Sadly, the last full day of my holiday in the sun.

Tomorrow I will reveal where I have been and just how much fun I have had ...

Today's has been very warm again and I have turned a shade slightly darker than mahogany!

Haider - my employee of the holiday!
the view ... ruined only by me!

Lovely cuisine, lovely whisky & wine, lovely company ... I shall miss this!

I finally LOVE HOLIDAYS!

Song of the Day: Crazy - Aerosmith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMNgbISmF4I

Weather: Sensational

HAPPY VARUN-tines! (haha)

HAPPY CHINESE NEW YEAR! Kung Hei Fat Choi ...

Morning - NO breakfast - sit in the hot, hot sun

Midday - lunch - chicken burger, salad - sit in the hot, hot sun

Afternoon - tea - apple pie, peppermint tea - sit in the hot sun

Evening - tapas - warm ....

Clue:??????. Actually, there really is no point handing out more clues because I was rumbled on Day 1 of my holiday and have been ever since ... I am in ... no ... I will wait until tomorrow evening - my last here ...

Song of the Day: There Must be an Angel - Eurythmics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCdneDxFRYQ

Weather: Divine ...

haha!

Morning - breakfast - carrot juice - sit in sun

Midday - lunch - chicken burger - sit in sun

Afternoon - tea - cake - sit in sun

Evening - dinner - salted-cod, duck, red wine, champagne, sorbet, whisky & peppermint tea

Clue 4: oil

Song of the Day: Kinky Afro - Happy Mondays
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3XIlEUO-VE

Weather: Scorching!


Robert Graham - Day 3

Morning - breakfast and sitting in sun

Afternoon - lunch and sitting in the sun

Late afternoon - tea and sitting in the sun

Evening - dinner and pains in chest from eating too much food!

Another fabulous (holi-)day!

Clue 3: dates

Song of the Day: Some Like It Hot - Robert Palmer + The Power Station
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgYqIvnPvqQ

Weather: awesome!
Robert Graham shirt 2

Breakfast - asleep in the sun

Lunch - asleep in the sun

Tea - asleep in the sun

Supper - food .. then asleep in the suite

I LOVE HOLIDAYS!

Clue 2: Ocean

Song of the Day: Hot Hot Hot - The Cure
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzByJgoPMVI

Weather: Hot ... no clouds ... sunshine ...


my new Robert Graham shirt

I am OFFICIALLY on holiday! I am sitting in T3 - Heathrow! Dennis Potter was right ... "terminal illness"!

Yes - for the next 5 nights & 6 days, I am going to stop thinking, drink cold beer, sit in the sun, swim in the sea or pool, eat healthy/unhealthy food, have massages, read pap, sleep and occasionally wiggle my toes in delight!

My holiday started at Yalbury Cottage in a wonderful place called Lower Bockhampton. Here I was wined & dined by the lovely Ariane and Jamie Jones (ex-Four Seasons) who now own a delightful "restaurant with rooms". Jamie MUST be one of the best chefs outside London ...


Jamie & Ariane

I am not telling anyone where I am -- but will give a clue everyday! The first person to email with my EXACT location wins a bottle of champagne! Only one guess per person though!

Clue 1: Sand

Song of the Day: Holiday - Madonna
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZibTaX6Qfs

Weather: Snowy ...

Day 7 - "look-back"

"Travelling is not only relaxing yourself but travelling helps you release stress and makes you forget your troubles." Anon

A wee insight into my "home life" ... I have a pup called Gemima. She is the love of my life! My view is that if a hotel can take children (& camera assistants) it can take well-behaved dogs. Gemima has visited many-a-luxury property ... and has never been trouble. This is her having a snooze at Flemings in London after a bath ...
These two are Mittens & Maisy my kittens - who do NOT travel. They just sleep and scratch me!
In Singapore, the first show of last series in 2009, I learnt how to play polo. There was this pony who was lame and needed a home. I attempted to buy her and bring her back to the UK ... Sadly the cost was prohibitive and the time spent in quarantine made the whole deal untenable. I had great fun playing polo but I will never forget this lovely pony ...
The one highlight of my life in London is a visit to Davidoff on St James to see either Eddie or Edward Sahakian for a cigar. Cigars & whisky are my "things in life" to keep me happy. The former came from smelling the lovely scent from my Papa's cigars and the latter ... well ... that's come with age. I am blessed to have the Sahakians in my life and invariably Duty Free for a new bottle on every visit!

