Ken's Blog

It’s a strange feeling, suddenly realising you are doing things for the last time, for 4 years at least. Like filling up the car with petrol. Or having a very wet Wednesday at home in the cottage. Some things I’ll miss, others I won’t.

Despite myriad of things still to do – which I’m comfortable with as, being male, I find I do my best work when cornered – earlier this week I was pleased to be able to catch up with a few people in London. Lunch with Laura and the team at The Outward Bound Trust, together with meeting up with Pam Goodall and Steve Fabes. Pam has cycled around the world, and Steve, like me, is going to fairly shortly. I left Paddington station, returning on the train to Somerset, content that all was finally coming together, one way or the other.

Back then to my most favourite question of the moment – do I really need to do this before I go?

Departure is getting close, the gripping realization that I’m running out of tomorrows. A welcome diversion to the ever increasing number of last-minute-things-to-do has been the media, a couple of radio interviews, session with a photographer and a couple of telephone chats with journalists. All new and interesting experiences.

I was most intrigued by radio. Fearing that I might have the face for it, my Dad gave me some sound advice – ‘Remember, it’s a dialogue, not a monolog’ – simply no idea what possessed him to say this…. I took along some examples of the kit, including my miniature Christmas pudding. One interviewer suggested it wasn’t all that small – ‘It is’, I assured her, ‘when you’re on 6000 plus calories a day…’

Sometimes you just need a break from all the preparations – and I’ve taken to re-watching some old ’Trigger Happy TV’ DVDs. Originally shown as a series on Channel 4 around about 2000-2001 and performed by Dom Joly, they’re a collection of comedy ’stunts’ filmed mostly around central London. And Porlock Weir, just down the road from my cottage. All very original, very clever. With a carefully crafted soundtrack. The various real-life sketches seem to capture a certain essence of the Capital back then, one I’m very familiar with as started living there at about the same time.