English seafaring phrase is, "Between a rock and a hard place".

Riffstation

How does it work?

Just search for any song or artist and Riffstation will give you the chords for any song synced with the YouTube video! You can view the chord diagrams in sync with the music for guitar, ukulele and piano.

Where do the chords come from?

Riffstation uses an automatic chord recognition algorithm to "listen" to the music and figure out the chords for you!

How accurate are the chords?

The chord recognition algorithm detects major, minor and 7th triads with about 85% accuracy in typical rock/pop music. The chord positions shown are in root position only. The chords will always be detected and shown in the actual key the song was recorded in. If the song is in difficult key to play in, you can use the capo tool and play in any key you like with a capo on your guitar.

Can I edit chords which are not correct?

Not right now, but we are working on it!

Are there any advanced features?

For more advanced players we have Riffstation for Mac and PC. You can load in any song from your music collection and do amazing things. In addition to giving you chords, you can also slow down and pitch shift the music, isolate or mute the guitar to create your own jam tracks and lots more.

Oh boy, the hours https://play.riffstation.com/ would have saved me working out songs on piano and guitar when I was a kid. You don't get any detailed voicings out of it, but it does help you hit the ground running.

If you can fill the unforgiving minute

It's not even lunch time yet, and I have already renewed my parking permit online with Merton Council.

This is more than was accomplished in the entire wash out that was Saturday.

Lazy bones

I couldn't be bothered to do any exercise today; my first unforced error of 2016. To make sure this doesn't happen next weekend when my brother is visiting I have downloaded:

GUEST PASS
5GA - T4W - AXY
Member Name:Nicholas Browne
Swipe No:9030036075
Guest Name:John Browne
Valid Until:29/02/2016
Please present this pass at reception and a member of staff will be happy to help arrange your guest's complimentary visit.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
This guest pass allows one guest (the name specified on the guest pass) complimentary use of one Virgin Active Health Club. The member will need to attend the club at the same time as their guest and must provide a copy of this printed pass or quote the guest pass code to the club to allow the guest to use the club facilities. Further T&C's apply. For more information please visit www.virginactive.co.uk/legals/member-guest-pass.

The Merc with a Mouth

Ben is going to abandon athletics in the summer and play rugby league for the Rutlish Raiders instead. He was supposed to go for a half term taster training session last night, but didn't turn up as he had forgotten and gone to the movies. He was watching Deadpool. "The film has been a smash – a sure sign that we can expect more sex, violence and swearing in the next crop of superhero movies," and he is old enough to see it. How did that happen? I think I can safely throw away the Johnson's Baby Shampoo in the bathroom now.

As you can see from the clip above, Deadpool features Gina Carano as - who else? - Angel Dust. Back in 2008 (Icons passim) there were only three degrees of separation between her and Ben. He trained Muay Thai with Woytek. Woytek had his hand raised by Master A when he won the British championship. And Master trained Gina C in Muay Thai Ring Girls.

Hang On

I read that the Hang Fire Smokehouse’s new restaurant has received more than 1,300 bookings in less than 24 hours – and it hasn’t even opened yet. It is amazing how far they have come since last April (Icons passim).

This sent me back to the Munchies YouTube channel, where I first saw the film about the huge queues at Franklin BBQ.

This time I came across:



and

Right String But Wrong Yo-Yo

Beverly “Guitar” Watkins is seventy-six years old. She is wearing house slippers, a hair net, and an Atlanta Hawks t-shirt on backwards. She is probably the greatest living blues guitarist that no one has ever heard of.

Whatever happened to my plan for a food and music pilgrimage to the South?

As a caterpillar becomes a butterfly, so must you become Derelicte!

Before I arrived at the Antelope last night I got a call to say that the quiz was cancelled due to some sort of power problem and that we would regroup at the Guerilla bar in Tooting for their rival contest.

We came second but I didn't enjoy it as much. I suppose I have reached a period in my life where I have a low tolerance for hipster beards and even less of an appetite for interior design channelling Zoolander's Derelicte.

Mugatu: Let me show you Derelicte. It is a fashion, a way of life inspired by the very homeless, the vagrants, the crack whores that make this wonderful city so unique.

Myself: This unasked-for jollity in the middle of an English afternoon left Sir Henry shivering with a red passion, his face a crumpled tissue on which a lobster might well have wiped its bottom.

tell me if I am repeating myself

As two evil sisters prepare to conquer the land; two renegades - Eric the Huntsman - who previously aided Snow White in defeating Ravenna, and his forbidden lover, Sara set out to stop them. In this April 8 release, second unit director Simon Crane (Icons passim) takes care of the action scenes. He certainly gets some interesting gigs.

Wee laddie for a palfrey....HIT

Gareth the rugby gnome came along to the Charles Holden yesterday  afternoon and was pleased to see Wales edge Scotland 27-23.

It bucked him up after a sliver of ice had entered his heart earlier when Treviso beat the Cardiff Blues 13-7 and Danny Wilson's men became the first Guinness Pro12 side to lose against the Italian club this season.

Dan Fish had a reasonable game by all accounts, with an interception and a try-saving tackle but that was of small comfort the little bobble-hatted fellow. For he is a rugby gnome which can be lonely as most of his brethren prefer fishing.

Keynsham. Tell me more about Keynsham.

I got an email from Jim yesterday saying that we have the first day of rugby planned U15s tour to Bath late in April. It will be a triangular tournament with locals Keynsham RFC and another touring party from the Northampton area, Olney RFC.

That is handy as Keynsham is - if anything - nearer to Bristol than Bath - so John can bring Mum and Dad along from Cardiff to see Ben.

