theblacksheep

now i doubt any of you will have known percy, because he was my grandfather.. but you never know, he touched many lives in his 93 years. percy was a free spirit, he married twice and loved often and was always surrounded by friends. for much of my childhood he was a distant figure because my father disapproved of him. he liked the goons and marx brothers and was altogether too unconventional.

percy told me recently that when he was a young man he went to paris to have a look and saw a communist party rally. he lived through the spanish civil war and was caught up in the excitement of the period. when he came to london to work he used to take the buses on his days off and travel the length of the route, just to see where they went - he was fascinated by trams and trains but was never a bore. he didn't fight in ww2 because he worked in a protected industry. after the war he set up a film club in north london and met arthur c clarke (who came to see a film). percy worked with the bfi and loved old films. he loved old big band music - the more quirky the better, cab calloway i enjoyed and a song called wheezanna about a big girl down with tattoos if i remember.

he bought odd presents but was always pleased to see me - especially if i had news or a girlfriend in tow. if i did he'd chat to them. in his 70s he started traveling to eastern europe and made friends in poland, yugolsavia, the czech republic, moscow and minsk as well as in belgium, france and germany. he held bonfire parties every year and they were a wonderful mix of family (growing by the decades), film friends and guests from across europe. His 90th birthday party was a fantastic affair with multicultural music and dancing. two years ago he had a stroke - perhaps brought on by a prank call from some local asbo yoof. he spent nearly a year in hospital and recovery home before getting back to the tranquility of his chiltern retreat. i saw him two weeks ago and he was in fine form - slowed down but chipper. then on monday he died - from an aneurism that had been threatening him for a while.

i will miss him and wish he could have met princess rupert before he died. his funeral is next week and i'm allowed to say a few words there so i will try and do him justice. in the meantime i just want to say, cheers percy - i hope you are up there chatting happily with the likes of groucho and spike and keeping an eye on all of us left behind

my first visit to the grove this season, to see the kids beat the high flying baggies 2-0. Wenger picked a young side (well an even younger side should i say) with the polish keeper chesney hawks in goal (clever move) gilbert, swiss , sylvester the cat and gibbs SR across the back. They looked pretty good most of the game, especially senderos who showed no signs of annoyance at being forced into the carling cup team instead of the first team proper. In the middle ramsey looked solid and tinyweenyickle jack wilshere was the star of the show. coquelin did well in the denilson role and traore and sunu started on the flanks. They could have done more really. up front i thought sanchez watt (crazy name) struggled for most of the game. west brom did well, roared on by thousands of traveling brummies who easily outsang the rest of us (56,500 in tonight, not bad for a reserve game). they had several good chances and we looked a bit flat really. swiss tony had a good effort and watt hit the post; wilshere sparkled and made everything that was good. he also changed the game inadvertently at least: when jerome thomas (ex gunner) fouled him the wst brom player appeared to push him down as he was getting up and the ref saw it as a red card.

in the second half west brom started by playing keep ball for what seemed like ages and arsenal had no ideas ...then arsene must have got bored with this and sent on carlos vela. now things changed. sunu off and we had a striker that wanted to score at last. he had a couple of chances then a great shot which dean keily could only push out into the path of watt who finished superbly,. 1 nil to the arsenal and massive relief all round. after that there was only one team in it. ascramble in the goal and a crazy chest back from a west brom defender and vela nipped in and made it 2: game over. the baggies had a good chance near the end but fluffed it. the emirates emptied of happy fans and i headed back up the motorway with the top down ... then it rained. no problem at 80 but when you run into traffic and lane closures.. never mind a little rain never hurt anyone...

toodle pip

hello folks, its been a while. adebayor has gone, vermalen has arrived, nasri has got crocked - typical arsenal close season. what's happening in my world?

well i'm writing.. 13,000 words in the last two weeks so i'm meeting my self-imposed target of 750 words a day. the ripper book is building in stages even if i'm not that happy with chunks of it.

i've just shaved my beard and tache off. i do this every five years or so. it feels weird. i did it today because i dont really need to go back into work until september now, which gives me loads of time to grow it back.

on the romance front things are still moving along. last week she graduated - she looked great in the mortar board! so that's a sort of ending. mr angry is still giving her a hard time and she's still giving it back in spades.

we spent five days together last week, i left on monday morning becasue i needed space and we would have imploded otherwise. i'm much less out of control than i was and if i can keep this up i think i can get what i need from the relationship. i'm hoping to escae to paris at the end of august and she might join me for a few days

the rain fell down

not been on for a while because things have moved on and i've been very busy. I'm not sure i have the words today to describe my feelings - 'love' seems somehow inadequate. anyway i'm getting to know her more and she's letting me in deeper. hope you are all happy and well
i shall return when i can

in 1884-5 there were a series of bomb attacks on London.dynamite, packed in tubes and with a crude detonator made from a pistol firing mechanism and a clock, were left at Victoria and Paddington stations. two boys found an unattended package in trafalgar square before a policeman took them , and it, to scotland yard. in early january a bomb exploded on the underground, near gower street on the metropolitan line. no one was killed but sevral ladies fainted and the ticket collector was thrown off his chair.

