FOR weeks he has been entertaining the nation.
On a regular basis he has dropped into people’s homes to keep them focused.
And during that time he has become a bit of a heart-throb.
But all good things must come to an end.
And so this week he has called a halt to his communications that have kept people cheery, smiling and motivated.
No dear, not Joe Wicks, I meant me.
In the same week that the hirsute hunk dubbed The Body Coach announced the end of his daily fitness workouts which millions of children and their families have been doing during lockdown, I have also decided to take a break.
Given I found some nice alliteration to describe Joe – ‘hirsute hunk’ – I wondered what kind of similar description might work for me?
But ‘balding buffoon’ doesn’t really cut it, does it?
Stop nodding.
Anyway I’m going to take a break until September.
Which is ironic given that this blog thrives on me getting out and about and meeting people and I’ve done more of that in the last week than in the last three months.
It is more a case of having to devote my time and channel my creative energies into an exciting new business opportunity.
You might wonder why I don’t sign off next Friday, given it is the end of the month.
That’s because I’ve got a significant birthday on July 31st and I hope to be away for a long weekend celebrating.
Which is a bonus given that when I first thought about birthday celebrations during the depths of lockdown I thought the best I could hope for was two packets of Frazzles, a bag of Twiglets, a bottle of Barefoot Blush wine and a party popper in the garden.
I look forward to returning in the autumn and in the meantime have a wonderful summer and hopefully when I’m next in touch we will have taken some further steps back towards normality.
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IF there is any sector that has been absolutely floored by Covid-19 it is leisure and hospitality.
This week I’ve been judging Welcome to Yorkshire’s White Rose Awards that celebrate the best of the region’s leisure and tourism businesses.
I judged the awards for the first time last year and have attended the awards ceremony for a number of years.
It is always a great source of ideas for destinations to visit, places to stay and restaurants, cafes and pubs to eat and drink at.
Being a judge puts you in a grandstand seat to view not only some great tourism businesses but also the inspiring stories of the entrepreneurs behind them.
It is a voluntary role but has felt like a full-time job this week with two full days to review the entries and then a judging session yesterday chaired by food writer Elaine Lemm.
The bonus is that I’ve now got a list of new places I want to go and stay, visit and eat at.
And I’ve learnt plenty of useless information.
Such as did you know that Taiwaness pop star Jay Chou – one of the biggest selling artists in the Far East – got married to Australian model Hannah Quinlivan at 950-year-old Selby Abbey in 2015?
Or that the UK’s first ever captive bred vulture was hatched at the National Centre for Birds of Prey in Helmsley last year and has since been released into the wild in Sardinia?
NCBP founder Charlie Heap and a colleague drove the fully grown Griffon Vulture with an eight foot wingspan named Vicki across Europe to give her a new life soaring over the mountains above the Mediterranean.
Which is probably less of a challenge than breeding her, given both her parents were disabled and her dad only had one wing, which made balancing during mating quite difficult.
It puts my issues with sciatica in perspective.
Taking part in the White Rose Awards was, for me, more important this year than any other.
The leisure and tourism industry needs all our support if it is to bounce back successfully.
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ONE person I was pleased to see wasn’t judging the White Rose Awards this year was “retail expert” Kate Hardcastle.
When she took part last year she was aloof, self-important and frosty – and that was just at the awards ceremony at Leeds Arena.
She calls herself “The Customer Whisperer” and has carved a niche appearing on TV and radio providing commentary on retailing and consumer issues.
Whenever I see or hear her being interviewed I wonder if she’ll say something pertinent that isn’t more than basic common sense.
I’m still waiting.
These days you can be a self-proclaimed expert on anything.
I just need to find mine.
What I have learned is that life is too short to bother with people who, as my Mum would say, are a bit full of themselves.
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TALKING of tourism, it can’t have been easy to raise the funds needed to buy and convert a large seaside hotel and then have lockdown imposed just at the time you were looking to launch.
It is enough to floor any entrepreneur, but the team behind the new Bike & Boot Inn in Scarborough are made of sterner stuff.
The hotel, which overlooks the historic resort’s seafront, used to be called The Mount Hotel and now has 65 bedrooms and is aimed at attracting walkers, cyclists, surfers and anyone who enjoys the great outdoors.
Dogs are welcome and the hotel offers purpose-built facilities to clean bikes, surf boards and muddy and sandy dogs.
Founders Simon Rhatigan and Simon Kershaw have a wealth of experience in the hospitality sector.
Simon Rhatigan is the former managing director of Devonshire Hotels and owner of the Feversham Arms in Helmsley while Kershaw previously ran Carlton Towers and is a former chairman of the northern region of the British Hospitality Association.
They have been backed by a number of investors including former top RBS banker turned entrepreneur Martin Allison and ex-lawyer and the first female president of the Leeds Chamber of Commerce Paula Dillon.
The Bike & Boot Inn had a soft opening last weekend for friends and family and I went along to support them (well, there was a discount on the room rates).
It is a smart, well-designed space which stands out amid the many tired hotels in the seaside resort.
It is just around the corner from the majestic Grand Hotel which towers above the seafront.
But the Grand looks to have seen better days and guests were queuing on the pavement outside as they waited to check-in – not the best way to start your holiday.
