This then, is my year. Twelve months' worth of pictures which shine the brightest light on the events that have shaped my personality over the past year, the people and things that have touched my life. It's a strange job that I have - I appreciate that better than anyone. I feel lucky beyond belief that my work allows me to open so many closed doors, revealing a little of what it is that engages, occupies or frustrates others from so many different fields. That I have to write about it all afterwards, educate and inform others through my words and pictures seems a small price to pay for the knowledge and experiences that my work gifts me. There are 43 pictures here: 43 images which define the events that I remember most. Some are important, some lie on the periphery of the event that gave rise to their existence. All tell a story and fit with the short narrative that accompanies them. Each image is an average 55kb in size which on its own is nothing, although collectively, the 43 images may take a minute to load even on a broadband connection. If you can take the time to look, read and comment, please do so. If you've stumbled here by accident, my apologies for slowing your browsing. I've made no mention of the major events of the past twelve months which have coloured the news, made an impact on society in general, the world at large except for where they impact or collide with my own experience. This is not a blog about world events, war or the changes which contemporary existence visits on the way we live our lives. This is a blog about Someone Else's Life and the events and people that have shaped it. DECEMBER 2002 Vintage Champagne at Mach 1.5: December 2002 was a manic month and looking back, it seems as if everything I did had some hand or connection with the Concorde Press Trip to New York on the 19th. After two years in the plannng and one cancelled trip, the sense of anticipation was palpable and it's probably fair to say that I'll never experience anything like it again. Those of us fortunate enough to have been invited on that trip ceased being journalists and rediscovered the child in each of us - for the duration of the assignment, it was as far removed from work as it was possible to get. Fortuitously, one of my colleagues was the editor of the news agency that has become somthing of a regular source of work for me since and from that trip, a freindship has emerged. There was no anticlimax on my return though because it was straight over to our freinds D and J on Christmas Eve for a three-day stay the likes of which will never be repeated... Snowmobile Safari: The picture above was taken on Christmas Day 2002. It's 14:00hrs local and we are in Rovianemei, in Finnish Lapland. Christmas Day coincided with the 40th birthday of D who's other half had a surprise in store for 11 of us. A fleet of jet-engined helicopters from their front lawn to the airport apron on Christmas morning landing beside a 23-seat private jet for 12 of us, a snowmobile safari through the forests to a reindeer farm, sleigh rides and a husky sled race before meeting Father Christmas and flying home again in time for News at 10. Back to a Ferrari 456 wrapped in paper topped with a bow (surely the ultimate birthday present!), a £40k private firework display and then a party that lasted for 36 hours. The hangover was just as memorable and saw 2003 in with me. JANUARY 2003 A month of extremes. Hit the ground running, straight into production of an issue of the magazine that I founded in early 2002 and of which I was Managing Editor. Always a manic time so it was something of a release to go to the theatre on the second weekend to see What the Night is For starring Gillian Anderson and Roger Allam. Road tests aplenty saw the drive at home looking like a car park: Me on a CCM R30: Riding endlessly around St James' Sq on CCM's R30 for a photoshoot whilst a group of Iraqi dissidents protested opposite the venue for a dinner by some foreign dignitary was probably not one of the photographer's better ideas. Sure enough, after my fifth lap, I was waved over by the officer who appears to be in some difficulty with an errant epaulette. 