Christmas Radio Times - Festive TV

It’s that time of the year when Christmas fever over takes me and my heart is all a flutter because on Wednesday 9 Dec the Christmas Radio Times hits the news shelves.

Buying this magazine is part of my Christmas since I was a child with mum putting it on order around the shop with the now defunct TV Times. I could probably get a cheaper TV schedule magazine for Christmas and in this age of the internet crammed with information why the need for a TV magazine. Because I am old fashioned, I still like reading newspapers when I could read them on the internet.

Steptoe and Son classic Christmas TV

When I was a kid and growing up I would create my own TV schedule although I had no control over the TV buttons. My choices were mostly based around TV Christmas specials like Morecambe and Wise possibly the kings of Christmas Day, The Two Ronnie’s, and Mike Yarwood. There was always comedy specials like Steptoe and Son, Terry and June while today the TV Christmas schedules is bloated with soap operas.

There are still your Christmas specials but little to excite me like in my childhood. I suppose with so many channels these days the big variety shows like Morecambe and Wise don't fit into the schedule even if they were made.

Black and white TV, three channels an innocent time of TV when watching the big Christmas film was probably the first time you saw it unless you had seen it in the cinema. Today there are hundreds of channels and you are more than likely to have seen your Christmas film in the cinema, on a DVD or Sky movies before a terrestrial television channel. It takes some of the spice out of Christmas for me.

In today’s world of Multi-channel TV the Radio Times has moved along from publishing BBC programming to a wide range of TV channels from rivals ITV to Sky TV and more making it a one-stop publication. Before all the new channels, the Radio Times would review and rate around 30 films in the Christmas and New Year edition but this year a staggering 4,500 will be on over the fourteen days festive period. That will be on all channels according to stats from the Radio Times.

This year's double edition features 292 pages packed with 14 festive days of the best TV, film and radio, from Doctor Who to Mrs Browns Boys, Carols at Kings to the Queen's Speech, plus films rated, and interviews with the brightest stars. It's the biggest and best guide to Christmas I my book.

Cardiff City - Woe is me - Future for Slade

Woe is me, woe is me being a Cardiff City fan you would think we were bottom of the league staring relegation in the face but no, we are in touching distances of the Play-off, and still I am full of woe.

Defeat away to Derby last weekend and then dropping 2 points in 8 minutes thanks to an own goal left us fans scratching our heads to what should happen next. I took myself to the toilet with a round 5 minutes to go thinking of three points in the bag. When I returned to the living room I was none too happy to see the score was now 2-2 I was gutted to say the least. Slade out, Slade in over the last few years nothing has steadied the club.

Among the fans, it’s time for the manager to go now rather than later but not all fans agree with that statement. Who am I to say but I have an opinion. I have not been a fan of either former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær or present manager Russell Slade I felt Solskjaer was parachuted in because of is Manchester United past and a name. While Slade was totally the opposite when he was named manager, it was a case of ‘who’. From all accounts, he was the personal choice of our owner Vincent Tan his chosen man, which I found a surprise that he knew anything about football let alone managers in the lower leagues.

I remember when Slade was appointed owner Vincent Tan saying something stupid as he could emulate Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger. Bigging up new managers is always a mistake fans are not stupid but always have high expectations. I am moving towards a new manager but I have no idea who I just want someone with passion, who can lift the fans, get the fans back into the stadium with football to excite them and get more out of this group of players.

The thing is if there was to be a change, it is better sooner than later in fact now. Any new manager needs time to get his feet behind the desk and with the all-important January transfer window where someone new can stamp is mark on the squad.

Hopefully were ever our owners is hanging out because it is not at the Cardiff City Stadium he should ask his mother what she thinks of Russell Slade after she helped kill off the rebranded. Maybe she help kill off a manager because next Saturday we play bottom of the table Bolton. Lose at Bolton and Slade should be shown the door before he reaches the dressing room after the game.

Going to town - Platform shoes - Gwyns - Freedom

My parents were pretty easy going when it came to playing out when I was a kid. Up until about 10 years old it was stay in the street and if you go around the corner don’t cross the road and go near the river bank. Needless to say, once around the corner I did cross the road and did peer through the fence to check out the river. From 10 it was as if I was allowed to throw my short trousers in the bin and wear long ones now having reach the milestone of double figures.

