The X Factor – Jamie Archer – WOW

I’m sorry to say I just have to watch this programme.  I don’t like people being ridiculed especially when you know it’s all a set up anyway but I do love hearing the great singers.

It bought it home more when I read an article called “What happens at an X Factor audition?” by Genevieve Hassan, Entertainment reporter, BBC News.  She went through the gruelling audition process to see just what happens.

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Catwalk

Backstage at the Fashion Awards, the models were so nervous they were keeping their food down.   

Jack Dee Read more

Communication!

“My husband said he needed more space, so I locked him outside.”

Roseanne

Swan Song

I had the pleasure of going for a long walk with a friend yesterday around some lakes that aren’t too far from us.  It was a great day for walking, slightly windy, fresh and not too hot.  Just enough people about to make it not too lonely but not enough to have to fight for space on the path.  Amazingly there were quite a number of fishermen taking advantage too.

It was with a tinge of sadness that while enjoying the walk, we spotted a dead swan in the water.  We both felt that it needed to be reported especially as it was a swan of all birds, a most magnificent water bird.  Not far from the path we had chosen was a number for British Waterways.

I phoned them only to be told that I needed to talk to the RSPCA.  After being given the number and having to listen to ‘many’ options none of which seem to include dead birds, I chose one for ducks.  After having to listen to a pre-recorded message about finding ducks (bearing in mind I was on my mobile phone at the time) I tried again to get an operator.

I was then told that they didn’t deal with dead birds – I needed the council, but they didn’t have the number for the council the area covered!  My friend and I decided there was nothing we could do unless we found another number on any other notices.  We did find a Project Planning Officer number for the lakes and tried one last time to call them only to be told that the RSPCA normally dealt with it.  I asked the person on the end of the phone if she would like to try only to be told that if I couldn’t get anywhere neither would they.

We carried on, had some lunch and went home.  I then tried one last time and phoned the local council who put me through to a Park Ranger.  He was amazed at the number of people I’d been passed on to but at last agreed to take the details and would follow it up.

We wonder these days why the general public have an apathetic view to helping out  and after yesterdays mammoth attempt at trying to report a rather simple problem it’s no wonder.  When did life become so over complicated?

Pink Champagne and Apple Juice by Anne Brooke

I read this book a little while ago and I knew then I was going to love this book even before reading it.

My measure of a good read is how fast I get through it.  By that, if I’ve read it within a few days, it was because I couldn’t put it down.  Well, I’d read this book cover to cover in two days!  And I’ve re-read it since.

So why was it so good?  It has a brilliant mixture of humour, characters and a very different storyline. I was able to visualise all the characters, even down to how the buildings would look.

The storyline is essentially about Angie who flees from her very loving home to make her mark in the world.  She looks up her Uncle John who she hasn’t seen for many years and turns up unannounced.

Maybe Angie should have had some hints that all would not be as it seems, when she asks for directions and is met with ‘you want where?’.  Her first meeting with Uncle John is a memorable one and the story of why Uncle John has not been around for years unfolds with interesting reasons.

Mix this in with some suberb characters who either know or work for Uncle John and the entangled love interests that unfold within the story.

This book would make a fantastic Brit Film.  I thought it then and I still think it now.  Simon Pegg  and Nick Frost would be brilliant at turning this into a film and it’s a genre they haven’t yet covered.

But don’t just take my word for it.  Other people who have read this book have this to say:

“Splendidly raunchy and funny without being superficial,Pink Champagne & Apple Juice is full of wonderful larger then life characters that get up to things that are beyond your wildest fantasies!”

“The story is as sparkling as its title. I was gripped from the first page and had to know what the history was behind the mysterious Uncle John.”

Check out Anne’s own website for more details – www.annebrooke.com

Sex on Fire by Kings of Leon

I may be a little behind with this song, but I only heard it for the first time when being sung by Jamie Archer on  the X Factor (who sang it brilliantly).

Below are snippets of the album.

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