One of the greatest days in my life! Canada - Sonora Resort ... along with my dear friend Wendy and pro-fisherman Jeff, I went out onto the ocean "out of season" to try and catch a fish! Guess what .. against all odds I did .... ON CAMERA! 18lbs of Chinook salmon! It was smoked and sent home to me - sliced and packaged ... I still have some in my freezer!

Song of the Day: Mandela Day - Simple Minds

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFnJmz5pWc4

Weather: Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Day 7 - look-back ...

"I did not fully understand the dread term "terminal illness" until I saw Heathrow for myself". Dennis Potter, 1978

Ah! A meal at CUT at the Beverly Wilshire in LA. In the photo - Wolfgang Puck (one of the most famous chefs in the world), me, my dear friend Krista and Ari Rosenson (chef de cuisine). CUT is all about steak ... I don't eat steak! SO - I had - some lovely chicken and delightful red wine from a fabulous sommelier ... Dana Farner ... it was a memorable meal ...
Aah! Sonora Resort in Canada with the two pups - Shadow & Lucky ... adorable! This was our last filming day there ... I had just done the last piece to camera and we sat out on the terrace drinking wine, eating canapes and being cuddled by pooches! Heaven!
Aaah! Now believe it or not, I do take some time out of travelling for the show to travel some more! I went on a trip to Tenerife to look at whether it was a luxury travel destination. I did stay at a couple of hotels - my favourite being the Royal Garden Villas. The pool was divine and in the evening, as the sun dropped, it was photograph time!
Aaaah! The Fullerton in Singapore - the VERY first hotel of the last series. I had the Presidential Suite ... and that came with my own lift/elevator. It was a bit "bleak" so I added an armchair! What a difference that made ... !
FINALLY - Charles Lotter - the GM of Summer Lodge - the FINEST luxury country house hotel in England. I am a frequent visitor ...!

Song of the Day: Glittering Prize - Simple Minds
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBaK7MAbFFw

Weather: Snowing!!!!!

Day 6 - look-back

"There are only two emotions in a plane: boredom and terror." - Orson Welles

This was not a filming trip but a visit to Hong Kong where I stayed at The Upper House ... Hong Kong's newest luxury hotel. There were two AMAZING hotel openings in 2009 - The Elysian in Chicago and The Upper House. My views were superb (of Victoria Harbour), the suite was superb, the staff were affable & incredibly efficient, there was wi-fi in the hotel limo to/fro the airport ... it all worked. Love it! It's definitely in the "BIG" four in Hong Kong (Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental and Peninsula are the others).

There is only one airline I fly out of choice ... Air New Zealand. The food & wine is great, the service is brilliant and the crew treat passengers like "real" humans ... not just numbers ... Two of THE most wonderful people in Beverly Hills - Darling Jen and Radha - General Manager of The Beverly Wilshire (Four Seasons) ... the "dream team" ... love them! I believe its the 20th anniversary of "Pretty Woman" this year which featured the BW! Surely that movie (now being touted as a "classic") was about prostitution!!!!!! I am unsure to why we are celebrating this movie rather than ... "Home Alone" ... which was all about a crazy child, high on e-numbers! To Santa Barbara and the lovely PR at The Biltmore ... Gena ... who ended the week in the Ocean with me paddle-boarding! Above and beyond the call of duty ... ! Ah yes - Eagle Paragliding .. one of the most frightening days of my life! I learnt how to paraglide in an hour and went solo after that! On the show you see success ... in reality I also nearly killed myself by thumping into the ground at great speed and was only slowed down after I whacked into Tim who recovered quickly enough for this photo to be taken by Jimmy - who if I remember correctly was laughing ... rather than being concerned! Who can blame him??!!!

