Cod & Bowled

Listening to breakfast radio in bed is one of the joys of retirement. On Monday the DJ took a call - on a very bad line it has to be said - from Andrew 'Freddie' Flintoff who, for some reason or another, is driving a fish van around the country. Rumour has it that it's to do with a programme being made for TV. Whatever the reason, Flintoff was calling in to the commercial radio station to publicise the fact that his fish van would be at The Kelpies that morning and he hoped as many people as possible would come along. Seemed too good an opportunity to miss!

The Falkirk schools were on the last couple of days of their school holidays and, of course, the schools in the rest of the UK are still on their summer break, so the car parks at the Helix Park and The Kelpies were both very busy when I turned up soon after 11am. There was indeed a small green van near to The Kelpies; the hatch was open and there was one man with a large mounted camera filming and another holding a long boom microphone. but no-one seemed to be buying the fish & chips on offer. At first I thought perhaps the camera and microphone were putting people off, but it transpired they were doing some 'setting the scene' shots and the van wasn't yet open for business.

Before long, however, small groups of people formed a queue and, after a few minutes, walked away with fish & chips in hand. The van wasn't exactly doing a roaring trade but business picked up when it was reported that the food on offer was actually quite tasty and, at only £2 a portion, was good value. All of this, of course, was being filmed and recorded (with the customers' consent having been requested) for posterity.

Having taken a few photos of my own from a respectful distance, I reckoned the appropriate thing to do was to put my hand in my pocket and buy some fish & chips for myself. I declined the offer of being filmed, however!

I must report that both the fish and the chips were excellent. The fact that they were served by an English cricketing legend was a bonus - well, in truth, it was the reason I had gone to The Kelpies that morning in the first place.