Tom is in Singapore today – in front of legions of no doubt adoring fans.
Very early this morning, I’m half asleep. I say half asleep because I probably need a pee but I’m in denial – a situation not helped by the rain lashing down outside.
Fresh out of university and in my first job – selling non-woven fabrics for a company in Devon (I know, the glamour!) – but nonetheless I took the job very seriously and I worked very hard. Such that six months in, my boss awarded me a bonus of £500 and I was thrilled. At the time, £500 was my monthly take home pay and I decided that I should spend this money on something special and something I would always keep.
Some years back – a person kindly emailed me a list of typos in my novel, A Man’s Life. I am about to offer it as a print book and have a hope to glean out the errors. So hoping this person might still be out there and with better email recovery skills than me. If so, do get in touch as I have a blindness when it comes to typos…
But who is Nokia?
My old comic mates will know and so will the readers of Eclipsed.
And I will be the father to a 21 year old son.
21 short years and so much accomplished (by him I mean, mainly)…
Without doubt, it has been a bad week for tigers.
In a UK zoo, a real tiger does what it is programmed to do and a warden is mauled to death.
And in the US, another Tiger – albeit not a real Tiger – is laid low by the frailties of being a human being.
This week I am hosting a conference in Munich, Germany for 600 IT professionals.
And for such a short sentence, anyone who knows me will understand just how far outside of my comfort zone that I find myself.
Nothing quite as communal, galvanising and compelling than a jig saw puzzle. A story that I regret omitting from Eclipsed involves The Impossible jig saw puzzle. Bought in Spain but started and completed in Thailand, a 2000 piece intricate beast exercised the efforts of the entire cast and crew over many many weeks. Transcending all languages, people from the world over got drawn in and helped to complete it.
Funny is fiercely competitive with winners and losers and toxic jealousies all too common. Comedians compare themselves with each other almost continually and this is easily done along any number of very tangible parameters. How many gigs? Which gigs? Running order? Size of rooms? Size of fee? TV slots… and on and on it goes.