Why are we in the EU?  Shouldn't the E stand for EQUALITY as much as European?

Apparently all 27 EU member nations will contribute to the EU part in saving the world from climatic melt-down.  However, The UK will be the largest contributor at £1.5 billion over 3 years, followed by France and Germany.  France and Germany - both of whom have larger economies than the UK - will pay £300 million less each - about £1.2 billion over three years.  Eastern European countries while protesting they're too poor to pay, have also made contributions although these 'contributions' are mostly merely symbolic.  There's promises of giving cash money and targets for cutting omissions which will obviously cost UK tax payers too.  And that's just considering the EU, there's loads of other countries making a huge impact on the state of the world, Russia, USA, Australia, Japan, China, India, I haven't a clue if they're all going to be so generous and generally kind to the planet.  I get the impression that Gordon Brown seems to be the most generous person on Earth.  Yeah, like we can afford in the middle of a recession, Big-Hearted Arthur that he is.

Rumour has it :

# 1   Rachel Uchitel club hostess, denies the affair

# 2   Jamie Grubbs reality show contestant  and cocktail waitress

# 3   Kalika Moquin club manager from Las Vegas, she would neither confirm nor deny the report

# 4   Cori Rist swimsuit model

# 5   Jamie Jungers former employee of Trashy Girls Lingerie

# 6   Mindy Lawton pancake house waitress

# 7   Holly Sampson former porn star, she has neither confirmed nor denied her affair with Woods.

# 8   Unidentified Alleged Mistress a former cocktail waitress from Orlando

# 9   Unidentified Alleged Mistress reported to be a “sexy” British TV presenter who was single at the time, but is now married

#10  Unidentified Alleged Mistress reported in a UK paper to be a “sex-addicted cougar.”

So that's 10 and still counting.  Of course we shouldn't believe what we read without real evidence.  This could be mass hysteria, like when Lady Di died di-dee-di-dee-di, sorry I can't say that without adding that.  Maybe after one woman was reported in the media, rightly or wrongly, to have been having an affair with Todger Woods, a seed was sown.  From which, a low murmur of agitation grew, then spread like mental wildfire, one after the other, women, prone to emotional outbursts, and susceptible to autosuggestion as they are, succumbed to the extreme sexual excitement.  The nympholepsic delirium craze built to a frenzy, multiplying like Swine Flu bacterium on a damp cloth.  This phenomena may reach pandemic levels, by next Tuesday I'll have had an affair with Woody.  He was at St Andrews for the British Open in 2005, I remember it well, he was pumped up and ecstatic after cuming first again in The British Open at the home of golf.  He picked me up in The Jigger Inn late on a Friday night, treated me to a catfish supper on the way back to his place, and that weekend we met three times a day at the Pitmilly West Lodge B & B.  We had little pet names for each other, I called him Easy Tiger, he called me Next.

If I had a golf ball for every time a big wild cat has roared at a cute little pussy, I'd have a lot of balls.  Am I the only person being so Finbarr Saunders over this?  Fnarr fnarr, warf warf, k-woo k-woo.

I think it's acceptable that I'll spend the next...months...from now till my Las Vegas wedding blogging about my Las Vegas wedding, if it becomes boring, I apologise already, but this is my most traditional, biggest and bestest wedding ever, and I'll damn well scream it from the rooftops and blog every little detail if I want to, this is MarilynsWorld.  So I have started my trousseau.  The slinky dressing gown and the nail polish are in the hope chest.  Trousseau is such a lovely word, French of course, from the Old French, diminutive of trousse, meaning bundle.  The possessions, such as clothing and linens, that a bride assembles for her marriage.  I'm preparing for the change in my marital status, accumulating the typically traditional bridal accessories, jewellery, lingerie, toiletries and makeup...plus bed linens and bath towels.  Scrap the last two, we've got enough bed linens and bath towels here at Starry Towers.  But, if I think I can get away with it, I'll bring some Bellagio towels back as a memento.  From Victorian times till today, the trousseau also has consisted of brand-new outfits to see a woman through her wedding, honeymoon, and newlywed days.  Heck, I've been doing that without even knowing it.  There's a load of stuff in the Walk-In I can move to the hope chest already.

Oftentimes the garments in a trousseau were hand-sewn by a mother, aunt, grandmother, or the girl herself, if skilled with a needle.  Wealthier families procured the skills of a professional seamstress to outfit the bride-to-be.  I don't think we need to stick to every little traditional detail.  The Mum hasn't made my clothes since I was a schoolgirl.  In primary school she made a distressingly large amount of my clothes.  I wasn't distressed bout that at the time, I was a child, I knew no better, but I'm sure as heck distressed bout it as an adult, and refuse to publish the pictures of my 5 year old self in the trouser suits.

