• Is it just me or is the sound on the X Factor rubbish? The music is far too loud so that we can’t hear the singers.

    When Dermot is introducing the programme the backing music is so loud and he is so far back in the mix that it is hard to hear what he’s saying.

    Often, one of the acts does a duff performance and the judges think it’s brilliant. There is something going on in the studio that does not come across on the TV.

    Stacey was so far back in the mix this week, I thought she was out of tunen most of the way through – I don’t think she was though.

  • Pumpkin
    Pumpkin 2009
    I tried a bit of Pumpkin carving yesterday. I’ve always done a pretty similar face each year before so I tried a different face this time.

    The classic Pumpkin has eyes and teeth cut right through to the inside. But by carving shallow cuts into the flesh, more complicated patterns can be made. I did this with my little pocket Swiss army knife. I had to cut each swirl twice, a cut on each side of the line. Next year, I might see if I can get a better carving tool. and be a bit more adventurous.

    The kind of pumpkin is important. Some have very thick skins and tough flesh inside. This one was nice – it had quite a soft skin and nice dark colour to contrast the light inside.

  • We crossed the river to Berkeley Castle last night, to watch the Rococo Players perform A Winter’s Tale, an very good they were too. The Great Hall made a wonderfully intimate space for such a performance and brought us up close to big, human emotions.

    I found it odd that my daughter could be so engrossed in the Shakespeare, with all it’s difficult language and want not to watch Jeremy Kyle on the same day. The people on Jeremy Kyle were horrible, doing horrible things to each other, but the more I watched the Shakespeare unfold in front of us, in close up almost touching distance, the more I saw similarities between the protagonists in both Shakespeare’s and Kyle’s productions.

    Kings and queens have more elegant language and make larger gestures because they can, but the Family feuds and structures on Jeremy Kyle are exactly the same as those found in Shakespeare.

    What would Shakespeare be doing if he lived now? He’d be watching Jeremy Kyle every morning, that’s for sure, and probably working in reality TV.

    That’s why Shakespeare is still so relevant – The first quarter of an hour is hard, as the ear gets used to the language, but soon we are absorbed by all our petty family stories writ large and repeated generation by generation.

    Not been to Berkeley Castle before. It was wonderful in the night, prettily light up with bulbs rather than spotlights. We must go again in the daylight and see what it looks like.