20 minutes later, the bike's exhaust sheered clean off; then the snapper's Nikon D1X stopped working. MINI Cooper S, Lloyds of London: One week later, this time with a two week loan of BMW's Mini Cooper S. Talking to a passer by whilst on the photoshoot, 19:00 on the pavement opposite Lloyds of London. Over £14,500 as tested but few cars offer such potential for fun; Minis can't be driven at anything less than 9/10ths anywhere; kart-like steering, punchy acceleration and top build quality - oh, and it handles like nothing else. Me, Cornering in the MINI Cooper S: St James' Sq again, the following day (I think my photographer - who was also my business partner in the magazine - was having a crisis of imagination). No more luck this time - a busybody called the police on her mobile phone to report us within earshot of the snapper. He called me and we had it away sharpish. We left London earlyish - about 15:00 and by 15:30, I'd dropped him in Muswell Hill just as the first snow flakes fell. The journey from there to home should take me 20 minutes but I realised one hour later as I sat immobile on the A41 at Mill Hill Circus, that 30th January 2003 was no ordinary day. The snow fell. And fell. Within minutes, the roads were thick with it and people were abandoning motorcycles at the roadside - I'm 36, and can not recall seeing conditions even remotely similar in my lifetime. It took me five hours to travel to Apex Corner on the A1 when suddenly the road ahead was devoid of traffic. The delay had been caused by drivers who were attempting to negotiate the thick carpet of snow in low gears. I stopped in a layby about 500 yards ahead with a clear road ahead of me and took this: Snow Joke: Behind that lead car is a solid traffic jam which meandered 12 miles into central London. I was lucky - I got home by 23:00 (just five and three quarter hours after I should have done). Some poor souls on the M11 spent the following 24 hours stuck in their cars. 30th January 2003 will be remembered as the day the south of England stopped. FEBRUARY 2003 Started the month with a party at the Ace Cafe thrown by the model agency which we used. Girls Aloud: Pic shows Karen (left) and Sam (right), two of our promo girls flanking their agent Oli. Mid-month saw myself and one of my writers at Portcullis House, SW1 to interview Lib Dem MP Lembit Opik... Laughter in the House: Pic shows Lembit (left) enjoying a joke with Lindsay, my Features Editor. Like many MPs, Lembit's an extraordinarily charismatic fellow although he's somewhat unconventional as a Parliamentarian - he supports the legalisation of cannabis and writes a monthly column for Spliff magazine as well as being a keen biker and paraglider. Two years ago, he dropped 30m onto rocks in an horrific paragliding accident which saw him break every single vertebrae in his lower back. He had tweleve individual fractures, any one of which could have been enough to have paralysed him for life. Yet just five weeks later, he left hospital fighting fit although by his own admission, "...with a set of gnashers that resemble a row of broken milk bottles. The NHS did a great job of putting my teeth back together just as crookedly as they were before!" Picked up Ducati's 999 for road test the following week, the long awaited replacement for its venerable 998. Knee Down on a 999, Docklands Airport: Despite being a more capable machine in many respects than the 998, for me it had none of the soul of its predecessor. Month ended on a note of mixed emotions as I saw my little brother off to the US where he was starting a new life with his American wife. I miss him terribly. MARCH 2003 A manic month of goings on. One weekend mid-month saw me up with the larks on a gorgeous spring morning to drive down to Sussex with my stomach full of butterflies. My apprehension was well-placed - I was going flying in a stunt plane at Ultimate High, Goodwood, to pit my wits against another pilot in some real time air combat manouvres over the south coast. Ultimate High is the brainchild of ex-RAF fast jet pilot Mark Greenfield. With a group of former colleagues, he runs an aerobatic display team, the Xtra 300 Xtreme Team, performing throughout the UK during the air show season. It ain't Miramar but it feels like it: Ultimate High is what he does at weekends when he isn't working - taking clients up in Extra 300 aerobatic planes to be put through a series of air combat manouvres. The Ultimate High team are all former RAF pilots with significant service in both combat and peace keeping roles throughout the world. Wing Over: The Extra 300 is a state of the art $280,000 aeroplane constructed from steel space frame tubing and carbon-kevlar composites making it the de-facto choice for stunt and aerobatic display pilots across the globe. With more than 300bhp on tap from a 9-litre engine and weighing in at a lithe 715kg, the airframe is certified to withstand plus or minus 10g and the aircraft can roll through 400 degrees in less than a second. Yes, it feels like it. Yes, I was sick! The following week saw me taking delivery of one of AMG's high performance C32s. It's an estate car, but not as we know it - with the performance of this beast, any canine friends travelling in the back are going to need pretty strong stomachs! Aggressive Cornering, Docklands: Another lack of imagination on the part of my snapper. I'm grinning, though -I've got 354bhp, 0-60 in 5.2 seconds and an artificially limited top speed of 155mph from a supercharged 3.2 litre engine - in an estate car! Sublime handling, but if there's life after