Claws for thought*
Much in the press re a possible sighting of a big cat in Sydenham Park, South East London. And by big cat, I don't mean a fat tabby, I'm talking Genus Panthera-style.
An armed police team (complete with Tasers) has descended on the area, closely pursued by a presspack bored with the election run-up: see Guardian article, Evening Standard, The Times and The Sydney Morning Herald.
Notable quotes from the locals include:
Billy Rich: "It was big and black and I thought, fucking hell, what was that?"
Mr Rich's ex-wife: "The only beast of Sydenham is him."
Kelly Wood: "I wouldn't let my little boy Morgan go out and play today. He's 19 months. I think he's quite an edible size."
Anonymous resident: “Do me a favour. It may be a jungle here, but this is Sydenham. Big cats? Get out of here.”
The Great British Public. God love us.
Sightings of these beasts have occurred around the British Isles, most famously those of the Beast of Bodmin Moor and the Beast of Burford.
They have seized the public imagination to the extent that groups exist to monitor and report on the phenomenon including The British Big Cats Research Group (formerly the Scottish Big Cats Society, I think) and The British Big Cats Society.
Dunno if they are affiliated, so we could be looking at a turf war here... Fact of the day: A panther is not a species of feline. It is any big cat that has melanism - most usually a jaguar or a leopard.
*Before you judge, rejected titles were "Cat's Amazing!", "Sheer (Khan) Terror" and "You'll Like It, But Not An Ocelot".
Science for today: "Pictures"
Leafy weekend
Left work early on Friday to get to The Seven Stars, a dinky little pub, over 400 years old, just behind the RCJ. It's one of the few buildings in the area to have survived the Great Fire of London. You can almost taste the history. Or maybe the wine was corked. Worth a visit, if you can get there early. A fresh, summery evening lent itself to perching on the pavement sipping Argentinian Malbec - sweet.Tiring of the Brideshead Revisited type ting, we repaired to the Blue Anchor off Chancery Lane for a few and then stopped off at El Vino to pick up a couple of bottles before heading home.Saturday - arose early, sauntered along the Walworth Rd and actually managed to get practical stuff done on the DIY / home interior / shopping front. Hurrah! Scattergun turns a new leaf.Evening - headed to the Dust Bar on the Clerkenwell Rd for a mate's birthday. The place rapidly became rammed and getting to either the toilets or the bar took about 15 minutes. Generally not recommended despite having a 2am licence. Squeezed out at about one-ish with a bellyful of vodka and headed for the homestead.Sunday - horrible hangover. The leaf withers on the tree...Bright spot on the horizon is the upcoming Easter weekend. Not content with Good Friday and Bank Holiday Monday off, I've taken the rest of the following week off too for various birthday-related shenanigans, some high art and low culture and perhaps even a church service.Although the fact that I'm mostly commemorating the crucifixion and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ with a series of piss-ups is probably not going to endear me to the Creator that much.
Formula 1 - Sepang Grand Prix
Hot. Damn hot. I like to see the drivers work for their money though.
The Tim Densham-designed Renault R25 continued showing its formidable pace, allowing Fernando Alonso to take pole and then dominate the race until taking victory. Nicely done.
Jarno Trulli silenced a few of his nay-sayers by hanging on for second place in his Toyota - their first podium, and Nick Heidfeld claimed his first podium in the Williams-BMW.
Read all about it in the grandprix.com race report.
The unfortunate BAR-Hondas had a torrid time of it with the engines of both Jenson Button and Anthony Davidson (standing in for the poorly Takuma Sato) lunching themselves in the first few laps. This not only negated their strategy of pitting early last race to acquire fresh engines for Malaysia but also means they require new engines for Bahrain which drops them 10 places on the grid. Button was not impressed and didn't mince his words.
Giancarlo Fisichella in the Renault and Mark Webber in the Williams-BMW got a little too intimate on the track and took each other out. Toys out of their prams, here.
Ferrari had another rubbish race. Rubens Barrichello had to retire owing to no grip on his softer-compound Bridgestone tyres and Michael Schumacher managed to come from 13th place to 7th to get two points (but had to cope with the embarrassment of being lapped by Trulli's Toyota). The other teams would best not crow too much as next race will probably see the debut of the full 2005 spec Ferrari.
P.S. Narain Karthikeyan once again managed to bring his Jordan home to the chequered flag (in 11th place.)
