Sniffling With Sir Walter Scott

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

It's about 10pm yesterday. Wife and daughter are in bed but I've stayed up to do a bit of reading in the living room. My Kindle (other e readers are available) tells me that there's 16 minutes left of Sir Walter Scott's The Talisman to finish. Smooth Classics from Classic FM is in the background. I've a cup of tea and some dark chocolate digestive biscuits. Half hour wind down with a book. What you might ask could possibly go wrong?

As it happens everything. It starts with a few sniffles that I can't seem to shake off, then sneezing and then moving to full blown eye watering. I know the wife had cooked onions but that was hours before. And let me tell you it definitely wasn't the book.

Struggled for a few more minutes but it was no use. Sir Walter would have to wait for another day as I went to sleep instead. There are few things worse for a reader than getting everything prepared for a quiet reading session and in the last moments being unable to do it.

That other day when the book was finally finished was this morning. 5am . BBC Radio 3 is on this time. A cup of tea but no digestives...... you can't spoil breakfast ......and thankfully no sniffles.

The Talisman is the second book in a series set in the Crusades. Something I didn't know when I started (my fault). It's best approached as a historical potboiler. As the disclaimer goes any similarity to real events is purely coincidental.

I didn't bargain for the lack of action in this novel. If in my late teens/early twenties this might just have been a gamechanger given my preconceptions when starting. At fifty three however it was unexpected and nothing else.

If you approach this book as a potboiler then you will be pleasantly surprised. For although it's clear where the author's sympathies lay with regard to the Crusades and indeed in supporting the British Christian way of life  in general (which includes the monarchy...he's not Sir Walter Scott for nothing) he showed a surprising amount of respect for the Muslim religion and the Muslim characters in this novel, which does him credit. It has a sense of nuance.

So as an entertainment for a fifty three year old man, baring in mind the time it was written then I would recommend it. If you're much younger....well you've been warned.

I've mentioned before that my Kindle (other e readers are available) does seem to have a sense of humour. For in the random way I pick ebooks the next one to read turns out to be Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. I wonder if I'm the first man to have read an autobiography of Stevenson's wife before reading one of his classic works.

Definitely a book for the bucket list of literature before you die in that whether you like it or not you need to say that you've read it. That time for me has come at fifty three....yes I know.

Until the next time.

What If The Worse Case Scenario Regarding Bridgend Ford Happens?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Let me explain how significant the news with regard to Bridgend Ford was. That a leaked report suggested that by 2021 there would be a cut of 1160 jobs in the Ford plant just outside of the town leaving just six hundred workers there.

I was returning from Penarth, for reasons that I'll explain in my next post but are unimportant here and had just turned the radio on. The item about Bridgend Ford was on the news.....and it was the first time ever that I've heard Bridgend being a news item on BBC Radio 3 (which if you're reading this outside the UK is a mainly classical music radio station).

The statement by Ford in response was just a masterpiece of waffle. Coming second was the response of the Prime Minister with First Minister Carwyn Jones third when he described the report as a "worse case scenario".

It's his response I want to focus on here as it's not the sort of answer that the workers of Bridgend expect from the most important elected official in the nation (or indeed the Assembly member for that region). After all would you like to be told by your doctor that you have a brain tumour and that the worse case scenario was death? No. You would expect them to be at your head before you could say antibiotic as they made every effort to resolve the situation.

What we have now is a situation where people working at Ford feel that there is a clock ticking with regard to their jobs in this major employer. But what a lot of them might not know is whether that clock applies to them. The worst of all possible worlds.

And of course there would be a knock on effect for many companies/people in the area both large and small would be equally devastating . People with less money to spend will cut back on buying goods/services. Ford is a big employer. I'll predict one thing now. Should the worse case scenario happen everyone in the Bridgend area will be effected.

