Ellee Seymour

I must pack my bag now and prepare for my walking weekend in North Norfolk with Cambridge Rambling Club. I am vastly outnumbered politically with this group, the city council does not have one Conservative councillor. I was joined on one of their recent walks by a Respect member who told me how they are actively canvassing there.

But we are all good friends once we put on our walking boots and I do love those coastal paths from Sheringham, I am looking forward to a good hike and lots of fresh air as too much blogging is not good for a girl’s complexion.

I’m being joined by walker extraordinaire Sally and only hope I can keep up with her. We shall be staying in a youth hostel - my first time, but I’m quite happy as long as I can plug my hairdryer in. Do you have any youth hostel memories?

When talking to Iain on his show about women blogging, I mentioned that I may take regular weekend breaks from blogging to achieve that elusive life-balance. If only there were more hours in the day…..

Update: 29 January, I’m delighted that I walked 30 miles over the weekend, which is a record for me, and suffered only one blister. Some of my views are posted on my photo gallery, including the magnificent ruins of Baconsthorpe Castle located in a field. What easier, or cheaper, way is there to keep fit?  

It’s every parents’ nightmare, having a child who throws a wobbly in a public place. But when the tantrum is on an plane and delays the flight, how do you cope, what can you do to placate an hysterical child, knowing everyone’s eyes are fixed on you?

This is what happened to Julie and Gerry Kulesza who could not restrain daughter Elly, 3, with her seat belt strapped securely, so they were removed by the airline AirTran.

Curmudgeon has highlighted this interesting incident and says the story made headlines because of the parent’s anger with the airline, even though AirTran flew the family home the next day, as well as reimbursing them for the cost of the tickets they bought on the flight they didn’t take because of Elly’s behavior. They were even offered free round trip tickets to anywhere AirTran flies.

Curmudgeon, having a legal background, wonders if the family had been aware of the proposed smacking ban in that state on children three years and younger. But who would have wanted, or could have considered  smacking a young child in those circumstances, it would have been  outrageous to do so and tantamount to assault.

So was the airline right in ejecting the family? They obviously have to pay hefty fees for the time they are grounded and their delay would have held up other flights too.

Do you have any special techniques for dealing with tantrums? You could hardly ignore the child and make pretend it was not yours in this confined space. It is so humiliating knowing that all those eyes are firmly fixed on you and your parenting skills. What I do remember is that you cannot reason with a child in this state, you have to wait for the tantrum to cool off, but time was against this family.

I managed to get an early night earlier this week because so many of my favourite sites had problems with Blogger. I left a few comments suggesting they switch over to WordPress like myself.

And especially as it seems that cool internet celebs are favouring WordPress too, according to top 25 internet celebrities listed by Forbes.com, including the No1 celeb LonelyGirl15, as well as Jeff Jarvis, Amanda Congden, Robert Scoble, Mike Arrington, Jimmy Wales, Merlin Mann and Om Malik.

Lonely Girl15 (pic) has become an extraordinary success thanks to Web 2.0.  To millions of online fans, she was first known as Bree, a 16-year-old American teenager. Unusually self-possessed and literate, Bree recorded her private thoughts into a digital video camera and posted them on YouTube under the name Lonelygirl15, where she attracted millions of fans.

In August 2006, the videos were exposed as scripted fakes, and Bree was outed as 19-year old New Zealand-born actress Jessica Rose. But this just increased her fame, and in the media, Jessica became the poster child for the phenomenal success of YouTube and user-driven Web content. Jessica is now being offered movie deals and recorded a commercial for a United Nations anti-poverty campaign.

Forbes is quite clear that the face of fame is changing. The Forbes.com Web Celeb 25 is a list of the biggest, brightest and most influential people on the Internet, from bloggers to podcasters to YouTube stars, these are the people creating their fame through the digital world.

So will these fame hungry digital discoveries ever reach the same dizzy heights as Hollywood stars, desperately fighting off the paparazzi? Jessica has proved that it can happen to anyone if they have the talent - and the looks. Do film and record producers trawl YouTube searching for new blood to catapult into stardom? Have you discovered any great cyberspace stars? Does it give them a level playing field?

Thanks to Geoff for posting me this info.