Travel, Theatre, Music, Cricket, Tennis, Writing, Life
The Silence Of Lorna is quite a harrowing film about Albanians in Belgium trying to get an EU passport.
Perhaps not ideal fare at the end of a hard week’s work, but that’s what we did.
To cheer ourselves up afterwards, we took away food from the Thai Bistro in Chiswick – one of our favourites. It has changed its name a few times since 2009, including some infeasibly unpronouncable and unmemorable names, but at the time of writing, June 2019, it is named Tor Thai Bistro.
A very beautiful, flute-based, baroque concert. What more could one ask for at the start of a new year – our first concert of 2009?
All three are excellent musicians and they played beautifully individually and together.
This is what they played:
We went home very happy – I suspect with some Ranoush shawarmas in our hands.
Another winter piece for the Middlesex Till We Die (MTWD) website.
This one was supposed to go up the week before, but Andrew Strauss messed up my editorial plans for that week by selfishly being appointed England captain.
Still, I’m sure the piece was just as effective on 14 January as it would have been on 7 January:
Stats The Way (Aha Aha) I Like It – click here.
Just in case anything ever happens to MTWD, I have scraped the piece to Ogblog – only click the link below if the link above doesn’t work:
Middlesex till we die – Stats The Way (Aha Aha) I Like It
I had been really impressed with Hereford Road when I visited it with John a few months earlier…
…so Janie and I arranged to take Souad and Jamil there – an opportunity to reciprocate for their warm hospitality in (mostly Lebanese) restaurants.
I don’t recall much about the evening – nor does Janie. I think they liked it but I also think Souad and Jamil’s European food preference is for Italian.
I recognised Andrew Strauss’s appointment as England cricket captain with a rapid editorial piece for the Middlesex Till We Die (MTWD) website.
Andrew Strauss Of Middlesex – England Captain – click here.
Just in case anything ever happens to MTWD, I have scraped the piece to Ogblog – only click the link below if the link above doesn’t work:
Middlesex till we die – Andrew Strauss of Middlesex, England Captain
We arranged for a gathering of friends and the three sisters to see in 2009. With Phillie’s health now unquestionably in decline, it was a fine balance between ambition and pragmatism. But the big points were that Phillie wanted to dance and she wanted that close set of friends and family with her.
So we planned to take a big table at a public gathering in that hotel in Ealing currently (2016) known as the DoubleTree Hilton – I can’t remember what it was called at that time – Janie thinks it might have been a Ramada back then. You know the one; on the junction of the Uxbridge Road and Hanger Lane. Not normally our sort of thing, but the ability for the out-of-towners to simply retreat to their room without the need for transport/going out of doors was a big plus.
These five must have been a terrifying quintet at school
Considering the quality of photographers present (not least Anthea Simms and Mitchell Sams) the overall quality of the photo set is less than special…
…with a handful of notable exceptions….
This proves that the photo pros were mostly busy enjoying themselves rather than taking snaps, which is a good thing.
It was a remarkable evening, not least because Phillie had been so poorly in the run-up to the evening, we thought even the day before that she might need to be in hospital over the new year festivities. In the end, Phillie had a great time and danced almost all evening. We did not get any pictures of the dancing, although dancing we all, not just Phillie, certainly did.
Indeed, we all had a great time. Even me, despite evidence to the contrary in the following picture!
13 December 2008 Hil & Chris
This will have been a Christmas presents visit with Janie cooking dinner for all of us. The details of the menu are not recorded in Janie’s diary, but we do know that Janie & I took a cab after dinner and stayed at my flat, letting Hil and Chris have Sandall Close for the night while we went back to Sandall Close via the tennis court in the morning.
21 December 2008 Charlie
Charlie visited her grandma and then came over to Sandall Close for dinner and to stay the night. The menu is not recorded again, but the words “Champagne in fridge” do appear in Janie’s diary. Priorities.
25 December 2008 Christmas Lunch In Battersea
With Dad and Len now gone, we felt that the gathering at Janie’s place would no longer be appropriate. We ended up booking a restaurant in Battersea – I cannot remember its name or how we came across it, but it seemed keenly priced for Christmas Day and suitably located twixt North-West and South-West London.
I recall our Addison Lee driver really struggling to find Battersea High Street and getting very stressy with us. I recall the place being pretty darned good for the price, in terms of food, drink and ambience. I’m pretty sure it was just me, Janie, Hils, Jacquie and Mum that year. Janie thinks Michael and Dorothy joined us, but I think their first appearance for a Christmas Day do was the following year.
I think mum picked up the tab for all five of us – hence me not having a record of the name of the place.
