Day 3 of this very exciting trip. Today, Tom is doing a session on the movie, Spies in Disguise which looks bloody wonderful. As I type, Tom is through the glass with the directors, writers and other important types. And all around me is movie history – with photos covering the wall of the luminaries who have worked in this very space. Elvis Presley, Barbara Streisand, Julie Andrews, Shirley McLain, Shirley Temple… to name but a few.
Much to be grateful for here in LA. On our first day, the weather is set fine, Tom’s voice recording session is put back until Thursday and so he has set us up for 18 holes. A chance then, for the old(er) man to put the upstart in his place? What Eclipse?
Travelling to LA with my eldest son is wildly different from my days doing it off my own bat.
Picked up from home. Dropped at a special Heathrow dropping zone and checking gate, met by a kindly man called Joe who knows my name already and escorts us to the lounge – a quick lunch and from here, Joe is back again to take us to the plane. I could have found it on my own, I’ve done it many times already but I like the gesture and we chat en-route. ‘Oh, you live in Ealing? I grew up in Ealing. Do you know…’
Anyone who has read Eclipsed will be aware of my ill-fated trips back in the day to LA with my screenplays – which to this day all remain at various stages of not being made. It was all very painful at the time but funny to look back on now and good fun to write about on this blog and in the book.
Not that I’m particularly virtuous but when it comes to presents, I prefer to give than to receive.
As a young lad, I used to enjoy apportioning whatever money I had for gifts to lavish on my family and which of course were mostly useless and a complete waste of money. Such gifts that stick in the memory was a plastic handbag for my mum and most bizarrely, a pineapple for my dad.
With four boys; the Holland house is a highly competitive environment with many competitions playing out, some obvious and apparent and others more oblique. Career-wise, I have already ceded of course – as people who read this blog or caught my Edinburgh show will understand.
Invariably, holiday friendships endure longer than holiday romances and last night, Nikki and I met up with some friends we met in Turkey many moons ago. At the time, Paddy hadn’t been made. Tom couldn’t dance and Sam and Harry couldn’t be trusted on their own – which is arguably still the case.
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful little Staffie called Tessa. Tessa loves to play in Richmond Park with all the other animals, albeit for the most part, the other animals don’t want to play with her. The squirrels can’t abide her and so they run away as soon as she arrives and the deer in the park are aloof and at best, disinterested in her.
I am not excited that another Star Wars film is out. There we are, I’ve said and it feels good.
Even as a kid, I wasn’t overwhelmed and I couldn’t really understand why my school mates were losing their minds over it.
Well, its been an extraordinary week – and a fitting end to an exciting year. Doing Edinburgh again, Spider-Man being released, Sam and Harry finishing school, Paddy becoming a teenager and the launch of The Brothers Trust…