What a week it has been, not least the fact that England are through to the final of the Euros which for me, as a massive football fan is a BIG deal! A bit more on that later. But I’ll start with the lovely wedding we attended last Saturday.
Like a lot of couples, Nicky and Martin had to re-arrange the wedding they had planned for last June because of Covid 19. Even selecting July 3rd was quite brave with the restrictions only due to end on June 21st and then of course not all restrictions were lifted. But enough were to make it a really joyful occasion which is evident on the bride and groom’s faces and that was before the alcohol started flowing!
Nicky is a schoolfriend of my daughter, Sophie who was her maid of honour and we were invited, along with the parents of the bridesmaid who was unable to travel over from Australia, which I thought was a lovely gesture. The speeches were good, particularly Martin, the groom but I have to say the most entertaining bit was when the chef and a couple of the waiters turned out to be opera singers in a trio called Three Tenors Incognito. They were absolutely brilliant, performing the classic Nessun dorma amongst other songs including The Greatest Show from The Greatest Showman. I’ve seen something similar before at a Crystal Palace football club ‘do’ with three of the waitresses turning out to be 40s style singers. It’s such a clever idea, and on both occasions was well-executed and well-received.
Speaking of football, I must confess that we did leave the wedding reception early, so I was able to watch most of the match against the Ukraine, but I did have a valid excuse as I was working at QVC on the Sunday morning. I’m incredibly proud of Gareth Southgate and what he has achieved with the England team. I’ve known him since he was a player at Crystal Palace in the early days of his career and I used to do a segment called Palace Chatback in a show for a local TV channel that I worked on in Croydon.
For those of you who aren’t interested in football, Gareth has come a long way since missing the penalty that saw England exit the Euros in 1996, something that clearly affected him deeply. In most of his television interviews he has mentioned how he felt he’d let his teammates down with that penalty miss and now twenty-five years later he has certainly laid that ghost to rest. I love this photoshopped image which appeared on Twitter of the manager Gareth consoling the young player Gareth who was so desolate after his penalty miss. I remember his face at the time turned ashen grey… almost the same colour as the strip we played in on the day.
Our normal strip of course is either red or white, the colours of the cross of St George, and it looks like even the flowers in my garden are willing England on to that final victory which will have captain Harry Kane lifting the trophy. If you’re more interested in gardening than football, you probably recognise that this is a salvia and the variety is called ‘Hot Lips’.
Following on from the first NetGalley review for my latest book, The Woman on the Beach which is out next month, there are now eight reviews the majority of which are five star. I’ve truly been blown away by the feedback as well as the star rating with comments like, ‘the author has a very clever mind’ and ‘well written, complex storyline’, not to mention, ‘stunning read with a fab twist I never saw coming.’ I keep admitting that it hasn’t been the easiest book to write, but with plaudits like this the agonising hours spent at my computer all seem worthwhile. I’m almost finished with the final proofread and then it will be in the lap of the gods, although your help will be much appreciated if you feel like mentioning it as a potential next read to friends and family.
I gave it a couple of mentions myself in a Zoom talk I did for a Women’s Institute group on Thursday evening. This was a first for me and, don’t laugh but I had to ask my daughter how to do it as I am so tech unsavvy (if that is even a word!). It was a talk about my life and career to date and having initially wondered if I would be able to fill forty minutes with chat, I realised I could easily have done another forty! I’ve had a really diverse career, starting out as a dancer, despite having contracted paralytic polio at fourteen months, moving into singing, small acting roles, TV commercials, gameshow hostess and eventually TV presenting which has been my ‘day’ job for over thirty years. I now have this other amazing ‘string to my bow’ with my writing. It’s hard to believe that The Woman on the Beach is my ninth novel and yet my first one was only published a little over six years ago.
I do have to pinch myself sometimes that all these things happened to me. I know I’m very fortunate to have had the breaks I’ve had, but I’ve worked hard to achieve what I have and despite pleas from my mum, I have no intention of ‘slowing down’ any time soon.
Right, I’m off to plant some vegetables in the vegetable trug which will keep my mind off the big game tomorrow… for an hour or so at least. Could football really be coming home? I do hope so.
Much love
Julia x
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