Going to the two shops around the corner was deemed ok by mum if I was to ‘look left then right and look left and right again’ to make sure the road was clear. We are talking about the late 60s and back then the roads were next to empty but still best to be careful. The last year in primary school Mum lessened the string round me with the local park now open to me. I was quite wild climbing loads of trees and running about everywhere and the riverbank was open to me unofficially, it came with my new found freedom.

My Mum and Dad were fine with me roaming about my area but like most parents, they had no real idea what I was up to. It wasn’t as if I could get up to anything to naughty. With everyone knowing, everyone and any naughtiness would soon find its way into your parent’s ears.

The reason for my latest reflection on life is due to a conversation about when you were allowed to go into town with your friends. If like me you may have made a sneaky trip into town without permission to Woolworth, it was still not an officially sanctioned visit that came a month or so later.

That was just before I went to big school, secondary school, when I received word from on high that town was open to me. Funny enough mum would allow me to travel to my Nans on my own and that was a hefty bus ride, which was much further than the town centre. I would actually have to go through town to get there.

I can’t remember much about the trip but I do remember visiting Gwyns upstairs in Cardiff market, which was the trendiest of clothes shops. I may have not known much about fashion and youth tribes but I knew what I liked and was looking at it in front of me. Mum did my clothes shopping so the chances of her shop here, let’s just say it was never going to happen leaving me in the uncool section.

 Every time we as a family would go to the café upstairs in the market, I would stand gawping at the clothes on display hoping for Mum or Dad to get the message, they never did. It was a few years later before I could put on my ‘I bought something in Gwyns badge’ and that was down to my Nan.

Having bought me a mega pair of platform shoes, which were ace wine and black and moved from the middle of the school line to the back with the tall kids. A few days later I talked her into taking me to Gwyns. I walked away with some braces to hold up my new pair of green patch pocket trousers and a nice butterfly collar shirt.

Tomorrow, When the War Began - Film

YouTube came up trumps again last night with a film to watch while the wife had control of the remote control. I have seen ‘Tomorrow, When the War Began’ a while ago so finding a full copy on YouTube and free, what a result.

What we have here is an Australian version of the film Red Dawn. If you haven’t seen the American version it is about a group of high school kids who former a guerrilla resistance group calling themselves Wolverines, after their high school mascot. Cuban and Russian troops somehow manage to invade America and with most of the country now under their control the war had cooled. The left the resistance in the shape of the Wolverines to fight on. While in a later remake, the enemy was North Korean with a hint of Russian involvement.

In Tomorrow When the War Began the enemy are nameless (though unmistakably, Asian) who were probably Chinese or North Korean. It follows the same template of Red Dawn, group of small-town youths who are on a camping trip in a valley called Hell and the first inkling of trouble back home is the sound of planes in the night. When they return home from their camping trip everyone has been rounded up and detain at the local fairground.

At the fairground, some of the group witness several atrocities, when they are spotted they are shot at and return to their hideout. They are soon found by searching helicopters and barely escape with their lives when the group decide to go back to their old campsite in Hell. From there they fight back with plans to blow up the bridge into town after finding out the bridge was one of the main supply routes.

To blow the bridge they steal a tanker truck of fuel beneath the bridge and the whole operation is nearly a failure when they are discover but a unexpected member of the group comes to the rescue.

It also differs from both Red Dawns because the main lead character is a girl and she is the leader of the group. After no signs of the promised sequel, it is bursting back on the small screen as a TV series sometime next year in Australia.

Electric Blue a Bygone Age.

The birth of the video recorder saw a flourish of entrepreneurs opening shops to rent and sell video films and just about everything we watched on TV. There was also the ability to video from your own TV for personal use and all you would need was a few wires, another video recorder and hey presto you had an illegal business. Making copies of rented films helped make a flourishing market of pirated videos. Why rent when your mate has done a copy and was cheaper.

The reason for this topic is Electric Blue, the top shelve soft core porn video magazine about has risky as it got here in the UK unless you could get your hands on something under the counter, imported stuff, nudge nudge wink wink say no more.

A long with glamor models in different stages of undress the earlier videos any way had the feel of Playboy with short video documentaries and vox pops. The videos had a host like in the first edition Fiona Richmond, a British glamor model, and actress with a cameo from American Marilyn Chambers, (of Behind the Green Door fame).Another segment of the video was archive nude footage of celebrities including Marilyn Monroe, Joanna Lumley, Jayne Mansfield, Jacqueline Bisset and Joanna Lumley.

