Tag Archives: Neil Quigley

Seals Of Approval

September 26, 2020 Neil

I am not sure if anybody else feels like this but for me this year still seems like it is very much on hold. My plan is to make the best of everything I can do and not worry about the things that I cannot do. We need to be sensible, stick together and look after each other like never before in our lifetimes.

We all deserve the same common courtesy and protection during these unusual times. The world has been through tough times in the past as has Great Britain itself and we will come through this one to. If at the end of it you can hold your head up high and know you have done what was requested and suggested of you to the best of your ability. That is all we can ask of each other.

The other important thing as far as I am concerned is to have a laugh at every opportunity. Life is short, it goes quickly but there is always time for humour and a bit of fun in my world, whatever the situation. In fact I seem to spend a lot of my time laughing at myself for all the stupid things I do during the day. Some weeks being in a house with me is like living with Frank Spencer. For the record they are just tiny silly things that I do nothing dangerous I have certainly never roller skated while I was attached to a bus!

As I have mentioned before I am spending a lot more time at home in light of the current situation. That has led to me watching more films than I would normally do. People are always amazed by not only the lack of movies I have seen but how many classic must see ones I have never seen. I find generally I really have to want to see a film before I am prepared to commit my time to it. Obviously I have more time at the moment so it is much easier for people to get me to sit still and see them as I have fewer excuses available to me to avoid them.

Until recently I had only ever watched one single Quentin Tarantino film. That was Kill Bill. My girlfriend could not believe this and she I think felt I was missing out. Therefore I agreed to watch one of them with her. We decided on Pulp Fiction. I was aware of it, although I do admit that I did not know Bruce Willis was in it. We sat down to see it at her place a few weeks ago.

Once we had firstly made ourselves some home-made Pizza’s. I say we, she made the base and produced a huge selection of toppings and I used these to create my own like a seven year old doing their first ever cooking lesson. I must say they tasted brilliant and were the perfect pre-film meal. You can put as much cheese on as you like when you make them yourself. I do remember visiting a Pizza place before going to the cinema as a kid on a few occasions at least!

Before it started she did explain that the plot line did move about a bit and promised me that it was not too gory as I am not good with that kind of thing. I enjoyed it. The time seemed to go quickly which is always a good sign. It was very easy to watch and follow despite the order that you see the story develop. I had been using the phrase “Zed’s Dead Baby” every time I heard a motorbike go by for the last twenty years and now I know the scene that it was actually from and the film.

The other thing that really surprised me was when Winston Wolfe appeared. I think I may have said out loud it is the bloke from that advert. I have seen several of those adverts for that Insurance firm and I had no idea that the character was from Pulp Fiction. I will be honest now I know this piece of information those adverts suddenly make much more sense.

Over the last three years I have started to do quite a bit of travelling and have visited lots of new countries and places. I decided that I was due a holiday but owing to the current implications of a trip to another country, excluding the fact that these can all change within a very short space of time anyway. I thought that this time I would stay within England.

My girlfriend and I decided we were going to book an Airbnb for a short break somewhere in the United Kingdom. We wanted to go to a place where they had nice beaches that would not be too busy. We did a bit of research on this subject and decided that Norfolk would be a good option. Then we just had to decide on the accommodation. Neither of us had used the holiday rental company before so it took us a while to narrow down the area and shortlist suitable properties.

We decided we wanted to be near to the beach and to the sea. Then we managed to get the choice down to either a Medieval Tower or a nice little cottage on a cliff. In the end we chose the one that had a garden. Therefore the other week we went on a four night break to a little fisherman’s cottage in Scratby, Norfolk. We drove up in her car and arrived to a sunny welcome at our pre-arranged check in time. We got the key to our blue palace for the next few days and moved our things in.

We got a text from our hosts saying that one of them would drop by later that evening to check that everything was alright. It was only a two minute walk to the beach. As soon as we had settled in we then headed off to get some sand between our toes. We walked along the beach to California, which is what the next hamlet along was called. I can confirm there was no Hollywood sign there though. After having a look at our new surroundings we walked the road way back to the cottage.

It had a lovely big secluded back garden with one of those big couple swing chairs at one end. We had a sit in that while toasting the start of our vacation with some Champagne, which was very relaxing in the evening sunshine, I can confirm. My girlfriend made us dinner and we may have also opened a bottle of wine, well we were on our holidays. The host did drop by and stayed in the front garden while we chatted to him. He gave us food suggestions and ideas of things we could do while we were there.

When I was a boy we used to visit a Holiday Park in Hemsby every year for about five years. I always remember having a great time there. As it turned out it was only a few miles down the coast from where we were. Therefore on our first day we had a walk down the beach to Hemsby.