The Bike & Boot has a nice bar and restaurant and the food is tasty and served by staff with charm and personality.
While we were at our table Martin Allison came over to say hello.
I could tell it was a big night for him as he had a smart new white shirt on.
Normally he opts for a check one reminiscent of John Noakes in his early Blue Peter era.
During our stay we got the chance to explore Scarborough which is something I’ve never done before.
The neat Victorian villas above the South Bay contrast with the amusement arcades and novelty shops along the seafront opposite the harbour where grizzled fishermen fold nets and stack crab and lobster pots.
Head towards the North Bay along Marine Drive and the town’s castle is above you on the cliff and behind it St Mary’s Church, where Anne Bronte, one of the literary sisters from Haworth, was buried aged just 29.
If you carry on to the North Bay you can see the striking sculpture of a man in a flat cap and long coat on a bench looking out to sea.
Artist Ray Lonsdale created the sculpture, called ‘Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers’.
It is based on a former miner from County Durham who as a 23-year-old soldier, was one of the first allied troops to enter Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Germany in April 1945 where they found more than 60,000 prisoners, most of them seriously ill and thousands of unburied corpses.
The sculpture was loaned to Scarborough for a month but so captivated and inspired local residents that a pensioner called Maureen Robinson donated her life savings of £50,000 to pay to keep it in the town permanently.
Freddie Gilroy and the Belsen Stragglers was created by Ray Lonsdale to represent ordinary people pulled out of ordinary lives because of war, who involuntarily experienced extraordinary things and whose lives were profoundly affected as a consequence.
The inscription on the sculpture’s plaque says:
“They said for king and country,
We should do as we were bid,
They said old soldiers never die
But plenty young ones did.”
As we headed back along the front I was struck by the size of many of the holidaymakers enjoying the Sunday morning July sunshine.
On The Only Way Is Essex they apparently have a phrase, “no carbs ‘til Marbs”.
I think the opposite must be true for Scarbs.
But the arrival of the Bike & Boot Inn gives all those visitors who want to be active the perfect place to stay in Scarborough.
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Parky’s video clip of the week
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THERE are no winners from this week’s news that Harrogate pub The Coach and Horses has been stripped of its licence.
The flower-festooned hostelry on West Park overlooking the Stray was opened in 1864 and is a familiar sight for visitors to the North Yorkshire spa town.
But it will no longer be able to serve them a pint of Black Sheep after being closed down for “blatantly disregarding” lockdown rules by setting up tables and chairs for customers buying takeaway drinks over the spring bank holiday weekend in May.
Harrogate borough councillors agreed to revoke the pub’s licence at a meeting this week.
And while the landlord John Nelson, whose family has run the pub for three decades, apologised for a “chronic error of judgement” I don’t think it was enough given he had previously described the incident as “petty nonsense” and called council staff “jobsworths” in an interview with the Harrogate Advertiser newspaper.
Apparently the pub was raising money for a local charity by selling takeaway drinks over the May bank holiday.
That was allowed within lockdown rules but not for consuming on the premises or any outdoor area.
What this decision does is rob the town of one of its most popular and best looking pubs – it could be dropped into into a Knightsbridge mews or Mayfair street and it would not look out of place – at a time when when local people and business owners are very concerned about the growing number of empty shops and commercial premises in Harrogate.
I don’t know John Nelson but he rang me out of the blue one morning at 8am last September and left a message telling me that he was renaming the pub to celebrate the success of the UCI World Cycling Championships being hosted in Harrogate.
Given it had renamed itself the Cavendish and Horses during the Tour de France after top cyclist Mark Cavendish, whose mother is from Harrogate, this wasn’t an unprecedented move.
But deciding to call it “The Sir Gary Verity” just months after his controversial departure as the head of Welcome to Yorkshire was probably not what you might call best timed.
I’m sure the man himself wouldn’t have wanted it either.
John followed that message up with several others, including one instructing me to “position my cameras” on the Stray opposite the pub in order to capture the official renaming ceremony.
I don’t know who he thinks I am?
Cameras?
I’d struggle to find a notebook and pencil these days.
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I THINK my summer sabbatical comes at exactly the right time.
Recent comments about Gerald Krasner, the administrator of Wigan Athletic football club, were greeted with an entertaining response from the man himself.
Wigan now face relegation after failing by a whisker to finish 12 points above the relegation zone and negate the 12 points deducted by the EFL for going into administration.
The club may well appeal against the fine and I hope they do because Gerald’s colleague at Begbies Traynor, Julian Pitts, assures me on good authority that if Wigan stay in the Championship, then for the visit of Derby County next season, away supporters will be sitting in the specially renamed Parkin Stand.
I’ll cut the ribbon.
So far so good.
But my mention of Gerald Krasner wearing a clip-on ponytail in the past brought this response:
“As regards your reference to my ponytail this was when I scalped a News of The World reporter who got on the wrong side of me when I was chairman at Leeds. Your apparent lack of follicles means you are relatively safe.”
Sounds like the perfect time for a break.
Have a great weekend and a lovely summer and see you in September.
Happy 70th for next Friday Dave! Will miss your weekly offerings.