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Category Archives: Random
Christmas cake, no recipe, no marzipan, home-made

Balls to #nigella and #lorraine. It might look rubbish but home-made made by me and a three-year-old
Time to enter the Rescue Run and raise funds for the Air Ambulance
IF you need an exercise goal then Northampton’s annual Rescue Run is ideal, offering either a five or ten kilometre course you can run, walk or skip around with the family. This year’s Rescue Run takes place at Billing Aquadrome, Northampton, on Sunday, September 4 at 11am.
The Rescue Run has been organised for nine years by new Mum Selena Jacobs from Virgin Active and her band of volunteers, and all the entry fees go direct to the Warwickshire and Northants Air Ambulance.
Our unfit family joined in a couple of years ago complete with three under tens and a baby in a buggy. We may not have got the fastest times but felt rather proud of our efforts!
You can enter on the day or get the paper work out of the way by printing out the form in advance by clicking RR Entry Form 2011
Entry costs £8.50 for adults and £5 for under 16s on the 5k run, and £12 adults and £10 kids on the 10k run. There are medals for all finishers!
Please could everyone start realising the difference between regional and national press?
Just a quick one: while everyone is shocked and scandalised about the techniques of the national papers, there hasn’t been any mention of the regionals other than to lump us all in as one giant scummy mass.
The regional press used to be where the nationals got all their story leads. The very low-paid provincial cannon-fodder reporter, who had to use a contact book rather than a cheque book, did the ground work, did the interviews, got the pictures, played by the rules.
And then the nationals would send in their troops to piss everyone off and bugger off back to London to twist and spin the original tale. The broadcast media also get the bulk of their stories from papers, local and national.
The idea of local papers hacking anyone is pretty laughable. Most offices don’t even have a landline on every desk, let alone the cash for a PI or bung for a bent copper.
Since the switch to celebrity over story about 10 years ago, the regionals have seen less of their stories stolen. Now the owners of the regionals give them away for free.
But the local papers, mostly owned by corporations in some distant land, have been left to decay. They still have great trained staff, they abide by the law, they know their patch and their readers. They will usually have the same breaking national news as well as news that is actually of value to the locality for less than 50p a paper. Yet they are suffering from falling readership and chronic lack of investment. The single quoted annual salary of a Times columnist would pay for at least a dozen regional reporters.
So, as more and ‘exposures’ come to light, don’t lump your local in with all this distaste for the alleged reporting methods of a handful of national hacks, execs and private investigators.
Want news? Buy local. Buy your local paper.
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Osmonds ‘Final’ UK tour, coming to Northampton, April 2012
NOT sure this is strictly my thing, but apparently the Osmonds are coming to town (and many others). Our date is sandwiched between Glasgow and London.
The Northampton show is at Royal & Derngate, Friday April 27, 2012, 7.30pm, and tickets go on sale TODAY (June 8).
For Northampton tickets, priced at a whopping £30.50 and £28.50, contact the Box Office on 01604 624811 or visit
Filed under Random
A quarter of a century after listening to Duran Duran in the dark, I meet Simon Le Bon. But he’s mute.
SOME of you might be around the same-ish age as me. Some of you may be female, which means you may, around the early 1980s, have been a Duranie. (A devotee of the band Duran Duran).
Growing up in the deep South West, I could never claim to be a full-on Duranie. I never saw them live, or got an autograph by hanging around where they lived.
The closest I got was watching Top of the Pops, several posters on my
wall, a treasured copy of Rio – on vinyl – and fevered discussions with my friend Sally about how we were going to get John Taylor (her) and Roger Taylor (me) to be our boyfriends.
Needless to say, we weren’t as hardcore and loyal as some of our peers. Apart from the soaring Ordinary World, the music faded over the years as did
our penchant for silly hair and duster coats. I grew out of Duran Duran.
- Not just a careless memory
Then 25 years later, wandering around the floral pavilion at Chelsea Flower Show like a proper grown-up, I spot Duran Duran’s lead singer Simon Le Bon, walking hand-in-hand with his sickeningly beautiful wife Yasmin.
At first I pretended I hadn’t noticed them, but in my head I’m thinking, “Should I say something? I’m a journalist for goodness sake, I can ask them about Chelsea. What’s the matter with you Hilary, you don’t usually get flustered by fame?”
I sidled up, offered both a handshake, intending to say, “Hello, do you mind having a quick chat about your favourite gardens?”
Instead, I stammer, “Er, hello, I’m Hilary and I’m, er, 41, which, er, means I was a big fan, and, oh, dear, how unprofessional, I, er, wondered if you’d mind if I took your photo . . ?”
