Cherries On Top

I must have tuned into the wrong concert broadcast last night. Today’s reports of Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday tribute bash in Hyde Park overfloweth with praise for Troubled Amy Winehouse (TM), who led the finale performance of Free Nelson Mandela.
She was tan and radiant or remarkably tanned and glowing, depending on which version you read. She […]

From Wife in the North’s blog.
…They certainly leave a better aftertaste than the kind offer I had yesterday from Take a Break to run the piece that appeared in The Sunday Times. The message was passed on from my publishers through my agent, offering £500 for an 800-word extract from the book - the thing […]

On the subject of age…
I love reading Madame Arcati’s blog, which does a fine line in honey-tongued media gossip. The latest post, Welcome to the New Gerontocracy, is quite delightful. In her words:
Here are a few stirrers and shakers who in ordinary life would probably now be being patronised, fired, preferred against, on the grounds of age […]

I found myself utterly engrossed in BBC 1’s Countryfile today. This came as a surprise, as the programme is, well, on the sedate side. It dwells upon goings-on in rural hamlets and on farms, is presented by people like John Craven and Ben Fogle, and is targeted at an older, more genteel demographic. But today, […]

I was startled when I read today that parts of the long-awaited Guns N’ Roses album had been leaked online - and that a new reality show is rumoured to be in the works, to coincide with the record’s official release.
This was partly because Axl Rose has been working on Chinese Democracy for the past […]

more cat pictures

Oh dear. Chris Martin isn’t having a good week, is he? 

What is America’s beef with Diablo Cody?
I’ve been asking myself this question ever since reading this post on The Lipster, a British pop culture blog for women, last week. It’s a bottom-licking piece called “10 Reasons Why Diablo Cody Rocks”. Even if I didn’t agree with everything that was written - reason number 10: Cody now […]

  I found this site called de-noted. It’s been around since last year, by the look of it, but I only Stumbled Upon it today. It’s a blog about writing notes on notes:
When you write a question on a note and spend it, you know that it will pass through hundreds of wallets, pockets, purses, ATM’s, […]

 Yesterday I was driving home from work in my little old banger, pootling up and down the hills in the early evening sunshine, surrounded by green fields and lots of serene-looking sheep. I had BBC Radio 4 on - it was a deliciously English drive.
The Archers finished and the arts programme Front Row came on. I […]