The Daily Record - The Last Word

Tough job to trim our waistlines

2012-05-28T06:05:55Z

WANT to get in shape for your summer holiday girls? Then forget the gym and get out the duster. Guest blogged by Melanie Harvey

New research shows our waistlines have grown by six inches over the past 60 years because we don't do as much house work as our grandmothers.

For a change, this is one piece of research that I actually agree with.

Long after she retired my Nana's alarm used to go off every morning at 6.30am, and she would start what she called her "work".

She cleaned her house from top to bottom every day, made home cooked meals, hung washing out on the line and did the garden until the evening, when she watched a couple of hours of television before getting tucked up in bed by 10pm.

I don't know for sure, but I estimate she probably weighed a maximum of eight stone, getting more slight as the years went by.

Before she retired she had scores of different jobs, mostly working on factory lines, or cleaning offices.

She never complained and never let the day job get in the way of an absolutely spotless home.

I stayed with her regularly and she always brought me breakfast in bed.

And when I got older she would be waiting up for me until the wee small hours with the kettle boiling and the toast under the grill.

She was a powerhouse of energy packed into a tiny frame.

She never seemed to get tired unless she was ill, and even then she rarely showed it.

In contrast, when I get home after a day of sitting on my backside reading and writing all day it is all I can do to take the dogs for a walk, make some dinner and stick the washing on.

My Nana would probably be turning in her grave.

No wonder I spend half the weekend on the treadmill, or pounding the pavements trying to shed those extra six inches.

According to Saga, who carried out the research, women today typically consume 2178 calories, while in 1952 that figure was more like 1818.

I reckon my Nana ate 1000, unless it was a special occasion.

Labour-saving devices have also made life around the house a lot easier, with dish washers and tumble driers meaning less time at the kitchen sink or pegging out sheets on the line.

We hardly walk anywhere these days, internet shopping is the norm, and too many people pop a ready meal in the microwave, or a pizza in the oven, rather than cooking from scratch.

My Nana wasn't trying to lose weight, she was just living life the only way she knew how.

She could probably earn a fortune as a life coach or personal trainer if she was still alive now.

So before you embark on the latest diet or exercise fad, take a look at your grandmother - she might just hold the secret to a slimmer waistline.

And let's face it, a dish cloth, bottle of bleach and a duster cost a lot less than a membership at the gym.

Making a dog's dinner of school meals

2012-05-21T06:05:29Z

GUEST-BLOGGED BY MELANIE HARVEY

MINCE and potatoes, suet pudding, green beans and chips on a Friday. This was followed by chocolate sponge and pink custard.

I remember my school dinners well.

They were cooked in the school kitchen by an army of dinner ladies and, once we had wolfed down our lunch, we rushed outside to run about playing tig, bulldog or hopscotch.

Before you start accusing me of misty-eyed fake memories, I can assure you that in the 70s and 80s we ate like this. Every day.

The big difference is, the food was prepared with fresh ingredients and had vegetables on the side. We also played games and did PE to burn off all the calories they contained.

When I moved to high school it got a little bit more upmarket. There was a salad bar and fruit on offer but many of us still opted for traditional fare.

Guess what? There were no fatties and no-one got bullied for being overweight because nobody was.

Of course, we weren't all stick thin, we came in many different shapes and sizes but we were a healthy bunch who ate well and exercised properly.

We didn't eat processed, bought-in meals cooked 20 miles away and shipped into school complete with lashings of salt and MSG. No-one was allowed to go to the chip shop. That was punished by detention. It all started to go wrong after 1988 then.

Jamie Oliver has spent years trying to improve school dinners. Now he has a rival in young Martha Payne. The nine-year-old was disgusted at the food on offer at her school and posted pictures online of miserable meals.

It doesn't take a genius to work out that rubbish food equals rubbish schoolwork. There are very few kids who will function properly on a high-salt, high-sugar diet. They will be hungry and dehydrated.

Before you all start whingeing about cost, don't bother. I know for a fact that processed food is less cost-effective than freshly prepared dishes such as mince and onions and lentil soup. We just don't want to pay people to make proper food for our children any more.

