Community Shield 2026…

Man City, we’re coming for you (via  Cardiff!) 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

@Arsenal ⚽️

@Regenersaurus 🦖 

#COYG 🔴⚪️

#ARSMNC 🥅

Heat Warning…

 So my phone just just went crazy loud.  #heatalert 

Martin Garrix @ Ushuaïa Ibiza…

Last night Darce dragged me to a discotheque. Dancing and jumping about and the like.

The theme was “Progressive house.” Well, I like prog. And I like house. So I thought I might find the odd tune I could tap my feet to.

Much fun was had. 🎶🕺

@MartinGarrix @ushuaiaibiza @darce_styles 

#MartinGarrix #UshuaiaIbiza #Ibiza #ProgressiveHouse #DanceMusic

Eclipse Ibiza 2026…

After months of careful planning for full views of the Sun in the sky we were finally here. In Ibiza. Looking out over the sea. Looking West. Eventually. Not withstanding the €127 taxi dash across the island when muggins here had thought we should be looking East.  D’oh!  But anyway, we were here. 

And then, and then, catastrophe struck! At the most inopportune a solitary cloud in appeared just at the key moment! 🌑☁️ 

Oh no! Was the first total eclipse visible from Ibiza since 1905 going to be hidden from us?

Well, yes, and no. 🌅

The haze was annoying, sure, but the Sun is a bright MF. It shone through. Until it didn’t. For 1 minute and 40 seconds. 

We got to see it. Darce and I got to see the Sun being extinguished before our own eyes. 

And it was just as amazing as it has always been.  Transcendental. Every eclipse I see is different, but each reminds me of my first. 

Already planning the next one. Or two. 

#Ibiza #EclipseChasing #Eclipse2026 #EclipseIbiza #EclipseSolar #Ibiza2026 

Eclipse…

 

I love a solar eclipse. I really do. It’s probably one of the reasons why I studied cosmology at university.

I first became fascinated by them when I was 10 years old. It was on the news. On 10th July 1972. There had been a total eclipse over Russia and Canada. So I ran outside imagining that I could still see it too. I couldn’t of course. But I’d been bitten by the eclipse bug.

Sidebar: ‘You’re So Vain’ by Carly Simon actually references that 1972 solar eclipse! The song was released four months later with this lyric…

“Then you flew your lear jet up to Nova Scotia 

To see the total eclipse of the Sun.”

So what is a solar eclipse? It’s basically when the Moon moves in front of the Sun - usually referring to us, when viewed on Earth.

The fact that we get to experience a total solar eclipse on Earth at all is an incredible cosmological coincidence. 

The Sun is 150 million kilometres (93 million miles) away from the Earth - 400 times further away than the Moon. 

But the Moon is 400 times smaller than the Sun - meaning they appear exactly the same size in our sky.

So what do you see?

When the Sun is fully eclipsed, the black disk of the Moon is surrounded by faint feathers of light waving as if in an invisible cosmic breeze. 

A closer view reveals them to be more like sheets of flame pulsing out from the shadow of the Moon. 

This luminous flare radiating from the blackness is the corona of the Sun - superheated jets of gas thrown thousands of miles out into space.

Back here on Earth, while in the dusk of the Moon's shadow, everything is uncannily still: birds go quiet, thinking it is time to roost, while nocturnal insects wake up and begin to chirp. And people cheer. And clap. And generally go crazy.  

It's a singular feeling that I have travelled around the world to experience. Most recently to Dallas, Texas in 2024. 

This time, the last place on land to view the solar eclipse will be on the Balearic Islands, before the shadow disappears in the Mediterranean Sea as the Sun sets. 

So guess where I’m heading? Yup, Ibiza. 

For most people in the path of the total solar eclipse, the Sun will be hidden for less than two minutes - much shorter than the four minutes we got to experience in Dallas. In Ibiza we’re expecting to see the total solar eclipse for about 110 glorious seconds with the peak at around 20:31 local time (19:31 BST).  

For that brief moment I shall be in ecstasy. 

And then daylight will return as quickly as it left and the world will continue as if nothing has happened. 

Tao of Glass @sohoplace…

Last Saturday, with Stuart, went to see Tao of Glass at @sohoplace in London’s glitzy West End. Phelim McDermott @openspacer serves up fantastic Philip Glass @philipglass music with puppets, a tapestry of stories, and enough philosophy to fill a flotation tank. Entertaining, imaginative and disarming, though it occasionally gets lost in its own dreaminess.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#TaoOfGlass #SohoPlace #Theatre #PhilipGlass

Here Comes J. Edgar! @kingsheadtheatre…

Last Friday Stuart & I went to see Here Comes J. Edgar! at King’s Head Theatre in London’s glitzy Islington. 

Bryan Batt @bryan_batt, Hugo Bolton @hugobolton and Laura Medforth @lauramedforth lead a fabulous, funny, and fruity romp with a whole cast outstanding. 

Mel Brooks-level camp. Broadway beckons! 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#HereComesJEdgar #KingsHeadTheatre #Theatre #Musical 

The Car Man @ Sadler’s Wells…

Last night Stuart and I went to see The Car Man at Sadler’s Wells in London’s glitzy Islington.

Nineteen years after first seeing it, this deliciously dark Matthew Bourne favourite take on Carmen still knows how to turn up the heat. A sleepy American garage town soon becomes a playground for lust, lies and murder, with enough showers, smouldering looks and outrageous innuendo to make even the mechanics blush. 

Funny, sexy, shocking and gloriously over the top. Bizet would have approved. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

@sadlers_wells #TheCarMan #MatthewBourne #SadlersWells #Dance #LondonTheatre

Arsenal 1 - 3 Real Betis…

Darce & I made it to preseason in Dublin. Sunshine, optimism and then… whatever that first half was. Arsenal defended like they had only just met each other. Betis happily accepted every gift, while poor Gyokeres discovered that his usual service was temporarily unavailable. Arteta looked ready to cancel everyone’s shore leave, which is probably the correct response. Better to get the wobble out of the way now than in August. 

Onwards and upwards, my friends.

@Arsenal @RealBetis #Arsenal #RealBetis #ARSBET 🥅 #COYG #Gyokeres #Arteta

Champions Trophy…

 We are the Champions, my friends. 🏆⚪️🔴⚽️

@Arsenal @PremierLeague #Arsenal #COYG #PremierLeagueChampions 

Dublin-bound…

Next stop… Dublin. 🇮🇪 

@regenersaurus 

The Arsenal…

 Fixed it. 

#TheArsenal @arsenal