Reconnaissance weekend
The usual activity was had this weekend.Mate's birthday party at the Angelic in Islington and then, would you believe, to the Islington Academy for Club Seal - cue much shambolic and embarrassing lurching on stage to tunes wot the kids are into. I should really act my age.Mind you, I will be doing so shortly as my birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks.Have been scoping out the gin palaces and beer-holes of London to locate a suitable venue.Various places have been evaluated and discarded including a classical music bar and a converted church. (This is what comes of having friends who might easily kick up a stink if the locale is too pricey / too cheap / too far / too near / too small / too big / too close to ley lines / too prone to terrorist attack, etc. etc. You know who you are...)Saturday's fact-finding mission was to The Phœnix Artist Club, off the Charing Cross Road.
Interesting joint - this could be the one. Built into the old dressing rooms of the Phœnix Theatre, it's pretty old - but almost feels as if it were built in the sixties and made to look older, like a Harvester or something. It's members only after eight o'clock, we got there at seven, found a table with ease and had some food - good range, good prices. We then sat there for seven hours, boozing. Who'd have thought the old man would have so much Pinot Grigio in him? For shame... Topics covered included women, Stanley Baldwin and the 1922 Committee, the Amritsar Massacre, women, mass communication and its effects on foreign policy, the rise of religious extremism, Charles Dickens, fox-hunting, women, The Suicide by Nikolai Erdmans, the Gurkhas and does Michael Howard's Jewish heritage make him an ethnic minority leader. And women.
Aside - as a sop to all you Heat-lovers, I saw the mod bloke out of the Mighty Boosh. He was wearing red trousers and white pixie boots, so it was difficult not to.
The place was relatively unrammed til about midnight when hordes of the Equity mob trickled in. Much "mwah, mwah, darling!" etc. Nice people, though.
Spoke to one of the clearly knackered bar staff who said only members can reserve tables, membership is £120 a year but anyone can come in before eight and it's open 'til three.
Therefore owing to the time constraints, I would need a core group there from about six to gain table space.
This would require people who were either up for a boozing marathon or people who don't mind coming early because they are leaving early and can be relied upon to be there at a specified time. Daedalus or Icarus? Volunteers welcome.
Hail To The Kaiser Chiefs!
Just bought the debut album by The Kaiser Chiefs, Employment, on the strength of catching all of 10 seconds of one track on T4.
As he gave me my change, the man behind the downstairs counter at WH Smith's on Fleet Street said "people are saying it sounds a lot like Blur". I favoured him with a withering glance as I stuffed the CD into my parka.
Having listened to it, it is jaw-droppingly good fun. A fusion of dozens of styles that leads to a style of its own, it's an insanely catchy, highly eclectic burst of noise and I love it.To paraphrase those pointless reviews in the Melody Makers of yore that said a lot but told you nothing, it's like the Divine Comedy married Madness, adopted The Jam and joined a circus run by Supergrass. Sort of.(No wonder the 'Maker folded and had to merge with the NME - a la Whizzer & Chips merging with Buster...)As for the Blur thing - well, it's produced by Stephen Street but that's about as far as it goes. Oh, and the sound of Graham Coxon revving his motorcycle is at the start of Track 8. Jeez...
The fear factor
From The Guardian:"Peers inflict defeat on anti-terror bill".Ordinarily, I'd have much to write on the House of Lords and the concept of unelected bodies of inherited power having such control.On this occasion, however, I'll just say, "Mwaahahahah!"(Check this page over the next few days for when they post the full debate...)
Formula 1 - Melbourne Grand Prix
The grand prix on Sunday kicked off the Formula 1 season in better than expected style with Giancarlo Fisichella of Renault taking and keeping pole position thanks to a heavy shower of rain just after his first qualifying session on Saturday.Fisichella stayed out in front on race day to take the win - the excellence of his car underlined by the sister Renault R25 managing to come up from thirteenth position to take third thanks to a blistering drive by Fernando Alonso.Red Bull Racing (née Jaguar) provided a neat suprise by bringing home both cars in the points - a wake-up call to some of the other teams.With exception of Rubens Barrichello taking second, the usually-perceived strong teams of Ferrari, MacLaren and Williams had a slightly lacklustre day (although taking points) and BAR were very much down in the dumps and simply pitted before the end to ensure they would be allowed a fresh engine for the next race. I think the FIA might want to close that loophole.For the full race report, go here.The new rules made the race less intuitive to watch (I'm not even going into qualifying). With tyres having to last full race distance and engines being required to last two race weekends, it was sometimes hard to discern if the drivers were being sometimes conservative to save on tyre wear and, later, taking a couple of unnecessary risks as they knew they weren't in line for points and if they damaged the car they'd go to the pits and have a fresh engine for the next race. Yes, you, Michael Schumacher....To keep up with all the latest news, I heartily recommend grandprix.com as well as the ITV-F1 website.And don't forget Martin Brundle's Racing Lines for gems of his informative, humorous and sometimes rather scathing commentary....P.S. The rookie Narain Karthikeyan managed to to go the full race distance to bring his Jordan home. Nice one.