The Scottish Government's flag-flying regulations state that The Saltire shall fly on all its buildings with a flagpole.  The Union Flag is also flown if the building has more than one flagpole.  The arrangements for the United Kingdom Government in Scotland are the opposite.  They fly the Union Flag, and will only fly the Saltire if there is more than one flagpole.  Prior to 2002, the Scottish Government followed the UK Government's flag days and would only fly the Union Flag on St Andrew's Day on these UK Government buildings in Scotland.  The regulations were updated to state that the Union Flag would be removed and replaced by the Saltire on these UK Government buildings within Scotland that have only one flagpole.

The British Army has dropped the Union Flag in their recruitment campaigns in Scotland instead preferring to portray only The Saltire.  So the British Army will hide their Union Jack and use the Saltire to appeal to the Scottish youth, portraying a Braveheart connection, to inspire our kids to put their young lives on the front line in Iraq or Afghanistan, but they won't fly The Saltire on top Edinburgh Castle...ever...they only fly the Union Jack on the main mast on the clock tower at Edinburgh Castle, relegating The Saltire to the smaller/lower flag pole of the Half Moon Battery.  Google ignored that when they made their Edinburgh Castle Logo showing only a Saltire.

While I'm on the subject of organisations abusing The Saltire, I'm extremely angry at Quantum Claims...on two counts.  "A champion who will fight for your claim and maximum compensation.  The first to offer the NO WIN, NO FEE service in Scotland. Who wins 98% of cases."  There seems precious little I can do to reverse the general direction the UK is going with the despicable Conditional Fee Arrangements (CFA's).  The No Win No Fee culture which appears to be turning everyone's heads.  National moral decline on the down and down.   A drain on our national resources that we can't afford.  That and the media in general, turning too many of us into brain-dead, winging, unreasonable, complaining, fast-buck, greedy bastards who seek fame and/or fortune by what-ever means.  The people who would take massive pay-outs by suing the NHS for minor mistakes, human-error type stuff, they're robbing their fellow tax-payers of millions.  Taking huge pay-outs from the NHS...where do they think that money is coming from?  The Bank Of The Cash Cow Infinitive Huge Amounts Of Dosh?  They are robbing their fellow tax paying human beings of health care.  The money that goes to them via their No Win No Fee claims comes at the expense of the rest of us.  So there's less money to go to the least dynamic and lower priority areas...the elderly usually, being old isn't glamorous, being old and suffering from dementia, is even less popular.  I use the word 'suffering' with a purpose, it is a suffering.  You can call it 'experiencing', 'having', a 'diagnosis', 'got dementia', 'have dementia', 'with dementia', you can say it whatever way you want...but I tend to think of it as 'suffering dementia'.  I've nursed enough dementia over the last 26 years to be qualified in my choice of terminology.

But however greedy and selfish the claimants, the biggest winners with the No Win No Fee are the lawyers as is explained by compensationculture.co.uk. 

And back to Quantum Claims.  How very dare they abuse The Saltire and The Highlands in their advertising images.  The TV ad makes me want to vomit, causes me to feel nauseous each and every time it comes on the TV. 

Quantum Claims and many many others, it's a thriving growth industry...make massive and totally amoral fortunes from representing these cases...thanks to the government.  But then our MPs are always looking to make their own fortunes from us tax payers.  It's sick, the UK is a sick nation, when a country is ruled and run by bankers, lawyers, managers and MPs who are all being permitted to run riot...who or what can save us?

The Boy and I watched Watchmen this evening.  Ups and downs, got a bit mad, ultimately works out OK, loads of great visuals and characters you like, just a bit convoluted and drawn out getting there.  So long and drawn out The Boy got off his chair, lay on the fireside rug and fell asleep about 10 minutes before it ended...shame.  There was one scene that will stay with me forever, the lurve scene with Dan and Laurie when they eventually connect and get it on.  It’s so striking it made both, The Boy and me sit up, and we shared a family history moment.  Years ago, when he was but a boy, boy with a lower case b, I’d told him bout when I was but a girl, Star with a lower case s.  If a sex scene of any kind, good ones and bad, came on the telly, The Mum would tell The Dad, ‘turn that over’.  The Dad would have a choice of 2, then 3 other channels to turn that over to.

With Watchmen, Dan and Laurie, when it happened, and we knew it would at some point, we both, smiling then laughing, said...turn that over!  The song for that scene, was the best of what was a brilliant soundtrack that I will purchase on CD.  I love the song Hallelujah, never could make my mind up before on what's the best version, but now I know, it's old suicide manual himself,  Leonard Cohen, providing the soundtrack for the most uplifting, wonderful, hot and life-affirming movie sex scene I can recall ever.  When The Fiancé gets back from the North Sea, I know what the backing track will be.  Yes, Ride Of The Valkyries by The Budapest Symphony Orchestra, that's on the CD too.

