Why celebrities should be banned from twitter

I love twitter, I realy do. I follow some interesting, funny people who write pithy things in 140 characters or less.  And I also follow some celebrities, people I admire. Some of these people I've loved for decades - singers, writers, comedians, actors.

How wonderful to follow them on twitter, gain their insights, find out what they're working on next, what they're thinking, how they live their lives away from the media glare. I thought folllowing them on twitter would bring me a little closer to understanding my favourite celebs.

Unfortunately, it has.

I'm not naming names but I'm very disapppointed in you all.

My favourite writer of all time, I've got all her books and read more than one of them more than once. But she's rubbish at twitter and she tweets all the bleedin' time about absolutely nowt. Get off the twitter and spend your time writing another book, woman. Unfollowed.

My favourite female singer, ever. Bolshy and ballsy on stage is fine. Bolshy and ballsy on twitter is not, not with your fans. Unfollowed.

My two favourite TV writers both proved to be too desperate for attention. Both constantly tweeting a "look at me, love me, look at me, love me" way through their days. One of them even retweets his followers and pokes rather nasty fun at them which really isn't nice. Both of them unfollowed.

Bring back Smash Hits! Or have tweets approved by a PR, airbrushed and glossed to fit fans' perception of what we're buying into. Twitter brings the reality of fame too horribly close to real life.

Coronation Street weekly update, June 25 2012

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

This week in Corrie, there's been a right carry on with the barmaid and the boozer.

Gibside

To Gibside National Trust at the weekend.

What a smashing place.

Not just a dusty old house and a bit of a garden, like you normally get with National Trust. There's acres of forest walks too.

Highly recommended.

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Coronation Street weekly update, June 18 2012

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

This week in Corrie, I'm sick to the back teeth of back room St Ella.

Fun with funiculars

Being a fan of funiculars, I went quite giddy with excitement when I found out that there was a song about funiculars. Mind you, I've only ever been in the ones at Scarborough but there's something special about a tram that goes up and down a hillside. 

When I win the lottery I'm going to travel the world and ride all the funiculars I can find, both up and down, and tick them all off in a little book.

Wet weekend

To the flicks this rainy weekend to see the new Ken Loach film, The Angels' Share.

It's wonderful and I can't recommend it enough. Broadly, it's a comedy about friendship and love, whisky, kilts and violence. If you enjoy watching This is England on telly, you'll love this movie.

At the end of the film, the audience broke into spontaneous applause. I can't remember the last time that happened at the flicks. 

And then to the National Glass Centre in Sunderland to see the final year glass and ceramics degree show. There was some amazing work, most of it well above the maturity you'd expect at undergraduate level. Gorgeous glass from some very talented Sunderland University students.

View it until June 22nd. Miss it at your disadvantage.

Olympic Torch Relay in Sunderland

Up unusually early this Saturday morning to stand in the rainy drizzle on the sea front to watch the Olympic Torch 2012 wend its way through Seaburn at Sunderland. 

First there were police bikes, then police cars, then the Coca-Cola bus and more merchandising.

Then a long wait.

Then more police bikes, more police cars and the torch bearer himself. Followed by more police bikes and more police cars.

I've uploaded my pictures to flickr.

Coronation Street weekly update, June 11 2012

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

This week in Corrie, Gail was quacking.

Garden in June

Pootling through my old Flaming Nora blog posts I came across a fair few pictures of our old garden in London and realised that although we've been in the new house in Sunderland for over a year, I'd not posted any garden pictures.  So here is the first one.  If you know me on facebook of course (and I only facebook-friend people I know) then you'll have seen the full set.

In London, our back garden was our refuge from the crowds, the rush, the noise that was London. It was a tranquil space full of gorgeous plants with a mature apple tree in the middle and after 10 years working on it, it was a little gem. There's not much I miss about London but I miss that back garden.

Anyway, the new back garden up north is almost twice the size of that London one and we've got a mahoosive front garden too. Despite it being battered by sea-breeze and salt air, the soil is fertile and just about everything you plant out will grow. It's a labour of love, there's a lot to enjoy and we're trying our best to turn it into a cottage garden, as much as we can. As much as the old garden in London was, you could say.

Coronation Street weekly update, June 4 2012

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

This week in Corrie, Rita become the new Mrs. Tanner.

Surf and turf

Went out for a little walk today which ended up turning into a four hour ramble over hill and down hill and back home along the coast.  There's a flickr photo album right here.