At which point, Mr Le Bon takes my camera phone out of my hand, gives it to Yasmin, and gives me a hug, before posing for a photo with me.
But he doesn’t speak*. Not a word. Having interviewed a few pop-stars and actors over the years, I decided the non-speaking thing could just have been a weird celebrity quirk (I’ve seen weirder), or perhaps he was preserving his
voice, as some singers do before a gig.
So I find myself talking to this mute man – whose amazing voice I listened to in the dark, on a flip-up cassette player in my early teens – through Yasmin. But she’s struggling to make my phone take a picture.
It’s all a bit surreal.
She thinks she’s taken it, but it doesn’t click, I have to get her to
do it again. I’m embarrassed. They are both patient. I wave goodbye
and they walk off together again. Not speaking.
I stand still for a while, staring at my phone, wondering. There’s a picture of me and Simon Le Bon on it. Simon Le Bon!
I tweet it, in a completely show-offy way, hoping that somehow my mate Sally, now in her 40s, living in Dorset and mum to three kids, will see it. And be jealous.
Then I remember . . . she’s not on Twitter.
*I found out later that the first gigs on Duran Duran’s massive tour have been cancelled due to Simon Le Bon’s chronic laryngitis
Lee Evans to perform in Northampton in June. Tickets go on sale today.
One of Britain’s best-loved and biggest comedy stars, Lee Evans will be performing at Royal & Derngate in June as a warm up to his forthcoming arena tour.
Tickets for his gig, on Thursday June 30 , go on sale at 10am today, initially only to members of the theatre’s Friends scheme. Booking will open to the general public from Friday June 3.
Ex-boxer Lee Evans, whose previous 2008 tour Big was the UK’s biggest ever solo live comedy gig, will be performing from notes trying out new material for his record-breaking Roadrunner tour which will see him perform 50 nights in the biggest venues around. This will be a fantastic
opportunity for Northampton audiences to see this comic genius at work up close before he sets out on tour.
Tickets are expected to sell quickly and priority booking will be given to members of Royal & Derngate’s Friends scheme (previously called enjoy) until Friday June 3. Anyone joining the Friends scheme during the priority booking period will be eligible to book tickets for Lee Evans at the same time.
Friends can enjoy advance email notification of shows going on sale, ticket discounts, priority allocation of tickets, no postage fees and a host of other rewards, from £30. Tickets range from a minimum of £1 off to £5 off per ticket and 2 for 1 offers, varying from show to show. For full details or to join call Royal & Derngate Box Office on 01604 624811.
Tickets for Lee Evans’ ‘warm up’ gig on Thursday 30 June, 8pm, are priced £28.50 (£27.50 for Friends). Members of the Friends scheme can book by phone on 01604 624811 or in person from Tuesday May 31 to Thursday June 2, from 10am to 8pm.
General booking opens from 10am on Friday June 3, by phone, in person or online at http://www.royalandderngate.co.uk.
Filed under Random
A poem to help you remember wordy stuff
Seeing as you ask, here’s the poem I was taught in primary school to remember, er, word stuff.
Every name is called a NOUN, field and fountain, street and town
In place of noun the PRONOUN stands, like he and she can clap their hands
The ADJECTIVE describes a thing, As magic wand and bridal ring;
The VERB means action, something done – To read, to write, to jump, to run;
How things are done, the ADVERBS tell, As quickly, slowly, badly, well;
The PREPOSITION shows relation, As in the street, or at the station;
CONJUNCTIONS join, in many ways, Sentences, words, or phrase and phrase;
The INTERJECTION cries out, ‘Hark! I need an exclamation mark!‘
Not drowning, but waving
Sorry, it’s been a while. It’s not you, it’s me. What with all the Christmas, New Year and freelance palaver, I’ve neglected my bloggish ramblings, and for that, I apologise.
Coming soon though, the revelation that I have managed to dig some leeks, edible ones mind, from the allotment, the kids have finished their month-long gad-about in the Lion, the Witch and Wardrobe (see previous ramblings), I have added a Walking section to my chaotic schedule and I have work, quite a lot of it actually, for the New Year at least. Don’t say I don’t spoil you. Now it’s almost midnight so I’m off to bed.
Mince Pie Disaaaaster
Last year I made my first ever mince pies. From scratch. Own pastry, own filling (and I don’t even really like mince pies).
Here’s this year’s effort: home made pastry, and far too much Robinsons’ filling, too long in the oven.
Ouch hot burny mess
Yuk. . .
Filed under Random
Hilary Scott Writes 