Been up visiting The Parents today, which was nice.  I love being in the old house at Braehead with The Mum and The Dad.  Bonus was The Brother arrived mid-visit.  However, his visit was an emergency visit, having encountered an eye problem at work.  After doing a bit of metal grinding he'd had some serious eye pain, right upper eyelid.  Something was hurting real bad.  I had a look in but the offending particle wasn't obvious to anybody other than The Brother.  And it was extremely painfully obvious to him every time he blinked.  The Mum phoned The Retired District Nurse Friend, and The Brother and I went over to her house.  The Retired District Nurse Friend is a lovely lady who I've been aware of all my life, and The Mum has as a good friend now.  She kicked into action with the kettle and salt, brewing up some sterile saline solution for eye-washing, having worked for many years in an A&E department she knows loads of nursey stuff.  She rolled that boys eyelid up over a match-stick and there it was, a miniscule metal shaving in the process of embedding itself in the pinkness of The Brother's inner eyelid tissue, on the second gentle swipe with a saline soaked hankie corner she had it.  His relief was palpable to The Retired District Nurse Friend and me.

Sofa News : no, we haven't been out buying a new sofa, we can't do that for a while.  We can't do that for a while because we have a basic disagreement regarding sofas here at Starry Towers that will have to be sorted before we can even go close to a sofa store.  The basic disagreement is I fancy a corner unit and The Fiancé is dead against corner units.  Other mitigating factors...the sofa we have now still looks stylish, it's cool, it's a large, black leather relaxed style and is still functioning well.  It's old, I remember it coming into my life brand new, way back in1989, but it's still good despite all the couch-life it's experienced.  It's 20 years old, it knew me in my 20s, it holds memories of X Husband #1, and parties, and our friends at that time who stayed over regularly, several of them, sleeping on the couch.  And the dogs, the first babies were poodles, they clawed and clambered all over the sofa, then came The Boy.  The Boy climbed and jumped and drooled, teethed on the arm edge seems and lay along the top of the back just like Kipling the poodle before him.  Then the rabbits, they nibbled and scratched.  And throughout it's life with me as a single Mum, other girlfriends sleeping over.  The other assaults it's endured, spillages, nail varnish, drinks etc, it's a bloody wonderful piece of furniture all things considered.  A faithful, old, loved friend.  So, the excellent sofa news isn't personal to The Starry Towers Sofa.

An MP has raised the subject of furniture sales in the House of Commons, urging the government to end the "myth" that furniture sales last only for a limited time.  The Fiancé hates those TV ads, he hates them so much that every time one of them comes on the TV he mentions how much he hates them.  He can't let one go by without exclaiming what a crock of shit he's viewing, he can't believe how the furniture stores get away with such nonsense claims about their so-called sales.  It makes him angry.  But now Labour MP David Taylor has told the Commons that it was "virtually impossible" to find sofas and armchairs at the full selling price.  That is really true, and so funny.  Do some people believe it?  Apparently so, and hence the subject needs raised in the House of Commons.  Amazing.  I guess, all hilarity aside, it's a good move and apparently necessary cos some people are extremely thick.  Anyway, if the TV ads that drive The Fiancé mad disappear from our screens, I certainly won't be complaining.  Might make it easier to slip a big black leather corner unit past him.

The Fiancé and I watched The Score.  It should've been so worth it, Brando, De Niro, Norton, 3 generations of acting giants.  I found it a bit so-so, even the twist in the tail, which I had expected right from the get go, I didn't know the particulars right from the get go, but it was obvious there would have to be a double-cross between De Niro and Norton.  Nearer the time when the double-cross was revealed, I guessed what it was going to be.  The whole movie felt wrong throughout, it looks like a poor man's Batman movie, like the Muppet Man director Frank Oz turned Montreal into Gotham City.  Everything looks cartoonishly clean, bright, perfect, glistening and overly lit.  Everyone looks like and acts like a caricature, the big bouncer henchman, the old janitor, even Brando's big fat gay fence guy.  Maybe I was expecting something else, maybe I should just have taken it as a heist caper movie and not been expecting any sort of nitty gritty depth, cos depth is what's lacking.  Bit of credit to Edward Norton, he seemed to me to put in the best bit of actor work of them all, but it also has to be said, he's capable of much much better.

other gorgeous Pretty Polly must-haves.  Their Absolute Legs Mock Hold-Ups Tights which are also new for this season with pretty built in lace knickers giving a smooth silhouette with no need for an unsightly panty line.  The sexy look of stockings and hold-up stockings, inches of skin above the stocking tops but none of the lines under your body-con slinkiness.  I got both.

