The Insomnia Ramblings Post: Welsh Heatwave Edition

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Well at time of writing it's 4:28am and I'm awake. Normally I'd blame insomnia for these rambling posts on an early morning and I still do. But this time it could be the Mediterranean weather that's hit Wales which I mentioned on Monday and is still going strong. That last sentence by the way is one I never, ever, thought I would write.

But remember this. Wales has quantities of water. England hasn't. And as I've written about in the past even a Corbyn government and the British Trades Union Movement could get colonial over it.

And still people don't believe in climate change. Perhaps this question can change their minds.

When was the last time you could remember spring?

Big decision on the losing weight front. From tomorrow 1st July will stop eating crisps. Was going to do the farewell tour of the crisp flavours but I thought no, why add to Gary Lineker's wages? So that's it. No more crisps. And I tell you that will be a far tougher to stop than when I finished eating takeaway fast food.

The anti Welsh comments from the UKIP supporting chairman of Trago Mills is still making the headlines here in Wales. First quick update is this. They've changed the Twitter bio to include the fact that they now have a Merthyr Tydfil store (I'll claim at least some of the credit for that. Sunstroke is making me immodest). Don't give them a round of applause for this. The store was open in April!

I was wondering whether Trago Mills had some sort of Welsh government assistance  (whether local of national) in building the Merthyr store. I didn't see it. Though it may be worth investigating further. After all they actually had planning permission fifteen years ago to build it. And it does seem to be well outside Trago's comfort zone in the South West of England.

And yet again there has been silence from the cowardly streak of that is Welsh Labour. Here is a man who has opinions about Welsh culture that shows his utter contempt for the nation and yet they say and do nothing. Perhaps the Welsh National Health is in trouble when it cannot provide the party that runs the Welsh government  a transplant so that they have a new backbone?

Come to think of it. Why as I suggested in this blog before the Welsh Rugby Union hasn't banned English coach Eddie Jones from attending next year's six nations in Cardiff when the two teams meet for calling the nation "a s****y little country". He insults the nation and yet the organisation that should take a stand has done nothing? Rugby is supposed to be a rough, tough sport but the WRU seem to have a difficulty in growing a pair on this issue.

Sun is out now. Crows are crowing...….Why can't they learn to shut up?

Until the next time.

Trago Mills In Merthyr Tydfill : Don't Loudly Boycott It. Loudly Support It's Rivals Instead

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Many years ago the wife and I went to the South West for our summer break and out of curiosity went to one of the Trago Mills there. Now I've no problem with bargain outlets. But even for me tacky seemed the word of the visit and we came out having bought nothing.

Now many years later Trago Mills has an outlet in Merthyr Tydfill (though you wouldn't know it from it's twitter account that doesn't mention it in it's bio) and it's chairman, former UKIP supporting chairman has criticised the Welsh language signage as visual clutter", condemned Welsh medium education and basically told the Welsh to surrender to the English language and have done with it.

I have spoken before of the dangers the Welsh Language faces post Brexit from this type of attitude. After all he mentions an employee who couldn't spell (in English) furniture (he spelt it fernicher instead).Yet how does he know that the employee wasn't dyslexic? And if the employee is so bad how is it that they employed him? The Chairman thought fernicher was the Welsh word for it....didn't bother to check...mind you that might be because of his eyesight.....speaking of which....

He moaned about the roadsigns being bilingual mentioning his poor eyesight. Which of course brings the question What is he doing driving in the first place?

So all of this shows the chairman's ignorance and that his Mr Magoo like shortsightedness is not just physical it's also mental. Bilingualism is a blessing not a curse and the idea that a nation should use it's language in the twenty first century should not be stopped by the likes of him.

But what to do. I've heard people on Twitter suggest that there should be a public boycott of Trago Mills. I think that would be a mistake. You don't have to be an expert in public relations to know that the Chairman and his cronies will play it as an attack by Welsh language extremists, and risking the jobs of the people who work there.

Now I should stress that I don't know the Merthyr area that well. But on that understanding what I would suggest is to ignore Trago Mills and instead on Twitter, Facebook , Instagram etc people should just loudly and constantly support it's rivals instead. Reputation is everything and gradually Trago will find it's custom dwindling as people move to a store that serves them and doesn't judge them.

And if these other stores do greater business then they could employ people who worked in Trago Mills thus the job losses there would be considerably less.

Just a thought.

Until the next time.

Leyton Orient From A Distance

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I know that I haven't mentioned sports a lot in this blog recently, as most of my spare time has been spent on the agonies and ecstasies of moving house (scrub that, just the agonies).