Martin says we've played Olney before at Brean Sands and that "Ring of Fire" is their song.

As a long time Bonzo fan, I know that Keynsham have a song as well.

Perhaps we should have Sport (also from the Keynsham album) as our theme.

Let's go back to your childhood ...

The odd boy lay down by the football field

Took out a slim volume of Mallarme.

The centre-forward called him an imbecile.

It's an odd boy who doesn't like sport.

Sport, Sport, masculine sport.

Equips a young man for society.

Yes, sport turns out a jolly good sort.

It's an odd boy who doesn't like sport.

Dear Mr. Poxham,

Would you kindly excuse Steven from Games today? He has had a nasty cold over the weekend and still has headaches and feels a bit snotty. I don't feel he should be outside with the rougher type of boy, as he is a little delicate. Hoping you will understand.

Yours Sincerely,

Nellie Maynard, Mrs.

The Art of the Deal

Funny Or Die Presents Donald Trump's The Art Of The Deal: The Movie from Funny Or Die

I haven't actually watched this yet, but Johnny Depp's Trump spoof has reminded me that I did actually read the original Trump: The Art of the Deal all those years ago when the book came out. I can't remember much about the content to be honest, but do recall that I was working as a Corporate Develop Executive at George Wimpey PLC at the time, and  that I wrote a memo about some obscure point in it asking for an opinion from our legal department. It seems an extraordinary thing to have done, reflecting on it now.

a holding page

The Welsh team for the Scotland game is due to be announced today and will appear here once it is available. Originally we were due to hear on Wednesday but it seems that the management want to give Dan Biggar every opportunity to recover.

After the New Hampshire primary, I suspect that we will play Donald Trump on the right wing and Bernie Sanders on the left wing but I have no inside information.

Come to think of it, Ben's Rutlish U15s have an away game at Hollyfield School (Eric Clapton's alma mater trivia fans) this afternoon, so maybe I will put that rugby result up here later as well.

Update 10:30 - The U15s school game today is cancelled but the club U16s have asked Ben to play for them on Sunday.

Update 11:00 -Wales team to face Scotland: Liam Williams; George North, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Tom James; Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Scott Baldwin, Samson Lee; Luke Charteris, Alun Wyn Jones; Sam Warburton, Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau.

Reps: Ken Owens, Gethin Jenkins, Tomas Francis, Bradley Davies, Dan Lydiate, Lloyd Williams, Rhys Priestland, Gareth Anscombe

Dan Biggar starts in an unchanged team. Alex Cuthbert misses out all together.

The Rugby Gnome

I was in the Royal Standard
When I heard a belch behind me
And there was a little old man
Red jersey, boots black; up for the craic.
Well we staggered back to my house
Shouting "Go the whole hog, Mog!"
Where we sat and watched "Grand Slam"
Laughing at Maldwyn and Caradog

Ha ha ha, he he he
I'm a rugby gnome and you can't cwtch me
Ha ha ha, he he he
I'm a rugby gnome and you can't cwtch me"
Said the rugby gnome

To be continued .....

The undiscovered country from whose Bourne. Geddit!?

The world and his wife got a first look at the new Jason Bourne movie during the Super Bowl. Second unit director Simon Crane (Icons passim) takes care of the action scenes. He certainly gets some interesting gigs.

time to park it

Mum crashed her car into a lamp post on Friday outside the house and wrote it off. John, in Winston Wolf mode, managed to sort out a quick collection via the insurance company so it is out of sight and out of mind. That should be the end of her driving as far as I am concerned.

Two local press stories I remember are relevant and bolster this.

• Elderly driver taken to hospital after crashing through Wandle Park wall in Colliers Wood High Street.
• Parents' grief after son, 48, mowed down in Colliers Wood when driver 'lost control in epileptic fit'

Ireland 16 Wales 16

Q: Warren, how satisfied are you?

A: Not satisfied at all. I’m flat at the moment. It’s disappointing. It’s not a loss, but it’s taken a couple of trophies out of the cabinet already.

Quite.

inventin' done, man

JUST IN: We will be celebrating Grenada's Independence Day at Merton Abbey Mills on Saturday 6th February with Live...
Posted by Merton Abbey Mills on Tuesday, 19 January 2016

I am away down in Cardiff so I can't get along to this. I have long thought that the people of the Caribbean, having invented rum, reggae, jerk barbecue and the hammock, must be among the greatest benefactors of mankind. Do you actually need anything more than rum, reggae, jerk barbecue and a hammock for a perfect sunny afternoon?

Prodnose: So the bartender says, "Well, the worst way I know of is standing up in a hammock."

Myself: Vulgarity begins when imagination succumbs to the explicit.

AN OPEN LETTER TO CHARLES DARWIN AND GOD ABOUT THE HAIR SPROUTING FROM MY EARS.

Dear Charles Darwin and God,

For over a half a century, I looked in the mirror each morning and saw a pair of hairless ears — admittedly oversized, but nonetheless, utterly and completely without hair. And, between the three of us, that was just fine with me. Then on an otherwise mundane Tuesday, out of nowhere, a solitary hair popped out on the side of my left ear. I sleepily gazed at my reflection and almost without pause thought “Hmm, that’s odd.” I then yanked out the offender and went about my day.

What I didn’t know was that there had been a shift in the cosmic balance and soon this sort of thing would be no longer be “odd” at all. In fact, it would be the opposite… it would be routine. The perimeter had been breached and there was no going back. Slowly and inexorably, like a shuffling zombie hoard, they made their way to my ears. At first, it was just a couple a month — “no big deal” I thought, “just remain vigilant.” But, no, they just kept coming… and coming — in every growing numbers. Now, they’re fxxxing everywhere — tops, sides, lobes, even down in the canal.

