Mel’s Meanderings
New World Day 16
I just read my grandson’s blog and he was struggling to find something new to say so he came up with the novel way of saying that he was struggling to find something new to say in several different ways. Which, is one way to fill a blog I suppose, My fellow blogger Andrea decided to publish a short story within her blog ( and a very good one if I may so ) so that was a filler too, But, I’m still rolling along and the material doesn’t stop coming even if some of it comes from a fairly dark place. Which is where my so-called sense of humour has always come from.
My Rabbi told me this morning that he was covering for colleagues at four funerals so I commented that he seemed to have got the graveyard shift. It’s irreverent I know, but I’m not sure that any film made nowadays entitled “ Four Funerals and a Wedding “ would get much of an audience. With limitations on attendances at both I suppose the cast list would be relatively short anyway and it’s unlikely to be a big budget blockbuster.
So, my grandson also says that he’s bored. I told somebody the other day that I had to run as I had two board meetings ( not bored meetings, though they quite often are ) to attend, four conference calls to jump on ( love that picture of jumping on calls because believe me after a cumulative ten hours on the phone … which I did yesterday… you really do feel like putting the phone on the floor and jumping on it ( don’t try that Sam, I am NOT buying you another phone ) And then a person then asked if I was EVER bored. The answer is no, actually. I am an only child ( well you knew or guessed that already ) and only children are never bored.
My mother used to encourage me to have friends over when I was younger, but I never really bought into that concept. I would dash home from school, set up my Subbuteo table football set ( cricket in the Summer, I mean you have to have one foot set firmly in the real world ) and play games where I was both teams. As one of them was usually Newcastle and as they always won you can imagine how far from reality that was. In case you have never played Subbuteo it consists of rolling out a green baize cloth on a flat surface, setting up goals at each end ( I had corner flags and terraces and little people for the crowd and floodlights and even adhesive ads to out on the mini stadium…. My friend John Corre’s dad entered into the spirit when he and his twin brothers played at home and would throw toilet rolls on to the pitch… yes real crowds did that in the old days before they were going for upwards of a tenner each, like now ….
Anyway, on the cloth you laid out 10 plastic men in each half in their respective team colours ( I used to buy my kids a different set every week from Rodwins our local toy store ) and a goalkeeper who was fixed on the end of a longish piece of plastic so you could move him around to make saves. In fact the first set I ever had bought for me, I think around 1954, had cardboard men in plastic bottoms. They bent, the plastic men broke or were trodden upon and my mum’s speciality was to tread on them and hoover them up. You couldn’t get spares so you ended up either cannibalizing another team ( not a good look ) or else buying a new set.
I’ve been playing recently with my younger son and grandson and in fact cobbled together enough bits and pieces to send them away with a complete set. This is only relevant because I have to admit I’ve contemplated re-starting my own Subbuteo League and as I’ve been heavily involved the past few weeks in helping to decide the fate of the National League fixtures I’ve also considered suggesting that all the clubs resort to Subbeteo to finish the season in an meaningful manner .
As I mentioned there was a cricket version ( nowhere near as realistic… I mean in the Fifties you could replicate a Jackie Milburn goal but hard to get a Freddie Trueman wicket nailed down ) My pal Colin and I preferred Howzat which consisted of two steel , six-sided things you could roll ( can’t recall the exact term for something with six sides and can’t be bothered to look it up… it’s the sort of thing that those know-it alls on University Challenge would have at their finger-tips… that guy Ian Wang is driving me crazy by the way) One player rolls the bowling whatever you call it and it shows numbers between 1-6. They are runs. When it ends on “ Howzat “ then then the bowler rolls the other thingie which shows anything from caught, lbw, bowled, stumped, no ball or not out. We would play it surreptitiously at the back of the class in Maths ( Colin was great at Maths and went into the top set anyway, I was useless although mental arithmetic to work out my cross-doubles, trebles and yankees and accululators on the horses was never a problem for me despite going into the bottom Maths set… got the Virtual Grand National to look forward to on Saturday haven’t we? ) I do hate it when the Americans call it Math, don’t you? Colin and I played Yorkshire ( me ) against Surrey ( him ) for hours and then I often played it on my own at home. In fact my original set turned up when my office was cleaned so maybe I will have a game later and post the results. I am sure you are all going to go on line now to order your own game .
On a more serious note ( well, it all is really) my younger son, Paul who has worked in the Charity Sector for many years is now at the heart of the storm and working as the Executive Fund-Raising Director ( I hope I’ve got his title right, but you get the idea anyway ) at the Royal Free Hospital Group which encompasses Barnet General and Chase Farm Hospitals. They launched their on-line emergency appeal yesterday so maybe, rather than buying Howzat on line or putting a bet on the Virtual Grand National you might care to donate at https://www.royalfreecharity.org/
I’ve realized that I’ve nearly run out of space and time and haven’t returned to a couple of the topics I said I would yesterday including the etiquette of sharing jokes . So, maybe tomorrow, which gives all my contacts the right to send me everything they’ve received under the guise of humour until then ( although my friend, Daphne , a regular reader did get in before the window of opportunity closed and sent me a nice video yesterday of a woman in a dressing gown looking out of her window and calling out to a runner and wondering what on earth he was doing running at 7am and then you realise she is holding a half-empty glass of red wine ! )
And then Nicky, my son sent me an oldie but goodie which only my Jewish readers will get
“ Because of the severe Covid 19 problem the load of horseradish for the seders is stranded at Madrid airport . So, unfortunately, this year the chraine in Spain stays mainly on the plane. “
Chraine is used at our Passover ( seder ) dinners and is made from horseradish and is really strong. I have to buy my friend Barry ( another intro.. he’s married to Simone and they live in Broadway in the Cotswolds, jars of chraine from the kosher places in London as he loves it. And on the subject of the Cotswolds I gather there is now a cordon of steel around Ambridge which is still free of the Big V .
Enough meandering and rambling. I’ve left myself enough material for tomorrow so, Sam, if you want to borrow any you only have to ask.
Stay safe. See you all tomorrow if we are spared