Of Blowing the Right Notes

I went to the south coast yesterday for to help an old mucker, EP, hunt for some property. We ended up in a place called Rottingdean which is one of the most quintessentially English villages I have seen in a long time. It has its own bakery, florist, butcher, local post office, village hall, private men's club and some gorgeous quaint little pubs serving some really good pub grub. I don't think I've seen a village with so many blue English Heritage plaques on the wall boasting that famous Englishman so-and-so used to live here including one for Rudyard Kipling himself who apparently was inspired to write "Wonderland" by a secret tunnel nearby that leads to Roedean the famous all girls school just up the road.

In the evening we went to the Ivy Restaurant in Covent Garden. Both the food and the service were exceptional. The French waiter lovingly presented me with a bottle of Lebanese red to try which slithered down the throat beautifully as I tucked into my Eggs Benedict followed by chocolate pudding with mint ice cream. When I asked him the rugby score he said he didn't know but would find out returning with a piece of paper presented on a silver dish with the message 17-9 to England written out in full.

Afterwards we headed to the Royal Opera House to see the highly acclaimed "Nicole" which tells the tragic tale of Anna Nicole who married a billionaire octogenarian when she was just in her twenties. You know the opera is going to be different when the leading lady's first line on stage is "I want to blow you all". In fact I think this we the bluest show I've ever seen on any stage making even Rigoletto look like Mary Poppins. "Nicole" was brave, daring, outrageous, shocking, thought provoking, funny, sad, tragic and one of the best West End productions I've seen. It finished by the way with the lead singing "I want to blow you all.... a kiss goodbye".

Of Early Day Starts and Humiliations

I squished my jogging gear into my cabin bag before coming to London so I was determined to use it while here. This morning I got out my pit at 7a.m. and made straight for the local park at Russell Square. I wasn't the first there. As I did my stretch exercises I spied a lady already on her first lap. I decided I'd try and catch her at least by the time of my 10th and last lap of the park. It was a plan that was to back fire badly. By lap 3 it was clear I was making no ground on her. By 5 she was getting away and by 7 she was clearly catching me. By the last she'd caught me up and was on my shoulder. I said hello largely in an attempt to hide my secret plan and cover its dastardly failure. She asked me a few things including what I did but I don't think she caught any of my answers - something to do with my heavy panting at a guess. It turned out she was a professor from the local African & Oriental Studies and 63!

Of Little to Complain About

I'm in London at the moment and it's just looking beautiful. It's sunny and everyone is out like they're celebrating Spring and the fact they've managed to survive a pretty awful Winter.

I'm staying at a hotel near Russell Square at the moment. I don't know why but I always seem to gravitate towards this part of London. This may be because I spent a good part of my London student days studying in the Advanced Institute of Legal Studies at Russell Square but it's also handy, by lots of great English pubs, near to the British Museum (which looks great at night this time of year) and has a lovely park to hand to lap up the Spring sunshine.

Today, I'm off to meet a friend for lunch at a French cafe at St Pancras Station. I love this place. The architecture is just wonderful. After work in the afternoon I'm off shopping in Covent Garden. How much can I buy and stuff into a small suitcase to get back home remains my most troubling problem of the day so far. Guess I don't have much to complain about do I?

Of Google n Geeks

According to Google Analytics I had a rag bag of visitors to my blog from all over yesterday, including a single resident with obviously nothing better to do in Ecuador, New Zealand and Mongolia as well as my faithful follower in Metzingen, Germany...Guten Tag to you.

This online world is a curious thing. Last night I attended a monthly lecture and meeting of the social media association in Belfast. It consisted of people who are seriously into social media many of whom admitted to me that they devote "at least" two hours to their online life every day. What struck me about these people is that they appeared surprisingly normal and actually very capable of operating well in the "real world" and carrying out interesting conversations with people. They didn't look particularly geeky and there wasn't a pair of socks in sandals to be seen.

I wonder what the equivalent group of people would look like in Ecuador, New Zealand,Mongolia or Germany. Now there's a debate we could have on social media....

Of the Importance of Possession

I've just finished reading Clive Woodward's Winning! I'm not sure if business books, autobiographies or indeed books on sport come any better than this. It's a great read.

It tells the story of how on day one the new England rugby coach turned up at the home of English rugby, Twickenham, to find a sorry looking reception area, a few plants that had seen better days but no-one who was expecting him. He had no office, no secretary and was informed by surprised staff that they thought he would want to work from home.

The book explains how he took the English team and indeed English rugby from this to World Cup glory in just a few yers by building a side focused on nothing but excellence and success. Being a business man he applied many business principles to his team building efforts and these are clearly explained as he goes through the book. This is why every business leader should read it.

His pursuit of excellence left no stone unturned. By the time of the World Cup competition he had a team of 18 experts travelling with him including a QC lawyer to sort out any legal tussels, a chef to show each hotel how to do food for world class athletes and a vision expert who would coach them on how to see space on a field.

Once finished I was going to lend this book to a friend but I guess like a rugby player with the ball going for the line I just want to hold onto it. I'm reading it again -always the sign of a great book.

Of What No Spam & Chip?

I snapped this menu this morning coming out of the local sports and leisure centre. For anyone not local to Northern Ireland reference to a "chip" actually means "chips". So a "gravy chip" actually means you gets lots of chips with lots of gravy.

You'll see if you live in Antrim for lunch today you can have "chip", "gravy chip", "curry chip", "cheese chip", a burger, a cheese burger, a jumbo hot dog, a pastie bap or if you really want to treat yourself a bacon sausage bap.

Emmmmm yummmm

Of True Grit Grounded

I went to see True Grit last night at the flicks with an old friend AB. It could have been a great film but I struggled to understand the main character played by Geoff Bridges. His deep American drawl proved too much for me and as a film which is largely based on 3 characters and good script it proved a fatal mistake.

Before the movie AB and I went for a Chinese all-you-can-eat buffet. We were surrounded by rather large people who were certainly doing all that they could to get maximum value. Although the buffet counter contained some really healthy options including broccoli and runner beans most plates were filled with junk. The mother to my side had a plate with just three items on it but in plentiful amounts : prawn crackers, green (luminous) jelly and chocolate cake.

AB is married to a multi-millionaire but she hasn't lost her understanding of the value of money. Sometimes we'll meet and she'll tell me what a good weekend away she had recent at a lovely hotel and best of all at bargain rates. I really like this about her. She likes her luxuries and treats but doesn't depend on them for who she is. She is, grounded, down to earth and great company despite not having been in the best of health recently.