12 FebDesigner Gowns on the NHS

Top fashionista Ben de Lisi who has created frights, oops that would be frocks, for Helena Bonham Carter has been commissioned to design a new generation of hospital gowns for NHS patients.

 Helena with her electric shock style hair, pale skin and panda eyes is the perfect NHS muse for an outfit to wear whilst having a near death experience. I’m sure Ben will remember to accessorise: mock-croc morgue tags and bling studded containers for dentures could be included in his high style hospital range. And what about irridescent bedpans in a range of seasonal colours. Or maybe some linen syringe covers in neutral shades?

And why are the existing hospital gowns called ‘bum flashers’? Any time I have ever worn them I tie the opening at the front. Does that makes me a belly button flasher?

08 FebSnap Unhappy

My husband’s laptop is the keeper of family photographs so when I was asked for one this week by my publisher – I asked him to email me a few to choose from.

It was taking a long time –  with him this means he’s asleep or watching Braveheart again - OR that there is  a problem.

I went to find him and he was at the laptop having a great time scrolling through hundreds of photos -  none of them of me. His push bike was photographed from every angle, the dog was snapped in various poses -  awake asleep and covered in mud. There was even a blocked toilet (I didn’t ask) and a shot of his favourite kebab shop.

“Where am I?” I asked.

He looked aghast. I think  he thought I was having memory or existential issues.

“Photographs of me. Where are they ?”

“I was short on disk space so I think I may have deleted you” he confessed.

You know that saying about happy marriages –  that a couple should never let the sun set on a disagreement? Well my version of that is that you should never accept an apology until the season has changed.  We are officially not speaking.

Unless until he finds a  recent photograph of me that makes me look like Nicole Kidman.

05 FebMake It Snappy

 It’s not worth my brain space I know, but I am fascinated that David Beckham bought Posh a £24,000 crocodile skin Birkin handbag for Christmas. One that ’snaps’ shut, I’m guessing.

I am a veggie so the thought of toting around a dead crocodile has no appeal. And the idea of spending £24,000 on any bag, animal vegetable or mineral,  makes me giddy.

It’s a Birkin.  I thought a Birkin was a pubic hair wig until a friend corrected me, that item is, in fact, called  a merkin. Get that right before you hit Harvey Nichols.

But take heart. Birkins hold their value and even second hand, oops sorry, that would be ‘vintage’ bags can sell for double their original cost.

This gets crazier because some shops which sell these exclusive bags insist that they will only permit  them to go  non smoking homes. Apparently having a fag near such a bag  is…… Birkin abuse.

02 FebLorna’s Angels

Last night I went to hear Lorna Byrne, author of the best selling book ‘Angels in my Hair’ talk about her life as a ‘mystic’.

Twelve people I know also bought tickets and when we got together after the event not one of us agreed on whether or not,or how much,  we believed Lorna’s claims that she had been convening with the angels since she was a baby. The only thing there was a general consensus  on was that we were afraid to damn her as a charlatan in case what she claimed  was true.  We were scared to offend the Angels that Lorna claimed were teeming around, above and below us.

The woman’s knees were visibly knocking as she stood centre stage last night. A  pleasant, mild mannered person she was both inarticulate and very short on information about what the Angels look like and what say and do. Even though she claims to have been in communication with them for over forty years.

And yet, should her  lack of sophistication in the delivery of the message make me doubt it’s truth or sincerity? Or trust it even more so ?

Her claims that she sees Angels everywhere and they give her constant messages and instructions are almost too daft to invent. And if she was a liar surely she would do a better job by speaking clearly, coherently and having prepared answers for the most obvious of questions, at least. But Lorna didn’t,  she stumbled through the session and said “I don’t know” countless times when pressed for explanations. 

At least a hundred people had their hands up to try and speak to Lorna in the post talk Q&A session, including me.  I am ashamed of my question so am partly relieved that I didn’t get to  ask it in public. It was”What are you doing with the rivers of cash flowing your way from film rights and book sales.Have the Angels indicated that any of it should go to charitable causes?”

