overyourhead

Plovdiv…

2026-11-11T13:50:04.663+00:00

Stuart and I went exploring Bulgaria’s second city, Plovdiv. Where the Romans clearly had an eye for property; a spectacular Ancient theatre, a buried Roman stadium, cobbled streets aplenty, colourful Bulgarian Revival houses, the Hisar Kapia arch, and the hilltop views from Nebet Tepe. Add the charming Kapana quarter and a rather ridiculous amount of history.

A city that has been around for 6,000 years and still manages to look rather fabulous.

#Plovdiv #Bulgaria #Travel

Sofia…

2026-11-10T15:08:10.697+00:00

Stuart and I hit the pavements with Slavyan on the @freesofiatour

From Roman ruins & mosques to synagogues, palaces & grand old churches, we got the full historical immersion. Slavyan was brilliantly knowledgeable & very entertaining.

Nineteen sights in two hours. Highly recommended.

#Sofia #Bulgaria #FreeSofiaTour

The V.I.P.S…

2026-11-09T10:56:01.132+00:00

This is Stuart and me at the moment. Stranded at T3 in the fog.

Cloud 9 @National_Theatre…

2026-11-08T15:32:01.693+00:00

Last Friday night Stuart and I went to see Cloud 9 at the Lyttelton Theatre in London’s glitzy South Bank.

Caryl Churchill’s colonial patriarchy meets 1970s sexual liberation. Gender, power and identity get a thoroughly entertaining shake up. Rebecca Humphries, Eloka Ivo, Tom Mothersdale, Charlotte Ritchie, Ellen Robertson, Stuart Thompson and Sam Troughton shine.

Second act is better than the first.

At 2hrs 50mins, occasionally is tests the elasticity of one’s posterior though.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#Cloud9 #CarylChurchill #NationalTheatre

Arsenal 1 - 0 Hull City…

2026-11-08T11:18:04.811+00:00

One of those afternoons when Arsenal made hard work of something that really shouldn’t have been. Hull dug in, chances came and went, we should have had a pen, and then Captain Ødegaard popped up on 72 minutes to save everyone’s blood pressure.

Five league wins on the bounce, six points clear and City beaten by Forest. Lovely stuff.

Onwards and upwards, my friends.

@Arsenal @HullCity #ARSHUL🥅 #COYG #AFC #MartinOdegaard

When in Prague…

2026-11-06T10:38:16.951+00:00

You ride a funicular, you climb a shaky TV tower, you visit a clapped-out old stadium, you eat ribs wearing black latex gloves. Of course you do.

Slavia Prague 1 - 2 Arsenal…

2026-11-05T10:01:35.386+00:00

A tale of two halves. #Gyökeres was magnificent, setting up #Madueke before scoring a beauty himself. Two up at half time, Arsenal then decided to make the second half unnecessarily interesting. Raya and Gabriel to the rescue as Slavia piled on the pressure. Three points, unbeaten in Europe. Standards, Mikel. Standards!

Oh, I got interviewed on live radio. And had to sing. And the gang got caught on camera. Infamy, infamy, they’ve all got it in for me.

Onwards and upwards, my friends.

#SLAARS 🥅 #Arsenal @Arsenal #UCL #COYG

An Away Day..

2026-11-04T08:09:35.440+00:00

Yesterday was an away day. A travel day (to Prague). A lounge-hopping day in T3 (Amex, American Admirals 1st Class, BA 1st Class, Qantas, & Cathy Pacific 1st Class). A hooking-up with friends day (Hi Ollie). A being a bit spoiled by BA crew day. A sit in the cockpit day. A run around a cold city looking for late-night pizza day. And before collapsing into bed, a make your own weird cocktail in the hotel bar day. Away days are the best.

#AwayDays @Arsenal @Darce_Styles

Prague Bound…

2026-11-03T13:04:32.770+00:00

Slavia Prague, we’re coming for you!

@Arsenal ⚽️

@Regenersaurus 🦖

#COYG 🔴⚪️

#SLAARS 🥅

Maestro of the Movies: A Tribute to John Williams @royalalberthall…

2026-11-03T08:35:46.544+00:00

Last Saturday night Darce and I went to see Maestro of the Movies: A Tribute to John Williams at the Royal Albert Hall in London’s glitzy South Kensington.

It was an emotional night of cinematic magic as the @londonsymphonyorchestra brought all those legendary scores to life on the big screen. But the final 12 minutes of E.T. had us absolutely sobbing. Phone home? We needed a tissue.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

#JohnWilliams #FilmMusic #RoyalAlbertHall #LSO

Dina Martina @ Soho Theatre...

2026-11-02T14:54:23.172+00:00

Last Friday night Wayne and I almost died laughing at Dina Martina's Halloweena! show at the Soho Thatre in London's glitzy West End.