We had an ice-cream and a quick look around the place. I had not been back there for probably about thirty two years. It had not really changed at all, everything looked very familiar it did bring back a lot of memories. We also had a quick game of crazy golf. Obviously it is the taking part not the winning that is the important thing, but for the record I won!

Then we walked a bit of the Norfolk Coastal Path up to Winterton on Sea. There we had a sandwich at the beach cafe. We do really know how to live when we are away. After a brief rest we walked back along the beach to Scratby. One of the best things about a seaside holiday in the United Kingdom is surely the Fish and Chips you can get on the coast. I was really looking forward to this treat. Now I had not had this meal for a while so I had possibly set my expectation levels too high, but we were both disappointed with the standard of fish and chips that we were given from the local chippy.

The next day we decided we would walk in the other direction along the beach and ended up in Caister on Sea. There was not a lot going on right near the beach, however we did find a quiet pub with a nice big beer garden. There were hardly any people in there so we found a table outside. I ended up having my first pub pulled pint of ale since lockdown began. I am not saying I really enjoyed it but it went down very quickly. We just had the one drink which might mean that my resistance to temptation has improved, but I somehow doubt that.

We walked back to the cottage again along the beach. We did plenty of walking and got lots of fresh sea air while there. That evening we ordered a Chinese from a place in Hemsby that was recommended to us and did deliveries. I phoned through our order. It was early evening so we had our curtains open, about twenty minutes after I had made the call a man on a scooter pulls onto next door’s driveway and gets out some food from his bike, while holding the menu from where we had ordered.

At first we thought maybe the delivery driver had got the wrong house, I even stuck my head out of the door to possibly get his attention. We thought they had our food, even though at that point we had not paid for it. Anyway he did not reappear from the house and later our meal arrived. It was fantastic. But I loved the comedy timing of the neighbour bringing home his food from the same take away. What are the chances of that?

On our final full day at our Norfolk coastal retreat we decided to take a drive out to Great Yarmouth. When I stayed in Hemsby as a child we always made two visits there one in the day for a look round and one at night to see a show. Lynda had also been there as a child, so it was nice reminiscing together about the place, while we walked down the promenade. We both remembered going to the model village. And also both think we have pictures of it somewhere.

We went for a quick stroll on the Britannia Pier. It has a theatre where I have seen Freddie Starr and The Grumbleweeds among others. There was also another theatre where we once had front row tickets for a Michael Barrymore show and my sister got to shake his hand at the end. Going to a performance was always a big part of my childhood holidays. We did of course go to the circus at The Hippodrome one year to.

After stopping for a milkshake by the beach and then getting a few gifts for people I decided I needed one more holiday treat from my past. I got some Candy Floss from one of the street stalls.

I had not had it for years, I do have a really sweet tooth but I must confess it tasted a lot sweeter than I remembered it had been a very long time since I had any of the stuff. I did not manage to finish the whole bag which would have been unheard of as a seven year old.

We headed “home” to spend some final time in the garden back at the cottage before setting out to do the last thing we had decided that we wanted to do while in the area. While researching our holiday we had discovered that a Seal colony had made one of the local beaches its home and that they could often been seen in the water and on land there. They are located at Horsey Gap Beach. We took a drive out there at around five o’clock in the afternoon. There is a car park there with about a five minute walk down to the beach itself.

Within ten minutes of being on the beach we had spotted a few seals bobbing about in the sea. We kept walking down the beach stopping for a bit, doing some spotting in the water and then moving on again. We had heard that hundreds of the animals can be found on the sand but at this point we had only seen a few swimming.

We decided to walk a bit further along the beach and all of a sudden saw a huge group of the creatures all lying together on the sand. There were small ones, massive ones, old ones and young ones. It truly was a wonderful sight. I am pleased we had decided to go and see if we could spot them. And that we were successful.

On the way back from the Seals we ordered an Indian Take Away from a place that again had been recommended to us. The food was ace and we had a nice last evening at the cottage enjoying that and watching “The Life of Brian” which is a brilliant film, so funny. The next morning we had to be up and out of the accommodation by ten o’clock. We got up early, packed our stuff and tidied up. It was my first experience of Airbnb. The hosts were great and helpful, the place itself was nice, it had everything it was said to and it was a simple and enjoyable experience.

Just before we jumped into the car to head home we had breakfast at the local tea rooms. It was as civilised as it sounds except that I had an American Breakfast with pancakes, syrup, scrabbled egg and the best bacon I have tasted in ages. It was a lovely end to a great English seaside break. I do like travelling abroad and seeing new and exciting things but there is still plenty to enjoy and discover on this little island of ours.

