The end of my frustration…

Posted by on Jun 21, 2007 in updates | 5 comments I have had a very difficult couple of days publishing posts on my blog using Windows Live Writer. Microsoft picked up on it instantly after I wrote about it earlier today and discovered that a block had been created by the server that hosts my website for security reasons. They have been in contact with the host server and I am now hoping that I can successfully publish this post to...
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Should BlackBerrys be banned in Parliament?

Posted by on Jun 21, 2007 in Uncategorized | 8 comments Well I’m sorry if MPs get bored sitting in Parliament. And I’m disappointed to hear that to help them through this ordeal, they could be allowed to take their BlackBerrys in to the most hallowed chamber in the land to help them pass the time. I’ve never used one of these wonderful gadgets, but I’m sure it could easily be used for mischief making in the House, with MPs...
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An invite to my birthday party

Posted by on Jun 21, 2007 in updates | 6 comments I see that David Miliband becomes the first minister to enter Second Life as an avatar to promote a carbon calculator. I am thinking of joining him there. According to the erudite Tom Paine, there is an airship in Second Life named after me. Although I regret that it is unlikely I will be able to join my Blogpower colleagues for their virtual awards ceremony on 1 July, it gave me the idea of...
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My Windows Live Writer problem

Posted by on Jun 21, 2007 in updates | 11 comments I use Windows Live Writer to write my posts and it has always been brilliant. But yesterday it mysteriously refused to publish them, though I managed to write my missing post ok. It is so bizarre and infuriating. I spent ages trying to sort it out, but a message appeared saying there was an error which refused me access. The same happened again this morning. It means I have to resort to using my...
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Time for Malta to acknowledge divorce

Posted by on Jun 20, 2007 in updates | 8 comments I had no idea that Malta was the only country in the European Union which banned divorce, though allowed marriages to be annulled. I caught the tail end of a radio interview about this yesterday, a young woman was saying how she was annulling her marriage on the grounds of her husband’s immaturity, which seemed a very bizarre reason. Yet a recent poll on the island proved astoundingly...
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Let’s live dangerously and eat eggs for breakfast

Posted by on Jun 20, 2007 in updates | 10 comments I’m not going to crack any yokes about the latest loony advert ban about going to work on an egg on the grounds that it does not promote a balanced diet. If only kids did eat that healthily for breakfast, cereals are full of so much sugar. And my husband has been known to fly out the front door with a couple of chocolate biscuits in his hand first thing in the morning. Do you know of...
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The missing – Stepha Henry

Posted by on Jun 20, 2007 in updates | 1 comment I came across a blog post recently which expressed concern that less publicity was given to the disappearance of young black people. Janice Lowery  has started a site to help give these missing children publicity. One of the cases she highlights is that of Stepha Henry, 22, who was last seen partying at Peppers Cafe, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on May 29 this...
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How can you spot a paedophile?

Posted by on Jun 19, 2007 in updates | 16 comments One of the most chilling aspects of the Suffolk-based internet paedophile case is   that Timothy Cox looks so normal. In fact, he seems a nice looking, ordinary guy from this pic. As we know, he was an evil, cunning and vile abuser of children who distributed tens of thousands of indecent images of children, some of them just babies. And I wonder about those 31 children now in care...
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Payback time for Brown’s Labour foes

Posted by on Jun 19, 2007 in Uncategorized | 5 comments It’s a damning start for Gordon Brown’s premiership. Has any leading politician been mauled so publicly by his own members a week before becoming Prime Minister? In tomorrow’s Channel 4 documentary, The Rise and Fall of Tony Blair, former ministers Charles Clarke, Alan Milburn, Estelle Morris and Clare Short, as well as key staff and contacts, speak more frankly than ever...
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The missing – Alex Mexisville

Posted by on Jun 19, 2007 in updates | 6 comments I learnt about Alex Mexisville after spotting a poster of him, along with other missing young people, while waiting to catch my return flight home from Thessoloniki Airport yesterday. Among them was a poster of Madeleine McCann. I saw no similar posters when I departed from the UK – surely this is an ideal place to display them, as well as at railway and bus stations. Last February,...
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Taking my mother down Memory Lane

Posted by on Jun 10, 2007 in updates | 19 comments Later today I shall be taking my mother Loula on a trip to Northern Greece,  on a trip down Memory Lane, to re-visit her  childhood places, during a time when Greece was ravaged by civil war, as well as World War 11 . I just adore being in Greece. I love the smells of the warm pine leaves and the sound of the bouzouki, the country’s rich culture and history and its warm hearted...
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Celia has sadly gone too…

Posted by on Jun 10, 2007 in updates | 6 comments Celia and Sue were the best and worst of friends, they were drinking buddies. Celia told me when we visited Sue in hospital that if Sue died, she would soon follow. And now she has. Only I had no idea it would happen so soon. Celia was quite rightly given a lengthy driving ban earlier this year after being caught drink-driving one morning while collecting Sue’s clothes to take to a...
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The missing – Lee Sheppard

