12.05.05
The phone rings at 8.30am – it’s a producer from the Nicky Campbell
show on Radio 5 Live wanting to do a panel discussion on the story that
Bluewater has banned hooded tops as they are linked with threatening
behaviour. Annoyingly, I’m already in transit to a meeting, and it’s
not something I can do on the phone. I feel strongly that it’s the
behaviour that needs to be tackled, and the ban will just drive the
yobs elsewhere.
I have a meeting with leather designer Bill Amberg to discuss a
proposed feature for Executive Golf, a lifestyle magazine I edit. I’m
planning a profile on him and he suggests making a bespoke golf bag as
part of the feature piece.
By noon, I’m ensconsed in the Berkeley
Hotel, where I finish some advertorial copy I drafted last night for
the Mail on Sunday. I e-mail it, then head to the Blue Bar for drinks
with fashion designer Louise Kennedy. I then meet the team from Halpern
Associates which pitches some ideas for the golf mag and some for You
magazine, where I am contributing editor.
Related
By 4pm, I’m back in the
Caramel Room for afternoon tea with Irene Mateides and Nigel Fulcher,
the directors of FMS Contract Publishing. I write for a number of their
publications.
As well as discussing some new projects in
development and a couple of editorial ideas, they ask me to edit one of
the magazines in their stable from September. Hurrah.
Spend the evening proof-reading layouts for Executive Golf.
Content from our partners
Ian, my boyfriend, who is a press photographer, gets a call asking him to go to Nice in the morning.
13.05.05
It’s a beautiful day, so I take my laptop outside to work in the
garden. The joys of cordless phones, wi-fi broadband and Apple’s
fabulous Airport Express system mean I’m online and can print layouts
of the mag from the garden. LBC calls and books me to present its
weekend breakfast show when Paul Ross is away at the end of the month –
thankfully the two weekends they’ve booked fall neatly between two
trips.
After lunch in the garden, I write up an interview I’ve done with
Annoushka Ducas, the founder of jeweller Links of London, for You
magazine.
14.05.05
After going through the papers, I spend much of the day
proof-reading issue one of Executive Golf, and writing a synopsis for
issue two.
By mid-afternoon I remember it’s a Saturday and that the rest of the
world is on a day off, so I wander up to the village common and spend a
couple of hours at my local May Fayre.
My evening is spent
catching up on book-keeping, doing my VAT return, and filling out a
visa application for a trip to India next month. At about 10pm, I pack
my bags and checkin online on BA’s website to save time in the morning.
15.05.05
Arrive at Heathrow at 6.45am, and have breakfast in the BA lounge
with photographer Richard Young. We’re travelling to the Laureus World
Sports Awards in Estoril, and meet up with Ian at Lisbon airport, who’s
flown in from Nice.
After lunch I head off to interview Edwin Moses, who chairs the
Sport for Good foundation, promoting sport as a tool for social change.
Moses is an inspiring character, who is an academic as well as a
remarkable sportsman, and is now devoting much of his life to
developing Sport for Good projects around the world.
When I arri e back at the hotel I proof-read more layouts and email the London office with changes.
16.05.05
After a very leisurely morning I attend a press conference with some
of the members of the Laureus Sport for Good foundation. They show VT
of various projects they are supporting and the press pack falls silent
as we see footage of Daley Thompson visiting post-tsunami Banda Aceh
with Jackie Chan, and Ian Botham inspecting the former test cricket
ground at Galle in Sri Lanka.
Afterwards, I interview Botham, who tells me he was in Sri Lanka in
April to look at developing a Sport for Good project in the region. He
recalls talking to an aid nurse who had pulled 70 bodies from marshland
the previous day, and gets agitated as he insists the recovery process
is far from over.
I head back to the hotel to write some copy for
a corporate client who wants a fashion feature written to syndicate to
regional press, then, by 6pm, celebrities and sports stars start
arriving at Estoril’s Casino for the World Sports Awards – the Beckhams
arrive wearing so many diamonds they almost blind the waiting media in
the low evening sun. Victoria rushes up to kiss Richard, pleased to see
a familiar face. I file a couple of diary stories to the nationals
while Ian and Richard are sending pictures back to London.
17.05.05
Ian and I are up at 6am to catch a train down to the Algarve to play
golf for a couple of days – I’m writing a travel feature for the
magazine. By 4pm, we are playing the nine-hole Pine Cliffs course,
which is incredibly pretty and boasts a stunning, but intimidating,
chasm on the sixth hole. Thankfully, despite serious sleep deprivation,
my tee shot lands safely on the green. We spend the evening as hermits,
ordering room service, and writing up some notes from the golf.
18.05.05
We head off early to play the new Victoria course at Vilamoura,
where the World Golf Championships are being staged in November. It’s a
fabulous challenge and the back nine features more water than I’ve seen
anywhere.
By mid-afternoon we’re on the beach, and as I begin to nod off,
Helen from the Jeremy Vine Show on Radio 2 calls to ask if I can take
part in the programme tomorrow. Unfortunately I’ll be playing at San
Lorenzo so it’s not doable. I then get a call with a commission to
interview Raymond Blanc late tomorrow afternoon, which I can do, so we
book that in.
As we head in from the beach, my phone rings and
it’s the publisher of Executive Golf. We have some last-minute
pagination changes so I need to spend the evening revising the
flatplan. Looks like it’s room service again…
Email pged@pressgazette.co.uk to point out mistakes, provide story tips or send in a letter for publication on our "Letters Page" blog