While I've been busy with fashion and shopping these last two days, The Fiancé's been playing in his shed.  Stripping and rebuilding one of his old Yamaha R6 race bikes, putting it back to the original road bike version with all the bits he removed and saved way back when.  It's looking great.

We watched Changeling this evening, wonderful movie.  The Clint Eastwood directed movie starring The Jolie and John Malkovich, based on the true story of the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders which took place in 1928.  It tells a very sad tale indeed, with many terrible events, it's 2 hrs 22 mins worth of shocking police corruption and abuse of power and the terrible pain and mistreatment of one of the mothers of a missing boy.  The movie does not dwell on the terror, physical, mental and sexual  abuse the young boy victims must've suffered, but it's there enough for your own mind to fully understand.

Having read the information online about the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders, the movie sticks very closely to the real story.  The serial killer Gordon Northcott was a malevolent sociopath paedophile who was convicted of the murders of an unidentified Mexican boy and brothers, 12 year old Lewis and 10 year old Nelson Winslow.  It was believed however that he may have kidnapped, molested, tortured, killed and dismembered up to 20 young boys in the space of one year.  He had first taken his 13 year old nephew Sanford Clark, from his home in Canada to the chicken ranch in the Los Angeles area where he beat and sexually abused him, and forced him to take part in the kidnappings and abuse of the boys.  In the real story Northcott's mother, Sarah Louise Northcott, was also involved.  She was spared the death penalty because she was a woman, and served only 12 years in jail, Gordon spent time in Alcatraz before being hanged there.

I was interested to read the real life facts of the young nephew.  Sanford's older sister Jessie became suspicious of the letters he was forced to send home to assure his family that he was well. She went to the ranch and stayed several days.  However, she became terrified of Northcott, left and told authorities her brother was in the country illegally.  That's when the police went to the ranch and Sanford later told them what he had been forced to participate in.  I was glad to see he was never tried for murder, he was as much a victim as the other lads.  He was sentenced to five years at the Whittier State School (later renamed the Fred C. Nelles Youth Correctional Facility).  His sentence was later commuted to 23 months.  After his release, he was deported to his native Canada.  Clark's son, Jerry Clark, credits Clark's sisters June and Jessie, associate prosecution counsel Loyal C. Kelley, and the Whittier State School for helping save Sanford from Gordon Northcott.  Sanford Clark went on to serve in World War II, and then worked for 28 years for the Canadian postal service.  He married, and he and his wife, June, adopted and raised two sons. They were married for 55 years and he died in 1991 at age 78.

Clocks go back tonight, at 2am Sunday 25th, that old...spring forward, fall back thing.  The Fiancé says he's never heard that common saying before.  The Fiancé's lived most of his adult life in Holland, with many diversions into a load of oil and gas rich areas of the world.

There's a prominent historian called Sir Alistair Horne and he says the UK should drop this clock changing, he actually says the rest of the UK should drop it and let Scotland carry on with it's own 'Tundra Time'.  Tundra?  As in 'a vast treeless zone with permanently frozen subsoil?'  What a cheek.  He reckons it may benefit Scottish farmers who don't want to be milking their cows in the dark during the winter months, but that everyone else suffers.  He says cos Scotland is that much closer to the North Pole that we do have a shorter day than the rest of the UK.  He also said, and this is really cheeky...that the progress of devolution and the release of Lockerbie bomber Big Al McGarry had led him to think that Scotland could take its own decisions and the rest of the UK should no longer be tied to a time zone which does not suit it.  Nasty man.

Morrissey has been taken to The Great Western Hospital in Swindon after collapsing on stage with breathing difficulties.  He collapsed during the first song of the concert, The Smith's 'This Charming Man', his condition has been described as "stable".  I hope he's OK, apparently he's cancelled several dates this year because of illness.  I can't find any further information at this time.

Of  course the BBC should invite Nick Griffin MEP to appear on Question Time, to have a voice and be scrutinised as other political parties are.  Anti-fascist protesters were out of order invading the BBC building in London and costing us tax payers for the police presence.  If I ruled the world it's the protestors who'd be first to go.  Them and their I-slept-in-these clothes and their unwashed locks and beards, and that's just the women.  It doesn't matter if you agree or disagree with what he has to say, he is an elected MP.  The voting public should be allowed to make up their own minds armed with full information, but they can't do that if they don't get the chance to hear all the parties speak.  These protestors are determined to prevent the rest of us from hearing Nick Griffin speak, why do they presume they know what's best for me?  I won't be incited to rush out and be violent towards anyone after seeing Nick Griffin on Question Time, apart from maybe a protestor.