At a time in my life when my hairline retreats toward the back of my head like the Union army at Bull Run, hair sprouts out of my ears like a game of “Whack a Mole” gone horribly wrong. Suddenly, a routine of auricular depilation has become a part of my daily existence and I don’t want to be rude, but I think someone owes me an explanation ...... read on ......

This is horribly true. I even have an "emergency" nose and ear hair clipper in my desk at the office.

Wales: Rob Evans, Justin Tipuric and Tom James start against Ireland

Wales team to face Ireland: Gareth Anscombe; George North, Jonathan Davies, Jamie Roberts, Tom James; Dan Biggar, Gareth Davies; Rob Evans, Scott Baldwin, Samson Lee, Luke Charteris, Alun Wyn Jones, Sam Warburton (capt), Justin Tipuric, Taulupe Faletau.

Replacements: Ken Owens, Gethin Jenkins, Tomas Francis, Bradley Davies, Dan Lydiate, Lloyd Williams, Rhys Priestland, Alex Cuthbert.

Warburton moves to blindside; three hundred and sixty odd caps on the bench.

"Leave now for Iphigenia in Splott"

I've switched from the iPhone to an Android model. Google Now, the "intelligent personal assistant" that comes with it, advised me to leave for "Iphigenia in Splott" before I had even finished work yesterday, "intelligently" inferring that it was actually on down the M4 in Splott rather than a convenient hop up the Northern Line to Waterloo and the National Theatre.

As for the work itself, Sophie Melville gives a great performance in a fine production, but if "Gary Owen’s brawling, big-hearted, raging monologue" (UK Theatre Awards Best New Play 2015) is good writing then I am a Dutchman.

How did I get here?

I finished reading Searching for John Ford by Joseph McBride yesterday. Coincidentally, as the BFI noted on Facebook, the great American director's birthday.

Today, I will be starting on Toby Harnden's Dead Men Risen: The Welsh Guards and the Defining Story of Britain's War in Afghanistan.

This is the tale of the Welsh Guards in Helmand in 2009. Underequipped and overstretched, guardsmen from the coal mining valleys and slate quarry villages of Wales found themselves in Helmand in some of the most intense fighting by British troops for more than a generation. They were confronted by a Taliban enemy they seldom saw, facing the constant threat of Improvised Explosive Devices and ambush. Leading them into battle was Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe, destined for the highest ranks. He was a passionate believer in the war but was dismayed by how it was being conducted. Dead Men Risen will unnerve politicians and generals alike. In chilling detail, Toby Harnden reveals how and why Thorneloe was killed by an IED during Operation Panther's Claw. Harnden, who had known Thorneloe since they met in Northern Ireland in 1996, was on the ground in Helmand with the Welsh Guards. He draws on a trove of military documents, including many written by Thorneloe, the first British battalion commander to die in action since the Falklands war of 1982. Major Sean Birchall left behind an unvarnished assessment of the shortcomings of the Afghan forces that represent Nato's exit strategy. Lieutenant Mark Evison wrote a diary that raises questions from beyond the grave. It was more than half a century since a British battalion had lost officers at these three key levels of leadership. By the time the fighting was over, almost no rank had been spared. A visceral and timeless account of men at war, Dead Men Risen conveys what it is like to be a soldier who has to kill, face paralysing fear and watch comrades perish in agony. Given unprecedented access to the Welsh Guards, Harnden conducted more than 300 interviews in Afghanistan, England and Wales. From the searing heat of the poppy fields and mud compounds of Helmand to the dreaded knock on the door back home, the reader is transported there. Harnden weaves the experiences of the guardsmen and their loved ones into an unsparing narrative that sits alongside a piercing analysis of military strategy.

All Cardiff

Dan Fish scored in under 90 seconds as the Blues beat Edinburgh at home on Saturday. The Sherman's Iphigenia in Splott opens to rave reviews at the National Theatre. (I must try and get along.) Are we witnessing a Cardiff renaissance?

Show and Tel

Don't miss us feeding Sir Terry Wogan & Mason on their trip to Abergavenny. Available on BBC IPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06b944y/terry-and-masons-great-food-trip-10-abergavenny
Posted by Hang Fire Smokehouse on Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Like the rest of the county I was saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Terry Wogan today. I noticed on Facebook however that he did not however shuffle off before he had caught up with the quite remarkably ubiquitous Hang Fire posse late last year. How on earth do they do it?

My entire life

Now onEntire Stout 4.5%A rich dark stout with a strong roasted malt flavour and a long, smooth aftertaste. Suitable for vegans.Entire Stout has an ABV of 4.5%
Posted by The Sultan, SW19 on Saturday, 30 January 2016

I had planned to end dry January tomorrow at the U15s Warlingham game, but that has been cancelled. I am very tempted to replace it with a pint of stout this afternoon, since I read the Sultan's public service announcement above in Facebook.

Bacon-Chocolate Shot Glasses

We’ve all been there before, standing at the bar, shot glass in hand, ready to throw the spirit down our gullet, when we’ve thought to ourselves “man this would really be so much better if the shot glass I’m holding was made out of bacon and dipped in chocolate.” Well wish no more, because thanks to food blog Through The Eyes Of My Belly, that dream is now a reality.

Hat tip, Marcus. As the last weekend of Dry January heaves into view I think I am starting to get delirious.

MAKE AMERICA ONE SYLLABLE

A linguistic analysis of Donald Trump shows why people like him so much.

