The magazine Runners World have just listed her incredible marathon achievements as being in the top 10 &  top 20 in her AGE GROUP. This is completely inaccurate and an insult to her. She is No. 10 and 20 OVERALL. This is so demeaning for the incredible effort she has put in. It’s  like comparing winning £10 on the lottery with winning the Jackpot.

Shame on a publication that does not get its facts right before it goes to print.

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Once the printing press arrived, did readers welcome it, or did they regard it as a horrible modern invention and the ruination of the book? Did they prefer to unwind 50 feet of parchment to read the story?

I read a thread recently where somebody was saying how delighted they were with their Kindle. The thread deteriorated rapidly, with “proper” book readers expressing scorn and indignation. One of them went so far as to say that “these fads will soon be nothing more than piles of junk cluttering up the waste-fills, because nobody will want them.”  The conversation became quite aggressive.

Music has evolved from live performance through vinyl discs, via tape cassettes to CDs and is now in digital format. It’s all music however you listen to it. Many people find digital music quality preferable to vinyl. Some purists still enjoy those scratchy old discs. Whether people prefer listening to the vinyl, digital music is still “proper” music.

Digital photographs are “proper” photographs even though they have not been taken with a box with a pinhole in it. I have one friend who resolutely refuses to use a digital camera. That’s fine, it’s his choice. But he doesn’t rail against anybody who does.

I understand that everybody has their preferences, but do people really have to get so worked up if others choose to use a different media?

A book filled with blank pages can still be described as a book, even though there’s nothing to read in it. And an e-book/digital book is as much a book as one printed on paper. Provided it has words in it.

I find it strange when people say “Oh, I’d never read on an e-reader – I hate reading on a computer. I only read proper books.”  An e-reader is no more like a computer than a fish is like a bird. They are two entirely different things.  An e-reader offers many benefits a paper book doesn’t: in-built dictionary, ability to re-size font, instant delivery. You don’t need to use a biscuit wrapper to remember your page – an e-reader does that for you. If you’re travelling you can carry 500 books or more in your pocket. There are thousands, yes thousands of free books available for e-readers, including all the classics. You can carry every word written by Shakespeare, Dickens, Homer, Austen et al. around with you. The pages don’t fall out when the book gets old. The spine doesn’t wrinkle. If you get Marmite on it you can wipe it off without leaving a stain. An e-reader is lighter than a book, and you only need one hand to hold it and turn the pages. Those are some of the reasons I love my Kindle. On the downside they’re not much use for propping up that wonky table leg or batting wasps.

But hey! Why should it bother me if other people prefer paper books? It doesn’t. And why on earth do some paper book readers get so wound up when they hear e-readers mentioned? Read and let read, I say.

Best Foot Forward and The Valley of Heaven and Hell are both available from Amazon in paperback and Kindle, and from Smashwords in all other digital formats. An updated version of A Perfect Circle will be available in paperback and Kindle soon, followed by two more titles this year.

Here is a little present for all who love nature, wildlife, beautiful landscape, beautiful music. Enjoy!

So it’s an early night for me, with a little bit of luxury.

I can’t stand having my feet touched. They’re terribly tickly. But they need a little bit of TLC at the moment, and I read an article somewhere about giving them a treat.

You smother them in Vaseline, wrap them in clingfilm, put some socks on, and leave it on all night. Apparently if you do it for 3-4 nights your feet will be softer than a baby’s bottom.

I did a trial run last night, from which I learned that if you wrap the clingfilm too tightly it nearly cuts your toes off. But apart from that, it felt absolutely heavenly. So I’m off for the second go now.

Image: bosc-roger.fr

Suddenly there was a crackling noise in the corner, followed by a thump. I woke, startled. Only something quite large could make such a noise.

I had already evacuated the huge spider through the window.

As I lay there wondering what had caused the noise, it happened again.

Crackle. Thump. I jumped.

