I don’t think there will be many times in my life that one of my mates will win a TV show. So I am going to make the most of this Monday morning and say HURRAH!!!!!! What a performance from the lovely Chris Hollins, or the little fella as he is now affectionately known. I saw the first half of the final at home and then had to go out to a party, where I rudely arrived and insisted they put the TV straight on! Still I wouldn’t have missed it for the world.

Mr Hollins actually reduced me to tears on Saturday, in a good way I might add, because I was just so pleased for him. He is genuinely, genuinely lovely and what you have seen on the screen over the last 3 months is the guy I see in the office every week. He’s a star and he proved it on Saturday night with a stunning performance.

Performing under pressure is a rare gift, just ask England’s cricketers. They should have taken a leaf out of the Hollins book. Instead they came spectacularly close to cocking up the first test against South Africa with a performance that almost grabbed defeat from the jaws of a draw. But then pressure does do funny things to you. It’s like getting everything ready for Christmas. No really it is.

The stress of trying to remember everything that needs doing can drive sane men and women to distraction. I blew up my blender at the weekend as I tried to rush making Christmas cookies. It was all made so much worse by the fact that my husband looked quizzically at me mere minutes before smoke started to billow out of the back of the blender and said; “Do you think you might be pushing it a little too hard?” My response was unprintable and to his credit, he maintained a poker face as I ran out of the kitchen with said smoking device before the fire alarm went off. Oh dear. When the cookies were finally produced they were horrible. My daughter tried to be kind. “Mummy they taste funny”. My son was more succinct. “Yuk. I don’t like them.”

So not going well in our house. But then the man who seems to be the personification of coping with pressure is my old friend Vladimir Putin. Now not enough to be PM of one of the world’s superpowers. Oh no. As I have blogged recently, he is keen to show us all that judo is a sport we can all enjoy. Indeed such is his passion, his latest foray into the world of martial arts involved a training session with the Russian Olympic squad. I have posted the footage because it is (a) hilarious, (b) errr hilarious and (c) jaw-dropping.

My favourite bit is when he is sort of fighting one guy and then points at a hulk in the corner as his next opponent. Amazingly little Vlad takes him, well I say takes him, he sort of falls on top of him. But his performance is so good, we are told he could actually be an Olympian. How does he do it? Fitting in all that elite training with the day job. And managing to beat Olympic standard fighters at the drop of a hat. Well my hat is off to the fellow. It really is. I bet he can make perfect cookies too........

Tags: Chris Hollins, Strictly Come Dancing, Vladimir Putin, Judo, England's cricketers, Russian Olympic squad

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