John Pilgrim: It’s barbecue time, so here’s hoping

I’m not really a ‘barbie’ person because most of the stuff people cook is not good for me and as I grow older I find that I have to be more careful about what I eat. For the past couple of years I have invited my neighbour Tony round to my house to watch the 20:20 cricket finals and we have a barbecue in the garden.

The day consists of watching the two semi finals and eating the food and drinking a few drinks (actually quite a lot of drinks) and then Tony goes home to rest and I clear up the garden before Tony returns to watch the final.

The real problem is that Tony can eat for England! When it comes to the time that we decide on the menu for the day he has a never ending list of special sausages, beef burgers, mushrooms tomatoes, dips, chicken pieces and the like. I swear that I know of only two other people who can out eat Tony, my grandsons Sam and Joe.

Those two boys embarrass me when their birthdays come around because when you ask them what they would like to do to celebrate they always choose the local Chinese restaurant where you can eat all you want for a set price.

I have to say that I blame their father because Michael for he can eat almost as much as Tony. In fact I would hate to have my son in law, my two grandsons and my neighbour sitting at the same table when I was paying the meal.

On an entirely different subject I have to say that I am relieved that the Americans have managed to work out a way to avoid not to go broke. I did consider asking my bank manager to increase my overdraft but decided against it on the basis that I wouldn’t know what to do with a hundred trillions pounds or dollars.

The whole thing is crazy – they make up the rules as they go along. If they where asked to present that money tomorrow in cash where would it come from?

It’s a crazy world where pensioners are struggling and the next generation of elderly people is being told that they face a difficult retirement while the so called ‘elite’ are still feathering their nests.