Hello again, I hope all is well with you. And that you have had a very good couple of weeks. Mine have been lots of fun. Last time we spoke I was up in Warrington visiting an old school friend of mine and his family. I had not seen them for over two years. During that period him and his wife had started running a pub. So I went and stayed with them at the pub for the weekend. Now I have spent a fair amount of time in pubs over the years but this was actually the first time that I had slept in one. I arrived on the Friday afternoon. I got the train up and my mate met me at the station to drive me to the pub. I have to say that the train journey just flew by. As I had borrowed Harry Redknapp’s autobiography off someone I know. That kept me well and truly entertained for the entire trip, as I headed north. When we arrived we had a nice chat and a good catch up.Then they made me some lovely food. And my friend asked me what I would like to drink? To which I replied what have you got? (Kind of forgetting where we were.) To which my friend said “well imagine you are in a pub”. So rather than make him list all the drinks he served. I just made do with a lemonade for starters.

I had a great weekend. Drinking in his pub, talking to his customers, playing darts and taking part in the Saturday night charity bingo and meat raffle. Neither of which I did particularly well in. I also got thrashed playing FIFA on the X-box by their fourteen year old son. Who then later in the same day went on to beat me very convincingly at darts to. Although I did manage to head outside with him and slightly out shine him with my football skills. So I did regain some pride from the situation. It was a lovely weekend catching up with old friends. Just chatting, laughing, eating and drinking. The simple things in life are always the best. Although I was not overly popular on the Sunday morning. When I ventured downstairs from the living quarters towards the kitchen and the pub, completely forgetting that there was an alarm. Which to be fair my mate had told me about. And he had informed me of the code that was required to turn it off. But sadly for him and the rest of the family I could not remember what it was. So the alarm went off and he had to come down and turn it off. He was very polite and understanding about it.Which proves what a good friend he is.

It only seems like five minutes ago that the World Cup in Brazil ended. When Germany were crowned World Champions. But we are now already well and truly into the pre-season period for the new domestic football season. Last week I went for an interesting meeting with a sports production company in London.To discuss doing some football commentary for them for the upcoming season. I had a wonderful chat with the boss there about what the business already does as well as what it plans to do in the future. Which all sounds very exciting. Currently they supply a lot of the digital and mobile sports content. For a lot of very well known brands and sport providers. As part of the meeting process. So that I could display my skills. I got to commentate on the first half of a big football match, while I was there. I really enjoyed it and thought it went well. I will know in a couple weeks if they shared my opinion. And therefore will use me to commentate on some football matches for this season and possibly some tennis matches to.

I am still doing quite a bit of work at Wembley Stadium at the moment. It is of course the home of English Football and England’s ground but that is by no means the only thing that happens there. Since the new stadium opened in 2007 it has always had a great relationship with the NFL. In fact there has been one NFL American Football match at the stadium every year. Until last year when they had two NFL International Series games. This year they go one better with three NFL matches being played at the venue. The first of which takes place at the end of September between the Oakland Raiders and the Miami Dolphins. When I was at Wembley last week some of the players were over from those teams to promote the match. When I arrived I had to very politely ask some of them to move so I could get into the lift. They are huge guys who look scary enough in normal clothes. Let alone with all the padding and helmets on. They were doing lots of interviews pitch side. When one of the Dolphins players decided he wanted to take a “selfie” on his phone with a group of people who had gathered near by to watch. I wonder how many retweets that got if indeed he did put it on Twitter. All of these players are huge stars in the States but I have to confess I do not really follow the sport,that closely. So I had no idea who they were. I might well have been rubbing shoulders with players American Fans would see as a once in a lifetime chance to meet. Without having a clue who they were. I guess it would be like someone from America standing and talking to Wayne Rooney. While having no idea who he was.

I arranged to meet up with someone I know for a drink in central London last week. I let them choose the location. After checking with me if I was scared of heights or not. Luckily I am not. They suggested we meet at a place called Sushi Samba.It was not somewhere I was familiar with. So I did the first thing we all do in this situation. I had a look for it on the internet. On doing this I discovered that it was a very nice restaurant and bar on the thirty-ninth floor of the Heron Tower. Which is just along the road from Liverpool Street Station. On arrival you have to queue outside at the roped area until the lift is free. And then you can go inside to catch it.The lift up to the place is like the glass elevator from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. In that you have full panoramic views of the capital as you head up. And because it is possibly the fastest lift I have ever been in. It practically catapults you up to the top in a very short space of time. The place itself is amazing it has an outside bar as well as two inside bars and the views from it are spectacular. You are looking down on the city landscape. While towering over the Gherkin. Which is sitting below you. It does have a selection of different drinks but it specializes in Cocktails. So while I was there I thought it would be rude not to try out a couple. Now the menu did not come with any pictures and these were not your standard everyday cocktails. Like you would get on a package holiday, shall we say. So I selected my first one on ingredients alone. It then arrived in the most feminine of glasses. Which meant it did not look very manly of butch. When I was drinking it. That said it did taste nice. I thought I had learnt my lesson. When I ordered my second one. I noticed on the menu it said which one’s were the tall drinks. As they came in bigger glasses I thought that would look more acceptable. And it would have done. If the cocktail I had ordered was not bright pink in colour. Yes it did come in a longer glass but no it did not look any more masculine. Yet once again and most importantly it tasted very good. It’s a really cool place to have a drink and I enjoyed it there. And yes in case you were wondering the lift is as quick on the way down as it was on the way up.

My life does seem like it is one big long party at the minute. And to prove that point last Saturday I went to a family party at my cousin’s house to celebrate the fact. That his daughter who was born with a cleft pallet had successfully had all the required operations. And had made a full recovery. It was a proper outdoor summer gathering, With the older members of the family sat down talking, the young children running around playing and the various dogs that were there periodically racing around the garden for no apparent reason. Then to top it all off perfectly there was a barbecue to. Although my cousin who was hosting the party managed to pass on the cooking duties to a friend of his. I think some might call that the art of delegation. Others may call it laziness. It reminds me of a work colleague’s barbecue that I was once invited to. Where somehow I ended up doing all the cooking. Despite never volunteering to do it. And also never at any point stating that I was a great or even an all right chef. Let’s just say that nobody at that do got food poisoning. Because all of the food was very well cooked. In fact it was advisable to enjoy the meat with a lot of added sauce. Shall we say to enhance the taste. It was great as ever to catch up with the family and have a good laugh. It is a good job I do enjoy it that much as I have another family wedding reception to go to this weekend. It is really great having such a large family because you never have to wait that long for the next big occasion.

The Tringe Comedy Festival is sadly now over for another year. It was a huge success once again. With lots of brilliant comedians performing previews of their upcoming shows for this year’s Edinburgh Festival. The Scottish Festival started in the week and runs until the 25th August. It is very much my plan to one year go there and see as many comedy performances as I can. But that will have to wait till at least next year now. As I am currently to busy at the minute to attend this year’s event. Good luck to all the comedians up there taking part. Have a great run and be successful. It does cost a lot of money to put on your own show there. And I know of many people who have ended up out of pocket from doing a show. But Edinburgh has also given a lot of new comics their big break and propelled them on to bigger things. So being there is certainly a risk worth taking, if you are ambitious. I have entered a stand up comedy competition that takes place in London later this year. My heat is in October. I am really looking forward to being involved with it. And hoping of course that I can do well in it. I am currently working on some new material for that. While also probably still keeping a few of my greatest hits in the set, that I will be performing. But we will see what happens a bit nearer the time I guess.

Have fun and we will catch up again in a couple of weeks. Cheers Neil.