A sober new year

Posted by on Dec 31, 2007 in updates | 26 comments I have volunteered to drive my husband Stephen and our friends this evening, and don’t mind one jot that it means having a sober new year. I just wish there were more interesting non-alcoholic drinks available in bars. I’m not one for yucky Britvic fruit juices, they are so tasteless, and mineral water is fine – up to a point. One of my favourite non-alcoholic tipples is soda...
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Making a difference in 2008

Posted by on Dec 31, 2007 in updates | 2 comments What a great way to start the new year, by really making a difference to the lives of others, knowing your actions will help them live better lives. I’m particularly referring to Prof Wayne Powell, (pic) CEO of the National Institute of Agricultural Botany in Cambridge, who will shortly be heading for Moldova – the poorest country in Europe – to set up an agricultural aid...
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Merry Christmas

Posted by on Dec 22, 2007 in updates | 31 comments Merry Christmas wishes to you all. For the first time ever, my husband’s family and mine will all be together on Christmas Day. I always wonder if it will be the last Christmas we share with our ailing grandparents, I love hearing their stories of old when so little meant so much at Christmas. The important thing is being together, and showing some tolerance. I send you my love and warm...
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How do families of missing children survive Christmas?

Posted by on Dec 21, 2007 in updates | 8 comments How do families with missing children  survive the festive season? How will the McCanns cope during their first Christmas without Madeleine. Their two-year-old gorgeous twins will no doubt be excited, and have even asked if Santa will bring for their sister back. Incredibly, the McCanns have been overwhelmed with gifts from around the world for their missing daughter. They have described...
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Tackling demand for prostitution

Posted by on Dec 21, 2007 in updates | 11 comments A charity I am promoting which aims to abolish sex trafficking has praised Harriet Harman for her bravery in considering a ban on prostitution. I agree. It is an issue which has been badly fudged in the past. Dr Carrie Pemberton, founder and CEO of CHASTE (Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking across Europe) firmly believes it is the question of demand that should be addressed, that paid-for-sex is...
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What’s on your Christmas book list?

Posted by on Dec 20, 2007 in updates | 15 comments I am not making a Christmas book list this year as I still haven’t got round to reading so many books that I bought over the last few months. And apologies for not updating the books listed on my blog, particularly as I know readers have checked them out and bought the titles on my recommendation. At the moment, I am very much enjoying Eurydice Street, by Sofka Zinovieff. It has won many...
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Who’s Who in Cambridge

Posted by on Dec 19, 2007 in updates | 7 comments If you don’t receive a New Year’s Honour this year, how about trying to get included in the next bumper volume of Who’s Who? It could be the next best thing. There are 38 new entries from Cambridge in the latest edition, mainly academics from the University. The Cambridge entry list was among the highest produced by a city or town outside London and more than Birmingham,...
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Have you read the Climate Change Minister’s blog?

Posted by on Dec 18, 2007 in updates | 16 comments Do you know who our Minister for Climate Change is?  He is Phil Woolas. Phil who, you might be asking? This is a man with one of the hottest jobs in government right now. His responsibilities also include flooding, as well as GMOs, chemicals, pesticides and radioactive waste. He wrote a Bali diary from the recent climate change talks and  plans to continue writing his blog through to...
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Capello and his first English challenge

Posted by on Dec 18, 2007 in updates | 6 comments I’m sure Welshcakes would be delighted to help England’s newly crowned Italian football manager Fabio Capello learn English. She is teaching it to young Italians in Sicily – but believes Capello’s linguistic dream is impossible to achieve: “All I can say is that I’d love to know who his English tutor will be, for anyone who has taught or learned a foreign...
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A day of festive fun – and work

Posted by on Dec 17, 2007 in updates | 8 comments I have one humdinger of a day. Firstly, I shall be wearing my Headway hat today as I join its Cambridgeshire members as a helper in my role as trustee on their annual panto trip to The Arts Theatre, Cambridge to see Cinderella. Headway is particularly thrilled and excited that Time Lord Dr Who, played by David Tennant who is Patron of Headway Essex, will be making a BBC Christmas appeal on their...
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Do Blair and tennis go together?

Posted by on Dec 17, 2007 in Uncategorized | 3 comments You have to wonder if it is the same Tony Blair. Our premier of old whose government did nothing to save school playing fields from being sold off and promote their use for health and fitness, is now advocating tennis as a sport which notherners should participate in.  The project is, in fact, named after him, as if to say that Blair and tennis are established partners. The Tony Blair...
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Who is Zineta, my new mystery friend?

Posted by on Dec 14, 2007 in updates | 7 comments As I sit in my digitally equipped office and listen to the village  school children singing their Christmas carols outside, a cosy fire roaring in the room next door, I pause to think about my new friend Zineta, and the kind of life she is having in Bosnia. Zineta Plecan has been paired with me through Women for Women International and their sponsorship scheme. It means I am paying around...
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Do our kids have the same hunger to succeed?

