Still In The Midst Of It All......There's Always A Book

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well the TV that was in the living room is now in the spare room. An indoor aerial hanging on a ledge connected to a booster actually has worked. Yippee.

Of course that means that we've bought a new one. It has a bigger screen, though not so big that people will ask why we didn't go the whole hog and buy a cinema.

The definition is higher but not so high that you could see nose hairs on whoever's on the wide but not the widest screen that we have now.

And it is also SMART. But not as smart as it thinks it is. Who really wants to go on Twitter or Facebook on the TV? And as for the other apps, a lot of them seem to require a working knowledge of either German or Turkish.

Still we're all relatively happy. Especially the wife, who if you take out sport (admittedly like saying "just ignore the elephant in the room") now seems to watch more television than I do.

Still in the midst of it all there's always a book.

I've explained before that although yet to reveal my job I've made no secret that it's neither glamorous or that it's on fat cat pay. Still it has it's difficulties and for reasons I'll not bore you with working during the next few days is going to be tricky. What I'd not prepared for was that Friday was just as taxing. It's making me feel nervous for the rest of this period.

Still in the midst of it all there's always a book.

There's going to be a second viewing of the house tomorrow afternoon whilst I'm at work. Wife wants to know what to do if an offer is made. Of course I don't know because I don't know what the offer will be. Wife is worried that any delay in responding might damage the chances of selling the house. There is an agreement between us. Should there be an offer she'll come down to where I'm working and discuss it with me.

I won't lie. There is a part of me that does not to be disturbed whilst I'm at work and another part of me nervous in looking for a house ourselves. At the same time there is yet another part of me (man of many parts me ) that wants to make sure that we've made the right decision and we've made it together. All very confusing and tense this.

Still in the midst of it all there's always a book.

And for today that book is Queen Camilla by Sue Townsend. I've read 116 pages of this novel today and I've enjoyed every moment of it. This is what a good book can do when you're seeking a respite from the confusions, uncertainties and fears life brings to the table.

That;s what reading can do,

Until the next time,

In Which Feeding My Addiction......To Books Continues

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday (Tuesday)was a day where there were things to do before I went to work on the afternoon/evening shift. First off was the library, not Porthcawl but Pyle where I needed to get a few documents printed and photocopied (our printer having run out of ink and discovering that looking for new cartridges was about as simple as discovering the source of the Nile).

Now I hadn't intended to borrow a book at a different library, honestly. But I was tempted.

Dixe Wills - Tiny Stations

This is about a man who decides to visit every request stop train station in Britain. It's the sort of one person mad challenge story that attracted me. So it was borrowed.

Now we had a viewing on the house at 1pm which meant we needed to get out well before that. The wife suggested that we as a family had lunch together. I said no on the grounds that as I was working I'd be too busy clock watching. So wife/daughter went out by themselves and I would spend the ninety minutes of free time left by having lunch in Porthcawl..and visiting the library.

I'd decided to read all the Sue Townsend books that I hadn't yet read having seen a documentary about her recently. Pyle library didn't have anything but Porthcawl did (aside from the one I'd already written and raved about before). It was this.

Sue Townsend - Queen Camilla

I'd read The Queen and I and loved it so am looking forward to reading this one.

Now being Porthcawl Library this also meant that I needed a football book to replace the disaster that was Sam Allardyce's autobiography. This was the one I picked.

Michael Calvin - The Nowhere Men

This is a book about football talent spotters. It does on the surface link in to the Oliver Kay book on Adrian Doherty I spoke about recently.

After that I even had a bit of time to buy a Penguin paperback from the Porthcawl Animal Welfare Shop.

Penguin Modern Poets 17 - David Gascoyne - W S Graham - Kathleen Raine

It only cost me 20p. Which means I've still got £1.40 in the Penguin book budget.

And amazingly I finished reading a book too. Geology in the Service of Man (1950 edition) by W G Fearnsides and O M B Bulman. Now to be honest I found it to be a literary sleeping pill but it doesn't matter. It's I who am the weird collector of vintage Pelican/Penguin paperbacks. So if these books are on a subject that normally I wouldn't read about then it's hardly the authors' fault. Mind you the description of the book as "Eminently readable" on the cover? Rocky if you ask me.

So that means I need another Pelican/Penguin paperback to fill the void there. From the great unread it turns out to be.

1149 - Ellery Queen -The Roman Hat Mystery

You know off the top of my head G K Chesterton and Ellery Queen were the only "classic" crime writers I've never got round to reading. At least one of those anomalies will be resolved in the future.

What this all means is that if we remember the Michael Palin book I read in the car I have now six books on the go,

Yes I know.

But when you have an addiction to reading it's hard to let it go. Even if  only slightly.

Until the next time.

In Which A Lack Of An Aerial Causes A Tempest

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today,

Late last week the wife surprised me. She wanted a new television set. Her plan was simple. Get a new television and the current one is sent upstairs where she can watch particular programmes as and when necessary in peace and quiet such as the forthcoming Wales rugby internationals.

I was surprised but had no objections. After all I'd benefit as well.

So we went to Currys in Bridgend. Well gone are the days when you know roughly what you wanted in a TV. Being High Definition is no longer enough. The new products are even Higher Def than that, or 4K or "Superior "HD. And of course they have to be smart enough to be hacked by an eighteen year old from Beijing.

