I intend to leave the photographs below because not only is it my website but also I am a bit of a poseur.   Good enough?

In the interests of political balance I shall leave these photographs where they are simply because DC will become PM whether we like him or not.

Tuesday 9th February

Having watched the extended highlights of Super Bowl XLIV it has to be said that although the game was entertaining and enjoyable to watch, the half time entertainment from The Who was poor in the extreme.   Roger Daltry's voice was in good nick and the younger guys in the band seemed good at what they were doing but Pete Townsend was awful.   He kept missing the strings on his guitar when he was whirling his arm, as he did way back when... they were good.   Surely it's time for him to hang up his plectrum.

The great American public weren't happy with this rubbish were they?    Of all the bands / artists they could have had, at an event watched live by 104,000,000 in the USA alone, they definitely missed a trick employing this geriatric rocker.

I only ever bought one Who album and I still have all of the bits of paraphernalia that came with The Who Live at Leeds and in mint condition.

Following another visit to the Freeman hospital yesterday I am going to attempt some swimming today.    Here goes..........

Monday 8th February

If you are regular reader you may have spotted that my favourite topics are sport, music and politics, apart from me that is.   So reading the OB's in today's newspaper was, as usual, very interesting.

Remember back in the fifties when England were whopped 6 - 3 (at Wembley) and again 7 - 1 (in Budapest) by Hungary?  Yes I know we are all too young, but if serious about our sport we have come to know all about those 'Magnificent Magyars' of Puskás, Hidegkuti et al.

The England goalkeeper on both occasions was Gil Merrick who played for Birmingham City with distinction in over 700 games and has his 'star' in the Walk of Fame in Broad Street Birmingham .   He died last week at the age of 88.

Johhny Dankworth the jazz loving, saxophone playing husband of Cleo Laine and whose work was once was described as "...'couth, 'kempt' and 'shevelled" died on Saturday aged 82.   He was knighted in 2006 and, as I have just learned, wrote the music for  The Avengers and Tomorrow's World as well as many film scores.   Other than Ronnie Scott he is one of the few British  jazz musicians I could name.  

If he was knighted in 2006 I am assuming that this was in Tony Blair's demob period.   The reason I mention our ex prime minister is because not only did I bump into the Cultured Caledonian at our local supermarket yesterday but also Tony Blair's former secretary.   It's a small world isn't it?  

The ex premier's former constituency home in Sedgefield, known as Myrobella, has just been sold to a couple who profess to have not known the identity of the previous owners.    Hard to believe but probably true.   Remember when Bill Clinton's helicopter landed on the lawn?  

The photograph (above) of Mrs Boggy and I with the then Prime Minister was taken in his front room at Myrobella.

Saturday 6th February

Good decisive decision by the man from Italy in relieving the cockney rebel of the Engalnd captain's armband.   If he was any sort of captain he should have offered his resignation to the manager surely.   I don't know how the meeting took so long in the manager's office yesterday.  Twelve minutes?   What were they talking about?

I have already heard a couple of excellent jokes on the subject but unfortunately I cannot reprint them here because my mother reads this stuff as well as President Mo of Wike Ridge.

It was refreshing also to read what Tom Watson had to say about the continuing Tiger Woods saga.   That the great man, Watson, thought Tiger should clean up his act on the golf course was something that has needed saying for ages but no-one was brave enough to upset the young multi squillionaire, Eldrick.  

Good on you Tom Watson.   Form is temporary but class is definitely permanent.

Friday 5th February

Some days it is easy to think of what to write and on other days I sit down and haven't a clue until my fingers hit the keyboards.   As you are probably well aware by now I occasionally make stuff up too.

Today I am obliged to mention Men at Work and their No 1 worldwide hit record of 1982, Down Under.   According to Justice Peter Jacobsen,  some Australian judge who copied his  name from a guitar playing American golfer of some note, the Aussie band's song was plagiarised from a children's song - Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree - which was written by a schoolteacher way back in 1935.

Greg Ham, who co wrote the pop song we are all familiar with, denies any copying and will appeal against the old fuddy duddy  judge's decision which could cost the band and their record label quite a few dollars.    I hope the decision is overturned because whenever I hear the lyrics about "Vegemite sarnies, combivans, chunder" and other such Aussie nonsense my mind takes me to some wonderful places and reminds me of all my mates Down Under.

