I 'm not really a huge football fan but I recognise the fact that the death of Bobby Robson, legendary and cantankerous English football/soccer manager IS a news story. He was a huge and controversial personality and many passionate sport fans wil be sad he's died - albeit not unexpectedly after a long fight with cancer. BUT... may I offer a little perspective that his death is still being consistently covered fifteen minutes into every station's headlines and this on a day when Gary Mckinnon, the British hacker has lost his fight to be extradited to the US - which is getting about five minutes...

I had a few drinks with Glenn Hewitt and Jonny Parker last night (Tuesday) at The Black Bull, once my local pub, but an establishment I've barely been in recently. I haven't seen Glenn for a few years as our plans to meet up always seemed to end up with one of us having to cancel at the last minute, though we've always kept in touch. It's been over a decade since I saw Jonny P, but he hasn't changed much. Simon Hopkinson was supposed to make it down to Horsforth as well but his dad wouldn't let him have the car! (Parents!!!!) Glenn's managed to nearly lose a finger in a train/ticket-machine/door...

S itting with the group of journalists I mentioned last time, the observation was made that no-one knows you as well as yourself. I'm sure the profound comments were fuelled by tiredness and a few beers, but it raises some interesting points... *user pauses for deep thinking mode* I've been transcribing several recent interviews for upcoming articles and if I didn't already know that was me on the tape, I wouldn't recognise my own voice. The way I hear myself talking aloud 'live' is very much different than the way the playback sounds and, presumably, how others hear me. The words are mine -...

W ell, the week flew by. The second trip to London was interesting. First, I watched the first UK press screening of GI Joe. I'd love to tell you what I thought of it, but contractually I'm not even allowed to review it on my blog until the start of April, never mind elsewhere - suffice to say it wasn't as bad as Transformers - but that's a given. Sarah, from the film distributors, took a group of us for a meal in Soho where we discussed the merits of movies, basic tips to make events like Cinema...

I t's been a busy few days. I spent Friday to Sunday covering the London Film & Comic Con. Given recent trips and outgoings it was a bit expsnsive for me, but I intended to get some good interviews which will ultimately be in Impact and perhaps other magazines in the near future and months to come. The weather for the train trips in both directions was... interesting. We went through some fairly intense storms, only to keep emerging into much brightier, sunnier weather. Quite fun, when you...

I've had a busy few days. I went out for a drink with Simon Hopkinson (website) on Sunday night. Having finished some last minute  Impacty things, he suggested I should have a drink in one of our old locals. It's been a number of years since our last catch-up and now he's permenantly back in the UK there was plenty of time to talk about America (where he lived for several years), England, beer, the Internet, mad women, politics and healthcare. Yes, indeed, never let it be said that ex-SNYG members don't know how to party!  I should be getting together with Simon and Glenn Hewitt in the...

S o, TFI Friday. As in the aftermath of any transatlantic trip, there's a real lack of (correct) awareness of passing time. It doesn't actually feel like a Friday and it's weird that on Monday I was still in Iowa - or for that matter that in about six weeks time I'll be back.  It's like I'm in Bizarro World - a place where Torchwood is actually proving to be rather good! Though the terminal jet-lag never kicked in, my body-clock is still off a bit, so I'm not so tired on an evening, but still have to drag my sorry ass out of bed with maximum effort on a morning. Generally feeling a bit...

O nce again I spent the Fourth of July in the US with Jilly and after a stressful week it was nice to put that behind us with some genuine fireworks. We headed over to her brother's place where Jilly blew up sparklers, rockets and cars (so, no change there) and I took a lot of photos, some of which came out rather well. Friday and Saturday were overcast and cooler, but the rain held off enough for the most part - though that meant more bug-bites - and for Sunday, my last full day in Iowa...

T he weather has been really hot here for the last few days - it was about 93 degrees at at 5:00pm yesterday which apparently beats the hot spell that the UK is going through as well. After a brief service (with some wry smiles as well as family memories) we laid Lyle to rest early yesterday morning and I'm glad to say these things went as well as they ever can. He was a military veteran, so as well as the kind words of Pastor Stuart, there were also members of the military there and he was given a send off with an impressive (and loud) round from their rifles and Jily's brother was presented...

S o, then. Quite a week on the life and death front. Ignoring the 'King of Pop' as most journos aren't wont to do, I've been in Iowa where Jilly's dad passed away this past weekend without the benefit of an army of helicopters, broadcasting vans, wall-to-wall network punditting and vox pop interviews. I met Lyle a few times since my visits to see Jilly started last year and despite being quite frail, he was a brightly intelligent, observant man with a knack for building model planes and winning at card games (could never be quite sure whether he was cheating or not!). He was a man of great...