APRIL UPDATES

 

SPOTTED IN MAYFAIR .....

                             .... the second most expensive number plate in the UK. 

     I don't know how much it is worth but A1, on a black mini, is valued at £5 million pounds. Of course, stealing these cars would be pointless as the plates are worthless unless registered by the owner. Whoever registered B1 on this 2014 Smart car has paid their road tax but have failed to inform the DVLA of the change the colour - it was originally black and (without the plate) now worth around £1000.

 

 FREE TOURS BY FOOT  I just discovered this and have taken the Mayfair and Rock & Roll walks. They were both very good - and I should know. As a result watch out for some updates on my Mayfair, Pall Mall and Soho efforts. The walks last around two hours, are free and you are invited to leave a donation. They do lots of other cities and you need to book. Highly recommended.

    London's most famous greasy spoon cafe added to ELECTRIC COMPANY ......

     This blog has now attracted interest from 20 different countries. Russia is a recent addition so I've resurrected a few thoughts on SALISBURY, apparently a popular tourist destination for GRU operatives.

New release: Tomorrow is a Lie by The Roebucks, Lola Gordon's band. Check it out on Spotify.

Who'd be a sports commentator?

    Martin Tyler has been criticised for describing a tackle by Son Heung-min as "something you might see in martial arts". He was previously deemed insensitive for saying Ukraine's Heorkiy Bushchan needed to "soldier on" against Wales. I've both worked and played football with Martin Tyler and he's a thoroughly nice man. Aged 77, Martin is still a fine football commentator* and could do without all this nonsense.

     Surprisingly, at the last Olympics, all but one taekwondo golds went to Europeans or Americans. How dare they? Sounds a bit racist to me.

     Anyhow, it looks like in future I may have to rethink referring (affectionately) to my Malaysian relatives as "your lot" - as in "your lot don't have any grey hair/are cute/are slim/are multilingual/are good at martial arts", etc.

     I once moonlighted (cash-in-hand) with Martin for the Christian Broadcasting Network’s coverage of the World Games. I especially remember blood draining from the faces of the squeaky-clean CBN presenters on the day they were informed women's bodybuilding was all we had for their programme.  And it's the only time Mike Brock and I were verbally blessed on air – by name.

    The World Games is a festival for sports considered too minor (or boring) for the Olympics. These include ballroom dancing, korfball, casting and eight different martial arts.

     Korfball is a cross between basketball and netball, is not boring, and would make a good Olympic sport. But each team is made up of four men and four women so would only provide more hoops to negotiate in the current transgender debate.

     Casting is fishing without water. And fish. It is very boring.

     The Germans regularly top the medals table at the World Games. To achieve this domination I suspect they’ve been cunningly inventing minor sports (eg drone racing, the invasion of the Sudetenland).

     PS perhaps the classic unintended gaffe was David Coleman describing Asa Hartford as “a wholehearted player” after the midfielder was diagnosed as having a hole-in-the-heart condition.

     * apart from still saying ".... and it's live" years after sports channels were invented.

  Coming soon ...... HIGHGATE CEMETERY

      I visited the last resting places of around 80 famous people including Karl Marx, George Michael, Michael Faraday and George Eliot. It's a grave issue which may take some time to write up.