I’ve never heard anyone go all gooey-eyed and say, ‘oh, I’d really love a teenager. They’re so cute, all those empty cups in their rooms, the piles of dirty clothes, the 3am phone calls …’ Just as well, when you have a baby, that the teenage years are a long, long way away. By then, …
Can you believe I made this glove yesterday? All right, it’s not exactly finished, and yes, it’s one short of a pair, but I’m pretty proud nonetheless. Look at the lacy bits! It’s meant to be a surprise for Child One, whose hands go purple when she’s playing the piano. Admittedly, the heating is not …
Hmm, just read an enormous article in the Observer about YouTube video bloggers. Apparently they are now all the rage and becoming uber-famous. One of them only started in December and already has ten gazillion regular viewers and advertisers coming out of his ears. I’m afraid I have to admit, ignobly and shamingly, that these …
Snowing again! When am I ever going to be able to plant anything? Or turn off the heating? Obviously, I’m not in the dire straits of those poor farmers digging frozen lambs out of drifts, but still …. grrr ….
I had a terrifying moment, watching the Eddie Mair interview with Boris Johnson, when it struck me that big blond Boris has almost reached a sort of Churchillian level of public recognition and affection. Then, thank goodness, Mair put the boot in and we were reminded, in painful detail, of Boris’s inner moral vacuum. Lies, …
One thing has been looming very large in my life recently. In fact, it’s been overshadowing everything else. No, it’s not a horrible childhood memory, though I have many of those, or a present day niggle with anyone. It’s the damned blimmin massive tree right outside my front door. When we first moved in, a …
It’s official. The girls and I have declared this week Mary Berry Week. Having never heard of Mary Berry before the last series of the Great British Bake-Off (I know, I must have been on Mars while she wrote her first 69 cookbooks), I am now in serious awe of the 77-year-old scourge of the …
I remember when Child One was seven, Pope John Paul II died. We watched the news on the telly, and soon a whole line of cardinals was shown, introduced as the candidates to become the next pope. ‘But Mummy, there aren’t any ladies!’ remonstrated Child One. She was quite right, of course. There wasn’t a …
I feel so sorry for Child One. Here she is, at her brand new shiny school, and she scarcely has a moment to enjoy it – or anything else for that matter. She spent Saturday going round a university, and she was supposed to go to a gallery yesterday for her Art A level. She …
I can’t pretend to be surprised any more when surveys come out, like the BBC one the other day, showing minuscule numbers of women in so-called top jobs. True enough, the facts are stark, particularly when you see them in pie chart form – for the armed forces, the sliver of red showing women is …