Willy: There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining this country! Population is getting out of control. The competition is maddening! Smell the stink from that apartment house! And another one on the other side . . .

Sleeping Trees

I went to the Pleasence Theatre in Islington last night to see, friends of Spike, Sleeping Trees revisit their Edinburgh Festival show MAFIA? and managed to resist throwing my Marlon Brando impersonation and complete knowledge of the Godfather into the mix to everyone's' relief.

Radiator

As I was having one of my occasional chats with Tony Kane yesterday, he told me that his daughter, Sarah, had worked as the production designer on a film called Radiator. He has seen it, and recommended it to me.

In cinemas from 27 November. Also screening at Picturehouse Cinemas for Discover Tuesdays on 29 December.

Director: Tom Browne.

Starring: Richard Johnson, Gemma Jones, Daniel Cerqueira. UK 2014.

Careworn teacher Daniel (Cerqueira) is summoned by his elderly mother Mariah (Jones) to his parents’ remote, rubbish-filled, ramshackle cottage, where his infirm and incontinent father, Leonard (Johnson), is refusing to move from the sofa. Disapproved of as a failure by his irascible, demanding father, Daniel eventually persuades Leonard into a specially adapted bed and the care of a visiting nurse. That, in a nutshell, is the darkly amusing plot of director/co-writer Tom Browne’s film, a pithy, highly watchable account of the unravelling of a marriage held together only by fear and familiarity, albeit underscored by a son’s good intentions. As two of Britain’s most seasoned character actors, Jones and Johnson give of their terrific best, while co-writer Cerqueira emanates exactly the right degree of frustrated, put-upon affection. A joy.

I seem to have missed it at the cinemas and I can't find any trace on Amazon or iTunes yet, but I will keep an eye out; directed by a guy who shares my surname I was pleased to see.

Time takes everybody out; time's undefeated.

I went to see Creed this weekend. The LA Times said, it is a film "that is nominally a spinoff of the celebrated "Rocky" series but actually plays like something more interesting: a spiritual remake of the 1976 film that retells the original story in the kind of involving way one would not have thought possible." That is certainly true. I enjoyed it but it references the original so much I can pay tribute by reusing what I wrote about the latest Star Wars movie here.

I finally surrendered to the dark side of the zeitgeist yesterday and went along to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens Creed.

Ryan Coogler JJ Abrams et al seem to have solved the problem of coming up with a plot for Episode VII, by - to all intents and purposes - remaking the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope Rocky.

"Daddy issues" from The Empire Strikes Back have also been grafted on to the new film.

Spookily accurate.

Dan Young RIP

Sunday is rugby day for the Ruts' minis and juniors and we have found out that behind the headline Morden tube station murder: University lecturer Daniel Young stabbed to death on first day of dream job is one of our own. What a terrible thing.

Foodie

In this richly penetrating documentary odyssey, Pulitzer Prize-winning food critic Jonathan Gold shows us a Los Angeles where ethnic cooking is a kaleidoscopic portal to the mysteries of an unwieldy city and the soul of America. Combing through colorful neighborhoods in his green pickup truck, Gold is sniffing out his next strip-mall discovery—whether Oaxacan grasshopper soup, hand-cut tonkotsu ramen, or a particularly unctuous pad see ew. As piping-hot platters are served up, so are stories of immigrants whose secret family recipes are like sacred offerings pledged for the opportunity to build their American Dream. With eternal curiosity, razor-sharp intellect, and existential longing, Gold is a culinary geographer taking us where no critic has gone before.

This movie isn't out in theatres in the States until March 11, but I stumbled on it free via Amazon Prime yesterday. Well worth a look.

While I have got my Amazon foodie head on, the Hang Fire girls' (though they don't like to be called that) book is now available for pre-order.

Barbecue is a serious business. And for anyone who thought barbecue was about big, bearded blokes toiling over hot coals, think again: the Hang Fire girls are the real experts.In 2012 Sam and Shauna ditched their jobs and embarked on a 6-month road trip around the best barbecue joints in the southern United States. From Texas to Tallahassee, they learned the insider secrets of what makes barbecue great, were captivated by the thrill of smoke and fire, and back home in Cardiff they set out their meat manifesto in the form of Hang Fire Smokehouse.Now they sell out week after week from their street-food stall as customers flock to Hang Fire for stunning dishes including smoked brisket, ultimate pork 'n' slaw and tailgate hot-wings. This cookbook reveals how they make their delicious recipes and the secrets behind the perfect smoke and BBQ. Sam and Shauna explain the basics of getting started with a home smoker and different types of wood, and what rubs, cures and brines work best with certain types of meat. Hang Fire's approach is simple: get the best ingredients, cook them low 'n' slow, and tuck in.

Chicks dig it

AWS Certificate Manager is a service that lets you easily provision, manage, and deploy Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security (SSL/TLS) certificates for use with AWS services. SSL/TLS certificates are used to secure network communications and establish the identity of websites over the Internet. AWS Certificate Manager removes the time-consuming manual process of purchasing, uploading, and renewing SSL/TLS certificates. With AWS Certificate Manager, you can quickly request a certificate, deploy it on AWS resources such as Elastic Load Balancers or Amazon CloudFront distributions, and let AWS Certificate Manager handle certificate renewals. SSL/TLS certificates provisioned through AWS Certificate Manager are free. You pay only for the AWS resources you create to run your application.

This kind of thing is my bag.

Unlock the power of your emails with schema.org

Email is an important part of how we get things done -- from planning an event with friends to organizing a trip to Paris. So much information is contained inside emails -- like the details of a dinner party or travel itinerary -- and so many emails require action -- like RSVP, or flight checkin.

