Typecast

If you follow me on Twitter , you'll know that I'm a huge fan of Strictly Come Dancing and I provide a running commentary every Saturday night. It's like stepping inside my head for the duration of the show. If you're a true super-fan like me you'll be able to remember each of the winners and will, of course, have your favourite dances.  For me, you can't beat a good Argentine Tango but the Rumba is always a bit embarrassing to watch. it's always interesting to see who is shining though and who really does have no rhythm whatsoever. Knowing how much I love the show, Great British Bingo sent me this fantastic infographic which displays the " History of Strictly " and is full of really interesting little factioids from the past eleven series. Once you've browsed it you can tell me... who  has been your favourite couple EVER and who do you think is going to win this year? This is a sponsored post. For more inform...

It’s not often that the BBC manages to rile me with their style of reporting.   It is one of our national institutions and has become my go-to place to find an even-handed report after hearing snippets or rumours on social media channels.   However, after the last 24 hours, I have come to the conclusion that they have been taking lessons in the Daily Mail School of Journalism , i.e. create a blatantly biased article, wait for Twitter to explode with rage, experience high volumes of hits on website, get people talking. It’s a theory I think a lot of people will back me up on.   But... The choice of subject matters was those that I believed Auntie Beeb would have produced a more balanced approach due to the way in which our economy currently stands.   I’ll break it down for you. To start with we had The Great British Budget Menu .   Firstly, putting “Great British” in front of a programme name appears to be the current trend with the BBC because of th...

WAH-HEY! No, seriously.  *sad face*  He was one of my 1970's hero.  I yearned for the Multi-Coloured Swap Shop roadshow to rock up near to where I lived so that I could swap some of my old Mandy annuals for the board game Go For Broke .  I applied to go on Cheggers Plays Pop  but never heard back.  I even bought the record " I Wanna Be A Winner " by Brown Sauce...

I was browsing through the BBC website during my lunch break and saw the " Could you pass the 11-plus? " challenge so I thought I would have a go.  15 questions with a 10-minute timer.  Easy, right?  I almost applied for " Are You Smarter Than A 10-Year Old? " because I was a damn sight smarter than my own 10-year old at the time * out-of-context-smugness * So click on the link above ( opens in a new window ), take the test and then come back here to tell me how well you did or didn't do. I had a " I am SO going to run out of time here " for Questions 7 and 8 and a complete * head-desk * moment for Question 10 (which I got wrong) but here are my results. swot... oh yes I am The answers and explanations are available on this page when you have finished.   NO PEEKING !

The voice in my head boomed "YOU ARE ON THE BBC.  DO NOT SWEAR.  ENGAGE BRAIN-TO-MOUTH FILTER NOW".  Sally waved her hand to let us know that she was about to introduce the show and suddenly, there I was, saying a "Good Morning" to the whole of Lancashire... and beyond, thanks to the wonders of the BBC iPlayer.

I was listening to BBC Breakfast News this morning and heard snippets of an article discussing the new Government White Paper and the proposed return to exam-based study.  The White Paper suggests that secondary schools will be considered to be failing if less than 35% of their students attain less than 5 Grade C's at GCSE level. Whoever originally decided that it was a good idea to make 15- and 16-year old kids, raging with hormones, study for two years then judge them for the rest of their lives on a series of 2-hour windows was mad.  Modular learning gives better results all round.  Yes, we should still have exams but they they should be relevant to progression.

Originally published on 30th September 2010. Updated on 11th March 2014. Naughty child?  Must be ADHD or bad parenting. Child won't sleep at night?  Must be ADHD or bad parenting. Issues with food? Must be ADHD or bad parenting. Except that I have never used ADHD as an excuse for my son's behaviour. Here is an article about a group of scientists from Cardiff who have now discovered that there is a genetic link to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and that the disorder is a brain problem.  Oh * yawn *. Tell me something I don't know. We were given that snippet of 'useful' information about seven years ago. I have never considered my son's ADHD to be part of 'bad parenting' and I get really annoyed when so-called experts decide that the chemical imbalance in my son's brain is down to me not being bothered to raise him correctly. I have written before about how my son explained his ADHD .  Here is an excerpt from th...

Our back yard is the smallest yard in the history of terraced housing in old mill towns.  It has to be.  There isn't enough room to swing a ladybird once you've taken into account the space used up by the two wheelie bins, the makeshift shed that houses chopped wood for the log burner, the plastic garden table and chairs and the rusting barbecue.  So I haven't really invested much time into making it look 'nice' out there. Picture Credit: BBC A while back I sent off for the BBC Dig In free seeds, thinking that I'd donate them to my son's primary school.  They duly arrived, I sent him off to school with the envelope and he returned with it saying that they school had been donated loads of seeds and they couldn't use them all.  Since then (approximately 9 weeks) the envelope of seeds has sat on the desk in the front room, waiting for someone to do something with them . I was bored last Saturday so I was wandering round the kitchen, opening and cl...

Wow! 9 minutes in and already I want to punch at least eight of the contestants in the face I feel that I have wasted my life and I am totally inadequate at everything I do.  Here we have 16 and 17 year olds who have had their own businesses for three years and more whereas MY sixteen year old is languishing in his bedroom playing war games on the X-Box with some other no-mark from America and hasn't even got a Saturday job.  He should be revising for his GCSE's, which start next week but, let's face it, if he doesn't know it now, over-cramming isn't going to make it any better for him. I am thinking of making him sit in the room with me - we shall both wear suits - and hope that some of their business acumen rubs off on us both but I daren't venture into the room of stiff sheets and boy smells to drag him out.  Plus, his "suit" (out of school uniform, which actually IS a suit - ironically, he attends a business college) consists of trackies, train...