Personally I think HD is something that's overhyped. In the HD TV we currently have I only really notice any real change the closer I am to the TV. These new TVs have far more definition unfortunately I have far less time/inclination to care.

As far as the "Smart" bit I've a laptop for that.

Still we had basically rounded on a television to choose. Subject to a bit of measurement a 49" basic HD model (that was also "smart" but it can be casual for me)  from JVC seemed to be the one. However when we were at home an unexpected problem emerged.

The room where the current TV was going to be placed doesn't have an outdoor aerial. We needed an indoor one instead because we were not going to make any unnecessary costs of setting the room ready for an outdoor one whilst still trying to move house. But to provide a good reception we needed a strong indoor aerial as the closest transmitter was 23 miles away.

I went back to Currys. They don't have an indoor aerial powerful enough even though they make it clear in the shop that there are three types of indoor aerial. One for nine miles from the nearest transmitter, one for up to fifteen miles from the nearest transmitter and the one we need up to thirty miles. What we're after is a product with the sign of a blue house. Go to Tesco same thing, Go to Argos same thing.

Not only don't they have the product we need and most suitable for people in Bridgend it appears that that they don't sell these products at all. Not even on their websites. The point being that Tesco and Currys give the impression they do.

Went to look at Amazon. Seems that unless you buy a product that connects to the window involving a cable that hangs washing line style across the room it all appears to be trial and error.

Wife has spoken to the neighbours. Apparently they have an indoor TV aerial which works with the help of a booster in the bedroom (Carry On remark number one). Will have a look at how it's laid out in their bedroom on Wednesday (Carry On remark number two). Hopefully it'll be sorted soon,as I don't really have enough time to sort out installing two televisions, a new one and the current one in a new room until probably next Monday at the earliest.

Incidentally all of these aerial antics meant that sorting out a meal from the Elizabeth David book has to wait again. And again there's little chance of doing anything before next Monday at the earliest. This is the same with going to the library as well. So the book I'm reading now the Sam Allardyce disaster of an autobiography has finished is.

The Diary of Beatrice Webb - Volume Two

To be honest. When I ordered this book of this noted early socialist's journals from Amazon I thought I'd ordered Volume one. Ah well. If I like it I'll be more careful when I do order the first collection.

Until the next time.

Finished Two Books In A Day Including The Worst Football Book I've Ever Read

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So two books have been finished. The first was Too Late To Turn Back by Barbara Greene. An account of her journey through West Africa in the nineteen thirties with her cousin Graham Greene.

It's an OK book. The author isn't racist towards the native people there although there are moments where she does come across as patronising. To be fair she does appear to acknowledge this in this edition published in the nineteen eighties.

To be honest acceptable though it was I very much doubt I'll remember it in the future. A sort of literary McDonalds.Apart that is as a comparison if I ever read her cousin's account of the same trip Journey Without Maps.

So the next Penguin/Pelican paperback to emerge from the great unread is:

A128 - W G Fearnsides and O M B Bulman  - Geology In The Service Of Man

Yes I know. But when you collect vintage Penguins/Pelicans then this is a consequence.

The blurb describes it as "eminently readable". I doubt that but no stone will be left unturned in finding out.

I've also finished Big Sam the autobiography of Sam Allardyce (with Shaun Custis). In terms of his time in the job the Usain Bolt of ex England managers.

I'd borrowed that book (written before he became Sunderland manager let alone England) to have a laugh in the light of what happened subsequently. Those moments are there but on completion my main question is how a book as badly written as this one got published.

For there are moments when it seems to suggest that Allardyce can barely string words together (which his TV interviews show is not the case). I've mentioned before of a sentence with four "I"s in it. Another example that caught my eye was in describing the Bolton player Hierro "There wasn't a better passer in the Premier League and I include Paul Scholes who was the master". A sentence which if you think about it makes no sense. I did wonder whether an uncredited writer of this book was Google translate.

Even the construction of this book is dire. Chapter five is entitled Stateside With The Rowdies with regard to Allardyce's time with Tampa Bay.and has roughly fourteen pages in it. Just three are actually about the Rowdies. The remaining pages are devoted to other tropical parts of his career in Coventry and Preston.When going through the clubs he's managed suddenly inserted between them is a chapter on his management style. Surely that would have been more suitable towards the end?

And speaking about the stories of the clubs he's managed I have said before that I've some sympathy with him for how the football boards/owners have treated him (although in his last season with West Ham if the second half of that season was as good as the first he could still be Hammers manager today). But these chapters seem less about setting the record straight as settling old scores. In terms of the trials and tribulations of being a manager a far better book is Neil Warnock's The Gaffer (who is,incidentally, now manager of Cardiff City).

So in all respects this is an awful book. However as I mentioned before when taking this out  of Porthcawl library there might be a chance of redemption. For as the lady librarian implied, there are further chapters to be written.

Until the next time.

A Short Post On Aberfan

There really is not much to say about the Aberfan disaster fifty years ago. Except that even now, as a parent I cannot bare to imagine what happened. Those lives,most of them children lost through no fault of their own but of a coal board and with the government subsequently happy to treat the survivors and their families with a coldness you cannot believe.