As we walked away from the venue we remarked that both our sets of cheeks were aching with laughter.

What started with a murder on the dance floor of Michael Jackson's Thriller soon moved to a mash-up of Bauhaus's Bela Lugosi's Dead with The Ting Tings' That's Not My Name to highlight Lugosoi's failed Americanisation of his name. It was a non-stop riot of the clever, the outrageous, and the political(ly incorrect).

The surreal met the unreal; Boots The Chemist as a charity, a trip to St George’s Hosptial A&E for coffee, cartwheeling back as a form of transport then stealing a set of stilts.

From a fabulous video recreation of The Rocky Horror Picture Show opening song to editing herself into real science fiction double-features; the show was clever, funny, and (most importantly) short.

An hour in Dina’s garden of other-earthly delights.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

@dinamartina @sohotheatre #DinaMartina #Halloweena

Liverpool 0 - 1 Arsenal...

2026-11-02T12:02:09.458+00:00

Fourteen years. That’s how long we’ve waited to win at Anfield. Kai Havertz’s 16th minute finish, courtesy of Declan Rice, did the job. Then came 74 minutes of Liverpool huffing, puffing and trying to find David Raya. Our defence was stubborn, not pretty, but we are top of the table.

No title talk just yet. It’s November, not May.

Onwards and upwards, my friends

@Arsenal @LFC @_DeclanRice @DeclanRice @kaihavertz29 #LIVARS 🥅

Crewe…

2026-11-01T11:07:38.968+00:00

Oh! Mr Porter, what shall I do?

I want to go to Liverpool

And they're taking me on to Crewe,

Take me back to London, as quickly as you can,

Oh! Mr Porter what a silly girl I am.

Liverpool Bound…

2026-11-01T07:52:14.709+00:00

Liverpool, we’re coming for you!

@Arsenal ⚽️
@Regenersaurus 🦖
#COYG 🔴⚪️
#LIVARS 🥅

The Celebrity Traitors UK Series Two…

2026-10-31T09:08:54.853+00:00

**A spoiler-free Celebrity Traitors UK Series Two opinion piece**

I love The Traitors but I thought this second series of The Celebrity Traitors (UK) was pretty dire. In fact I would go so far as to say it’s the worst of any of the celeb or non-celeb UK series so far. A highly unsatisfying watch.

I believe it was badly cast, had ill-thought-out games, and the producers made poor production choices. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the people who were playing the game. I just don’t think they were very good at it.

Maybe it’s because the money goes to charity not themselves but nobody really seemed to want to fight for the cash. They just seemed to want to be there to make friends; a celebrity’s modus operandi.

Traitor banishments were either self-inflicted, herd-mentality piled-ons, or random spin-the-bottle affairs. The murders were mostly pretty obvious. No bluffs, no intrigue, no plotting. Just boring revenge murders.

Yes, the TV viewing numbers were good. But that’s because goodwill is there from the previous series. They’ll start to dwindle if the producers aren’t careful.

The producers need to have a clearer think about who they cast next time. My suggestion will be to have fewer comedians and more sports people. If the show is not competitive, it doesn’t work.

And the games need to be more carefully thought through. Don’t have a game in which you can hand out shields to pretty much everybody!

As I say, I love the show and I really want it to reach the dizzying heights that I know it can.

Paul…

2026-10-30T15:15:26.389+00:00

40 years ago I met my best friend. Someone who has been there for me through thick and thin.

He introduced me to @Arsenal, Laurie Anderson @onlyanexpert and Angela Carter. Three introductions that rather changed my life. Thank you Paul. ❤️

Hay Fever @WyndhamsTheatre…

2026-10-29T09:09:12.125+00:00

Yesterday afternoon, I went to see Hay Fever at Wyndham’s Theatre in London’s glitzy West End. @christinebaranski is glorious as Judith Bliss, with @richard.e.grant and @opheliabits among the fabulously dysfunctional family and guests. Noël Coward’s posh people behaving badly is of course appallingly droll. Yet it’s a tepid plot, and a slightly pedestrian production. Act Two perks up however.

Thank you for the freebie Angus.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

#HayFever #NoelCoward

Barbican Conservatory - Adopt a Plant…

2026-10-28T08:54:57.711+00:00

The Barbican Conservatory is closing for a refurb. So all the plants are being given away for ‘adoption’.

The final Barbican plant adoption ballot opens tomorrow. If successful, the date to adopt a plant is 2nd Dec.

https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/event/conservatory-plant-adoption

All-Hallown summer…

2026-10-27T18:19:34.523+00:00

Chiswick, Teddington and Richmond today. As mild as we could wish for. Indeed ‘twas a lovely all-Hallown summer after o’noon.

Be Yourself…

2026-10-26T16:36:48.524+00:00

Be yourself. Everyone else is taken.