Posted by on Dec 13, 2007 in updates | 23 comments Three times in the last hour I have walked into my son David’s bedroom where he was supposed to be deeply engrossed in his studies only to find him feverishly excited about a computer game. This is not an isolated incident, it is a very common occurrence. He needs to study and get good A’level passes for his university admission next year. With this in mind, I send my hearty...
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The "forgotten hostages", asking for the impossible

Posted by on Dec 13, 2007 in Uncategorized | 3 comments I fear for the safety of our British hostages in Iraq following their evil captors’ impossible demands for Britain to pull out of Iraq. We know that this is not going to happen. If the 10 day deadline started from the date when Jason’s appeal was broadcast, then it is due to expire tomorrow. This kidnapping of the Britons snatched six months ago has been unlike any other in Iraq as...
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Hi Mike (oops Ian). And my name is not Ethel!

Posted by on Dec 12, 2007 in updates | 8 comments I wondered why Mike walked silently by when I spoke to him at a Christmas bash last week – I called out the wrong name, I should have said Ian! I’m normally good with names, unlike Bryan Appleyard, who becomes readily fixated by ties, agonised expressions, architectural details, stony silences, dentistry, canapes, shoes, carpets – anything, in fact, but words and names. My...
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The undead – Cambridge Kate’s story

Posted by on Dec 12, 2007 in updates | 8 comments This is Kate’s tragic story, she is one of our members of Headway Cambridgeshire, the charity which I support as a trustee and their press officer. It has been featured in The Sunday Times and highlights the incredible difficulties and decisions surrounding patients who are in a “vegetative state”. Up to 12,000 people under 40 in this country suffer traumatic brain injury every...
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Hoping David will get the all clear today

Posted by on Dec 11, 2007 in updates | 16 comments David and I are heading for Great Ormond Street Hospital again today and I am confident he will finally be discharged following a very painful four years of suffering from chronic osteomyelitis. David’s difficulty was that he was not a text book case and it proved baffling for the medical profession. Since coming off his medication over the last couple of months, the pain and swelling in...
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The missing – Bryan Dos Santos Gomes

Posted by on Dec 11, 2007 in updates | 1 comment One year ago, a tiny four-week-old baby, Bryan Dos Santos Gomes, was abducted from his mother’s arms at knifepoint by a woman they had stopped to help and has never been seen since. Bryan, then 28 days old, was abducted on the afternoon of Dec. 1, 2006, after his mother and a friend, Janice Duarte, got into the kidnapper’s Ford Explorer with their babies. They intended to direct the...
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How can boxing be called sport?

Posted by on Dec 10, 2007 in updates | 17 comments I was dismayed to see boxer Joe Calzaghe win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, with fellow boxer Ricky Hatton coming third. It’s nothing personal, but there is no way that I consider boxing a competitive sport, to me it is barbaric and nothing more than two grown men bashing each other up. What is the difference between this and two toddlers slogging it out in a playpen who...
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A visit to my final resting place

Posted by on Dec 10, 2007 in updates | 16 comments My father died five years ago and this is the headstone which has been made for him and was finally laid last Friday. It is made from red granite and is adorned with hand carved love hearts and angels. It was chosen by my mother and sister Rosalind, whose own home is decorated with hearts, roses and cupids. It is certainly one of the most elaborate new headstones in the graveyard. In fact, this...
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The broken heart of Maria Callas

Posted by on Dec 8, 2007 in updates | 14 comments It is 30 years since the great Greek diva Maria Callas died of a    broken heart after Onassis left her for his trophy wife, Jacqueline Kennedy. They were both married when they embarked on their sensational and doomed affair, yet yielded vigorously to their passions. They lived gripping and complicated lives which continues to fascinate. I only wish I had the money to buy some of...
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Robert Sturdy boycotts EU-African summit over Mugabe

Posted by on Dec 7, 2007 in updates | 4 comments I had a phone call from my MEP Robert Sturdy in Lisbon this afternoon telling me he had walked out of the EU-African summit because of Robert Mugabe’s unwelcome presence. Quite right too, and this is the press release we issued: ROBERT STURDY BOYCOTTS EU-AFRICAN SUMMIT Euro-MP Robert Sturdy has today walked out of the controversial EU-African summit in Portugal following the arrival of...
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My latest PR credentials

Posted by on Dec 7, 2007 in updates | 8 comments I was asked a few weeks ago whether I would object to my blog being monitored by PR Voices, which identifies the top 15 public relations stories and blogs of the day. I naturally agreed, and had the nicest shock of my life when they emailed me this week with an update which showed that yours truly was ranked at No 8. They are currently tracking over 205,688 blogs and in the last week alone,...
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Why do middle aged men go missing?

Posted by on Dec 6, 2007 in updates | 15 comments This post is dedicated to all middle aged men who have walked away from their families and routine way of life, who felt it was the only option. I’m particularly thinking of the bearded and highly respected Bernard Cook, whose family must be desperately hoping that he will show up too following publicity surrounding canoist John Darwin’s mysterious reappearance, that it will trigger a...
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An essential wardrobe guide

Posted by on Dec 5, 2007 in updates | 24 comments Here is a list of 30 essential items every women is recommended to have in her wardrobe to see her through the Christmas season, according to today’s Times. The mascara and LBD are at the top of my list – plus some stilettos instead of the recommended conventional court shoes which I find dull and unflattering. What catches your eye here? Do you have a few recommendations to add? I...
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