Hello all again from the Mother Country…my excuse for delivering trivia runs out in just five weeks. Then, I’m sure I will be called to account - face to face - for my embellishments and my "off centre" insights…

Since the last editions we have had a few more trips, including one to the Isle of Wight ( otherwise known as IOW)

1. Before IOW stories, a bit more about the incredible Leicester City …Premier League Champions 2016 :

• It was their first Championship ever
• There have only been 24 Premier League Championships, and Man U have won 13 of them. (Before the Premier League, there was a different competition setup)
• Before the season started the bookies offered 5000/1 about Leicester City winning
• Last year they had to win …win not draw …7 out of their last 9 games to avoid relegation.
• At the start of this year 70% of journalists polled believed that they would be relegated this year.
• They get 125 million pounds for winning and about as much again because they qualify for Champions league in Europe next year (unless UK votes to withdraw from EU…only joking)
• Leicester spent 57 mill on players payments in 2016. To put this into perspective, Manchester United spent 320 mill
• Their star forward Jamie Vardy was paid 80,000 pounds…and got a pay rise to 100k because he was named League Player of the Year. Again to put this into perspective Lionel Messi (Barcelona) gets 336k, Ronaldo (Madrid) gets 300k. All these player payments I have quoted are PER WEEK!!! So the Messi’s $(AU) 35.000,000  per year makes Gary Ablett’s annual earnings of about $(AU) 1,000,000 look a bit poultry.
• Finally on Leicester, there a a quirky Australian story. Last year Chelsea won the Championship and their reserve Goalkeeper was the ageing Australian Mark Swartzer. He was was not called on to play in the senior side all year. This year, Mark Swartzer was Leicester’s reserve goal keeper and again did not get one senior game. …I suspect he will be in big demand when the trading season comes around…

2.  One of our recents visits was to Kelmscott Manor near the Cotswolds - one time home of Williams Morris, a famous interior designer. Lovely old house with a interesting story about one of the out houses. It was there brew house. 

Apparently at the time, the local water was not fit for drinking…so beer was the answer…and they brewed it in the brew house. Average household consumption per person was 1 gallon per day…including a pint with breakfast!!!!

3.  BASL, the fast growing organisation referred to in earlier editions, is still thriving. They have even named a Swiss town after it now !! (…don’t tell me you have forgotten what BASL stands for ???)

4. Interesting road sign on IOW…..I keep looking of a “Strong Bridge”...

5. I think the judges here were pretty quick to announce their decision here. The photo was taken in May 2016

BTW we sampled their fare and it could easily become the Pub of the year…

6. Another IOW story.... it relates to a great walk that the Mother scheduled near Godshill in central IOW. It started out with a few Kms of gentle incline  through a lovely dense forest. As we emerged from the undergrowth, we were confronted with a massive steep hill known as Gatcliff Hill. I thought surely our walking instructions would not take us up such a challenging landscape. After turning the instructions to the next page I was relieved to find the next instruction was “…after the kissing gate, turn right and walk around the base of Gatcliff Hill"…PHEW.

But the relief was short lived. As we walked around the base of Gatcliff Hill, we started to ascend again. I quickly became apparent that, that a even bigger challenge was ahead behind Gatcliff Hill….as we continued to ascend, we got into the low clouds ….there was even a sign telling us to be aware of low flying planes.

Anyhow, we survived the challenge and the track continued thro beautiful countryside.

7. I’m always interested in clever shop/business names. In Ventnor -IOW- there is a shop called “Undiecut”…..not surprisingly they sell discount underwear ….

8 Finally, its been great to have Mick and Carol with us in Romsey over the last week. We had a couple of games of golf, many outings and the odd ale. Of course- as a good host - I ensured that Mick won the golf challenges….

Cheers

Dad/Tony