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Talking to oneself

There have been many times in my life when whole days have passed without a conversation with another human being. Days reduced to a quick thank you or enquiry in a shop or a passing hello in the foyer of a block of flats. These days, with messaging apps and email, we don’t need to have conversations. One thing I noticed during my first few months alone on my boat was that I had no chats. Just What’s App exchanges. Today, the sun is trying to poke through rain clouds, which are producing an almost biblical downpour here in East London. And it would be the perfect morning where in the past I would have picked up the telephone and had chats with friends. Now that’s reduced to a few quick text messages to plan or to check that people are OK. The good thing is that my partner works from home three days a week and although his conversations often are into headphones with people in other parts of the world, the sound of another voice on the boat is both comforting. Today he’s in the o

New Year, New Start, New Dishwasher

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I couldn't have wished for a better festive season.We had happy and full days on the boat. Nice meals, nice food, nice company. Wonderful presents and all shared with the most wonderful person. A visit to see "Sunset Boulevard"-a fantastically rewarding reinterpretation with an absolutely off the scale, star performance from Nicole Scherzinger. A fabulous evening in the theatre on Broadway to see the penultimate night of "Some like It Hot”. Followed by a beautiful four-day weekend in New York with lots of walking, plenty of visiting galleries and museums, iceskating in Central Park and shopping. No sooner had we got off the plane on the 2nd of January than I hit the ground running. Staging a conference for a major client which took up all my time and meant that January, and its associated depressive blues, crept up on me unaware. Or rather, they manifested themselves in a series of domestic appliances that decided to give up the ghost and not join in with 2024.

Christmas comes but once......

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What a difference a day makes? That’s what the song says, and it’s the time of year when we start to think what a difference has 365 days made? For me, it’s considerable. This time last year, I faced the prospect of my first Christmas as a single man with no family. And it was not nice. I was saved by two dear, fabulous friends who took me into their home in France and gave me a beautiful, intimate and joyous Christmas. The journey from there has been full of surprises. Lots of travel for business and fun. Dogging with huskies in northern Norway; a week of shows and museums and shopping in the Big Apple; and a fabulous two-week single-handed odyssey of a trip around the land of the rising sun. Japan was the most stunning trip and the desire to return is great. Add a week in the sun on the Amalfi Coast and I have indeed been lucky. Work has been varied and fun. Letting the world see the results of a year's filming in 2022 as The Full Monty dropped on Disney. Directing events in Ibi

Bearding the Issue

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Beard is a slang term, American in origin, describing a person used, knowingly or unknowingly, as a date, romantic partner (boyfriend or girlfriend), or spouse, either to conceal infidelity or conceal one’s sexual orientation. And there’s me thinking it was something that my agent asked me to grow for something that starts filming next January. It’s the sequel to a project I filmed 10 years ago. In that instance, I had false facial hair, brown and lengthy. Today I’m sporting ten days’ growth, which is alarmingly white and short. Currently, I look like someone who didn’t even get a recall for the recast of Captain Bird's-Eye. Perhaps I could be one of the group of animated vagrants who assist Vincent Price in his murderous exploits in the film “Theatre of Blood”. It won’t be long before it’s second glances on the tube and I can stop using deodorant. Since the events of this series take place only eighteen months to two years after the events of the series, we filmed ten years ago, a

Living for today

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This week I attended a memorial service for an actor I had the pleasure of working with in corporate role-play on many occasions.  He made me laugh, loud and often. He knew his stuff, and he always had an eye to make sure we didn’t get overused for the money. I was always pleased when I saw his name on a job sheet. He was a wonderfully intelligent man, and it was a great pleasure to be in his company. Rest in piece Greg Harris The celebration was wonderful and gave me a chance to catch up with many colleagues who I no longer see as the areas of my work have changed Greg was my four years younger than me. He’s not the only one of my contemporaries to have left us in the last few months., The wonderful comedian Andy Smart. The director, Michael Boyd.  I’ve spent the last twenty months finding my new life. The realisation is that I don’t know how long it will be. So there is no time for regret. No time for wishing “If only” and “What if “. Time to throw off the duvet each morning and gree

One Years Reign

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I suppose the principal aim of this blog would be not to mention the weather. As we all know, we would sadly diminish conversation in Britain, if it were not for our climate. I wonder how well the holiday business has done during this last rainy spell. I know that one of the first things I did was to book myself a nice sunshine holiday for December. So even if the current diluvian days continue, I have a beach to look forward to. Living on a boat means one is constantly aware of water, and the thrash of the rain on the roof is strangely comforting. My first instinct living on Scout when the rain started was to run outside and start collecting pairs of animals. Now the downpours are an excuse for me not to have to get the pressure washer out for boat cleaning. Just one chore on the household list when one lives on a boat. I’ve never been overly competent with a screwdriver. The tool, not the drink. Mercifully, the community feeling that we have on our pontoon means there’s always someon

A Single Monty

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There has recently been a big sense of things finishing . “The Full Monty” which has occupied my life for most of the last 18 months, has now dropped on Disney UK to great success. It’s so good that so many people can now enjoy the story that we could tell. While Monty opened in Sheffield, I was enjoying a fantastic two-week adventure in Japan, something I’ve been eagerly awaiting since much earlier in the year, as part of my ‘Get out and do it on my own’ programme. Many of you were kind enough to read my Japanese travel blog and shared the journey with me. It was a life-changing experience and gave me a confidence that I thought I had hitherto lost in terms of being a solo traveller. Last Wednesday, the court declared my divorce final. Just a few things to mop up and that’s it. Twenty five years of my life put into the filing cabinet. So where next? And that’s the question. On hearing the news of my divorce, many friends texted me and said, “well done. You’re nearly there.” But I’m no