Many parents don't bother cooking for their kids either so they are all addicted to saturated fat, salt and sugar.

Shove a pizza in the oven and open up a carton of juice. It is much quicker than making a proper meal.

Actually it isn't. Drag yourself off the couch on your day off and cook a pan of bolognese or stew, then heat them up every night in minutes.

Simple if you know how. Sadly, most people don't.

There are more cookery shows on telly than you can shake a pepper grinder at but no-one appears to be learning anything.

Our schools should be feeding our kids properly but so should parents.

Education, like most things in life, should begin at home.

You couldn't make-up criticism of Hillary Clinton

2012-05-14T06:05:16Z

IT HAS been impossible to ignore the furore that has surrounded Hillary Clinton's decision to stop wearing make-up.

The American press are not sure how to interpret it, although a few commentators have taken it as a sign that the secretary of state is winding down.

Clearly the rumours of a vice-presidential ticket at the next elections are out of the question since she's stopped wearing lipstick.

To get this into perspective, Hillary has decided to ditch the contacts and the mascara, she has not turned up for state duties in an egg-stained dressing gown.

She still bathes and brushes her teeth and apparently, though her hair may be adorned with an offensive scrunchie, it is actually washed.

Hillary said: "If I want to wear my glasses, I'm wearing my glasses. If I want to wear my hair back, I'm pulling my hair back. You know at some point it's just not something that deserves a lot of time and attention."

We have never cared about the fact that our politicians are predominantly bald white men.

The legacy of the late Mo Mowlam is not her squinty wig and lack of glamour, but that she was the Labour minister in charge of bringing peace to Northern Ireland.

Clinton has been compared to Thatcher, who was never seen without her make-up.

All that hairspray and slap and yet Maggie's evil still shone through.

I don't care that with her stiff hair and powdered face she looked like a dusted meringue, but I do care that she brought Scotland to its knees.

When Burmese pro-democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi took her seat in parliament, it is unclear whether she wore mascara. Did she wear it when under house arrest? Pressing questions.

It doesn't matter whether Clinton chooses to trowel it on or not. What matters is the reaction.

She had covered a tour of India, China and Bangladesh on behalf of the most powerful country in the world when she was snapped "au naturale", a headline that insinuated she had got off the plane naked.

I have never been a huge fan of Clinton - she retains too much of the American hysteria over reds under the bed, but I admire her for saying sod it to the US pundits.

In a country where image is sadly everything in politics, it is a gutsy thing to do.

Ironically, she took the step because she felt that her appearance was unworthy of attention but in the end created a "make-up gate".

Should it ever become too much of a distraction, let's remember Sarah Palin.

Palin always wore make-up but she had to write speech notes on her hand, thought the US was neighbours with Afghanistan and that she could see Russia from her house. She might not have had her finger on the pulse but don't forget, she nearly had her manicured finger on the button.

Tanning booth mother shows ugly side of trying to look good

2012-05-07T06:05:34Z

GUEST-BLOGGED BY MELANIE HARVEY

THE sight of Patricia Krentcil turned my stomach when I saw her tanned, leathery face glaring out at me from the pages of my newspaper, a darker shade of brown than my morning coffee.

Patricia is accused of allowing her red-headed five-year-old daughter to go into a tanning booth, illegal under state law in New Jersey.

Whether she did or didn't put Anna in the way of strong UV rays is up to a court to decide, but one thing is sure, the mother of two has a very strange concept of beauty.

She says her accusers are not interested in child welfare.

Instead, the oh so charming Mrs Krentcil describes them as "jealous, fat and ugly".

I haven't seen the salon staff who are accusing her of child endangerment, or the teacher who says she noticed the fair-haired girl had burns on her body.

But I would hazard a guess that they look a whole lot better than prune-faced Patricia.

She epitomises the word ugly for me.

Not just the way she looks, but the manner in which she has hit out at the appearance of her accusers rather than keeping a dignified silence and letting her lawyer do the talking in court.

Don't get me wrong, I used to succumb to the lure of the sunbed back in the day.

Where I come from your tan could never be too dark. I remember only too well the ultra violet glow that used to light up the windows on our estate as a teenager.