The Good News Bear - Mercedes, the only polar bear in the UK has been moved from her rocky tennis-court sized enclosure at Edinburgh Zoo to 4 acres of countryside at The Highland Wildlife Park near Kingussie.  The new enclosure is more typical of her natural habitat.  Years ago in Canada she was to be shot for roaming into a town, but got a reprieve and a small place in Edinburgh.  The first pic shows Mercedes looking rather bored and all snowy white in her Edinburgh home, in the second she quickly got dirty roaming up north.  The third pic shows her having a bath and testing out her new swimming pool.  I'm amazed how quickly she's taken to her new home, she'll get to do a whole lot more roaming now.  Just wish they'd thought to do this for her a load faster, 25 years she spent in that jail cell. 

The Bad News Bear - A five-year old bear was shot and killed after fatally injuring a circus manager and badly injuring a trainer in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.  This poor bear was forced to wear skates and ice-skate.  Apparently this bears on ice thing is common in Russian circuses, with some bears made to wear helmets and trained to play ice-hockey.  That is just so wrong on all levels.

Late Night Star Blog Update :

Having watched Question Time, I'm happy with the outcome.  Much of it was annoying, back and forth mud-slinging and politicians dishonestly parrying, deflecting, evading, and avoiding, pretty damn usual for politicians.  And there was a bit too much with history lessons, going as far back as the ice age and a lot of stuff bout Churchill and Powell, but this is 2009 and I wanted them to concentrate on what's going wrong in the UK now.

The one who answered with most blatant honesty, perhaps because he isn't good enough at the game, or maybe not clever enough, but the most honest was the much reviled Nick Griffin.  His badness was obvious anyway, even when he was denying the worst of the claims against him, you could easily tell he was fibbing.  The way he was treated, if it were anyone else on the end of that onslaught it would have been called bullying.  He was so nervous he was trembling, and had to keep his hand motions in check many times.  I actually started feeling sorry for him. 

The programme was a great success, the presence of Nick Griffin upped the anti on Auntie, his inclusion on tonight's panel made it more important.  The viewing figures must've been the highest ever for an episode of QT.  Thursday night political TV is usually a bore but I knew I had to watch this one.  Surely a load of other people in the UK recognised the same importance and tuned in too.  In my opinion it worked out well, to the benefit of the majority of us ordinary people.

It was about 45 minutes into the show before someone made the most important point, which led to Justice Secretary Jack Straw (Labour) being pulled up by Sayeeda Warsi (Conservative) and accused of not giving an honest answer, when a member of the audience asked whether government immigration policy had contributed to the BNP's success.  The member of the audience who said it, the most honest statement of the entire programme came from the coloured gentleman in a pinstripe suit down the front.  He stated the obvious, he raised the main issue, he told it like it is...

"I'm amazed that you still pander to the left, immigration is a major issue in this country, its because of your policies and disregard that the BNP have risen, do you not accept that the government has an issue with this and have to tackle it square on?"  That man's face says it all, he's appealing, desperate for the politians to listen, says what the majority of this country want to be heard saying.  That he was the one to say it, and on this particular so-anticipated-and-talked-about-TV-programme, is so important.  Well done that man, whoever he is --------->

It will be listened to more so, because he isn't white.  If a white person had said it, they would've been brushed off as racist.

The majority of us Brits, including the guy in the pinstripe suit, are not naturally racist, we are concerned about the current immigration, but the government isn't listening.

Jack Straw talked a load of shit in response, and the Tory MP Ms Warsi, jumped on his lies, "but Jack, none of your systems are working, that man is right".

He was asked why the government won't agree to put a cap on the UK population and he talked a load of crap, claiming that's impossible unless you cap the number of children people are allowed to have.  Nonsense.  The government has to improve their immigration policies and tighten up border control or more and more of us will be putting our crosses in the BNP boxes, it's a protest vote for the angry 'indigenous' population.

And they can argue all they want about the term 'indigenous' and talk history all the way back to the origin of anatomically modern humans.  The African origin hypothesis which argues that H. sapiens arose in Africa and migrated out the continent around 50-100,000 years ago, replacing populations of H. erectus in Asia and H. neanderthalensis in Europe. Scientists supporting the alternative multiregional hypothesis argue that H. sapiens evolved as geographically separate but interbreeding populations stemming from a worldwide migration of H. erectus out of Africa nearly 2.5 million years ago.  And they can talk Hitler, Powell and Churchill all they want, but we don't need that smoke blown up our arses.

None of that matters when it comes down to which political party is going to rescue Britain from the mistakes that have brought us to where we are today.  The next government has to make us believe that their immigration policies will stop the influx of people ready to abuse our welfare state, they have to make us believe that they are increasing measures to prevent illegal immigrants getting here, and staying here.  They need to define 'asylum' and query why so many seeking this asylum need to get it the UK.  It's either that or there will be more crosses in BNP boxes, it's the only protest vote available till the main political parties start listening.

