Harriet Jones, MP for Flydale North

Daughter (6) now wants to be an MP after seeing Penelope Wilton in Doctor Who at the weekend. Waitress, Actress, Nurse and now MP. A big career there. She wanted to know what she would have to learn to be an MP but on current performances I said I thought she might actually already be over qualified. Sorry! Too harsh maybe? There is always an element of MPs having to talk down from their lofty intellectual heights when they have to communicate with us plebs. I didn't really mean to use that word in its exact sense but I have which makes me feel slightly better educated than I actually am.

Returning to Doctor Who, I was rather pleased with the sly digs at our beloved leader - i.e. weapons of mass destruction deployable in 45 seconds and many other so subtle that I cannot remember them. I was however especially pleased to be shouting 'Vinegar' at the screen well before the Doctor did. A+ and long may it rain. They don't just throw it together you know. Dalek next week. Lovely.

I am finally reading His Dark Materials after putting it off for ages. This is of course just to make sure I finish before the film comes out. I have to say that I am tingling at the thought of getting back to read more; it is so well written and all I was expecting is surpassed and turned on its head. I had expected Lyra to be some elegant, intellectual hippy-chick but instead she is a wild gang child who just happens to live in an Oxford college. Some of the reviewers on Amazon seemed to suggest that using Oxford as the base for the setting showed a lack of imagination but that is so wide of the mark. It reminds me of Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin, where real places are given complete about-face twists which make them newly interesting - Magic Realism I suppose though His Dark Materials is no GGM or Isabel Allende. Maybe my self-perceived semi-autism also makes me disagree with the idea that the characters are flat and hard to relate to. Warning of tenuous and pretentious art analogy sparked by the comparison of HDM to Harry Potter - Harry Potter is rich and detailed like something by Escher though ultimately in Black and White while HDM is subtle like a Paula Rego where you have to tease out the meanings by looking at the relationships between the characters. I will let you know if this stands up when I have got more than 100 pages in. Too much for a Wednesday lunchtime possibly!

Talking of Escher has made me think that I feel like this picture at the moment, though maybe that is just a false link after having seen it. As you can tell today is a rambling day. Spell Check and back on your heads.

PS. After having read all the above stuff. It has struck me recently that I am more able to drag out what I want to say from the fuzz of my mind. I have noticed recently that reaching 40 made me aware of times when my brain seemed to be slowing but in the last few weeks everything seems faster and much more honed. Maybe my wife's slight changes to the diet have helped; hydrogenated oils have been booted out though that was on my suggestion. So the brain will be alright; it will just be the circulatory system which fails first. Where are those pumpkin seeds?