The videos were made up like a magazine with sequence of soft porn like the world’s oldest whorehouse staff with grannies where the clientele are older than the hookers. In addition, they would use cartoons like, (Snow White and the Seven Perverts) loosely based on the Snow White legend.

Today video shops are long gone, consigned to history and car boot sales. The whole rental market has disappeared with the internet and dedicated movie channels like Sky Movies.

Mince Pie and Custard Pasty not for me

More stuff on Christmas there is so many news worthy items popping up all over the place. I love Christmas food boffins they do come up with some unpleasant sounding food. Today I have been reading about some of Marks and Spencer’s and others for the upcoming celebrations.

I am still on the lookout for a non-mayo Christmas sandwich that is a challenge. I notice there are many packets of crisps on the shelves with a Christmas theme with my favourite, Turkey and sage and onion in Tesco’s and I what to try another of their range pigs in blankets, soon.

Christmas dinner in a matchbox - £5.99 plus £1.75 UK delivery, notonthehighstreet.com

Doesn’t sound that appetising. While at the department of Work and Pensions, Secretary of State Iain Duncan Smith the Merciless, is looking to roll it out for the poor depending on costs, meals in a matchbox

.

The little matchbox contains three stripey sweets, each of which tastes like a different part of the traditional festive feast, so you have one that is sage and onion flavoured, one that is roast turkey flavoured, and one that tastes like Christmas pudding. Nowhere near my idea of Christmas dinner where’s my sprouts.

Sprout-filled sausages - British Pork, Sprout & Bacon Bangers, £2.50 for 454g,

I love sprouts be they from Brussels or anywhere. I love them boiled to the point of melting in my mouth and will definitely be giving these a go before Christmas. If they are straight up or come in the form of pigs in a blanket, it doesn’t matter to me and hopefully they will count as one of my five in a day fruit and vegetables.

Mince Pie and Custard Pasty - Warrens Bakery Cornwall

So glad I don’t like mince pies or custard but they are truly not the right filling for a pasty. Who needs one and why would anyone think it is a good idea. Good news they went on sale last weekend in Warrens 50 stores across Cornwall, Devon and Somerset and not nationwide.

Saturday mornings at the Ninian

Before Saturday morning TV and when I was a kid many moons ago I was more likely to be found queuing outside the Ninian cinema for Saturday morning club with several hundred screaming children waiting for the doors to open. I can’t remember how much it cost but it was cheap and popular.

We (my friends and I) would have our bus fares but 9 times out of ten, we would walk saving our money for sweets in the cinema and a drink. The need to get in and find seating for your little gang was paramount and some line jumping could be involved until you hit normally someone older then you or a bigger gang than yours.

Inside once you grabbed a packet of crisps and a drink into the theatre to the noise of kids nattering away without a sign of a parent in sight. It would be social suicide to turn up with Mummy and Daddy. If you did feel the need to take a parent, they did tend to frequent the small balcony area.

Lights out and you could hear a pin drop and the screen flickers into life with a cartoon are some slap stick comedy from the silent movies era. Up next an on-going serial with the Lone Ranger, Rin Tin Tin or Flash Gordon which would leave us tantalising wanting more as our heroes are about to come to a nasty end meaning you would need to be back next week to see that the end especially with Flash Gordon.

Flash Gordon was my favourite in adventure like ‘Flash Gordons Trip to Mars’, with Larry ‘Buster’ Crabbe as Gordon. He would battle the devious Ming the Merciless the ruthless tyrant who ruled the planet Mongo. Besides trying to get into Dale Arden’s knickers. Ming wanted to destroy Earth trying a Death Ray and Purple Death but Dr. Zarkov was on hand to save the day with Flash.

The big film would be something from the Children's Film Foundation, which made films for children. Movies like The Boy Who Turned Yellow and Robin Hood Junior were the staple diet and sometimes-other child suitable films. Thinking about what was on offer it was more or less boys own kind of stuff not really geared towards girls.

Once it was time to head for home the choice of a bus home or walking. We would mostly choose to walk home and spend our bus fare on a nice bag of chips. By the mid-1970s, the TV channel had woken up to the potential of Saturday morning TV for kids meaning the end of the Saturday morning cinema clubs.

I will take my riches now

Has a non-practising Catholic I remember being told when we die we will receive great riches in heaven. I am not taking it for granted I will be walking through the pearly gates if they even exist but why can’t I have my riches now.

