Gyms ain't wot they used to be.

These days it seems that there are chromed and mirrored gyms everywhere and people talk of "going to the gym" in much the same matter of fact way that they would previously have said that they were going down the pub. It was not always so. Attitudes toward physical training have changed hugely over the years, and so sadly have gyms themselves. Weight training was very much the preserve of a particular type of athlete; weightlifters, bodybuilders and some wrestlers. Boxers never used weights as it was considered a sure fire way of losing speed and sports coaches in general felt that weight training would make you slow and "muscle-bound". I think that Arsenal were the first football club to put players under a weights coach and in the 50s this was considered pretty radical. As for physical culture as it was known, training for it's own sake or because it might be healthy to do so, well this really was considered to be pretty cranky.
Dedicated gyms were few and far between and most were housed in youth clubs or church halls. Some, like Billy Riley's notorious Snake Pit in Wigan, were little more than tin shacks. Boxing gyms were frequently on the top floor of a pub; the Thomas a Becket in the Old Kent Road and Canning Town's Royal Oak being famous examples. The Dukes Head in Putney must have been unique housing as it did a famous bodybuilding gym upstairs where wrestler Spencer Churchill could frequently be found, and the basement being home to Putney Town Rowing Club. Don't even think of visiting any of these once famous hostelries. The first two are no more and the Dukes Head is now an overpriced gastropub.
What the old time proponents of the benefits of physical fitness would make of the modern fitness industry I don't know. All that chrome. Mirrors everywhere. So many pot plants the place looks like Kew Gardens. Machines that would appear to have more to do with space travel than the old fashioned business of building muscle. Legions of grim faced yuppies driving to the gym in order to go on a walking machine. Do some of them walk to go on a driving machine I wonder?
It's all a far cry from one particular wrestling club that I used to train at. Amenities were what you might call modest but there was a refreshment facility. Half way through the evening a halt was called to proceeding and a primus stove was fired up and a kettle boiled. After a mug of tea and a roll up (breakfast of the champions at one time) we got back to the job in hand of bouncing each other off the walls. And not a potted palm to be seen.

The extent of the gulf spill.

For a sobering look at the extent of BP's Gulf oil spill click here and type your home town in the box.

Not so cuddly after all.

It is hardly surprising that foxes have gravitated towards our cities. The fox is an opportunist happy to hunt or scavenge and the huge amount of food that we discard makes for an easy existence. I very much doubt that urban foxes can be controlled without depriving them of their food supply but the attack on two babies in North London might at least dissuade people from deliberately encouraging them. The feeding of urban foxes is part of the "furry bunny" view of nature that has come to dominate the world of conservation and natural history. The shallow anthropomorphic wildlife programmes churned out by the BBC probably don't help.
Foxes are wild animals to be respected, admired from a distance and controlled where necessary. Like any wild animal a fox that has lost it's fear of man is a potential threat.

The more things change................

"One sometimes gets the impression that the mere words 'Socialism' and 'Communism' draw towards them with magnetic force every fruit-juice drinker, nudist, sandal-wearer, sex-maniac, Quaker, ‘Nature Cure’ quack, pacifist, and feminist in England."
"If only the sandals and the pistachio-coloured shirts could be put in a pile and burnt, and every vegetarian, teetotaler, and creeping Jesus sent home to Welwyn Garden City to do his yoga exercises quietly!"
George Orwell. The Road To Wigan Pier.

With only a few minor alteration the above quote stands up today as well as ever. Unfortunately.

Cameron right about gun law.

Only a few weeks into Cameron's leadership and already I am experiencing the uncomfortable feeling of agreeing with him. The dreadful shootings in Cumbria will no doubt result in calls for yet more draconian gun laws but Tory Boy is right when he says that you cannot legislate for a switch suddenly clicking in someones head. Guns and the male psyche are a rich area for all kinds of horrors ( is there anything weirder than replica gun ownership?) but the overwhelming majority of people, both male and female, who shoot as a hobby are sensible,safe individuals that non of us need worry about.

Charles calls for sustainable lifestyle.

It was one of my Old Man's favourite assertions that the English upper class were stupid rather than bad. They could be both of course. I'm not sure how bad Prince Charles is but someone with his wealth and power is hardly likely to be the most sympathetic of characters. As for stupid, well we need look no further than his latest call for us to all lead a "more sustainable lifestyle". This from someone who's own lifestyle is sustained by the taxpayer and the accumulated wealth created by other people labour. Fuck off Charlie.

What do they know of cricket..............?

Yesterday I decided to catch the final days play at Lords. Well, with Bangladesh putting up such a spirited defence and free entry for the under 16s and over 65s it seemed foolish not to. Mind you, I thought that four quid for a pint was a bit strong but you can't have everything. Anyway, I had a mooch about (or perambulation as we call it at Lords) during the lunch interval and found that bat makers Gray-Nicolls had a stand with one of their staff sculpting a bat out of half a willow tree. Watching real craftsmen at work is always a pleasure so I hung around for a bit before picking up a leaflet and wondering off to watch the final session. The response from others has been surprise that we still make bats. "Aren't they all made in China these days?" I think it's what the pointy heads call a "self fulfilling prophesy". We assume that nothing is manufactured here and lo it comes to pass. The truth is that we still have a skill base in UK and we still have youngsters who would like to make living doing something more satisfying than staring into a computer screen all day and gambling with other peoples lives and money. It seems all the rage these days for politicians to lecture us about how important is our industrial base. Pity their predecessors didn't think about that thirty years ago. It might be a step in the right direction if politicians, teachers and parents stopped looking down their noses at people who use their hands (and get 'em dirty) to make a living and recognised once more the real value of practical skills.