Big day!

Today is the day: lunch with an old friend in a couple of hours and a couple of hours after that, my tattoo! I actually woke up feeling excited about it. I hope it doesn’t hurt – obviously – but am less concerned about that than I thought I would be. I’m just looking forward to having it done.

Last weekend was the Bingham Cup in Dublin. I was one of the Directors for the tournament when it took place in London in 2004, then it was NY in 2006 and now Dublin (the first one ever was San Fran in 2002). For personal reasons I will blog about another time, I couldn’t go. At first I was planning to and even paid my registration fee. However, when I found out I hadn’t been registered (I thought the club were doing it, the club thought I was doing it) I checked my diary and decided I couldn’t go anyway. I’m hoping I get the registration fee back haven’t heard anything for a while…

Anyway, I have been looking at some of the photos on facebook and am delighted to report it was the best one yet – a huge success! This is exactly what we set out to do in 2004: make sure that every two years it got better and better but in my opinion NY was a setback (poor facilities and events), but Dublin pulled it out of the bag and got it back on track in grand style! Well done the lads. I would have loved to have been there but my family comes first and to be honest, we have so much else on it’s getting a bit stressful fitting it all in.

Of course, the biggest winner out of all this, is the game. We want young people knowing they can play rugby (or any sport) without fear of prejudice and discrimination.

I had another Dogwise client yesterday – two rather lovely Cocker Spaniels. It’s really interesting listening to people; how they interact with the dogs, what training they do, what they expect etc., etc. I still maintain that you could solve some problems after only speaking to the owners and not even meeting the dogs! There are two recurring problems; lack of consistency (one partner lets the dogs jump, the other doesn’t), not being enough of a leader (giving affection too readily and letting the dog control the relationship(s)). I have another client on Friday.

Right now though, it’s back to the day job…

Final score

I need about three or four blog entries to cover everything, but I will try and nail it in one without you, dear reader, giving up the will to live…

Ireland was great, we won 55-12 in what was a really good match to watch and certainly not as one-sided as the scoreline suggests. The Warriors are a lovely bunch of lads, and always make us feel welcome. They have an ‘official’ sponsor pub, so we spent most of our drinking time in there (fantastic place, if you’re ever in the ‘hood, check out the Dragon – only a few doors away from the George, also gay.) They organised a “big magic gay bus” to take us to and from the match out to the west of the city. It was in fact just an ordinary double decker (one of the Warriors is a bus driver) but they had put a sign in front saying “Warriors vs. Steelers” and filled it with balloons!

After the match, I was asked by the Bingham Cup 08 team whether I would like a tour of the university and I jumped at the chance. So I was whisked off – in a BMW no less – to see the fantastic campus that will be the home of BC08. What great facilities! Didn’t get to see in the accommodation because students were in residence, but it will be like all (pretty new) student accommodation I would imagine: en suite, small but perfectly formed, nice and clean and of course very, very convenient. (They also have ‘luxury’ rooms which are currently used for special guests, visiting lecturers etc., so if you do want something a bit extra, you won’t have to go to a hotel to get it.)

The pitches are good (and they are spending money on making them better). There are two campus bars, a very impressive theatre, a swimming pool, Jacuzzi and sauna, restaurant, shops and a cash point. You could actually spend the whole tournament not leaving the campus. So much so I questioned whether BC would ever now be able to do anything other than a campus format because you can just imagine the atmosphere of probably around 700 + rugby players and supporters all in one place for three days. At the same time as managing to cater for those on a low budget, as well as those that want to have better rooms etc. So the BC team have already done an amazing job, which is so encouraging after the fiasco of NY 06.

We decided to minimise our carbon footprint by travelling to Dublin by train, ferry and then another train as I mentioned in another entry. I think in future I would prefer car, ferry, car because I found the whole thing very tiring but actually, despite people being horrified and asking us whether we were a bit mad, it was actually not a bad way to travel. The company was good, we could drink, chat, enjoy the scenery and the ferry itself took less than 2 hrs. The reason I say about the car is that, my knees did hurt. And on the way back we had to do platform changes and at one stage run (yes, really run) for a train, which is hard on bad knees, but add luggage and you can see why I’m sore today. If you’re in a rush, it’s not really an option, if you’re with a group of mates however, or seriously want to give up or cut down on air travel, it’s really fun and surprisingly convenient. Oh and did I say cheap, £84 for train and ferry, there and back.

You know the really nice thing about the weekend? I had a great time, laughed a lot and enjoyed the company of the boys, but I really, really loved coming back home to my partner and the dog who were, I’m delighted to say, thrilled to see me.

(I also discovered that painkillers and a lot of Guinness meant for the first time in over a week my shoulder felt OK! Actually one of the players also gave me an amazing massage which helped.)

Final note, and I don’t wish to sound mysterious but as I writer I can’t tell you how many people find my work “interesting” and promise to do something with it but who then turn out to be wannabes and losers and couldn’t greenlight a script even if they were a set of traffic lights (I’m sorry did that sound bitter?!). But I met a producer on the weekend – a very good producer with a very good track record – who asked to see a particular script of my mine, which I sent yesterday. He asked me to do a pitch and normally I’m lousy at pitching, but the Guinness made me much better. He listened, said the hairs on the back of his neck stood up and asked how quickly I could send him the script. Of course, he may think it’s rubbish, so we’ll just have to see now, won’t we…