Sainsbury's and the Giraffes

Sainsbury's has decided to rebrand its Tiger Bread after a young girl (Lily Robinson, aged 3 and a half) wrote to them pointing out that it looks more like a giraffe than a tiger. Chris King (aged 27 and a third) wrote back to his young correspondent agreeing that Giraffe Bread was much more appropriate.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16812545
It's a fair point, and well done to them for being open to suggestions, but it's going to take a while for me to get used to the idea of Giraffe Bread!

And I Thought I was Having a Bad Day at Work!

The Telegraph today carries the story of a cargo ship that ploughed through a bridge in Kentucky. According to the story, the ship was too tall to pass underneath the structure and ended up demolishing a section of it. The picture in the video shows a section of road teetering on the bow of the vessel.
Thankfully nobody was actually on that section at the time but just imagine it: driving along a road only to suddenly find yourself parked on the bow of a cargo ship!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/9048682/Cargo-ship-smashes-through-Kentucky-bridge.html

Aren't Rules Meant to be Broken?

There are days when, despite a lifelong ambition, I'm ready to admit I might never make it as a professional writer. Today is one of those days. I normally avoid websites that offer advice to writers because I find that when I try too hard to follow 'rules' I write mechanically, without expression or fire. Recently though there has been much talk in a group I follow of various 'rules' being taught on a course a lot of the members are doing. I think I break them all. What's more, I don't want to change the way I write. I reviewed one of my recent stories with the 'rules' in mind and decided that if I changed it to fit, it would lose all its character.
I'm not convinced the rules should really be more than guidelines, things to consider but not slavishly follow, but the more I research, the more I find myself at odds with current thinking. Maybe I'm writing outside my time. Should I leave it to those who understand the rules and write accordingly?
But I love telling stories, making up worlds, creating characters. If you have an interesting plot, great characters, and a gripping and believable situation, surely that's what keeps a reader reading?

Did I Blink?

We had a family gathering this weekend for a birthday celebration, and very nice it was too. But it's strange how, even when there's a houseful, just one absentee can leave a very large gap. That certain rather special person couldn't make it back for this gathering and her absence was keenly felt.
I wouldn't mind but university seemed to come around so quickly. One minute she was small and charging around playing games with her cousins, the next she'd packed up her things and gone off in pursuit of a degree.
I'm pretty sure some rotten devil must have snuck in and stolen a couple of years.

A Model World

I've always been fascinated by models. Not the nubile, scantily clad, tousle haired and pouting lip kind, you understand, they just make me feel inadequate. But a model railway, or a model village, or better yet, a model village with a model railway, are things of joy to me. I'm fascinated by the detail, the exactness of scale, the world in perfect miniature.
As a child I spent many happy hours playing with the toy farm Dad made, delighting in the white three bar fences, the hay loft cleverly constructed out of doweling and a squash bottle, and the yard with its thoughtfully carved ramps to allow for easy access for our tractors.
I also had a Matchbox racing car set. It was fun, but I always felt it lacked a certain realism without grass, pits, grandstands etc. Plastic track perched on the lounge carpet fell slightly short of my grand ideas.
Maybe it's as well this man wasn't in business back then, because I would have been desperate for one of his creations. Mind you, I would have had to remove my bed and everything else from my bedroom to make way for it, not forgetting that my parents would have probably balked at the price tag!
http://slotmods.com/
Now, I know it's a very long time until Christmas, but it's never too early to start working on that list, is it?

One Glimmer in the Gloom

It's a grey day, low wall-to-wall cloud, steady drizzle, a pervading chill with a steady breeze, because the wind wouldn't want to miss out on the action, would it? The news is demonstrating its usual capacity to outdo the weather in the gloom stakes; the national debt is higher than ever, despite reduced borrowing, there are more companies in administration discussions, drug offenders are avoiding jail and people on benefits are complaining that £26,000 wouldn't be enough to live on (I'd better not get started on that or I might break my own strict rules on the use of expletives in this blog).
And so it is that I'm very grateful to that certain rather special person for bringing to my attention the one funny story on offer. It concerns the troubling issue of Big Ben and his gathering tilt. There are two videos in the piece, the second one, halfway down the page is the one that put a smile on my face. Watch out for the final consultant at the end of the piece!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-16677456

New Yorkers Losing Their Accent?

I was distressed to read the report on the Telegraph's website suggesting the New York accent is in danger of disappearing because it's seen as less than correct. But it's a fantastic accent! How strange that it should be perceived so differently on opposite sides of the Atlantic! Imagine Detective Danny Messer, CSI NY, without his glorious Italian/ New Yorker accent - unthinkable!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9027125/Fuhgeddaboutit-New-York-accent-may-be-dying-out.html
 I won't insult New Yorkers by attempting to sign off in their fashion, but will simply say that I, for one, am a fan.