Merely thinking about it brings a tear to my eye.

Until the next time

The Farewell From Helene Hanff

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

On Tuesday I'd finished Helene Hanff's book of her Woman Hour pieces in the eighties Letter From New York about living in one of the world's iconic cities. I loved it. I consider her to be Alan Coren's and Sue Townsend's American cousin that you think of as a friend.She painted a picture of the city as if you were there with her even though I've never been to America let alone the big apple.

And the point I forgot to mention when I finished the Helene Hanff omnibus (which of course wasn't an omnibus as it didn't include this book) was that she seemed to be that rare thing a writer who was a reader like you. There was a sense that she could instantly turn off being a writer and read a book as anyone else whatever their profession would. To a reader she was relatable.

But all of this is bittersweet. Because unusually for me I've now read every book she's written that has been published in the UK. Although I reread 84 Charing Cross Road as it was part of the omnibus I won't be rereading anymore of her books (too many books too little time). So in a way to me she died on Tuesday.

So thank you Helene for making me smile and being a reader as well as a writer. Most of all thank you for being a friend even though we never met.

Until the next time.

Perhaps Maesteg Is Not The Only Indoor Market Under Threat In Bridgend

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I have in this blog explained the state of Bridgend Town from time to time. Brought on mainly by what I would argue by the local Labour council.It is my view that if Bridgend Council was a parent it would have the town taken from it by the courts due to neglect.

Speaking personally there are generally only three reasons why we go into the town now. a)The bank,b)The Post Office to sort out the car tax c)to get a new battery put into a watch.

Well today (Wednesday) I'd a day off work. Knowing this the wife had asked me to go to town and get a new battery installed in her watch. No reason to refuse so off I went.

Now a quick digression: You may remember that there is a new retail development being built in Bridgend Town. I had mentioned that whilst genuinely wish the centre every success I did not understand that the council were happy with the construction whilst still do doing anything about the decay surrounding it. Well that was in April. In October other than the building is getting larger nothing else has changed.

Note the two closed down shops: For about 18 months now

And a quick digression part 2. When I first wrote about the state of Bridgend Town in April. I gave an admittedly extreme but pertinent example of a disused McDonald's that had been closed down in 2000 and has just been left to rot since. Well nothing has changed at time of writing, but I've been told on Twitter (by @Coffee_Johnny - Credit where it's due - All rights reserved etc) that the building is still a McDonald's shell and it still has McDonald's door handles. Halloween is coming and you can't help wondering whether ghostly staff (including the now fashionable clown) will make an appearance Monday week waiting for people to order Big Macs etc and wondering why no one's turning up.

Anyway back to my trip to what is a relatively small market and am surprised to find that it's even smaller than when I last visited given that there is a large number of empty spaces in its centre. Space wise I'd guesstimate about a fifth of the market is suddenly empty. I say suddenly because the last time I'd visited the place was about three to four months ago.

Just gone

Thankfully the stall where I need to get the watch battery replaced is still open and as the lady professionally does the job for me I ask about the empty spaces. The response was that the stall holders couldn't handle the increased council rates for the stalls and just closed down.

Note the irony of the heart / Bridgend sign

Now as I remember it this stall sold all sort of "Welsh" gifts on it. I may be wrong but think it's been around since at least I've moved in the Bridgend area in 2000.

I'm sure I've ordered flowers from here

So essentially what the council have done is to create a scenario where they have damaged the Bridgend Indoor Market and the town overall by adding even more reasons for people not to visit. Thus you could have a situation that because of low customer footfall possibly leading to other stalls closing down the market could just wither and die.

And what's worse is that things could get even worse than that.

The Labour council are proposing savage budget cuts in the next few years. Including some street lampposts going dark and cuts in the street cleaning services. These cuts will affect the whole Bridgend area and not just the town but as Bridgend Town is in such a bad state already it's in danger of buckling under the pressure first. After all, less lit street lamps and dirtier streets are hardly attractions to what already is a bad situation.

Now the Labour Council will probably blame the funding from the Labour Welsh Assembly.who will probably blame the Tory UK government. But speaking specifically about Bridgend Town then I mainly blame the council. And the reason is that when I compare it now to somewhere similar like Caerphlly or Pontypridd town centres then it fails and it fails miserably. I'd argue the council have made blunder after blunder to bring the town to such a situation.

Bridgend council are doing "public consultations" about the issue. But going online and creating "Community Workshops"  and "Information Stands" is hardly a referendum.

A third digression here. These "Information Stands" will be touring the Bridgend area in the next few weeks. Amongst the places this stand will be are Bridgend Indoor Market and,incredibly, Maesteg Indoor Market that the council are trying to close down. I would hope whoever is manning the stand there receives danger money.

What the council are "consulting" the public on is where they think the cuts should be made. As I think I've said before this is like asking someone whether they want to tortured by water or electricity ignoring the third option of "I'd rather not be tortured at all thank you very much".

If you want a prediction from me about these cuts. It's that the old trick will be done in that there will be cuts but not as badly as the current proposals. This will be spun as a success trying to make people forget that cuts will be made.

You know I always assumed that the council's attitude towards Bridgend Town is one of neglect. The more things get worse however I'm wondering whether what we're seeing there is a slow murder due to the poisoning of the atmosphere.