Let me give a few examples. When the age of austerity began in 2008, two types of people began to notice it's effects immediately. The first were cobblers as man had the heels of their shoes redone rather than buy new ones. The other were nursery school assistants. My wife told me at the time that when she was chatting to someone who worked at are local nursery after my daughter had left there that person mentioned that she had to cut back on the number of assistants she employed because unemployed parents who couldn't afford the fees (and they are expensive) took their children out of the nursery to look after them at home.

(And from experience I'll tell you now that had my daughter been of that age when I was unemployed one of those parents would've been me)

In this blog (see labels) I have regularly detailed the decline of Bridgend Town mainly due I would argue to Labour party incompetence either at council or Senedd level. I've mentioned before that I'm going to do an update next week. But let me predict something else now. If the worse case scenario regarding Ford happens then a town in decline will be tipped into disaster.

So you might think if Labour cannot help what about the Tories or UKIP? Well do you think that Ford are going to look favourably on a plant in or out of the EU if it involves shipping cars into the European Union? What the good people of Bridgend who voted Leave was not told it appears is that in voting to "take back control" it has in fact moved to Detroit.

Which leaves Plaid Cymru. They may succeed they may fail but they would start from the clean slate of being untainted by Labour party incompetence or the red white and blue hard Brexit of the scoundrel that appears to be the Tory/UKIP position. And they would care. If I wasn't moving out of the area I'd put my name down as a candidate in the forthcoming local elections. Even though I'd have to put up with the first comment "you're English!".

Skilled people unemployed, a declining town possibly tipped over the edge, knock on effects that will damage the area for possibly a generation. The first minster should not wait for the possibility of the worse case scenario. He needs to act now.

Until the next time.

Julian Barnes, Novelist, Distinguished Man of Letters.......No Idea About Football

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Picture the scene then. I'm in the bath. For those who don't know me I'm a young Adonis. For those who do know me look away now.

It's three forty five am on Sunday morning. I'm on the early shift at work and have gotten up early so that I can have time to have a bath. I will never change my mind with regards to baths over showers. You will understand that last remark as we go on.

Now what I tend to do in the bath is to listen to a radio programme I've downloaded from the BBC iplayer radio app as a sort of countdown clock, when it finishes I'm out. If I have time it could be a half hour programme, but yesterday was not that day. So instead listened a a thirteen minute programme in the series "The Essay"  from Radio 3, the BBC classical/cultural station.

For the past week Julian Barnes, the distinguished novelist was discussing how you change your mind through your life. I'd not listened in chronological order so the one I'd listened to before was on books. He explained how he changed his mind on E M Forster from dislike to like and mentioned in passing that he might be going the same way on D H Lawrence. That bit made me chuckle as I had changed my mind on Lawrence too. Based on the books I'd read my view as a young adult was that he was a writer of saucy stuff with a literary sheen but now as a fifty two year old man he was just a conveyor of pretentious twaddle. How you change your mind indeed.

The episode in the bath was the first of the series, where in the beginning Barnes was setting out the basis for the rest of the week. And in this preamble he said this:

"that we all expect some change through the years........we change our minds about many things.........to adherence to social groups, the football team or political party we support.

It was a throwaway remark but that really woke me up. It was radio as espresso (thanks for that anyway Julian). But whilst it's perfectly true that I've changed my mind about many things through the years. sport and specifically here football is different.

So who would be the freak who likes football, reads books and downloads talks from BBC Radio 3 to listen at an ungodly hour on a Sunday morning? Two thumbs pointed at this guy.

Now regular readers of this blog will know that I support a number of football teams on the grounds that I've always believed that it makes watching a foreign league more exciting (one per country you understand). But these teams will always fall by the wayside if they ever face the first team I followed as a child. So not to muddy the waters lets talk solely about the English leagues, and the first and longest love of my life West Ham United.