By adding schema.org markup to the emails you send your users, you can make that information available across their Google experience, and make it easy for users to take quick action. Inbox, Gmail, Google Calendar, Google Search, and Google Now all already use this structured data.

Schema.org is a markup vocabulary that is standardized and managed as a collaboration of Google and other companies. By working with schema.org, we are creating an open standard, so that the markup you embed can be used by any email product that receives them.

Prodnose: http://schema.org/docs/schemas.html

Myself: [to Vanessa] That's not mine.

Prodnose: https://moz.com/blog/markup-for-emails

Myself: I'm telling ya baby, that's not mine.

Prodnose: https://developers.google.com/gmail/markup/reference/

Myself: I don't even know what this is! This sort of thing ain't my bag, baby.

Velindre

A thank you letter to David Bowie from a palliative care doctor. https://t.co/ibFYRY8wc1 - thanks for sharing @DrMarkTaubert

— Marie Curie (@mariecurieuk) January 17, 2016

David Bowie's son retweeted this.

Oh no, don’t say it’s true – whilst realization of your death was sinking in during those grey, cold January days of 2016, many of us went on with our day jobs. At the beginning of that week I had a discussion with a hospital patient, facing the end of her life. We discussed your death and your music, and it got us talking about numerous weighty subjects, that are not always straightforward to discuss with someone facing their own demise. In fact, your story became a way for us to communicate very openly about death, something many doctors and nurses struggle to introduce as a topic of conversation. But before I delve further into the aforementioned exchange, I’d like to get a few other things off my chest, and I hope you don’t find them a saddening bore ..........

Dr Mark Taubert is a palliative care consultant at Velindre in Cardiff. That is the hospital where cancer took my brother in law David from my sister and their three children in the middle of 2004. I was there when he died. It was a terrible day. Anything that can make such a thing, if not easier then at least, less difficult is good.

To travel hopefully ....

It has been my invariable habit for years now to post once and once only here each  day and then to let the chips fall where they may.

Yesterday, however, Andy Howell published an article called The players who caught Warren Gatland's eye on the final weekend before Six Nations selection, in Wales Online.

On possible eye-catcher, I was pleased to note, was Dan Fish:

Although Dan Evans at the Ospreys has had more headlines this season, the slippery Fish has been a creative influence for Cardiff Blues with the counter-attacking ability which has netted him a new contract and saw him touch down twice at Harlequins.

Wales’ full-back worries may have eased at the weekend with Gareth Anscombe making a successful return to combat, albeit at outside-half, but Fish could be among those in the swim for a place if Liam Williams was to be ruled out.

Warren Gatland will announce his squad for the 2016 RBS 6 Nations at noon today. This post will be updated after that. Until then, we live in hope.

Update 12:00: Nothing Fishy about this.

Warren Gatland has named a 37-man squad for the 2016 RBS 6 Nations that features one uncapped player in scrum-half Aled Davies and squad recalls for Tom James and Josh Turnbull.

Cardiff Blues pair James and Turnbull last played for Wales in 2010 and 2014 respectively, though James was part of Wales' 2015 Rugby World Cup training squad before withdrawing through injury.

The experienced squad includes 31 players who featured for Wales in the 2015 Rugby World Cup and will be led by Wales' most experienced captain Sam Warburton.
The front-row contingent is made up of props Gethin Jenkins, Paul James and Rob Evans, along with Samson Lee, Tomas Francis and Aaron Jarvis.

Scott Baldwin, Ken Owens and Kristian Dacey are named as the hookers.

Alun Wyn Jones, who today it was announced signed a new long-term National Dual Contract, is named along with Luke Charteris, Dominic Day, Bradley Davies, Jake Ball and Josh Turnbull.

Four British and Irish Lions are named in the back-row, captain Sam Warburton, Dan Lydiate, Justin Tipuric and Taulupe Faletau. They are joined by James King and Ross Moriarty.

Uncapped scrum half Aled Davies is joined by regional team-mate Gareth Davies and Lloyd Williams. Dan Biggar and Rhys Priestland are named as the fly-halves. Jonathan Davies, who missed the RWC through injury, returns alongside Jamie Roberts, Cory Allen and Tyler Morgan in the centres. The back three players include Tom James, Hallam Amos, George North, Alex Cuthbert, Gareth Anscombe, Matthew Morgan and Liam Williams.

"We have selected a squad that rewards players form as well as picking a lot of experience and that continuity is important to us," said Gatland.

"We have picked a larger squad than normal, we have a few injuries at the moment, those players aren't too far away from getting back on the field so we are happy with the mix.

"Aled (Davies) is someone who has been on the radar the last couple of years and his selection is reward for his form.

"Tom (James) is playing very well for the Blues and we have been impressed with Josh's (Turnbull) performances recently.

"It is always exciting when the Six Nations comes around and we are looking forward to meeting up next Monday."

Wales kick off their 2016 campaign away to reigning champions Ireland on Sunday February 7th before welcoming Scotland to Principality Stadium on Saturday February 13th.