Posted by on Jun 10, 2007 in updates | 2 comments Lee Sheppard has a beautiful son he has never seen who was born after he  ”vanished into thin air” four years ago, aged 26. The New Zealand rugby player had been at work on a late shift in Cricklewood, London during a snow storm in January 2003 and had only hours before been told the great news that he was going to becoming a dad. According to this...
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MPs and blogging

Posted by on Jun 8, 2007 in updates | 29 comments I shall be contacting all our MPs who are blogging shortly and questioning them about the reasons why they started and their personal experiences, if thy feel it has helped improve two-way communication. I’m also interested to know whether they feel it could mean the end of political spin. It is a research project I have chosen for my CIPR diploma in Public Relations. I wondered if you...
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Cambridge students hope to top charts with Facebook song

Posted by on Jun 8, 2007 in updates | 9 comments Some of the best of Britain’s brains are hoping to make No 1 with this song. And they stand a good chance of breaking into the charts if all goes according to plan. Cambridge University students took a break from their arduous dissertations to record the “On the Facebook” song. It is a fun song describing their student lives and, according to Facebook, has now been...
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The missing – Stephanie Condon

Posted by on Jun 8, 2007 in updates | 3 comments Stephanie Condon was babysitting two toddlers at her cousin’s house in Myrtle Creek, Oregon in October 1998 when she was last seen aged 14. Her family thinks it is highly unlikely that the honors student ran away and police also suspect foul play. A man who was 28 at the time admitted he had visited Stephanie the night she disappeared, but denies abducting or harming her. His vehicle...
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Boats and blogging

Posted by on Jun 7, 2007 in updates | 6 comments Heading down to London shortly to meet up with the UK members of MyRagan, a social networking group for communicators. I’m going with Geoff and look forward to seeing Neville Hobson again. The event comes at the end of a two day social media conference MyRagan has held with IABC and simply-communicate.com. We will be having drinks on the deck of a boat at the Hilton...
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G8 must not renege on AIDS

Posted by on Jun 7, 2007 in Uncategorized | 6 comments Global trends of AIDS I hope Tony Blair and other world leaders do all  in their power to continue with their commitment to helping countries stricken by AIDS. There are fears that they could renege on the G8 countries agreement for treating AIDS made two years ago.. The alarm has been raised by the UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka,...
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Katie’s dramatic exit

Posted by on Jun 7, 2007 in updates | 11 comments Katie had no choice but to stand down last night after confessing that she could not swear to relocate if offered Sir Alan’s £100,000 job. Surely that should have been a pre-requisite of being selected for The Apprentice, otherwise it’s pretty pointless taking part. Was she really interested in the job, or simply looking for fame, as so many think? I remember a very promising...
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The missing – Luke Durbin

Posted by on Jun 7, 2007 in updates | 2 comments Luke Durbin is a local lad who went missing a year ago. His disappearance has had considerable media and internet coverage thanks to an excellent campaign to keep his profile raised. Luke, from Woodbridge in Suffolk, was 19 when he vanished in the early hours of 12 May, 2006 following a night out with friends at the Zest nightclub in Ipswich. His disappearance was totally out of...
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Mercury, barometers and daft EU law

Posted by on Jun 6, 2007 in updates | 14 comments Robert Sturdy MEP tried his best to ensure that new laws banning the use of mercury in new barometers did not go through. But unfortunately, common sense did not prevail. The ban will also apply to thermometers and blood pressure gauges. If there was any real concern that the miniscule amounts of mercury were harmful to health and the environment, then Robert would have been the first...
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UK political bloggers head for USA

Posted by on Jun 6, 2007 in updates | 5 comments I would love to go on a trip like this to the USA for political bloggers. I thought it was all so interesting that I have published the article in full. If ConservativeHome need a female blogger to help advise during the trip to Australia, I could check my diary….. Bloggers behind two of the UK’s most popular political websites are to travel to the US to learn...
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Recycling – New York style

Posted by on Jun 6, 2007 in updates | 7 comments You would probably imagine that New York City with its dense 8.2 million population and towering apartment blocks would struggle to cope with recycling. So how does it compare to London and its 7.6 million residents? Sharon Fisher, a Recycling Coordinator, says the state is averaging around 32%. In London, figures published last year showed our capital city had a recycling rate of 17.7%...
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James’ mystery leading lady

Posted by on Jun 6, 2007 in updates | 2 comments My son James is filming again today, we had a 5am start so he could get to the studio in Stoke Newington, which is recording a new BBC series of Love Soup. He has his first speaking part too in a professional role. He will be filmed coming out of the cinema with another lad when they see the film’s leading lady in the foyer and brashly ask her to autograph their chests....
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The missing – Trenton Duckett

Posted by on Jun 6, 2007 in updates | 1 comment Two-year-old Trenton Duckett disappeared from his cot where he was sleeping at home in Leesburg, Florida last August. His 21-year-old mother Melinda committed suicide two weeks later, apparently following a TV interview with Nancy Grace, a controversial former prosecutor. Officials said there was not enough evidence to lead to his mother and nine months later, the trail has gone cold, with no...
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