claytoncast

There’s nothing worse than when you can boot up the computer on a Monday morning, open the calendar and see five empty days stretching ahead of you. That’s what it’s been like this week. Not too many little pink shaded bits associated with work to worry about. So the task becomes finding things that hopefully will be fulfilling, fun, and just plain time filling. You can get into the habit of taking a bath in the morning, or in a less environmentally friendly sort of way but much more fun, take a shower in the morning and have a soak in the bath in the early evening. 90 minutes gone As the week  progressed I become very familiar with “Heir hunters” on BBC1. This is a fascinating early-morning daytime television programme where teams of bald men in Ford Montego’s try to chase estates that have been left without a will. I do have an addictive personality,  and basically two viewings of this early in the week and it’s become unmissable. Wednesday saw lunch with my lovely friend Fran Rya

We spent a brilliant weekend in Sussex with our friends Jamie and Gina, and their two gorgeous girls Lily and Gracie. I first met Jamie over 16 years ago when he came into audition for the role of the Sgt major in my production of “Privates on Parade" which was starring Tony Slattery and was going to play the Christmas period at Greenwich Theatre. We were looking for somebody to play a character who was mean, sadistic, unfeeling and pretty vicious. From where we were sitting in our seats Jamie seemed to fulfil all of the above qualities and after he had gone out of the room Tony turned to me and said “well he scares the shift out of me".  He did me too, but with my theatre directors hat on that was single reason enough to hire him. All of the above could not be further from the truth. Jamie is the sweetest most sensitive man with a heart of gold and which his swaggering south London exterior often belies. In “Privates" he was killed just before the interval and on mati

  As in all times of recession and necessary economy there seems to be a general atmosphere of making do pervading our everyday life. People doing what is necessary to continue in their everyday existence.   So a big thumbs up to the   charming receptionist at the KPMG corporate offices in Canary Wharf this week who realise that no matter what cutbacks are being made, a smile costs nothing. Being greeted by him, being issued passes, and being told to wait   for our contact   was something akin to being checked into a five-star hotel, although not the one I recently stayed in in France - more of which later. As a result of this charming young man’s manners, smile   and general bonhomie, my colleagues Jack,   and Marianne and myself arrived for our seminar on the 14 th floor feeling very special. A thumbs up to the bus driver on our local 197 bus who on Thursday afternoon decided not to let four youths push their way onto the bus without showing passes. He stopped the bus between sto

The positive side about doing this blog is that even when  one has had a week as dull and work free as I have, one has to sit down on a Sunday afternoon and sum it up in terms of something interesting to other people. So let's start in simple terms as to what I have actually been up to this week. Monday saw a meeting inTthe Century club in town to plan a puppet-based entertainment for a charity dinner at the end of March.  As with all corporate events a great deal of planning goes into something before you actually have the final yes from the client. With this one I think we are 75% of the way there and it could be quite fun. But there are still several opportunities where the client may decide “oh no it's not all little bit too avant-garde and brave for us and we'd better have a a silks act!" Tuesday evening saw me attend the second of my Tai Chi classes. This was part of my New Years resolution to do things for myself. I went on the Internet and found a class whi