Much has happened since my last post

I realise that it has been over two years since I last posted to this Blog, and that therefore it is high time that I set down what has been going on in that time.

As readers will already know I got married in February 2008 to the wonderfully yummy Mrs F.

But looking back on the 24 months since my last post I realise that I have actually done rather a lot of very nice and enjoyable things, as well as working long hours and the occasional weekend.

So on the job front I have, of course, moved jobs and departments again and in October 2008 moved from UKTI to the parent department of BERR / BIS and became Private Secretary to the Minister for Communication, Broadcasting and Technology. This was a real step up, and although I already had some experience of working in Private Office from a three day stint in the Home Secretary's private office this was different. I was responsible for distinct policy areas in a Ministerial office working flat out on the production of a white paper in the technology sector.

Whilst the work was hard, at times stressful and occasionally tedious there were definite high points.

Meeting interesting people, seeing the workings of government up close and personal, getting to see how Brussels works and visiting Finland and China count as just a few things I will look back on with a smile.

The China trip was hard work in that it was four days non-stop, but it was a trip I would not have wanted to miss. I came away from China with a realisation that just as Moscow and Washington DC had set the tone for the second half of the Twentieth Century - and therefore the environment in which my parents and I had grown up; it would be Washington DC and Beijing setting the global tone for the first half of the Twenty-First Century. Europe has, I think, not yet quite realised this at a societal level and at the political level is groping around in the gloom trying to figure out what this means.

As 2010 rolls on, I am still in Private Office but working for the Minister for Digital Britain and trying to get the Digital Economy Bill through Parliament. It has been considered in the House of Lords at all stages and is shortly to be debate in the House of Commons. Much debate both inside and outside Parliament has taken place on the issues in the Bill, but my personal view is that it is a balanced package and is certainly not the last time the issues faced in the changing multi channel digital world will be looked at my the executive and legislative branches of government.

On the personal front the last two years with the wonderfully yummy Mrs F have flown by, and in part that is because we have found ourselves spending a lot of time in the air heading out of Heathrow. We have spent a week in a villa in the South of France with close friends, in New York for another close friends wedding, in central Europe visiting relatives and parents and in New York for our anniversary.

However, it has not been all work and no play. As apart from the travel detailed in the paragraph above we have seen a few films - although not as many as Mrs F would like - and been to the theatre and some concerts. On the concert front we have just booked tickets for Hardrock Calling in Hyde Park and can not wait to see Stevie Wonder rock the park.

I have been running to keep fit and sking in France, Switzerland and Italy, whilst there have been some drunken escapades at some of the parties we have thrown.

So to the present we are house hunting as it is time we bought somewhere together, so watch this space for more updates in the future.

Travels

I am now happily married, and have returned from my honey moon travels. We went around the world starting in Hong Kong, then on to New Zealand, followed by the Cook Islands and finishing in Los Angeles.

Map below gives some idea as to where I have visited.

New Job

The other exciting news is that I have a new job - or rather my next fast stream posting.

I will be going out on a 12 month secondment from the Home Office in mid December to UK Trade and Investment to develop the strategy promoting UK financial services in the UK and BRIC countries.

More on this soon - promise.

Wedding - further progress

It has been a while, and anonymous has reminded me of this fact, so here is a short update on what has happened with our wedding plans.

We have booked;
The band
The shot girl for the reception - to be confirmed
Routemaster buses to transport guests from the Synagogue to the Reception Venue
The wedding kippot
The Shabbat Chatan kiddush
The hotel for our out of town friends and family

We have enjoyed:
Our tasting - hmmm. 145 plus empty wine glasses on the table .... The outstanding food and drink will be talked about for a long time after the wedding :)

We have just signed off our invitations, so hopefully will be able to get them out before the Christmas post rush to everyone - whether they are in the UK or further afield.

Still to do are our dance lessons - a sound investment that can only improve performance - arrange the wedding cake and hire top hat and tales for the two fathers, best man and myself.

Looking at the above I am sure I have missed something out, but it does show why there haven't been many updates recently to the blog as we have been a little busy.

I will be moving in to the Mews House in late December, and will be renting my flat out to a co-worker from early January.

Wedding plans update

Wedding plans are progressing, although due to Rosh HaShanah and the death of S's great uncle which saw us hot foot it to Strasbourg for the weekend we haven't done as much as we wanted to over the last week.

However, we will get everything done in the next month or so and we have booked our honeymoon - Hong Kong / south island New Zealand / Cook Island / LA - can't wait!

Cricket - Desert Ashes

A wonderful article from the Times about an England-Australia cricket game in Iraq that raised money for charity.

No surprises as to who won ... but I would like to see the overpaid sportsman that crumbled in the Ashes series this year try and compete when the temperature is over 100oF/40oC!

