Happy coming last…

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…

Laura the Brave…

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…

It’s harder coming down…

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…

I needed two heroes…

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…

Under pressure…

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…

The spoken word…

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…

Soaring like a bird…

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,…