The Fiancé and I watched The Wrestler this evening, not nearly as good as I thought it was going to be.  I watched in anticipation, expecting to be blown away by Mickey Rourke's movie come-back.  All the reviews said it's a brilliant movie with a great performance by Mr Rourke.  I wasn't impressed with either the movie or Mr Rourke, I couldn't get past the man's lips.  His face was so...damaged, and not in a way that wrestling or even boxing, would damage a face, more like bad plastic surgery.  His face is a horrible site and no amount of barbed wire or staple guns could shock after you realise that the face your looking at is actually his face, he really looks like that, before anyone beats him up in the ring.  His barely tenable relationships, with his estranged daughter and with the stripper woman, weren't explored in any great depth and seemed thrown in in hasty fashion just to try to add some plumped up filling to the saggy cushion of a story.  The only thing plumped up in this movie are those trout pout lips.  Sorry to go on about them, but those lips, that surgery.  They all look strangely similar with the horror written all over their faces.  Maybe they all go to the same guy?

How do pebbles get moved around the garden?  Is it a bird?  Is it The Bloody Squirrel?  I've got pretty pebbles brought from different breaches, they sit in small clusters in plant pots outside.  And I've got an eagle-eye for little changes in The Starry Towers Estate.  Couple days ago one of my pretty pebbles was sitting in the middle of the lawn.  This morning there's one sitting on the patio table.  Is there a phantom night-time garden invader who is turned on by moving pebbles or maybe has witnessed my OCD gardening techniques and wishes to perplex and/or upset me.  Is it most likely The Bloody Squirrel?  Do squirrels move pebbles?  Thinking it's food, drops it when he finds out it's not a nut or a bird's egg?  If in doubt, blame The Bloody Squirrel.

Dotty P have a big sale on AND here's a code just for today, get a further 20% off orders over £50, enter DPLOOKA  at the checkout.  In more Discount News, Wallis are giving 25% off till 19th October, enter GECW10 at the checkout.  When they send your order confirmation email they give you a code for free delivery on your next order.  I ordered twice in quick succession and got the free delivery discount in both confirmation emails.  Also, for when they stop being so generous with all this 25% off and free delivery codes, when you sign up to their news letter you get a 10% discount code for your next order.  Be careful using the codes, some work in combination, and some don't.  Enter each code separately, as you enter a second code watch your basket total cost, if a code isn't recognised, or indeed over-rides a larger discount code, remove the code that isn't helping.  Don't be afraid to add and remove codes all you want to check out the best deal available, it doesn't mess up the ordering process at DP and Wallis.  You just have to be wise and get the best use of the codes.

Wallis seem to be very generous, however there's not an awful lot in their shop that is to my taste.  I bought these two long chain necklaces.  The multi-chains design is hot and this is one of the most attractive I've seen.  The large paper chain links of the second are bang on trend.

                                             

At Dotty P there was the Floral Biker Dress I've hummed and hawed over several times, down from £32 to £20, I stopped dithering and threw it in the virtual basket.  Then I dithered, what size to buy?  The coats I bought before are size 10, but maybe the other clothes will be smaller made at DP.  Oh what to do?  Buy a 10 and a 12, returns are free at stores and by post, so no need to fret.  I also did the same trick with the blue and black thin stripe tunic dress, that one's down to £7.  Then I went looking at the grey Peplum Biker Jacket...again.  I've been looking at it for ages, thinking another jacket would be just too self-indulgent, but today I remembered...I AM self-indulgent, so I had that too.  It's grey wool-mix flannel, with high fashion biker styling and studs and zip details.

I was looking all over the house today for the jet black and silver rosary beads I brought back from Rome, they were the most Rome-ish thing I could think to buy when I was there a few years ago.  They are purely a touristy keep-sake, me being a religion-hating atheist.  Today I was thinking of wearing them with a couple other long necklaces as a fashion statement, but when The Boy came in, he didn't agree with a mother walking around in rosary beads.  I think he's right, they're just too Catholicy, would I wear a burka as a fashion statement?  When I finally found them in a forgotten jewellery box in the leather cube seat at my dressing console, I was reminded just how self-indulgent I am.  I found my David & Goliath 'I ME' wristband.
 

                                            

Back to the shopping.  The stirrup leggings may be a mistake.  I'm picturing the ones classmates wore at Primary School and ones on skinny older ladies, where the legging goes from arse to heel and forgets to curve in with the shape of the Popliteal Fossa.  But I'm hoping the invention of lycra has solved the problem.  I fancied giving them a try to prevent that legging-ride-up when wearing boots, I like my leggings right down covering my ankles.  Starry socks and long over the knee socks to top up my sock drawer.  And lastly I got myself a Hottie.  DP has several animal choices in their wheat and lavender filled microwavable bags.