But there was a piece of news I heard yesterday that cannot go uncommented. After one hundred and twelve years Leyton Orient have been relegated from the Football League.

As explained previously though I'm a West Ham fan there are a group of clubs such as Cardiff, Swansea and Newport County that I consider friends. The best way to describe my attitude to these teams is like being very friendly with a woman but not having an affair as you're faithful to your wife.

But by far the oldest team in this group is Leyton Orient.

When I was much, much younger and the Hammers were playing far away I would travel down the central line from Redbridge to Leyton tube station, walk to Brisbane Road and watch a game. And you know, even if it's from the misty fog of nostalgia can't ever recall a game that was dull.

O's fans had a different sense of humour as well. I can remember a game in the eighties (can't give precise details, the programme having been boxed/crated) against Brighton. It's the first half and the Brighton player Steve Foster was sent off for a dangerous tackle. The away fans at the far end of the ground from me were furious. Screaming blue murder at the decision. The Home fans seemed content enough to do nothing but cheer until half time.

However once the ref blew his whistle the Brighton fans increased their hostile roars against him. The Orient fans? As he was approaching the tunnel they stood up and gave the man a standing ovation.

Brighton now promoted to the Premier League. Orient now relegated from the Football League. There are many twists and turns in football. It can provide joy but also can be cruel to those who don't deserve it.

I mentioned in September that in late nineties took my then girlfriend (and now wife) to watch a match where they faced the Welsh team Merthyr Tydfil in an FA Cup third round match. So it's even been used to help me court her. So thank you for that.

But of course they've never had it easy. Living under the shadow of the bigger London clubs, and particularly West Ham meant that they would always have pressure with regard to support. I support West Ham because it's the closest team to where I was born but am always annoyed by people living by me who supported Arsenal (Man Utd etc) because it was the more successful club so can understand Orient fans' annoyance. And when West Ham won the battle to move into the Olympic Stadium there was a lot of focus on Tottenham's failed attempt to do. But Spurs were just being North London chancers. Leyton Orient was more affected by this move and to me from a distance here in Wales seems to have been ignored by the London authority.

With the exact science that is hindsight the match I saw in September was a shape of things to come. At that time the O's were in top half of the table and their opponents Yeovil Town were at the bottom. But despite what the table standings would have suggested beforehand and that the home team were basically the better side, Yeovil had but one clear opportunity to score and they took it.

But it's what happened after the defeat that I'll always remember. When the Orient fans shouted their protests at the emperor Nero of an owner and he seemed to have waved their concerns away with cold disdain from an executive box. His look at that moment is one I'll never forget, seeming to have viewed the fans as if they were peasants.

It since then it's got much worse. A succession of defeats and indeed managers have led them to the relegation they have to deal with today. But you could argue that off the field the situation is even more worrying. A winding up order due to unpaid debts is hanging over the club and staff haven't been paid since March which they issued a statement about saying that they've had no communication about this from club directors. A situation that goes beyond sad. Tragic is the closest word I can think of.

The attitude of the owner is beyond comprehension. At best it seems to be Nero fiddling whilst Rome burns. At worst the thoughts turn much darker but I don't feel expert enough to discuss it here. I would suggest downloading the Orient Outlook (the best one club podcast I know) when it next comes out to hear the opinions of its more knowledgeable presenters. It'll be a sad listen but an important one for all fans of football.

Leyton Orient. In a hospital bed fighting to stay alive. For what it's worth I hope you'll pull through.

Until the next time.

London/Epping Part Two: In Which I Make A Belated Goodbye To The Boleyn, Go To The Orient And Buy Some Books

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Unusually for me. I actually had a plan for a Saturday when not working. The first part was simple. It had been the first opportunity to go to Upton Park and visit the Boleyn Ground since it's closure and West Ham's move to the Olympic Stadium.Pathetic though it sounds, especially for a fifty two year old man I wanted to say goodbye personally.

It was a grey day but thankfully did not rain which was fine with me. The underground journey was surprisingly swift and soon I was out of the station and face to face with an old friend.

Memories are made of this

Of Brooking and Bonds,Dicks and Cottee to name but a few. This was a place that once had a big part of my life when I was much younger.

A small tear was shed....in a manly East End way of course.

A Wistful Moment

Closest I could get

Nearby there is a statue of the legendary 1966 West Ham World Cup heroes. Had to get a picture of that as well.

The Heroes

And opposite the statue there is...

The Newham Bookshop !!!

Which is organised in the same higgledy piggeldy way I like bookshops to be. So that you, the reader,can revel in discovery.