Whoever is dishing out these riches could start by coughing up the numbers for the £113m Euro lottery would be a good gesture. A tad greedy you may think. I do tend to dream big because why dream of little things they say money can’t buy you happiness; money can change you only if you let it. Well I didn’t dream of any numbers last night seeing has I had under 4 hours sleep I hope I didn’t missed the information. Therefore, it will be down to the lottery generating my winning numbers.

What I would really like is a break for my wife and all the crap and pain she has had to put up with now and probably into the future. That would be the greatest of riches I could receive.

The Battle of the Christmas Sandwiches

It’s that time of year when the sandwich boffins come up with their ideal Christmas sandwich to give you some festive cheer. With the tenancy to use mayo instead of real sandwich spread butter or margarine meaning, many of these sandwiches are out of bounds for me, as I hate mayo.

I will find it a hard task to find a Christmas cheer sandwich without mayo unless I find a build your own offer and I won’t be holding my breath. I will have to build my own so watch this space for the Peter Ugarte Christmas sandwich without ruddy mayo. I have noticed a number of these sandwich makers a donating some of the cost to homeless charities and others.

Marks and Spencer

Turkey and Pigs in Blankets £3

Turkey, sausages and bacon cranberry and mayonnaise

Tesco

Turkey and Trimmings £2.20 

Turkey, diced bacon, circles of pork sausage, onion stuffing, and cranberry sauce

Sainsbury’s

Christmas Triple sandwich £2.60

Turkey and cranberry; salmon and cream cheese; cheddar cheese and pickle,

Greggs

Christmas Lunch sandwich £2.75 

Sage and onion marinated turkey breast, sliced cooked pork stuffing and smoke flavour sweetcure bacon with cranberry & red onion relish and mayonnaise

Boots

Delicious £2.75 

Turkey, Bacon, Stuffing and Cranberry sandwich

Pret a Manger

Christmas Lunch sandwich £3.60

Turkey, herby pork stuffing, crispy onions, spinach, cranberry and port sauce, mayo

End of the Lads Mag

Remember when the middle shelf of the magazine display was loaded down with lad mags. They weren’t difficult to miss with the front covers consisting of large boobs a magazine where the push-up bra was king. One of biggest name in the gene FHM is to cease publication along with Zoo. Rivals like Nuts and Loaded have also closed in the past year as circulation fell.

In a statement on the FHM website from publisher, Bauer Media said, "Unfortunately it's true and it has been announced today the intention to suspend publication of FHM." adding it had been "an absolute joy producing the magazine over the years".

I wouldn’t miss either magazine has I never bought them but fingered through the odd issue in the barbers. It is unclear if they will be keeping a presents on the internet with their website or it will be a complete shutdown. It will also have a devastating effect on the world of glamour modelling with large numbers of the larger breasted models heading for the dole queue, the adult sex industry, or reality TV.

I wrote recently about the demise of the top shelf and the soft porn magazines that occupied the space. Killed off by free content on the internet, which in turn as put pay to magazines and the lad mags. In the last decade, FHM's circulation has plummeted from around 500,000 to below 100,000.

If they do cease completely and close the only thing I will miss is FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World one of the highlights of the year as a regular blogger of the top ten in another place, my more adult blog/website.

The internet will one day kill of all magazines and even newspapers which will be a pity.

Armageddon is coming .... Black Friday

We are 10 days away from Black Friday that American tradition that has reared its ugly head over this side of the pond. Has far has I’m concerned I wish it would have stayed in America because seeing the out and out greed is just not British.

It will be its third anniversary since its arrival in the UK. News crews are in training for the best footage of shoppers being dragged along the floor of a supermarket clutching hold of a 40” flat screen TV made by some unknown company. I never heard of a Blaupunkt TV until I saw a full on punch up over owning one on the news and left me wondering if I was missing out and a Blaupunkt TV was a must have item.

Watching the news from the comfort of my armchair and seeing people fight over some cheap crap that has a mark down was sad at least we could be thankful no one was killed unlike in America where shopping tooled (with guns) up is normal. I remember seeing people literally climbing over some old lady in a disability scooter while others clambered over people and that was on the opening of the doors. If you got anywhere near, the display that had something you wanted it was like one of those bar fights you see in westerns, a free for all. The frustrated shopping assistant shouting ‘One per customer’ trying to keep the peace with little joy.

Asda last year

If you are lucky and get your much-needed bargains, you have to face the queue. Last time families were fronting up at the tills with a TV each so beating the one per customer rule. Then the green-eyed monster rears its ugly head and arguments and calls for managers to settle disputes.

