It started off so well: they said we made a perfect blog meet location. Historic Heidelberg, an Irish pub, Super Saturday. Three nations with a chance of vying for the title. Then the nasty wee bugger cancelled some matches, participants dropped off like superannuated flies, and – with 24 hours to go – the one remaining scheduled match was nixed.
Some of us, made of stronger stuff, were undaunted by the prospect of a pandemic along the lines of Stephen King’s The Stand. We, the strong, the proud, the possibly foolish: Boanova, DropTheClaw, Meades, Xan, the mister and me, and of course our noble, gracious and hard-working hosts, Mister and Missus Iks.
We’d all arrived by Friday evening, so got down to business immediately at Vetter’s. Boa and Xan had arrived a couple of days before, and had some important information to impart.
Boa and Xan’s Top Tourist Tip for Heidelberg: What Not to Visit
As every fule kno, Gurgle is your go-to site for local attractions. Imagine our heroes’ excitement when they found something called the Königstuhl. The King’s Stool! It must be an ancient throne (or something): off we go!
The way was long and weary, 13 km straight up a mountain, but our intrepid adventurers persevered, battling off trolls, Nazgûl, plagues of locusts and football fans. At last, weary and wiping the sweat from their brows, they reached the summit, and found … a construction site.
And a bus stop.
The Plans
Given that there was no rugby on the morrow, a discussion ensued on what to do. The decision was taken to meet at the Irish pub as planned, so the poor buggers had some business, footfall in pubs and restaurants being noticeably down.
MissusIks also promised to find a rugby ball. Our bits perked up.
The Big Day
We all congregated at The Dubliner, only two hours late, and obviously much hilarity ensued. Which shall mostly be hush-hush. But I have previously reported that some of the lads disappeared down an alley-way with the rugby ball, which subsequently suffered the sad fate pictured above. But it remained unpunctured, as you will see.
The next port of call was the Bar Centrale, which was sadly neglected by other customers, but which did serve the greatest G&T ever experienced, and also had a square opposite that was perfect for ball-wanging. It was an unfortunate pass that hit me in the face, bloodied my nose, and sent my glasses clattering to the floor. Fortunately the glasses were uninjured except for the imprint of the ball’s pattern on the lens, discovered in the morning.
Such is the stuff from where dreams are woven.
Then off to dinner, with an enormous bottle of wine courtesy of MissusIks.
Vowing to the rugby gods to return in happier – or at least, less contagious – times, we said our goodbyes.
Ovally Balls 
Kwik Kwiz.
What links Bernie Leadon (former Eagles guitarist) with Peter Jones (the actor, not the 200 hundred feet tall guy from Dragon’s Den)?
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Just had another ‘free’ food delivery. Loads of people (chefs, food wholesalers etc.) are literally giving away food at the moment otherwise it’s just going to go minging.
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Ah, no! Uderzo gone to the great boar feast? Asterix was one of my favourites as a kid (and still is). Absolutely brilliant in every respect.
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@BB
Theme tune to Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy.
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You got there before TomP!
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otherwise it’s just going to go minging
*tries… To…. Resist…. Making… Joke… About… Chimpie’s…. Cooking*
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@bb
Am pretty sure I’ve had an online conversation with the DCI on this very topic….
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Ah, I wouldn’t be surprised if it had come up on AoD before. Should we tell Thaum that tune contains b****s?
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Oi, cheeky
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What’s wrong with Chimpie’s cooking? He’s posted some cracking recipes on here. Cheese on toast – of any variation – does not constitute cooking. Not in more sophisticated circles anyway. And I include egg and beans on toast in that category. Not just beans or egg, but the delicate fusion of the two on a tempting bed of lightly toasted bread. Am I bored? Yes. Do i know cooking? Fuck yeah! Is this open to debate. No.
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Fuck. Was supposed to say ‘end of’ at the end of tha
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@deebee
That reminds me of one of my favourite of the many pile-ons we inflicted on Chek. If memory serves he was claiming baking was not a form of cooking and carried on arguing that point past the point of absurdity.
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Deebs – do you have a gas bbq?
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OT – it’s not deep fat frying so what the bloody hell is this baking madness?
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Shame on you, OT. Shame on you.
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Always said Deebee was a fine upstanding character of the nottablog.
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This is a boat:
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It’s an offshore patrol boat. Irish Navy.
And it’s called the LE Samuel Beckett.
There are 3 other ships in the Samuel Beckett-class Offshore Patrol Boat class. They are the LE James Joyce, the LE William Butler Yeats and the LE George Bernard Shaw.
Am pleased to learn this but a little, y’know, confused.
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I yearn for the day when the Royal Navy has boats called HMS Bernie Winters, HMS Kenneth Williams and HMS Benny Hill.
