England v Wales

I was lucky enough to have a ticket for the game on Saturday and was delighted with an England victory after several recent visits. I sat right at the top of the new South stand and had a great view of the play unfolding even if the players were so far away that it was difficult to tell who was who! The game celebrated the 100th anniversary of Twickenham as a stadium and a DVD of great matches there came with the souvenir programme. I was reminded of the 1980 game (30 years ago!) which I was also lucky to be at, when Bill Beaumont’s team won 9-8 with Dusty Hare’s penalty kick in the last minute giving England their first victory after dominance by the Welsh throughout the 70’s. Although not covered by the DVD, the match was also famous for a certain scantily clad lady making her way onto the pitch to the delight of the crowd and the consternation of Beaumont who was giving his half time talk – being men they didn’t retreat to the changing room but remained on the pitch. I love the line from scrum half Steve Smith, who at the time said to his captain “Don’t look now Bill, but a girl has just run on to the pitch with your backside on her chest!”

Trees 1 year on

It's almost exactly one year since we planted the trees. This time last year it was wet with soft ground which made the planting easy; our current cold snap would have caused us to put it off. The trees did well until the very dry spell in October when it appeared that several had died, with one or two sitting in cracks in the heavy clay unable to find moisture as the roots had barely formed. However, we are hoping that some of the ones I thought might have died will show shoots in the spring and so we have left them in place. I intend to take an anual photo so that we can monitor progress over the years.

The All Blacks at Twickenham

With more happening on Saturday morning as the election approaches I've been able to go down for just one game in the Autumn International series and though the New Zealand match woulds be the pick of the three. England did better than in the previous two games and against pretty ordinary opposition apart from McCaw, but with only one try from 3 games there is plenty of work to do before the six nations.

Rugby Town Juniors Football Club

I was reminded recently that I hadn't been to see my nephew & Godson, Harry Pawsey, playing for his new team, Rugby Town Juniors Under 15s, so I promised Tony Potter, team coach that I would go along on Sunday. It enabled me to visit the fantastic set up that the club have at Kilsby Lane and I was able to see the team win 2-1 with a fantastic winning goal from Harry in the last ten minutes. Great team performance & a number of lads with real talent enjoying themselves. I expect more of the same on my next visit!

Old Laurentians Vice-Presidents Lunch

I had some great years playing Rugby in Rugby for the Old Laurentians Rugby club and was really pleased to be invited to be a Vice-President a few years ago. Actually it's not that great an honour as there are over 100 of us, but it's a great way of keeping an involvement with the club while being relieved of some cash. On Saturday many of us met up for a lunch before the first XV game againt Earlsdon which OLs won 36-23. Photos are taken from Ray Todds's gallery on the clubs website here: http://www.oldlaurentianrfc.co.uk/2008/Home.html

Coldplay at Wembley

On Friday Tracy & I were at Wembley for the Coldplay concert. I had expected the audience to be mainly older and was surprised by the age range and the number of families. Coldplay were superb, put on a really good show of old favourites and all of their latest album, Viva la Vida. This was my first visit to the new stadium and I was very impressed by all the facilities including the link to the Tube station where we were easily able to get into central London afterwards.

Well done England

I'm not a great follower of football, but really enjoyed the England match last night. It showed the difference that confidence can make to a team which is credit to the manager. It's great news that England will be at the World Cup in South Africa and gives many people something to look forward to next summer.

Cycling & traffic

The weather first thing today was superb so, fair weather cyclist that I am, I rode the 7 miles or so to the office this morning. Rugby has a number of new cycle lanes which I used wherever I could but much of my journey was at the mercy of the traffic. It would be great if motorists more general had a better appreciation of the difficulties faced by cyclists, not least potholes at the side of the road which force the rider towards the centre. For this reason, I felt much safer in a cycle lane marked on a footpath, although these have a habit of suddenly disappearing

as at the town end of Dunchurch Rd. Today's Times takes up the cause of cyclists with an article here and a leader column, all of which adds to ensuring awareness of a method of transport which benefits both the individual and the environment. For my part I felt that by cycling today I dont need to go to the gym later!