death, don't come back as a rear tyre on one of these - you'll lead a miserably short existence. Met up with Actor Jeremy Sheffield to interview him about his role as Dr Alex Adams in BBC's Holby City which he was due to leave. Despite being openly gay, Jeremy is offered almost excluively 'straight white male' roles, usually as a love interest. He's sanguine about it - gay acting straight, actor playing a doctor; it's all acting. We met for lunch at his club in Shaftesbury Avenue which is where this picture was taken: Doctor in the House: Jeremy Sheffield in pensive mood. My friends and family seemed to be deserting me like it was going out of fashion in the first half of 2003. Last week of the month saw a party, followed by a night's go-kart racing for mate Andy's farewell. He left London where he was a traffic cop to join the New Zealand force. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Great fun was had: the carts were twin-engined affairs which we raced on an outdoor track. One big adrenaline rush, with several people spinning off the circuit, several broken carts and lots of smiles. APRIL 2003 A somewhat quieter month all round really with bright days and a temperate climate. Felt the old bonhomie and joi de vivre return, replacing the ennui of winter as the days grew ever longer and summer beckoned. Took to the skies over London in Capital Radio's 02 Flying Eye to see the rush hour gridlock from an unusual perspective - at a thousand feet over the capital. London, a city I know and love looks so alien from this angle, the buildings and streets almost unrecognisable. I flew first with Russ Kane in the morning, and then in the evening with Jaqui King for Neil Fox's drive time show. Eye Over London: The pic above was taken at 1,500ft with a 14mm corrected lens from the port window just over the City. The mass of brighly coloured light at centre is the Lloyds Building whilst at left, Tower 42 (previously the Nat West Tower) is visible. Took to the streets in a BMW X5 Sport, a fabulous car with a 4.4 litre V8 engine of immense torque. The commanding driving position offers a fantastic view from the driver's seat and the mill makes light work of motorways. I so want one. Get Out of My Way!: In town, it inspires both ire and envy in other drivers as it's utilised in its intended manner - for the two mile journey to school with little Tarquin and Fiona in the back whilst mummy who is 'driving' does her make up and talks to best friend Tamara on the moby. Beware: School Run Mum is out there and she's got you in her sights! MAY 2003 A delighfully sunny month with high temperatures and long, lazy days. P's 40th fell on the 10th which rather fortuitously, fell on a Saturday and weeks of secret plotting all came together - she knew nothing of my plans!. A chauffeur driven Rolls Royce appeared for us at 10:00am sharp on the Friday and whisked us off to Waterloo where all became clear to P - Paris beckoned. Eurostar whisked us across to the most fantastic hotel, the Hotel de la Tremoille on the 8th Arrondissement on a quiet side street off of the Avenue des Champs Elysees. Hotel de la Tremoille at dusk: Our visit coincided with the start of a mini heat wave in Paris which saw the sun shining constantly in clear blue skies. Paris is a city which you either love or hate and personally, I adore it. We walked hand in hand, travelled the Seine and revisited all those places which we both knew and loved. We took dinner on the night of P's birthday in Senso, a Terence Conran restaurant at the hotel then walked to the Eifell Tower on a starry, moonlit night. The highpoint of the year, no question. The following weekend, A and I went to Nick's with abut 25 mates to watch our beloved Arsenal lift the FA Cup. I don't remember much about the rest of the afternoon, but alcohol played a part! The following Monday, I took delivery of a Jaguar XKR coupe which I had for ten days. It was collected toward the end of the month and replaced with an XKR Convertible which arrived on the hottest day of the year so far. By 09:00, the temp was already nudging 70deg and by mid day, it was in the mid eighties. Burning Rubber: Enjoying the performance of the XKR Convertible. Of all the cars I've had on loan, this one surpassed all - even my daughter thought it was cool and her friends loved it. My wife's friends suddenly found me very attractive and wanted me to take them out 'to have some fun' and the bank manager invited me out to lunch. Twice. Funny the difference a £76k car can make to one's desirability. End of the month saw us on a supper cruise along the Thames as a guest of one of the mag's major advertisers. The Champagne flowed and I left the car at home - my business partner drove. JUNE 2003 Two days in and I drove to Bruntingthorpe proving ground in Bedfordshire for a press launch. Had the whole track and the circuit's disused