I have now watched all nine episodes of the Tottenham Hotspur Amazon documentary “All or Nothing”. It was interesting to see behind the scenes of my club and get more of an idea about the player’s personalities and the back room staff set up. I have now slightly changed my opinion of Jose Mourinho in view of his work ethic and how he deals with and manages situations.

It does highlight the many different factors that can influence not only the results on the pitch but team spirit and cohesion as well as the different relationships that form within a football club. Would I have watched it if it featured another club, probably not to be fair but it was a nice snapshot of a season with my team that I followed from the outside and have now seen how it was developing from the inside!

Spurs almost predictably had a poor first game of the new season. We lost at home to Everton. I think they will have a good year but I felt we really underperformed in that game. Since that set back we have progressed in the Europa League and won our first away Premier League match by an impressive margin. That victory included goals and assists from our two main strikers, which hopefully bodes well for the future.

The season will as ever have many twists and turns with plenty of celebrations and disappointments. One thing is for sure there is never a dull moment supporting Spurs. It is also great to have Gareth Bale back with us on loan. He went from a young player who seemed to be a bad omen who lost every game he played to our star player. We sold him for a then world record fee. I cannot wait to see him back in action in a Spurs shirt but it does look like we will have to wait until after next month’s International matches at least for that.

You can listen to me still on Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninesprings https://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/

Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.

Spurred On

September 5, 2020 Neil

Last Sunday 30th August 2020 saw the last ever show broadcast on the Aylesbury radio station Mix 96. It was hosted by Nathan Cooper who had been there for twenty three years. It is the place where I did work experience when I was at college in the year that it was launched 1994. It is also the station where my professional radio career began. Therefore as you can imagine it was an institution I had very fond memories of.

I listened to the final show. I was lucky enough to get a mention on it from Nathan. After all these years I must confess I still love hearing my name on the radio. He did an amazing job presenting that show. The place holds so many professional and personal memories for him. It has been his life for over two decades. His final link was just perfect, delivered and executed masterfully. Plus he did manage to make me cry right at the end.

The radio landscape across the United Kingdom has been changing for at least the last twenty years with “local” regions becoming a lot larger and with more networked shows across lots of radio stations. Mix 96 was one of the last originally independent radio stations to finally dissolve into this new system. Which is a mark of its success, financially and audience wise. A tribute to all who ever set foot in the place and worked hard there and to the Aylesbury Vale as a whole, who got involved, helped and supported the station right from its launch.

Last year to celebrate Mix 96’s Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Richard Carr from Bucks TV made a documentary about the station. I do make a few appearances in it and it is well worth a watch. It will give you a brief history of the station but also supply some great behind the scenes stories and insight into how it came to be in the first place and what it was almost actually called. I have a copy of it that I might just have to watch again now. It was such a fun and exciting place to have worked. Great days!

It has been replaced by Greatest Hits Radio. It does feature a few familiar voices including Pat Sharp who did a weekend show for a bit during my second spell at Mix 96. It also has Martin Starke doing the Drive Time Show. He was on my team when we won a Pop Master Quiz live event hosted by Ken Bruce last year, so I can vouch for his music knowledge. It does seem lots of things in life change and move on. Mix 96 was an exceptional local radio station but now on 96.2fm we have Greatest Hits Radio.

I am still only prepared at the moment to go to outside events. This does of course limit my options but I do not feel comfortable as yet inside pubs or restaurants. I recently went to a Comedy Store live event at Hatfield House. As I continue my tour of big estate houses that are allowing their grounds to be used for public gatherings.

I have been to the actual Comedy Store in London many times. If you have not had the pleasure of going there it is a small enclosed space holding a few hundred people. It is totally perfect for a fun night out under normal circumstances but currently closed as any chance of social distancing in there is non-existent.

Therefore this gig was very much outside on a stage that was quite a long way from the audience. When we arrived and parked up it was raining so we waited in the car for a bit and thankfully it stopped. It did not start until eight-thirty. We made our way to find a tiny white circle to claim as ours. There were lots of them painted two metres away from each other. We had taken with us some camping chairs so we set them up and settled down for the show.

Before it started a man asked me how many people each circle could hold and seemed surprised when I said it depends how many people are in your group. I honestly think he was planning on asking to sit in with us. I can only presume he has not read a paper recently or does not own a television or a radio. Mate if we did not have to all social distance I would not be sat outside in the dark in a field on a chilly night in late August. It was a lot colder than I was expecting and I definitely under dressed for the occasion.