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September 17, 2007
Army’s hope for cricket win over Aussies turns to Ashes in desert
A British soldier-turned-cricketer in Iraq
Martin Fletcher in Tallil

There have doubtless been stranger cricket matches – but not many.

It took place in 43C (110F) heat in the desert of southern Iraq, within sight of the ancient Ziggurat of Ur and birthplace of Abraham, beneath a fluttering Stars and Stripes. The pitch was a strip of concrete in the scorching sand. The visiting team flew in by helicopter, but arrived an hour late because of a rocket attack. Nobody was too worried: the game had already been postponed for a week by lack of beer.

The “Ashes in the Desert” pitted the British Army’s 1 Mechanised Brigade against the Overwatch Battlegroup West 3 from Darwin, Australia. The venue was the US Air Force base at Tallil. And it was played with the same intense rivalry that characterises any sporting encounter between teams of Poms and Aussies – and with the same inevitable result.

The British team flew up from Basra brimming with confidence. They arrived wearing an England one-day cricket strip donated by the English Cricket Board, but with a feature seldom seen at Lord’s – SA80 rifles slung over their shoulders. They had new bats and pads and the same cheery optimism that invariably precedes an English rout. “We’re up for this, and expect to tonk you boys back into the Stone Age,” Lieutenant Tim Moore, the match organiser, rashly informed the hosts. The Australians were entirely unfazed. They had secured the support of a large and vociferous crowd by giving most of their 550-strong contingent the afternoon off and relaxing the rules to allow them two tinnies each.

England won the toss. Their captain, Major Giles Malec, was bowled first ball and after that it was downhill all the way. There was nobody standing on top of the ziggurat. But if there had been they would have heard constant cries of “Howzat” followed by raucous cheers echoing off its 4,000-year-old walls.

As England’s wickets tumbled Captain Elizabeth McGovney, 26, from Houston, Texas, watched bemused. “We’re trying to figure it out,” she said. “Six pitches make an over and out, is that what it’s called?” The appearance of two streakers delayed another England collapse, but only briefly. The visitors were skittled for 93 runs in 15 overs, and there was no chance of them being saved by rain.

As England’s fielders turned crimson beneath the blazing sun Australia rattled off the runs for the loss of just two wickets. “An Australian battlegroup has smashed a British brigade,” Lieutenant-Colonel Jake Ellwood, the Australian commander, crowed at the prize-giving ceremony.

“The cricket today was clearly a disaster,” Brigadier-General James Bashall, the British commander, ruefully conceded. But actually everyone was a winner. The game raised $14,000 (£6,900) for wounded soldiers, and generated a commodity all too rare in today’s Iraq: fun.

Some sticky wickets

— Army and Navy pensioners held a cricket match between one-armed and one-legged veterans in Camberwell, London, in August 1841. The Army lost by 19 runs to 176, allegedly because they had more one-legged players

— British Empire troops fighting in Gallipoli used cricket as a smokescreen to mislead the Turks in December 1915. Anzac soldiers played a match to disguise the evacuation of British positions

— The end of the Second World War in Europe was celebrated 13 days after VE Day with a series of “Victory Tests” between the English national side and an Australian Services XI. The Australians had been fighting days before, and one had spent the last four years in a PoW camp, yet they managed a 2-2 draw

Sources: www.national-army-museum.ac.uk, www.anzacsite.gov.au, www.cricinfo.com, www.aafla.org

Bachelor Weekend

It has been a month since the last post. In that time I have been to Israel with my better half for a friends wedding - more about that in a moment - been busy at work, and last weekend went away with Mr Brown, Mr F, Mr Green, and Mr C for my bachelor weekend in Marrakesh.

The wedding in Israel was great fun, not just because we got to see J & J marry, but I got to meet some of S's family and hang out with her cousins. S got to explore a little of Israel as in the 10 days we were there we spent time in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa as well as spending a day up on the Israel-Lebanon border and Rosh HaNikra. Israel is a strange country, far more right wing that when I was last there in 1995, and far more segregated.

So to Marrakesh. The adventure started on one dark wet night in 1975 - well actually it was a warm Thursday evening in Paddington but that isn't as atmospheric - when I was kidnapped by Mr Brown and Mr Green from S's coffee shop and taking on a high speed car ride through London with a pillow case over my head and stockings on theirs.

After what seemed like hours, but was probably no more than 20 minutes, we arrived at where I was to be help captive. The dancer danced, and the conversation sort of flowed but much amusement was had by all. Meeting up with Mr C and Mr F at 3am we made our way to Luton Airport for the 6am flight to Marrakesh.

Mr Green had booked us into a wonderful Riad in the centre of the old city called Riad Dar Mimouna - http://www.riadmimouna.com/

Marrakesh is a beautiful city, and Djemaa el-Fna is incredible. A cacophony of sounds and smells which a photo does not do justice to. So here is a photo and a short video of Djemaa el-Fna.