runway to play on and a team of photographers on hand to take care of pictures so I took the opportunity to really put the XKR Convertible through its paces. It was a beautfiful summer's day, the mercury was in the high eighties and I had a £76,000 car to play around in. I was happy! New Tyres, Please!: 400Bhp from a twin supercharged 4.2litre V8 means the back steps out with little provocation. The tyres didn't last long! / The following weekend, P and I drove to Bristol for a weekend at the idyllic Hotel du Vin. I love these hotels which cater for your every whim and indulge your senses. They are somewhat unconventional, making use of natural features and brickwork in individually styled rooms. Heaven in the Duvet: Each features superb custom made beds, Egyptian cotton sheets and duvets, CD players, etc. It's the small things that count and these are taken care of in abundance - fresh milk in the minibars, individual cafetieres, fresh coffee and a range of teas instead of those dreadful packets of instant. There's a CD and games library, heavyweight towels and robes...everything in fact to make you feel at home. Drown in Pleasure: The bathrooms are at least as large as the the bedrooms and feature oversized freestanding baths and walk in power showers with showerheads like dinner plates which should carry a health warning - there's room for 6 (!) and the water pressure underneath must rival that of Angel Falls! ffice Boxing Clever: Picked up a BMW Boxer Cup replica early upon my return, a fantastic bike which I had the tough task of reviewing. I made the most of it during the long summer days, riding it like I'd stolen it and scrubbing the tyres in right to their edges. You'd be smirking, too. End of the month saw me flying out to Graz, Austria as a guest of Red Bull to cover an Airshow out there. The airshow was being held by the Austrian Federal Army and featured air display teams from around the world, including the Red Arrows. The centrepeice was an air race which Red Bull sponsored involving flying through airborne obstacles whilst performing a number of stunts. Mind the Gap!: The first day was mostly practice so myself and a journo from the Daily Star teamed up and gate crashed a Champagne reception and gala dinner held for the senior officers, pilots and their spouses. So there we were amidst Generals and Field Marshalls from across Europe, listening to big band music played by men in Lederhosen whilst eating spit-roast pig and drinking Champagne. Surreal doesn't even come close, so we retreated to our hotel after dinner and drank beer whilst we put the world to rights under a starry sky. On the second day it all went a bit wrong at the air show. As a fleet of Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopters hovered overhead, I noticed the Austrian Special Forces Parachute Display Team had deployed over the airfield. However, one guy in particular was noticeable because he was falling to earth at terminal velocity and seemed to be in some difficulty. I followed his path downwards and managed to fire off a sequence of shots as he fell, ending up with this one... The Man Who Fell to Earth: Believe it or not, he survived with no major injuries. Broke almost every bone in his body, punctured both lungs, but no damage to spine or skull. Doctors were optimistic of a full recovery. It transpires that on exiting the aircraft, he collided with another jumper and their parachutes became entangled. The other jumper managed to extricate himself and deployed his chute correctly. This guy however became entangled in his own guy ropes and was unable to correct his fall or to extricate his leg from the guides. His reserve failed to deploy correctly for the same reason. Someone, somewhere was watching over this man - he clearly wasn't ready to die. I'd call him one of the luckiest fellas alive because there aren't many on this earth that have walked away from that sort of accident and lived to tell. A sobering end to the month althought the picture was syndicated world wide and the event made the news in every paper here. JULY 2003 Flew to Madrid on the 4th to cover the Red Bull X Fighters freestyle MX championship. This is a most extraordinary event held at night at the Las Ventas Bull Ring, Spain's oldest and most intricate stadium. 