I picked the Hammers simply because they were the closest team to where I was born in the East End of London. That was it. Loyalty to your area. My family generally have gone to the dark side and support Arsenal. Of course I don't like the fact that the Daleks are more successful but in terms of who you support though it does not matter. Once you have made your decision that is it. You have committed yourself forever...through victory,defeat or a draw....for that's the nature of sport and supporting your team. You,the fan, care.

I'm sure there are a few people who changed their minds as to which football team they are such a minority that they're not worth talking about unless to shun them in the street.

You follow the team whatever their fortunes and wherever you are. I'm trying to see if I can get a ticket to watch them play Swansea City on Boxing Day. As I've said before Swansea are one of those teams that I consider to be like being very friendly with a woman whilst still being faithful to your wife. On Boxing day Christmas is over. I want them beaten.

Let's give another example. In South Wales the majority support the three teams in the English League, Cardiff, Swansea and Newport County. There will be others though who follow the likes of Manchester United or Liverpool. I knew people in the late nineties who supported Aston Villa because it was the closest Premiership team from South Wales (how times change). But once they made their minds up there was no change in the team they supported.

So Julian Barnes Football is not like literature,or politics,or music. You can be passionate about all these things (as I am) but your lifelong loyalty will always be for your team.

Come On You Irons!

Until the next time

Bridgend To Epping And Back By Car,Radio Roulette and Amnesia

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I was about nine or ten although I listened to programmes from other channels my favourite radio station was the BBC World Service. At the time, certainly when listening in Britain anyway, it was a mixture of all other national BBC channels at that time plus some programmes it made itself. So you could listen to drama, comedy,sport, various types of music and of course news all on one channel.

It was that mixture I liked. Unfortunately it has now become a glorified news channel and I rarely listen to it.

Nowadays although generally go for particular type of stations (Classical music) or particular programmes (comedy/sport) can't say there's a consistent first amongst equals with regard to what I listen to.

I'm going on about all of this so you can understand my listening taste. Now I'm going to explain the game I play when travelling from South Wales to where my mother lives near Epping in Essex to relieve any signs of boredom.

There are moments through the year where I travel to Essex to see my mother. A journey which, on a good day, takes about three and a half hours (an hour of which, to be all South East Commutery about it, is on the M25). So it's a long journey and no matter who's travelling with you can get rather dull.

So exactly when I stumbled on this idea I can't remember but it occurred to me that I might liven the journey up by pressing search on the FM search dial on the car every time a junction on the motorway (M4,M25 and M11) is passed. Some I'll like some I'll hate hence radio roulette.

So my daughter is spending a week with my mother wandering around the sights of London. Monday I drove her there. Firing up my Kia Picanto we left at eleven that morning.

It started with that comfy sofa of daytime radio Radio 2, Ken Bruce to be precise. Soon it drifted to Radios 3 and 4 before getting to Heart FM.

I used to have to listen to Heart FM when I was at work. It was, too bright,too happy, too much of the same songs over and over again, too many commercials and too many DJs where you wondered if they had a mental age of just having left junior school (Jason Harrold and Margherita Taylor excepted). Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now is not a song that you would expect on a Heart FM playlist but an adequate description of my emotions when I hear that station.

It's closest commercial competitor is Absolute Radio which is what I listen to at work now. Whilst some of its music is too young for me it's far better than Heart because you feel it's presented by adults.

Heart basically has national programmes intermixed with local programmes, with news and commercials. One of these commercials was for Trade Centre Wales advertising for "Vehicle Technicians". Isn't that otherwise known as "Mechanics"? Now nothing against mechanics, indeed it's an ability I wish I possessed, but I've an old man's irritation when reasonable words are changed at the whim of a branding consultant (Logistics for deliveries and so on). Indeed on the way back there was a new example to annoy me. A lorry proudly displayed the words "Horseshoe Distribution". Why don't you say that you deliver horseshoes?

And to finish off the grumpy old man segment of this post. The back part of a Eddie Stobart lorry in Essex had an ad for London Southend airport which advertises a "new faster terminal". Really? A building that can challenge Mr Bolt for the next olympics? Or perhaps they should have said "new faster check-in?

