Friday, November 30, 2007

An apologia no. 2

We here at Bogun Towers are very disappointed about the lack of recent reporting. We blame Polly for making him promise not to drink until they go skiing at Christmas (although he may have slipped up on that once or twice).

Desperate times call for desperate measures and so we have agreed to sponsor a skiing trip for him, Gay George (Not Actually Gay) and scrapper to Verbier next weekend to hopefully provide some decent raw material.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

The inestimable Mrs Churchill

This last weekend saw a family christening. His cousin Amanda's second child, and first son, to be precise named Zachary.

Foolishly he chose to rely on the RAC website for directions which, as he discovered, works on the basis that whenever one is turning off a roundabout one is turning left. When one is in the more general sense actually turning left this can, and did, cause confusion.

Fortunately despite his travails he made it on time. Whilst waiting for the other child to arrive (15 minutes late, it may be fashionable to be late for weddings but we feel christenings are a step too far) he observed that, as the other child was called Alfie, it was the A to Z of christenings. The snake in the grass that was the vicar promptly leapt on this line and sought to use it in the service without attribution. Much to the vicar's chagrin his sense of comic timing rather ruined the line in any event.

After the service he shot off to get to Hampstead to have lunch with Pofydd, Christine and Chris, Dogs, TCO and most importantly Mr and Mrs Churchill who are visitng from DC.

Again the RAC let him down this time directing him to turn right into a road that cannot be turned right into and he was a good hour late on this occasion.

A splendid luncheon (at the same place as he had supper with Katie Melua, passim) was had and much catching up engaged in. Afterwards the party withdrew to Christine's pad for coffee when our idiot managed to get TCO's name wrong in the most appalling manner. His effusive apologies just about made up for his faux pas.

The usual splendid weekend in other words.

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Green Fingers

Finding himself at a loose end he decided to invite himself down to see the Pofydd in Aberystwyth. As a price for their hospitality he was however instructed to a) bring wine and b) be prepared to do some gardening.

To add spice to the weekend he decided to get the train over which was a real treat surrounded by the dregs of humanity. The highlight was the drunk woman (never a good sign when they are drinking neat vodka out of a coke bottle) who tried to engage him in conversation. She went so far as to pull his headphones out of his ears. This delightful creature ended the conversation with the memorable line "you need to lose some weight you fat bastard."

The Pofydd were markedly more friendly.

Saturday was marked as a day clearing the front garden and whilst Dafydd set about chopping down a tree (a subject to which we will refer) he was handed a rather posh looking Hoe and told to get on with it. His efforts in clearing the garden speak for themselves as does his sacrifice of rather nasty blister.

Meanwhile as we have observed Dafydd was cutting down a tree with admirable results unfortunately when Polly appeared to inspect their work she observed her surprise that he had chosen to chop down that tree, well we say surprise what we mean is horror. Dafydd will likely never forgive himself for picking the wrong one.

He had rather thought that this would be the extent of his efforts but come Sunday he was required to have a bonfire. An act of sweet cruelty as he is allergic to bonfire smoke.



That said a splendid weekend barely tarnished by the pact between them that they will not now drink until Christmas. We doubt he will last long.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Delivery debacle

Having purchased his boy's toys (passim) the next challenge was getting them delivered. His flat is in a rather busy coomerical district and parking large wagons anywhere near it is a challenge and so he told them to send a small van.

We do not feel we necessarily need to paint the picture but for those of you who are a little slow on the first day the delivery was due a large lorry turned up, the driver decided he could not park and off he went promising it would be redelivered on a small van two days later first thing in the morning.

Our subject can be extraordinarily naive but on this occasion showed unusual suspicion and later that day rang the delivery company to check. Surprise surprise it had been booked in for another day entirely. After a complete strop it was re-arranged back to be a small van, first thing 2 days later.

Cometh the day cometh the hour not cometh the van. At 1000 he rang to enquire where his first thing delivery was. His ire at being informed he was in fact an afternoon delivery was impressive.

Eventually they turned up at 1630 in, can you guess?, a lorry. After much weedling and cajoling they agreed to park it up relatively close and set to work delivering the toys and setting them up.

Fortunately after all this the toys are fantastic although the TV does rather dominate the flat.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Idiot

It is rare that we at Bogun Towers can be so forthright in our condemnation of our subject's stupidity but on this occasion we are on firm ground. We present the facts unvarnished for your consideration:-

1. He borrows a pool car from work to get to Birmingham for Friday and Monday.
2. He therefore leaves his own car at work in Bristol.
3. Tuesday morning he drives down to Bristol in the pool car.
4. Tuesday evening he intends to drive back to Birmingham in his own car.
5. However Tuesday morning, half way down the M5, he remembers his car keys are in...Birmingham.

If anyone disagrees with our "Idiot" analysis do let us know.

Political slot

We at Bogun Towers try to steer clear of political commentary but we feel obliged on occasion to step into the fray and this is one of those occasions.

Our previous Foreign Secretary was, to say the least, an uninspiring character; Margaret Beckett surely comes top of the list of women least likely to reach high office (run a close second by the new Home Secretary but that is another matter) and as her idea of a foreign holiday was to take the caravan to Cornwall her qualifications for the Foreign office looked a little thin but at least she tried to do the job.

