OFF THE TREADMILL....

At last I've found the time and the inclination to come off that treadmill and write here for my own sanity.

Life is a little calmer befoe the storm with a slightly changed and dimished (literally) YMC team. J-Day was a wonderful achievement and the whole thing went extremely well apart from a young upstart who planned, unknown to me, to perform for half an hour instead of the required fifteen minutes and threw all the timing out so that parents were ready to storm the auditorium in order to retrieve their offspring to get to stations on time for trains home! Luckily I was able to stem this tide and all ended relatively calmly although said upstart barely acknowledges me as he knows full well what an absolute rotter he was that day! That apart, all the planning and organising left for me to do went very well and the team followed their directions and were admirable on the day itself. We even made a satisfactory profit too!

J-Day was the day I 'launched' my new look and it seems to be approved - lots of people saying they like it anyway. Mandy F was told by one guy that he and his friends loved it but they were too shy to tell me! So that's nice - unsolicited praise is always good.

As soon as that was over the magazine had to be put together and that was done in good time - only to find that the printer made a huge mistake and had to redo the cover, causing everything to run later than planned. Oh well, the December issue will be out in December and not November - the first issue to come in a week after the usual end of previous month deadline...

Just had a wonderful weekend with a very satisfactory workshop day followed by an excellent concert with Max Somerset wowing the kids - I even got to perform some close up myself. Then to the International Weekend hotel to hang out with old friends. Sunday brought an unexpected kids' show for the family from hell (kids great but parents no help, not there and all facilities non-existent such as parking and help to get equipment to basement). Then hour and a quarter to get from Fulham to Kings Cross for the gala show which was wonderful. Tony Chapek is a real dish and his act is so very different with interactive TV screen and lots of magical moments too.


Then hanging out with everyone, handing out magazine copies and getting photos of 'stars' in return - from Tony to Mike Caveney and Tina Lennert, Lex and Alina (quick change act), and David Regal who spend two or three hours sitting at a table with Angelo, Ian Rowland, Mandy and me
while Max Somerset ran here and there being silly. John Archer joined us too - we had such a huge laugh till 5 a.m! Magic people are so warm and welcoming if you treat them right.



Tomorrow is 1st December and the start of the Christmas bookings. They add up OK although still room for improvement as not reached last year's target. Hopefully some last minute stuff will come in and fill the gaps.

Hope to blog more regularly now.....