31 December 2008 – New Years Eve Gathering At The Ramada
Phillie really hadn’t been at all well that autumn and there was real doubt as to whether she should or would attend this event. But we had arranged it with her in mind – she wanted to dance – so we took a large table at a communal New Years Eve dinner and dance at the Ramada Ealing (the DoubleTree by Hilton at the time of writing, January 2019).
Wouldn’t have been our choice independently but, hey, it was what Phillie wanted and everyone at that time thought this might be her last hoorah. In the end, Phillie needed to have herself put together with sellotape and promise the doctor that she wouldn’t not to dance too much to get permission to attend.
We think the attendees were Max, Micky, Kim, Anthea, Mitchell, Hil, Chris, Tony, Phillie, Charlie (I think), Janie and me.
Phillie, in her inimitable style, complied with “doctors orders” by dancing all the rest of us off the dance floor – I’m talking non stop dancing for hours. Kim and Janie’s thoughts on the matter are captured photographically below:
I think we went to two movies in one afternoon/evening that season.
Janie wrote down both of these movies in her diary fort hat day and I seem to recall working out a way round seeing them both on the same day – by seeing Lemon Tree (the shorter) in the afternoon in Swiss Cottage and then driving to Panton Street for I’ve Loved You So Long.
You could park around Panton Street, even on days when the parking was free, at Twixtmas time back then. Of course, Twixtmas wasn’t known as Twixtmas back then.
But I digress.
Lemon Tree is about a Palestinian widow defending her lemon grove – click here for IMDb details:
We found Lemon Tree very affecting and moving. Superb movie.
I’ve Loved You So Long – click here for IMDb link – is a French film about family and stuff.
I recall we didn’t get as much out of the French film as we did out of the Israeli/Palestinian one. But I also recall we were glad to have seen both.
Only the one picture from the 2008 event can be found some 15 years later, although somewhere on a backup device somewhere I suspect there are more.
Anyway.
It was a good and memorable evening that year. Giles Abbott (who had been doing voice work with several of us) and Soosy were guests of honour that year.
We had hoped to go to Dennis Severs’ House for the pre-dinner outing, buy that idea fell through for that occasion – we had a works outing there a few months later instead.
Hence we had drinks at our St Helen’s Place offices before traipsing to 1 Blossom Street for an excellent meal in a private room. All the regular Z/Yen Xmas party stuff ensued: eating drinking, Secret Santa, gimcrack gifties, quizzing, and of course the seasonal song.
(Song to the Tune of “Merry Christmas Everybody”)
Are you hanging Z/Yen e-diaries on your wall?
Are you off with Jez for one great long pub crawl?
Are you going somewhere fancy?
Like Dubai or Grand Cayman?
Or a tube around the Circle Line Zone One?So here it is,
Z/Yen at Christmas,
Everyone’s in party mood,
Except for Ian’s vibe,
He’s more like Mr Scrooge.Are you waiting for the telephone to ring?
Are you sure you’ve got the voice enough to sing?
Is it Linda always tells you
You’ve received more client files,
That’ll take so long to process you’ll get piles…So here it is,
Z/Yen at Christmas,
Everybody’s having fun,
Look to the future now
We sing in Unison.Are you hanging Z/Yen e-diaries on your wall?
Has Monique picked up another cold sales call?
Does he claim he’s Michael’s brother?
Or he’s Ian’s long lost friend?
Does his patter drive you half way round the bend?So here it is,
Z/Yen at Christmas,
Everybody’s up the creek,
Look to the future now
We’ll still be here next week!![Someone has to shriek like Noddy Holder…………..”Z/Yen’s Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”]
So here it is,
Z/Yen at Christmas,
Everybody’s up the creek,
Look to the future now
We’ll still be here next week!!
I’d forgotten about this piece until I stumbled across it while going through my MTWD articles. Patrick Kidd of The Times asked me to write the piece for their on-line thingie.
Here’s the MTWD article about it – click here.
Just in case SportNetwork lose the above piece in the meantime, I’ve uploaded it here on Ogblog, so this link will work.
The link to The Times article no longer works – perhaps because of the pay wall (although I’d expect that to at least ask you to pay) or perhaps The Times used similar techies to the SportNetwork crowd.
Anyway, here is the text I submitted – I don’t suppose Patrick edited it much.
Ged Ladd, from the Middlesex supporters’ website “Middlesex Till We Die” http://www.cricketnetwork.co.uk/boards/list/s66.htm?67 presents an Ashes Top Ten of heroes who have not only played in Ashes Tests but have also played first class cricket for Middlesex.