Sunbeds were all the rage in the 80s and I remember we used to hire them by the fortnight to get "a base tan" before jetting off for a week in sunny Majorca.

We knew little of the link between burning ourselves and deadly skin cancer. We do now.

There has been a sharp increase in melanoma in the last 10 years.

There was a 62 per cent rise in skin cancer between 2000-10 in Scotland.

Experts say exposure to natural and artificial sunlight is the main risk factor, especially at an early age.

Like most people of my generation, not only did I succumb to sunbeds, I also used to run about outdoors as a young child without wearing any sun protection at all.

Our parents didn't realise the risk.

Back then we thought a tan made us look "healthy".

We probably still do, but there is nothing healthy about Patricia Krentcil, either in the way she looks or thinks.

These days I get my tan out of a bottle. It smells horrible and my husband heads for the spare room when he sees me slapping it on before bedtime on tanning nights.

I still like the 'healthy' glow of a tan, but I would rather be healthy on the inside too.

That is something I don't think Patricia Krentcil will ever understand.

Gender doesn't matter when it comes to morals

2012-04-30T05:55:18Z

GUEST BLOGGED BY MEL HARVEY

WHEN I was 11 I had a friend who stole a bar of soap from a fancy gift shop in our home town.

She wasn't poor, she didn't need the soap. To be quite honest, I think she just did it for kicks.

I was there when she took it but was scared of her and didn't even try to stop her.

This childhood incident came flashing across my mind when I read the recent story about morals.

Professor Roger Steare spent four years quizzing people with his Moral DNA test and concluded that your gender and age are most likely to influence your morality - with women and the over-30s proving the "most moral".

I'm not sure if being present at the scene of a crime - the theft of a bar of soap - makes me more or less moral than the guys I sit next to at work. And I am certainly not sure that the prof's findings tally with my 40 years experience of life.

I know plenty of men who have had multiple one-night stands.

I know men who have cheated on their wives, girlfriends and boyfriends. I also used to have a flatmate - female - who regularly stayed out all night. I never asked where she had been.

I have given up my spare room to a male friend who left his wife and kids for another woman.

The same spare room was also needed by a friend whose girlfriend had cheated on him with another man.

He came home one night to be told it was all his fault and she had no choice but to cheat on him - for six months - before she finally had the guts to tell him.

I know a man who cheated on his wife while she was pregnant.

I also know a woman who cheated on her husband when she had a newborn baby.

Maybe I just mix with the wrong people.

Who has fewer morals? Them for their actions, or me for never condemning them?

Everyone must live by their own moral compass and, in my experience, it has nothing to do with gender.

A quick lie about being held up when late at work, when really you are in the pub, can come just as easily from the mouth of a woman as a man. So can lies about blowing cash and building up debt.

Lies and cheating hurt, so does theft. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, the effect is still the same.

I think Prof Steare's time would be better spent researching how we can all become better people, rather than gender stereotyping.

That would be a study I would definitely want to participate in.

Music can define moments in time

2012-04-23T05:49:07Z

MAYBE it's an age thing but Record Shop Day on Saturday set me off on the kind of misty eyed nostalgia trip that I used to laugh at in my mum.

Everyone has a song that defines a moment in their life and actually having it on a piece of vinyl used to be the most important thing in my 13-year-old life.

While Texas singer Sharleen Spiteri's first record was the cool and credible Oliver's Army by Elvis Costello, mine was the not so cool and definitely not credible Flash, by Queen.

In my defence, I was eight, I loved the film and it was the first and last piece of music by Queen that I ever bought.

Music was a massive part of my childhood. My parents always had the radio on and they owned a magnificent collection of seven-inches and albums.

From the Beatles and the Beach Boys to The Supremes and The Ronettes, it might have been the 70s but the soundtrack of my childhood was 60s heaven.

Then the 80s arrived and I started to save up my pocket money to spend in the local Woolworths on a Saturday afternoon.

While my friends were blowing their 50p pieces on pic 'n mix, I was buying Strawberry Switchblade or Spandau Ballet's latest offering.

The excitement of pulling a seven-inch out of its sleeve and putting the needle on can never be matched by all the MP3 players in the world, believe me.