23,000 people cram in to see FMX stars from across the globe take off of steep ramps formed in a X-Formation and perform a series of off-bike stunts some 75ft in the air. Riders are on an upward curve trying to outdo one another and the stunts get ever more dangerous such as a 'No Hands Landing' and 'backflip' in which rider and bike somersault through 360degrees before landing. It's truly awesome. Scissors: I was staying at the hotel with the Red Bull PR team and their star British Athlete on the FMX scene, Kris Brock so the days and nights were predictably drink-fuelled and lazy. Temperatures were in the mid nineties, so there was nothing to do during the day but swim, sunbathe and chill out. Tough call, that one! Kiss of Death: The month proved to be another sunny one and Madrid aside was particularly lazy. Keeping Abreast of the Situation: Things on the magazine were looking increasingly perrilous but we continued our practice of heading into London with the girls during evening rush hour each month. The girls would then wander amongst traffic at red lights, handing out copies of the mag to grid locked drivers and posing for pictures. We had a laugh though, as evidenced by this picture I took of my business partner photographing Karen. It's a Fair Cop: The 10th saw me at Terrence Conran's new eaterie at the Royal Exchange for lunh with Rae Baker from ITV's The Bill. She was leaving the series in a live episode to be broadcast later in the year and I was getting a heads up on her plans for life afterwards. I did the photoshoot from the roof of another Conran Restuarant on the roof at Poultry in EC3 some 200 feet above Bank below. Had a new Jaguar XJR scheduled for review and it was delivered to me mid month, a gorgeous metallic blue hue reflecting the summer sunshine. There is something about the Jaguar marque that exudes a sense of style and grace like no other. Sure, Mercedes engineers its cars like no other (dreadful, these days!), BMW builds the ultimate drivers' machines and Lexus passionately pursues perfection but your heart will always be drawn to Jaguar. The jaguar is lithe, lean and fast. And so's the car: The latest XJR is the ultimate car in Jaguar's venerable XJ range, topping the 7th incarnation of the model since its introduction in 1968. It looks great, but that is simply because it looks exactly as before; if it ain't broke, don't fix it (take note Chris Bangle of BMW design!). In fact, the new XJ is actually longer, wider and taller, with shorter overhangs, a less steeply raked windscreen and more passenger and luggage space. The body is constructed almost entirely out of aluminium, using unconventional rivet-bonded joining technology, so that it is 60 percent stiffer than before. Most impressively of all, it's 440 pounds lighter than its forefather. The XJR gets its go power from a 400hp supercharged 4.2-litre V8 hooked up to a ZF-sourced six-speed automatic transmission which, allied to its lightweigh, despatches 0-60mph in an astonishing 5.1 seconds! Self-leveling air suspension is standard on all models, as is Jaguar's Computer Active Technology Suspension system, Dynamic Stability Control, Adaptive Cruise Control with Forward Alert, and the ARTS Adaptive Restraint Technology System. It also gets cup-holders. I like to make the most of time when we have a luxury car to review, so I chose a suitably upmarket hotel to review in the heart of the XJR's natural home - Mayfair. So the following weekend, P and I drove into central London for a night at the five-star Metropolitan Hotel on Park Lane. We drove up in style, parked at the NCP on Park Lane (no charge) and wandered the shops along Picadilly and through Mayfair. Rounding off the free weekend, we had a delightful dinner with Champagne at Wheelers of St James', another review arranged at short notice by my friend and bon-viveur, Alan Crompton-Batt. Metropolitan Style: Our room at the Metropolitan, a gorgeously luxurious but contemporary-styled hotel. After dinner at Wheelers, we went to the ludicrously overpriced and painfully cool Met Bar, but we made the place look untidy just by being there, so we retired to our room after just two martinis. Breakfast the next morning was at Nobu and on checking out we noticed an increasing number of police and interstingly dressed revellers wandering along Park Lane. It was then we realised that it was the day of Mardi Gras 2003 and Gay Pride so we dumped our luggage and took up a position at the top of Picadilly to await the parade where I got the following picture of a Naval Officer looking somewhat incongrouous... Hello Sailor! : The atmosphere at Gay Pride was fantastic, very relaxed and great fun. This was the first year that the Gay Police Association had been granted permission to march in full uniform and headed by outspoken Brixtom Commander Brian Paddick, got a huge cheer when they passed by. A Night on the Town: I took this image as we were walking along Picadilly after the march and the girls caught my eye as being completley out of place, but right at home - if you know what I mean. It was mid day, but they were dressed in evening wear and being utterly hedonistic, the appeared to have decided apropos of nothing to hold their own party at the kerbside. Go girls! AUGUST 2003 Had a Mini One Diesel delivered on the first but I rarely got to drive it - P borrowed it to go out with a girlfriend on the 2nd and that was it - I didn't see it again. She'd caught the Mini bug something rotten! Spent all day on the 2nd (another scorcher) out on my bike with mate Ian. We rode to Gt Yarmouth and back just for the hell of it along some of the country's greatest roads, covering some 200 miles. Bird Man: A lean time at the start of the month news-wise saw massive coverage of Felix Baumgartner's successfull unpowered flight across the English Channel. I'd been invited to attend the event to greet his landing in Calais but a laissez-faire attitude and lovely weather here meant I stayed home. Saw little point in travelling when I could get the pix wired to me, so wrote my copy on the event from the comfort of my sofa. I love laptops and wi fi! An idylic, lazy month as summers should be. 