It's been a beautiful day here in Southport today and it gave Marion a couple of free hours to check over the garden for the first time since the snow. There was a huge disappointment in store for her as she discovered that shrubs and bushes that she had been cultivating for ten or more years had found the snow too much and given up the ghost. Tree branches had snapped from the weight of the snowfall and it looks like we'll have to get a man in to perform major tree surgery. On a positive note a rosemary bush that was beyond rescue has cut been up to add to the fire which should give the lounge a fragrant aroma tonight.
I had a customer satisfaction survey to complete from Liverpool FC today. I thought that this might be a initiative from the new owners but it appears to be from a department set up by the last lot. I'm always willing to respond to surveys especially in areas that affect me but, after reading my responses I don't think they will be asking me again. Amongst the survey were questions on the catering. I can only speak from my experiences on the kop but, after working in the catering industry for over twenty years, the use of the words "catering" and "kop" in the same sentence is something of a joke.
We've been out most of the afternoons this week so we're having a big catch up on our daughter in law Josephine's Perfection on the Sky Plus. Here she is on the set of the show that she created. Although the game looks very simple on the face of it, Marion and I have failed to get a perfect score in the end game once so far (and we've watched a lot of episodes today) so if we were to be contestants (which we obviously can't be) the BBC would be sure to save its money. If you haven't seen Perfection yet, set the Sky Plus for BBC2 at 4.30pm every weekday and play along. It's a great game show.
People have asked me why I do this every day. I don't have a massive readership and it takes up a fair bit of time. The reason is that I want to be a writer and I want to get into the habit of writing something every day. I wrote a novel (unpublished) in 2009 and want to write another after I've taken a creative writing course. If anybody reading this can recommend a good part time course, I'd be very grateful.
Meanwhile others have asked me how I am doing recovering from my new hip.I'm walking completely without crutches now. My gait is still not perfect. It's a bit like this.
With apologies for the paraphrasing to Bjørge Lillelien who uttered the immortal "Lord Nelson, Lord Beaverbrook, Sir Winston Churchill, Sir Anthony Eden, Clement Attlee, Henry Cooper, Lady Diana--we have beaten them all. We have beaten them all. Maggie Thatcher can you hear me? Maggie Thatcher, I have a message for you in the middle of the election campaign. I have a message for you: We have knocked England out of the football World Cup. Maggie Thatcher, as they say in your language in the boxing bars around Madison Square Garden in New York: Your boys took a hell of a beating! Your boys took a hell of a beating." Well tomorrow afternoon it's time for Noel and his Deal or No Deal to be knocked off his perch at the top of the teatime ratings with the launch of Nick Knowles' Perfection the brand new quiz show developed by my daughter in law Josephine.
Instead of watching a group of contestants who don't seem to understand the laws of probability reject perfectly good offers for their boxes and then see their potential prize evaporate before their eyes you can watch a quiz show that everyone can play at home. You'll have a fifty fifty chance of getting each question right as the whole show is based on "true or false" but can you achieve perfection and get every one of those answers right? The questions are fiendishly tricky and the answers are often not what you would expect at all. It's a great show, the questions have been brilliantly researched and the very likable Nick Knowles is doing the presenting. Tune in to BBC2 at 4.30pm and exercise your brain cells. Deal? It's a no brainer.
I love this photo. Our eighty something mums came round this afternoon for a spot of lunch and then to watch the football. I paused the match at the kick off while we finished our puddings and was enjoying Liverpool's half time lead when disparaging tweets from my son led me to think that the second half was not running quite so smoothly. That's the big problem with sporting events and Sky live pause. You basically have to go incommunicado until its all over when the Twitterati and people like Bjørge can have their say.
One of the joys of parenthood is supporting your kids and taking an interest in their interests so tonight I will be ensconced in the spare bedroom watching the New York Jets play New England Patriots in the second round of the play offs for the Super Bowl. I know the basic rules but I won't have much of a clue as to what is going on. At least I will be able to console Paul when I speak to him next (or, who knows, discuss who they're playing in the next round).
We're going on a bit of a film pilgrimage tomorrow as we head to Carnforth to the Brief Encounter tearooms. Carnforth was the setting for the fictional Milford Junction in the classic weepie and we're off to soak up the atmosphere and perhaps a nice cup of tea and a biscuit. I'm practicing my lines "I love you, Marion. I shall love you always until the end of my life. I can't look at you now cause I know something. I know that this is the beginning of the end. Not the end of my loving you but the end of our being together. But not quite yet, darling. Please. Not quite yet."
I was delighted to reach over a hundred readers of yesterday's blog (I like to think small), a minor milestone. I haven't had many comments though. Please feel free to add them.
