House in Italy

Just back from a week in Italy to check out the house. Its now fully renovated and is fantastic. Still can't believe its ours. Next step is to build a patio. By August it'll be perfect.

My First Ever Trip to the Globe Theatre

My tastes are pretty lowbrow. I'm not a big theatre goer, and have only ever been to the Opera on a couple of occasions. To be honest I wasn't really looking forward to seeing Romeo and Juliet last Saturday, especially as we had the 2 girls with us.

Well, I really enjoyed it. Largely because I vaguely knew the story and because the Globe itself is a fantastic venue. It helped that the weather was nice and there was lots of sword fights, music and dancing to keep my attention. The girls liked it too. Great thing to see on a Summer's evening.

Allotment News

As you can see, the allotment's looking really good at the moment, thanks largely to the help of my father-in-law who's taken charge of it. Already picked some rhubarb. New potatoes, broad beans, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, beetroot, spinach also on the way. After my recent trip to Derby I've got quite a few tomatoes, courgette and squash plants that my mum gave me. Looks like its going to be a bumper year.

Funny Business Books

I bought this week at a second hand bookshop in Devon on a rainy afternoon and found it very funny. It focuses on the life of an egocentric Marketing Director and the relationship with Pandora, his Lifecoach. It pokes fun at the way corporate life works and how marketing people destroy the English language with their made-up words and stupid phrases. Doesn't do lifecoaching any favours either. Recommended.

A similar book that I enjoyed was Matt Beaumont's e . This was written several years ago, before Blackberries when we were just discovering the joys of email. Its focuses on the life of an advertising agency who are pitching for the Coca Cola account and the emails that fly between the people who work there. Really funny.

I can also highly recommend anything written by a friend of mine Guy Browning. He used to write a column called Office Politics, which became a book. All the characters seemed to be based on people we worked with at our old agency Added Value. Check out Weak at the Top, too.

Archie Gemmill

Just back from a weekend in Derby. Apparently Archie Gemmill buys an ice cream off my dad and my auntie most weekends at Markeaton Park.

He was a phenomenal player - one of Derby's greatest. He's probably best remembered for this fantastic goal for Scotland vs Holland in the 1978 World Cup. This even got a mention in the film Trainspotting.

House in Italy Latest

Our house in Italy is almost ready. Doors are on, windows have been installed, kitchen and bathrooms being fitted this week. Like all those people you see on tv house renovation programmes, its taken twice as long and is costing twice as much as we orginally thought. We hope to stay at the end of May. Very exciting.