The Search For Reading Treasure Begins

Unfortunatly wasn't sure what I was going to spend in the next main stop I was going to visit so couldn't splash out. So just bought a few individual essays by George Orwell and Anne Patchett

Today's trio

Upton Park is very much a multi cultural area as it was when I was young. So I didn't think that much had changed. Queens market for example.

Not that much different from when I was here last

So it was coming up to twelve o'clock. Hungry. What shall I have? A Subway? A Greggs? Ethnic cuisine? Well as it happened when I saw this it became a no brainer.

The Legend That Is Percy Ingle

I remember their cream doughnuts as a child....as you do.

Can't say anything has changed since I last went into a Percy Ingle. But nostalgia won. Ordered a cheese roll and a Lucozade.....living on the edge.

It was eventually time to go. Given that I'm living in Wales it's unlikely I'll be visiting Upton Park ever again unless there's a major unexpected swerve in my life. So thankyou Boelyn and Upton Park for the memories. I will always appreciate them.

Thankyou

Sadly No More

Given that it was one of the few times I'm in the area West Ham uncharitably were playing away at West Bromwich Albion. What that meant was that to watch a football match I had to go to the Orient.....Leyton Orient.

What I've realised recently is that Leyton Orient was the precursor to my views on Cardiff City,Swansea City and Newport County in that to me they were like being very friendly with a woman but not having an affair as you're faithful to your wife. It's the only English club I feel that way about. My views normally are mainly neutral (including Millwall) moving to dislike (Tottenham) and absolute hatred (Arsenal).

I regularly visited Brisbane Road when West Ham were playing away. The last time though was about 1996/1997 before I moved to Wales. The O's were playing Merthyr Tydfil in the third round of the FA Cup and I thought it would be a good idea to take the wife there given that she's Welsh. Who says I don't know how to treat a woman?

Anyway they were playing Yeovil Town FC and I made up my mind to go to BRISBANE ROAD (I really can't call it The Matchroom Stadium). I was in for a few shocks firstly ...

These are apartments around the ground

And then ...

All very modern

Went into the club shop (or Superstore as clubs like to call it now). Bought an Orient football shirt for my collection which I'll tell my wife is a Christmas present from her to me (I'll reveal it then), a pen and a match programme.

On paper, by which I mean the match programme, the Os were in the top half the division whilst Yeovil were in the bottom three position. So this should've been an easy victory for the home side.

Before I say anything else let me just say that I hereby claim to be the first person to read a Helene Hanff book during the breaks in a game at Leyton Orient. Here is the proof;

I rest my case

Obviously Leyton Orient were aware I'd last visited about twenty years back. What other reason could there be for the fact that the pre match music came from the Now That's What I Call Nineties back catalgue. Fatboy Slim anyone? Or perhaps you feel you want to "Jump Around"?

(A quick digression. The biggest cheer of the game came at half time when the announcer told the crowd that West Ham were losing three nil (eventually to lose 4-2). Obviously I'm bothered but will always keep the faith. That said. there will need to be a turnaround soon or else the situation will get worse and quickly.)

So to the match. In the first half Orient dominated but just could score. Yeovil occasionally moved forward but it had been mainly the home team. The second half seemed to go exactly the same way. Orient were by far the better team except in finishing. Either a pass went to fresh air or a shot to goal was so wayward the players must have thought that the ball was installed with Satnav so that it could be guided through the net.

BRISBANE ROAD!!!

And there was this. 

"MOVEMENT!"

A guy a few rows behind me kept shouting this throughout the match. And he had a point. What seemed to happen was that Orient would start to attack but whoever had the ball would stop as the player didn't seem to know what to do next. By the time he did the moment was gone.

"MOVEMENT!"

The guy shouted this so often I did wonder whether in a parallel universe he was a ballet teacher.

A draw seemed to be the inevitable result..... until in the seventy sixth minute Yeovil had a corner which they took short. The resulting cross reached the head of Tom Eaves and the away team had scored.

One nil then to Yeovil. With the first and only time in the entire game they showed a genuine piece of skill.

There was of course uproar with the home support. Some people even decided that there was about thirteen minutes left it was time to leave. Orient did try to gain a late equaliser and had a chance kicked off the line but it was to no avail. They had lost.

Boos rang out around the ground.

The player sitting down did not escape abuse

The fans anger then turned towards their owner Francesco Becchetti. "Becchetti out" came the cry. From an executive box he emerged and just waved the fans away as if they were peasants. The Roman Emperor approach it appears.

I'd enjoyed today. Aside of course from the results.

Until the next time.