Doing my bit for habb - andrew

After a very successful, productive trip to Thailand, I came back to earth with a bit of a bump when I got back to London on Friday because British Airways had lost my luggage. It was typical because just the other day I was saying that I'd never lost my luggage and hadn't really experienced any major delays before! I usually catch the Thursday night 'red-eye' back to London and head straight to the salon with an hour's turnaround. So needless to say, messing around trying to track down my luggage put me behind for the day. In case you're wondering, I finally got my luggage back on Tuesday. It had been in Bangkok all this time!Back in the UK, I have been out and about doing some work for HABB, which is very close to my heart. HABB is our charity. It is for members of the industry who have come upon hard times and it is the one fund that can give help to hair professionals at a time of their lives when they need it most. I've dedicated my year as British Hairdresser of the Year to raising money for the benevolent and if I win again I will do exactly the same thing. This week it did mean that I had to get in the kitchen, though, which is not one of my favourite places! We're launching a cook book for HABB, which meant that various hairdressers, including myself and fellow British Hairdresser of the Year nominee Phil Smith, had to put together a recipe and cook it. We gathered in the Jumeirah Carlton hotel kitchens all dressed in our chefs' whites to create our culinary delights and while everyone else seemed really confident in their abilities I was really nervous. I'm no chef. I don't enjoy it at all. I panic about it all coming together and worry about how it will turn out; but my dish, Barton Borsche, is an extremely tasty traditional Russian stew and I thoroughly recommend you buy the book and try it! Tuesday, I had a real inspiring experience. I had been invited to Gloucester to do some training for the Peter Hickman Salon group. Afterwards, I was chatting to the owner who said that the business had been there for 53 years: it turned out he was 77 years old. He is still working two days a week on the shop floor and managing his business. He has established a young, dynamic successful team and he manages to fit in perfectly as part of it. Peter admitted that he couldn't stand on the shop floor for five days a week any more, but he is still very driven and I am full of admiration for him and the work that he is still doing.