Blog Archive ~ September 2010
On their toes
Hallelujah. Mary and I were invited last night to a special performance by the National Youth Ballet of Great Britain at the London Palladium. I am not a ballet person, or for that matter, an opera buff, preferring to go to the theatre. But I have to tell you, this made me proud to be British.
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Yes, Prime Minister
On Monday evening Mary and I went to the opening night of Yes, Prime Minister, at the Gielgud Theatre. I won't say a great deal about the show as I'm an 'angel' (investor), but I was of course delighted to read such good reviews the following day.
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All's well...
And so the cricket season is over, and Pakistan should be taking off from Heathrow airport as I write this blog. I don't have a great deal to say about yesterday's match, other than Eoin Morgan's century and fielding were both quite remarkable, and with no disrespect to Andrew Strauss our distinguished captain, I would have given man of the series to Aamer Gul.
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Speaking aloud
Last night I spoke at the Hampstead & Highgate Literary Festival, and was greeted by a large and friendly crowd. I opened my speech with the questions: How many of you have thought about writing? How many of you have written a book? How may of you have been published? Over half the room put their hands up to question number one, 17 to number two, and sadly none to question three. Once again showing how very difficult it is for new authors to get published.
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Watching the game
Yesterday I had to make the decision whether to attend the England v Pakistan match, after Mr Ijaz Butt's irresponsible outburst accusing England of cheating. On the one hand, I wanted to make a protest, but on the other, I didn't want to insult my host, Naynesh Desai, who had kindly invited me to his box at Lord's.
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Claim and counter-claim
I hear that Sir Alex Ferguson has accepted a bribe from a Pakistani bookmaker to allow Man City to beat Man Utd when they next play against each other at Old Trafford; the score will be 0-6. If you believe this, then you'll be among the very few people who accept that England threw the One Day International against Pakistan last week. Mr Ijaz Butt, chairman of the Pakistan Cricket Board, has made this fatuous claim, and more importantly, has said he will name the England players concerned.
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Chariots of Fire
On Sunday morning my wife Mary ran in the annual Chariots of Fire race in Cambridge, and completed the 1.7 mile course in a commendable 16 minutes, raising money for two very deserving local charities: Home Start Cambridge, a voluntary organisation offering support to young families at difficult times, and Wallace Cancer Care, which provides a drop-in centre at Addenbrooke's Hospital offering pr
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So near and yet so far....
On Saturday, poor Somerset suffered another defeat, when Warwickshire took the Clydesdale 40 Trophy, and my beloved county ended the season as runners-up, not only in this game, but in the Twenty20, and in the Country Championship.
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The Papal Visit
On Friday afternoon I attended an address by His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI at Westminster Hall. I last attended such a ceremony when President Mandela addressed the combined Houses in 1996, some fourteen years ago, and sadly, because the acoustics were so appalling, few of us could hear what the South African leader was saying. Not so on Friday.
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Calamity. Disaster. The end of the world.
At 11am yesterday morning, I rang the Durham County cricket ground and spoke to Brian Rose, Somerset's Director of Cricket. He sounded quietly confident.
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