I loved Laura Kenny's podium appearance after winning a Commonwealth cycling Gold for England. It being the Commonwealth Games, 'Jerusalem' is played as the anthem. Except our Laura was none too clear on when it finished, turning prematurely back to face front. With a shrug and a smile, she charmed her way through (also giving a stand-out interview afterwards about getting demotivated during training).
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To Benjamin Franklin is credited the saying: 'It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it.'
That statement could easily be applied to the Post Office if one treats as a deed its pursuit of innocent individuals under the Horizon IT Scandal, but here I want to focus on British Airways. I confess that my use of the great man's words does not quite work, as the 'deed' is the way in which BA has managed itself during the pandemic and coming out of it.
The genesis seems to be sacking a large chunk of the BA workforce as Covid took hold. The failing has been the judgement by senior management that when travel picked up again we would have an immediate recession and the staff would come flooding back (presumably with poorer conditions).
Didn't work. And problem compounded by BA scheduling more flights than it could resource. Followed by widespread cancellations.
Why is latter especially a problem? Go back to why people - ok the middle-classes - use BA. And keep using it because of Avios points etc. BA costs that bit more so there is the expectation. Of reliability. And that is what has gone.
Recovery? The jury is out.
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Anyone for lawn bowls? I rather fancy it.
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Early in month: for Ministers who have not yet endorsed the Foreign Secretary as next Prime Minister (and with apologies to the O'Jays):
'Tory Ministers, join hands,
Get on the Truss Train, Truss Train.
Do not leave too late, join hands,
Get on the Truss Train, Truss Train.
You realise, so clearly, what matters most to you,
Get in the Cabinet, yeh, that's what you got to do.
Backing that Sunak, man, that was a real disgrace,
Smooth man who's got, yeh, loser, all written on his face.
Tory Ministers, join hands,
Get on the Truss Train, Truss Train.
She could well be be mad, who cares,
Get on the Truss Train, Truss Train.'
PS I think that if you sing it quietly you will find that it scans.
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I am preparing three laminated sheets for a Treasure Hunt I am running, a social event in advance of my younger daughter's wedding early next year. Three too many, you might say, if you are environmentally concerned. 'Is your laminating really necessary?'. But I love my laminator. There, I've said it. Is there a de-toxifier group I could join?
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The Treasure Hunt was a great event. Worries about global warming cast aside temporarily as teams trekked round King's Cross in the sun, ending with late lunch at Vinoteca, although one 'boys' team insisted on stopping for beers en route. I shall say it - I am quite good at designing and organising these events (I have done them professionally as well, as a facet of my occasional tour guide life). However, I just wonder if it would have been more suitable for me to be skilled at practical things. Too late now.
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Disgraceful that it is a village in Oxfordshire - surely Conservative homeland - that is the first UK place to run out of water. Liz Truss will know how to take immediate remedial action.
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On a busy early evening Overground train. No one offered me a seat. Result.
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The Today Programme between 6am and 7am. Always enjoy it. Sometimes wish that, where there is the anticipation of an enjoyable day, the clock would stop for a while. Sadly it doesn't.
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I loved the Commonwealth Games, but am not a fan of Opening or Closing Ceremonies.I did watch some of the Closing one, and found it bizarre. Many competitors could perhaps have related to the Hip Hop, but what about the song that deals with passing the joint on the left-hand side, or the exhumation of Ozzie Ozbourne for the night.Then amongst the attempts to be culturally relevant there were the three white Woodentops (the 'important' people) culminating in Prince Edward as Chief Woodentop. Andrew Cotter and Hazel Irvine made the best of it in commentary, though I suspect that they would have preferred the whole thing to end with the athletics 4 x 400 metres relay.
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The Hundred has restarted. Move to the next item if this makes no sense. I suggest melding The Hundred and 20:20, to create The Twenty. Yes, that's 20 balls for each innings. And of course, for the satisfaction of the populists, it would be mathematically possible to score a 100, and you can get to the bar earlier.
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Postcard from Amsterdam
To get on the Eurostar at St Pancras you have to first navigate UK exit and then, within 20 metres, navigate French border control. A nightmare, you suggest, for a super-busy Friday morning, with queues surely snaking up to Granary Square. None of it. Through inside 20 minutes. I have no doubt that there was chaos over an earlier weekend at Dover, but if you want to challenge the Government over Brexit (and jolly right to do so), then hold on to the rational, otherwise the emoting will devalue the arguments.
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Reminder note: high-speed Eurostar gets you to Brussels. After that, it's the ordinary fast, or sometimes not, domestic line. Nevertheless four hours station to station ain't bad.
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Amsterdam is a curate's egg. Apart from one salubrious street we found, the centre is seedy and grubby, and you don't need to buy a weed cookie in your neighbourhood cafe, you just breathe.
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The smartest area is the Museum Quarter. As well as containing the Rijksmuseum, Stedelijk (modern art) Museum, and the Van Gogh Museum, it has a long street of upmarket fashion stores. It's rather like the South Kensington museums being stuffed into Mayfair.
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It is tempting to give restaurant recommendations, but I think most people like to do their own research. However, I will recommend the Shiraz wine bar near the Rijksmuseum, set on a quiet canal where there is plenty entertainment from passing pedestrians and passing boats. The contents of certain boats were hen parties and and stag parties. In the latter case, with 30 degree plus temperatures and sun beating down, there was definitely worry over whether certain pasty bodies would mature into a deep shade of sunburn. The theory was that one should have a quick stop at the wine bar and then press on to more sightseeing. However, in the heat and the conviviality of the location one stayed for a couple of hours. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow.
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On return, an encounter at Passport Control with an officer of a personality I have not seen before. Normally these people are taciturn. This chap first asked about purpose of my visit to Amsterdam - standard stuff - but then asked what I liked about Amsterdam the most. I said (and it is true) that I found the price of wine cheaper than I had anticipated. He looked at me quizzically and smiled. A nice touch of human interaction, but also I thought clever - if your purpose of visit were unlawful, you probably would have been freaked out by the disarming approach.
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Cooped up in the lounge at Amsterdam Station, there were only 10 minutes to departure as our train rolled in. But these trains load quickly, and we left dead on time. Some contrast to aircraft.
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Back home. Under current legislation at least, it is the right of a worker to go on strike provided that their Union has complied with balloting requirements. It is also the right of a person with a ticket to England v South Africa at Lord's to find some way of getting there despite transport disruption.
PS With that result it probably was not worth bothering.
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I know the humour is puerile, but I am still amused by the sports headline: 'How Jesus is raising standards at Arsenal'.
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I am reading 'The Five', by Hallie Rubenhold, an account of the lives of the women killed by Jack the Ripper. She notes how in 1834 the Poor Law Amendment ended charitable relief provided by parishes. She adds; 'The poor were judged to be lazy and immoral paupers who refused to do honest work, and bred bastards and enormous families while living on handouts'. My point, with 'graft' the word of the month, is the danger of stereotyping.
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A London bus advert for a firm of solicitors promotes 'Amazing service'. The adjective has even now passed into the inner courtyard of the law.
Next stop Michelin Stars: 'Darling, the report on the Local Authority Search was exquisite, and what can I say about the advice on replies to Enquiries before Contract!'
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Waiting for an 88 bus coming up from town. Toddler in buggy in front. Toddler declaring that he wants to go on the 29. Father explains that they will have to change in order to get on to the 29. Bus arrives. Child sees that bus is an 88. Child screams furiously that he only wants to go on the 29.
It can only be a demonstration of the sense of entitlement that younger folk have today...
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The author is a writer, speaker, historian, occasional tour guide, and former Managing Partner of a City law firm.