Well, it’s the second day of the new year. What has changed?
It’s quite warm – not as hot as Spain, obviously, but they say the current 16 C temp is on a par with mid May. Should we be bowling outdoors then?
I caught up with “”Wogan, Now You’re Talking” on Channel 5 (originally shown last Thursday night). I was a big fan of him! If you can fast forward the ads (gambling???), it was a lovely story of his life and career. He was such a brilliant presenter. Never rehearsed, which is probably why the emails he read out caught him unawares at times. The stories of Janet & John written by Mick Sturbs had thousands of us crying with laughter as we drove to work, sometimes making us pull over to one side and stop, so we didn’t cause an accident. I had the privilege of singing in the Lack O’Vision Song Contest at a Togs Convention representing France with Luke Warm. We re-wrote the words to “I Remember it Well” and had the lines stuck to the zimmer frame, the wine bottle, the string of garlic etc. (Generation Game style) It had Terry and his producers and Togs almost falling off their seats with laughter and we won! Luke & I also went head-to-head in Pop Master on Ken Bruce’s programme. The Togs sponsored us for every wrong answer. As a result, we were able to hand over a fairly large cheque to Sir Terry for Children in Need.
Children in Need, now that was one of his ‘babies’. He fronted the charity for 35 years and cared deeply about it. It was a shock on the CIN night on BBC in November 2015 when he suddenly wasn’t presenting it. Everyone knew something wasn’t right but none of us expected to hear on 31st January 2016 that he had lost his short battle against cancer.
He loved what he did. He loved his family. He loved people. He loved life, and laughter played a big part in keeping millions of people upbeat. He would have done the same in 2020 and 2021. He looked forward, not back.
We all need to look forward to this new year. We will just get used to living with the coronavirus in whatever forms in brings up to try and scare us.
Go out and enjoy the fresh air, the flora, fauna, birds and the green spaces that we are fortunate to have in abundance in this part of West London even if it’s only for 5 minutes at a time.
Pick up your bowls and join your friends on the indoor and outdoor greens this year. If playing is beyond you now, don’t stay at home, come along and share a chat with your friends. Play the shots from the side of the green – we’re all experts there! The Monday-Friday morning roll ups between 10.00 and 12.00 are well attended on the green and another friendly face is always welcome.
We have become used to emails, phone calls, zoom and facetime, but nothing beats seeing and passing a few minutes/hours with another human being even at 2m and behind a face covering. Shared worries can reduce their enormity. Shared memories bring happiness and laughter is good for us all.
For those getting back onto the green, we wish you every success in the roll ups, matches, competitions during 2022 both at club and county level.
The ladies have a big match next Saturday 8th January playing Folkestone at Mote Park in Maidstone. We would love to have some supporters, so if you can get a car load together to come over, we start at 10.00 am. It’s about 1.5 hour journey and a fairly direct route.
The men are playing the London & Southern Counties Challenge Shield on 15th January – a bit closer to home v Egham. They would love your support too!
Sixteen of us are playing Australian Pairs this afternoon at 2.00 pm. Pop in and watch if you like. Otherwise, enjoy your Sunday and Bank Holiday Monday, whatever they bring!
