Good luck Wasps

Posted by on May 31, 2008 in updates | 11 comments I’ve twice seen Wasps play in championship finals – and they won both nail biting games with their last try. It was so dramatic and exciting. We support them as a family because a former Wasps player from Ely was one of the founders of the local rugby club where both my sons played. (sorry, I can’t remember his name). Their team share the same waspy black and gold colours. My...
read more

Charlie Whelan and Tory media bias

Posted by on May 31, 2008 in updates | 14 comments Charlie Whelan, Gordon Brown’s former spin doctor, writes a r egular column in PR Week where he champions the Labour  government. And he continues to massage Brown’s poorly deflated ego. According to Whelan’s latest column, Labour did "slightly better" than expected in the recent Crew by-election. How much worse could a 17.6% swing against them be? He unbelievably...
read more

Do you believe in spiritual encounters?

Posted by on May 30, 2008 in updates | 14 comments My mother Loula visited last weekend, still very sad and lonely after the death of my father almost six years ago. I always try  to pamper her and make her feel happy during these visits. On the Saturday afternoon, we popped into a local garden centre and were swinging on a hammock in the showroom when I noticed a grey-faced woman walking by with a wonderful colourful collection of cottage...
read more

Planning my dream kitchen

Posted by on May 28, 2008 in updates | 29 comments With cupboard doors almost swinging from the hinges, it’s time for a kitchen refit. The first since our house was built more than 20 years ago. In fact eight years ago, the cupboard doors were painted by my husband to smarten them up and give them a facelift and they featured in a local newspaper article on stylish homes! But they are now chipped and way past their sell by date. The thing...
read more

So thrilled for Welshcakes and James

Posted by on May 27, 2008 in updates | 13 comments It’s wonderful when new friendships develop thanks to blogging, particularly across continents and different divides. I was thrilled to read Welshcakes‘ latest post from Sicily telling us that James was visiting her from the Russian Federation. Simi has been sniffing him out cautiously and is anxious about losing her chair. I think we can sense the mood of the moment by James’...
read more

Is there life on Mars?

Posted by on May 27, 2008 in updates | 4 comments The NASA spacecraft Phoenix has sent back historic first pictures of an unexplored region of Mars after its 10 month journey there. The lander is equipped with a robotic arm to dig for water-ice thought to be buried beneath the surface following its 680 mile journey from Earth. It really is a sensational achievement. So tell me, do you believe there is life on Mars? Or has been? It’s...
read more

Booking a teenage treat

Posted by on May 24, 2008 in updates | 11 comments I’d like to book some tickets for a West End show for the family just before David heads off to uni later this year (sob, sob). Wickid has been recommended, but I’m not sure if it is too girly. I know my husband and I will enjoy Jersey Boys, but would our sons? Can anyone recommend a show for teenage boys which parents will enjoy too? We do consider ourselves hip. Is that an...
read more

Labour’s humiliating defeat

Posted by on May 23, 2008 in Uncategorized | 10 comments Labour really screwed up with its “Tory toff” campaign in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. You don’t get much “posher” than Eton-educated Boris and if Londoners think he is the man to run their fine city, then Labour should have learned a lesson from this. It should have been fresh on their minds. Because Labour doesn’t listen and learn, Conservative...
read more

Chairing my first Headway meeting

Posted by on May 22, 2008 in updates | 9 comments I was asked to chair last night’s meeting of Headway Cambridgeshire Trustees. Regular readers of my blog will know about my fear of public speaking, so it was a tremendous personal achievement for me. I won’t say I was brilliant, but I managed to steer the meeting through without any hiccups. I think my previous experience in this role when the Archbishop of York spoke in Cambridge...
read more

Our future green-fingered generation

Posted by on May 21, 2008 in updates | 10 comments I wish I had found time in my diary this week to book tickets for the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I came back brimming with ideas and wishing my garden was much bigger from my previous visit. All credit to the organisers  for embracing the social media by using blogs and webcams to reach out to their horticultural loving audiences. It is also using interactive TV to bring the show alive to...
read more

Men are traumatised by abortion too

Posted by on May 20, 2008 in updates | 3 comments Whatever the outcome of today’s debate and vote on whether to cut the 24-week upper limit for abortions to 20 weeks or less, what’s clear is that it is an emotive subject that traumatises men too. During a radio discussion on abortions this morning, when men were invited to describe how it had affected them, they spoke with emotion about the grief and loss they felt. However many...
read more

Ask sufferers of Alzheimer’s about new research

Posted by on May 19, 2008 in Alzheimer's | 8 comments New hybrid embryo laws could allow scientists to carry out controversial stem cell research using hybrid human-animal embryos in the hope that it will speed up treatment for cancer and conditions such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and Motor Neurone Disease. MPs are to vote over the next couple of days on a series of  reforms to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill which are...
read more

Four funerals and a wedding

Posted by on May 18, 2008 in updates | 8 comments I wish it had been the other way round, Four Weddings and A Funeral, but tomorrow will be the fourth funeral of a dear friend in 16 months. They far outnumber the wedding I have to look forward to in three weeks. I’ve written here about losing Sue, Celia and then Chris last month. And now John has died, a guitar loving fellow hack who was warm and witty, intelligent and kind, devoted to his...
read more

I’m in such an excited whirl!!!