We can expect utter chaos this time around although some shops are refusing to take part and others have said they have learnt from the mayhem last year. Tesco will be shutting there 24 hour stores for a few hours to give staff a chance to prepare for the onslaught. Asda have declared they will be bowing out altogether from Black Friday. Going on the past Black Friday’s it will be TVs other electrical items and kitchen gadgets most wanted. In the USA, this shopping bonanza is closely linked with Thanksgiving while here Boxing Day was the traditional sales day for us and still is for me.

The police criticised consumers and retailers alike after being called to multiple stores around the country last year to deal with out-of-control shoppers and there have been calls to cancel Black Friday.

Our Song

While watching Strictly Come Dancing last night one of the couples dance to one of my favourite ‘pop’ songs A Little Respect" by the duo Erasure. While reminiscing with the wife it opened up a memory and you all know I love a memory.

This memory involves my wedding day and my attempts to get a record played. After a few attempts I was finally told the next song would be for us so I hit the phone to tell my future wife, Glenys, our record would be on next to make sure she was listening.

I had no choice on the record being played I was told next on the wedding congratulation list so I sat back. The presenter came on and said something like “Peter and Glenys are getting married today. I should know we have been inundated with messages.” I think it was me who ‘inundated’ the radio station with requests with my relenting previous phone calls.

Our song was the love ballad Nikita sung by Elton John. I knew the video at the time where John is in love with this hot East German border guard and he couldn’t cross the Berlin Wall to meet her so basically stalking her from a distance. Not the song I would have picked but I was happy with it.

It was a while later I found out the real meaning of the song. Nikita in Eastern Europe can also be a man's name and although he was married at the time, it was about the longing for another man. Oh well it is still a love song and our song and brings us happy memories every time we hear it.

English will be in front Football League next season

For years now fans from across the border have been more than happy to tell us we are playing in the English Football League and my proud Welsh club Cardiff City should play our football in the Welsh League. Well the Football League from the 2016-17 campaign will officially be known has the English Football League (EFL) in a rebrand announced today.

Football League chief executive Shaun Harvey said: 'The new EFL name rightly emphasises the central role our clubs play at the heart of English professional football.

'In an increasingly challenging global sports market, it is absolutely essential that sports properties can project a modern identity that not only resonates with their regular audience but is also easily recognisable to a broader audience of potential fans, viewers, and commercial partners.

They have unveil a new EFL logo while the three divisional titles - The Championship, League One and League Two - will be retained and incorporated into the new brand. The rebranding comes after extensive research, which included interviews and focus groups with clubs, stakeholders, commercial partners, and more than 18,000 football supporters.

This is a pointless idea with more important issues within football in need of decision rather than dropping the word English in front of Football League. Football fans are more interested in reduce tickets prices, standing at games than rebranding and a fancy logo. Reading on Social Media the logo in particular has come in for some harsh criticism and a few calling for the Welsh clubs to be kicked out of the League, which I was expecting football is tribal and at the best of times, we are unloved.

They can call it what they want but we will still be playing championship football next season, hopefully, or playing in the English Premier League but we will always be Welsh. Therefore, the anti-Welsh brigade will just have to suck it up.

Cardiff Christmas

Cardiff Christmas Cardiff

Officially Cardiff woke up to Christmas today with the Christmas market opening followed by the Christmas lights but no grand switch on they will just come on and with Christmas Wonderland making our capital city a great Christmas destination for yuletide shoppers. Moan on all who dislike Christmas, and would be happy to see it start on 24 December but 12 November is a fair date to kick of the celebrations.

At the weekend, the Christmas lights will switch on in Cardiff Bay and other parts of the city towards the end of the month. The big switch at Dugdale Towers (my house) will be 1st December.

The Pantomime at the New Theatre is Aladdin this year and is from Saturday 12th December – Sunday 17th January always a hot ticket at Christmas. Also at the New Theatre Miracle on 34th Street gets a short run from Tuesday 1st until Saturday 5th December, 7.30pm Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday matinees, 2.30pm a heart-warming Christmas story. There is much more happening in and around Cardiff and the city centre for young and old.

1960's Cardiff

Cardiff is a day out in itself and that is just the city centre where you can find small independent shops to national chains like John Lewis with most of the shopping areas pedestrianised. There are plenty of places to eat and drink to ease anyone’s shopping experience. I know many people now shop online but there is nothing better than having a wander around the town centre at Christmas.