'A' went on holiday for two weeks with her grandparents and P and I made hay - lazing in the garden, barbecues aplenty, eating out with abandon. I love London in summer time as its population deserts abroad and abandons its streets leaving roads empty, taxis available and restaurant reservations easy to come by. 2 weeks of ever increasing temperatures which never dipped below 90 degrees and at one point hit over 100 degrees made sleeping impossible and work even harder so why bother? I didn't. Discovered 20six instead. Schism: Went on a picnic with Nick, Eva, Elaine, Wendy, Rita and a cast of seemingly hundreds of friends mid month. Had a great time and saw some extraordinary displays of light courtesy of some storm clouds which gathered overhead but delievered nothing of note. Still, at least we weren't in New York where the power went out across the state for 24 hours plunging one of the world's most cosmopolitan cities temporarily into shut down. Mobile networkds died, airports closed, the whole city stopped. People slept where they stood, in Central Park, in bars, on pavements. The City partied as people realised they could do nothing but make the best of where they were when the lights went out. I'd have paid to have been there then. SEPTEMBER 2003 TV presenter Louise Brady is a shameless self publicist but no less likeable for that! She'd called me out of the blue a couple of months previously as she'd landed a new series to be screened in November and was looking for some publicity, so I arranged to meet her for lunch at Soho's L'Escargot.She proved engaging company and we had a pleasant time. When we'd finished, the restaurant was empty and its art deco styling presented some interesting vistas, so I chose to do the photoshoot there too. Through the Looking Glass: This is my favourite shot and it presented itself, as all the best ones do, quiet by chance. She was sitting on a full lenght banquette opposite the bar and by her head was a narrow, vertical mirror casting the most beautiful light over her face. I asked her to look at me through the mirror and this was the result. To the Tower!: Temperatures still showed no sign of dipping below the mid 70s. David Blaine got in his box. Jaguar delivered an X-Type to me. We drove into London for a lazy day by the river on the 14thth, crossing the Millenium Bridge and walking along the Thames where I took this pic of Tower Bridge. Attended the funeral of P's uncle on the 16th, which was a sad but uplifting affair. Her side of the family are just delightful, with lots of ageing aunts of sharp mind and fierce wit. It was lovely to see them all, although the circumstances could have been better. Took the painful but inevitable decision to pull the plug on the mag - advertising revenues were on the decline and there was something of a difference of opinion between myself and my business partner on the way forward. I saw a life outside of editorship, of wide variety and an absence of the hassles and pressures attendant on running a title. It looked attractive. I took it. I have no regrets. OCTOBER 2003 A's 13th early on followed by a film crew descending on my home on the 7th to film me for a new TV series where I was appearing as an expert on a panel of 4 judges. I was supposed to be getting one of these delivered for road test mid month. A Mercedes SL. It needs no introduction. It is, quite simply, one of the best cars available. Bar none. It drives like no other, is luxuriously appointed and comes with superlative performance and handling as standard. The day before it was due, I got a call from the press office - the journalist who'd had it before me had wrapped it around a tree. It was no more. She declined to name him! My plans for the following week went out the window. 