Cook's tour...

When Peter Cook enshrined himself in history with his immortal portrayal of Harold Macmillan in ‘Beyond the fringe’, one line still gets used whenever I have to say something inane like ‘here and there’, (“Herr... Herr... Herr and there...”, referring to Cook’s hilarious non-recall of a German politician), and everyone looks at me as if I have some disfiguring disease.

This ‘Herr’ bit easily transforms into a reference in ‘History today’, from ‘The Mary Whitehouse experience’, (“You’ve had a haircut...hair cut! Haircut!”...), and from then on, it is so easy to drop into the next chapter of the story...

Air Miles!

Like many thousands of people I had a letter from Air Miles at the back end of last year, telling me that I’d better re-activate my account by December 31st, or lose the lot! There was blind panic in many households, (including The Turrets) and the dear ladies on the hot desk were all cheerfully helping us spend just enough money to get one mile on the account and save them all from oblivion. We’d amassed over 7,000, plus 20 in paper form, (God knows where they came from...), and of course there was some considerable value in these little gems as we were to find out.

I recycled an old mobile phone for 25 miles with two weeks to spare, so we were at least up and running again. But, this was about the time that BA’s staff were getting the hump about this and that and threatening to go on strike over Christmas.

Now this is not a good idea at all. A bad idea indeed. Very unwelcome and unfair on paying customers at a time when lots of families like to see each other and row for four days...

Mrs S and I decided some time ago that we needed to do more holidays in the UK and not depend on flying everywhere. We’ve done all that airport lounge stuff, but also since JRT came to live here, we’re rather fond of taking her with us, except that she kicks up a fuss for the first few miles, and Mrs S has to lean back and discuss a few home truths with her when she starts to howl. And also, there are so many deals with all the airlines, it’s not easy to see why booking a flight with Air Miles is going to make much difference.

So it only took a few minutes on their website to see what was on offer. We didn’t fancy driving a 40 ton lorry over a cliff in The Andes, or racing turtles in The Himalayas. Neither did we want to go to so many spa treatments that we’d actually end up two years younger than our Daughts, so it was time to rethink the strategy.

It didn’t take long to find the last item on the list, and you’ve guessed it haven’t you Dear Reader! The whole lot arrived just in time for Christmas, and is stashed away – well some of it is..., not a lot actually, for a rainy day, which by coincidence is just what it is doing now after all this snow!

So, to recap, from Peter Cook, via Newman and Baddiel, Air Miles, Strike action, mobile phone, and a big website, we now have now a chance to taste the best Rioja that never is...