For some reason, while watching the Merchant of Venice in Scarborough last night, I found myself thinking about the view I had at the Ritz Carlton when I was in Hong Kong. My room was… 

What a first half of the week. Not just work, not just the arduous York-Hull-York travelgasm, but out every night, doing theatre-related stuff. Monday it was Trap For A Lonely Man, one of those bloody… 

Hull has come top of a new obesity league table. We eat chips. Apparently that’s because we’re poor and northern and don’t know how to eat properly (Humber Online: “The most likely to be overweight… 

Emma Alcock’s ‘Interview With A Theatre Critic’ questionnaire arrived. Emma is a journalism student at Staffordshire University. I wish her well. Bloody student. I remember how helpful Mark Romano, who directed loads of Madonna’s music… 

Sundays are wonderful. They give us time to reflect. Reflect on such things as….M has a staggering array of trainers. I have one pair I currently love: my new Duffs. They have overtaken my now… 

Snow has returned. York is back to its winter postcard best. And I got a lovely ‘Yoda/Elvis’ tee from Ark. A new high-speed internet era has been ushered in here. We got broadband. How trusting… 

Chatting to a woman from Epilepsy Action. She was telling me how ignorant people are of the condition. And then I realised I know nothing about epilepsy. But felt too silly to ask her anything… 

Am struggling to come up with an idea for the weekly column I write here. 400 words weekly on ‘anything’ I choose to write about slightly leisure and entertainment-related can be a bind. And I’m… 

The editor of the HDM apparently ranted about my fancy use of language when I was off last week. I had dared to use the word ‘dystopian’ in a review. “We’re disappearing up our own… 

A peculiar feeling of pointlessness and sadness while standing in Waterstones. Too many books, not enough time to read them. And how do you find the good ones? Shuffled over to Oxfam and held Kazuo…