Sent to Coventry

After lunch at the Flying Standard, 11 of us settled in for a one-hour guided tour of the Coventry Transport Museum.

Our loquacious tour guide kept us on our toes by singling out individuals to interrogate with leading questions (i.e. none of us fell asleep 😉).

We saw a truly impressive array of bicycles, motorbikes, cars and other vehicles. All testament to the importance of Coventry over many years to the growth and decline of those industries in the area. On a positive note, Jaguar still has a strong presence in the area and the new Jaguar gallery shows how the marque has developed.

Most exciting of all – for Pete at least – was the open-top bus used in 1987 to celebrate winning the F.A. Cup … and the F.A. Youth Cup (now how many of us knew that?!).

King Solomon’s Gold: Fantasy or Fact?

Some 50 of us sat attentively at the feet of Prof Alan Millard to hear him talk about “King Solomon’s Gold: Fantasy or Fact?” We came in hope – that we might walk away with some gold in our hands [Ed: really? … really!?!! You knew this was a MIRTH event 😳 But … wait till you hear the end! ].

Prof Millard told us of the very large quantities of gold which King Solomon received, including 3.9 tons from the Queen of Sheba; and 21.6 tons annually (worth over £1 billion in today’s money. And bear in mind that the Bank of England currently has something over 300 tons of gold reserves.)

He took us through the extensive evidence which exists. He told us of the quantities listed in the bible in 1 Kings 10 and 2 Chronicles 9. He showed us beautiful pieces – gold cups, bracelets, anklets, funerary masks … He told us of the impressive temple areas plated with gold – including the amounts in the Temple of Solomon.

But just when we thought Solomon had a lot, Prof Millard informed us that the Egyptians took it all, and a subsequent Pharaoh Osorkon gave far more just in his gifts to the gods. While the rulers of Persia accounted for close to 7,000 tonnes.

At the end of his talk, questions flowed. And a key one was ‘Where is the gold now?’

Prof Millard’s answer? “If you have a gold ring, you may have some of it in there!” – because gold is continually recycled – melted down, re-crafted, removed, re-worked – down through the ages. [Ed: so we might have walked away with some of Solomon’s Gold after all!]

Clay Shooting

The second MIRTH Xtra event took place at Warwick Adventure Sports on Thursday the 14th March.

Eight intrepid Mirthers were given a real treat. David Harkness who is not only a regular member but also a fully qualified instructor and safety officer opened up the world of Clay Pidgeon Shooting for us. Expert tuition was delivered in a friendly and humorous way.

The clays were fired in a number of ways either towards us, away from us or across the range to simulate the flight of birds or the run of rabbits.

We soon established that pigeons and Rabbits are quite safe in Terry and Mel’s gardens but are in real danger if they go near Ian Roberts or Pete Chambers. Ian won the good natured competition and Pete was a strong runner up.

A really big thanks to David for running such a professional and fun event!

We may be able to run another event soon if you would be interested let us know (Click here for details and to express an interest.)

Walk Around Long Itchington

For the second month running it was raining for our walk. This time we were walking around Long Itchington. Five hardy souls set off, first we were walking on tarmacked paths so I thought my boots might stay clean but Richard soon led us off onto muddier and wetter paths across fields.  After a while we were walking on the old railway route connecting Southam and Rugby before dropping down onto the canal.

We were almost back to the cars when the footpath was flooded as the stream had burst its banks. One of our members sensibly attired in wellingtons helped us find the best route through. 

On arriving back Terry pointed out the blue plaque for the inventor of time travel apparently he will live in Long Itchington in some 75 years time (see photos below)

Once back we retired to the Blue Lias Inn for a well-earned lunch and to dry out. 

The Danny Razzoo Show

Danny Razzoo came to St Paul’s on February 20th to entertain and amaze us with his magic tricks, using mainly numbers and playing cards.

Danny particularly enjoys ‘mathemagic’ in which he uses his excellent knowledge of mathematics (as a former teacher of) to bemuse his audience. Some of his tricks employ straightforward maths and algebra (can algebra ever be straightforward? I hear some of you thinking!). Some of the audience may even remember the significance of these numbers: 10 29 / 18 43.

Time after time he made our jaws drop as he did complicated things with packs of cards and then showed that he had predicted exactly the one which a random audience member had chosen.

Danny passed round a book of some 400 pages and asked audience members to choose a page, read the first three words … and then proceeded to tell us how many paragraphs there were on that page and how many lines in each. He even asked us to choose a word – and guessed it correctly (though of course “guessed” is not al all the appropriate word here!). How did he do it??!!

Danny is of course none other than Cliff Daniel, a regular member of MIRTH. So it was no real surprise to us to learn that he had once travelled on an overnight train from Bangkok to Shanghai, sharing the compartment with three nuns. He showed them some close-up magic…which caused so much laughter that other passengers came towards the compartment to see what was happening!!!

Danny enjoys performing for groups of people around the country, so if you are looking for such an entertainer, then just get in touch through MIRTH.

MIRTH wet walk


Well, here’s a turn up for the books! Two firsts in one day!

Our first first was that it rained … and rained … and rained ☔️. For the whole of our walk 😳!
It had started before we met up at the Plough & Harrow. And it accompanied us all the way as we walked to Sydenham and along the canal and back up towards Whitnash.