The host for the night was Ian Stone. I saw him over twenty years ago at The Comedy Store on a night where a work colleague of mine at the time spent his entire set heckling him. It was nice to see him again and hear his stuff uninterrupted. The first act was Tom Ward who I had seen before at the Old Rope Comedy Club in London. He was great. There was then an interval which gave me a chance to get a cup of tea from the one drink outlet they had onsite, which was an old red bus.

The next comic to perform was the wonderful Jen Brister. I have seen her a few times before including at the sadly short lived comedy night at a pub in Aylesbury. She is very funny, I like her a lot. The headline act was Phil Nichol who I had not seen before. He was brilliant. A bit wild and wacky and I think it is fair to say he brings a lot of energy to the stage. He does some comedy songs as part of his act and he certainly seemed to be enjoying himself.

Overall it was a good night. The comedians were all great despite admitting themselves that they were a bit out of practice, which of course is totally understandable. Personally I did not feel that the social distancing was as controlled and as good as other events I have been to. But a large part of that of course is reliant on the other people there with you and how they behave. I think that may be my last outside event until at least Fireworks night. As it was not as easy to laugh at the jokes as it could have been, while shivering slightly.

One of my horses “Proclaimer” ran the other week at Yarmouth. The trainer Julie Camacho had been trying to get him a race for a while. But we were not having much luck. The last race he was due to take part in the race meeting was abandoned just before it was about to start. Anyway he did manage to get a run in at last in Norfolk.

He went off favourite and finished in second place in a seven furlong race. That was a great result for the team and I was happy with that. He ran very well under the excellent jockey Tom Marquand. He does seem to be improving with every run at the minute, so I have plenty to be optimistic and excited about. I look forward to seeing him out on a racecourse again soon. Hopefully in the next ten days.

A very obvious side product of staying at home more is that I seem to be watching more films. Normally if I manage more than two in one year that is exceptional but I am flying through them this year. Last weekend I watched Bad Boys for Life. Amazingly I had already seen the first two Bad Boys films before. I have like most people of my generation grown up with Will Smith. I probably should add that I did enjoy the first two movies. The first one was my favourite as I think it was slightly funnier.

The latest one is good and a fun easy watch. That is meant as a compliment. Although due to the ages of the two stars now it is in danger of being a bit Lethal Weapon at times. There is plenty of action in it and it was a bit gorier than the previous ones from my memory anyway. I did like it although that may have been because it did seem to borrow a key plot line from my favourite film franchise. Spoiler alert! There is a bit of a hint of Star Wars about it. Up to the point of where the set piece finale scene looks weirdly familiar. It was a good though.

I was not totally sure if I was looking forward to this or not as we had not had the greatest season. And I was a big Mauricio Pochettino fan so I was disappointed when he was sacked. However I have watched the first three episodes of the new Tottenham Hotspur Amazon “All or Nothing” documentary. I think I decided as a Spurs fan and season ticket holder that it was my duty to see it. I never got round to seeing the Manchester City one even though I had heard that it was really good, so I did not really know what to expect.

In the end you see very little of us under Pochettino and he is gone by the end of the first episode. They have got some great shots of the stadium and our training complex. It is quite interesting seeing what goes on behind the closed doors of a Premier League club. Although I feel it is not exactly secret camera stuff. You do feel everyone is at least aware of the cameras being around. It was very nice to see my former radio colleague Amy Lewis feature at Jose Mourinho’s first press conference asking a question. Mind you, it is only the back of her head you see but you can hear her voice. She currently works for ITV sport.

One thing that was good to see and that impressed me was Harry Kane in the team meeting saying to the whole squad exactly what we were all saying about the performances in the stands at that time. In fact he almost said word for word the views that I had been expressing. It is interesting to see how Jose deals with and talks to his players. He is actually a lot calmer in the dressing room than I may be thought he would be. The only annoying thing is I get to relive the moments when we totally blew the chance of a top four finish.

I am looking forward to the next six episodes which will be released over the next two weeks. Possibly due to the fact I know quite a bit about the club I have not seen or learnt anything ground-breaking as yet. But in the first three episodes we only saw small snippets of each situation. It is referenced in the introduction but I do also feel that losing the Champions League Final against Liverpool really did affect us mentally during the last campaign. I hope I continue to be entertained by the behind the scenes workings of my club.

As you can probably imagine from the way I am dealing with the current ongoing situation there is no way I am going on holiday abroad at the moment. But I am heading off for a short break near the seaside in just over a week’s time. I have rented a cottage on a cliff overlooking the sea in Norfolk. I am looking forward to getting away for a bit. It is always good to have a change of scenery now and again. I will tell you all about it next time we speak.

You can listen to me still on Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninesprings https://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/

Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.