How amazing was that?  Watching the baby boy in Australia fall from a train station platform into the path of an oncoming train and survive with just a bump on the head.  The security video footage shows the mother letting go for a second, the baby push-chair rolls off the edge of the station platform and onto the tracks in front of an oncoming train. But the driver had applied the brakes and miraculously the train pushes the stroller about 130 feet (40 meters) along the tracks and stops, rather than rolling the weight of a train over the lucky little darling.  That'll be why these push-chair stroller thingys have brakes. 

Geert Wilders made it into Britain today.  I'm in full agreement that he should be allowed in.  There's always at least two sides to every story and this elected politician from a European Union country states the side that few are brave enough to do.  Freedom of speech has been rightfully upheld.  I couldn't understand how Jacqui Smith was able to refuse him entry back in February.

Another 'celebrity' admitted to a private health clinic suffering from severe 'nervous exhaustion'.  This time round it's Amelle Berrabah?  No me neither.  I have heard of the band she's a member of (for the time being), The Sugababes.  The poor girl has cracked under pressure due to the most recent 'band line-up change' and she has accepted 'medical advice' to take a 'short break', which has to be in a costly private clinic of course.  She should try nursing for a couple of decades, the pressure would have to be dealt with quietly in her own home...on the cheap.

Details of the mass killing of intensively farmed chickens have been released today.  And most people are thinking...and why is that news-worthy? That's the whole point of modern chicken factory farming.  This case is different because it wasn't the factory owners who killed them, and it cost Vion Food Group a lot of money, they reckon about £400,000.  Approximately 136,000 chickens died in August 2009 at Beechgrove Farm near Balerno, Edinburgh.  No-one's putting an exact figure on the head-count, probably cos no-one had to care how many exactly were in there, and probably because the figures changed on a regular basis due to 'natural' deaths.  It would appear that the intruders turned off the ventilation to 12 poultry sheds, leading to these birds dying from overheating and asphyxiation.

Animal charity the Scottish SPCA said the hens would have suffered a "slow death" filled with "fear and pain". They said a lot more too, laying it on thick about the suffering caused by this crime.  I have to share these quotes from Scottish SPCA chief superintendent Mike Flynn : "This was either an extremely callous or thoughtless act that has resulted in thousands of animals suffering what must have been a very uncomfortable and slow death filled with pain and fear...whoever is responsible for this clearly showed no consideration for the welfare of the birds. Anyone with any information should contact the police."  IMHO the SPCA are a bunch of wooses who pick and choose which animals are deserving of saving, and don't put a foot wrong politically, can't go upsetting big business.

It could be argued that to die now might be better than to carry on living in factory farm conditions.  Ross Minett, campaigns director with Advocates for Animals said, "Unfortunately, intensively-grown chickens crowded together in huge factories are terribly vulnerable to any interference with environmental controls, whether deliberately or by accident."  That is a far more considered and intelligently quoted fact than anything the SPCA has to say about the incident.  Grow your chickens in these conditions, chances are they die pecked to death, or suffocated under other chickens anyway.  The life of an intensively-grown chicken...living is cruel and dying, one way or another, is cruel.

Mr Minett is also quoted as saying he was not aware of any targeted action against local farms or the Vion Food Group as a whole.  The police apparently agree and don't believe the crime is the work of animal rights activists.  Given the information released so far, I'd have to disagree.  According to what I've read, experts say given the information released it would appear that the dead birds were being farmed as what they call 'broiler chickens'.  Read this, then tell me who the real criminals are.

Phew, big relief for the parents of Teagan Feakins, the 13 year old girl who went missing from Torquay on the 25th September.  Her Mum had dropped her off at the church youth club, but the little tyke obviously had different plans and she was off with a 21 year old man she'd met on the internet.  But an eagle eyed member of the public in Edinburgh spotted her and she's safe again.  The man, James Grenfell, is being held in police custody.  Another grown up who conveniently forgets that 13 year olds can't consent.  Kids can be so devious, and stupid, and adults can be so predatory.

Another bit of good news on The Protecting 13 Year Old Girls From Paedophiles front...the  French government has dropped its public support for Roman Polanski, saying the 76-year-old director "is neither above nor beneath the law".  Way-hay, round of applause, they've come round to seeing things the way most decent people see things.  Their change of mind probably influenced by the major international backlash against the campaign for Polanski's release, with several leading European politicians and cultural figures refusing to join.  On Frenchie  roads, U turns are common place.

