That was the week that was?

Oil barons

I am just loving the return of Dallas!  During the 80's my friends and I revelled in it - wearing the shoulder pads and sporting fairly big hair!  Some of the original cast are in it - they are so old now it's almost painful to watch, but it would be nothing without them.

I do think, though, that JR might consider trimming his eyebrows! 





Tory barons?

Or perhaps not.  After last week's frivolities with poor Ed I expected something rather more rousing from David Cameron.  But it was not to be.  I found his speech to be bland and uninspiring.  Such a shame but in fact when you tell the truth it's bound to be much less interesting than rhetoric..  And DC does at least spell out how it is and even more depressingly how it's going to be.  I'm not entirely sure that's what we wanted to hear.

Witness the David and George show (thanks Paul)!  Lovely shorts David!


Nigellissima (is that how you spell it?)

Oh Nigella what will you come out with next?  It sounds to me as if you have eaten in probably expensive restaurants in Paris where those of us who know would never venture.  Perhaps you should try somewhere a bit more rural.  Where we live in a little village in the midi-Pyrenees our local restaurant provides a spectacular four-course meal at lunchtime from locally sourced food cooked in the traditional way handed down through generations. Absolutely no foamy sauces and only 15 euros per head.  Perhaps you should ask Jamie Oliver.  He liked it so much that he filmed there and cooked there!

Well she did say the French could only do bread and butter!  Mind you, I'm being kind; this is what French chef J-C Noveli had to say:

"Having witnessed her for the last 30 years of my life, it's rather amazing for someone who has looked well over 60 for more than two thirds of her life from behind, and who has scavenged a big part of her starting life on mostly amazing French basic cooking," he told The Times.

Well!!

Where do I start

Oh dear Mr Miliband I'm afraid (in my opinion) you have a bit of a pratt of yourself.  First - 'one nation'. - you did the phrase to death and I would imagine poor old Disraeli was spinning in his grave, not least at the notion that perhaps you may not have been using the idea in the right way.  In fact, at one point I understood you to be saying that we are a nation divided in the form of people v the banks! I'm pretty sure Disraeli didn't mean that!  By the way, Disraeli was a Conservative (or a Tory as they were known!).  In fact, I think you were using Tony Blair as your inspiration as he too used the 'one nation' idea. I don't suppose either of you gave gave dear old Benjamin a thought.  In fact,  John Prescott apparently doesn't know who he was!

Second - you were proud to tell us all that in contrast to David Cameron's Eton education you were educated in a comprehensive school.  Well, that does not surprise me in the least.  What you failed to mention, when talking of your parents, was that your father was one of the 20th century's most famous Marxist sociologists - a contemporary of Eric Hobsbawm who died this week.  There is no way your father would have considered public school education for his sons!

Anyway, that's what  I thought of your speech generally -  there is much else I could say but it would just go on too long - rather like your speech!

er................do you geddit?











Too little too late
It's a pity that the revelations about Jimmy Saville have come out after his death both for the alleged victims and for himself . There can be no justice for the former and no chance for self-defence for the latter. It is sad when a popular figure is revealed as possibly being somebody so different from what we thought.

 

Autumn days

We seem to be lighting a fire everyday now even though it is sunny and reasonably warm in the middle of the day.  A friend arrived this morning in a coat and scarf saying she felt stupid because it was actually quite warm outside (she is English).  Maybe because August was so hot (42 deg at its hottest) that our blood has thinned!  The French don't seem to think it strange - it's Autumn after all!

At last!

I've been trying to do this since I came back from Spain last week but have had all sorts of  tech problems but I hope it's OK now!.

Spain was, as usual, fantastic. Thanks to C & C and all our lovely friends for making it such a fun time.

Definitely not the X factor!

What has he done with his hair?    Is it a wig?  Is it a transplant? No its a ...................err?
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Random Jottings

I love this photo sent to me by my daughter in an e-mail. For those of you who don't know it is a display of coffee pods in the in the Nespresso World shop near where she works in London. For an addict of coffee like me it looks like a dream world! I hope I can get there one day.