Kick Start

January 18, 2020 Neil

I must confess I am on a little bit of a January health kick. There is no real reason for it other than it being just a small challenge to myself. I generally do eat reasonably healthily and try to keep fit and in shape, which for the record does become slightly harder every year, as you get older. The popular thing to do during the first month of the year is to have a break from alcohol, but with several fun events already in the diary. That was a non-starter.

There is seemingly a new angle this year with some people choosing not to eat any meat for a month. I fully understand the logic behind this but it did not really appeal to me. I have to admit while I often have and enjoy vegetarian meals I am happy to go on record as being a meat eater. I decided to see if simply cutting out three things that I really enjoy eating just for one month would make any difference to the way I feel and look.

I usually on a daily basis will have bread, cheese and crisps. This is a staple part of my routine lunch break during the day, every day of the week. For one month only I am trying not to have any of these items at all and also limit the amount of chocolate I eat. The way I am doing this is instead of having my standard midday meal. I have got myself some Kale, Spinach, Celery, Cucumber, Kiwi Fruit, Avocado, Banana and Coconut Water to make a green smoothie thing. That I am drinking instead of the bread, cheese and crisps.

I am doing alright currently and have so far managed to keep this up all month as it stands. It is actually quite enjoyable and I have even started experimenting slightly with other ingredients for the drink. I have also stepped up my exercise routine ever so slightly adding in a few extra sit ups every day and some sprint training. The key I feel to these things is to not constantly check results, as everything you do takes around the whole month to become a benefit. Therefore I took some readings at the start and will then do the same when the first month of 2020 has ended. It is nice to test yourself at the start of a new decade, I think.

In December I went to the Doctors about something very small and just as a precaution I was sent for a blood test. As I said earlier I do try to eat plenty of vegetables and fruit in my diet plus take Vitamin and also Cod Liver Oil tablets. Much to my surprise when the results came back I got a call from my Doctor to tell me I had a slight Iron deficiency. I did not have any symptoms, so it did catch me out a bit. I checked to see which foods supply the best source of Iron. Weirdly as it happened I was already having most of the top ten suggestions regularly.

They gave me a short course of iron supplement tablets to take. That if you have never taken them without going into graphic detail will greatly alter the colour of something we all produce, which for the record was a bit of a shock at first. Anyway I finished the course of tablets. They did another blood test and I am now back operating at the right levels. This is not the reason for my current health kick by the way I had already decided I was doing that before this arose. I do not feel any different now my iron levels are back up but I do make a much better noise when I go through the airport security scanner.

The first Saturday of January 2020 I went to a good mate’s fortieth birthday party. That was a major factor in me deciding not to take a month off the booze to be honest. The very first day I met him was when I started a new job, where he worked and we ended up in the pub afterwards for a quick pint. Therefore it would have been totally wrong not to mark this occasion with a few beers. I must say it was a very classy and fun do at a bar and restaurant in Beaconsfield that I had never been to before. That is quite an achievement as I am not sure there are many pubs in the whole of Buckinghamshire that I have not been to at least once.

It was great to see him and a few people I had not seen for years, as well as meeting some fantastic new people. He does not really like or eat cakes, so his other half had the genius idea and making one from a mountain of doughnuts. They still put a candle on it and sang happy birthday but instead of having to cut it up afterwards, people could just help themselves to a doughnut. However as the evening went on it did turn into a very sweet inspired game of Jenga. It was great fun celebrating a top bloke’s landmark anniversary. He is slowly catching me up at last.

I was out when the first episode of The Masked Singer was shown on a Saturday night. I was aware it was happening but had no idea what it actually was. As I was travelling home I was reading on Twitter all about it and it sounded totally mad. Just for the launch weekend of it they had an extra episode on the Sunday night. Intrigued by what I had heard about the previous night’s show, I decided to watch it.

Within the first couple of minutes I was thinking what on earth is this? It felt like I was tripping with the lighting, the look of it and those ridiculous costumes. Then add to that the bloke from the Hangover films, Davina McCall, Rita Ora and Jonathan Ross all playing an impossible game of guess who. You have got one of the strangest programmes I think I have ever seen. The even weirder thing is I then got sucked in to it all and was then desperate to know who all of the Masked Singers were.

It is I would say one of those shows like I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here where it is more fun to watch the show while being on say Twitter. There are plenty of good observations and jokes on there, which I found added to the enjoyment. Plus you were getting all sorts of celebrities having to go on there to deny they were on the show. I think my favourite was Peter Crouch having to come out say that he was not the singing tree.

