BORIS

I'm putting this here because I don't want to lose it!

REM @ MANCHESTER

We saw REM at the Old Trafford cricket ground yesterday. That's the fourth time I've seen them live and it was the best. They bashed out one fantastic hit after another for over two hours.  Because I'm in the fan club (naturally) we had early-entry wrist bands so managed - we thought- to secure a prime position on the front row of the cricket-style seating. This was fine for the first six hours but by the time night was falling I'd lost count of the number of drunks who'd tried to climb or sit on the small metal rail in front of us, and overbalanced. Then one woman did her party piece and bent over the rail to vomit - nice.



My husband was there under sufferance and because he loathes getting stuck in traffic jams, suggested that we leave before the final song (we usually leave a racecourse before the final race) and he reasoned that I could listen to the finale in the car. I explained that if I wanted to do that I could just put a CD on.

Editors (I want to put a 'the' in front of their name but that would no-doubt age me) were on too - I thought they were very good and will now listen to more to see if it was just the live performance that I liked or if it was really their music.



#remmanchester

A LIVING STATUE

 

I've seen plenty of very good living statues but the one we saw in York yesterday takes some beating.

YORK

We go to the Ebor meeting at York every summer - sometimes we sunbathe while watching the races, sometimes we shiver. This year we didn't see a single race. The whole meeting was cancelled because of the rain.

What a disaster. I have to admit I prefer sightseeing and shopping anyway but our hotel was full of people who had travelled from all over the place to be there just for the racing element. Instead of losing money to the bookies we managed to find Wilfred Owen's cottage in Ripon;

had an enthusiastic tour of Shandy Hall where Laurence Sterne wrote Tristram Shandy

 

and saw Roman artefacts in Malton Museum so we've come home a lot wiser and probably richer.

BOY GEORGE

While our younger son was home for the weekend I was telling him that I'd just bought tickets to see Boy George at the Liverpool Philharmonic. He seemed overly surprised and it took me a while to work out why. I have a horrible feeling that we might be perched on the front row of the circle in amongst the whole of Liverpool's gay community. Not, I must very quickly add, that I have anything against them whatsoever, but WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT! My husband doesn't even know that he's going yet.

The artist son came round in a newly-acquired Golf Plus to take his brother for a spin round the block and to see the nursery. I'm not sure that our younger son knows what to make of all this baby activity and he came back with photos on his mobile of Oscar's more unusual clothes (including a baby Columbo-style mac) to send to all his friends.

CHRISTIAN

I may be slow on the uptake and you may well have already seen this video but I liked it so won't apologise for putting it here. A lion cub was bought from Harrods in the '60s and brought up in a London apartment. The owners christened him Christian.



He was released into an African reserve when he outgrew the accommodation. The owners went back a year later to see how he was getting on - despite being warned that it was the head of a pride and wouldn't know them. This is what happened ......

THE COURTYARD

The Courtyard at Little Crosby is just the sort of place I'd love to own. An old barn, turned tea room, with tables and chairs outside in amongst pots of flowers. There's even a black goat who sunbathes. We're going there for lunch - and if you're in the area, I can recommend the chargrilled vegetable sandwiches.

 

I've just had an email from ICICI informing me that I can now log on to my account. Ready for another fight, blood pressure soaring, I tried. IT WORKED. Well, wonders will never cease.