In those days, records could make or break a friendship.

My pal Serena and I were always swapping vinyl and cassettes. I can't remember which of us got The Communards or The Housemartins for Christmas, I just know we played them to death in our bedrooms.

Another friend dumped me when I discovered the Cure.

She couldn't understand why I wanted to lie on my bed listening to Robert Smith when she was desperate to hang about outside the shops with the older kids.

I even went out with one guy because he looked like Morrissey. He was boring and a terrible kisser but, if the light caught him in a certain way, I could just see him with a bunch of gladioli in his pocket.

One of the most precious things I own is the framed seven-inch single of the first dance from my wedding.

My husband gave it to me and it has pride of place among the band posters, framed record covers and signed photos in our hall.

Music in 2012 is just as vibrant, moving and exciting as it ever was.

Don't listen to the old fogies who say it was better in their day.

It wasn't, it was just different.

But a download will never, ever be like a piece of vinyl.

A record is forever.

Celebrities need to think before they post gaga advice on Twitter

2012-04-16T06:05:28Z

The twits have been out in full force on Twitter of late.

Lady Gaga tweeted: "Just killed back-to-back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger #PopSingersDontEat #IWasBornThisWay."

Bearing in mind that she has 22 million followers, Gaga has more clout than the Dalai Lama, and really should consider putting a gag in it.

Encouraging young women to work out like athletes and replenish with a bit of lettuce and tomato is, well, gaga.

Clearly when the poor girl dressed as a ham, it was because she was hungry.

Earlier in the week, singer Miley Cyrus tweeted on the evils of gluten.

"For everyone calling me anorexic I have a gluten and lactose allergy. It's not about weight it's about health. Gluten is crapppp anyway."

This tweet was not only harmful to young girls for its poor advice on diet, but also for its chronic spelling.

Doctors the world over must despair when these silly women get tweeting.

Lady Gaga is an inspirational woman, who encourages young girls to be creative, off-beat and original.

To be fair, she never set herself up to be anything more than a pop star, but she is.

In this celebrity-obsessed world, girls will pay more heed to her than their mothers.

They don't care what the white coat brigade say about nutrition but they do pay heed to Gaga and Miley.

If Gaga wants to spin until her legs fall off, it's her prerogative.

She looks great, but burning 1000 calories and eating a salad afterwards is called malnutrition and it's not to be encouraged.

When I was a teenager, I don't recall giving my food a second thought.

I was a healthy weight, ate anything I could shovel down my throat and I worked it off, playing tennis badly and running for the bus.

Luckily, celebrities didn't get much access to girls' brains then and for that we should be grateful.

There was no pressure to be thin, to wear the rights clothes and have perfect hair.

I had no idea what Olivia Newton John ate and I couldn't have cared less.

Female stars were on the TV and the movies but they didn't have access to 24-hour communication.

Today's celebrities have more control over young women's thoughts than the Jongs have on the population of North Korea.

Rarely does a profundity emerge from the tweets of today's celebrity women, but they are quoted like they have the wisdom of Ghandi.

So Gaga, if you are going to share your thoughts with 22 million people, maybe take a second to think it through.

Have a glass of hot water and lemon, suck on a toffee then spit it out, smell an egg white, lick your ham outfit - anything to allow the brain to connect with the tweeting digits.

Making the breast of a situation

2012-04-02T06:00:15Z

BOOBS are everywhere at the moment.

Yes I know, they are everywhere all the time, but recently people just can't shut up about them.

Last week it was Susanna Reid from BBC Breakfast talking t*ts with the Radio Times and saying she accepts people like to discuss her set.

That's the last place I expect to read about that sort of thing.

Then on Friday it was National Cleavage Day, yes such a thing really does exist, and the nation's favourite frontage was on display in the form of Holly Willoughby in a low-cut dress. (Does she actually own any other type of clothing? If she does I have never seen her in it).

Boobs are really big news. Big ones, small ones, you name it.

Lauren Pope from TOWIE has had her's taken out, so has glamour model Danielle Lloyd.

Those two had scares as a result of the dodgy implant scandal.

