The Time Bubble

Yes, here we are in Alan Partridge land but haven't managed to find North Norfolk Digital on the radio yet! We are staying at Haven Seashore holiday park in Great Yarmouth and very nice it is too. Despite my many travels I have never had a holiday in this part of the world before. The closest I have been was back in my old Nielsen days when I had two clients I used to visit here, presenting sales data on bog cleaner to Jeyes in Thetford, and several jollies in Bury St Edmunds, home of Greene King brewery. I'd heard good things about this park from friends at school, so rather than our usual trek to the South West, we went east this year. The great thing about this route is that it's A roads all the way - I hate motorways. We made it here in 3 hours, via Milton Keynes, Bedford, Cambridge and Norwich. Very impressed by the park - clean, welcoming and friendly and a spotless caravan. Our first outing on Monday afternoon was to Asda to do a big shop, then we checked out the p...

A recent review of one of my books on Amazon compared me to both Alan Partridge and Karl Pilkington. It wasn't the most flattering review I've had - it was a 3 star one, but it was in-depth and that's got to be a good thing. I think it is also good to be compared to people, and I've no problem with being compared to Alan or Karl. Unique as we would all like to believe we are, in a world of 7 billion people that is quite a challenge and most reviews you read in of books, plays, films, you name it make comparisons to others in the genre. As for the two named, well I guess Alan must have had some sort of influence on me as I've always been a big fan. I've been known to quote many a "Partridge-ism" in conversation - "This Country" being my all time favourite. My review referred to Partridge style rants in my book - I'm not sure if this was intended as a compliment or not but I've decided to take it as such. I certainly didn't intend...

Out with the old, and in with the new. It sounds like New Year, doesn't it, but I have been sitting here thinking how this year really has been a new dawn for our town. One of the things that really gets my goat is people running our town down - both people that live here and people that used to live here. It is a shame that there are so many that want to see the negatives, because there has been so much good happening this year, that barely a month has gone by without some exciting new event or opening, that me, in my journalistic capacity as Bicester's leading blogger, I feel duty bound to report on. However it seems I am destined still not to get in to the cinema to see the film I wanted. Yes, despite the cinema being open six weeks I am still to go there. The fact that the opening has coincided with the school holidays has not helped, along with the fact that the film I specifically wanted to see opened on the weekend we left for a two week holiday. But even so, I was...