Lily Allen At Somerset House

Lily Allen is proving to be a really accomplished performer. She's got more material to play with from her excellent second album and she looks great too - slimmer and more glam. Here she is singing 'Smile'. Make your own mind up.

The Wrestler

On a long haul flight I recently saw 'The Wrestler'. This is a fantastic film and Mickey Rouke is incredible in the title role. Even if you don't like wrestling or indeed sport in general you can't help getting drawn into it. This is no rags to riches Rocky-style movie and the wrestling acts as a backdrop to the plot. It's about an ageing man struggling to hold his life together and rebuild a relationship with his estranged daughter. Sean Penn was brilliant in 'Milk', but I reckon Mickey Rourke deserved to win the Oscar for this performance. Definitely worth seeing. Put it to the top of your Lovefilm list.

Glastovid 4 - Michael Jackson Tribute

At Glastonbury on Thursday, news broke about Michael Jackson's death. On Friday, acts were paying their respects. On Saturday, the dance tents were playing his songs as were the performers. By Sunday, the comedians were trotting out the old Michael Jackson jokes.

Here's a video of Dizzee Rascal conducting a Michael Jackson singalong.

Glasto Vid 3 - Blur

Here's Blur singing a bit of 'Parklife' with that bloke from East Enders. (Phil Daniels)

Glasto Vid 2 - Dizzee Rascal

Excuse the dodgy quality. Its hard to dance and record at the same time. Here's Dizzee Rascal. Last year Jay-Z showed that hip hop does have a place on the big stage. Nice to see some home grown talent put on a great show this year. Look carefully and you'll see Karen and our friend Teresa looking very happy.

Glasto Vid 1 - The Specials


The Specials were great. Still looked pretty cool to me.

Glastonbury Moments

Best Performance

Jarvis Cocker on Saturday night at the John Peel Stage. Great showman. Lots of friendly northern accents in the crowd which was very comforting

Best Singalong

Blur on Sunday night. 'Oh My Baby, Oh My, Oh Why'...from the song 'Tender'

Best Crowd Response

Jumping around to the 'wah oo' bit in Blur's Song 2

Most Disappointing Performance

Bruce Springsteen. I really don't get why he's supposed to be so good. Crowd seemed to love him. We left for Jarvis after half an hour

Best Discovery

'Silent Disco'. A real laugh.

Low Point

Rain on Friday

High Point

Sun coming out on Saturday

Really Good Book

I'm really enjoying Lionel Shriver's 'The Post-Birthday World' and can highly recommend it. The author is most famous for 'We Need to Talk About Kevin' - which I've never read. It's great when you've got a book that you're really looking forward to reading. I'm nearing the end now and wondering about what's going to happen next. I'll feel a bit sad when it's finished.

I've ploughed through a fair few books recently where I've completed them out of sense of duty or in the hope that they'll get better. This makes a refreshing change.

Off to Glastonbury

We're going to Glastonbury on Friday. WIll be my first time ever and we're staying in a tipee. There's no band I particularly want to see. Am just looking forward to the whole festival experience and to discovering some new music.

WImbledon, Glastonbury and a bit of sunshine. Summer's well and truly underway.

Self Help For Oldies

I've just read this book, on how to think and therefore behave with a much more youthful approach to life. Its a really good read, full of smart advice and written in an upbeat positive style. The kind of book you can dip into when you need a bit of inspiration.

One of the co-authors Chris Middleton is an old friend of mine (we shared a house together at uni) and I'm delighted he's written such a great first book - well done Chris.

For more help and advice on rejuvenation, visit his blog here.

Eric Cantona: the coolest man on the planet.

After the Olympics, I thought it was Usain Bolt. However, who else can score goals like this, give quotes like this....and then go to star in an acclaimed Ken Loach film?

House in Italy

Just back from a week in Italy to check out the house. Its now fully renovated and is fantastic. Still can't believe its ours. Next step is to build a patio. By August it'll be perfect.

My First Ever Trip to the Globe Theatre

My tastes are pretty lowbrow. I'm not a big theatre goer, and have only ever been to the Opera on a couple of occasions. To be honest I wasn't really looking forward to seeing Romeo and Juliet last Saturday, especially as we had the 2 girls with us.

Well, I really enjoyed it. Largely because I vaguely knew the story and because the Globe itself is a fantastic venue. It helped that the weather was nice and there was lots of sword fights, music and dancing to keep my attention. The girls liked it too. Great thing to see on a Summer's evening.

Allotment News

As you can see, the allotment's looking really good at the moment, thanks largely to the help of my father-in-law who's taken charge of it. Already picked some rhubarb. New potatoes, broad beans, carrots, parsnips, lettuce, beetroot, spinach also on the way. After my recent trip to Derby I've got quite a few tomatoes, courgette and squash plants that my mum gave me. Looks like its going to be a bumper year.

Funny Business Books

I bought this week at a second hand bookshop in Devon on a rainy afternoon and found it very funny. It focuses on the life of an egocentric Marketing Director and the relationship with Pandora, his Lifecoach. It pokes fun at the way corporate life works and how marketing people destroy the English language with their made-up words and stupid phrases. Doesn't do lifecoaching any favours either. Recommended.

A similar book that I enjoyed was Matt Beaumont's e . This was written several years ago, before Blackberries when we were just discovering the joys of email. Its focuses on the life of an advertising agency who are pitching for the Coca Cola account and the emails that fly between the people who work there. Really funny.

I can also highly recommend anything written by a friend of mine Guy Browning. He used to write a column called Office Politics, which became a book. All the characters seemed to be based on people we worked with at our old agency Added Value. Check out Weak at the Top, too.

Archie Gemmill

Just back from a weekend in Derby. Apparently Archie Gemmill buys an ice cream off my dad and my auntie most weekends at Markeaton Park.

He was a phenomenal player - one of Derby's greatest. He's probably best remembered for this fantastic goal for Scotland vs Holland in the 1978 World Cup. This even got a mention in the film Trainspotting.

House in Italy Latest

Our house in Italy is almost ready. Doors are on, windows have been installed, kitchen and bathrooms being fitted this week. Like all those people you see on tv house renovation programmes, its taken twice as long and is costing twice as much as we orginally thought. We hope to stay at the end of May. Very exciting.