G'day boys.

I have just learned that my Guest Book company is no longer going to host guest books on websites and I will have to start looking for an alternative source.   If for some reason one day you find it missing, because I don't know when I am losing it, fear not a new one will follow on soon.

Thursday 4th February

The constituency MP for Tynemouth, Alan Campbell, is not only a nice bloke and a good hard working member of parliament on my behalf (and lots of my readers too) but he has also been given a clean bill of health in the MP's expenses scandal.   According to the report published this morning and now posted on the official parliamentary website, "Mr Campbell has no issues". 

Alan Campbell MP was kind enough to officially open my beloved Tyne Youth & Community Centre in October 2000 following a complete rebuild and has in fact held a few constituency surgeries in the centre.  

Sadly 50% of our elected members do have "issues" and they will have to pay back over £1,000,000 to the treasury.   They also have to stand up and be counted at the forthcoming general election.   Unless of course they have already decided to retire from public office.  

Those "honourable members" who have been a bit naughty and have decided to test their popularity with the electorate will provide wonderful entertainment on election night as they are booted out.  

I can still vividly remember the moment that Michael Portillo lost his seat in the Labour  landslide of 1997.   Somehow the once sickly Mr Portillo has undergone a metamorphosis and he is now a quite likeable TV presenter and politico.   Amazing.  

Wednesday 3rd February

After seeing 'that woman' on the telly last night I have had to go out and buy a new telly and budgie cage having hurled the latter at the former when I saw her supercilious grinning face giving 'evidence' to the Chilcot inquiry.   Luckily Joey was flying around the Boggy sitting room at the time else I would be making trips to the budgie cemetery and pet shop too.

Normally I would be playing golf today but my back is still very painful and the course is again closed again due to ice and snow.   There is more snow forecast for later this afternoon.  

Why is the Six O'clock news not sending cameramen out and about on to the frozen wastelands of Northumberland and Durham with dishevelled reporter explaining to the public how bad it is around these parts?   Oh I know.   We are 273 miles north of London.

Don't know why I am so grumpy.   Can't even get the anagram on Countdown within the allotted time.    SCLOLKBO

Tuesday 2nd February

A nurse from the transplant unit rang me at home before I had a chance to ring in for my results following yesterday's visit to the unit.   It seems my INR reading is a 'touch' on the high side, just as it could be said that Scafell Pike is a tad higher than Helsby hill, and as a result blood is whooshing around my system at a rate of knots akin to the atom rattling around that hadron collider thingy over there in Geneva.     Neither wonder I have not been at my best of late.     As a consequence my medicines have been tweaked and I have to report back for duty at the hospital next Monday afternoon for a change of oil and have my battery checked.

It's not all gloom and doom because I have had to cancel my appointment for yet more surgery at the dental hospital this Thursday .   It wouldn't do if my blood was spurting all over the place now would it?

It's not very often I post a medical bulletin in my blog but I had a mental block when I sat down to type and definitely didn't want to start writing about whether the current England football captain is a fit and proper person to hold the post and lead out England in the World Cup in South Africa.  

Of course he isn't.   Sack him.

Monday 1st February

Left home at the crack of dawn for a review at the Freeman hospital before making my way down to Tyne Youth & Community Centre for a meeting of the Freeman Heart & Lung Transplant Association.  

Just back home and read the message from my sister in Fort Langley, BC, Canada about ex MLB player Adam Loewen.   Adam will carry the Olympic torch through the town of Surrey en route to the Olympic Village in Whistler for the soon to be Winter Olympiad.   What an honour, well done cuz.

Sunday 31st January

I tried and failed miserably to watch the tennis live from Melbourne this morning.   The opening skirmishes were full of brilliant tennis (I think) but the game as a spectacle just doesn't do it for me.   Millionaire sportsmen throwing sweaty towels at young children every couple of minutes just isn't my scene.    Surely these kids should be wearing surgical gloves.    As for watching grown men sitting on a plastic chair covered in advertising logos tying and retying laces of their sponsored shoes and using yet another branded towel to wipe down whilst attempting as many product placement opportunities as is possible in the allotted changeover time, forget it.