Song of the Day: Ticket to the World - Roland Orzabal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA_lhbPVDi4

Weather: Too good ... !

Day 5 - look-back ....

"Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime." - Mark Twain

Santa Barbara Zoo. The city is the most philanthropic in the the USA and the zoo is privately owned, is non-profit, is on "prime" real-estate and the animals there have the most superb views that they could wish ... over the Ocean! Lucky lions ... giraffes (who I got to feed) and this lovely fox who I got to play with! He was a nippy little fellow ...

This MUST have been one of the most fun evenings we had last year! After a hard day filming on the South Island of New Zealand, VICTORIA SHAW from Eichardt's suggested we went for a drink to celebrate our last night in Queenstown. Well, as you can see, we did more than have "a drink" ... GMs please note - we DO like to party!

For the Santa Barbara & San Diego shows, we had two vehicles - the luggage and equipment mule and this wee nippy convertible. Although I did have Sat Nav, I didn't have a DJ, so wee Jimmy obliged and ensured that the 3.5 hour drive was not only fun but filled with good music!

On one evening in LA, I was lucky to be joined by two of my favourite people in the world - Darling Jen from Beverly Hills and Baby-G from Santa Barbara. We managed to creep into a club called "Home" in Downtown LA and this is us with "Mr Brick" the bouncer ... he was a total gentleman ... I am not sure I would want to meet him if he was angry though!

My lovely friends!

Song of the Day: Shine on - House of Love
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnzKGQJ-DpI

Weather: Cold and Bright

Day 4 - look-back ....

“Rivers know this: there is no hurry. We shall get there some day.” Winnie the Pooh I had a wonderful suite overlooking Camps Bay while staying at the 12 Apostles. Tim (cameraman) took this photo with a low-hi-HD-up-res-thingy-me-jig ... camera. As you can tell I know very little about camerawork ... all I remember is that he and Jimmy hung off the balcony for hours taking this most excellent photo of the setting ...
Ah yes - San Diego ... and The Lodge at Torrey Pines. In 2008, this course hosted the US Open and I got a chance to play it! I did excel on a Par-3 with a rather snazzy birdie ... the rest was not that good. Fabulous course! As yesterday's look-back ... Dromoland Castle in Ireland and one of the birds at The Falconry School decided to sit on the camera lens! While Tim was NOT impressed, he was too scared to argue! His weak smile you can see, his knocking knees you can't!
Tim is a VERY innovative cameraman! This whole look-back is all about him! Here at The Peninsula in Chicago we had "issues". We were trying to a film a 5-minute piece to camera with no breaks ... and here in the pool I was moving from the gym to a massage. We are close to water (no electricity), not enough room for a proper track AND I am "lower" than Tim. So, he sits on a camera box - films, moves and records the sound all at once ... genius!
Finally, back in Cape Town ... I got to drive these rather fast cars round an ex F-1 track ... it was fast.

The weekend is here and I am closer to my holidays .. yay!

Song of the Day: Arielle Dombasle - C'est si bon!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqLUK-dCI5Y

Weather: Calm

Day 3 - look back ...
Dromoland Castle in Ireland. Of course, there's the "hotel", golf course, spa, restaurants ... and a falconry school! I took a lesson, in the rain if remember correctly! The bird was HUGE but very well-behaved! I managed to release and retrieve in just an afternoon's training! Yes - I was a wee scared as the talons and beak were very sharp! Pity the rabbit ...

Over to San Diego now where I "skippered" a REAL Stars n' Stripes America's Cup yacht! I spent a wonderful afternoon - in the sun - sailing around the Bay and just into the Ocean at great speed. Dennis Connor - the America's Cup specialist named all his yachts Stars n' Stripes and this one - now for tourists - was used in an actual race ..

This is San Diego from the sky! I hopped into an old biplane and zoomed around ... it was a hair-raising but fun experience!

I LOVE Hawaiian shirts! These are three of my favourites as modelled by two of my best buddies Del and Tim ...