Until the next time.

In Which To Avoid The Estate Agent I Go To The Library,Keep A Promise,Avoid The Subway,And Continue Being A German Housewife

Hello there. Hope you're feeling today.

Well there has been a viewing on the house. The first as it happens for about a month and a half so the wife had been on a frenzied cleaning/tidying spree on the weekend (I was at work - though she will say I hardly do anything anyway).

Anyway it's Monday. I have the day off and I know my duties. Clean the bathroom. Tidy every room in the house. Wait for 11:15am and get out. For the appointment is at high noon.

There are things that need to be done and most would have been done earlier in the morning. The viewing though meant these had to wait to nearly lunchtime.

So Porthcawl was my first stop to change the library book. What could be the perfect book to replace the Oliver Kay one I've raved about a few posts ago? What else could it be but?

From the humour section

When taken to the desk the lady librarian looked at me and said "It's got a few chapters missing." Thus I'll claim the first ever recording of a joke made by a librarian in Wales about a former England manager. Albeit one with a 100% record. Sporting wise this book has become a notch below Lance Armstrong in your attitude to it after recent events.

The laughter begins at the cover where there is a quote from Sir Alex Ferguson . "Sam is one of the great characters of the game" You will note not "managers". But that is being a bit unfair. In a small foreword the far better manager does praise Allardyce and it is deserved. The thing about him (Warning metaphors are going to be mixed here) is that he (like Tony Pulis) has built a reputation as a Red Adair of managers. Parachuted as it were into clubs in trouble and improve them. Trouble is when that initial job is done he's then treated like the Pied Piper was once he got rid of the rats.

I've started reading it, written before he became England manager let alone after he lost it. You laugh when he says that it's a job he covets especially as a West Ham fan he's quick to attack us in the introduction. But you know what? So far it's the most badly written book of all the library football books I've read. So many "I" this and "you" that. In chapter one I even counted a sentence where he used the word I four times. Of course that's not his fault but that of his co writer Shaun Custis.

You may remember a few posts back that I had mistakenly said that there wasn't any books in the Age Cymru charity shop and that, once I'd been advised I was wrong promised to buy a book there the next time I was in Porthcawl. Well that promised has now been kept. Not only was it a book,it was also a Penguin as well.

Norman Davies - Vanished Kingdoms

This brick of  book is about European states,organisations etc that longer exist. Does seem interesting.

It only cost me 50p. Which means that the Penguin weekly book budget is currently 60p. There was no time for more books as there were more things to do.....but first food.

Now if it wasn't for the viewing the plan was going to be an attempt at antipasti Genovese as per Elizabeth David's book that I've mentioned in an earlier post. But Liz and the antipasti will have to wait. I'm out of the house,in Porthcawl and hungry. I think Subway.

However that idea is quashed when I find that the place is stuffed full with teenagers who have been rehearsing in the nearby theatre for a production of Annie. I know this because they're all wearing sweatshirts with "ANNIE" on their chests. Instead lunch is taken at the nearby Welsh Deli. It's a sausage sandwich with a cappuchino. Forty years ago a request like that would be met with silent questions about my sanity. Now the staff take it at their stride.

It took me fifteen minutes to have lunch (which was good by the way). A lot can change in fifteen minutes.

This was Porthcawl before I had lunch.

Dry but look at the clouds

And this is what it looked like when I came out of the Welsh Deli.

After the shower

Then it was time to do drive away and do some grocery shopping in away from Porthcawl at Lidls. Many years ago I remember an interview with a "retail analyst" who said that in Germany housewives would buy most of their food from Aldi/Lidl as the quality was just as good as the main supermarkets but cheaper whilst going to those other stores for particular branded goods. Well we have been a German housewife family for many years and we're not alone. In the Lidl car park I went to there were Jaguars,Mercs and 4x4 motors.

And as inflation will rise, and the cost of food will rise because of Brexit more and more people will become part of a German housewife family. It will be ironic that one of the main beneficiaries of Britain leaving the EU are be German discounters.

Until the next time.

F Scott Fitzgerald and An Ordinary Reader Becoming Literary Switzerland

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I am an ordinary man with an ordinary not special job but I do like to read which has been one of the most consistent things in my life. But I've never been involved in the book industry in anyway. Not even working in that rarest of places now a bookshop. And what I mean by all of that is that whilst I have opinions on writers and books I cannot claim that it's complete. Other things (ie life) interferes. So what's going to be said is on the understanding that with the writers I'm going to chat about my opinion is based on the books I've read so far.

That being said when faced with reading a book by a "great" writer then liking it is obviously fine. You are in tune with accepted opinion. Funnily enough hating it is equally ok. For you disliked it for a reason and can passionately argue your case. As I've mentioned before of the books I've read nothing has wavered from my view that D H Lawrence is a writer of pretentious tosh and would not be remembered today if it wasn't for Lady Chatterley's Lover. There is also John Galsworthy, author of The Forsythe Saga series of books ..well words fail me...as they do him.

But F Scott Fitzgerald is in a special category. I've finished The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Stories. That makes two novels (not Gatsby) and a collection of short stories that has been read so far and my position on him that I mentioned when I started the book has not changed. For like The Simpsons and Star Wars with Fitzgerald I am neutral,I am literary Switzerland.