The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that Quentin Tarantino's use of the word 'basterds', in posters and a radio advert for his movie Inglorious Basterds, is not likely to cause strong offence and can not be seen as socially irresponsible.  So the 21 complainers can shut the feck up now.  Honestly, have some cants got nought better to do?   The details of the film companies defence are interesting, they pointed out among other pertinent matters, that the word "bastard" is featured in the Oxford Primary Dictionary, which is approved by primary schools, and the Kids Collins Dictionary, which is specifically designed for children under 11 years of age.  That's talking common sense.

Lego Man James May escaped unhurt when an airship he was travelling in crash-landed in a field while filming a feature for Top Gear.  A caravan, attached to a bright orange airship and flown across Cambridgeshire.  All sounds pretty normal for Top Gear.  They were s'posed to touch down on a cricket pitch where a film crew had been waiting all day, but were blown off target by strong winds and landed safely in a field.  And we have to wait till the next Top Gear series to find out the full story.

A very, very, extremely, really mobile hairdresser...was Neil Purves.  He'll still be cutting hair, but he won't be driving anytime soon, banned from the roads after being caught doing what's thought to be the fastest speed ever recorded on a Scottish road.  On 13th May he was doing 166mph on a 60mph stretch of the A702 near West Linton, the Dolphinton straight stretch of the road.  He was on a Suzuki GSX-R 1000, and topped the previous Scottish record held by car dealer Jason McAllister, who was jailed for five months in 2003 at Forfar Sheriff Court for driving his BMW M3 at 156.7 mph on the A90 between Aberdeen and Dundee.

Down in Wales this story of the abuse and mistreatment of a young girl is truly appalling.  The step-uncle who is now 55 and an illegal immigrant, began abusing the girl when she was just 5 years old and impregnated her when she was 14.  By the time the mother found out the girl was 7 months pregnant, the mother beat her with a curtain pole and refused to believe the step-uncle was the father.  When her child was born, the mother and step-father claimed the baby as their own, avoiding family shame we can only assume.  At age 18 the family sent the girl to India and an arranged marriage.  She later returned to Cardiff and was divorced.  Back in Cardiff the step-uncle must've been pretty pleased to see her home, he went back to raping her.  In this case, one rapist leads to another and her stepfather, aged 50 now, also an illegal immigrant, started in with the raping.  And as if that weren't enough, her now 27 year old step-cousin, in keeping with family tradition, repeatedly raped her too.  Last year, aged 22 the girl got up the courage to go to the police.  Her family members will be sentenced next month.

I watched In My Father's Den this evening, was well good, highly recommended by me.  Even the back and forward chronology is so well done, it flows smooth as runny honey in a heat wave.  An emotional, beautiful, atmospheric, character driven thriller, full to bursting with outstanding acting, engaging people and wonderful gorgeous photography.  Moving and thrilling in equal measures, 10 out of 10.

A new guide to the most outlandish foodstuffs on the planet, The Lonely Planet guide to Extreme Cuisine has included haggis alongside the witchetty grub, grasshoppers, stingrays, tarantulas, bull testicles and cow udders.  I wouldn't say haggis is extreme cuisine, but I s'pose you could view it that way if your not from Scotland and hear what's in it, ie offal, that's sheep heart, lung, and liver, all mashed up with beef suet, oatmeal, onion, salt and pepper, then encased in a sheeps' stomach lining.  Best stick to the vegetarian version.

A fragment of skull with a bullet hole through it which the Russians claim is a piece of the skull of Hitler, has been proven to be a piece of lady skull, after an American scientist tested DNA samples.  Archaeologist and bone specialist Nick Bellantoni says the skull really belonged to a woman aged under 40.

Some historians don't believe The Hitler Died In The Bunker story as there is absolutely no evidence to back this up. 

The Nazi high command had been making plans since 1943 to get out of Germany and to set up a Fourth Reich mainly in South America so they had no need to die in situ in Germany.  Historian and journalist Gerrard Williams says, "There was a very effective route out of Germany to South America and the Nazis had help from various factions, in particular a Croatian cardinal from the Vatican called Alois Hudel."  To think he may have escaped and lived his life out in comfort, how shocking that would be.

"Designed by F&F. Priced by Tesco. Modelled by Fatou, checkout number 6, Tesco, east London."  Made in Gambia, Leave By Date 2001. 

Fatou Cham, 32, came to the UK from Gambia, West Africa, in 1998 on a student visa but stayed after it expired in 2001.  Her mother and eldest child were allowed to join her in the UK in 2000. Her two other children were born in Britain.  But then Miss Cham, was chosen from hundreds of hopefuls to model the Florence and Fred clothing range for an ad campaign used in women's magazines, and that's when it all went horribly wrong, and Ms Cham has been exposed as an illeg