31 JanWhite or Wrong ?

I had a big ding dong on the radio last night with Julian Bennett from the TV programme ‘Queer Eye for the Straight Guy’. His views on what women MUST do to stay attractive for their men were yabadabadoo stone age stuff.

Julian’s Eleventh Commandment decrees that furry pits, hairy legs, getting old, not dyeing grey hair and generally  ’letting yourself go’ are mortal sins – but only if you were born with a fanny. 

 His argument imploded when he claimed that David Gest, Paul McCartney and Andrew Neil all look fandabadozi with their assorted hair dye disasters. And George Clooney and Tom Jones are silver foxes. But any woman with grey hair - unless she is Julian’s mum because it really suits her – is an old dog.

Julian was a jolly and likeable misogynist.  Our verbal rut was so spirited that the presenter Stephen Nolan was able to enjoy an unscheduled cup of coffee as we slugged it out and afterwards suggested the pair of us should get our own show…down.

27 JanHit Man

Frozen basil, raspberries, carrots, olives with chilli, a pack of pentel pens, smoked cheese with bits of ham in it and stool softeners. That’s what I  unpacked from my basket and put on the conveyor belt yesterday in Sainsburys. Oh, and the woman on the till had such enormous long breasts that they were down there with my shopping, too.

“My My , what interesting shopping you have” came a deep,  posh voice from behind me in the queue. He was a Howard Keel lookie-likey and I decided he couldn’t be dangerously bonkers because he  was wearing shoes and socks - plus his flies were fully zipped. Yes, those are the qualities I check for first in a man.

He went all husky and said, “May I come home with you so we can enjoy them together?” . My eyes were drawn to the stool softeners, he was gazing at my raspberries.

The woman on the till winked at me and said “OOOooooo!” This could have meant she thought he was dishy and urbane. Or it could have been amazement that I can still lure ‘em in at my advanced age without make-up and with a hairdo like a collie dog’s bum surround.

“I have interesting shopping because my husband and four kids all have different preferences.”  I thought this was a gentle enough rebuff. He clearly admired my animal magnetism so I had to be kind didn’t I ?

He was a smooth, and fast,  operator. He turned to the woman behind him in line. She was wearing two pairs of glasses and had a zimmer frame with a wire shopping basket resting on top of it. He peeked into it and said, ” Mmmmm, marshmallows, my favourite…..May I come home with you and help you to toast them?” 

“OOOoooooooo!” said the woman behind the till again, dragging back her breasts which had travelled along to the bagging section. Her eyebrows were working overtime.  I packed my shopping feeling like a woman spurned.

21 JanWhose Bed Is It Anyway ?

A UK hotel chain is employing human bedwarmers to heat up beds before their guests climb in for the night. The Daily Telegraph says so -  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/7009900/Hotel-chain-offers-human-bed-warmers.html 

I have questions.

Firstly – gissa job? I could definitely do that. Although I can see the potential for conflict when the paying guest told me to get out of their bed when I was all warm and comfy womfy in there and had done all the hard work to get that way.

Secondly, perhaps the hotel  should go one step further and get celebrity lookalikes to make the bed hot, hot , hot. I’d book George Clooney and Hugh Jackman to loll on my mattress every time.

Thirdly, do they screen for lice, fleas and crabs, yellow dandruff,  belly button fluff ,nose debris and anything wet  that human bedwarmers might leave behind between the covers ?

And lastly,  do they have a bespoke service for menopausal women who require bedchillers to counteract hot flushes ?

18 JanGlobes and Wiggles

It’s 1.15 am and I can’t go to bed because the 67th Golden Globes Awards Ceremony is live on TV. I am pigging out on botox and cleveage and teeth bleach.

My Irish mother gene makes me want to scream at Mariah Carey “Keep your chest warm!” Her dress has got to be on back to front, right ?

