Interactive version of Oliver's Poetry Garret
Trinidad and Tobago
Friday, 16 June 2006, Blog 14
Lewes Garret
Last night as I was travelling down from Leamington, I wrote this: 6.56pm. Thank God! Praise the Lord! England have finally scored. (See: Glory Sealed.)
I have been trying to monitor their progress on my mobile telephone. There is a running commentary of sorts on the BBC website which I can access in a very limited form.
Christ! England have not been playing well. I am glad I have not been watching the game. I dropped into the bookies at Victoria Station where a huge crowd had gathered to watch it on their little telly. I could not even see the screen.
'What's the score?' I asked an unshaven gentleman.
'Nil, nil,' he grunted inaudibly.
'Pardon?' I said.
'NIL, NIL!' he shouted, as if it was my fault England had not scored.
I slunk off in dejected silence.
Reading the commentary on my mobile telephone - surely the strangest way to experience a football match - I could tell the commentator was increasingly frustrated by England's succession of blown chances; his texts became increasingly sarcastic. They are going to have to try much harder than this if they are to beat Brazil (or Argentina, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the Czech Republic or Germany).
I also had a row with the people at the healthcare insurance company who are now, it seems to me, welching on their agreement to pay for my back treatment. Typical insurers, they are delightful until you try to claim.
The journey down seems interminable. On the Warwick - London Marylebone leg, I was in a carriage air-conditioned to fridge temperatures. I eventually moved into a carriage occupied by two elderly Australian couples.
'It's been two-and-a-half hours already,' said an old dear, as we were crawling toward Marylebone at half-a-mile per hour.
The ancient Aussie bloke in the other couple said laconically: 'A long way to come for a cheese and tomato sandwich!'
Today: 8am. It is beautiful outside. Absolutely glorious. I am going to London today to meet a magazine editor. And there will also be plenty of celebration later in our household to mark the end of our elder daughter's GCSE exams.
Moreover, I have received two emails one from my dear friend Dominic Baster and the other from fellow blogger Olivia of Olivia's London Dispatches who has kindly said she will link to my site from hers. Recognition at last! What a lady!
Next I shall write to the Poet Laureate!
Blair/Brown
Flashback to Friday, 19 May 2006
Lewes Garret
10.38pm. Bed. Noisily stormy outside. What kind of weather is this for mid-May? It could be deepest January. I am worried because I am not writing poetry at any great rate (well, not at all), or finishing off what needs to be done to launch Oliver's Poetry.
Stayed sober again tonight. Even though wine was out, I only had a couple of tiny glasses. Usually I would have drunk the bottle. I have come across very few of the people Alan Clark mentions in his diaries we are from different generations.
However, he did mention drinking in the Ritz with 'Franko' Frank Johnson who was, I recall Deputy Editor of the Sunday Telegraph when I started working there in 1995.
I was such an insignificant journalist that the great Frank Johnson would not have been aware of my existence, but my then drinking mate, the paper's then defence correspondent, quaffed with him and would quip: 'Franky Johnson Cockney w*****'.
This was a joke I never understood, although I would smile to humour my friend. Clark writes that Franko was 'clever, his wit and insight so engaging'.
Earlier, I bumped into a political hack mate who lives down the road from me in Lewes. A very decent chap who I have known for yonks. Like me he has reported for the Daily Star and Sunday Telegraph.
Unlike me, he is still in journalism, at the Daily Express. Interestingly, his analysis of the Blair/Brown situation was identical to mine. We agreed Blair was determined to destroy Brown's chances of winning at the next General Election.
Tony Blair secretly wants David Cameron to win!
Next Blog and Previous Backblog
Previous Blog and Next Backblog