You think the idea of mattress filling being stuffed into your chest would be enough to make anyone be happy with their lot, but Danielle says she is having a new set put in before she walks down the aisle with her footballer boyfriend.

If survey results released on Friday to celebrate the national bust are anything to go by, she'd better hurry.

In a poll of 1000 women, one in seven admitted to wearing plunging necklines in the workplace to give their career a boost, while eight per cent revealed that low cut tops had helped them escape a parking fine.

I celebrated National Cleavage Day with a high neckline. I didn't really, it was the only dress that didn't need ironing when I was getting ready for work, but if it was an unintentional statement, then I am still glad I made it.

I don't need an underwear firm to tell me when to celebrate boobs - the day is the brainchild of Wonderbra. I do that every year in October when I watch cancer survivors take to the catwalk in the annual Breast Cancer Care Scotland Fashion Show.

These women, and sometimes men, have had their boobs cut open, and in some cases taken away from them - not because of dodgy implants but because of cancer.

I apologise if that sounds a bit crude but that is the reality for these people.

Yes boobs are fun, they quite often look nice and they also give new babies vital nutrition. But for breast cancer survivors they represent a lot more.

I would rather say hurrah for their boobs than Holly's, Susanna's, or even my own for that matter.

I suggest you do the same thing too.

Best friend ban in English school risks loss of never having them

2012-03-26T05:50:05Z

A SCHOOL in England has recently banned children from having best friends and if that doesn't increase the nationalist vote, nothing will.

The absurd logic behind this nonsense is that educationalists believe it will save children the "pain of loss" when they inevitably fall out.

Not the best lesson for work, marriage and flying Ryanair.

Last night I sat across the kitchen table from my best friend, a smart, pretty woman, with a son over 20, who used to steal my answers in exams and had long curly hair and puppy fat.

She knew me when I had my first proper haircut, my first period, lost my virginity, and had my first drink sneaked into my bedroom.

She shared my first lip gloss and we snogged the same boy, at different times, thankfully. And when she laughed, I laughed and when she cried, I cried - and in that respect some things never change.

In all those firsts, a bond forms that lasts. Friends are picked up, loved and lost throughout life and our people are in our circle for their own unique and special reasons.

We have friends who share our humour, our taste in movies or books, but the common denominator in childhood friendships is just each other.

Between adults who have known each other as children, facades are pointless, they know your fallibility, your weaknesses, your faults and your secrets.

They knew you when you were skint and wore itchy hand knits and half-mast chords, although maybe that was just me.

Just by the mere fact that they have stuck around, they tell you that you are OK.

We still sit talking, not about boys but men, and while we are not so naive, we are no wiser either.

At times we bemoan playing life all wrong and at others we figure that it worked out OK.

On Friday we had dinner with some other girlfriends, one of whom used to pinch me at nursery.

She brought old snaps of us at 14 and 15. I couldn't remember the why, the when and the who of the pictures, but she could.

She talked me, like a tour guide, through the people and places of my own long forgotten time.

She made me realise that to recognise who you are you should always remember who you were.

A few weeks ago, one of the friends we first met as teenagers died of cancer.

He was funny, chaotic and gay, not that it ever stopped girls falling in love with him regardless.

No matter when you meet someone dear, as a child, a teenager or an adult, you end up parting from them eventually.

If we don't take a chance in being close as kids, yes there is one less risk of the "pain of loss", but surely the greatest loss would be to have never had them at all.

Lord Alan doesn't Sugar-coat idea that kids should work

2012-03-19T07:05:08Z

MY first job was in a shop when I was 13. I worked every Saturday and got paid cash that evening. I worked eight hours a day and loved it.

During every school holiday I was at work, earning my own money and on my days off I would have a blast spending it.

I'm not sure it was legal to work at that age but I was happy to do it.

Nowadays employment laws are wildly different and my bosses would probably be done for child labour.

A 13-year-old working? The health and safety brigade would have a field day.

I honestly didn't feel hard done by and my parents would never have forced me to get out there and earn a crust.

But most of my friends were the same. We knew the only way to play hard was to work hard and so that's what we did.

We earned our pennies and spent them with abandon.

I remember having so much disposable cash in those teenage years before the responsibilities of mortgages and bills kicked in.