I remember when I was a child and how I enjoyed walking around town with it all Christmassy and the window displays particular at David Morgans we just don’t see windows like that anymore. I for one will be looking forward to some late night shopping to catch the lights.

Road to Wembley onward

It was FA Cup this weekend and the draw for the second round last night. I was on the coat tails of Worcester City champions of the first qualifying round encounter with Gateshead and for the winners, a trip to Sheffield United.

Worcester were taking on Football League opposition in the hope of a giant killing but it was not to be as the league club ran out winners with a 3-0 score line. Therefore, Sheffield United were my new team leading me to May and that Wembley final. In the draw last night it was a home draw for Sheffield but they will have to wait to see who they we play as Mansfield/Oldham need a replay.

The goal now is to win threw to the Third Round and the entry of the Premiership and Championship teams and the possibility of a money spinning tie with one of the big Premier League teams.

I wrote on my last update about non-league Salford City who themselves were up against League club Notts County and with the TV circus in town won the game 2-0 and were in the hat last night. The football gods on high looked on them favourably giving them a home fixture against Hartlepool that should make the Class of 92 and their fans happy.

Road to date …

• Second Round – Sheffield United v Mansfield/Oldham
• First Round Proper – Sheffield United 3-0 Worcester City
• Fourth Round Qualifying - Gateshead 1-2 Worcester City
• Third Round Qualifying (replay) – Worcester City 1-0 Solihull Moors
• Third Round Qualifying - Solihull Moors 1-1 Worcester City
• Second Round Qualifying - Solihull Moors 3-1 Oadby Town
• First Round Qualifying - Sutton Coldfield Town 0-1 Oadby Town
• Preliminary Round - Harborough Town 1-3 Oadby Town
• Extra Preliminary Round - Quorn FC 0-2 Oadby Town

Vote Sausage Roll for Amercia

There are plenty of reasons to not move and live in the good old USA but no sausage rolls in my book classes the country as third world. Recently in the New York Times, they ran a recipe on how to make the humble sausage roll and some how claimed it was a traditional British dish served on Boxing Day.

It would seem from twitter and social media the sausage roll doesn’t exist in the main stream USA but I am sure at a Brit specialist store/shop they are available for the ex-pats living in America. You would think a country whose arteries are clogged with hamburgers, hot dogs and fried chicken and considered the fattest country in the world would have embraced this British delicacy.

Sausage Rolls, Meat Pies, and Pasties are surely made for America maybe they should turn all the gun shops into Greggs the Bakers then less people would end up dead. You can diet off a sausage roll but dodging a bullet is harder.

I can assure any Americans reading this the great British sausage roll is available daily not just on Boxing Day and are a snack/takeaway but can be part of a main meal, Sausage roll, and chips is always nice. The article also announces ‘Pigs in Blankets – but so much better’ wait a minute that is a big statement to make our pigs in blankets are just as tasty wrapped in British sausage and bacon popular with your Christmas Dinner and again all year round if you want. Although I was told the Americans ‘pigs in blanket’, the sausage is wrap in pastry.

I got it but a bit too late

Dad and Mum

When did you get it? I bet you are wondering what the old fool is on about now. Well it was sparked off by a conversation with Dad the other day, which got me thinking.

What I mean by ‘When did you get it’ was when you understood your parents were right all along and you really didn’t know that much. What teenager growing up thought they knew it all and why would some old fogeys who may be your parents no better.

Hands up, I wasn’t the easiest son in the world and often pushed the boundaries with justice quickly administered leaving me with issues, like most, moaned, and groaned. I may have uttered the famous Kevin the teenager utterance “I hate you” and at that moment in time, I actually may have.

I was around fourteen when that eureka moment hit me. I was mitching locally and was coming out of the fish shop and was spotted, they was no way mum was not going to hear about it so I sucked it up knowing there was trouble ahead. I could have rushed home and come up with some lie but I doubt I would have been believed, so I decided to stay out, wait for everyone to come home from school and go home like normal.

That afternoon I knew I was in for a bollicking and it was all my fault and it got me thinking all the trouble I was getting myself into was down to me and no one else. If caught once, I must have got away with something five or six times maybe more, I was that good. Once home Mum said nothing, did she know did I get away with it seriously? However, later I found out she knew after a friend whose mum saw me told me mum did know. So why no drama, no shouting all the normal responses I would expect.