That they are both prodigious players at the top of their game is not in dispute, I just found that it interrupted the reading of the Sunday newspapers.

I for one was happy that that nice man from Switzerland won and the surly Scotsman will simply have to wait awhile longer for his first major title.  

Sport and politics.    Wonderful.

I now realise who the saxophone player in Larry the Plec's band, Gadji, really is.   It is none other than Sergey Brin.   Google that one LP.

Saturday 30th January

On Thursday I  forgot, as promised, to give the answers for the "Where Was I?" travel quiz from last week's Sunday Times.  

a)   North Shields
b)   Souter Lighthouse

Tomorrow, some lucky punter will win a week in the Austrian Alps for working out the puzzle to reveal my home town.   It mustn't be me because I haven't received an email from the ST.

As much as I like and admire ex PM Tony Blair I was quite surprised that  he didn't offer up any sort of regret (no apology needed) for the deaths of the many innocent civilians and of the soldiers who fell or were seriously injured in Iraq when given the opportunity at the end of yesterday's Chilcott Inquiry.   

Friday 29th January

Whether you like him or loathe him, voted for or against him, think he is honest or a liar and whether you watch it live, albeit with a one minute delay, or see clips on the news bulletins this evening you cannot be anything other than impressed by a consummate politician.

Tony Blair is head and shoulders and possibly a set of stilts above any other wannabe prime minister in Great Britain today and of the past twenty years.   Just as Margaret Thatcher was too in her pomp.

Whatever the outcome of today's events in London I consider it a great privilege to have been to his house and make no apology for having shared a pot of tea and a packet of biscuits with my mate Tony.  

Thursday 28th January

Rather a late post today I'm afraid.   I could lie and say I was watching that affable Scots tennis player chappie winning his semi final in the Australian Open down there in sunny Melbourne but I would just be fibbing.   He may be a good, possibly brilliant, tennis player but oh how we dislike him.    Odd that isn't it?   We may grow to adore him once he wins a major and / or he cuts his doting mother loose.   Then again we may just continue to dislike him.   If he has to play that elegant Swiss player in the final and beats him it will  be a fantastic achievement but it will be at least 50 / 50 of Brits supporting the man from the mountains.   That's odd too isn't it?

Wednesday 27th January

Guess I shouldn't have bothered.   I had to give up my round because of aches and pains, especially my back.   Having got rid of my clubs at the turn I walked round the course with my partners and enjoyed some fresh air and a nice walk.

Anyway, I was going to write about ABBA, having just read that their Mamma Mia! DVD is owned by one in four British households and is comfortably the biggest ever selling DVD in Britain.   I remember too well when in New York three years ago that Mrs Boggy and I paid a tidy sum to watch the stage musical live on Broadway.   To say I was underwhelmed would be an understatement.    

So I won't mention that then.

I was also going write about Bonanza because I have just read the OB of Purnell Roberts who played Adam in the long running cowboy series.   There is a photograph in my paper showing Hoss, Ben, Adam and Little Joe with guns drawn marching towards an unseen foe.   Great memories of my youth.   I can still remember when we took delivery of our first ever television set and the first programme I ever saw in glorious black and white was.................have you guessed yet?.......Gunsmoke.

So I won't mention that either.

What I am going to write about instead concerns our beloved GBTCC - Great Britain Transplant Cricket Club.   The PR company who act for TSUK - transplant sport's governing body - are, on behalf the Daily Mail, trying to find out all there is to know about our cricket team so that they run some sort of feature.   I have spoken to the PR company,irons are now in the fire and I shall keep you posted about developments.

Still on the subject of the media and transplant sport, only last night the golf journalist from the Journal (the local posh paper in the NE) contacted me about our forthcoming Golf Day to celebrate 25 years of transplants at the Freeman.   It's encouraging to know that we should get some good coverage of the event if this is what happens four months out.

The golfers of Papworth hospital are definitely putting in a team.    I am reliably informed by a man with a distinguished grey goatee beard.   Fantastic news.   Is that you Charles & Maggie?