- Andrew Stoddart. Andrew Stoddart played 16 tests against Australia, captaining half of them, in five series between 1887/8 and 1897/8; his highlight being 173 in Melbourne in a winning 3-2 cause in 1894/5, starting a great tradition of Middlesex players captaining Ashes series victories home and away. A stupendous sportsman, he played both rugby and cricket for England; he also famously once scored 485 in 370 minutes for Hampstead against Stoics after a sleep-free night on the razz. Sadly, he found the game of middle-aged mundanity harder than elite sport; in 1915 he took his own life, perhaps due to debts and ill health.
- Sir Pelham (Plum) Warner. Plum Warner was a distinguished Middlesex and England Captain who captained England to a 3-2 series win in Australia in 1903/4. Like several of the Middlesex and England captains, his personal record in tests was less distinguished than his captaincy record, but Plum Warner did more than enough to get a stand at Lord’s named after him; the one between the Pavilion and the Grandstand.
- Patsy Hendren. Elias Henry Hendren scored over 57,000 first class runs between 1907 and 1938, including 51 tests, 28 of which were against Australia at a very respectable twixt-wars average of just under 40, including 3 tons and 10 fifties. His one test wicket was against the Aussies. An Ashes hero and a Middlesex Collosus; any man with 170 first class hundreds to his name is something special.
- Gubby Allen. George Oswald Browning Allen is another Middlsex and England captain with a Lord’s stand named after him (the small one between the Pavilion and the Tavern Stand). Genuine all-rounder Gubby Allen quietly took 21 vital wickets in the Bodyline series. He also captained England in an Ashes series, but (unusually for a Middlesex and England captain) it was the losing (2-3) tour of Australia following the Bodyline series.
- Denis Compton. The Brylcream Boy himself not only scored 39,000 first class runs and played 78 tests (phenomenal numbers for a player whose career spanned the war), but he also regularly appeared as a winger for Arsenal. He averaged just under 43 in the 28 tests he played against the Aussies (compared with an overall test average just over 50) and is the third of our Middlesex Ashes heroes to have a Lord’s stand named after him; between the Grandstand and the Edrich Stand (Bill Edrich just missed the cut for our heroes list).
- Jeff Thomson. One half of the “Lillian Thomson” pairing which terrorised England’s batsmen on several occasions, Thomo took 100 England scalps at just over 24 in his 21 test outings against England. Given his personal success, he was on the losing side surprisingly often for a top-ranking Aussie; the next three Middlesex and England Ashes heroes were a large part of the reason for his failures.
- Mike Brearley. A master of the art of captaincy, Brearley captained England to three Ashes series wins in the 1970s and 1980s; his only low point being a 0-3 series defeat in the “non-Ashes, aluminium bat” tour. His personal batting effort, averaging just over 22 in 19 Ashes matches, is almost beside the point in the context of that unique degree of Ashes captaincy success. Self-effacing and currently president of the MCC, it seems unlikely that a Lord’s stand will be named after him for the foreseeable future.
- Mike Gatting. Twenty-seven tests against the old enemy at an average of 37+, he scored 4 tons and 12 fifties against Australia. One of Middlesex’s finest, he will long be remembered as the victim of Shane Warne’s “ball of the 20th century” and also (hopefully not for too much longer) as the last England captain to bring the urn back from a winning Ashes tour, 1986/7.
- John Embury. A 64 test veteran, that’s a massive test haul for an English off-spinner. 25 of those tests were against Australia; he took 78 scalps in those tests at under 35s. Effectively a bowling all-rounder, he also managed a Brearley-busting average of 28 in his Ashes outings; undoubtedly a man who lifted his perforamances for the big occasions, none more so than the battles against Australia.
- Glen McGrath. England’s utter nemesis for donkey’s years (ask Atherton, for example), his 30 test outings against England yielding 157 wickets at just over 20 including 10 fivefers tells just part of the story. His ankle-busting encounter with a stray practice ball just before the start of play at Edgbaston in 2005 was probably the single most significant Ashes series-turning event in history.
If the editor were to allow me the indulgence of an eleventh man, wicket-keeper John Murray would make an excellent addition to the above ten to make up a complete team. It’s a little batsman heavy but a bit of medium pace from Gatt in his prime plus some of The Brylcream Boy’s dobblers would provide some makeshift bowling on the rare occasions it would be needed with that strong four-man attack.
I’d like to thank Seaxe Man at MTWD whose excellent three-part series of articles on Middlesex’s England Captains, “Did You Know?”, provided much inspiration for several of the above pen-portraits:
http://www.cricketnetwork.co.uk/main/s66/st89359.htm
http://www.cricketnetwork.co.uk/main/s66/st89910.htm
http://www.cricketnetwork.co.uk/main/s66/st90380.htm