I did also like how the panel were guessing the acts such as say Jamie Foxx, Dame Judi Dench, Helen Mirren and Samuel L Jackson and so far the celebrities that have been un-masked are Patsy Palmer, Alan Johnson and Justin Hawkins.

No offence meant to anyone involved but I do think that may be the panel should lower their expectations ever so slightly. It is all just good silly stupid fun. Even when I cannot watch it I still need to know who the latest celebrity to be revealed on it is. I suspect that will be the case until the end of the series now.

I appreciate Ricky Gervais is somebody you either tend to love or hate with very little in between. Personally I like him and do think he is really funny. I have watched most of his stand up shows and also seen him live twice. Doing some warm up gigs for his various tours. He is also pretty good on Twitter to. A lot of the things he says about people being offended by things make sense to me anyway. You have the right to not find something funny, but just because you do not, it does not mean you have to be offended, just do not laugh that is fine.

The reason I mention him is because he hosted the Golden Globes in America recently. It is a huge awards ceremony which covers film and television in the United States, much like the BAFTAS do in the United Kingdom. It was the fifth time that he had been asked by the organisers to present it. Therefore nobody should have been at all shocked and surprised by how he decided to play it. It was a room full of the Hollywood elite. I have only watched his opening speech but it is in my opinion brilliant!

He makes it clear right from the start he is just there to tell jokes and poke fun at things. There is no agenda or plan to score points. He is up there telling jokes that he thinks are funny or that amuse him. It is fair to say judging by the reactions on peoples’ faces some of them were possibly more able to laugh at themselves than others. Which is again fine, we are all different.

There were some excellent, clever and funny jokes in there. The tone was about right for how he had set himself up to be, the annoyed host who almost begrudged being there, all just part of his shtick to make his material work better.

The fact that he was hosting and the way he did it attracted a lot of media coverage and interest. That is exactly why the organisers of this event would book somebody like him. That is what they want for their thing to be talked about as much as possible. As is the want of the newspapers, several of them took different angles, some went down the line of him being a hero for telling the truths to the film industry. Some accused him of hypocrisy. All he was doing as he said right at the start of his monologue was telling some jokes. You either find them funny or not. A lot of them made me laugh out loud and no body died!

I paid my first trip of the year to White Hart Lane to see Tottenham get beaten by the Premier League Champions elect Liverpool. If I am honest prior to the game I was worried we would get thrashed, but as it happened we put in a much improved performance. I thought we were possibly a bit unlucky not to get a draw. Between me and you I would have taken a one nil defeat before the game. Next up in the league we are away to Watford today in a game we must win to I think stand any chance of qualifying for Europe this season.

Happily Spurs are still in the FA Cup after we managed to get past Championship side Middlesbrough at the second attempt beating them in a reply at our place. It was nice to go one up after just three minutes for a change, however despite another fairly early goal we still managed to make very hard work of the victory.

We travel to Southampton next weekend in round four. That will be another tough match. If we can get through that then we are suddenly only two games away from a big Wembley semi-final, which would be brilliant. But as ever I will be taking one game at a time, especially the way things are going this season.

I am very excited for this coming week I am going to see my favourite comedian Frank Skinner in the West End. My sister got me the ticket for my birthday.

He is fantastic live, although I am a bit concerned as I am in the second row and he does like to chat to people does Frank. I will let you know how it went next time we speak.

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

Showbiz, Fun, Life

February 28, 2015 Neil

Hi there, how are you doing? I hope you have had a good couple of weeks. Mine have been nice and busy, with quite a few fun things going on. A few weekend’s ago I had a great catch up with one of my oldest friends from school. We met when we were just four on our first day at Primary School and it is fair to say, we are both a little bit older than that now. So have therefore known each other for many years. I had a really lovely evening having a drink with him, his wife and his son. And also meeting for the first time his eight week old daughter.

It was great to see them all. They live up north so obviously we do not see each other that often. It was nice reminiscing and telling his son about how we were perfect pupils when we were at school. No really we were. Neither of us were ever given a detention or sent to the see the headmaster. So needless to say I wasn’t exactly the edgiest or coolest person at my school.

Talking of which. I have mentioned this before but believe it or not there is another Neil Quigley. Who is a very well respected dance music DJ and Producer. He has recently produced a stripped down remix of the big Madonna hit Vogue. Which appears to be getting quite a bit of attention on the internet. How do I know this you might ask? Well on Twitter I am simply @NeilQuigley and the other Neil Quigley is @djneilquigley.

During the last week or so people on the social networking site have been getting us a little confused. And I have been receiving quite a few compliments on my new take on the Material Girl’s classic song. While I am delighted to take the credit because I have listened to it and it is very good. I think it is probably the right thing to do to point out on here that it is definitely nothing to do with me and not something I have worked on or produced.

