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It’s July. It’s the Summer. It’s a champagne press trip on the London Eye to launch a great new scanner pen http://www.danedigital.com/index2.php.

It’s a great plan — what could possibly go wrong?

The weather — that’s what. When was the last time we had a month’s rainfall in July? Yesterday, that’s when. It didn’t stop raining from early morning until midnight. Raining Kats and dogs. (spelling intentional as one of our journalists was called Kat).

Thanks to all the journalists for coming. Only two did not show up due to the weather.

Best part of the day; no-one moaned about the weather. Not even when we had a rain-soaked walk to the nearby Firestation pub for beers afterwards.

Worst part of the day; Chaz looking like a drowned rat with his umbrella held up like an uncomfortable tourist guide walking through a packed Waterloo station concourse so that everybody followed him to the pub. He need not have worried — all journalists can find a pub!

Next stop, another trip on the Eye, in Winter when it’s dark. Great idea (courtesy of our journalist friends – Paul). What could possibly go wrong with that ….

Chaz and Uli

….. no, not intimate bedroom details …. yesterday my 4-year old daughter came out of the bedroom saying “there’s a pigeon in the bedroom” — and she was right, the daft bird had fallen down the chimney. It took some persuasion to get me in there with the thing, and then more persuasion from me to get the stupid thing out of the window — and, in the words of Oliver Hardy, it was a “fine mess”.

Same thing happened in my last house about ten years ago –I don’t like pigeons now.

This reminds me of the bat in the bedroom from last year — but that’s another story ….

Earlier this week, in my capacity as President of the Surrey Chamber of Commerce I had the pleasure of sitting next to the ex England footballer Ray Wilkins, for dinner. Did you know that he played 84 times for England? Nice guy.

A couple of months ago I met my footballing hero Sir Trevor Brooking, now there is the best ambassador for football that this country could ever wish to have – a real gentleman. He was a one-club man (West Ham, “my” club that I owned one paltry share in until an Icelander came along and tried to force me to sell it to him — I never agreed but I suspect he owns it now!) Trevor’s now in charge of youth development for the F.A. — and that should give everyone great confidence — and what a star he is. I wrote to him at the FA and sent him my son’s homework (a news report on the future of English goalkeepers quoting Trevor) and he wrote back with an individual reply — which I thought was fantastic and made a ten year-old boy’s day! And restored his dad’s faith in human nature. Well, he was a West Ham player wasn’t he? 🙂