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Just spent a week in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh staying at the Meribel Park Hotel which was perfect for families with its water slides, various swimming pools and plenty of sun beds and shaded areas – no matter what time you got up you could find a sun bed to chill out on. For an all inclusive package it was excellent value and I made sure of not repeating our first “all inclusive” experience where we were ordering room service and eating all the various restaurants etc, on checking out was landed with a huge bill which doubled our holiday cost!

Since retiring from rugby one of the best forms of relaxation and enjoyable pastime for me has been learning to dive. It opens up a whole new world. Last time we went  diving in Sharm we saw loads of Hammerhead Sharks which was awesome but seeing a baby whale shark last week far outshone the above. What a beautiful creature which playfully swam around for a few minutes before disappearing into the deep blue.

I am seriously looking at introducing diving trips to our portfolio – do let me know if you are keen to receive info when available.

From Sharm to Paris for the Heineken European Cup Final at the magnificent Stade de France and an all French final between Toulouse and Biarritz. It was strange seeing so many fans from other clubs wearing their club rugby shirts which is a testament to the popularity of this tournament that so many book in advance irrespective of whether their clubs will make it to the final. The game itself didn’t really come alive as the players looked tense throughout the game. I was, however, quite glad to see a member of the front row union, William Servat of Toulouse, winning the man of the match award – a usual preserve of the girlie backs! Games are, of course, won upfront.

So the week started well.  Spent Tuesday at Hampton Court Palace Golf Club in the wonderful company of two retired ladies. I was won as an auction prize for the Combat Stress charity by these lovely ladies. I have to confess to feeling ridiculously confident as I felt that even though I may lack some golfing expertise, I was in the unusual position of having age on my side. I looked forward to spending the day with these lovely ladies, and possibly show off some golfing prowess. But no prowess was apparent by me, and lots of prowess was VERY apparent with the ladies.  They literally whipped my arse!

Whilst on the golf course with no link to the blackberry, I had no idea that the ash was on the move again and causing chaos for many airports.  For I had my bag packed, my boarding card printed and I was ready to fly on Wednesday to Dublin.  I was looking forward to 24 hours in Dublin, doing a recce for hotels and venues for the forthcoming Ireland v England game taking place on March 19^th– the final game in the 2011 RBS Six Nations Rugby Championships.

So, no Guinness for me.  Off to the office.  But at least I was in the UK and didn’t miss out on the SPARKS Tribute Dinner on Friday night at the Grosvenor House Hotel.  An inspiring night where HRH Princess Michael of Kent, Patron of SPARKS,  and many other celebrities came together to pay tribute to individual supporters, businesses and pioneers of medical science.  I have supported SPARKS for many years and time and time again I am moved by their extraordinary work.  By Saturday morning, I had celebrated far too much and found myself limping back to Bath, sipping water and in need of carbs!

I recovered enough to thoroughly enjoy the Bath v Leeds match.  What an incredible performance by Bath! Met our new Bath owner very briefly – the charming Bruce Craig.  Great afternoon.  Great to see Bath coming back from the doldrums, great to see them rise them scale the heights of the Premiership ladder.  Bring on Leicester!

It's Sunday and I find myself at Bristol Airport, trying once again to make it to Dublin. There is no ash affecting the airport, Bristol and Dublin are open, but there appears to be no Ryan Air plane to take us to Dublin. So I sit here, sipping a cup of tea. There is still no Guinness for me!

It’s been a hectic few weeks, just when I thought things may have calmed down a little I received a few invitations to some outstanding charity fundraising events.

I am on the train as I write, going back home to Bath following a heavy weekend.

First upon Friday night, I was the guest of honour at the Bognor Rugby Club Awards Dinner. Bognor RFC reminded a little of the way Bath Rugby Club used to be – a family club with tremendous camaraderie. At Bognor there is still several family generations playing at the club. One that stood out was Barry, who at 62 years old was still propping for the veteran’s team! His 3 sons play for various teams at the club. 

After presenting the awards and my speech and Q&A, I was dragged into Bognor to enjoy the nightlife. We made the most of a very quiet city centre and danced the night away in a club at the pier.

Saturday saw me on a train to London to attend the Antony Nolan Trust annual Daisy Ball at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane. Every this ball is a must and this year was no different with an awesome cabaret rounded off by a set from the cast of the west end stage show, the Jersey Boys – videos of the some of the amazing acts will shortly be on my YouTube site – check it out and you’ll have a giggle especially at the chap that enters a giant balloon!