Nicole Kidman has taken to wearing vintage Austrian blinds in toilet roll colours to awards, but her husband Keith Urban looked very dishy and sober and adoring - so good for her.

Jeremy Irons is dry as dust and if there was a special award for being an up yourself ageing lothario it would be his in perpetuity. Ralph Fiennes can be his deputy.

The question I most want to be asked in the coming week is “Who are you wearing?”  I plan to reply ‘Robert Dyas’ or ‘William Hill’ because I have gleaned from the red carpet interviews that it’s not what you say but the WIGGLE that goes with the answer that counts.

17 JanIs there a Doctor in the Kitchen?

One of my daughters is a medical student and living at home for 3 months while she does her general surgery placement at our local hospital.

That’s why I found a pair of surgical scrubs in our laundry basket. I boil washed them and  put them on the drying rack to air. So far, so boring.

Until my husband saw them, and decided to do some  dressing up . I came home from Tesco to find a very puzzled border collie on his back on the kitchen ( or ‘operating’)  table whilst my husband listened to the dog’s  heartbeat with my daughter’s stethoscope. She was busy photographing Dr Dad.

 I couldn’t believe the pair of them had started to play without me, but I didn’t sulk. Instead I put my shopping down on the far end of the operating table and shouted “Blood Screen, Chem 7, pethidine, portable Xray and a Lemsip!” Mostly because they always say that on ER.

As for how he looked in the scrubs…….. I would have to say…… very George Clooney-esque.

And terrific news - the dog pulled through!

11 JanHot and Cross and Cake

Christmas cakes are a sore subject in my house.

I once made my own by steeping dried fruit in booze beginning in February and squishing it monthly with my feet until November  to make it good and moist and potent.  I grew  my own marzipan for it, and actually signed up for  an evening  class called “Decorating Your Christmas Cake”. That might be the most embarrassing fact I have ever admitted about myself on this blog.

This ‘class’ turned out to be a care in the community event for Bonne Marche enthusiasts and hormonal homemakers who had been banned from the  Women’s Institute. It was run along military lines by a woman called Moira who was wearing a plaid car blanket shaped into an ankle length frock, and black glasses with such enormous frames I thought they were a dressing up joke. But to give Moira her due she could make reindeers with little testicles and robins with teeny eyelashes and anything at all out of icing that would make a Christmas Cake memorable.

She tut tutted when she saw my very best effort which she described, cruelly I thought, as a ” Oh! A Snowman-slash -Alien”. My children piddled themselves laughing when I showed it to them and my husband forgot what it was decorated with because he was pissed after half a slice.

Anyway, that rebuff is why I have since  bought  Christmas Cakes. This year I paid Tesco £12 for one. It came out of the cupboard yesterday and looked very nice on the plate. I took a knife to cut a slice but couldn’t. The icing was like cement. I handed the knife to my big strong husband who broke a sweat trying to get into the thing. A la wedding we tried to do it together, four hands one knife,  but  still no joy. Finally, using a knife, his Leatherman and an electric screwdriver he got a bit of the icing off by climbing onto the worktop and attacking it from above. We put a little it in our mouths and it was like trying to eat a bit of paving slab.

Today in Tesco the Customer Services Assistant told me that I couldn’t have a refund because there was some icing missing off the cake, which she took as evidence that it had been eaten. I had a mini fanny attack (arm waving and speed talking) and she realised she needed to get rid of me – quick. I was offered credit vouchers because I had no receipt.”Who keeps grocery receipts?” I shouted and she pointed at the queue behind me, all holding them.

I growled that the cake was faulty and that I wanted my money, the same money I had paid for the concrete cake, returned. She asked when I had bought the Christmas cake. 22nd December was the correct answer but to prove how pissed off I was  I told her “Easter.”  She typed ‘Easter’ into her computer thingy and handed me £3, the cake cum doorstop’s current selling price. I was £9  down.

Pointed sarcasm is wasted when you can buy Hot Cross Buns in January.