I was sure I had posted this but obviously not!

The time flies by, yet again.   To all those who have wondered my hands are working fine and that episode of my life is in the past.   The performance, to the eyes of large and small audiences, looks the same thanks to adjustments I have made.

The tour is still going on and in fact as I write this I am in the dressing room of the first theatre I ever played about 50 years ago.   What has surprised me is how big the stage is. It has not been extended over the years but is much bigger than I remember.

I performed here with the Middlesbrough Circle of Magicians and allowed myself huge dollops of nostalgia standing looking out at the quite small auditorium.   The faces of my then friends all visited me.  Martini the Magician, Bill Ripley, Peter Moreton, Alan Taylor, Graham Reed, Denis Templar, and on and on they came onto the stage to greet me.   Many of them, too many of them, gone to the Great Circle in the Sky, but not forgotten.

The standard of performance was so high, I am proud to have been a member.    I will only talk about it briefly during the show, otherwise I might well blub my eyes out.

In the past weeks we have enjoyed so many venues and managed a trip to Ireland to do the fabulous Late Late Show.   We have nothing to match its variety of interviews and performers in the UK. 

Amadeus, our boat, is getting better and better but it is a slow job.   That’s my fault as I try to think everything through over and over again before I actually do it.   My plan is to travel home tomorrow, via a visit to Lewis and Camilla, and go mad on Monday and Tuesday.   That will make a big dint in the jobs I have lined up in my head.

It was sad to hear, but not exactly unexpected, of the passing of good friend Bert Weedon, the guitar performer who wrote the manual ‘Play in a Day’.    I have a copy somewhere but didn’t go the music route.  My brother Trevor does music; I do magic stuff.

I see all the fuss about the reform of the House of Lords is up in the air again and being thrown about by those who seek even more power.   The system worked so incredibly well over the years, acting as a check on the House of Commons, why would anyone want to change it other than for their own self aggrandisement and increased income?   Perhaps I am too cynical.   Perhaps not.

The other big hoohah has been about the expulsion of a certain Islamic cleric.   Every time I hear the name Abu Quatada I think someone is doing a trick.  Apparently Europe wants to thrust its oar into our waters yet again.  I couldn’t help wondering if we just dumped him on a plane and it was a fait accompli what they would do or could do...