Jacqueline

Sounds like you are doing well with the weight loss. As LinMM says, there is a new Lisa emerging, thinking about how you look. By all means get your hair cut, it is an instant pep up. When my hair needs a trim and my fringe is in my eyes, it really gets me down. I look in the mirror and think good god who is that fat old woman? Do something! Go to the ballet, treat yourself to something nice from the Body Shop or similar. Everyone needs something to look forward to, it doesn't have to be expensive. The dieting or just watching what you eat will become part of your life rather than the be all and end all. Get out there girl. Lisa has arrived!

Comments after the Guardian piece are quite entertaining. Mr MacGregor himself, I assume it is the real Mr MacGregor and not someone pretending to be him, has replied to some particularly negative feedback. Our own BillBoyd also features! Despite residual misgivings, I am actually looking forward to the matinee, not least for the opportunity to see Miss Ferri. I cannot believe she would involve herself in anything less than interesting.

I was hoping for Mildred!

Oh, was she? sorry, I had forgotten. I mainly just noticed, to my disappointment, Nunez was missing. It may be a website error as you say. Maybe the ticket sales are also an error and it is in fact, completely sold out

I saw La Fille some time ago with Kobborg/Cojocaru. I remember it being full of charm. There is a scene where Colas is greeting various ladies. Unfortunately on this occasion, one of them had a slip and fell absolutely flat on her face. She hit the deck with such a smack, I was amazed that she was able to get up and carry on, the action barely missing a beat. Colas didn't seem to blink an eye. I had to admire the astonishing discipline it must take to have a fall like that and just get over and on with it.

First cast change, Nunez is now out and Hamilton is in. Only just noticed so sorry if this is old news.

Thanks for that, sounds like I will be free from 2pm then, may as well get the early coach home! You beat me to it! Yes, can we have any insights from the Insight please?

Yes, it does sound unlikely although Miss Vishneva might be intending some sort of documentary type production. I see some have referred to this show as a sort of personal journey, about who she is and so on. Words that make my heart sink. There has been comparison with Miss Guillem, as perhaps having been wiser in her choice of material. Some of the time at least. Eonnagata is best left at the very back of the shelf. In my opinion of course. Interestingly, or not, depending on your point of view, Miss Guillem made a film about herself, including clips from Eonnagata and other pieces. The film/documentary was called Sur le fil, or On the Edge. Cosmic.

Tickets are still in very plentiful supply, some seats that were sold have come back on for sale. Is it normal for a world premiere starting in less than a month, to be so selling so poorly? Perhaps it will pick up nearer the time. I am beginning to wish I had held out a bit longer. Is there any clue as to the running time? I imagine as it is full length - what does that mean exactly, does a ballet have to be a certain length to be considered full length or do they pad out what is essentially a short piece, with as many intervals as they think they can get away with? I am guessing that if it is 'full length', the programme notes will run into several volumes!

zxDaveM, your pics are always so evocative and imaginative. Sorry if you have been asked before, but I was wondering if you ever considered doing a calender or gathering them all together in a book of some sort. I imagine the cost would be prohibitive.

I understand your fear, it is perfectly reasonable. I reported an incident last year and was afraid of reprisals. As it turned out, the other party, wholly predictably, denied everything, tried to make me out to be neurotic and a liar and turned on the tears for extra special effect. All this was reported back to me for a comment, as though I had to justify my complaint and prove it. This made me so angry that it gave me strength to pursue the matter, despite it dragging on and there being times I wanted to say oh, just forget it. What kept me going as well, was the thought that what happened to me could happen to somebody else and the knowledge that people like this rely on their 'victims' doing nothing for fear of reprisal. She tried to make out she was scared of me! As for the behavior you are being subjected to, let's hope a visit from the law will stop him in his pathetic tracks. As has been said, if you do nothing, he will see this as your compliance, either that you are too scared to take action or, heaven forbid, you are enjoying the display. In any case, he will almost certainly deny it and make out you are lying/neurotic/secretly fancy him and so on. You may even discover he has form in which case, it will be a police matter and out of your hands. Whichever it is, you must report it for your own sake. Nobody has the right to make you uncomfortable and afraid in your own home.

