Last year we went to six proms concerts at the Albert hall, including the legendary Last Night of The Proms.
This year we didn’t go to any at all, which I’m starting to feel was a grave error.
I finally got around to watching a recording of The Last Night on the telly and it’s made me realise that I’ve really missed not going this year.
Remind me not to be so short-sighted next year please 
Last night I went to the Royal Festival Hall in the South Bank Centre to see the London Philharmonic Orchestra perform Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring”.
It was excellent! I went with Michael and Ricky, and we had a box to ourselves. Boxes are definitely the best way to see a concert
The programme was:-
I really enjoyed the whole evening. Michael was impressed with the Stravinsky - it also featured in the Proms this year, played by the New York Philharmonic, but I’m told they didn’t make a very good job of it.
I recently spent a week in Prague at the Intercontinental Hotel. Unfortunately, their swimming pool was closed for maintenance for the entire week. However, they arranged for a hotel car to take guests (for free) along to the Hilton where we were able to use their pool and spa facilities. When I finished, I just asked the Hilton concierge to call the Intercontinental so they could send a car to pick me up. Now that’s what I call service
I have stayed at the Hilton previously, so this gave me a good opportunity to compare and contrast the two establishments.
First, let me talk about the rooms. The standard rooms at the Intercontinental are far superior to those at the Hilton. If you have a Hilton Gold Card or some other means of upgrading to an Executive room then you are approaching the quality of the Intercontinental standard rooms. I’ve never stayed in an Executive room at the Intercontinental, so I can’t comment on them. I seem to remember that the Marriott rooms were similar but slightly better than those in the Hilton - basically great if you get an upgrade, otherwise good.
Having said that, the public spaces in the Hilton are just much nicer. Because the Hilton is so huge (8 floors with over 100 rooms per floor on the non-executive levels) there is a lot of space available. The building is fundamentally square, with the rooms arranged around the edges and a huge atrium in the centre. So there is lots of room available for the lounge, which is actually on a mezzanine floor above the breakfast restaurant. By contrast, the Intercontinental is somewhat more limited in terms of available square footage. Don’t get me wrong, the Intercontinental is very good. But the Hilton is better.
After my swim I stopped by the lounge for dinner and it was superb. Everything about it was excellent; the service, the food (both choice and quality) and the ambience were all exceptional.
In other hotel related news, just to confuse matters, there is a new Hilton in town, the Hilton Prague Old Town. This is what used to be the Renaissance, just opposite the Marriott hotel. I visited the new Hilton in Prague Old Town briefly, and what I saw was a big improvement on the old Renaissance as was. The main restaurant is the Gordon Ramsay Maze restaurant, so it seemed rude not to have lunch there I had a BLT sandwich, which was rather fine
Prague Hotels have appeared previously on Twin Peaks.
If you should happen to find yourself in Milan, near Milanofiori (home of the International Congress Centre, a Jolly Hotel and a shopping centre amongst other things, but fundamentally Central Nowheresville) and you fancy a good cup of tea, you could do much worse than visit Adriano at the Black&Noir café. You’ll find him at entrance C2 - tell him Mr Tea sent you
Big Martyn has started on his Mega Cruise. Hurrah! I’m pleased to report there’s a daily update from the man himself on his new blog:
http://bigmartyn.blogspot.com/
By the way, did I mention I lost another 3 and a half pounds last week? Check it out!
This week I’ve lost another pound and a half of weight, bringing the total to 16 lbs. I’m down to 18 stone and 13 lbs.
OK, this week I lost 4 pounds, which means my total so far is 14½ lbs.That’s more than a stone in the old money
Because I’ve lost a stone, the Weight Watchers Leader gave me a stone! Frankly, I think the new one is far more attractive
I was concerned because I haven’t done nearly as much exercise this week, although I was able to control what I was eating far more effectively. This is mainly because we stayed at home this weekend, so we didn’t have to eat out
The weight loss graph is here
Last week I apologised for being weight-obsessed.
This week you’ll just have to deal with it - I’m losing weight, I need to tell you about it
This week I lost 1½ lbs. So, less than last week, but still going in the right direction.
I think last weekend was particularly problematic because we were on holiday in Norwich for the weekend. So we were eating out all the time.
We went to see the always excellent Craig Hill at the Norwich Playhouse and had a fabulous evening
Norwich is a fascinating place with more history than you can shake a stick at. It was once Britain’s Second City, and had ‘a church for every week and a pub for every day of the year’. We stayed at the Maids Head Hotel, which was all rather jolly. Parts of the hotel date from 1284. It looks like several adjacent buildings have been bought as they became available and added to the hotel. The result of this is that no two rooms are on the same level - it’s a very stairy place
At the risk of becoming a diet bore, can I just say I lost another 2 pounds this week? That’s a traditional bag of sugar! Of course in the new age sugar comes in bags of 2.2 pounds which approximates to 1 kilogramme. Anyway, all in all that’s 9 pounds lost in 2 weeks.
I’m sure my man-boobs look smaller!
I believe it was Joanna Lumley in Absolutely Fabulous! who said “I’m thin and gorgeous!”.
I’m thin, but you can’t see it yet
Last Tuesday I joined Weight Watchers with Ruth, and we’ve been counting points all week.
Once we’d joined and filled in all the paperwork we were weighed. I was more than slightly alarmed to see the numbers which appeared on the digital display. 20 stones 1 pound! That’s 127.5 kilos in the new money.
This evening I went for the second time (Ruth is working away this week, so I was on my own). I weighed in at 19 stones and 8 pounds. Which means I’ve lost 7 pounds. That’s half a stone!
Hurrah!
I had the highest loss of everyone in the meeting. The next highest was 5 lbs.
I suspect that as this is my first week the new diet is having the greatest impact because it’s hugely different to my previous intake. So, I’m not expecting to continue at this rate
From the discussion in the meeting, it seems that men decide to lose weight and ‘just go for it’. They make a plan and follow it until they reach their target weight.
We were also discussing how we motivated ourselves. I didn’t say so at the time, but I just need to think how gorgeous I’ll be when I’m thin and that normally sorts me out
I am thin, you just can’t see it yet