Back from holiday

I am now back from holiday. With Tracy and Sara I have just returned from a really interesting holiday in Cuba. Regrettably there was little opportunity to blog from Cuba, with internet access in hotels limited and on one occasion not capable of use as the entry code cards hadn’t been delivered.

Cuba is now a fairly standard holiday destination, but we were keen to see a little more than just the capital or beaches and learn something of the country's recent history . So after arriving in Havana and spending a few days there we drove to a resort into the east of the country at Cayo Lavisa. After resting for a few days on the beach there we flew to the second city in the south of the country, Santiago da Cuba, before another car journey to an “All In Resort” at Guradalavaca. We then took a further plane journey back to Havana before coming home.

I hadn't previously visited a Communist country and what I saw was a society continually looking backwards towards the 1950s revolution rather than one looking forwards. The vintage American cars are well-known, and now a tourist attraction, but the whole economy, industry and infrastructure is left behind in the 1950s as well. Some development took place in the 60s and 70s a time when Cuba was allied to Soviet Russia and so attractive colonial buildings sit side-by-side with more recent brutal concrete blocks. Many of the buildings are run down, most of the roads are a very poor state, factories are crumbling and there is evidence of much poverty.

We visited several museums and monuments to the revolution aiming to understand what happened at that time. In Santiago we visited the barracks where the revolution was launched and where the bullet marks in the external plasterwork have been preserved. We saw the balcony where Castro addressed the people once the previous president had fled in 1959. We went to the museum in Havana housing the boat that Castro and Che Guevara took from Mexico to launch the revolution. All very interesting, but little compensation for the low standard of living we could see experienced by the people living in the countryside as we drove by .

Cuba has finally recognised that it has one big asset, which is fantastic beaches and a very warm climate, making it ideal for tourism. Interestingly the all-in-resort we visited was opened by Castro five years ago and the speech he made at that time is written on the wall where he claimed credit for the entire enterprise being of Cuban construction. Now that tourists are welcomed and with a possible relaxation on travel arrangements from the USA it is likely that Cuba will be able to earn valuable overseas exchange and reinvest in its economy and provide growth which will enable living standards to rise.

We enjoyed spending time in a society very different from our own and experiencing a different culture. Everywhere people were pleased to talk to us and learn about where we were from (as well as trying to sell us cigars or earn a tip!). I have returned refreshed and ready for the next few months leading up to the General Election.

Great Game & Great Result

The final Lions test gave us what we wanted - restored pride! The result came from what was clearly a superb spirit running throughout the squad. You have to take your hat off to the coaching team to take players from four countries and mould them into a team in short a short space of time. As a schoolboy I remember listening on the radio in the middle of the night to the test matches on the 71 Lions tour of New Zealand, when my hero at that time, David Duckham was playing. Then tours were much longer which gave more time for a team to come together. That the Lions did so well after a handful of games and at the end of a tiring season is a tribute to all involved. It's important for the Lions concept, unique in professional sport today, to keep going. Looking forward to the next tour in four years time!

Urban Design

Having spent two days last week at the Mast Site Design Enquiry I have just returned from a short break in Milan where I saw some of the best classical and some not so good urban design. The best is in the formal squares and the Galeria shown in the photo, where even the McDonalds reataurant added to the ambiance. The not so good is the stret clutter with moped and scooters left just about anywhere, the shortage of green space and the graffiti. The food we ate was fantastic athough at just over one Euro to the Pound pretty expensive and an indication of why many people will be holidaying at home this year.

What a game!

We had a gang round to watch the British & Irish Lions second test against South Africa. Right up til the last minute we thought we would hang on for a win or at least a draw to keep the series alive. However, as a Rugby enthusiast who has encouraged my sons and other people's sons to take up the game, I was horrified by the eye gouging picked up by the TV camera and seen clearly by the Touch Judge. Schalk Berger should have received a red card rather than yellow and a bigger ban than the eight weeks we have heard about today. The Lions fought superbly and there was no greater presence on the field than the oldest player, Simon Shaw. Despite having lost the series no one will stop me watching this coming Saturday!

