Flaming Nora

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 says "Nighty Night, petal."

To the flicks this week to see the final film adapated from the Steig Larsson trilogy: "Girl with the dragon tattoo / Girl who played with fire / Girl who kicked the hornets' nest." Having loved the novels, now I've seen all three films in their original Swedish with English sub-titles, I've got closure. All of them read, all of them seen, all of them enjoyed a huge amount. It's hard to know how the Hollywood versions of the three films, currently in production, will beat these Swedish originals as they've been so damn good and true to the books.  Actress Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander will be impossible to beat.

Growing up in a British coastal village, summer sunny days at the beach were the norm.  The beach was sand and shingle with some large, smooth, white rocks at one end that my brother and I nicknamed Polar Bear Island. I can't remember why and we never saw any.  At the beach, after egg and sand sandwiches, warm lemonade and a splash in the freezing north sea, I became fascinated by, and collected, the small glass pebbles that littered the shore. My favourite colours were the turquoise and the pinks but I just as easily loved the navy blues, the transparent ones and even the dull brown and greens. Pebbles collected on the beach would end up in an old, clean, marmalade jar that I kept by my bed so I could wake up and marvel at the colours, shapes and sizes of this wonderful glass. I know, I was a dreamer as a child. I think I still am. I also kept another marmalade jar with ladybirds in it, but that's another story, and...

A good bandstand is great, isn't it? It cheers the soul and brightens the heart, especially when there's a band playing in it. Even empty ones have a joy of their own. Some of the best bandstands I've seen were in Ostend, Belgium where there was a brass band playing on the bandstand in the market in the middle of town. Shoppers bought fruit and veg and oversized pants from the market stalls to the sounds of the band.  And another Ostend bandstand in the beautiful Leopoldpark was the stage for commuity salsa dancing on a Friday night. Bandstands, they're magic.

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 has gone all Sound of Music as it waves so long, farewell, to Claire Peacock.

Santa Claus brought me Mad Men series 1 for Christmas just gone. Series 2 was ordered post-haste and Series 3 is on its way this week. I haven't enjoyed a TV programme so much since this one . Although this one, is the only TV programme I've ever thought worth paying the telly licence for.

I'm having trouble sleeping. Major trouble sleeping. And it's because every night for the past 10 days, I've woken up at exactly: And then when I do eventually go back to sleep I wake up again at exactly: And when I say exactly , I mean exactly. I'm waking up every single morning at 1.00am and 3.00am on the flaming dot. I wish it would stop 'cos I'm tired.