Tuesday 26th January

It was tempting to go to the gym today but my sensible head told me to wait a few more days.   So I will.   All being well tomorrow I should be teeing off at about 815am for my first game since 5th December.   Not sure if I am looking forward to it or not.

Monday 25th January

As a Sunday Times reader, as many of you are too, every week I religiously attempt the "Were Was I?" travel quiz.    Having worked out the clues and followed the leads  I sometimes come up with a correct answer.   Yesterday was a doddle and no need to check up on anything.

If you are not a Sunday Times reader you can go to 'Times Online' from anywhere in the world and check the travel quiz for yourself.   The prize for a winning entry is a week for two in the Austrian Alps.    Too good an opportunity to miss.

I will reveal the answer on Thursday just in case I am disqualified.

Sunday 24th January

Imagine the Olympic torch passing the bottom of the street just yards from your house.   Brilliant.    We are lucky if we get a 308 bus to Whitley Bay coming by.   We don't have a fort in town and will have to make do with the 11th century Priory at King Edward's Bay..

Eric Burdon sounds good value.    The rough looking ex Animals front man always did have a fantastic voice.    On the subject of Tommy Emmanuel and having listened to Larry the Plec last night and reading what JPS has to say, it seems I should go and find out for myself.   So I will.

 Saturday 23rd January

Tynemouth golf course was open today and the weather set fair but adopting a belt and braces approach I resisted the temptation to play golf.   It would have been my first sortie outdoors in over two weeks and as much as I wanted to play (sic) golf have kept myself back for a few more days.   Look forward to getting today's scores from the TOGS.

Attending a Burns' Supper tonight is indoors - so that's OK.  

My time has not been wasted because I have booked flights to Copenhagen en route to Sweden for the European Heart & Lung Transplant Games which take place at the end of June / early July this year in the Swedish city named Växjö.

I have also mastered the art of creating PDF files, thanks to my IT guru MJ, and from tomorrow all of the information and entry and booking forms for the Golf Day to celebrate 25 years of transplants at the Freeman Hospital will be available to download from my website.  

"Smart as out", he said to himself smugly.

Friday 22nd January

Leafing through the 'Forthcoming Events' brochure for The Sage, Gateshead I came across Tommy Emmanuel, the Australian guitar legend (that's what it says in the blurb).   It goes on to say that he is " ....holder of the title 'Certified Guitar Player' - a rare honour shared by only three other people".

This intrigued me so I did a bit of rabbitting around and discovered that Chet Atkins created this award by giving it to himself.   As far as I can tell the other three to have held this honour are Steve Wariner, Jerry Reed and John Knowles.

Not really any the wiser but I may just be tempted to go and see the Aussie guitar legend and make up my own mind.   He can't be any worse that Jimmy Little.

Can you tell that I am still not 100% and have free time on my hands?

Thursday 21st January

Still on the subject of probabilities maths etc I have read this morning that four card playing Welshmen were each dealt a hand with a run of cards from ace to the king.    The odds on this happening are 61,000,000,000,000 to 1.

Call me cynic, but do I believe them?   Short answer - no.

Second post:   Still confined to barracks I have not been wasting my time.   Correction, "I have not been wasting all of my time".   The 25th Anniversary Golf Tournament I am hosting at Tynemouth Golf Club is now up and running and entry / booking forms are available from now.   If you are or have been considering entering what promises to be a memorable event please let me have your email details and I can get the forms to you post haste.    We are restricted to a maximum of 36 teams, so the sooner you have your team registered the better.

DP?   Still on?    Let me have your details.

Wednesday 20th January

Despite threatening to play golf today if the course was open, and it is, my body is telling me to stay warm and indoors.   Even a walk along the seafront is a no go area.   It could be that I am just a wimp.

The Royal Institute Christmas lecture may not be to everyone's liking but I have to admit to watching it most years.   Always very informative and entertaining it is so different to everything else on the box over the festive period.

I recall a programme a few years back all about mathematical probability.   Stick with this dear reader because it is not going where you think.  

Back to the maths.   To demonstrate a point the presenter asked how many were needed in a group to ensure that two people shared a birthday.   To demonstrate, he asked the audience, of about 300, various questions and there were quite a few sharing a common birthday.   He went on to prove by a mathematical progression, or was it a probability, that only 28 were needed in any given group for two people to have a birthday in common.