WALES' 2016 RBS 6 NATIONS SQUAD: (37 Players)
Forwards:
Rob Evans (Scarlets), Paul James (Ospreys), Gethin Jenkins (Cardiff Blues), Tomas Francis (Exeter Chiefs), Aaron Jarvis (Ospreys), Samson Lee (Scarlets), Scott Baldwin (Ospreys), Kristian Dacey (Cardiff Blues), Ken Owens (Scarlets), Jake Ball (Scarlets), Luke Charteris (Racing 92), Bradley Davies (Wasps), Dominic Day (Bath Rugby), Alun Wyn Jones (Ospreys), Josh Turnbull (Cardiff Blues), Taulupe Faletau (Newport Gwent Dragons), James King (Ospreys), Dan Lydiate (Ospreys), Ross Moriarty (Gloucester Rugby), Justin Tipuric (Ospreys), Sam Warburton (CAPT) (Cardiff Blues).
Backs:
Aled Davies (Scarlets) *, Gareth Davies (Scarlets), Lloyd Williams (Cardiff Blues) Dan Biggar (Ospreys), Rhys Priestland (Bath Rugby), Cory Allen (Cardiff Blues), Jonathan Davies (Clermont Auvergne), Tyler Morgan (Newport Gwent Dragons), Jamie Roberts (Harlequins), Hallam Amos (Newport Gwent Dragons), Alex Cuthbert (Cardiff Blues), Tom James (Cardiff Blues), George North (Northampton Saints), Gareth Anscombe (Cardiff Blues), Matthew Morgan (Bristol Rugby), Liam Williams (Scarlets).
* Denotes uncapped player

Déjà vu

half time
Harlequins 28 Cardiff Blues 0
Carolina Panthers 31 Seattle Seahawks 0

full time
Harlequins 34 Cardiff Blues 26
Carolina Panthers 31 Seattle Seahawks 24

Yesterday's six hour Sky Sports marathon ran from three in the afternoon until nine in the evening and consisted of the same roller coaster ride repeated twice with my team battered in the first half then fighting back in the second only to fail narrowly at the death.

So it's goodbye to the Seahawks for another season, and almost certainly (though there are mathematical possibilities of qualification) farewell to any Blues' ambitions in the European Challenge Cup.

On the bright side, Dan Fish got two of Cardiff's four second half tries and was - for me and the Bomber at least - arguably their best player.

Also, I managed to catch quite a lot of Richmond WRFC claiming the Women's Premiership title as they powered to a 28-17 win over Saracens in the final at the Twickenham Stoop. (It followed the 'Quins Cardiff game at the same venue.) They are coached by Liam Shanahan (Ben's head of rugby in school) so kudos to him.

Total Ankle Replacement Versus Arthrodesis

Well, this seems to be the rock and a hard place choice for mum. I need to read the whole website before I can even start contemplating an opinion.

filial piety

The funk legend that is MISTER FRED WESLEY returns with his GENERATIONS project. Fred funking on the T-Bone with Leonardo Corradi on Hammond plus bass pedals and the groove machine that is Tony Match on drums...ripping up the rule book and exploding the grooves of Jimmy Smith plus some huge funk treats...DO NOT MISS!!

The only trouble is I DO MISS, as Fred has returned to the Hideaway in Streatham (a stone's throw away from my London gaff) while I have returned to Cardiff to see how mum and dad are getting on. Ships that pass in the night.

Legendary bandleader and trombonist Fred Wesley is one of the forefathers of funk and he is still setting the standard for others to follow. As music director for James Brown and the JBs, arranger for P-Funk and one third of the amazing JB Horns, he secured his place in funk history forever!

During the 1960s and 1970s he was a pivotal member of James Brown's bands, playing on many hit recordings including "Say it Loud - I'm Black and I'm Proud", "Mother Popcorn" and co-writing tunes such as "Hot Pants". His slippery riffs and pungent, precise solos, complementing those of saxophonist Maceo Parker, gave Brown's R&B, soul, and funk tunes their instrumental punch. In the 1970s he also served as band leader and musical director of Brown's band the J.B.'s and did much of the composing and arranging for the group. His name was credited on 'Fred Wesley & the J.B.'s' recording of "Doing It to Death", which sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in July 1973. He left Brown's band in 1975 and spent several years playing with George Clinton's various Parliament-Funkadelic projects, even recording a couple of albums as the leader of a spin-off group, The Horny Horns.

Wesley became a force in jazz in 1978 when he joined the Count Basie Orchestra. He released his first jazz album as a leader, To Someone in 1988. It was followed by New Friends in 1990, Comme Ci Comme Ca in 1991, the live album Swing and Be Funky, and Amalgamation in 1994.

In the early 1990s Wesley toured with his colleagues from the James Brown band, Pee Wee Ellis and Maceo Parker, as the JB Horns. With the departure of Ellis the band became The Maceo Parker Band. Wesley was featured trombonist with Parker until 1996 when he formed his own band, The Fred Wesley Group, now known as Fred Wesley and the New JBs.

Wesley's 35-year career includes playing with and arranging for a wide variety of other artist such as Ray Charles, Lionel Hampton, Randy Crawford, Vanessa Williams, The SOS Band, Cameo, Van Morrison, Socalled and rappers De La Soul, to name a few. Many other artists have sampled his work.

Line Up: Fred Wesley (trombone and vocals), Leonardo Corradi (Hammond and bass pedals), Tony Match (drums)

Creed is right, Creed works

Creed is released in UK cinemas today.

Adonis Johnson never knew his famous father, boxing champion Apollo Creed, who died before Adonis was born. However, boxing is in his blood, so he seeks out Rocky Balboa and asks the retired champ to be his trainer. Rocky sees much of Apollo in Adonis, and agrees to mentor him, even as he battles an opponent deadlier than any in the ring. With Rocky's help, Adonis soon gets a title shot, but whether he has the true heart of a fighter remains to be seen.

Rocky completist I am, but I won't be able to catch it until next week as I am driving to Cardiff after work.