One of my most enjoyable trips of the year was to The Four Seasons "Tented Camp" in the Golden Triangle of Thailand. Here, I loved in a luxury tent and learnt how to be a "mahout" - an elephant guide. My dear friend "darling" Jen from Beverly Hills sent me a small oak elephant which I sent onto Thailand. The above picture is of Michel Volk - the Tented Camp General Manager - putting my elephant in the shrine ... a part of me will always be there from now on ...

Song of the Day: Wishing (I had a photograph of you) - Flock of Seagulls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbGngZV3eCI

Weather: Dry ... and Cold ...

So - to Day 2 of my own "look back"show ...
And first up, Ireland. It was here - just a few miles drive from Dromoland Castle that I rocked up to learn how to do dressage! The people at Clonlara were just brilliant with me and yes, I learnt how to basically move a horse about without falling off or it throwing me! It was great fun and gave me a real urge to learn how to ride horses properly. Sadly, I have not had the time ... yet!

Ah! The South Island of New Zealand and Queenstown! I met up with Choppy Patterson who helicoptered me to The Hills golf course and to the top of The Remarkable Mountain Range to whack some golf balls from 1-mile up! It was great fun and by the way, the balls are made of dog biscuit!

Ah! Temecula ... Santa Barbara ... where I was taken in an enormous hot-air balloon and I floated over the wine-region. It was superb ...

Staying with aerial experiences and it was off to Thunder City in Cape Town. Here I got to fly a Buccaneer at great speed! Flying a jet is an awesome feeling ... one that I will never forget ... I saw Cape Town, the ocean ... the whole of the Western Cape at great speed ...

Finally for today, the North Island of New Zealand and Cape Kidnappers where I met the world expert on the kiwi bird. We went into the reserve and found "my" kiwi - called Bonus - woke him up and measured & weighed him! John McLennan was very careful with little Bonus ... now that was a memorable day too!!!

Song of the Day: Seven Days to Die - David Bowie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji_zlq6abfc

Weather: GRIM

I have 64 photos that look back at a most incredible year in my life. Over the next few days, I am going to re-post them here ...

There is no particular order - but each has a story. Maybe people in my life that make me smile & happy, maybe a feature we filmed, maybe even the odd indulgent puppy or two ...

What a year it has been ....
Lucky & Shadow - the two gorgeous ones from the Sonora Resort in Canada. This place holds some of my fondest memories - the staff, the place ... the pups! One of the greatest resorts in the world ...

I am so pleased that the show gets such international coverage ... including ...

The Western Cape of South Africa ... and I met this ostrich ... he was not a happy fellow! Maybe because I had chomped on one of his cousins earlier that day at The 12 Apostles when I had a YUMMY ostrich kebab!

Ah! One of my favourite people - Kristy Karlovec from The Montage in Beverly Hills ... she is THE highlight of the hotel ... not only because she has ALL the phone numbers of ALL the Playboy bunnies on her cell-phone BUT because she is a totally delightful person too!

Ah - Claridges in London with Pepita, Philippe (The General Manager) and Monsieur Archie LeWoof. This hotel is one of my homes in London ... and I am always looked after extremely well ... I must revisit soon ...

Song of the Day: New York State of Mind (Part 2) - Alicia Keys

http://www.youtube.com/user/aliciakeys?blend=6&ob=4&rclk=cti#p/a/u/1/uMS5xQ_V0TQ

Weather: ATROCIOUS! Rain, Rain & MORE rain! Yuk!

It's been a long, long day that has seen us finally putting the latest series to bed. We spent the day scripting, voicing and editing the "look back show" and the Food & Wine special.

At lunchtime, I met with Brad Packer from the Four Seasons in Bora Bora! I am DEFINITELY going there next year! While I had lunch with Richard in the editing suite - Brad had lunch at Cecconi's and sat next to Paul McCartney! Hmmm ...

Dinner for me was at the The Club - Bar & Dining ... the original site of the Sugar Club ... the food was not brilliant but "happy hour" whisky shots was fabulous!

The day ended on a sad note -- some dear friends lost their faithful pup of 9 years - a black lab called Winston. He was a good & happy boy ... and will be sorely missed.

Song of the Day: Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIdIqbv7SPo

Weather: Dry ...