mallorn.net

Archive for July, 2008

Over the last couple of weeks Ive posted a couple of musings on the venerable pub quiz and whether its days are numbered.

This Sunday Chris at the Curlew arranged a charity night for Sunday night, which clashed with the regular Pop Quiz, so Pete, the Pop Quiz man moved into South Woodham town centre and ran the quiz at the bar in The Oakland hotel. By all accounts it was successful, with more teams and cheaper beer; Ive received emails telling me that the Pop Quizs move to the Oakland is permanent. Cerrtainly a new facebook group has been formed.

Last evening I found myself calling into The Railway where Howard was running his weekly General Knowledge quiz, there were about a dozen teams and the place was buzzing. In stark contrast to The Curlew which only had a couple of people in – I know I popped in there on the way to The Railway.

However, I learned that Howard has been told by the people who run The Railway that his services are no longer required. Personally I find that somewhat bizarre, but Im sure that Howard will be able to relocate to another bar in town and his regular quiz goers will follow him.

Okay, so its a very small claim to the merest hint of fame, but I was trawling through the hit counts for my various websites… (The Lodge Inn gets about 280 visits a week) when I wondered how many people venture to this here little site. The answer is nearly 14,000 for the sites various incarnations since February 2000.

Of course the next question is why people would bother? After all these musings from the hard shoulder of the information superhighway might make good therapy for yours truly, but theyre hardly earth-shattering.

The vast majority of visitors come courtesy of googles image search, with fellow petrol heads seeking out images of Saab 900s and Cortina Carousels, but some have been steered here from Wikipedia, seeking further information about the Tolkien streets of South Woodham Ferrers, the article I orginally wrote for the South Woodham Informer back in 2001.

So, if youve arrived here from Wikipedia, welcome, make yourself a cuppa and have a look around.

I think I should go back to my erstwhile colleagues in Edinburgh and protest my innocence regarding not having anything younger that 20 years old on my iPod. My post “Old Music” from July 19th relates – here.

While trawling through my iPod this morning I stumbled upon “The Gunman and Other Stories” another forgotten classic by Prefab Sprout – from 2001. Thats comparatively recent, compared to much of the stuff on there.

Prefab Sprout are, in my humble opinion, a vastly underrated band, and their leader Paddy MacAloon one of our finest songwriters. He writes songs that are unashamedly romantic, with wonderful lush arrangements that are a joy to the ear. I guess romance is a bit out of fashion at the moment, but Im resolved to load the Prefab Sprout back catalogue onto my iPod for later in the week.

Already Im looking forward to the pop songs of From Langley Park to Memphis and the schmaltz of Andromeda Heights.

Sadly Paddy has had some ill health of late. Having nearly lost his eyesight in the nineties he released a solo album, “I Trawl The Megahertz” an album which explores late nights listening to the radio.

The title track is a rambling orchestral piece, over 22 minutes long, which was described by one reviewer as Tubular Bells for the new millennium.

There are a few hushed rumours circulating that he might be recording a new Prefab Sprout album.

I hope so.

I miss him.

Well Im not sure if its a ghost or some tech-savvy pixies.

We have a media centre PC in the kitchen, its an HP Touchsmart which is pretty cool, it does all the usual PC type things, shows and records TV programs and has a touch screen.

It also either has a mind of its own, or its irresistable to the resident ghost or pixies.

I often come into the kitchen to find its turned itself on. Or well be sitting in the lounge watching TV, when the things turns itself on. Its really noticable because theres a three or four second delay between the TV and the PC, as it writes a continuous stream of program data to the hard drive.

The pixies seem to be getting more adventurous.

Last night at about midnight, they turned on the Sony Radio/CD/MD thingy (a CMT-MD1) I bought when I thought minidiscs were the way forward – heck we all make mistakes!

Anyway this gizmo sits in the Utility Room. And last night the pixies turned it on.

Loud.

Loud enough to wake Val upstairs and shell sleep through Argmageddon - although I confess I was sleeeping the sleeping of the just.

As in just back from the pub.

So while I slept, Val went down and turned the radio off.

But spookily, it was on again, albeit at a much lower volume, when I went downstairs at six to feed the cats.

Very strange.

Once upon a time in Romford, back in the early seventies, a bunch of us in the 6th form got together and took over the management of the school magazine. We were Vaughan, Pete Davis, Bob Windsor, Talat, Wilf and yours truly. After The Mag we ran the school discos, and organised an end of school revue… In our own suburban way we were rebels, man. We were never gonna conform.

Needless to say both Bob and I ended up working for banks, while Vaughan ended up at Ford.

I lost touch with most of the guys when I moved up to Sheffield after my last A Level exam. When I first returned down south from Sheffield in 1985/86 I attempted to hook up with Bob Windsor, only to learn that hed been transferred to Tokyo. Never mind, we managed to meet up on my various trips to Japan over the years.

As I recall the last time Id met up with Graham and Tony was on one of Bob Windsors earlier visits home, in April 1987 I think, just before my thirtieth birtday. Talat Id met up with a few weeks later, when Val had arranged a surprise flying lesson with him as my birthday present; and Bob Windsor and I caught up with each other on one of my trips to Tokyo in 1998. We got very very drunk at a Karaoke bar in Roppongi. Another of the guys, Arthur Winn, had left school after the fifth form, but he lives in South Woodham Ferrers and weve bumped in to each other.

When the jungle drums announced that Bob Windsor was coming back to the UK for one of his occasional visits, the suggestion of getting together for a few bers and a curry was made. Some of the guys arranged to meet up for a round of golf (Im with Mark Twain on that one) but the idea of a ruby was almost irresistable.

I started calculating… the total period since Id seen some of these guys totalled something like ninety years, jeez, sometimes I feel like Im getting old!

The venue was Chutney Joes in Brentwood, the evening kicked off well and just got better, within minutes we were comfortable in each others company, dredging up the names of former class members, the girls from the school year below us, and the more eccentric teachers.

The meal, while almost a distraction, was excellent and while Arthur and Talat left after the meal (Talat had an early flight the following morning) Bob, Tony, Graham and I adjourned to a nearby pub to continue our conversations over a drink.

Talat suggested we arrange a boys golf trip to his place in Marbella next spring (Ill pack my Mark Twain books); while Im sceptical that that will happen, I certainly hope we all get together a bit sooner than twenty years time.