No.358 Of The Bolshoi Ballet Then and Now

I'm off to see the ballet Spartacus tomorrow night at the beautiful Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Can't wait. Better still it's the Bolshoi dance company led by Ivan Vasiliev who has set the ballet world buzzing. He is being likened to a modern day Nureyev with jumps so high that you can a better view of him in the balconies than you do the stalls. Better still the ballet is set to the music of Khachaturian. It was he who composed the music used in the Onedin Line all those years ago.

I first saw the Bolshoi ballet in Lenningrad when Breshnev was still trotting out onto the Moscow balcony to prove it wasn't true that he was dead and to wave at the passing tanks and missiles. I arrived at the theatre only to find someone in my seat. I explained best I could in English to the guy that he needed to move. He replied in English "Sorry I move" and true to his word he ended up two rows back.

When the ballet was over I met him outside the theatre. As we crossed the road to the taxi rank I asked him if he enjoyed the ballet and he replied "Yes but it's not safe for me to talk to you" and walked away never to be seen again.

No.357 Of James Caan The Man

I've just finished James Caan's book "The Real Deal." I like this book and I like this man too. Everyone should read it : recruitment experts, managers, workplace psychologists, entrepreneurs and anyone wanting a really good yarn.

The book's full of really insightful learning and he shares generously his thoughts on himself, his career and his purpose in the world.

The book is full of great stories. He tells us about James Buckley who at just nine years of appeared in The Den as part of a Children in Need Special programme. He said he wanted £5,000 to print posters and badges for schools to distribute that encouraged kids to include less popular kids in their games. Two Dragons offered him the money : Duncan Banatyne and James Caan. The boy chose James. When Duncan asked him after the show why he choose James he replied "James is new and I didn't want him to be lonely".

A good part of the latter half of the book is devoted to Caan's charity work either building a school in Pakistan or responding to the disastrous earthquake in Kashmir. Caan concludes that in a situation like the earthquake in Kashmir entrepeneurs are probably the best type of people to get involved and help. He argues that by their nature they're great decision takers, they're resourceful and great at overcoming obstacles. When you learn how quickly he managed to get relief shelter into Kashmir and save many lives it's very diifcult to disagree with him.

His last chapter talks about how fame affected his life and he tells the story of how a lunch time meeting with him was auctioned for £5,800. He was staggered at the amount.

£5,800 is that all?

No.356 Of a Question of Pitch and Timing

I went to Castlewellen Park yesterday for an open air jazz festival which was, as it turned out, held in a tent on account of the weather.

I went with The Lady Captain who prepared a picnic that any Teddy Bear would have been mightily proud of. I hadn't seen her in a long time so it was great to catch up on all the news. She's one of these people everyone needs around. A very positive person with only good things to say about everyone and great wit too.

We struggled however between us to see the postive in the jazz ensemble for their singer missed a good few of the top notes and a few other ones on the way too. They desperately needed a couple up near the front to start off some dancing. The Lady Captain was up for it but I remembered I had left the car door unlocked and thought it time we left....

No.355 Of Handling Complaints

I know it sounds crazy but I was kept asleep by a belching plug hole last night in my hotel. I was just about to nod off after a great night out in London when the sink rumbled and water appeared from out the plug hole before disappearing again. Thinking I was up to the challenge of how to resolve this I placed the plug in the hole and returned to bed. 30 minutes later and I heard the sound of a plug popping into the air and the same rumble, gurgle and whirl of water that I had heard before.

I lay there contemplating what to do. I had five hours before getting up for my taxi to the airport so I needed rest and I figured by the time I had complained and asked for another room it might hardly be worth going to sleep. Besides how do you call reception and complain that a plug hole is keeping you awake?

I lay three towels across the sink thinking it would be enough to contain the pop of a plug and any rude noises the sink wanted to make to stop me chucking out the zzzzzzzzzzzz. I was wrong. I must have managed a whole hour's slumber before reception called to let me know the taxi had arrived.

By the time I had boarded the plane I was very tired and very crotchety. As we came into land a gentlemen on my right across the isle from me had failed to turn off his mobile. I know this because it rang and he answered it. No-one said anything so I did and reminded him that mobile signals could interfere with the electronics of the plane. Immediately I felt like the plane square and passenger grass and regretted my impromptu protestations.

Once the plane was on the ground I made for my own mobile to check for texts. The guy on my left said "You're not supposed to be doing that mate until the aircraft door opens".

No.354 Of Mad Blogs & Englismen

London - A place where you can order a cup of peppermint tea without the waiter looking at you like you're a complete moron. Bliss!

Strolling through Woburn Square Park I must have spotted at least 20 different nationalities all in their groups doing their own thing. The Spanish students were having their team photos taken by an Arab lady who was probably glad she wasn't having to do it peering through a burka peering through a lens. The Germans were playing football (hey rub it in lads) whilst the Italian females were doing what they do best : chilling outside sipping Lattes by the cafe and drawing on their cigarettes with all the glamour that Sophia Loren and Audrey Hepburn first brought to the pastime.

I had ventured in search of a Mr Whippy and finally found one right outside the British Museum (which hadn't lost it's charm). The American in front of me was eager to start her huge 99 but was unable to find anywhere to dispose of her gum. I peered at her daring her to drop it on the ground right outside our great british Institution. She calmly stuck it on the end of her cone and walked off. That stare of mine - never lets me down.

No.353 Of Meeting Opportunities

I had a business meeting the other day in Mal Maison Belfast. It's a nice hotel but I'm beginning to wonder if it's the right place for a profesionals-in-suits type of meeting. It's very dark and does have the appearance somewhat of an Edwardian Brothel.

I was in Manchester yesterday for a finance course. It was a great course but an awful lot of pain for just one day's learning. It involved a 5a.m. start, rip off parking at the airport, a couple of uncomfortable flights in a Flybe tube of toothpaste and a stroll in the Manchester rain to and from the gig.

As I learnt during the day it's not the cost of a course or the inconvenience of getting there but the opportunity cost of being out the office and out of production for 1 day. We all have hourly rates it seems.

No.352 Of Dragon's Den & Other Tales

I'm reading James Caan's "The Real Deal" at the moment. He's the Pakistani born, Indian looking, Eton sounding multimillionaire in Dragon's Den.

He tells a great story of how he left home at 16 and then made his way in recruitment learning and earning and partying as he went.

What's interesting about his meteoric rise to riches is that he never felt any loyalty to his employer at least not enough to keep him there if he felt he could progress more quickly elsewhere. If it was time to go he was off never to look back.

What's clear is that he learnt most of the skills that made him successful by watching others closely and where necessary copying them to the smallest detail.

Most autobiographies are nothing more than PR exercises or blatant attempts to cash in on temporary fame and it's often not what's in these sorts of publications but what has been left out that's really important. But I like this book. Caan comes across to me just as he does in the Den : honest, firm, straight but never gratuitously rude.