Our latest incarnation, David Miliband, simply cannot even be bothered to do the job; this week the Saudi Arabian King and his Foreign Secretary are in town for their first visit in some 20 years, unsurprisingly many months ago a meeting was arranged between Miliband and the Saudi Foreign Secretary but at the weekend Miliband cancelled the meeting because he considered that the Saudis are not important enough in providing stability in the Middle East, keeping terrorism at bay and in controlling massive oil reserves to make them more important that somebody else’s child joining his family.

We despair.

Shoptastic

A quiet weekend has just passed, indeed perhaps the quietest weekend he has had for some time. Having spent most of Saturday asleep (no doubt catching up from the sleep shortage built up over that period) he got up just in time to watch the Ospreys stuff Worcester and then decided to go and see about buying a new TV.

20 minutes later (what a salesman's dream) he walked out of the store with a new 50 inch TV, surround sound system and Playstation 3 and quiet a lot poorer.

He has managed to avoid using a credit card since before his travels and so unsurprisingly the fraud program at his credit card company was set aringing by this purchase and telephone authorisation required. The usual stumbling through security questions and trying to guess the password set many years ago followed. However it is clear that the credit card people were really nervous about this transaction as about 20 minutes later they rang him to check that it really was him. Now one security check would seem reasonable but two?

Friday, October 19, 2007

Cheetah

We at Bogun towers have been intrigued by this video. In the year 2007 and so many years after the fall of apartheid is it really appropriate for 2 fat Afrikaans to be setting a wild cat on a black man?

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

York Races, Part 2

Having survived the delightful horror of finding last night's kebab, girded his loins for turning up at the racecourse in tails and dealt with Daf's new look the troops headed to the Knavesmire for the Ebor meet.

Polly of course won on the first two races and despite the foul weather and some criminally poor luck on his behalf a first class time was had by all. He of course was the only person at the races in tails which had the surprising advantage that none of the gate-wardens asked him to produce his badge and so he found himself in the owners' enclosure towards the end of the day.

With money rolling out of everyone else's pockets they went into town to the Lowther (scene of much drinking in times gone past) to watch the rugby (apparently England were playing France in a semi-final). With the dinner table booked for half-time the party rather split between the girls who hate rugger and the welsh on the one side and the others on the other side with the first side heading to dinner and the others staying in the pub and cheering themselves hoarse.

With England through to the final, what a miracle, an inordinate quantity of booze flowed late into the night.

The best said about Sunday is that breakfast was splendid, the 4 hour train trip less so.

Another first class weekend with chums, well done Polly.

Monday, October 15, 2007

York races, part 1

To celebrate the splendid Polly's birthday a mob of the usual suspects descended on their Alma Mater (York) to drink, eat and gamble at the races. Having all survived the various horrors of their journeys they headed into town hitting the Hansom Cab (scened of many a horror in years gone by) amongst others.

The inestimable Jib-cub was roused out of his den and was on fine form and not changed a bit, the last time he was scene was some 11 years ago, whilst claiming tiredness our hero called it a night around 1130. He purchased a kebab on the way home which he promptly forgot about and put in the freezer much to everyone's surprise when discovered the next morning.

Unicum not Kumul

Apparently we were mistaken in reporting the drinking of Kumul as it appears the actual firewater was something called Unicum. We apologise to the makers of Kumul for blackening their good name and wholeheartedly blacken the names of the makers of Unicum instead.

We are sailing, again


Part 2 of his lengthy trip away (passim) was a couple of days sailing in the Solent. In accordance with usual principles on arrival on the good ship Whistler his response to the query, "so got your oilskins and sleeping bag?" was a resounding no.

A few fevered moments running round the chandlery turned up some spare oilskins to his considerably relief as the forecast was not exactly brillant.

No such problems on day one however with conditions totally becalmed and the sailing really being motoring. Day two however was much more to our liking with the rain horizontal the visibility a touch poor (always a treat in the busiest piece of water in the world) and as can be assumed with him tied to the helm he copped the worst of it, particularly as it became apparent early doors that the oilskins were lying around spare for a reason (their lack of oilskin type qualities).

Friday, October 12, 2007

The horror of Kumul

His long trip away's first leg involved a dinner party thrown by the inestimable Christine and Chris (the other guests being Dogs, Glen and TCO). A splendid feast was layed on and great badinage and conversation ensued until the Kumul hove into view. Kumul is an Hungarian spirit and is uttely repellant; meths would be a more attractive digestif.

He rapidly fell down hill with that inside him and awoke the next morning with a raging hangover. Imagine his joy therefore that due to engineering works he could not get back to his mother's by public transport.

Forget me not - Part 2

Several days away from home were planned and his forgetfuly streak bore up well with him opening his bag at his mother's on Saturday morning to discover a complete lack of socks and underwear. Should be charming come the end of his trip.