You never know, Our Brian could be lost one day, the stars having failed to align correctly. He finds himself on your street and decides to knock on your door to ask directions. You should always be prepared, however unlikely it may seem that this could happen. If you keep him waiting because you are eating cake, he will assume no one is in and go next door. As for the choc making you feel sick, that is good because it means your taste buds are adjusting to less sugary stuff. If you avoid as much artificially sweetened stuff as you can, you will start to really get the true flavour of things, seeing food as something you can enjoy rather than feel guilty about. Get used to unsweetened tea etc and you will prefer it. Also, try better quality chocolate with a higher cocoa content. It costs a bit more but it tastes like chocolate should. You will eat less of it but enjoy it more and never go back to the mass produced stuff. Ignore the special offers, they're a con. Go for quality, it's better for you and cheaper in the long run. I like those mini eggs by Lindt. They are small and tightly wrapped in foil, so can be a fiddle to open but that slows down the speed you trough them! Don't cheat by unwrapping them in advance!

He did have that one hit with Einstein a GoGo, but relatively speaking the guy had two left feet.

Have you considered putting a little pic of Professor Brian on your fridge door, and anywhere else food may be calling you? It is a simple but surprisingly effective way to stop you snacking or eating anything you know you shouldn't. Imagine his eyes following you as you reach for the cake! Imagine he is telling you to put the cheese back and step away from the fridge! It worked for me although the pic wasn't Prof. Cox.

I like your style!! I have also cracked and bought a ticket. They seem to be in plentiful supply! I have gone for the matinee despite the early start. The cast - should it appear - is stellar and as you say, Mr McGregor is using a lot of dancers and what should be an interesting subject. I dithered over this as the wheels fell off Two Tractors and I ended up swapping that ticket. I have also blown a large part of my budget on Sylvie at the Coliseum. But hey, nothing ventured. As you say, it might be really good!

I gather Sylvie is doing two further shows at the Birmingham Hippodrome on September 8/9. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, friends can book from 10 am, ordinary folks such as moi, from 11 am. So possibly another chance to get one's foot in the door.

Can I just say how sorry I was to hear of the death of Anne Kirkbride a.k.a. Deirdre Barlow of Coronation Street. Miss Kirkbride developed the character into somebody very believable. As an actress, she was brilliant at comedy and tragedy, her timing was immaculate and she had an unbeatable way with a line, funny or serious. She was also a talented artist. I gather she was a lovely lady and will be much missed. I hope she at peace now.

I recently saw A Kind of Loving on one of the Free View channels. The film is even older than I am and yet I have never seen it before. I have always liked Alan Bates and this film is a little gem of its genre. Not only is it interesting as a reflection of the times, clothes, architecture and so on but it is is such a neat little story about human behavior, much of which is still true today. The more we change, the more we stay the same! The big difference is the reaction Vic gets, when he goes to his family expecting sympathy after he walks out on his wife. His mother won't speak to him, his sister with whom he has always been close and his father, essentially tell him to pull himself together.I love what his father says about not living with the mother - in - law. Vic has made his bed so he can lie on it. So that is pretty much what he does. Nowadays I suppose the marriage would just collapse at the first hurdle and nobody would think anything of it. They would fight it out on the Jeremy Kyle show, do the lie detector and then go their separate ways. Does anyone watch Judge Rinder by the way? Due to my work schedule, it is my current guilty pleasure. Some of the cases have to be heard to be believed. Some are quite sad but others are very funny. The things people fight over!

I understand the piece is 50 years old this year, but even so, surely it doesn't need to be on twice and within such a short period. I find it rather annoying as well, as there are other pieces in both bills I would like to see. I have seen Song before and wouldn't mind seeing it again, although I wouldn't particularly choose to and certainly not twice.

