To North Wales this week for a much needed break after lockdown. Or is it? I do need a break – but only in the showbiz sense of the word and given my light workload over the last eighteen months, the last thing I need is a rest. A rest from what exactly? Resting? Six…
Since Sean managed to do what all comics dream of – to leave the circuit behind them – I did not know Sean as well as many comedians, never appearing on any TV shows with him. But I do go back to his very early career and I would like to share a fond memory…
Professions (jobs) come with fairly defined hierarchies. The best paid (rock stars, entrepreneurs…) The most esteemed (surgeons, judges…) The most worthy (teachers, carers…) The most admired (sports stars, actors…) The bravest (soldiers, deep sea divers…) And the most difficult? (bomb-disposal expert, stand-up comedian…) No doubt, you can add your own profession/job to the above and…
The Olympics is always welcome in my world even if just as a life marker. Every four years, it can be used as a kind of punctuation mark and life checker. But I like my sports also and I particularly enjoy watching events I only see at the Olympics. Sports like fencing, possibly one of…
The Scottish Highlands are staggeringly beautiful but add in the unseasonably sunny weather and when London is deluged in rain, I must count my blessings for our stay-cation as they are known in our Covid world. I am a writer of sorts and one who happens to be travelling but this does not make me…
The stress of going away. We’ve all been there. A unique feeling of general anxiety and occasional terror. Passports, turning the oven off, enough pairs of underpants, deodorant, water-proofs? Do you think it will rain? We’re going to Scotland. It could be cold… Sun cream? Like most people, our trip is the first in two…
Pressure and how it impacts on performance is an impossible thing to accurately quantify or control although there is no lack of trying and well paid ‘professionals’ on hand to assist. With Andy Murray, who I would argue is the greatest British sportsman of the last 50 years, our tennis appetite has been adequately provided…
Two officials letters arrive this week. One is a first but the other is all too familiar and depressing. The former being a summons for Jury Service duty, at the Old Bailey no less. Completing the summons (online) I felt a sense of civic duty, upstanding tax paying member (although not this year) of the…
To Oxford this week, the city of spires and steeples, quadrangles and gowns, bicycles and Dons. The oldest university town in the English speaking world, founded in 1069. The university where 28 UK Prime Ministers cut their teeth and 72 Nobel prize winners learnt their onions. A city of world renown academia and a perfect…
Sometimes the stars align. Certainly this week, circumstances conspired for us Hollands. Harry’s short film completed and it appears, very successfully. Tom’s birthday. Being allowed to fly and visit Scotland. The British weather finally breaking and providing some much needed sunshine. Gleneagles is a rather special place anyway. Voted the best hotel in the UK,…