RED!

Red Top

My grandparents were avid readers of the News of the World, as were my parents. My mum insisted it wasn't suitable reading for me and I can remember sneaking looks at the broadsheet, as it was then in the '70s, and being shocked (but secretly excited) by some of the stories it carried. The NOTW is not a newspaper I read but it had a nostalgic element for me as  when I saw it on the newsagents shelf's it brought back memories of my dear old grandad sitting in his armchair struggling with its huge pages.  I am saddened by its demise. Hacking-gate is a scandal that will no doubt run and run, as did the MP expense scandal last year, and more and more underhand practices will no doubt be uncovered. The move by Murdock to kill off the NOTW is a clever and cynical one. The Sunday Sun will be launched and the Murdock empire will hardly suffer yet blameless people will have lost their jobs because of the corrupt actions of some unscrupulous hacks. 

Red Head

I am puzzled - why is the editor of the NOTW not being made to resign? I am sure the NOTW was demanding Sharon Shoesmiths head on a plate after the death of Baby Peter. If Shoesmith had the ultimate responsibility for the actions of staff on her watch then why not the flame haired Rebekha Brooks? 

One thing that is clear - come the revolution it won't be on the streets. It will be waged on Twitter and Facebook.

I love a newspaper - even in these days of online 24 hour news. I hope they survive this.

Red Car

The car I am currently driving is a real attention grabber. Every time I return to where I've left it parked I have to peel men of the bonnet and answer a barrage of questions about it. Women and even children come up to tell me 'I love your car'. I have lost count of the number of friends and acquaintances who have told me 'I saw you driving along today/at the weekend, love the car.' Out driving today my daughter she commented 'this is embarrassing - everyone is looking at us' and my son is starting to refuse the offer of a lift.  Yesterday I was filling it with fuel (only the 3rd visit of a petrol garage in the several weeks I have had it) and I became aware of the man filling his car alongside me staring at it intently. He walked across the forecourt still staring hard at the car and I could see him continuing to stare at it as he queued to pay for his fuel. When I joined him in the queue he turned to me and said 'that's a beautiful car'. Instead of thanking him I said 'yes, isn't it'  and we both sighed and then continued to look out of the window admiring its gorgeousness. Now  if I was driving some high end German car, or a sleek sports car, or even a top of the range model, I could understand all this attention. But no, I am driving a new model of a very common car, albeit the model I'm driving is pretty rare on the road. What is grabbing all the attention is the car's colour. Imagine the brightest reddest red you can think of and then add a dash of orange and that may bring you close to the red of the car. The other day when I went back to it I found two men drooling over it. 'We were waiting to see what the driver of this car looked like'. They must have been very disappointed to see it was a middle aged, overweight woman. Apparently if you drive a red car it means you are sexy and adventurous. No wonder they had hung around. As I said it is a pretty unusual model but yesterday I found myself driving behind a brown one. Yes - brown. No doubt it is called 'Latte' of something but it is actually just...brown.  This attracted very little attention. At a roundabout no other driver paid it
the slightest bit of attention but all had a good look at mine. So definitely the colour. If you want masses of attention and for complete strangers to strike up conversations with you get yourself a cute red car. Or a dog.