 

 

The nature of female friendship

 

 A couple of days ago I read an article by Anne Chisholm who is a biographer and critic,  in which   she lamented  the fact that the release of the letters from Iris Murdoch to her friend the philosopher Philippa Foot had been greeted by the media with a range of sensationalised headlines claiming that the 60 year friendship between them was in fact a lesbian relationship.  The main culprit was of course the Daily Mail.  It is quite obvious from the letters that Iris and Philippa were very close friends, but,as Anne Chisholm  points out, there is absolutely no evidence that it was a physical relationship except for one brief episode where both women clearly decided it was not what they wanted.  The letters often speak of their love for one another. This  in no way indicates that there is is a physical relationship and I do not know what it is that prompts this sort of speculation  other than that normal ways that newspapers finds to sell themselves.  Speaking from my own experience I have a very close friend myself. She been my soul mate for nearly 30 years and I love her dearly. I now live abroad and she remains in the UK .  When we speak or write to each other we always at our conversations or cards and letters with the words I love you.I am happily married and have been for 37 years and she is happily married.  Nobody finds our behaviour strange! I must point out that I am in no way comparing myself with minds as brilliant as Murdoch and Foot! I merely wished to refute the suggestion that female friendship must always of a lesbian  nature.  

 

Iris

                                                                                           Philippa

 

 

If anyone wants to read the article it can be found at

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/06/iris-murdoch-enduring-love-affa

 

 

Kitchen cabinet?

I am aware that I have not dealt with the Cabinet reshuffle carried out by our dear Prime Minister last week.  The reason for this is that I found it so incredibly uninteresting that I had nothing actually to say about it.   The only remotely interesting  thing was the dismissal of Justine Greening as Transport secretary as it will be interesting to see now if we finally get a third runway at Heathrow.

 

 

 

 

To believe or not to believe-that is indeed the question!

There was an article in the Guardian yesterday  prompted by (I am supposing )the sign on the side of the so-called "atheist bus ". This is the vehicle for a campaign being run by the British Humanist Association, an organisation which purports to represent "non-religious people in the UK who live their lives with integrity" (official website of the atheist campaign.org). The article is a complex argument in defence of faith and too detailed for me to analyse here. Suffice to say, that for me the most relevant part was the authors's experience in a cafe with a cappuccino and Mozart's clarinet concerto! Here he talks about the emotions he experienced whilst listening to the music . He  equates these emotions with his faith, or rather, with his beliefs.  I have to admit that I myself have been affected by music but I usually feel this as a spiritual experience rather than anything to do with religion.

This article is certainly worth a read whether you are "religious" or not.  Personally, I do not regard myself as such but neither do I define myself as "atheist". My feelings about religion are complex and do not need to be broadcast here. My only reason for mentioning this article is the drawing of attention to this so-called campaign by the BHA and the comments made in the article about it with which I entirely agree.

To read the article go to the Guardian website and search for Francis Spufford.

 Here we go again!

 Well they're back.  Barely had Cameron and co had time to brush the sand from between their toes  and the press were on them.Sunday morning and the papers already had it in for poor Nick Clegg, George Osborne,David Cameron and the rest.  With undisguised glee Andrew Marr (don't get me wrong I love Andrew Marr) showed the front pages of the newspapers with their usual mix of speculation and downright invention !  Today we have a Cabinet reshuffle - I wait with bated breath! More on this tomorrow.........

 

Back for good

Right! This time I am back for good.

I must start with Prince Harry..  Let me first make my own position clear - I absolutely love him!  That probably makes me a little biased but I cannot see how publishing pictures of him naked can.possibly be in any way in the public interest.  It certainly doesn't interest me what he does in private - and in line with my truly liberal belief in freedom from harm his antics didn't harm anyone that I could see.  My advice to him would be choose your friends more carefully in future because whoever sold those pictures was clearly no friend!

The Romney/Eastwood show?

From multimillionaire Mitt Romney trying to convince American voters that he understands their lives to a sadly now ancient Clint Eastwood and his empty chair I didn't know whether to laugh or groan and cringe - I'm afraid I gave in to the laughter.  The only winner here was surely Obama!

!!!!!!!!!

I can't wait to watch Andrew Marr tomorrow!

Watch out Ed!

I had to suspend this blog in November last year for various reasons but it's back! I have to start with the dear old Archbishop of Canterbury and his article in The New Statesman. I find Dr. Williams slightly obscure in style but there was logic in his argument. My thought was this;are we now to look to the Church for effective opposition? I was pleased to hear Times sketch writer Ann Trenneman echo this thought on Andrew Marr's show this morning! come on Ed - step it up !!