And neutrality is a very difficult position to explain when discussing a writer deemed to be "great". Because being neutral makes you feel you've missed something whereas hating it makes you think everyone else is wrong.

If we take the title story of a person who ages backwards physically and mentally well it was all entertaining enough but then again so was Under Siege with Steven Seagal. When you let your brain go beyond first gear then holes in the story begins to show.

Other stories in the collection were contrived pieces of machinery where you almost felt as if you were reading a literary service manual. But, (and it's a big but) all of the stories were readable. The trouble is at no time did I feel I was in the presence of greatness

So the new Penguin from the great unread is:

Barbara Greene - Too Late To Turn Back

Barbara Greene was a cousin of Graham Greene. This is an account of a trip they made together to Liberia. This is from the Penguin Travel Library Series of the early eighties. Worth a read I think.

Until the next time.

The Football Book For Everyone

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I started the exercise on reading every football book in the Bridgend library area I never expected to be able to recommend one that could appeal to those who loved,hated or was just plain indifferent to the sport. Forever Young by Oliver Kay proved me wrong.

Obviously a knowledge of football helps in it's reading. But the key point in this book is the universal issue, not just in football but in other walks of life as well as life itself where you have an ambition and a talent to reach the pinnacle of that ambition only to have it suddenly and irrevocably taken away.

It's the story of the life of Adrian Doherty. A young man whose talent led him from Northern Ireland to the Manchester United youth team of the early nineties alongside people around that time as Beckham. the Neville brothers and particularly Ryan Giggs (a player who he was often compared more favourably than).Why he didn't reach that level I won't spoil. Let's just say that there's no stain on his character.

If you just read an outline of his life you would have then thought that it was one of tragic decline whilst people who had equal and/or lesser talent achieved superstardom. You would have also thought that Aiden Doherty would've lived the rest of his life racked with bitterness and resentment (I know I would have been). Oliver Kay shows that this wasn't case. Partly due to a quietly resilient personality and also because he had other passions to fall back on when football was no longer an option. And to those non sporting people his post football life takes up about half of the book.

Towards it's end Kay discusses a disturbing issue with regard to why Adrian Doherty left football. Again I won't spoil things by discussing it here, suffice it to say that it deserves an answer.

And how good is the book? If I was just to say I read in a two day period and was gripped perhaps that would be enough. It's a tribute to Oliver Kay's writing and of course the hero that is Aiden Doherty.

I won't be able to go to the library again until Monday so a new non Penguin/Pelican paperback is required. The book from the great unread is:

Helene Hanff - Letter From New York

This is from a series of monthly of broadcasts that the author of 84 Charing Cross Road did for BBC's Woman's Hour in the late eighties. When I finish reading it I think I'd have finished all of her books, certainly those published in Britain.

Until the next time.

I'm Fifty Two......But Not Immune To Flattery

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well on Wednesday I went to have my hair cut. I'd not been for a while and it was looking a bit wild.

The hairdresser is the lady I've mentioned before in this blog,the fellow reader.

Everything seems to be going as normal. She still has never been to Maesteg despite it being only half an hour away and on seeing that the book I'm reading is Benjamin Button (and other stories) by F Scott Fitzgerald says that although not having read the book she saw the film and thought it was good. (I've not seen the film but suspect it's better than the source material,having the advantage of time and special effects).

But then something odd happened. Despite the fact that she's been my hairdresser for a few years, that she knows my instructions are as specific as "just a trim" she suddenly got a razor and went for my hair as if in an Australian sheep shearing competition.

Silver tufts fell to the ground. The floor looked as if a community of aged hedgehogs decided to congregate in Bridgend. Thankfully she stopped leaving me a look best described as just short (or should I say long) of US marine.

A bit dazed I pay what I owe and leave. When the wife sees it she says she likes it. Well OK, but of course she married me so well there we are then.

We now move (or should I say cut) to yesterday (Thursday). I'm at work. I'm chatting to a pretty blonde lady in her late twenties. Out of the blue she remarks that she likes my hair. I'm stunned at this. Later in answer to her question I say I don't feel the cold round my head.

Now let me be clear here. Neither of us was flirting and even if I was intending to have an affair I'm under no illusions that a young woman would consider a relationship with a fifty two year old man with an occasional back problem. Still, I was flattered.

And then it happened again.

I will admit that I was more disconcerted than the first time. Nonetheless I thanked..... him for the complement.

So I'm now in the position that after fifty two years on this planet the hairstyle on my head that is attractive to others is that of near skinhead. I'm not sure what it all means except perhaps I should look forward to going bald.

Until the next time.

The Writer As Chatty Friend And Vanity Would Like Me To Think I Made Tesco Act

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Sometimes you read a book not to make you inspired, put you on a different level or even make you entertained. Sometimes you just want to be reading a book because the writer is the sort of person you consider a friend even though you've never met. Sue Townsend is that sort of writer and so is the humorist Alan Coren.

I didn't have the greatest of Christmases last year for reasons that are too personal and complex to explain. So on Christmas Day I'd decided to download a book that would make smile. How I got to Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks:The Essential Alan Coren from his many articles chosen by his children I don't know but it was downloaded immdiately onto my Kindle (yes I know a Kindle but be fair it was Christmas Day)

(A quick digression I thought that one of the advantages of the Kindle was that an author's entire canon is put up immediately online but apparently not. There is only one other Alan Coren book you can get via the E Reader. And he's not the only one).

