I missed it today. I never get anything very interesting in the post. Bills, junk mail, a load of baby catalogues I never managed to get off the mailing list for, plenty of “To The Householder” letters. If I’m lucky, a parcel containing something I probably shouldn’t have purchased. Even so, when the post hits [...]

[Read more →]

This morning, like most other mornings this week, the first thing I do after switching on the computer is to check Sky News to see if Madeleine has been found. I can’t say for sure why this case has affected me so much, I suspect (like so many parents who are constantly refreshing the news [...]

[Read more →]

It must be my week for receiving enticing and delicious packages in the mail. However, on this one I had some forewarning. A couple of weeks ago, I was sent an email asking if I would like to be sent a free Hotel Chocolat Signature Egg, in return for reviewing it here on the Prattle. [...]

[Read more →]

Oh, it was good to see Richard Hammond back on the set of Top Gear. He looks tired and gaunt but otherwise seems his normal chirpy, cheeky self. The Hamster is intact. It was quite impressive that Akra and I managed to watch Top Gear at all, actually. We rarely watch the telly, and the [...]

[Read more →]

What’s this? Join in! The thing that mystifies me most of all, out of all the conundrums that life regularly throws at me with abandon, is why … if it’s going to rain at all in a day … WHY do the heavens always open just around three o’clock in the afternoon? Don’t believe me? [...]

[Read more →]

This story about road tolls (Motorists ‘must pay for road use’) scares me. Since we moved from Croydon, we’ve gone from only needing one car for occasional use (at one point we didn’t even own a car) to here in Worcester running two cars pretty much all the time. Akra works a 45 minute drive [...]

[Read more →]

Well, I have loaded up a bowl of funsize chocolate in case we get any “visitors” this evening, although I shan’t be encouraging with doorlights or pumpkins. Hopefully we won’t get too many and I can scoff the remains later. I hate Halloween. It is not a tradition done well here in the UK. I [...]

[Read more →]

It seems that it is the season for serious celebrity accidents at the moment. First Steve Irwin‘s tragic encounter with a stingray while filming an underwater documentary and now Richard Hammond has been seriously injured (but fortunately not fatally) while performing a high speed stunt for BBC’s Top Gear. Dicing with death seems to be [...]

[Read more →]

Watching Return to Jamie’s School Dinners last night and reading in the news about the mothers who were taking orders for chips to get around their school’s healthy eating policy, I despair that the whole healthy eating thing is really fighting a losing battle. We’ve got it all wrong in this country. Totally wrong. It’s [...]

[Read more →]

I received an email from Friends Reunited today. Nothing of earth-shattering importance, just one of their monthly semi-personalised circulars used to remind you to check up on the site. The first sentence is: “How do you compare?” and goes on to ask “Have you ever wondered how your life compares to your old friends? What [...]

[Read more →]