claytoncast

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...

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...

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...

 So this is a link to the fourteen days I spent in Japan An awfully big adventure  Read my travel diary! https://www.traveldiariesapp.com/en/diary/822d6c61-9aaf-4f1c-9779-6d11e7bc5f79

Today I am held prisoner in Limehouse. Not detained here by some global pandemic, or some new ridiculous measure by the Conservative party. Not held here by some Victorian golem, but surrounded by one of the most wonderful displays of humanity London provides each year.   Last October, I set off one Sunday to get my hair cut in Canary Wharf, oblivious to the fact that one of the country’s greatest sporting events was taking place around me. My hair may have become shorter, but my trip home was immeasurably longer as I tried to work my way back to my boat.   Today, forewarned is forearmed, and I’ve loaded the fridge with food and spent most of the morning, reading the Sunday papers and catching up on correspondence. It’s a dull, damp, rainy day and yet thousands of people have taken to the street for the London Marathon. Not just runners, but an astounding gallimaufry of supporters, cheering encouragement and filling the air with boosting catcalls and primeval cries ...

it’s been a little while, since I last took to these pages, and the year has moved on with alarming swiftness. It’s fitting, perhaps that I’m sitting at a hotel desk in Milan to write this, given that travel has played a very important part in my life for the last couple of months. Last year as a newly single man, dealing with holidays was a problem. I hadn’t really solved. They say going on holiday with somebody is when you really begin to know them, and I don’t think I’d ever been on holiday with myself. When I did, I realised was that if I’m not going to lie around on the beach all day and have a nice dinner in the evening, something I think that is much better done as part of a couple, then I needed things to do on my holiday So I planned three trips away centred around having activities. And the one part of a holiday that would still be missing-that of sharing it with someone-could be achieved by a daily blog post on social media. So my keen followers have been with me to the...

There’s a lazy Sunday afternoon winter’s son over the Limehouse Basin today, and I’m six months into my adventure. I moved into my houseboat as part of my divorce proceedings on 1 August last year to begin an adventure for a couple of years. It may seem strange to some people that to steady my life I move onto a home can adjust in the wind and rain, but it has become a haven. I had two and a half months of beautiful weather, throwing on a pair of shorts every morning I wasn’t working, and life seemed like a holiday. I’ve learnt about inverters and Webasto’s, when to put my fuel order in and when to top up my water tank. Many people worried when I said I was going to buy a boat. They immediately thought of the winter, and with a sense of comedy timing that I’d like to think only I could manage, I bought my boat before one of the hardest coldest winters we’ve had. And I know that it might not yet be over. The Beast from the East came in March, and my mother was very fond of the mant...