Juno

This is Juno. He is 8 weeks old and lives in London. I can't wait to go and see him.

Renaming of Southampton airport

R.J.Mitchell, the designer of the Spitfire aircraft is to be honoured, as Southampton want to rename its airport after him. At least Southampton HAS an airport they can name after him [the firm that designed the aircraft was based in Southampton], unlike his birthplace of Stoke on Trent - all they can do is put up a flying man statue on the outskirts, which hardly anybody sees, and isn't really in a public friendly place [a busy traffic light junction near the station]

Airport rename to honour Spitfire

Ask your pharmacist - where did you qualify?

De Montfort University is at the centre of a row over standards on their Pharmacy course, as it emerges that they upped the marks of students to prevent too many failing. Although they are now on 'probation' according to the RPS, I still wouldn't want my pharmacist to have been one of their students who were upgraded to avoid too many failing. Perhaps the course should look at their admissions criteria and check that they take motivated students in the first place, rather than fudge the issue further down the line

Failing students given pass marks

An alternative to football during the World Cup

The Swiss tourist board has suggested that bored football wives might like to come to Switzerland and admire the prime Swiss beefcake while their husbands are watching the football. What an imaginative twist to the usual chocolate, alps, cuckoo clocks and cowbells!

Swiss hunks woo World Cup widows

Bush puts his foot in it - again

President Hu of China is currently visiting the USA. This afternoon, the BBC took great delight in reporting that he had been welcomed with the anthem of the Republic of China. OOPS!!! They should have said the People's Republic of China - the Republic of China being Taiwan.

British Airways cuts the cost of flying

But only if you fly from Heathrow or Gatwick. Most of us live outside London, so to get the cheap fares we have to spend more to get to London in the first place, leaving us no real access to these much vaunted cheap flights.

BA slashes fares on Euro routes

Danger at the abbatoir

People think being a vet is a nice easy job - as a careers adviser I could always tell when a vet programme was on TV by the numbers of youngsters wanting to be a vet and work [they really meant play] with animals. It isn't just about dealing with fluffy kittens and cute puppies - animals who are sick won't cooperate with you; they bite, spit, scratch and shit all over you- but those vets who deal with farm animals really do have to face danger every day. Today, a vet was killed when a cow going for slaughter decided to run amok in the yard. Think about that when you are tucking into your steak and chips. Meat comes from farm animals, who face a stressful death, and is it really worth it?

Vet killed by cow at abattoir

Bunny Wars

Easter bunnies. Chocolate easter bunnies. Yummy yummy. We all know that the Easter bunny comes and gives all the good children chocolate eggs at Easter, and recently in the UK, there has been an increase in the number of golden chocolate bunnies sold. You know the ones - with the dinky red ribbon and bell. Well, Lindt, the huge chocolate conglomerate has taken the hump and says that only THEY are allowed to produce golden bunnies with a red ribbon - leaving a small Austrian firm who have made golden bunnnies with a red ribbon for 50 years, having to give theirs away. Surely, when you sell 60million bunnies a year, you can let a small firm sell theirs - most of us know what a Lindt bunny looks like, so if we choose to buy a Hauswirth one, we will doing so knowing it isn't a Lindt one! They don't just do bunnies either, in Paris last week, I saw Lindt eggs and bells, so we should expect to see them on sale here in the near future...

Row over Easter bunny turns sour

My role in life

Wandering around the shops after coffee while waiting to hear that the friend had arrived from London, Patrick found this teeshirt - luckily they all come in rather small in that shop so there is no chance I will ever have to wear it - but it really does sum up my role in his life - just as well he couldn't find one that said "S is for Sugarmummy", as I do act as his personal bank frequently. The things I do...

21

Patrick was 21 at the end of last week, so we met up for coffee before the friend came up from London. I had bought a painting for him last May at an exhibition, which had been put away for me since then - so it was nice at long last to see it again. I think he liked it - but it is very hard to tell with him, as he keeps his emotions so tightly reined in - but if he didn't, he was very polite about it. The jewellery from Paris was well received, as was a fig scented candle, and it was good to talk for a bit. He went out with his family for a wonderful meal that evening, so all in all he had a good day. Seems a LONG time since I was 21, but inside my head I still feel that age!

Paris

Paris in April - normally it is warm and spring-like - but like the UK, spring is late in Paris this year. There were some trees just coming into leaf, but the borders round the Senate were still bare of colour, and the wind was COLD! But it was fun. A very cultural trip this time, as I took my goddaughter to several exhibitions and museums, as last time we had concentrated on the sights. Wonderful. We also had lots of opportunities to sit and watch the world go by in the cafes - and I introduced her to the joys of Chocolat Viennoise...

Cooking dinner for 12 in a tiny kitchen 1.5m x 3m was a challenge - but I managed it - and all the food vanished, so even though the visitors were French, they didn't seem to mind British cooking! The evening was rounded off by performances on the piano, flute, Chinese flute, lute, and voice. Incredibly civilized - it would be great to repeat it at home, but my piano skills are BAD, and I haven't played a clarinet since I left school! I think I will stick to a CD instead.

Shopping was great as usual. The only down side was the shops I really wanted to visit are shut on a Monday in the Marais - I wanted to look for a necklace for Patrick to replace one he had broken - but luckily I found a little shop down a back alley in St Germaine and found him a necklace and a bracelet - which I decided to give him on his birthday, rather than when I saw him.

An early flight back to UK, plus a dash up to Leeds to collect Patrick was a hectic end to the trip. He had returned from skiing in the French Alps and wanted a lift home - so of course, I just do it. I know I am daft, but I can't say no to that boy...

Long time since last post

Yeah. Everything caught up with me - going back to work was as much as I could cope with, without staying up all night to catch up on my coursework, and then at the end of term I vanished off to Paris for a few days. Today is Easter Sunday, and I have actually been out for my first jog - my lungs are protesting like mad, and it seems a long haul to get fit again. But I will do it.