23rd saw me at the launch of a new restaurant in Mayfair with mate Matt. A cold night, but the limitless Champagne dealt rather well with the cold. Concorde Takes Flight for the Final Time: On the 24th I was part of the press corp at Heathrow for the swansong of Concorde as the final three passenger flights touched down one after another. A sad and momentous occasion, unimaginable just nine months before. I'd flown to New York on her four days before Christmas 2002. And here she was ten months later, carrying the death warrant for commercial supersonic passenger travel in our lifetime. NOVEMBER 2003 A fairly eventful month all things considered. A meeting at the Groucho Club in the first week with Peattie and Taylor, creators of Alex cartoon. Me in Cartoon Land: I was delighted when they offered to draw a one off cartoon of me interviewing their number one star (see entry here). The original of this now has pride of place on my office wall. The following weekend saw us at Mint Leaf Restaurant in SW1 for a meal courtesy of the manager who I'd met at the restaurant launch in October. Wonderful meal, great surroundings, can't recommend it highly enough. Self Portrait, Three Days Before my 36th. Following week saw my 36th bithday fall on the 17th (a Monday) but P took the day off and we wandered off to London spending the morning at the National Gallery before taking in a preview screening of Love, Actually in the afternoon. Went home to a take away and Champagne. Through London Darkly: The following week saw Matt and I in London for a night in which we went to see Matrix Revolutions at the Warner West End before driving round some our more famous landmarks to take pictures. I'm drawn to this bridge so many times - you've seen it in summer so here it is at night. End of the month was notable for my being called in to the news agency with the offer of an assignment overseas. That's going to happen next month but it's changed the landscape of my life completely for the foressable future. DECEMBER 2003 Which brings us four square back to where we started. Another mad month which saw us at the Ocean in Hackney for an audience with Howard Marks on the weekend of the 7th immediately followed by a week of both P and I going out with various friends for Christmas drinks. A's school play was on the 11th, a fantastic and ambitious attempt at West Side Story which was actually quite incredible. The leads, played by guys and girls from the Upper 6th who are all semi pro with a host of film and TV credits to their names were just brilliant. It spoke volumes about the Drama department that they would even consider such an ambitious play as West Side Story, but to pull it off with the sucess that they did deserves praise indeed. Sunrise on St Davids: The weekend of the 13th saw us in Cardiff for a night to remember staying at Wales' only five star hotel, the St David's Hotel and Spa, which I was reviewing for the news wire. Idyllic doesn't cover it - First Western sent us there and back with a pair of first class return tickets and we arrived on a dreary wet Saturday which only served to accentuate the splendour of our master suite. God's Own Light: A perfect meal at the restaurant run by Marco Pierre White washed down with copious quanities of alcohol ensured a sound night's sleep and I was only awoken the following morning by the birght winter sunshine bathing our suite in golden light. We returned home after a lazy Sunday and i spent the evening packing for my departure on the Monday to a Surving Hostile Regions Course. Back into London that morning to catch another train, this time headed North where I spent three days being breifed, inncoulated, trained and treated as both a hostage and a soldier. Hostage: Taking Part in a Staged Kidnapping. So it was with some relief that I finally returned home only to find my blog had been raided in my absence by BikerBitchRose, IngaDinga and Alix - thanks girls, my revenge will be served cold ;-) Meetings on the 19th, a mad weekend with a party at Elaine and Steve's on the Sunday and still I couldn't relax for Christmas - the 23rd saw me at Heathrow for two hours in one of British Airways' full motion 747-400 flight simulators. Quite the most incredible fun, I shall blog about it fully in the New Year. On Finals for Runway 28R, LHR: There's something magical about aircraft and flying for me, hence the reason they're both writ so large in my blog, running through my life like a thread. I dreamed as a child of being a pilot, flying airliners or fighter jets for a living. It never happened, but I did become a journalist and that's the next best thing because it's allowed me to do both. I never dreamed at the start of 2003 that it could pan out the way it has. I've done some things this year which will always stand out as waypoints in the map of my life, created memories which will live with me always. As ever though, it's the love and support of those closest to me which defines all and shines like a beacon through the mist of my future, illuminating the way ahead. I know little of what awaits in 2004 but I shall embrace it and try to derive some benefit from whatever I encounter along the way. Happy New Year to you all, and thank you for reading my blog.
