Sorry seems to be the easiest word

Everyone's apologising, have you noticed? The Government's doing it, the army's doing it, hospitals are doing it, police forces, councils, all kinds of public bodies are saying sorry for things they've done wrong. You just watch the news next time it's on, there'll be some company, some Government department or some A&E official (or enter your own bit here, it's a non-exhaustive list) who'll be saying sorry for losing someone's life, giving them the wrong thing, going the wrong way, doing the wrong thing when just simply doing things right would have been, you know, better. Everyone's at it, as if apologising publicly makes things all right when to have done the right thing, the proper thing, the lawful thing in the first place would have been the best thing anyone could ever have done. Apologies do not make things right.

Save BBC Radio 6

One little blog post won't make a difference but just in case it does... I hereby pledge my support to help save BBC 6 Music. It is the only radio station I listen to, what'll I do when it goes?

Without BBC 6 Music I would never have discovered I enjoyed Northern Soul and funk and soul. I would never have enjoyed last summer as much as I did because of Lauren Laverne and Suggs' Month of Sundays show. Their Glastonbury coverage was outstanding. And without Liz Kershaw's Saturday show in my life, Saturdays will be once more quite gray and dull.

How on earth can the BBC even be considering getting rid of something as wonderful as BBC Radio 6? Even David Bowie's pledged his support to the campaign to save it. Whether his support or this little blog post will make any difference at all, remains to be seen.

Cliches driving me mad

I don't blog often about work but there's been lots of meetings I'm attending right now as we're being hit by a huge wave of redundancies. At each meeting, cliches are being rolled out, the most popular being "parking" an issue and "moving forwards" on it.

I'm not sure if I'm in a meeting or a faulty Toyota.

Coronation Street Weekly Update, February 22 2010

I've been writing Coronation Street weekly updates since 1995 and this week's Coronation Street update has just gone live here.

This week the update goes into shock as Margi Clarke returns tot he cobbles.

February fed up

Is it just me? Am I the only one to be fed upthat it's still cold, still winter, still scarf and gloves weather?

And it's not just the weather. Since returning from a wonderful holiday in the Canaries I'm missing leaves on trees, flowers and greenery as well as the heat and the sun. There's redundancies at work making everyone upset, and there's, you know, not much to look forward to, is there?

I want to snap out of this but all I seem able to know how to do now after weeks of the same is to buckle down under a duvet and wait for it to pass.

Coronation Street Novel v.2

If you've read this blog post then you'll know why I'm smiling today after being asked to write another update to the book. It's a large word count in a short space of time but it's going to be a lot of soapy fun.

Canny in the Canaries

Just got back from last year's summer holidays (it's a long story) and had a smashing two weeks in the Canaries. While lying by the pool the books I got through on this holiday were as follows:

Chris Mullin MP, A View from the Foothills
Political diaries from someone who has something worth saying and can write damn well too. A fantastic book, 10/10.

Home by Marilynne Robinson
Worthy and dull. I kept plugging away at all as she's a Pullitzer Prize-winning author and this book won the Orange Prize 2009 so I felt obliged to like it. But I didn't - and gave up with about 20 pages to go. Dull. 4/10.

The Girl with Glass Feet by Ali Shaw
Magical. I cried at at the end. A wonderful first novel and I'll definitely read more from this author when their next book comes out. 8/10

The Girl who played with Fire by Steig Larsson.
The Girl who was on Holiday loved this book, the second of the Millennium trilogy. Almost every English person around the pool at our hotel was reading one of Steig Larsson's books. Fantastic. Can't get enough of it, waiting for the 3rd one to come into paperback now. 10/10

A Good Man in Africa by William Boyd
Started this book the day before we left and I'm just about finished it. Enjoyable, and reading it puts a smile on my face. 8/10