An absolute pleasure last night to meet up with Sam Nightingale and Alex Barrow (plus a small posse of well-wishers) at The Castle in Farringdon to watch Episode 4 of The Island.

Proper pub grub, a few pints of Doom Bar and the excitement of the cliff climb and the night-time caiman hunt.

Yet again, the editing team have nailed it – and brought back to life many of the tensions and hardships of that time.

Even I was surprised at just how knackered I looked last night – by the time those scenes were captured, we had all lost a lot of weight – me down from 11st 4lbs to 10st 2lbs.

I caught up with Sam on his canal boat home in Little Venice yesterday and it was great to chat about events since the show, our minor celebrity, his career progression and plans for the summer.

Connecting with Alex last night was an unexpected bonus. He works long hours in the property letting business and even though I’m regularly in London I don’t get to see him much.

We invited my daughter Rachel but she is locked away swotting for year 2 exams at University and, just like her father, focused and totally committed to the cause.

I’m delighted to say that Rachel will be serving a summer internship at 7connections, working very closely with Jon on marketing as his lead generation work grows rapidly.

I suspect Rachel will be covering until we make a permanent appointment as marketing co-ordinator in the Autumn.

So the family side of 7connections expands to help the existing team.

By the time I reached my Aldgate hotel last night it was midnight – and a 04:30 alarm call to get to London City Airport this morning was a tough call.

The sort of thing that Rupert would take in his stride!

I’ve been reading the Twitter feeds on last night’s show – Ryan – a predictable response to his turtle outburst. Rupert cast as a bit of a bully and a loner. Neither are accurate.

All of these scenes are snippets (its TV after all) and need to be considered alongside the temperature, humidity, malnutrition and exhaustion that we all suffered.

Everyone on that island said and did things that we wish we hadn’t (even forgetting the figs!) and those who sit in judgement would be wise to wait until the end of the series and then “think for 3 seconds” before they post some of the nonsense I’ve read.

On balance – the show is a huge success with the public and we are all justifiably proud.

Now – off to work in Luxembourg for a couple of days.