THANKS BRIAN

Next Sunday night I'll know better - I'll tape Brian Cox and his wonders of the universe and watch it first thing Monday morning because I've been tossing and turning all night after what seemed to be an hour-long  black comedy. With his eerie grin still in place, he told us how the universe will end; of exploding stars, of things being sucked inside themselves; of dying suns and crumbling worlds. Ok, he was talking trillions and trillions of billions years hence but nevertheless my remains will be on this dying planet and I have an interest in their future. There's one thing for certain, I'll no longer be worrying about how to make my housekeeping stretch a full month - oh no, I have much bigger things on my mind now.

WHERE ARE THEY?

Our son in London was in Zurich on Friday for work. Our daughter in Hull is now in London meeting up with our son. She was at the NBA game at the O2 Arena last night and will soon be jetting back to Hull for a Punt and Dennis show tonight (I've just read on Facebook!). I actually thought she was going to see John Bishop tonight - no that's Wednesday, she responds when I query. Meanwhile our other son has been hotel hopping in Edinburgh. Phew - I'm glad I've written it all down.

The London son and his fiance's wedding plans are taking shape - I hope! Because the wedding will be in his neck of the woods there's not much I can get involved in - so frustrating! I've started looking for an outfit, but I've still got a few pounds to lose before I can start trying on - and then I'll just have to hope and pray that I can keep that shape for another 14 months!

ADAM

We're really looking forward to meeting Adam when he arrives (hopefully around May 5th). We feel as though we already know him, after our introduction through the wonders of 3d scanning.

He looks a lot like King Oscar the 2nd to us - we shall see!

My trusty old computer finally died yesterday. I'd used it every day for ten years and I felt sympathy pains as it aged and became slower and slower. Our three children had been telling me to replace it with a newer model for years, but I was too loyal. I'd got to know all its little ways and for the past six months I'd been very patient when it refused to start breathing for at least 30 minutes after being switched on. And when it did  it sounded like an asthmatic steam train.  So it was with a heavy heart that I gave in yesterday and visited Argos. I'm now the owner of a very smart model that does everything I ask of it at lightning speed. But something is missing - and I think it's the noise.

Oscar is very old-fashioned in his ways and instructed his grandad to be "very careful" as he opened the patio doors last week. Then as he was leaving for home he almost went flying as he ran down the hall. He turned round with a wise old expression and said: "nearly".

We had a day in the Trough of Bowland this week - what a beautiful area it is. We made a real find - a pub we'd never come across before (and that's saying something). Tucked down a narrow little lane in Wiswell is the Freemasons Arms.

We had a drink beside the fire and studied the menu. We'll be back.

THE RIVALS

We saw The Rivals in London on Saturday night. Our seats were on the front row of the upper circle and without leaning over the rail it was only possible to see the top third of the action, and as soon as anyone on our row did lean forward, those on row b complained loudly. We enjoyed the performance although I've seen better Mrs Malaprops. The manner in which Penelope Keith delivered her lines reminded me of the policeman in 'Ello 'Ello. The actor who stole the show for me was Tony Gardner (the cafe owner from The Lead Balloon) as the captious Faulkland.

While we in London I tried to get to grips with my new phone - purchased (or rather upgraded to) in order to get an app the younger son had shown us when he was home. With it you can track any plane in the sky at that particular moment, and since we live under a flight path, I found it fascinating to discover where each plane was going as it passed overhead. When the phone arrived I spent 20 minutes searching for the keyboard, only to find that it was a touch-screen device. I don't want to be an old fuddy duddy but I hate it with a passion. Over the past few days, I've spent all my time prodding the screen, trying to correct words and letters that make no sense and when I needed to make an urgent call, I found that I just didn't know how so it can now be located on eBay; I'm back to my trusty old Nokia and I'll just have to guess where the planes are heading.

GOD & STEPHEN HAWKING

John C. Lennox

Richard Dawkins and now Stephen Hawking annoy me no end with their aetheist proclamations and rallying cries. Each to his own, and if people are aetheists good luck to them, but I get tired of reading from people who should know better,  that science has replaced God. From a newspaper review I'd read, a professor of mathematics at Oxford felt the same so I ordered his book "God and Stephen Hawking" and now, having devoured it, I feel much better. John C. Lennox MA PhD DPhil Dsc is no lightweight and has debated Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and lectured all over the world. He says in an erudite and often amusing way, that offering people the choice between God and science is illogical - it isn't a question of either/or. We need both levels of explanation to give a complete description. The two complement each other. God is the cause in the first place of there being a world for the laws of physics to describe.
I feel happier today knowing that someone is answering the dogmatic aetheists back. And it makes me laugh when I think of the slogan on London's bendy buses that "there is PROBABLY no God so go and enjoy your life" - nothing like sitting on the fence!

CHESHIRE CHEESE

We've been enjoying Michael Portillo's train journeys on BBC2 and when he stopped off at a traditional cheese-making farm in Cheshire I sat up and took note. I love cheese - the more traditional and tasty the better - and this farm looked fantastic. It belongs to the Bourne family and is situated in Malpas. After the programme I looked the place up on the internet and discovered that it was possible to order online ( http://www.hsbourne.co.uk/ ). I filled in an old-fashioned looking form and ordered Mrs Bourne's cheese selection. There was no method of paying so I didn't hold out much hope and the website didn't seem to have been updated since 2002. But this morning the beautiful cheeses, bearing hand-written labels, arrived along with the sort of invoice we used to be given before the days of plastic.
    I rang the farm to thank them and to give my card details. John Bourne himself answered and told me to pop a cheque in the post when I got chance. "I hope you enjoy them because they're pretty bloody good," he said. I'm absolutely certain we will.

GO AWAY!

If you've put some pornographic request into Google please look elsewhere. My stat counter, although healthy numerically is very unhealthily showing me that hundreds of visits are being made by perverts (mainly in Italy). I don't understand why Google is sending them my way but please, unless reading the ramblings of a grandma who bakes and knits, is what you're after, give it a rest and go and find something more interesting to do with your time.