I think I hurt mum that day and I know she would have told dad and he too was quiet and non-responsive to my day’s activities. A sudden wave of guilt hit me not that I was going to give up mitching from school but I must respect what they were telling me because it was for my own good. It was not as if I was going to turn into some angel overnight but I listened, took it all in, and thank my parents for their sound advice.

Mum and Dad were right about just how important school was. This coming from someone who would leave school with no qualifications I just wish there was an exam for mitching I would have been top of the class. The knowledge they passed on was invaluable not just about school but everything life building. I was sitting at the feet of my real teachers and it took a while for me to understand.

When I became a parent myself, my boys tried it on thinking I was some oldie who had no idea when I probably knew more than they did. It was a case of Déjà vu remembering my battles with my parents.

Welsh Cup moves forward

It was Welsh Cup last weekend and the club I’m following from my armchair progressed into the next round. It’s the third round that means the entry of the big boys of the Welsh Premier League, New Saints, and Port Talbot. In addition, it is the end of the regionalized section of the Welsh Cup.

Brecon Corries stunned their visitors Aberbargoed Buds with a convincing 3-0 win at the weekend. The level 5 club, who play in the South Wales Alliance League, are the only non-directly affiliated club left in the competition while the Buds play in Welsh Football League Division Two.

In the third round Corries have a trip to the capital city to face Caerau Ely one of the last two Cardiff based teams left in the competition. On paper, the home team have the advantage so they are there to be shot down. The other Cardiff team, Cardiff Met University have a home game against STM Sports, which sounds, like a sports shop. It wasn’t until I googled them to find they were also a Cardiff based team. A bit of an embarrassment but on the plus side a capital team are guarantee to reach the fourth round.

It’s been a while since a team from the capital has won the Welsh Cup 1998/99 in fact Inter CableTel were the winners and I don’t think there is much of a chance this time either. Cardiff are missing a strong Cardiff based team in Welsh football with the top team at the moment is Cardiff Met who are second in the Welsh Football League Division 1 just one step from the Welsh Premier League. Promotion to the Welsh top league would only happen if their facilities were up to standard.

• Third Round – Caerau Ely v Brecon Corries 
• Second Round - Brecon Corries 3-0 Aberbargoed Buds
• First Round - Aberaeron 0-1 Brecon Corrie
• Qualifying Second Round - Cwmbach Royal Stars 1-2 Brecon Corries
• Qualifying First Round - Brecon Corries 3-0 Penrhiwfer

Happy Memories of School Dinners

I remember my school dinners fondly the only problem I had was with pudding I am to this day a jelly and ice cream man and if it’s not on the menu then I prefer to go without.

You hear many negative vibes around school dinners. Even my school peers seem at ease dishing them disliking more than liking, which is a shame. I didn’t have dinners in junior school seeing I only lived five houses away from the school but I sometimes wished I stayed in for dinners not that my mummy was a bad cook I just felt I was missing out on something. Although the great hunger match from my school where we had no kitchens to Eleanor Street School, rain or shine, was not for me.

In Secondary School, it was school dinners for me and the first term was hit or miss until I learnt the trick to be nice and polite to the dinner staff. Advance tips on the menu meant I could dodge meals I didn’t like so why queue up if there was no need.

It was nice food some today would call it “stodgy” but when it came to the main meal, I found them likeable if they stuck to the British classic and had chips every day. On an average day, the dinner ladies would dish up the likes of chips, Cornbeef pie, and mashed potato and there was always a cooked Sunday type dinner once in the week, followed by some kind of sponge pudding and custard that like I earlier wrote I gave a miss or passed it on to a friend free of charge. My god remember semolina pudding! I remembered why I never liked it when of an age to have a drink, get drunk, and get sick, look semolina all over the floor.

We did need the stodgy food to fuel us up for the endless football in the school yard/fields at playtimes, dinnertimes – until it become uncool to run about so we leaned against the wall checking out girls, talking about girls, becomes all consuming.

The food didn’t change much during my 5 years in secondary school we didn’t have no campaigning Jamie Oliver to champion healthier school meals, thank god. A ploughman’s lunch the fancy name for a salad could cause a riot unless it came with chips. My friends and I would often be tail end Charlie in the food line in the hope of a big payday with some extra grub but it was not always the best idea.

Being able to buy a dinner daily was a great development it was easier to dodge a meal you didn’t fancy which lead to a trip down to the local chippy.