The Atlas mountains are just incredible, and I feel very lucky to have spent a day walking in them with such good close friends.



As to what else went on. Well what happened on the bachelor weekend stays on the weekend....

Salam Alekum

Food Poisoning

I am sitting at home getting over food poisoning. Not much fun, but has allowed me to read and do saduko puzzles. Highly addictive, but good for the brain.

The CPS has announced that after 16 months investigation no one will be prosecuted in the so called cash for honours scandal. What annoys me about this isn't the investigation, but that the people that accused Blair of corruption can not point to one Peer who was ennobled as a result of a fraudulent donation / loan to the Labour Party. All political parties reward their supporters, and this is right and proper. In this case the nomination committee blocked two nominees, and they then complained about this - but neither man was given an honour. Would be nice if the SNP MP that made the original complaint apologised for what those investigated have been through, but he is unlikely to. Almost enough to give me food poisoning!

Wedding planning is progressing, and have started designing our wedding website. On wedding news, one friend got engaged this week and another announced their wedding date for next May in NYC. All good fun, and looks like the dinner suit will get a lot of use over the next 12 months.

This is Glasgow. We'll just set aboot ye

This is hilarious, and the fact that overseas broadcasters felt the need to subtitle broad Glesga makes me smile.

D

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'This is Glasgow. We'll just set aboot ye'

John Smeaton, the airport baggage handler who grappled with a terrorist suspect, has become an instant icon thanks to the website dedicated to his deeds. Lawrence Donegan on the phenomenon of 'Smeatomania'

Thursday July 5, 2007
The Guardian


When asked if he had a message for the bombers, John Smeaton, the baggage handler who helped thwart Saturday's 4x4 attack on Glasgow airport, said, "This is Glasgow. We'll just set aboot ye."
The city of Glasgow's marketing department, which has spent 20 years trying to obliterate Glasgow's "No Mean City" reputation, might have winced at the sentiment. But the rest of the world was enchanted, and Scotland - and the internet - had found a new hero.

Smeaton confronted one of the men from the 4x4, who was fighting with a police officer. "I got a kick in," he said. "Other passengers were getting kicks in. The flames were going in two directions ... You know when you're younger, you put a can of Lynx [aftershave] on the fire, and it's like a flame thrower." And: "Me and other folk were just trying to get the boot in and some other guy banjoed him". (To banjo is Scottish slang for to hit someone as hard as you can.)

Another day, another paean to the man: yesterday's contribution came from Michael Kerr, whose own efforts at tackling one of the would-be terrorists were rewarded with a couple of smashed teeth, a broken leg and a supporting role in a worldwide phenomenon henceforth known as Smeatomania. "I flew at the guy a few times but he wouldn't go down. Then he punched me so hard he knocked my teeth out and sent my flying so hard I broke my leg," Kerr said with a commendable lack of machismo. "I landed next to the burning Jeep and thought it was going to explode. That was when John Smeaton dragged me to safety. He's a hero."

With crews working hard yesterday to restore the fire-damaged terminal, it seems the moment might have passed for building a plinth and commissioning a statue of Smeaton. Nevertheless, some form of official recognition is surely on its way. Scotland's first minister, Alex Salmond, says so, and so does the Scottish Sun, which yesterday launched an in-your-face campaign to "Give John a Gong". (Rumours that the airport is to be renamed Smeaton International Airport appeared to be unfounded at time of going to press.)

Still, our hero has plenty of other things to occupy his mind while awaiting the call from the Palace, not least the demands that come with being the latest in a long line of everyman heroes delivered by Scotland to a grateful world, from William Wallace to Sean Connery.

In Australia, his remarks were broadcast accompanied by subtitles - the sort of accolade usually reserved for the likes of Gregory's Girl and Trainspotting. And on Fox News in the US, Smeaton has received the fawning treatment normally reserved for Dick Cheney.

It is a similar story in cyberspace, where a large corner of the internet is now devoted to the great man. One website gives visitors the chance to put a pint for Smeaton behind the bar of the Glasgow airport Holiday Inn. So far, 1,035 fans have taken up the offer. Elsewhere, the Photoshop enthusiasts have been hard at work. There is Smeato as Superman; Smeato as a Jedi knight; Smeato as Bruce Willis in Die Hard; Smeato as the man who made Osama bin Laden say, "You told me John Smeaton was off on Saturdays!" Another shows Smeaton midair performing a flying kick with the words, "This is Glesga mate."

Just one thing, though. The great man is not actually from Glasgow. He is from Erskine, a nice little suburb about 10 miles north of the city. Still, at this stage of the game, who in their right mind would want to argue with John Smeaton?

http://www.johnsmeaton.com/