The people who mind don’t matter.
The people who matter don’t mind.

Split…

2026-10-23T05:37:30.038+00:00

Yesterday I split. At Spilt. I disembarked the ship and flew home. I’d had enough. I was all at sea on that boat. Cruising is just not for me.

Something happened onboard on Wednesday night that was the trigger for me wanting to leave. An argument with another passenger (who was drunk, aggressive, and entitled) over a silly matter at a quiz night. But the trigger is not the gun. It’s just that little spark. That breaks the camel’s back. If I can mix my metaphors.

The lack of agency, the forced fun, the forced socialisation, the confinement, the crowds, the short port times that lead to constant clock-watching, that feeling of being trapped…. I know myself. And I shouldn’t have gone on the cruise in the first place. Stuart knows me too well and warned me many, many times not to go. And he was right.

My family were incredibly kind and understanding at my decision when I told them. Of course they were. We all love each other too much to not want what’s best. And this was for the best.

So Myrtle, Joanna and Simon (and Carole and Vanessa) will all merrily sail on for another week. They will have lots of fun as they Carry on Cruising. Create many happy memories together. And I know they will have the bestest of times.

Me, I shall create my own new memories with them all, and especially my mum, another time very soon. Just not on a boat. Or at a quiz night with inebriated Saga louts!

A Safe Harbour…

2026-10-22T10:52:30.116+00:00

Yesterday we arrived in Brindisi, which is a rather modest port in southern Italy. Historically, it was used as a jumping-off point to and from the Mediterranean & the Orient from Rome and Northern & Western Europe. Today’s it’s a rather unremarkable port. Still, it served as a starting point for the Adriatic Sea. Next stop Split.

All At Sea…

2026-10-21T04:37:10.721+00:00

A day and a night cruising from Malta to Brindisi gave us time to explore the ship, have a swim, and get dolled up for the captain’s cocktail party.

That was followed by a formal dinner (where we celebrated my godmother Carol’s 90th), a show (Chess Taylor anyone?), and a quiz night (with some rather dodgy fact checking by the quizmaster!)

My mother, me fairy, and my fairy godmother. 👵🏳️‍🌈👵😂

2026-10-20T10:25:20.171+00:00

Anchors Away…

2026-10-20T08:42:36.901+00:00

We flew to Malta yesterday. To start a 10-day family Mediterranean cruise. Those who know me know how much I like cruises. Which is to say not at all. Zero. Less than zero in fact. I hate them.

So why did I agree to come? Well, it’s Myrtle’s 90th birthday trip. So of course I had to come. And my brother Simon and sister Joanna are here too. So there’s that. Oh and my (fairy) godmother Carol and her daughter Vanessa are onboard. So maybe it won’t be that bad after all. Maybe.

Shoulders back, chest out, big smile.

Things didn’t start that well though. We sat on a foggy Gatwick tarmac for two hours in a cramped EasyJet non-recliner waiting for the Great British weather to allow us to take off. Foggy start.

And just when we thought we’d got the all-clear to fly, some old boy at the back of the plane was taken ill and needed to be taken off the flight. I felt sorry for his wife. Everybody was staring at them as they stool in the aisle giving them evils while we waited for what seemed like hours for the jet bridge to be reattached.

EasyJet Saga-louts are a force of nature. Much akin to fireworks - it doesn’t take much to set them off but when they do, they tend burn bright before dropping like stones.

Anyway, we were eventually on our way. And after five hours of sitting in an uncomfortable 2A window seat we had landed, been whisked through the airport, onto our transfer bus and off to Valletta port.

The Balmoral is small by comparison to other cruisers, but still pretty big. 1300 odd passengers. 600 odd crew. Very odd.

I’m sharing a room with my brother Simon, and to be honest, the room is pretty big. A nice balcony. And lots of space to store our clothes.

We met up with the others for some afternoon tea after unpacking before changing for dinner. Food was really nice. Basic wines included.

After supper, we went to go and watch “the show”. Let’s just say it was interesting. More of that another time.

The ship set sail about 10pm as it was cruising overnight. The sea was a little bit choppy so we were rolling around causing a few of the cabin’s internal furniture doors to fly open. They probably thought it was a really good idea to put internal lights in the cupboards. But when it’s pitch black and you are at sea and random cupboard doors fly open and the lights come on you do feel a bit like you’re in a ghost ship.

Still, I slept ok.

As we are at sea, there’s obviously no mobile data. But they do have (rather pricey) Internet access on board. So all is not lost.

But sadly it won’t let me buy any Arsenal tickets as the Arsenal ticket hub is rejecting connections from the ocean! 🌊 It must think I’m a pirate! 🏴‍☠️🤣 Shiver m’Timber!

Maybe it’ll be a good opportunity for a digital detox. Let’s see.