Anyway I loved Chocolate and Cuckoo Clocks if only because it made me smile.

Fast forward a few months ago and BBC Radio 4 Extra were broadcasting a selection of programmes about arguably Britain's greatest humorist. And it made me stalk through the literary rainforest of the Amazon where I bought A Year In Cricklewood.

This book, modelled on the bestseller at the the time A Year In Provence by Peter Mayle (a sort of "aren't foreigners funny but I love them really" thing only a certain sort of Englishman could write) basically goes through the events that occur to him during the year. Cricklewood is obviously the star, but there are moments when France is centre stage. Apparently he was a Francophile whilst still being resolutely English. A skill that should be applauded in the little Englander dark ages we live in now.

As I read. The picture I got was Alan Coren in your house chatting over a cuppa and biscuits about the events of the day. You are The Listener (also the name of a magazine he edited) to tales such as a French beauty contest to difficulties in getting medicine for his unwell daughter late at night. When you close the book it's as if you've waved him goodnight as he drives home.

I think you get the message that I loved it. So much so that the Amazon literary rainforest has been raided again and I've ordered Toujours Cricklewood. I'll get the tea ready when it comes.

If you're a regular reader of this blog you will be aware of my bugbear of official England football team toy figures being sold in Tesco,Bridgend South WALES. Well today I can tell you they're gone. Hopefully not moved somewhere else but actually gone. I'd tweeted Tesco about this stupid state of affairs and I'm not modest enough to hope that I was the one that caused it to be taken off Tesco stores (along with apparently Marmite and Pot Noodle but not claiming responsibility for that!). Perhaps in the future firms should treat their customers with respect not mockery.

Until the next time.

Maesteg: Probably the Only Town Where A Library Could Kill A Market

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Being the only Saturday this month that I'm not working, I had intended to spend the day going up to the Valleys and watch Ton Pentre FC play and see if  I could pay £10 entitling me to part (a very small part) ownership of the club for a year.

But events changed my plans. And it involves this building which I visited today.

Maesteg Town Hall

You may remember I visited this place in April where I saw Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood whilst she was electioneering for the National Assembly of Wales vote. It is used as a performance venue with an indoor market at the bottom, Little did I realise then that it's future was in jeopardy.

Market Entrance

Apparently the building is in a dangerous state and is in danger of closing unless a substantial sum of money is spent on repairs. Something the Bridgend Labour council say they cannot afford to do. Although presumably it's fine for the next few months in view of the posters advertising shows by TV comedians, tribute bands and the local pantomime.

I am no expert. But presumably the building has been like this for a while. You would have thought that the EU money used to move the Bridgend Town Centre library outside of the town centre would have been better spent on keeping the library (radical thought) in the town centre and making building repairs to Maesteg Town Hall. But Bridgend Council appear to either like grand ideas or leave things to rot. If this place actually does close down then Maesteg might begin to experience the slow decline of Bridgend Town that I've posted about from time to time. And that would be a tragedy.

So what are the council going to do? Well they are applying for, wait for it, access to an EU fund which is administered by the Welsh government. Now apparently they can still apply for money, which will take a proportion of the costs of dealing with the building's structural problems but you can't helping feeling that they've put all of their eggs in one basket.This is because there's no guarantee that even if they are eligible they will get the money and the council suggests that if the place is not regenerated it will face what the local paper called "an incremental closure". In plain English a slow and probably agonising death.

Now no one is opposing the regeneration of the Town Hall.  Where the anger has surfaced is regarding the council's actual regeneration plans. The idea is to turn the town hall into a "Cultural Hub", which will include merging Maesteg's two libraries into one super library. This library (which apparently according to a council official in the local paper) will be not "traditional" but should be thought of as a "vibrant space". And of course the first thing you think of in a library is vibrancy.

It's where this library is proposed to be put that has caused the controversy. For it's proposed to be placed where the indoor market is now, and where it has been for the past 135 years. Thus small businesses are threatened with closure and people with redundancies.

And this is typical Bridgend Council. Going through with a grand gesture without thinking it through. It will be added to the list which includes the aforementioned Bridgend Town Centre but not really in the Town Centre library, the pedestrianisation of Bridgend Town and now it's proposed depedestrianisation .

Now those of you who have read my blog recently may think that I would approve of this being a fan of all libraries bar one (which I'll refer to later) but you would be mistaken. Firstly regular library users are decent people. They are not the sort that would demand a mega library and to hell with the consequences to small businesses, people's jobs and possibly even their lives. We are not like that. We read regularly and therefore we care.

Even if we ignore the issues surrounding the market there are other issues as well.Let me stress that I have never been to the two libraries in the Maesteg area. But I wonder whether the combined floor space is equal to what is a relatively small indoor market. We need to know this. Is there a possibility that the Maesteg library reader is being short changed?

Finally the experience of the Bridgend Town Centre not in the Town Centre library does not bode well for the proposed merged Maesteg library. It is the library that I hate with a passion best described as psychotic.Impersonal, badly referenced and quite frankly about as homely as a fire in a firework factory I avoid it like the plague and haven't entered the place for about two,possibly three years.