And I also recall feeling very grown-up and proud of having my own stash of cash.

I never had to ask mum and dad for much but they still insisted on giving me pocket money, the same as my younger brother and sister. They thought it was only fair.

So Alan Sugar's comments that kids should be out working at 13 are, to me, fair enough.

He reckons that parents are breeding offspring only fit to claim benefits, a work-shy generation that expect it all to be handed to them.

And he is also fed-up with youngsters who want instant wealth, instead of working their way up to earning a good wage.

I doubt many have heard the expression "pay your dues". They want it all and they want it right now.

The PC brigade will attack him for encouraging children to grow up too soon and for exploiting our poor kids who should be free to enjoy being children.

But I honestly think working from a young age has instilled a work ethic that has stayed with me.

I was also savvy enough to realise I had to take the badly paid jobs to get to the one that I wanted, with the salary to match.

It's not easy but it does shape you as a person.

I'm not saying our bairns should be slogging their guts out but what's wrong with a wee job that gives them a bit of money in their pockets and teaches them the value of working to earn your way and the self-belief that comes with that?

We may not all make it to the dizzy heights of Sugar's fortune but employing his idea might finally see the £100billion benefits bill facing this country working its way downwards.

International Women's Day showed how things have changed

2012-03-12T07:10:01Z

On International Women's Day, Facebook was swarming with a blast from the past.

An extract from a home economics and sex education booklet from the 60s made women realise why bra burning was then at its height.

Reading it, I wondered how modern women might deal with things differently:

60s advice: Plan ahead to have a delicious meal ready on time for his return from work.

This is a way of letting him know you have been thinking about him and are concerned about his needs.

2012 advice: Tell him he knows where the kitchen is and has he thought of cutting back on the carbs?

60s advice: Let him talk first, remember his topics of conversation are more important than yours.

2012 advice: Tell him you are not interested in his job and that Corrie is on so put a sock in it.

60s advice: Don't greet him with complaints and problems. Don't complain if he's late home or even stays out all night.

2012 advice: Leave his stuff on the garden path and change the locks.

60s advice: Encourage your husband to pursue his hobbies and interests and be supportive without encroaching.

2012 advice: Tell him that when he says he's checking the online statement you know he is watching porn.

60s advice: When retiring to the bedroom, prepare yourself for bed as promptly as possible.

2012 advice: That way you can pretend you are asleep when he gets there.

60s advice: While feminine hygiene is of utmost importance, your tired husband does not want to queue for the bathroom.

2012 advice: Tell him it's not too late for him to move to a bedsit of his own.

60s advice: If you need to apply face-cream or hair-rollers, wait until he is asleep as this can be shocking to a man last thing at night.

2012 advice: But very funny when he wakes up in rollers in the morning.

60s advice: When he reaches his moment of fulfilment, a small moan from yourself is encouraging to him and quite sufficient to indicate any enjoyment that you may have had.

2012 advice:After three minutes of his panting, feel free to moan loudly: "Seriously was that it?"

60s advice: It is likely your husband will then fall promptly asleep so adjust your clothing, freshen up and apply your night-time face and hair products.

2012 advice: And then go clubbing where you might meet someone you do actually want to sleep with.

60s advice: Should your husband suggest any of the more unusual practices, be obedient and uncomplaining but register any reluctance by remaining silent.

2012 advice: Handcuff him naked to the bed and upload pictures of him to the internet. He'll never get his tickling stick out again.

A Guide to being a girl in the 21st century

2012-03-05T07:06:00Z

Guest blogged by Mel Harvey. GIRL Guiding is back in vogue. Believe it or not, a new generation of young girls are ditching the mini-skirts and smartphones, putting on their uniforms and learning to bake and sew.

Well, that's what we did in our day. We'd also nip round the back of the church hall for a fag and sneak off to the Scout field during camping trips, but the less said about that the better, especially if my mum is reading.

No, it seems that Guiding has gone all post feminist and very, very outdoorsy.

We used to think a midnight hike once a year with a rucksack full of biscuits and a pair of trainers was something energetic.

But today's Guides are abseiling and organising pop concerts starring Cher Lloyd.