I had sworn never to watch The Jonathan Ross Show ever again, but if Sly Stallone can be persuaded to do his Les Dawson impression when he appears on it promoting the movie on Saturday I will break my vow and tune in.

Dr Strabismus gets religion

Biblezon is the First Catholic Tablet that will help you focus on your Catholic Faith. It is safe, secure and Holy. No Distractions! (Wi-Fi required).

I remember that time in the Standard when it gradually dawned, I forget why or how, on Andy H that everyone else around the table was raised a left footer, and that we were - to his astonishment - almost like normal people.

Dry January: Day 13

Hungover Bear and Friends is an ongoing comic by Ali Fitzgerald about animals and feelings. The main character is not an anti-hero, he’s just a bear in a sweater trying to make it all work.

RIP: Wild Eyed Boy from Freecloud

It is fair to say I was something of a Bowie casualty back in the day. I had every one of his first nineteen albums before bailing out on Tin Machine II, twenty two years into his career.

Let's record a generous gesture rather than the music per se to celebrate the great man. Bowie's cover, on Let's Dance, of Iggy Pop's China Girl from The Idiot, generated enough royalties for the guy known to his mum and dad as James Newell Osterberg, Jr. to pay a three quarters of a million dollar IRS tax bill and saved him from bankruptcy and penury.

I have never read that the recording's purpose was to pull Iggy out of the fire, but I bet it was. Pure class. Letting Mr. Pop earn the the money was even better, and in a strange way more selfless even, than giving it to him as charity.

We are the Ovaltineys

Yesterday was a roller coaster ride with both the Old Ruts and the Seattle Seahawks.

The boys went down 31-24 to Reeds Weybridge after being 19-5 up in the first half. We got a losing bonus point for scoring four tries, which means we have five in total now. That is likely to be crucial come to the end of the season. It was frenetic stuff. The 24 all draw the game would have ended in had the whistle gone five minutes earlier would have been a fair result I feel. Their outside half was a right handful, fizzing with energy all the way through the second half. Someone less well brought up than me might well criticise the performance of the Gary Glitter look-a-like referee. I couldn't possibly comment.

Then in the evening, the Vikings led for three quarters before the Seahawks stormed back in the fourth to score all 10 of the points in the 10-9 victory points that ended Minnesota's season, but not before the Vikings had one last opportunity to snatch victory at the death only for Blair Walsh to miss a 27-yard field goal that I could have kicked, with 22 seconds remaining. I was glued to it on Sky Sports 1 from half past five until 9pm.

I must be about ten years older today than I was on Saturday from cumulative stress acquired over the two games.

I had intended to go and see Action to the Word's Dracula next Sunday night, but I think my inner meat-head win win out over the theatre aficionado, and I will be sitting down at home for the TV coverage of the Carolina Panthers v  Seattle Seahawks NFC Divisional Play-off.

Oedipus in Space

I finally surrendered to the dark side of the zeitgeist yesterday and went along to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

JJ Abrams et al seem to have solved the problem of coming up with a plot for Episode VII, by - to all intents and purposes - remaking the original Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.

"Daddy issues" from The Empire Strikes Back have also been grafted on to the new film. Practically every major character - it is at least implied - is the abandoned offspring of another. For all that the films are chaste, the inhabitants of the extended Star Wars universe must be at it like knives whenever the camera is pointed the other way.

I wouldn't be at all surprised to discover in Episode VIII that the adorable new 'droid BB-8 is the result of a drunken R2-D2 getting off with C3-PO at a party after the Death Star was destroyed.

Further - the bloodlines now being so limited and entwined - we may hear "Duelling Banjos" on the soundtrack as Yoda speaks from the hereafter:

Marry him you may not, honey-chile. Your cousin Billy-Bobba is, and his niece, you are.

New alcohol guidelines

What you need to know

Men and women should drink no more than 14 units of alcohol a week - the equivalent of six pints of average strength beer or seven glasses of wine - in order to keep their health risks low, new guidelines have recommended.

Summoning all the authority of a man on day nine of dry January, it seems entirely likely to me that I will get through my entire week's allowance after noon on the 31st win, lose or draw to Warlingham.

I do not regard this as a moral fault, but I am at fault when it comes to item 7 of Esquire's How to do a Dry January (Without Losing the Will to Lve):

7 | Don’t bang on about dry January to everyone you meet as if you're training for an ultra-marathon.

It's not such an impressive feat that you need to involve all your friends and tell every stranger you meet. See it more as a personal, private pain that is well within your capabilities and may just help to remind you that you are in full control of your drinking.

Sorry everyone,

The Hundred-Year-Old Man .........

When I picked the Bomber up on Sunday, I asked him - by way of conversation - if he had watched any good films as he flew back over the Atlantic. He told me that he had very much enjoyed The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.

I watched it last night as it was free on Amazon Prime. I'd already read the novel in 2014, because I've already read everything dahling!

The kooky pic should be a welcome arthouse counter-programmer for those wary of heavier foreign imports, said Variety of this multi-lingual, largely sub-titled, Swedish black comedy. Nothing changes (Icons passim), he has been recommending quirky indies to me since he was seven years old.

Only if and when Mike Leigh ever directs a Jason Statham vehicle, will the son and heir and I finally be able to agree on a evening's movie entertainment without compromise.

This Sick Beat: A Socratic Dialogue

TAYLOR SWIFT: Tell me, Socrates, must the player always play, play, play?

SOCRATES: Well, that depends on what it is to be a player and what it means to play. Could you be more specific?

