"New Balls!"

WEIGH-IN WEDNESDAY

After several weeks of losing weight each week - I've been brought back to reality with a

resounding NO LOSS week. Well in the words of a Canadian Master Chef Competitor

I watched this week "SHUT THAT DOOR"!! Well no loss is certainly better than

one or two pounds gain - so lets be grateful for SMALL mercies. Now a couple of

you have been asking what my total weight loss is at the moment. Since January the 8th

I've had a total weight loss of: 63lbs or Four and a half Stone. (My next 2 Milestones

for Celebration will be 5 Stone and 75lbs - watch this space!!)

WORLD CUP FOOTBALL

A SEMI-FINAL:

Played Last Night

RESULT:

GERMANY 7  -  BRAZIL 1

Brazil were totally humiliated, humbled and out played by a ruthless and clinical

performance by Germany. So much so,  that by the end of the first half,  Germany

had scored 5 of their 7 goals and Brazil were booed off the pitch by their supporters.

This was the extraordinary timeline of their goals: 11 mins/ 23 mins/ 24 Mins/ 26 Mins/

29 mins/ 69 mins/ and 79 mins. By the end of the Match Brazil had been outclassed

in every department from A-Z. One of the football pundits for BBC Tv, Alan Hansen said:  in all his 

40 years of watching football - he had never seen a game like it. Check out your

sports pages of your newspaper today - HEY! never mind the sports pages, check out

THE FRONT PAGES!!!! 

Miroslav Klose, left, Toni Kroos, right and Sam Khedira, all first half scorers for

Germany celebrate during the battering of Brazil

WIMBLEDON

THE LADIES FINAL

The Ladies Final was decided in under an hour. With a masterful performance, sixth-seeded

Petra Kvitova dominated No.13 Eugenie Bouchard to win her second Wimbledon title last 

Saturday by a score of 6-3, 6-0

I love the fact that the Canadian's parents named her Eugenie after our British Princess and

her twin sister,  Beatrice after the other one. 

The Twin Sisters: Eugenie & Beatrice Together.

THE MENS FINAL

This years Wimbledon came to a close with an absolutely thrilling Mens Final

with Novak Djokovic finally beating Roger Federer in the Fifth Set. It

was an epic match with a hard fought battle by both players with the

crowd roaring throughout.

Novak joked with Roger and said "Thank you for letting me win!"

THE BRITISH GRAND PRIX

Silverstone 2014

My hopes of Nico Rosberg winning the British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Sunday

were dashed when he retired from the race with gearbox trouble. Hamilton went into

this weekend 29 points behind Rosberg, but with Nico's retirement he is right back in it.

The Winner: Hamilton!

Just remember if Nico Rosberg eventually wins the F1 Championship my start out bet

of £50 will win me a £1000 - so keep rooting for Nico - there's still a long way to go

but rather like the men's tennis final - they are fairly evenly matched and there is 

definitely some fun and games ahead - watch this space!

For some bizarre reason the Tour de France started in Leeds of all places, now please 

don't fret and get worried - for once - all these Bike Riders were fully clothed!

Yorkshire is hosted the first stage of the 101st Tour de France, which took in countless towns and villages along the 190km route. But this gave way to some extraordinary documentaries of

the down fall of Lance Armstrong.

Armstrong had won the Tour de France a record seven consecutive times between 1999 and

2005 before he was disqualified from all those races and banned from competitive cycling 

for life, for doping offences - something that he had successfully denied for years. One of the

documentaries ended with his famous interview on Oprah where he eventually told the

truth about taking EPO amongst other performance-enhancing drugs.

PIPPA MARKHAM

Pippa Markham has been my Theatrical Agent for over 30 years. I joined,  what was then

Markham & Froggatt,  back in the early eighties. Earlier this year she rang me to tell

me she was retiring. Luckily,  there are still some other very good Agents - Stephanie and Alex,

still working at the Agency so I will continue to be well represented. I was asked if I would

contribute to a "Book" they are planning to give Pippa as a leaving gift:

"Pippa's Book"

"Here is my Contribution:"

SHAKESPEARE'S GLOBE.

Last Wednesday I got invited to a Private View of an exhibition of Drawings done by

the Artist Chris Duggan at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the South Bank.

Chris is a cartoonist for The Times Newspaper and since the Globe opened in 

1996 he has drawn numerous actors as they appeared on the stage. It turned out

that I was one of the lucky one's. He had see my performance as Cardinal Wolsey

in "Henry V111":

And done a couple of Drawings:

First Drawing

Second Drawing:

Cardinal Wolsey

The Many Sketches.

With the Artist: Chris Duggan

THE WALK TO THE GLOBE

Last Wednesday I took the train to Waterloo and then walked along the Embankment to

the Globe Theatre - another instance of my new found hobby - "The Walk About."

Here are some of the photos along the way:

Leaving Waterloo Station.

By The National Theatre

With St Pauls in the background

By The Tate Modern

Outside The Globe

A well deserved Cocktail!

Whilst I was at the Globe I bumped into a couple of Cast Members from Henry V111:

Will Featherstone and J.C. Cummins - they had come into bar during the intermission

of the First Night of "Julius Caesar" that they'd been watching. It was nice to see them.

There we go - it's been quite a concise week, not a lot to report and unfortunately no

loss but please don't let detract from any of your Comments. I know for a few of

you - you must have had a sigh of relief there was no nudity - but hey, "Shut that Door!!"

there's alway next week........!!..xxxx