I don’t get out and about very often….

Most days you’ll find me exactly where I am right now – slumped in an office chair behind a computer keyboard staring into space, desperately hoping that it’s my turn for inspiration  to pay an all-too-rare visit.  Sometimes, I’ll get up and move around a bit,  look out of the window, maybe even talk to another human being – but most of the time it’s lots of sitting and lots of staring, only punctuated by the occasional sigh. Most days, inspiration is making house calls elsewhere.

The causal observer may conclude that I’m not doing very much – that I’m wasting my time.  Most days the casual observer might be right.   But last Monday was different. Last Monday wasn’t most days. Continue reading →

Music hall comedians used to launch into their first joke or sketch  with “A funny thing happened to me on the way to the theatre tonight.” It was all nonsense, of course, just a way to get the show going.   But a funny thing really did happen to me on the way to the theatre last week, and any modern day comedian witnessing it would have had his first 10 minutes laid out on a plate. Continue reading →

As I’m sure you know, people can be quite unpleasant on the internet. Anyone with even the vaguest public profile (and they don’t come much vaguer than mine) will find themselves on the receiving end of a wide variety of name calling and abuse, and I’ve had my fair share of it.

 Now this isn’t really upsetting or distressing. Occasionally it’s amusing, but most of the time it’s just boring. Internet trolls are disappointingly unimaginative, and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard it all now…or at least I thought I had until  a couple of weeks ago when  I came across an accusation that temporarily restored by faith in the great keyboard tapping public… Continue reading →

I have a Golden Rule for food preparation, which if I’m honest, can be a little restrictive. If  a dish takes longer to prepare and cook than it does to eat, then it’s off the menu.  Anything else just seems to throw the effort/reward relationship out of balance for me. I’ve yet to find too many kindred spirits though, and if the popularity of  TV cookery and food  programmes is anything to go by, I appear to be in a very tiny minority. But appearances can be deceptive!

It will probably never happen, but  occasionally I have a fantasy about appearing on Masterchef. Greg Wallace and John Torode are whispering conspiratorially  off camera as I make my entrance… Continue reading →

If you’re ever tasked with designing an efficient and customer friendly international airport, I have some advice for you. Get on a plane to Sharm el Sheikh in Egypt, examine everything they do in minute detail, assess and analyse all their systems – and then do completely the opposite. You won’t go far wrong. There may be a better way, which I’ll come back to in a moment, but first I want to tell you about something I discovered as I took my seat on the way out there… Continue reading →