I have lost count of how many beds I have actually slept in this year. If I am lucky, I will get to sleep in the same one for three nights … but it’s mostly just an overnight experience. I have all kinds of sleep issues – mostly positional: pillows, me (I prefer diagonal as it means I get to use the whole bed) … and duvet. But I do have kind of a routine now - which works everywhere except on planes.

This morning, I fell out of bed at around three o’clock. I had got it all wrong … I forgot to put the lavender oil on the pillow, I slept with the duvet wrapped right around me (rather than on me)and I slept to the one side of the bed that the television was facing. This created a "perfect storm" which disorientated me .. and led to disaster ... I was not a happy fellow.

Anyway, I did manage to get back to sleep and woke up quite fresh. After a quick coffee with Philippe, I headed to Soho where Richard was editing the Chicago show.

I left after a couple of hours to film a promotional interview for Travel Channel. Our new series starts airing on December 8th (Western Cape of South Africa) and a lovely lady called Laura from TC asked me a heap of questions about my travelling life and the forthcoming shows. It has been noticed that I have a penchant for pink linen shirts, that Gemima the Pooch aka Moo features in many of the shows and that this season I have gone adrenaline-sport crazy. I think I am having a mid-life crisis! It’s rather strange being asked questions … rather than asking them … on camera. I did not feel comfortable ...

The Chicago show is looking quite colourful and fast-paced even though there are no major sporty features. The Charlie Trotter cooking segment is superb … although I spend rather a lot of it drinking the vintage rose Dom Perignon … and actually not helping Charlie at all!

The live band karaoke is sadly (for me) still in final edit ... cats wailing or even the Cheeky Girls would be a vast improvement on my effort. I may have to give away free earplugs to every viewer next year ...

Tomorrow is a wonderful and joyous day! Gemima celebrates her 10th birthday! For those who have met her, you will know what a special pooch she is ... for those who don’t, well you will have to take my word for it!

Have a great weekend!

Song of the Day: Little Wonder – David Bowie
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnTrbvg4wNg

Weather: Threatening

early morning flowers at liberty ....

on the terrace at the peninsula ... with kim in the background

tide's next door neighbour!!

laura at travel channel ...

my friend lea's products ...

mandy pants before she hears me singing on "live band" karaoke ...

chef charlie trotter ... "the one that got away was this big" ...

PEACE MAN!