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Quantum Leap was a great show but why name a boat after the main character?
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HMS Noel Edmonds.
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HMS Mr Blobby
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Hmm, Hoggy goes a few rungs up my estimation ladder.
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I didn’t post this version of Silver Star last night because it is bookended by No Lemons. Smarmy Get.
Still, it is a good watch. I can’t tell if they are miming or not.
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@iksy
No Frankie Valli. Think it was in his going-deaf period.
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Boats are girls. HMS Hattie Jacques, HMS Joan Sims and that little tug coming up the rear, Babs Windsor.
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Edmonds says in the intro that Valli would be on later – perhaps they were charting at the same time?
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The great great Manu Dibango died of the Coronavirus it’s reported today.
If you don’t know him, he’ll repay very well a listen.
Here’s one of the first that came up on a youtube search:
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One for you, OT:
https://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/skoda-auto-starts-3d-printing-of-high-grade-respirators-using-ctu-model–1
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“Police arrested a man in Munich on Monday for licking a subway ticket machine and claiming he was trying to spread the deadly coronavirus. In videos shared by the man online, the 33-year-old can be seen licking subway ticket machines and handrails as well as the handrail of an escalator. He said he wanted to spread the coronavirus”
He was taken into police custody and charged with grievous bodily harm.
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@tomp
Here is the UK spec
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-ventilator-supply-specification/rapidly-manufactured-ventilator-system-specification
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Iks – was from Kent originally?
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@tomp
lovely………………………he was a regular here at our Jazz Festival in Marciac
http://www.jazzinmarciac.com/
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…..full playlist not up yet………………..
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Well things moved on nicely today. Went in to work expecting to be calling customers to let them down because my suppliers would be shut and we wouldn’t be able to deliver. As it turned out my suppliers were all open but my customers were closed. So instead of not being able to make things that people want we can instead make things that nobody wants. Good to be there making a contribution though.
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That’s definitely Chek’s kind of boat up there. Are we fishing for him?
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“Iks – was from Kent originally?”
Newport, Kent.
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@Craigs – Indigenous hardwood, followed by other wood, followed by Namibian charcoal (made from invader species), followed by charcoal briquettes, followed by gas. My brother-in-law has a gas BBQ, but it doesn’t feel the same as a proper wood-fired braai and the meat tastes different. Nothing wrong with one if wood isn’t an option, but I prefer wood.
@TomP – devastated! Manu Dibango is one of my favourite artists. First heard him on my first trip outside of SA, when I went to Cameroon in the mid-90s. Will never forget listening to tapes (yes!) of him and Ismael Lo whilst driving from Douala to Yaounde through magical rain forests. Can still smell those forests every time I hear Soul Makossa (Dibango) or Dibi Dibi Rek (Lo).
As a young(ish) South African white guy at the time, it was the most liberating time of my life: from global polecat isolation, to being accepted as a fellow African and revelling in the magnificence of my continent. It’s something I appreciate every day that I travel around this magnificent continent. RIP Manu and thanks for the liberation.
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There’s a joyous version of Soul Makossa featuring Yannick Noah (!) on youtube. It’s fantastic.
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Deebs – exactly. What do you think chimpie uses? Just saying.
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“As a young(ish) South African”
That really marks the story as being from a long time ago.
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Anyway – I’m just joking chimpie.
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For reference, LE is “Long Eireann” – which means “Irish Boat”.
There’s a big push to get any new boat named for Tom Crean – who was part of the Antarctic explorartion parties of Scott (1903 and 1911), and Shackleton
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…er… got cut off there…
There’s a big push to get any new boat named for Tom Crean – who was part of the Antarctic exploration parties of Scott (1901-04 and 1911-12), and Shackleton (1915). Fascinating story…
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That was odd. I use the Edge browser as a default, it came with Win10. You get an MSN news feed when you launch it. There is a story about the first non-stop flight from Darwin to London, it’s an anti infection measure, all well and good, but I’m not sure why they have a pic of Jacinda Ardern with it.
Now for the read-back
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I did not know of Manu Dibango, TomP, it was indeed a treat to listen to him.
Choice bass playing in that song, too.
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I may have mentioned this before, but the older brother of a friend of mine was in the navy, he was lamenting one night in the pub that whilst in the history of the British navy there have been some ships with names like Dreadnought, Endeavour, Victory, Conqueror, he was posted aboard HMS Penelope.
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‘There’s a big push to get any new boat named for Tom Crean’
Should call it boaty mcboatface
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It’s OK craigs. I’ll try not to take it pers’nally
*sniffs*
*holds back tear*
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“boaty mcboatface”
And, ha!, it should, ha!, only be crewed by, um, ha!, people who wrote, ha! Jedi as their religion on the, ha!, census.
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