Dirty Dancing With (awful) Russell Brand
Picture the scene: Hamburg, Germany, a few years ago, on a stag do, in a busy bar, of course, with around 20 middle-aged men. I only know the stag [...]
Hallucinating about Sir Ed Davey MP
A few months ago, I was invited to a business lunch to meet Sir Ed Davey MP. Who? You know, the leader of the Liberal Democrats. On my way [...]
Thinking
A few months ago, at breakfast in my hotel in The Canaries, I asked the waiter: “Perdon, Senor. Tienes el pan sin gluten, para dos personas, por favor?”. (Excuse me, [...]
5,000 Apologies
(Written with the permission of my daughter). Until my daughter’s recent diagnosis of Coeliac disease, with the strict gluten-free diet she now observes improving her life immeasurably, for almost every [...]
Getting Colder
North Yorkshire’s sudden slide into winter destroys my mood like nothing else. Turning the heating on today - when just a few days ago it was sunbathing weather - [...]
El Dueno (the owner) and Strangeways
It’s 8pm - vino-o-clock! – here in Puerto De La Cruz, Tenerife. I’m doing something most un-Spanish: dining solo. Sitting here on the veranda of a locals’ restaurant, near to [...]
Genes and dogs
Slowly, step by step, I am walking up Casterton Fell in North Yorkshire. My son is somewhere ahead of me. My wife and daughter are – surprisingly – somewhere behind. [...]
Just Your Typical First Day as a Lawyer
After years of studying, travelling and bumming around, I finally started my job as a trainee lawyer on Monday 15th August 2005. The workday went well. That evening, full [...]
Ich bin ein Berliner
I’m in Berlin. Rather, we – the family Gray - are here, in Berlin, at the end of our six-day holiday. We chose Germany because both sides of our family [...]
Our Chicken
Here is our chicken: RIP, Ms Chicken. I think she was called "Ruby". Ruby was 10 years old. She had seen off all the other chickens, and all the neighbourhood [...]