Trees Update

I have spent most of the weekend working in the area of trees that we planted late last year. Almost all of the trees seem to have taken with many showing new growth. The photo shows an Alder. I have spoken to a friend who planted her field a few years ago who tells me that we have done well because of a damp winter and spring so far. Ironically the real test will come during the summer when, if it is dry and hot, we can expect to lose a few trees. We have created a footpath, built a couple of benches and built a bridge. I'm looking forward to seeing more progress over the next few months.

Old Laurentian Dinner

People who know me will know how proud I am at having attended our local grammar school Lawrence Sheriff. I was more proud when my son Will made his way there to do his A levels, partly because it meant we would be able to go as father & son to the Old Boys Society Dinner. That took place on Saturday. Speaker funnier than last year!

Alun's Memorial

Twickenham on Saturday was the usual great day out with an England win, which was pretty convincing. I enjoyed meeting up with English friends from Scotland who had brought some Scots down with them. Only for a few minutes in the second half did I think there was any chance of the Scots, who never really looked like scoring a try, coming into the game. The Wales v Ireland game on the big screen in the bar afterwards was pretty exiting too!

I took the opportunity to look out the memorial to my schoolfriend, Alun Williams, who is remembered by a plaque at the ground. Alun was one of the nicest guys ever but who was so unfortunate with his health. I have always associated Alun with Twickenham ever since, despite having both Welsh parents and the most Welsh name, he played there for England Schoolboys against Wales in 1972.

I had thought his plaque was in the wall of fame and was surprised to find it on the ground in the walk of fame! A fitting tribute to a great player and brilliant person and now that I know where it is in the stadium, I will remember to visit each time I'm down for the game.

That's better!

England’s performance on Saturday was everything we’ve been waiting for this season. I’m really looking forward to my trip to Twickenham this coming Saturday when England play Scotland, when I will be watching with Victoria, Will & Tom & meeting up with some old friends and watching another great game!

Typing Update

A few months ago I started at Rugby College on a course designed to improve my typing skills. I'm afraid my attendance record isn’t the best attend and have so far only managed to get up to 17 words per minute which is little better than the one fingered approach I used before starting the course. I aim to continue with the course but in the meantime to try and get more done, I have just bought voice recognition software which I am using for this posting. So far it seems pretty good and I am able to get words down on paper much faster than I will ever be able to type. I'm also sure that the software will help tremendously when it comes to preparing for speeches and presentations. I'll give an update about how I get on!

Half Term

As it was half term last week, we spent a few days in Brighton, where Tracy grew up, visting old friends, taking the undercliff walk to Rottingdean through the Marina, seeing a show at the Theatre Royal, visiting the Pavillion, shopping in The Lanes and playing on The Pier. Good place Brighton!

Attention to detail helps!

A correspondent in today's Rugby Advertiser has drawn attention to, in a friendly & supportive way, my incorrect spelling in my posting about prostate cancer awareness. I have written "prostrate" in error. Typing and spelling have never been my strong points! I am now motivated to work harder on my typing course, where I have not been getting to college as often as I should, and it mightn't be a bad idea to use spellcheck from time to time as well. I'm pleased that despite my error, the message I was trying to pass on has been well received. Cancer isn't something to be taken laying down!

England v Italy

I was offered some tickets for Saturday's match at Twickenham but turned them down as I was anxious to crack on with our doorstep survey which in the event was postponed. However, despite the win, I was happy not to be there and I thought Brian Moore, the former England player & commentator (& Labour supporter!) hit the nail on the head when during yet another quiet passage of play asked despairingly how much a ticket costs. The answer is around £60 to £70 and that is too much for a mediocre performance, lacking in passion against an Italian side selected with no hope of winning. I watched on TV and then saw a great game between Ireland & France where the Irish finally came out on top. With a visit to Cardiff next weekend it's pretty likely that I will be needing to avoid my Welsh friends over the next few weeks unless Jonno can weave some magic on the training ground over the next few days.