A PHOTO-JOURNAL: TWELVE MONTHS of THIS LIFE IN PICTURES - 2003
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(31.12.03 17:22) thoroughly enjoyed reading that. keep up the quality blogging in 2004, this place would be poorer without you. happy new year. pu xxx |
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(31.12.03 17:32) fabulous entry - speechless at your activities, freebies, luck, and hard work. |
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(31.12.03 18:15) Wow! Can I borrow your life for one day? Preferably a day that involves first-class travel, a 5-star hotel/spa and a Jaguar. This is a wonderful entry, RATS, and I thank you for taking the time to put it all together for your loyal readers. Sweeties for you, dear and happy Y2K+4. |
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(31.12.03 19:23) My first comment posted twice for some strange, computer-voodoo reason and so I deleted it. I'm not sure why it ended up looking like I left you a comment so nasty that you had to delete it or something! 20six sometimes acts up for me and I think it's because I'm using a Mac (though I'm not sure that's why). |
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(31.12.03 19:51) Hey Ratty, all the very best for 2004, I've got a suggestion for an entry that you can make sometime mid year hopefully:'Massively Successful Launch...' I think you know what I mean! ;-) |
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(1.1.04 09:57) RATS and Muk - I know you two are up to something. I guess we'll have to sit and wait for you to let the cat out of the bag sometime in '04. |
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(2.1.04 12:50) Pu: Thank you for those kind words, and Happy New Year to you too. Naples: Cheers, fella. Rose: Thank you for the sweeties and you're welcome to borrow my life any time you like (especiallyon a day when I've got an impending deadline and three 2000 words features to write!) Muliwa - Same to you too, dude - and yes, I do know what you mean. Here's hoping! Rose - What on earth makes you think we're up to something? ;-) |
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(2.1.04 19:16) Can I just say - wow! at this post - absolutely excellent! And'wow' again, as you stayed on rue de la tremoille! I used to occupy a little 6th floor garret room two doors up from your hotel when i went and lived in Paris at the age of 19!!! Love the picture! |
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(2.1.04 20:00) stylish - That's just too bizarre. I'm soo envious - that's a beautiful part of Paris, perfectly placed. I love Pont d'Alma and that part of the Seine and everything is so close. How long ago were you there? The Hotel only reopened recently after a massive refurbishment which saw it completely gutted and redesigned. It really is the most fabulous place. |
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(2.1.04 20:00) stylish - BTW, thanks for the sweetie and your kind words about the post. |
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(2.1.04 20:31) I only lived in that room for six months... good job as it was bloody tiny! i'm actually wondering if i can see my skylight window on your pic... depends which road is rue de la tremoille. I was living there, well, six years ago now - was there when Diana died. |
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(2.1.04 20:41) stylish: Rue de la Tremoille is the road to the left of the hotel in the picture - if you walked to the bottom of the picture with the hotel behind you and took a left at the end, you'd be at the Pont d'Alma. That's pretty close to where the crash occurred, right? You'd have been almost on top of it. |
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(2.1.04 20:50) yep, round the corner. That must mean that my window is on your pic. It'll be one of the skylight ones but i can't for the life of me work out which one. I think it was number 12 i lived at, but i've had so many addresses in the last six years that i could well be wrong. Freaky deaky! |
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(2.1.04 21:01) stylish: If it was number 12, that's closer than you thought - the hotel is at number 14! Check it out at www.hotel-tremoille.com - if you ever go back to Paris, I can't recommend it highly enough. |
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(2.1.04 23:59) my mum's just gone to check her old address book to see if it was number 12... oh no! she's stuck a sticker over it so we can't tell. I'm pretty sure it was though! |
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J Thompson / Website (25.7.07 02:28) Pass our info onto the bloke who likes fireworks ! www.fireworkevents.co.uk Cheers |
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