30th July 2013
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
This morning it was pouring with rain when I first looked out of the window. So I was pleased that it had cleared a couple of hours later when my Brazilian colleague Isabel and I stood on a hillside overlooking Addis Ababa in our wellington boots. Actually, it was perfect conditions for tree-planting, and we […]
Read more on Greening Ethiopia – the road from London to Rio | Reply
19th November 2012
Dublin, Ireland
Friday was the International Day of Tolerance. To mark this occasion, we held a party in the Embassy, which also served as the launch event for a fabulous photo exhibition recalling the superb British and Polish performance at the London Paralympics. I underlined how important a role tolerance plays in any civilised society and how […]
Read more on Tolerant: we must be! | Reply
27th September 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Some weeks ago I wrote about several of my colleagues’ swimming accomplishments at Lake Valence. Now, inspired by the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, they have been entering foot and cycling races too. On 4 September, 3 colleagues competed in the Budapest half-marathon. One male colleague ran alone, and two other female colleagues ran in […]
Read more on Almost a triathlon | Reply
28th July 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
It’s always humbling to meet elite athletes. So I am rather in awe when we bring together at the residence to mark the one-year countdown to London 2012 some truly great Olympians from Ukraine. They include Valery Borzov, who I remember winning the 100m and 200m gold medals at the 1972 Olympics in Munich and […]
Read more on London 2012… and legendary Ukrainian athletes | Reply
17th March 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
A few weeks ago I promised that we would be marking 500 days to go to the 2012 Olympics on 16 March. The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that this date was in fact 499 days from the Olympics (and 532 from the Paralympics). The reason was that 15 March is an important national […]
Read more on Counting down | Reply
25th February 2011
This post was published when the author was in a previous role
Earlier this week I sat with the UK Sports Minister and leading members of the Hungarian Olympics and Paralympics Committees. Hugh Robertson was visiting to attend the Sports Ministerial Informal meeting at Gödöllő and at the end of his programme made time to meet our partners and ask what we could do to help them […]
Read more on Engaging on the Games | Reply