then, at 2pm on the 24th january - a saturday - the 'dynamitards' struck at the tower of london. a device in the white tower startled tourists but again, thankfully no one was seriously hurt. there were two injuries - if not fatal ones fortunately, at the houses of parliament.

miss davies, visiting the crypt in westminster hall with her brother, noticed what seemed to be part of the carpet on fire. her brother realised it was a bomb and they alerted the policeman on duty, PC cole. he then 'pluckily' picked up the bomb and ran up the steps. it went off and he spent until the end of march in hospital. his colleague, PC cox, raced to his assistance from his station outside the entrance to the commons chamber. and this was the bombers' plan: the bomb in the crypt was a diversion (and this probably saved pc cole's life) while the commons was unguarded the second device was dropped in and it exploded doing a great deal of damage. luckily, no one else was injured - just frightened.

the press went mad with calls for retribution; of clampdowns on sedition and warned the irish community that this did them no favours. the police were criticised, although the dynamitard at the tower was arrested at the scene and an accomplice soon after (the result of 'good detective work').other papers cautioned calm and reminded their readers (and the government) that less than £20,000 worth of damage had been caused, two pc's were injured, no one had died and that this was mere 'onepenny twopenny' mischief-making.

the terrorists (for surely that is what they were?) were put on trial and in just a week found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. the secret servive continued the battle it had been having with fenian nationalists since the 1860s.

i thought this was an interesting, and perhaps little known, tale of the late nineteenth century with poignant reflections for society 125 years later.

p.s there's a fascinating book, 'the Dynamite Wars, by Short - probably out of print but i got a s/h copy online. i'm revisiting it with help from the 19th century newspaper collections of the british library and the old bailey online (which has the trial record).

what a game at the madrigal! villareal come out like a train and almunia gets run over in the first five minutes. midfield looks good but adebayor doesn't seem up for it on his own (even bendtner might have been better). then senna scores an awesome goal. chequebook out please mr gazidis BUY HIM! he is just what we need to get the best out of cesc.

arsenal struggle after that. billy gallas gets his inevitable injury - song's poor tackle the cause. but despite 3 minutes of injury time they hold on.

meanwhile at the so-called 'theatre of dreams' it is the portuguese that are dreaming of rome. 1-1..

second half we are much brighter. walcott is brilliant at the moment. arsenal begin to dominate and the spaniards resort to trying to get our entire team booked and fabregas sent off. the ref doesn't fall for it but he didn't have to book the skipper for taking a free kick quickly - he learned from the master TH14. Then fab flicks a pass through to the togolese muppet who suddenly transforms himself into 'supersoccerhero' (c) and scores a blinder! 1-1.. that'll do nicely.

on comes bobby pires and how i have missed him! just a couple of corners and a few moves because he couldn't get into the game. but what a player! i thought fabregas looked tired with 10 minutes to go and eboue replaced walcott a little earlier. so, overall great result, good preformance and i hope almunia and gallas are not out for long. fabianski did very well but i'd rather not rely on him for the run in.

mac power cables are rubbish. i'm on the second one for my ibook, its such a poor design - for apple that's unforgivable!

anyway its been a good day so far. i got up late, read a bit of the paper (just the sports bit) then went to get marvin some treats and stuff to clean him out. i haven't done yet - its on for later this evening or tomorrow. popped in on the travellers and they seem in good spirits: she's got on a really good horticultural course and it allows her to earn and get some benefits. he's talking positively about setting up in business on his own again. finally they might be able to move forward.

it helps put all my recent troubles and desires into perspective. they have been coping with her cancer, and the emotional turmoil that brings, along with having to move, getting a puppy, him changing jobs and not being able to let their flat. its touching that they care about me so much. as i said, perspective.

i spent the rest of day gardening and listening to the football (and that horse race). i dug over the veg plot and mixed in lots of good things before planting a few different things (peas, broad beans, cauliflower, potatoes and spinach). now i'm watching pool and fulham whilst relaxed after a bit of physical work. good to see fabregas back and sounds like he did well: adebayor's return to scoring is also most welcome, might enjoy MOTD tonight

none other than lembit opic the cheeky girl-dating liberal democrat. oh yes. in a pub in norfamtpun. with a young woman (name undisclosed) that i once had a 'thing' with. she's a real gold digger. very attractive certainly but heart of stone and only interested in £££££££. trust me. so watch out mr quircky lib dem she will be one expensive shag....

oh my goodness what an incredible day!

because i had a very special visitor this afternoon i ignored the football (which in itself says how special this person is), only catching the second half of the gunners at newcastle

united lose!...

chelski lose!...

we beat the barcodes 3-1!

i got a bit annoyed with rvp for not passing but otherwise it was a great 2nd half performance. i hope newcastle stay up, my towcestran friend deserves better