I had to go and buy a new suit for something the other day. I always get a bit swept away when I go into a proper suit only shop because the staff are so good in those places. You will be hovering around just looking at a couple of different styles. Then they will spot you and hone in on you from nowhere for the kill. They will instantly pick out two suits that they think will look good on you. Then just by looking at you, they will tell you what size you are and pick the relevant garments off the peg. Before you know it you are trying one of them on. It fits perfectly and looks great. So a few minutes later you are paying for it. While the same member of staff is still trying to sell you a matching shirt and tie set to go with it.

Those guys are amazing. Many years ago on my lunch break. I went into a designer tailors just to look at some nice suits with a view to buying one possibly at a later date. But some thirty minutes later I was sitting back at my desk having just spent around five hundred pounds on an Armani Suit with a shirt and a tie combination included. Wondering how on earth that just had happened. It looked great. But it was a very brief and expensive outing that I was really not expecting.

I have been speaking to an amazing man called Ray Coates recently. He is a singer, who seven years ago was diagnosed with throat cancer. Which left him virtually unable to speak for a year. Happily he is now free of the disease and has been for five years now. He wants to give something back to the people who helped him and in turn hopefully help others in the future.

So he is trying to record an album of original songs. Which he is planning on both writing and recording himself with the help of other singers and musicians. Once completed he hopes the album will raise awareness and much needed funds for 20/20 Voice. Which is a head and neck Cancer Charity. Ray has already released the first single from the proposed album it’s called “The Voice Within”. Which is available from I-Tunes and Amazon now. If you want to find out more about Ray Coates or download the song just click on this link http://www.raycoates.co.uk/

I told you last time we spoke that I was reading John Cleese’s Autobiography “So Anyway”. Well I am nearly three quarters of the way through reading it and it is totally fascinating. Now I thought I knew quite a bit about his past and how his career developed but I was very wrong. I have learned lots of things that I did not know so far. For example he had tickets for every single England game for the 1966 World Cup Finals but after watching the first group match against Uruguay, a goalless draw gave away his final ticket to Bill Oddie. As he could not see the home country making the final. He was wrong and suitably gutted for missing the greatest moment in English football history.

I have said this before but I love Twitter and here is another reason why I do. I follow John Cleese, so I sent him a tweet just telling him how much I was enjoying his book. And he replied with these words. “So anyway…thank you Neil Quigley for your kind remarks”. And if you do not believe me check out the screen shot picture below. It’s not every week you get a mention from a comedy legend.

I was back working at Wembley Stadium the other week. While I was there I actually got to very briefly hold the actual FA Cup that was used between 1911 and 1991. So it was the very trophy that my team Tottenham Hostpur had lifted in 1961, 1981, 1982 and finally in 1991. It was retired and a new one was used between 1992 and 2013. Then Arsenal last year got their hands on a brand new one. The base the cup sits on holds so much history as it has inscribed on it all the teams that have won the competition since it started in 1872 up to Spurs. Who were the last team to receive that version in 1991.

Talking of lifting trophies at Wembley. Tomorrow it is of course the Capital One Cup Final between my team Tottenham and Chelsea. I am very excited and really looking forward to seeing the game. I hope we can win it. I had a great day out in the national stadium for the 1999 League Cup final when I witnessed Spurs beat Leicester City by one goal to nil. The whole day was brilliant fun, before, during and after the game itself. I am very much hoping for more of the same this time round. Also while I was there this week. I caught sight of the great Luis Figo. The former Portuguese footballer was there for the press launch for his bid to become the next FIFA President.

I do like varying my meals and eating lots of different styles of food when I can. There is an Indian Restaurant and Takeaway in the town where I live. Which I have been meaning to try for about the last five years but had never got round to it. Until last Saturday that is. I was working in London and returning home quite late in the evening. So basically I could not be bothered to cook. And I had not had an Indian Meal for ages. So while I was on the train home I found their website, decided what I wanted to eat.

Then when I was about twenty minutes away I called them with my order. Happily timing it perfectly meaning I walked straight from the train station to the takeaway. Where my food was ready to collect instantly. I just ordered a mild chicken curry, some rice and a garlic naan. When I got my meal home I found I had also been given a complimentary bottle of lager and a couple of poppadom’s with a mint dip. Which I thought was a very nice touch. Which was very much appreciated by me. The food was great. I will be taking advantage of this facility more often in the future I think. In fact I am off to experience my first meal in the restaurant next month. As a mate of mine is performing his Elvis Presley Tribute Show there on the 18th March.