The reason I mention this is because in our golfing group collectively known as the TOGS, there are seventeen of us, two of us (to my knowledge) share a birthday.   Happy birthday to Steve Todd for last Thursday 14th January.   That he was also born in the same year as me is coincidental and cannot be substantiated by any mathematical formula of probability.   We were in fact born in different hospitals, but both within the county of Northumberland.

Tuesday 19th January

At last I am starting to feel a little better and if the weather permits may even attempt a game of golf tomorrow.   If, as today, there are only frost greens open I shall be giving it a miss and settle for a stroll along Tynemouth sea front and some bracing sea air.

Now that the Americans have taken over Cadbury's, that most British of British companies, we will soon be enjoying cheese flavoured chocolate.... with fries.... and lashings of ketchup.....and bucket sized cartons of fizzy drink.   Way to go, man.

Monday 18th January

As I am typing this note my mates down under will be changing into their cricket gear and taking the field in Australia to play a 12 over match against the Bradman Foundation XI.

What's so special about that I can hear you ask?

The Wombats are playing under the floodlights of the SCG - Sydney Cricket Ground - as an invited team in a two day cricket festival.   The ATCC will be captained by Graham Lentell and no doubt their chairman, Jeff Sewell - JPS,  will be watching on proudly and chatting to all and sundry in his customary jovial manner from the stands.

What an honour for the boys down under and what an achievement.   They have kicked on from the humble beginnings of 2004 and are flying the flag for organ donation and the game of cricket with panache.  

It is my understanding that a certain Geoff Lawson will be opening the bowling for the Bradman Foundation XI and rumour has it he will be delivering more than pies.

Newsflash:   Playing in the last match of Day One at the SCG the Wombats were defeated by a very strong Bradman Foundation XI.   I am reliably informed the the MOM was a certain J Wulff.   Batting with Muzza the Wulffman hit a six.    The stuff of dreams.   Fantastic or what?

Sunday 17th January

The Test cricket from South Africa is finished now but there is an important tour to Bangladesh to look forward to in a few weeks to keep us interested before loads of 'biff bang wallop',  to come.   Who are they kidding?  

With a bit of luck I could be back on my feet again in the next few days and resume a 'normal' life again and get back in the gym and return to the pool.   I wonder if I can still swim?   I know I can't play golf.

Thanks for all of your birthday greetings and get well soon messages.

Friday 15th January

The umpire Daryl Harper had problems with his knob in South Africa this morning, poor chap.  

Adjudicating in his role as third umpire for TV referrals he failed to turn up the volume as he checked to see if the South African skipper had nicked an away swinger on its way through to the keeper.   Of course he did Daryl.    I could hear it here in Geordieland.   Next time you check on such a dismissal don't forget to twiddle your volume knob.   You know it helps.

How come Graeme Smith didn't walk anyway?   It's just not cricket.   He is sadly not alone in waiting for the umpire's raised digit before heading back to the hutch.

Thursday 14th January

Having risen from my sick bed and braving the arctic conditions in my leaky office I would like to wish my namesake, Graham Marsh the senior Australian golfer whose nickname is 'Swampy', a happy birthday.

Oh, I nearly forgot.....it is my birthday too.   Howzat for a coincidence.

Humphrey Bogart died on this day in 1957 when I was but two years old and Edmund Halley, the man who has a comet (which appears every 76 years) named after him, died on this day in 1742.

Monday 11th January

I am sitting typing this blog wearing a fleece and scarf to keep warm in Boggy HQ.   My office is an addition to the house which is never particularly warm but having been under a foot of snow for the best part of ten days has now sprung a leak.   I have no desire to blow myself up and therefore have no heating in this palatial adjunct to the main house and the roof repair men cannot come out until the snow has finally been consigned to the history books.   It is definitely thawing because I can see it filling Mrs Boggy's Tupperware bowls covering the floor as I type.

Weather permitting, I fly to London in the morning for a meeting in connection with this year's European Heart & Lung Transplant Games in Sweden.   As seems to be normal policy for the budget airline whose staff wear orange fleeces similar to the one I am currently modelling, check in is required before the milkman has delivered the morning pinta so do not be alarmed if there isn't a blog tomorrow because I shall not be venturing into this part of the Marsh mansion at some ungodly hour.

