Sitting off

Spent the weekend visiting friends in Liverpool. Wonderful welcome and a great lazy weekend. Time was mostly spent just lazing around and putting the world to rights. “Sitting off” is a scouse term for just hanging around, doing nothing. Describes the weekend perfectly.

Karen and Ray live near Crosby beach, the site of Anthony Gormley’s Another Place installation. These cast iron figures are standing on the beach and often in the sea as the tide rises. It’s a brilliant piece of art, and hopefully it can be a permanent feature of the area.

Bar Notes

Alma de Cuba is a church converted into a bar in the middle of Liverpool and is supposed to the trendy, happening place. I’m told that you’re likely to bump into a footballer or a Hollyoaks actress in there. Not that I’d know because a) I wouldn’t recognise any footballers or Hollyoaks actresses and b) it was too dark to see anyone in there. They call it atmospheric; I call it dingy. This reviewer in The Times liked it though.

Restaurant Notes

Il Forno was the venue for an excellent Italian meal on Saturday night. Good food and excellent service. If you happen to be in Liverpool, try it.

Travel Notes

Enjoyable I – Very happy to report that the decent into chaos of Heathrow airport has been hugely exaggerated. Trip to take mum to catch a flight to Boston last week went off without a hitch. Got to airport before check-in opened, so asked to wait in one of the new marquees. Expecting some version of a refugee camp, we were greeted by BA staff with free newspapers, sandwiches and drinks. Online check-in meant beating the queue and dropping the luggage took five minutes. Clearly BA have got their act together.

I wonder when BAA will catch up and take their security responsibilities seriously?

Enjoyable II – It would have been aggravating if I’d chosen to travel to Liverpool via the M6. Thankfully previous experiences led me to choose the scenic route through mid-Wales and the Mersey Tunnel instead. What a good decision. Whilst Friday’s radio reported 20 mile queues on the M6, we tootled our way up through the A and B roads.

There’s a town near Oswestry called Knockin. I amused myself on the journey by hoping that a local trader took up the challenge and called their store the Knockin Shop.

Coffeenerdness

On the way to a meeting in North Wales yesterday I called into a coffee shop in Mold called Brew. Great little place with a cosy atmosphere, and a very good mochacchino. It’s a shame that more towns don’t have independent coffee shops like this with good coffee and good service.

TV Notes

A motivational speaker once said, "I don't believe there are many stupid people, but I do believe they move around a lot.” And most of them end up on TV.

Spent Friday night in the company of our Liverpudlian friends Karen & Ray with a pizza & a glass of wine. The final of Big Brother was on. Oh dear. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a collection of self-centred celebrity-obsessed morons in all my life.

Glyn Wise, an 18-year-old from North Wales was runner-up, and our esteemed First Minister Rhodri Morgan sent a message of congratulation. He said that he was “an inspiration for other young people”. Cut to pictures of Glyn falling over drunk and throwing up. Yep, that’s right – this is what Rhodri thinks should be a role model for the youth of Wales. God help us all. But then, we get the politicians we deserve – after all, we voted for them.

The X Factor is train-wreck TV. You know you shouldn’t look, but something makes you watch. Some families are cruel. They tell their partners/children that they are talented only for Simon Cowell (and the rest of the TV world) to know that they are anything but.

Cricket Notes

Subject to final confirmation, the Haddocks are promoted from Division 3. We finished in second place and will return to Division 2 after a one year absence (we were relegated on the last ball of the season last year).

Watched the lunacy at the Oval unfurl on Sunday afternoon. Its not the first time that ball-tampering has been spotted – I remember a game between Glamorgan and Gloucestershire being affected (and points deducted). The Pakistani administration badly misjudged umpire Hair and are now furiously back-peddling (protest was “only for a few minutes” and “we were ready to play”). I hope the ICC doesn’t back down on this, although I fear that Hair’s umpiring days might be over.

Rugby Notes

I had a hit on the blog from New Zealand last week. Thanks to my nifty new surf monitor, I can tell what people were looking for when their google search comes up with my site. There’s a Marty Veale who until this year played lock/flanker for North Harbour NPC in New Zealand (home of ex-Ebbw Vale utility back Andrew Whiteman). According to their site Marty’s gone to play in Japan.

Weekend away means I haven’t caught up with the Tri Nations game yet.

Link of the week

Peter King is a columnist for Sports Illustrated, simply the best sports magazine around. He writes a weekly newsletter on the NFL, the Monday Morning Quarterback, which reviews each week and gives his great insights into the game. An intelligent read.