I went in the market today.

There's the book stall on the left

I brought forward my £1 a week Penguin/Pelican paperback budget to spend on the bookstall for the Maesteg Animal Welfare Society (MAWS) who were selling books (whether hardback or paperback) at 50p each.

I bought two Penguin paperbacks.

Daphne du Maurier - The King's General

John Briley - Cry Freedom

I like Maesteg's indoor market. It's closure would not be a good omen to the town for the future. Incidentally speaking of omens this was what was on a window of the town hall as I was walking away from the place. Which struck me as ironic given that the market is under threat from a library.

Irony writ large

There is a protest meeting in the Masonic Hall at 7pm on Tuesday. If I wasn't working would've gone.

You might ask what would I do with regard to the town hall. Honestly I don't know. Sometimes though in life you don't know the solution to a problem but you know what aspects are wrong. The closure of the indoor market is just plain wrong, and even worse coming from a Labour council, cruel.

Until the next time

The Suburban Spy Network

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Picture the scene. It's a few days ago. Due to a misunderstanding with the wife I've discovered that she's coming home late from work. It's quarter past five in the afternoon. Daughter is hungry.

Now before you start. I was quite happy to cook. Was though waiting for her to come so that we'd eat together. Once I found out that wife was going to be late though then it was up to me to deal with the situation.

The simplest thing to do is to just throw something in the microwave and wait for it to ping. But I'm not a fan of doing that unless we have to go out somewhere soon afterwards or I've come home from the afternoon/evening shift sometime after 10pm. The quickest non pinged meal would have taken about twenty minutes on the oven/hob.

There was but one choice for a warm meal relatively quickly.....the local chippie. Not that far away from where we live.

Which is why I'm in the queue getting ready to order jumbo sausage and chips twice (For those not in the know here's a tip if you want to get out of a fish and chip shop quickly......don't order the fish). Waiting for her order is a woman I know slightly. The sort of person you'd say hello to in the street but the level of intimacy begins and ends there. We first "met" (if that's the right word) after I'd dropped my daughter off when she was at junior school and I would be walking back to the car as she and her two boys were racing in the opposite direction as they always seemed to be late.

Anyway knew she lived in the same area as me but this was one of the few times I'd seen her outside of school. And it had been a while as well, for at first glance she was slimmer than I remembered her last.

After the acknowledgements of each other's prescence was unsure what to say next. Should I mention she'd lost weight? But what if it was as the result of an illness? Should perhaps best go for the tried and trust conversation starter of the weather? Chippie conversation etiquette is not an easy thing to do.

As it happened though she'd a conversation opener of her own.

"So you're selling your house".

The thing is this. How did she know? She doesn't know where I live or even my name and yet she knew that we were selling. I know nothing about her either and yet I've no idea where she lives

I wasn't going to deny it. "Yes" came my response "The wife's homesick for Cardiff".

Of course the reality is a little more complicated but as a summary of the situation it seemed to satisfy her. She was still friendly, as if saying that as the reason we were seeking to move had nothing to do with area it didn't insult her choice of abode.

"Any success?"

On hearing that at this moment interest seemed to have dried up there was not an encouraging response. She and her family too had moved house recently....and it had taken them a year.

I grabbed my order first (being non fish related), said my goodbyes and walked out of the shop.

You know what my first thought was on leaving?

It's a good thing I'm not having an affair.

Until the next time.

On Books Borrowed and Bought, Why Age Cymru Porthcawl Showed I Might Need New Glasses and no change from Tesco

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Today (Monday) was the first and probably only day I could borrow and buy books for the week until at least Saturday. So Porthcawl I went first to the library and then amongst other bits of shopping to buy Penguin/Pelican paperbacks with my £1 a week budget (which as nothing was bought last week meant that the princely sum of £2.10 was burning a hole in my pocket).

So let's start with the library. My first intention was to get Sam Allardyce's autobiography and chortle but for the first time since I started this reading challenge of going through all the footballing books in the Bridgend library area it wasn't there. Someone else it appears had the same idea.

The book I chose was this.

Oliver Kay - Forever Young

This is a book about Aiden Doherty. I'd never heard of him until today but it appears that he was a contemporary of Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville but with greater talent but for some reason he never achieved footballing success. This intrigued me which was the reason why I picked it.

Once that was done it was time to buy books. The plan was to spend £1 in the Porthcawl Animal Welfare Shop (PAWS) and the rest in other Charity places in the town. Therefore my paws went into PAWS first.

I bought three books for a pound there. This was the first:

John Steinbeck - The Grapes of Wrath

I must admit that I've never read a John Steinbeck novel before (all part of the so many books so little time curse that affects every reader). But at least here is one ready to join the great unread.

In line with my occasional title of the slight hypocrite. ie someone who laughs in the face of people who buy scripts of plays etc....unless they are with a classic Penguin book spine on them the next book was:

Ibsen - Peer Gynt

Not just a play but a play in verse....can't wait.

I was pleased that I got some Pelican paperbacks. This was the one I got at PAWS.

J C Kincald - Poverty and Equality in Britain

The next group of books I got at the Tenovus Charity Shop. They were on offer at 4 for a £1. The Pelican in the mix was.