Back soon.....

Sunday 10th January
or, 10/01/10...looks odd doesn't it?

Today seems like a good day to stop in, devour the newspapers, feet up and a permanent  pot of tea to hand.

Saturday 9th January

I thought about having a game of golf with my mates in the TOGS but decided to build a snowman instead.   It's the fourth week in a row that the course has been under a blanket of snow.  
Want to see what it looks like in Costa del Tynemouth?  
Go to TOGS and Scores page.

No sign of any Beatles LP's.   Maybe after we have watched the Sherlock Holmes' film at the cinema tonight it may help with my detective work.

Friday 8th January

The Royal Mail's latest stamps depict ten classic album covers and I am, or was, the proud owner of four of them.

Let It Bleed (1969)  -  The Stones.   I either swapped it for something unimportant or it was melted on the back seat of a car driven by a close relative.    I have just discovered that the cake featured on the cover was baked by a then unknown Delia Smith.

Led Zeppelin's fourth album - 1971 - which was unnamed but referred to by all as Led Zep IV.   It is the LP which gave Stairway To Heaven to the world as well as Black Dog and Misty Mountain Hop but I have to say I much prefer Led Zeppelin II from 1969.

Tubular Bells (1973) - Mike Oldfield -  which topped the charts for yonks and probably most people reading this blog have in their collection too.   Don't you?

The Division Bell (1994) - Pink Floyd.   Let's be honest, any one of their album covers would do the job.

The other six are, Bowie's Ziggy Stardust, London Calling by The Clash, Power, Corruption & Lies by New Order, Screamadelica by Primal Scream, Parklife by Blur and A Rush of Blood to the Head by Coldplay.  

What happened to The Ting Tings?

Thursday 7th January

Spent the best part of the morning at the dental hospital in Newcastle and will have to return in a few weeks time for more surgery because of my reaction to one of my main immunosuppressant drugs.   Just as sheep have to keep munching on grass so I must continually have surgery or my gums will grow excessively.    Not pleasant, but hey if that's all I have to worry about.

I have been reading a fascinating article about the mythical number that is Pi and how some French IT geek who has calculated 22/7 (according to Archimedes) to 2.7 trillion digits.   One of the more incredible statistics is that any string of random numbers, such as your telephone number, will be found somewhere amongst all those digits.

To think I spent my formative years working to 3.142.

Wednesday 6th January

Having been engrossed in the two Test matches taking place in South Africa and Australia I have not yet seen or heard a news bulletin today.   I have of course read my newspaper.  

Come 6pm and the main news bulletin I am willing to bet we will see a load of southern softies careering out of control on their many motorways and others who simply cannot understand how life goes on with all of this funny white stuff falling from the sky.   As someone who (lived) stayed in Scotland for two years, in the Kingdom of Fife, and now back home in the northeast let me tell those south of the M4 corridor that it is been like this up here for the best part of two weeks with the promise of much more to come.

In my back garden the snow measures a magnificent 7 inches in depth.   What that may be in millimetres, centimetres or metres I care not.    It does cover my wellies though.

I heard an excellent tip on the radio in these sub zero times, less than 32°F, and how to keep safe in your car if you become stranded somewhere unpleasant.   Keep a candle and some matches in the glove box.    The heat from the candle is enough to keep you from freezing in the night.

Tuesday 5th January

Just as I suspected.   Geordie 'leqad' guitar player backed by Geordie singer.   Money for old rope, more like.   

Still on the subject of Geordies, if you are watching any of the cricket from Cape Town there is a flag of St George regularly in shot bearing the words, "North Shields".   It's not me honestly.    I am definitely writing this stuff from the frozen northeast of England surrounded by at least six inches of snow.

As for what was so special about 3rd January?   Nothing really.   Simply that I just didn't know what day it was anymore following two weeks of eating drinking and being merry.

Before we know it furlongs will be ancient history.   Instead of the commentator calling, "....and with three furlongs to go Kato Star is four lengths clear....." it will be something along the lines of, " ...and with 608.99 metres to run Kato Star is 8.5344 metres clear".