Something was in the bedroom. But how had it got in? The door was closed. So were the windows.

My heart beat accelerated. I wondered whether I should put on the light, or lie quietly and hope that whatever it was would go by whatever mysterious means it had come.

Crackle. Thump.

I had to know what it was. Perhaps I could kill it with my Kindle.

I switched on the light.

There, in the corner of the room, were a pile of giant leaves from my Ficus Lyrata.  I think the cold has got to it. Do their leaves grow back again?

I wonder what it will be next? Not Waitrose, that’s a certainty.

Here’s a pictorial illustration of the evolution of our supermarket:

Subsidiary of Auchan - Image: TheMoscowTimes.com

Part of  Carrefour Group - Image: marquesdisparues.voila.net

Champion – owned by Carrefour - Image: en.wikipedia.org

Part of Carrefour Group – Image: infomagazine.com

Owned by: Système U retailers’ co-operative - Image: Panoramio.com

There’s more traffic than there was.

There are speed cameras.

There are white lines painted on the road.

We have to take our household waste down the lane to containers. The bin men no longer collect from outside the houses.

The weather is no longer predictable as it once was.

We keep getting new neighbours.

And then there’s the supermarket. The big one on the way out of town.

First it was called Atac. Then, overnight, it became Stoc. Without notice, it suddenly turned into Carrefour Market.

And now – it’s SuperU.

But some things stay the same. The same trolleys with wonky wheels. The same staff. The same layout. The same products (with different labels). The same single check-out open, the other eight closed. The same queue of old ladies who only have five items in their trolley, but take 10 minutes at the check-out because they can’t find their fidelity card. Or they have forgotten to weigh their vegetables. Or they have forgotten an item and have to go and look for it. Or they won’t pay for their purchases until they have packed them, repacked and re-repacked them several times into their shopping bags. Or they have a bundle of vouchers – if only they can find them in the depths of their handbag. The same lady with a heaped trolley who won’t let the person behind with only two items go ahead of them. It’s always going to take 15 minutes to clear the check-out, even for a single baguette.

Some things, reassuringly, stay the same.

Many people will know of the terrible fate that befalls tens of thousands (yes, tens of thousands) of Spanish hunting dogs – Galgos and Podencos – every year at the end of the hunting season. For those who don’t know about this, you can find out more from http://www.galgonews.com/ or simply by Googling “Galgo.” If you are of a delicate disposition, then you may prefer not to do this, because it’s some of the most distressing sights and stories you will ever read. The abuse and torture suffered by these gentle dogs goes beyond the reaches of imagination; it has been happening in Spain for centuries, and is still happening today. Once the hunting season ends the dogs become “surplus to requirements” and are either barbarically killed or abandoned and left to starve to death.

There are many welfare associations who work to save these dogs, to mend them, and to rehome them. But they are as sandcastles facing a tsunami, overwhelmed by the sheer size of the situation, not only financially but logistically, physically and emotionally.

Beryl Brennan, a leading campaigner for the rights of Galgos, has composed a letter here: Letter to Spanish Galgo Federation, the umbrella organisation for the Spanish Galgo hunting associations, calling on them to take action by insisting on the micro-chipping of puppies, and that the hunters keep their dogs during the non-hunting season as is done in civilised countries throughout the world.

It is thanks to the Internet and the explosion of social media that the dark secret and shame of Spain’s hunters has been brought to light.  It’s one of the reasons that many people, like myself, boycott Spanish goods and refuse to holiday there.  If you could please take the time to print out a copy of the above letter in Spanish (an English translation is given), and pop it in an envelope, you can add your voice to those of thousands of other people around the world who believe that a dog has the right to humane treatment.

Please, if you care about animals, spread the word. Share on Facebook, tweet and re-tweet on Twitter; print out and post the letter, and use every other means available to help bring an end to the misery of the Spanish hunting dogs, who are by nature gentle, affectionate and trusting.