Neil Quigley and Elvis Presley hanging out in the 70's #crazydays — Neil Quigley and Elvis Presley hanging out in the 70’s #crazydays

I watched as I do every year the Brit Awards. I have been lucky enough to attend it in the past and it is a great night out. I thought this year’s show was brilliant. It was expertly hosted by Ant & Dec, who have to be the best presenters in the business. I always feel so relaxed watching them in action as I know everything is in safe hands and they are in total control. The Brits is a tough gig. As host you are mainly playing to the people watching on TV but needing also to include and get some reaction from the guests. Who are usually to too busy talking or drinking to really get involved. But the lads pitched it all brilliantly, linked it together faultlessly and kept it moving along nicely. While still putting their stamp on it and making it entertaining. Pure Class. Not as easy as it sounds. In the past many have tried and many have failed. Pleased they are already booked to host again next year.

There were some great performances on the night. The British music scene is in a very good state at the moment I think. Not only are they all hugely talented but they are nice, polite, humble and supportive of their contemporaries. Which I felt made for a very good atmosphere at the event. Well done in particular to Paloma Faith, who I think is amazing. Ed Sheeran, who simply gets up and belts out great songs, just him and his guitar. He has sold out Wembley Stadium for three nights this summer. I thought both of their live performances were sensational. In fact all the acts who played on the night were excellent and put on great shows.

There is one performance I of course have to mention and that is Madonna. She closed the show performing her latest single. I did genuinely gasp when her cape didn’t release and she got pulled back down some stairs. But fair play after falling in a heap. She dusted herself down and continued with the song, including some quite vigorous dance moves. I like her and she has done so much for the music industry. So I felt bad for her when her big appearance did not go quite to plan. Or did it? As that clip of her stumbling has been watched by millions of people all over the world. She is still a great live performer and knows how to put on a show. But the important thing is she was OK.

Finally on the Brits it was nice to see Jimmy Page there presenting one of the awards. He was looking really well, just so cool and relaxed on stage. As I guess you would expect from one of the greatest guitarists of all time. This is a true story. I once went to a fancy dress party at his house. Where I got to meet the great man himself. While I was dressed as Elvis Presley in full Las Vegas white jumpsuit mode. And while Mr Page was dressed as an eighteenth century Lord of the Manor. It was a truly surreal but brilliant night. He was so friendly and nice to talk to. A brilliant bloke who does a lot of unsung charity work.

Elvis Presley's American Eagle White Jumpsuit — Elvis Presley’s American Eagle White Jumpsuit

This week saw the start of the latest series of the brilliant Radio 4 Extra Topical News Comedy Show Newsjack. A programme which I have written jokes for in the past. I will be again be doing a bit of writing for it this time around. There is a new host as Romesh Ranganathan has moved on to be replaced by Nish Kumar. It is on the radio every Thursday night at 10.30pm for the next five weeks.

I am looking forward to going to the BBC Radio Theatre next week to see the latest edition being recorded. It is always a decent night out there. I am really hoping I will be there to witness some of my material being used on the night to. As far as I am concerned there is still something pretty cool about hanging out in the BBC Cafe before you head in to the theatre. You never know who you might bump in to there, so I will be keeping my eyes open to see who I can spot.

On Thursday I went to the Duchess Theatre in Covent Garden to see the fantastic “The Play That Goes Wrong”. A friend of mine told me about it last year, sometime. She said she had heard it was very good and definitely worth seeing. So I had been meaning to see it for ages. Then last week just after I had booked tickets to see it and was looking forward to it. Ant McPartlin no less went to see and he said it was brilliant and he wasn’t wrong. I had some cracking seats right in the middle and five rows front the front. I am so glad I went to see it because it is hilarious. I was laughing from start to finish.

The fun starts as soon as you enter the auditorium. It is so well performed the whole cast are amazing. And it is fair to say it is quite a physical piece to perform in. The title does give you an indication of what to expect but sitting there and seeing it. You can’t believe just how wrong it goes. There are so many laugh out loud moments. It is madness and mayhem half of the time. There is never a dull moment. It is not Shakespeare or the Phantom of The Opera but if you fancy a good old fashioned laugh for a couple of hours. I would go and see this show. The timing required by the actors to make it all work is phenomenal.

I am looking forward to going to see the first episode in the new series of Celebrity Squares being recorded at the London Studios. I wonder which big stars will be in the squares on the night. I have seen Warwick Davis before at Panto Press Nights at the Waterside Theatre in Aylesbury. He is a really nice bloke. And does a brilliant job hosting the show. I think he is really funny and does have good comedy timing in my opinion. I will tell you what it was like next time we speak.

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

Neil Quigley Presenter