SWIFT: I’m thinking of the dirty, dirty cheats of the world. Those about whom so many get down and out, while they could be getting down to this sick beat. Alcibiades, for example, abandoned Athens and sought refuge in Sparta, then left Sparta for Persia before finally returning to Athens, leaving an inter-imperial trail of broken hearts.

SOCRATES: Yes, I see. Alcibiades is, in fact, a player who will play, play, play.

SWIFT: Yes, very much so.

SOCRATES: But must he? That is the question at hand.

SWIFT: I believe he must for, consider that the hater must hate, hate, hate, and the faker must fake, fake, fake. Why should the player be different?

SOCRATES: But might people change? Couldn’t something convince the player to stay, stay, stay rather than play, play, play?

SWIFT: Ah, but you see Socrates, it is not the player that decides to stay, stay, stay. Rather, the player becomes a stayer when he ceases to play, play, play.

SOCRATES: So then one must eliminate the other. A player can never stay, stay, stay because, according to you, he would then be a stayer and not a player.

SWIFT: That is correct.

The student has become the master.

SLATER AND GORDON: This law firm represents Ms Taylor Swift in connection with intellectual property rights. Your use of THIS SICK BEAT is a violation of Ms Taylor Swift’s common law trademark rights, common law service mark rights, and trade name rights, and this here text, y'all, constitutes Ms Swift’s demand that you cease and desist any and all use. You should immediately forward this information to your attorney who is to be referred to https://trademarks.justia.com/864/34/this-sick-86434794.html.

SOCRATES: It seems we’ve reached an impasse — you say players will always play, play, play, but its possible for them to appear to stay, stay, stay and yet this makes them a faker who will fake, fake, fake. But if they fake, fake, fake then they do not always play, play, play for there must be at least some stay, stay, stay for otherwise, they only play, play, play and hence, are a player and not a faker.

SLATER AND GORDON: 'Cause we never go out of  style.  https://trademarks.justia.com/864/34/cause-we-never-go-out-of-86434916.html

There's a poor little bean in the diner car

Hang Fire (Icons passim) chose the songs for Cerys Matthew's three track Sunday Roast play list on Sunday. You can catch them about 2 hours and seven minutes into http://bbc.in/1ms4u2n.

It struck me that having been inspired by rattling round the Southern States in search of good eatin' they should make a fine addition to my Spotify Route 55 playlist.  

Here are the tunes. (Spotify doesn't seem to have Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks' Walking Blues, so I added Bonnie Raitt's version instead and offer a YouTube take on what was played on the radio below.)

Get thee behind me Satan!

Our range of superb malts ready for the mash tun and 1st brew of 'Phoenix', our @WimbledonBrew subtly smoked porter. pic.twitter.com/JUGFf8FDJV

— Wimbledon Brewery (@WimbledonBrew) January 4, 2016

What a thing to read in Dry January! I do love my stouts and porters. I will pop round the corner to pick up some Phoenix come Feb.

Day five and counting: We came second in the quiz last night. I was less effective than usual particularly on the music and film rounds. Perhaps all my years listening to CDs and watching DVDs with refreshment in hand have left my brain better wired to recall them powered by something more potent than lime and soda water.

Highlights

I have embedded the highlights of the Blues/Scarlets game above and tweeked it to start 46 seconds in with Dan Fish's try.

YouTube embedding from the NFL channel is disabled, but if you take a gander at https://youtu.be/6dgGdxfSUPg you can see the highlights of last night's game in which the Seattle Seahawks closed out their regular season with a 36-6 victory over the Arizona Cardinals. They now move on to the NFC playoffs to face the Minnesota Vikings away. That game is around 6pm UK time next Sunday. I wonder how I can watch it?

The Young Master is home

Ben is back from the USA. We are going for high tea in Wetherspoon's and then to see Verne Troyer in panto. Surely Florida has nothing to compare.

Always read the small print

Looking at the Old Ruts U15 league fixtures I can see that there is a home game on Sunday January 31 against Warlingham.

If that - as it should be - is played at the club, my Dry January will finish at noon in the bar rather than midnight. Everyone is cordially invited,

On the subject of rugby, Dan Fish played very well and scored a great try as the Blues beat the Scarlets yesterday. The only way I could watch it online was on S4C (Sianel Pedwar Cymru) which is a Welsh language channel. I muted that and put the Radio Wales English language commentary on a different device. The video lagged the audio by about twenty seconds which was initially disconcerting, though I was amazed how quickly I got used to it.

drink refusal self-efficacy

I am giving up booze for January. I'm already over half a day in and there are no withdrawal symptoms to report so far.

I thought I may as well announce it here to bind myself officially and discourage recidivist backsliding.

An early test will be watching the Pro12: Cardiff Blues v Scarlets game at five o'clock. The BBC say it is live on the iPlayer and Dan Fish returns at full-back. Is it possible to watch a game of ruby on the TV without a can of lager in hand? We shall see.

Prodnose: Drinking refusal self-efficacy?

Myself (with some little impatience): One's perceived ability to resist drinking in high-risk situations. It is distinct from alcohol expectancy which deals with assumptions about the effects of drinking alcohol on one's behaviour and mood.

Prodnose (superciliously): The specificity of these constructs to alcohol consumption has been demonstrated, I imagine?

Myself (infuriated): If using 161 first-year psychology students and multiple regression analyses, is anything to go by; yes. This study indicated that alcohol expectancies and drinking refusal self-efficacy were specifically related to quantity of alcohol consumption, but not to caffeine or nicotine intake.

Prodnose (placated): Well that certainly strengthens the theoretical foundations of alcohol expectancy theory.

Myself (like a nightingale with a toothache): Come back to me on the first of February and we'll see.