Modern guides are also trekking through Mongolia and using Skype to allow girls in remote areas to join in. Numbers are up in their thousands.

I'm not sure if they still sew badges on to their blue shirts, I'm not even sure they have blue shirts any more.

I am, however, encouraged that girls are getting away from computers and virtual friends and actually having real-life interaction with each other.

All this talk of Guiding sent me off on a misty-eyed view of my childhood and early teenage years.

It's probably also got something to do with my fast approaching 40th birthday, the Stone Roses reunion and the resurgence in popularity of Doc Marten boots.

It seems 2012 is doing all it can to remind me of my youth.

So what would I tell my teenage self if I could talk to her?

I would start by assuring her that leggings and boots ARE a good look, whatever mum says. I would also tell her to appreciate her long, naturally blonde hair as once you hit 35 it stops growing and starts turning grey.

As for boys, well they will always be boys. Enjoy them if you like but don't pay them too much heed.

They will come and go and will realise their loss in the end. Wait until you meet a real man.

Sadly, I would have to tell her that working hard at school and university won't necessarily give her the keys to the boardroom.

Accept the fact that women will still be struggling to be taken seriously decades later.

And no, you can't have it all, unless you can afford a nanny or have a stay-at-home husband to make sure you can slog away for 12 hours a day in the office.

But most importantly, I would tell her to savour the moment.

Enjoy Guide camp and school discos, devour every book in English classes, make friends whenever and wherever you can.

Make sure you live for the moment and let growing up take care of itself.

Music still a man's world

2012-02-27T06:24:42Z

IT should have been a celebration of two of music's best female talents.

Instead the BRITs turned into a blokey love-in punctuated by an American R&B star bumping and grinding her way through a performance of a pseudo-dance track.
With awards for Adele and Emeli Sande, the show had the chance to fly the flag for our females.
Adele and Emeli have two of the best voices in the business, don't use their sexuality to sell records and are giving the guys a lesson in how to shift albums by the bucket load. So why were they allowed to be humiliated in front of a TV audience of millions?
Adele was rudely interrupted during her - very short - acceptance speech to make way for 11 minutes of boys' boys Blur shouting their way through their Britpop hits from the 90s.
Meanwhile, Scots singer Emeli was in tears at a table with her mum and dad, who had made the journey from Aberdeenshire for their daughter's night of glory.
She had already received her Critics Choice award and wasn't invited on stage or allowed to thank her fans on live TV.
Host James Corden didn't stop at her table. He did find time for a chat with Kylie, who wasn't nominated for anything but was looking glam for a gal in her 40s.
He also had a matey gab with Jessie J. She won nothing, so quite why she deserved airtime can only be explained by the producers of the ITV show.
After the Adele shambles, Lily Allen took to Twitter to say: "I'd rather hear Adele's acceptance speech.
"I can't say I'm surprised. It was like the music industry's attitude to women played out as a metaphor."
I couldn't agree more with Lily.
Despite her success before taking time off to have a baby, the talents of Florence and the Machine, the phenomenon that is Adele and our own rising star Emeli - riding high in the singles and album charts - women still feel they have something to prove in the music business.
Like 101 other businesses, women are all too often treated as a novelty or an annoyance in pop and rock.
Fine if they want to sing backing vocals to the boys, a giggle if they are Gaga and even better if they gyrate on stage in nothing more than a bra and pants, but how seriously are women musicians really taken?
Madonna is dismissed as power-mad and there was always far too much chat about Alison Moyet's weight when she had a voice that defined the 80s.
Adele gave the finger to "the suits", who decided she should get off stage and make way for Blur.
They received the Outstanding Contribution to Music award on the night.
Let's hope Adele and Emeli can survive long enough in the man's world of music to take that accolade.

Now is the time to save yourself a fortune

2012-02-20T07:10:09Z

GUEST-BLOGGED BY MELANIE HARVEY

WHEN I was a little girl, my mum used to tell me that money burned a hole in my pocket.

Basically the minute she handed over my 50 pence pocket money I already knew exactly what I was going to spend it on.

Sweets mainly, or maybe some biscuits for my dog, a birthday present for a friend, a magazine or maybe a nice hair slide. I just loved to spend.