April started with the Nordoff Robbins Football Extravaganza at the Hilton Hotel where Eric Cantona was honoured with a lifetime achievement award. Ryan Giggs, Sir Alex Ferguson, Steve Bruce, Gareth Southgate numbered amongst the Man United names that were there in celebration of the achievement.  Teddy Sheringham, Simply Red’s Mick Hucknall and a whole host of other football club managers and entertainment celebrities also joined in the celebration with Russell Watson opening the evening with some well known arias including the iconic Nessun Dorma; Paul Merson closed the night with a flowery and entertaining after dinner speech. The evening raised over £460,000 for Nordoff Robbins – an amazing sum of money which will help them continue there excellent work using music therapy to help people with mental disabilities.

Cantona did not disappoint – his acceptance speech was different, brilliant and brought the house down. What did he do? Asked for quietness and you could hear a pin drop in the 1000 people seated dinner event, waited for a couple of minutes then uttered the words “thank you!” the audience roared. That typified the character and charm of this great footballer.

Yet another great event where music and sport come together to put a great show and at the same time raise vital funds for the Nordoff Robbins Music Therapy Center. For your diaries our Next Nordoff Robbins Six Nations Dinner, celebrating the career of Leicester and England second row stalwart Ben Kay, will take place on Wednesday 19^th January 2011 at the Hilton Park Lane – visit www.vultd.co.uk/dinners to book your ticket now online.

I played my first round of golf this year at Stoke Park Club last Wednesday at the Cignet St George’s day Golf Day raising funds for the Help For Heroes Charity. It was great to hack around the course watching Glen, who plays on the PGA Seniors  Series, play some sublime strokes. Hw gave me an excellent tip in positioning the direction of my shots when teeing off and this helped my game enormously. Little by little I am determined to master this game which can be hugely frustrating – I guess being built like a brick *%@thouse doesn’t really help! Again fantastic support for the Help For Heroes charity and over £40k was raised that day – well done to the people from Cignet who organised an excellent day.

Our own inaugural St George’s Day Celebrity Golf Challenge was the very next after the above, at Stoke Park. I have to say that I am not as fit as I used to be and having not done any exercise for months woke the morning after and my body ached like hell. Big thanks to the celebrities that turned out on the day: from media and entertainment Robert Powell, Tim Brooke-Taylor, Ian Richards, Phil Daniels, Sion Tudor Owen, Kevin Whately, Tiff Needell from Football Ray Clemence, Dave Beasant, Graham Rix and from Rugby Peter Scrivener and Jason Hobson. See videos from the golf day on my YouTube account and photos at our picture gallery www.vultd.co.uk

Next year’s Celebrity golf day is already scheduled in for Thursday 14^th April 2011 at Stoke Park Club. With the 10 teams that entered this years event already indicting they will be back next year, there isn’t much room for many more teams so do book as soon as you can to avoid disappointment, details can be found at www.vultd.co.uk/

Just when there are signs of a squad coming coming together a row erupts between the Rugby Players Association (RPA) and the RFU with regards to player wages for the forthcoming summer tour of Australia.

Rightly so, Martin Johnson wants to take an enlarged squad to Oz to give some of the youngsters playing in the Saxons squad an experience of touring and playing downunder in light of the forthcoming Rugby World Cup in New Zealand next year. 

Rob Andrew in his negotiations with Damian Hopley, CEO of the RPA wants to pay the midweek squad a lower rate than the 22 that will be in the test squad - an outrageous idea! I have never heard of a touring squad where the players are paid different amounts. This will definitely creat an us and them divisive group in the squad at a a time when all need to be bonding together. I am amazed that for two chaps that played together at Wasps, Rob could not have had a quiet word with Damian explaining that the plan is to take an enlarged squad and that however, there is a budget issue.  I am sure that Damian would not want to deny the youngsters the chance of going on the senior tour and between them could have come up with the solution of all receiving a lower basic, but the same sum, and a win bonus for the 22 involved in the test match before actually reaching the formal negotiation table.

Instead we find ourselves in a situation where the factions are at loggerheads at a time when unity is called for. There isn't much time left to build a team capable of competing at the next world cup and that is where all energies should be channelled.

For those interested in going to the world cup next year, we will have packages available soon so do register with us to receive information when they become available - to register, click here.

Going to Paris last weekend, I wanted England to really do well and was optimistic that they might spoil the party for the French. England put on their best performance this season though lost to a well drilled french team who truly deserved their Grandslam.

Post match drowned my sorrows at VIP Room with Mark Regan, Steve Ojomoh and other friends with Simon Shaw the only player surprisingly out in town - the french team were there en masse! I am sure the other England players would have enioyed the ambience and fat Joe rapping live on stage. A night cap at Poussey Creme with the french players still in full flow ended my night out!