• Vinny Jones quite impressed me when he first came in the Big Brother House. He’d obviously decided to be mister nice guy to improve his public image. He even stood in and stopped a bullying situation before it got out of hand.

    But he’s not managed to keep it up. He comes across as the most irritating, self absorbed bully.

    I only worry that the people who vote on Big Brother are the binge culture louts who approve of that kind of behaviour, and that they’ll let him win. We shall see.


  • I heard this word used on the radio to describe the conditions the people of Haiti have had put upon them by the earthquake. It struck me as a very powerful word.

    Immiseration the imposition of poverty, not something you would want to do to anyone unless you were really mean or plain careless.

    Learn a new word every day.
    Repeat it and remind yourself what it means at least three times in a day.
    Try to use the word in conversation or writing today.
    Get a dictionary and look words up.


  • Rhonda Valley - South WalesWhat a grey and wet old day to go visiting Llwyn-y-pia Primary School, a vast victorian barn clinging to the side of the Rhonda Valley.

    I had a lot of fun and we came up with some great ideas for stories, including a Snake Man who has to be controlled by a specially adapted digger, Ricky Rocket on a trip to catch star fish and a fun story about a beleaguered young girl called lilly with eight brothers and horrible, insensitive parents, who were very Dalek-like!

    The trip back was much nicer as the sun had come out, making the bracken covered valley glow.