Europe Since 1870 - James Joll

What's interesting about these Pelicans was that they were both published in 1973 and yet it would appear both might be timely because of recent events. We shall see.

The next one was:

H E Bates - Love for Lydia

You may remember how I didn't like the last H E Bates book I read. The last of the Larkin quartet. We'll see if I feel any different about this. I do vaguely remember the TV series the cover refers to. But I didn't watch it.

Paul Gallico - Ludmilla & The Lonely

I've never read a Paul Gallico book although there are a number on the great unread to tackle. This joins it.

And finally...

Christopher Hibbert - Africa Explored

I was to be honest unsure whether I should buy this book in view of the sub title and its connotations. Eventually I've assumed that the title was being ironic given the attitudes of the Europeans at that time. Hope I'm right on that.

Well that means my budget until next Monday is reduced to 10p.

In between my trip to PAWS and Tenovus I went to the Age Cymru charity shop. Imagine my surprise to see no books there at all. Just a load of other stuff including old satellite TV digiboxes! I was annoyed by this and tweeted them asking why they were the first ordinary charity shop ever not to sell any books.

Their answer...and I think you know where this going...was that they did.

The Books in the Age Cymru Charity Shop Porthcawl

Now in mitigation your honour they had moved the books from where they were at the back of the shop just two weeks ago to by the shop window. Still I was guilty of shortsightedness and I have promised them that Penguin/Pelican or no Penguin/Pelican I will buy a book from the shop next time I'm in Porthcawl. It's only fair.

One last thing I won't bore you by repeating what I've written about England football figures being sold in Tesco Bridgend South WALES. Just to say it's still continuing.

Still here

Until the next time.

Man vs Beast,When Biographies Should Be Recategorised,Cookery Books And When You're Out Of Step

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Hunting for pleasure can in my view never be justified. However yesterday I felt a visceral primeval gratification when I killed an animal.

That animal being a house fly.

Not just any house fly. A house fly that has been taunting me with its presence for days.A house fly that buzzed me in the face whilst I was asleep in front of the football. A house fly that mocked me a few days ago when I thought I'd killed it only to hover around a few hours afterwards.

It was it or me. It was war.

And so high noon. Or rather grey morning around ten came on Thursday. I walked into the kitchen and there it was.....on the window.

With a move my caveman ancestors would have been proud of I grabbed a tea towel and flicked it at the beast. Next time it was seen it was on the ledge. Legs up. Dead.

I gave it a watery send off down the sink.

I am man...hear me domestically roar.

Well I've finished Higher than Hope. The authorised biography of Nelson Mandela by Fatima Meer. As a biography it's flawed simply because of it's out of date almost from it's publication. The edition I read was first published in 1988 but this print was published in 1990. So since the book was published he was released from jail, divorces Winnie Mandela ,remarries and becomes President of his country.

So as a biography then it has it's problems. However don't forget that it was an authorised piece of work (authorised don't forget whilst Mandela was still in prison). Also as a chronicle of the political process in the fight against apartheid I haven't read a better book. It also details the pressures from the white security services that his family especially Winnie Mandela was put under. Something that needs to be borne in mind when people feel like judging her from the comfort of their living rooms.

It also prints extracts from Nelson Mandela's letters from prison. It hints at the generosity of spirit that we all learnt he had when he was released. Speaking personally if I was incarerated for decades whilst fighting for the freedom of an oppressed majority I doubt I would have this. Which is probably why he is such a great figure for us all.

Perhaps then this book should be recategorised. Perhaps then as it's not a cut and paste job it should be considered as a history book with a central character. Because it's a book that deserves to be read.

So then it's time to pick out a book from the great unread. This was the first that came up.

Elizabeth David - Italian Food

Now I must be honest and say that there are a number of cookery books in the house where the only thing that touches them once it's put on the bookshelf is dust. I will also admit that if this book did not have a white coloured spine it would not have been bought famous writer though  Elizabeth David is. Still it's here and I have it so I'll need to do something.

Well...you probably have guessed this by now...I'm going to go through every recipe. It's not going to be quick (won't be able to start this till at least two weeks for various reasons and it will be haphazard in its frequency). Also as this is Bridgend and not Bologna I'm quite happy to compromise where necessary. So if a recipe demands a mushroom that can only be obtained on a remote mountain in Tuscany well forget that. It's the supermarket mushrooms I'll go to instead. And you know what, as much as is possible that supermarket is going to be Aldi or Lidl. Just to see whether without going through specialist shops you could reproduce something close to the recipe (not saying exactly mind, but as long as it's tasty that's success enough for me).

Of course what this means is that I need another Penguin book to read. From the great unread comes this.

F Scott Fitzgerald - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Six Other Stories

You know there are some writers where as a reader you're out of step with most other people judged on the books you have read knowing that you haven't read everything. So if we take D H Lawrence for example based on the books I have read I'm firmly of the view that if it wasn't for the notoriety of Lady Chatterly's Lover he wouldn't be remembered today. The last book I read of his. Kangaroo, was just aimless tosh.

With F Scott Fitzgerald I've read two books and with both I feel I'm in a position which is more out of step than just dislike. It's neutrality. He just doesn't do it for me either way. Cannot explain why. Let's see if this makes any difference.

Until the next time.