The radio moves to BBC Radio Cymru. A man is singing. This arouses the attention of my daughter.

"Is that the Go Compare guy?"

I don't know and as we pass through the next junction I still don't. However a few junctions along we get to BBC Radio Wales. The "Go Compare" guy is talking about tourist guides. My daughter cannot believe it. I tell her to go compare the song and the guy speaking now. She's not impressed in that teenage "Dad don't be stupid "manner.

BBC Radio Bristol follows just headlines, BBC Radio Somerset with a temporary presenter who tells us that she might be there and she might be not and BBC Radio Wiltshire with a presenter who advises that there's a series on badges.

A guy like me who collects bookmarks,football shirts and Penguin paperbacks is not going mock collectors of badges. It did occur to me though that I can't recall someone wearing a badge that had nothing to do with their work or a milestone age for a long time now.

Wish I could say that there was any other memorable things going but alas no, So we move to Tuesday. and my journey home.

It begins at around 9:40am with BBC Radio 3 the classical music station, There's a quiz as to guess a particular city, There are three clues. One of which is Inspector Morse deals with his cases there. Who says the BBC is dumbing down? I laugh mockingly as I go to the petrol station and fill up on the journey.

Down the M11 listening to BBC Radio 4 discussing the life of a woman under Chinese rule. As I turn to the M25 that changes to a rap song which has the line which roughly sounded like "In the living room I see you there, standing in your underwear".

That's Capital FM which to be fair like Kiss 100 or BBC Radio 1 has an audience which does not have me in mind and if I play a little game and listen to music far too young for me that's my problem.

And speaking of problems as I begin to crawl along the M25 when it reverts to cliche. For a moment nothing is moving. Perfect time then for someone to knock on my window.

"Your petrol cap is out" the man kindly informs me, For about an hour then the petrol cap has been swaying along with a lead attached to a car and didn't drop out. A tribute to South Korean engineering and my stupidity. The good samiritan putsthe petrol cap back in.To that man this idiot thanks you.

Mind you it didn't affect the traffic at that moment. There were times such as then where the speed limit was 40 Mph and I would have been grateful to have reached that. Noticed a sign to encourage a new Heathrow extension as I was approaching the M4. Does strike me that if you can't sort out the traffic then it really doesn't seem like a good idea.

One final mention of BBC Radio 4. There came a moment where I was listening to a discussion on the Spanish film director Pedro Almodovar and the accusations that he is a misogynist. A woman responded by saying that his female characters were "cooks" and "creative". Went on by arguing that as a particular character in the film develops she "feels herself". The film buff in me would've nodded appreciatively. However the film buff in me does not exist, though the teenage boy in me was laughing his head off.

Early along the M4 I caught BBC Radio Berkshire. The male host, whose name I didn't catch was interviewing a guy who is or perhaps was an army medic. He actually asked his guest whether he's experienced dealing with situations whilst at war. Changed channels at this point. Later the same man asked a different guest whether lifebelts along canal paths were ever used (spoiler alert:yes) and advised as if delivering new information that the Home guard was a serious organisation, Good to know.

IAnd there was Heart FM again. On one occasion the DJ, Toby Stephens said that after the break it would be Toploader. Now even I who is not a music buff as well as lacking in the film buffery department knows Toploader's only hit. Passed through a junction. Thought I'd missed it as was listening to BBC Radio Wiltshire talking about getting a job. However should be so lucky and soon another junction was passed and I was dancing in the moonlight.

By the time the junction to Chippenham was reached I could catch BBC Radio Wales. I like this station and it's Welsh language equivalent BBC Radio Cymru if only because it's programming mixture makes them the closest to what the BBC World Service used to be like. It also meant, much as I will always try to defend London and Essex, that I was near home.

Until the next time.