Forget me not - Part 1

His employers took a table recently at the Birmingham Brain Game for Macmillan Cancer Relief. He failed to check the dress code and was delighted to be informed 5 minutes before it was due to start it was dinner suits. A quick check at home revealed his dinner suit was not in Brum but in Bristol and so a frantic trek round Brum ensured which ended with him buying a new dinner suit.

As he said to Dicky on getting to the event, "if I see anyone in lounge suits there is going to be trouble." His joy was unconfined when he spotted Austin Healey wearing one.

Recovering his composure did not seem to aid the team much as they came around the bottom third for the evening. Plenty of beer was consumed so not all bad.

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Rugby overload

Another weekend with chums loomed but this time up in Wakefield with his best man, Tom, his lovely wife, Lucy, and their little girl, Emily.

A frankly appalling amount of rugby was watched starting on Friday night with the Frogs stuffing the Bogtrotters, followed by two games of domestic New Zealand rugby Saturday morning (Hawke's Bay v. Waikato and North Harbour v. Bay of Plenty), followed by England v. Samoa, South Africa v. Tonga (great match from the Tongans) and Argentina v. Namibia. Oh and to top all that Wigan v. Hull in the Rugby League as well.

In amongst this sporting frenzy he managed to watch most of the Twenty20 cricket and catch a shocking cold from the devilish Emily.

As usual a splendid weekend with chums and even better he was so ill he had to skivve off Monday from work.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Green and Pleasant Land

After the debacle of the rugby (passim) he set off to spend the weekend with his splendid friends Rob and Helen and the Pofydd entity (along with Pop the dog) at Rob and Helen's place in Beaconsfield, South Buckinghamshire (it is important to add that detail apparently, well Rob always used to at university).

A long tramp in the country early Saturday to pick blackberries followed by the boys flopped in front of the TV watching the Wales Australia match (our analysis was good performance from the taffs, shame about Thomas G's efforts at getting over-physical backfiring, with a lot of luck could have won it) and then enjoying some splendid wine, food (including blackberry crumble) and the usual badinage.

Sunday was more of the same; walking in the countryside (save with pigs on this occasion).

The usual splendid weekend with chums in other words.

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Rugby was the winner

His firm very generously hired a function room and laid on food and drink to enable the staff to sit back and relax and watch the first big match of the Rugby World Cup - England -v- South Africa.

Now your correspondent maintains a neutral pose in all matters and is merely concerned to see that rugby is the winner but having listened into Mike Catt's pre-match interview ("so, mike do you think you can win it?"..."er,... well i suppose anything is possible in international rugby") we at Bogun Towers were somewhat concerned about England's prospects and as it turned out rightly so. Indeed the only thing that England's supporters could be glad about was that their pre-match concerns about whether they had a good enough kicker were not proved good (mind you that was only because England did not have a kick at goal).

It seems the only people to enjoy the evening were the four Welshmen (our subject included) who declared themselves delighted to see rugby coming out the winner.

Monday, September 17, 2007

Gone climbing

Having fished out the river local to his sister's (passim) he has had to find alternative entertainment for his nieces. Encouraging them to climb trees appears to be the current favourite.
The utter panic when they get stuck and he realises they have got too high for him to reach is a real treat to behold.

Mind you it appear to have inspired a general desire to greater heights for Phoebe who has taken to wearing heels already.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

End of Season Dinner - the invite

Squad

Firstly, can I thank each and every one of you for a stirling effort this season. Everyone, at some point, made a valuable contribution and it has been great to have played with you in 2007.

Moving on, it is of course with a heavy heart that I now write to you to note that the end of the season has now reached us. Sadly, until next summer, no more thrashings will be handed out by the mighty CW First XI (at least on the cricket field).

The good news is that we will be recognising a fantastic season of cricket, which saw CW achieve a 11:4 win/loss ratio, by hosting the annual Clarke Willmott Cricket Dinner, to be held on the 25th of October 2007 at Aqua Restaurant (located on Welshback). Our host, and well-known ringer, Ben Smithson, is piecing together a 17-course feast, complete with finest champagne, grand crus burgundies and the most ancient and rarest of ports (together with thigh-rolled Cubans), all I believe for under the princely sum of £20*.

The night will be a long one, as we look back on the season that was and try to work out who will take the coveted series of awards, including the well known "Gobby Tw*t" award. Nominations for this, and all other awards, are welcomed and should be forwarded to the Selection Committee, who will then give all nominations due consideration*.

Can I ask that you each respond to me with an answer as to whether you will be coming to the said dinner or not. Please note that a) I only accept "yes" or "no" (although not that "no" will not be accepted), b) the Excuses Policy will be in full force (you know who you are) and c) you should commence preparation and submission of suitable planning applications forthwith to your respective Enjoyment Prevention Officer in order to obtain clearance for the night. EPOs are of course also welcome on the night*.

Lastly, I note that special guest Don Bradman, pictured below, will be giving a special presentation speech on the night, a rare feat of negotiation by your ever-diligent VoF*.

Any queries, please call. Otherwise, I very much look forward to enjoying the night with you all. Please forward this email to any ringers I have inadvertently missed out.

Best wishes

James Earl
Viscount of Fixtures
*Certain elements of this email may be complete bullsh*t