Not being a connoisseur of the Sport of Kings as far as I remember they are still sold in Guineas and measured in hands.   Where will it all end?  

Last time I looked a cricket pitch is 22 yards long or, as we all know, 1 chain or 4 rods or 100 links.   How simple is that?  

Monday 4th January

Not sure what I was going to write about as I logged on during the tea interval of the third Test match from Cape Town I couldn't help but notice the Google logo commemorating Sir Isaac Newton's birthday on the home page.   How good is that?   An apple representing the first of the 'O's in Google falling from the tree and landing at the bottom of the page.   Brilliant.

Quickly read my messages and emails and my first thoughts about JPS's pop poser led me to think, Geordie lead guitar player backed by Geordie singer.   I will come back to it later.

3rd January

My first quiz question of the year:   Does anyone know what day it is?

We are nearly back to normal and as nice as it is to visit friends and rellies and pigging out on pork pies, pickles and other stuff that rhymes with 'p', which for the moment elude me, it will be good to settle into some sort of routine again, starting tomorrow.   I think.

As for my next game of golf, who knows when that will be possible?   It is nearly a month since I last played and with all of the snow and the promise of more to come it could be a little while longer yet.   Plenty of opportunity to work out at the gym and have a swim but it is nowhere near as pleasurable as 18 holes with the thought of a pot of tea and a scone at the end to look forward to whilst scrabbling around looking for a small round Christmas present in long grass and puddles.   Bananas are OK but...........

Talking to my nephew MM yesterday, he is in the middle of his second year of three  studying to be a sports journalist at university, I couldn't help but be a little jealous as well as being very impressed at the prospects he can look forward to in the years to come.   He has had to turn down an offer of an all expenses paid trip to Dubai to report on a marathon because he has a crucial exam that clashes with this date.

Plenty of time Michael, another opportunity is just around the corner I promise.   I just hope he remembers his good old Unc when he has his first assignment to cover cricket from  Melbourne or golf from Augusta.   Come to think of it cricket or golf from anywhere will do.

2nd January

So as not to disappoint the 300 or so people in the audience at Percy Park Rugby Club I took to the stage and gave my version of Clapton's homage to Patti Boyd, Wonderful Tonight.   If I say so myself it was one of my more entertaining performances and I received a standing ovation.   Sympathy works in mysterious ways.

This was the 25th occasion we have kicked off the new year in the company of Tex & Leon and friends and from humble beginnings back in 1985 it has grown into a local institution among the glitterati of Shields and Tynemouth, he said with a smile.

Larry the Plec made his debut at the event yesterday and played the acoustic guitar with his customary dexterity but he surprised me, at least, with his singing.   To coin a phrase, "The boy done good".   The watching Heather (his wife) was first in the queue for an autograph as Mr Page left the stage.   A good way to start 2010.

New Year's Day 2010

I can't believe I am still here, fit and well enough to continue with all of this nonsense.   But I am.   So I will.

We saw in the new year at Tynemouth Golf Club and were royally entertained by Larry the Plec's band, Gadji.   If ever you get a chance to see them, they are very good.   If you are coming to my Gig to celebrate 25 years of transplants at Newcastle's Freeman hospital on May 14th, again at the Golf Club, you will be able to decide for yourself.

It's D-day for Dr Who.   The 'man' from Gallifrey meets his maker tonight and the eleventh reincarnation of the time Lord takes place.   Not to be missed.

Firstly though it is off to see my long time mates (et al) Tex & Leon Moat at the Rugby Club in Tynemouth to kick off the New Year in style with live music and lots of guest artists appearing too.   Let's  hope I am not one of them, he said shyly.   It will be the 25th consecutive New Year's Day Mrs Boggy and I have done this and those who were once toddlers and babes in arms are now up on stage singing and or playing, much better than I ever could.  

Lastly, for today anyway, I thought you mighty like to see the wondrous sight we awoke to this morning.  This photograph of the Boggy back yard was taken at 10am with the snow still bleaching down.   Click on the thumbnail and then again the bottom right hand corner for best view (but you knew that anyway didn't you?)

All in all it is safe to say, "I am just happy to be here!"

September - December '09