Meanwhile my older sister slotted her 50 pence into a piggy bank, the ones the bank gave you when you opened a children's saving account.

When it was full, you put the money in the bank and you got the next piggy in the series.

She ended up with the whole piggy family but I never got past the baby.

I really tried to change over the years. My dad told me to make sure I had a pension, so as soon as I got my first job I started paying into one every month.

"Don't throw money down the drain on rent," my dad said. "Buy a house."

So I did, with his help. Property prices might have gone through the floor but I do have a lovely home.

So does money still burn a hole in my pocket? Sadly it does, but it is a house-shaped hole, with a car sitting on the drive and two hungry dogs inside.

My packets of sweets have been replaced by an ever-increasing gas bill, hair slides by council tax and presents for friends by my weekly gifts to Asda and Sainsbury's.

Everywhere I turn someone is ready to take a chunk of my wages. Last year I decided I needed to smarten up my ideas when it came to cash.

I did all that price comparison stuff and once I got my head round it I got great satisfaction from saving a fortune on car insurance.

I found the moneysavingexpert.com website and it took me to the holy grail - PPI reclaiming.

If you haven't already checked this one out, do it today. If you have paid insurance on a loan or credit card you might be entitled to claim it back because of mis-selling.

It is the easiest money I have ever made. Do not, I repeat, do not use a claim firm as they will take a cut.

Do it yourself. Follow the guide on the website. You could get hundreds or possibly thousands of pounds for the price of a stamp.

I'm not saying I have turned into some sort of financial expert, but I have saved a fortune and made a few pounds.

Discover TK Maxx, don't write it off as a jumble sale, try out secretsales.com for designer handbags and shoes.

If, like me, you can't help spending, make sure you spend smart. Don't let money burn a hole in your pocket.

PR guru warns Adele fans to boycott fashion label Chanel

2012-02-13T06:27:58Z

IT'S bad news for any of you girls who are fans of Adele.

After Karl Lagerfeld called her fat, a new campaign has been launched that will make your heart sink.
American PR guru and reality star Kelly Cutrone has called for a boycott of the fashion designer's work with the catchy, and rhyming, slogan: "If you love Adele then boycott Chanel".
Put that four grand away girls, step away from the boutique, you are banned from buying that Chanel suit on principle.
Buy a car instead, put down a deposit on a home, pay a pensioner's food bill for a year. But, whatever you do, be sure to sacrifice that Chanel addiction.
I like to think I am a bit of a campaigner. Anti-apartheid, tick, ban the bomb, tick, stop the war, tick, but I feel that forgoing the one bottle of Chanel nail varnish I buy every three years isn't going to open Karl's eyes to the beauty of curves.
Alternatively, I have launched: "If you hate Cutrone, you're not alone".
How crass she is to assume that Chanel is a habit most women could have, never mind give up.
The majority of women are wondering how to keep their high street shirt on their back, and for them haute couture is as far out of reach as reality is to Cutrone.
I am a fan of Adele. She isn't fat and she is gorgeous but let's not forget that she has lacked diplomacy herself in the past.
This is the woman who said she wanted to "go and buy a gun and randomly open fire" when she saw her £4million tax bill.
She said: "Trains are always late, most state schools are s**t, and I've gotta give you, like, four million quid - are you having a laugh?"
No, Adele, as you are still a multi-millionaire, it appears the joke is on all of us plebs who forked out £11.99 for your album, which we listen to waiting for the train.
And only this week, Kate Moss described how her booking price of £250,000 for half an hour of DJing was "good value".
That makes Linda Evangelista's "We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day", sound like a bargain.
What is it about a recession that seems to bring out the worst in the over-indulged princesses?
Billionaire's brat, Tamara Ecclestone is currently appearing in a reality television show named Billion $$ Girl and recently posed for pictures with a £70,000 shoe collection, which included 100 pairs of Christian Louboutin heels.
Her £45million home has a car turntable so that she does not need to reverse her Ferrari out of the driveway.
More and more the excesses of the rich and famous are being shoved in the faces of people on their knees.
These women certainly could teach Karl how to be really offensive.