Sorry if this is a stupid question, but why is Song of The Earth featuring in both upcoming triple bills?

I had a very pleasant Christmas thank you. I trust you did too. As for the woman being diabetic, she may have been running out of insulin. But it is her responsibility to ensure she had enough medication to cover eventualities such as adverse weather and travel disruption. She did not say if medication was a problem, merely that she was diabetic.The nature of the child's sickness was not gone into. Had it been serious, I imagine the rescue services could have got the child to a hospital. I also gather shops and facilities were available at the airport. The rescue and travel services had a very large number of people to deal with, in very difficult conditions. My 'problem' is with people moaning and complaining about some minor and relatively brief discomfort, when they should just be thankful and grateful to be home safe and sound.

Yes, no effort required. Just point the microphone at the 'victim' and they do the rest. I wish interviewers would make more effort to question what these people say, but then, why bother. Today's 'news', tomorrow's chip wrapper. Or maybe not so much nowadays, due to health and safety. What a shocker if the returning travelers said they realised, having looked out the window, that conditions were indeed, rather difficult. With this in mind, they had done everything they possibly could to help themselves, by wearing warm clothes, taking water and food and making sure they had all the necessary medications. But even so, they were hugely grateful to the rescuers and various staff who had done their best to get the folks home safely. Yeah right. I guess that wouldn't work so well on the compensation form. I also nominate for Room 101, the 'victim sofa pics' ( beloved of a certain daily ) in which people, who have suffered a misfortune, usually as a result of their own stupidity, are the subject of more lazy journalism, in which their sorry tale is laid out in embarrassing ( although not to them apparently ) detail. We are invited to sympathize, while they pose, looking stricken, on a sofa, sometimes holding something up and pointing to it, such as a final reminder or a crying child. It seems a missed opportunity for free advertising when the article doesn't tell us who provided that sofa. They always tell us how much the house is worth, even if the story is genuinely tragic.

While I appreciate their 'disappointment', I would just like to mention the whingeing holiday makers that have returned safely from their French skiing trips. I was appalled last night and again this morning, when they were given a great deal of news air time to express their grievances over the 'shambles' that ensued after the extreme snowfall. On and on it went, the litany of complaints about how they were kept waiting, not given any food , or proper accommodation etc. One guy last night must have decided this was his 15 minutes of fame and he was going to milk it for all it was worth. At one point, the newscaster suggested that perhaps to have got home safe and sound within a relatively short time given the conditions, was something to be thankful for. Particularly in the light of disappearing planes and burning ferries perhaps. But no, he wasn't having that, his holiday was ruined and that was all that mattered. This morning, we had some woman moaning about their treatment. Apparently she is diabetic and there was a sick child in their party. And? Surely neither of those factors is the fault or responsibility of the tour company. No doubt it was difficult and uncomfortable to a degree. Perhaps matters could have been handled more efficiently. I do not represent any travel firm but I do have some sympathy with what they were up against in that snow. Yet last week, people moaned about there being no snow. Now there is too much! Life just ain't fair is it.

Mmm, tricky one as has been said. I would tend to go with the token present for now which could be ballet related. Is there any dance event locally you could take her to as a treat? Anything financial can lead to a mine field even with the best intentions. I rather like the idea of your daughter giving another impromptu lesson to see if the interest is still there in a few weeks, or was it more to do with the excitement of the party. It seems a huge leap, forgive the pun, to go from one bit of fun teaching at a party, to signing a child up for formal lessons with all that entails. I used to look after a little girl who showed an interest in ballet. She was duly signed up for lessons - money was not an issue in her case - fully kitted out and all was well. Within a few weeks, she had lost interest. She wanted to be the Sugar Plum Fairy immediately! The little girl you know may get into ballet later. Wasn't Miss Bussell a late starter? As for what you do, you are obviously in doubt and I think you should listen to those doubts and be cautious.

Tetley's Tempest? Storm in a teacup,