Not often you get current affairs here, but I am driven to write about the sad plight of Shannon Matthews, her whole sad family and the 'dimwit' (police term, not mine) accomplice in the crime. Now clearly they are all 'dimwits' for thinking they could outwit the police. I watched the Channel 4 documentary which followed her 'mum' and her 'boyfriend' through the 'hunt' and was shocked at her squallid and impoverished existence. I mean, I know things are bad up north, but her house was poky and horrid, she was clearly a troubled woman with a broken past and had herself been subject to abuse as a child. She had no relationship with her mother, and troubled relationships with other family members. She was bitter and had endless children with a series of no hoper blokes (my words, not police term that). AND she admitted to watching the Jeremy Kyle show. See! I knew that show had an audience, and now we know who it was.


And she looks a lot older than me, doesn't she? Which is a good advert for only having one husband and two children, and for all the Avon beauty products I buy from my now only one Avon lady. Phew. It was awful when I had two of them. I had pots of cream stacked up all over the bedroom. Now can say 'Nothing from this book thankyou' without feeling bad.

Writing the Christmas cards tonight. Not doing as many as usual, so sorry if you dropped off the list this year. I would blame the economy, but frankly I can't be bothered. I have 40 lovely cards that the girls had published through school, plus 10 I bought from a lady selling them for children in Burma. So, once I get to 50, including milkman and window cleaner, thats it. So if your name begins with a letter past P, you are probably not getting one this year. In fact, I normally make mince pies for people, but the only people getting any are the lovely Jones's who have invited us to spend a week in Lapland with them over Christmas. That's the real Lapland, not the pretend one in the New Forest that looked crap and was! I am gutted on behalf of my friends and others who had bought tickets, but it looked like a lot of money for a cheap fairground to me.