"(F)artichokes and all that!

As the events of the past week melts into the gossamer tissues of my brain I recall a couple of interesting events . Firstly a couple of youngsters in The Horseshoe had never heard of an Artichoke - oh what they have missed either as a "sucking Globe" or a Jerusalem . Actually I am astounded how offal and things such as Oxtail were never fed to the youth of today - in my day you got what you were given and told to think of the starving Africans .

So Carillion are going bust - apparently they are into the banks alone for £900 Million - remind your bank manager of that fact when you want to borrow 500 quid! It appears the old adage that once you owe a huge amount to them they wont touch you is indeed true! For Government contracts - read Government corruption - shocking!

More anecdotes to come - keep reading!

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The Great Irish Vodka Smuggling Affair!

Timeline: 1982 Location Co Cork , Ireland . I was living in Coolmaine just outside Killbritain County Cork and following a pleasant but meagre life with Sheelagh as a part time café owner and antique dealer in an idyllic spot on the estuary at Coolmaine . Life was simple but lovely and our little ancient "house and half" with attached café , outbuildings and our much loved double decker bus serving as a guest bedroom was a real home from home - somewhere I spent my happiest times in life and bitterly regret ever leaving. However my dear brother Rob arrived on the scene following a catastrophic business meltdown and took up residence in our old family home in Scilly , Kinsale - a mere dozen or so miles away and set about madcap schemes and heavy drinking bouts interspersed with all manner of extraordinary behaviour and it was on one of these occasions that I was called upon to help him. Dick Spring was the newly appointed Tanaiste in the government and the ...

Bumble , The Cossack & Pog the Dog

Timeline: Circa 1985 Location : Shipston on Stour I had the great honour of knowing one of life's real gentlemen - one Bob Westaway of Idlicote who at this time would have been about 80 years old and had a dog called Pog. Bob's nickname to all was "Bumble" because he really did bumble about in a very old fashioned sort of a way. Pog the dog was so named because when he was an unnamed youngster Bumble decided to paint the word "DOG" on his bowl so it didn't get mixed up with Bumble's stew bowl and therefore carefully painted it on the said bowl in black gloss but the letter "D" ran badly and so spelt the word POG . Bumble's simplistic and lovely attitude meant the dog became called POG ! Now Bumble lived in a pleasing old cottage in the village of Idlicote and went everywhere with Pog on his ancient Russian Cossack motorcycle with Pog in the sidecar. Bumble handled the combination well and was relatively safe for some of the time bu...

Condoms to Cash and Condoms in Tangiers

Timeline: 1960s - Location: Ireland & 1980s Tangiers Morocco As a young man in the 1960s I looked for various ways to fund my summer holidays in Kinsale , Co Cork and found that young people were always on the look out for contraceptives which were not freely available in Ireland at the time on account of the harsh Catholic stance and so finding a ready market amongst the Bohemian and Hippy communities which often were to be found at Charles Fort just outside Summer Cove was indeed relatively easy and I took substantial orders for my return trip. Back in England I drove to a wholesale supplier in Birmingam and purchased 3000 condoms at a very satisfactory rate but was worried that I might not be able to sell all in a short space of time however on my return to Ireland with three suitcases on the ferry and absolutely no trouble at the Irish border end in Cork I am glad to say that I quadrupled my investment and "sold out" in less than a week once the ...

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