Secondly, we walked so quickly that we were in severe danger of getting back to the pub well before opening time. Well we couldn’t have that, could we.
(But why dear reader do you think we walked so quickly? Was it perhaps because of all that training on the exercise machines at Victoria Park during last month’s walk …?)

Anyway, ever resourceful, we stopped at the very enjoyable Blenz Cafe in Whitnash Community Centre. Richard – top gent that he is – kindly treated us all to teas and coffees. Others in the cafe were intrigued by our presence (well – who wouldn’t be 😉) and asked us about MIRTH and what we were up to. One of the throng even offered to take a photo of us (which he said he had sent directly to the police …).

So if you see any of this lot walking around in the rain again, please let the police know they are a really excellent bunch of Men In Retirement Together Having fun, food, fellowship, fruitful exercise and friendly company.

RSC ‘Behind the Scenes tour

On a beautiful sunny day, 14 of us enjoyed a hearty lunch at the Dirty Duck in Stratford-upon-Avon. Inspired by the pub’s link with the world of theatre we then made our way to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for a ‘Behind the Scenes’ tour of the main theatre and the Swan Theatre. We were joined by two more old codgers and then split into two groups for the tour.

What a fascinating visit! We had two excellent guides who took us all round the two theatres and other parts of the building. We learned so many interesting things.

For example

  • That the RSC is the second largest employer in Stratford with about 800 employees. Plus more freelancers and contract workers for various productions.
  • That the multi-award winning “Matilda the Musical” started in Stratford, is still touring in the UK and other countries, and is still the RSC’s main money earner.
  • That in 1928 there was an open competition for designs for the new theatre. It attracted worldwide interest and was judged anonymously. When the winner was revealed to be (shock! horror!) a woman 😳, called Elisabeth Scott, it was too much for many of the misogynous commentators of the day (so not much has changed then, we said).
  • That the RSC make all the wigs they require in-house. The wigs all use real human hair. We learnt that grey hair is very valuable for wig making as it is the hardest and most expensive to obtain! Some members perked up at the prospect of earning a bit of money on the side – till they learned that it had to be grown very long before it was marketable.

After the hour-long tour, we spent some time looking at the excellent exhibition. We left the RSC with all our (grey) hair (those of us who have any, that is), keen to encourage friends and family to sign up for the tour themselves.

A walk through Leamington

Ten MIRTH stalwarts braved the cold to set off on the monthly MIRTH walk on 9th January. They were not put off by the sub-zero temperature. Nor were they afraid of a ‘feels like’ temperature of minus six (yes! -6 C). Rather they revelled in the beautiful sunshine and the warm company. They strolled from Newbold Common through Jephson Gardens and the Pump Room Gardens along the river to Victoria Park. There they diverted briefly to see the plaque which marks the high water level of the floods of April 1998. Then back in to the park to enjoy the exercise machines which have obviously made them all such models of good health with such fine bodies (editor’s note: if you believe this, you’ll believe anything! Note they are all wearing so much clothing that you can’t tell anything about their bodies …).

On their way back through Leamington, some of them dropped into The Fold – the newly opened, flexible, creative working space recently opened in the old United Reform Church on Spencer Street. What an impressive space it now is – though perhaps a little pricey for us to use as a MIRTH command centre,

Once back at the Newbold Comyn Leisure Centre, they declined the opportunity to hone their bodies even more and settled for a fine good value Seniors Lunch at the Rugby Tavern.

A Walk through Cubbington and Lillington

Despite the weather forecast, a group of 9 men turned up for a walk around Cubbington and Lillington villages. Richard had arranged this walk on paths as the recent wet weather had made the ground very wet.

We set off from St Mary’s Church, Cubbington passing through the cricket ground to Windmill Hill. (Richard told us something about the history of this place.)

Soon the weather turned. As you can see in the photos the group got very wet. We continued with the walk as by now we had no option.

Many of the members had lived in the area for many years but there are always things you notice when walking.

As we returned through Cubbington we came across Ledbrook Hall. A large opening had been bricked up in the building and a heated debate took place among the Mirth members. Had it been a door or a window? (See photo below). To find the answer you can see a photo on this website. https://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/cubbington-ledbrook-hall.

By the time we reached our cars we had dried off we all headed to the Rugby Tavern for lunch.

MIRTH Christmas Dinner

The Windmill Inn was the select venue for our annual Christmas Dinner, on 5th December this year. Thirteen MIRTHers and seven spouses had made their choices from a very appetising menu, (and 19 of the 20 managed to arrive at the Inn on time!).

The spirit of the season was evident in the Christmas jumpers and the pulling of Christmas crackers – which produced the usual groans at the corny jokes.
There was animated conversation along the two tables – but about what topics you may wonder.

The more raucous table was apparently discussing the merits and demerits of different toilet paper products (!!??).
The other table meanwhile was demonstrating how bang up to date our old codgers are (editor’s note: how up to date one of them is …) by comparing their understanding of the Oxford Word of the Year “rizz”* with equivalent terminology from their own youth. Yes – they wallowed in nostalgia for a while ;).

So what will be the word of the year next time we gather?

  • editor’s note: “rizz” denotes style, charm, or attractiveness, particularly in attracting a romantic or sexual partner. It’s the language of Gen Z and TikTok …” but not yet of MIRTH, it seems 😉