Posted by on May 16, 2008 in updates | 20 comments I’ve had a fantastic week and am in such an excited whirl right now, I wish you could see me. I signed a PR contract with a new client at the beginning of the week to write about their pioneering plant breeding research projects. My work with them so far has received very positive media coverage, and at a national level too. And that makes me feel terrific because I am very dedicated and...
read more

Mathematics – an education blackhole

Posted by on May 14, 2008 in updates | 20 comments When I went to my younger son’s parents evening the other day, the longest queue was to see the maths teacher. The reason was because she had to explain changes in the curriculum which are certainly not going to benefit James, and others like him. Up until last year, maths GCSE was taught at three levels – higher, intermediate and foundation. My eldest son David passed the...
read more

No more L plates

Posted by on May 13, 2008 in updates | 12 comments David can now throw out his L plates having passed his driving test today. I was thrilled for him because I felt he deserved to pass, that he was both confident and considerate on the road. We had arranged to meet for lunch in Cambridge anyway, so it was great to make it a celebratory event at Nandos, one of his favourite restaurants, despite my concerns about where they source their chickens...
read more

Which mother do you feel sorry for?

Posted by on May 13, 2008 in updates | 12 comments After Margaret Mizen’s truly selfless words following the murder of her 16-year-old son Jimmy, which mother do you feel sorry for? Jimmy, a devout Roman Catholic, was slashed across the neck with a broken glass dish in a bakery in south-east London by a man in his 20s who had unsuccessfully tried to goad him and his 18 year old brother Harry into a fight on Saturday morning. Jimmy’s...
read more

Me and my compass

Posted by on May 10, 2008 in updates | 19 comments I’m planning to learn how to read a compass this weekend. It is something I have always wanted to do, so I have booked a session with my local ramblers group. It’s being held on the grounds of the very gracious Wimpole Hall tomorrow. Doe this this mean I will no longer need to use my sat nav in the car? Update: Sunday, 11 May: The walk was stunningly beautiful, and yes, I also...
read more

Actor Simon MacCorkindale to visit Headway

Posted by on May 9, 2008 in updates | 4 comments   I was thrilled to learn today that dishy actor Simon MacCorkindale is to visit Headway Cambridgeshire and will pass on some tips to brain injury survivors about remembering lines and overcoming nerves. Meeting the star of stage and screen will make their day. It’s fantastic that Simon is taking time out from his hectic schedule to help them. And I did not realise that he was born in...
read more

The missing- Amy Fitzpatrick

Posted by on May 9, 2008 in updates | 10 comments The uncle of a missing teenager who vanished from her home in the Costa del Sol on New Year’s Day has asked me to highlight her case. The stepfather of 15-year-old Amy Fitzpatrick is offering a “substantial” reward for information about her disappearance. Four months on, there is still no news about what happened to Amy, who is from Dublin, despite extensive searches using a...
read more

New online staff blacklist

Posted by on May 8, 2008 in updates | 11 comments Staff accused of theft or damage at their workplace are to be named and shamed on a new database which is due to be launched later this month. It could mean they find it impossible to find future employment. What is shocking about this is that they can be named and shamed regardless of whether they have been convicted of any crime –and bosses can access it when vetting potential...
read more

One by one, only the good die young…

Posted by on May 6, 2008 in updates | 14 comments It was six years ago this August that two angelic 10-year-old girls Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman were brutally murdered in Soham, a village close to where I live. They were killed by Ian Huntley, a trusted caretaker at Soham Village College, an excellent secondary school which my youngest son James attends. He is in Year 10. Both girls would have been Year 11. The loving memory of the girls...
read more

Congratulations Boris!

Posted by on May 3, 2008 in updates | 18 comments Why did so many leading PR agencies fail to accurately grasp the discontented mood of Londoners and predict that Boris Johnson would win the London Mayoralty contest? In an article for PR Week, only three out of 10 top agencies stated that they felt Boris stood a chance of winning. They were Bell Pottinger, Hanover Communications and DLA Piper. The remaining seven predicted that Ken would retain...
read more

Brown’s Black Friday

Posted by on May 2, 2008 in updates | 15 comments All is quiet over at LabourHome. At 11.20 am, nobody had said a word yet about their sensational defeat yesterday, their last post still urges voters to back Ken. It’s tired and weary, lacklustre and defeatist. I wonder what they will say about Labour’s worst local council results in 40 years. Most devastatingly for them, the party has fallen into third place nationally with 24% of...
read more

Good luck Boris

Posted by on May 1, 2008 in updates | 4 comments Good luck Boris, it won’t be long before London is blue. Let’s hope Conservatives can win in Cambridge too where they do not have one seat, the city council is controlled by Lib Dems (28) followed by Labour...
read more