THE JUICE ON CACTUS

We are delighted our mate Cactus has started on that tough journey to become an MP for ACT.

We first got to know Cactus when we started blogging prior to the last election. Her ascerbic wit and clean writing appealed to us as did her ability to articulate difficult issues and she was also well connected despite living off shore.

She has a huge intellect and to her friends she is loyal beyond measure. However, even her best mates and people she actually likes are not spared her opinions. It just goes with the Cactus package.

We first met her at a MP's house, who was later to become a Minister, the day after the last election.

We have been mates ever since and in one way or the other communicate every day or so.

Cactus is very rightish on all issues but to count her as heartless is to do her a considerable diservice.

She is actually a very kind, generous young woman (the shadow of 40 has yet to fall on her) and her largesse extends to those who find themselves in shitty situations through no fault of their own.

And those on the left who think she is racist are just silly. She has no time for people who lack ambition or don't make an effort to support themselves. Her opinions are not based on race - she simply has no time for people who suck off the public tit. She has no time for Maori leaders who foster a grievance mentality and welfare dependence.

She enjoys political debate and she has given some of my union and Maori mates plenty of lip without fear . She genuinely likes them as people , enjoys their company but she just makes it very clear that their philosophies are shit.

So we think that she will make a bloody good MP. Her problem will be boredom. The pace in parliament is mind numbingly slow if you are not a Minister. She would need to be given some big projects and as David Farrar says - there is no - one more suited to sorting out the financial and tax sector than Cactus.

ACT has a big opportunity to win some public respect by putting forward some candidates that will resonate with the public. The younger members of ACT - who make up a strong core of the party machinery would be keen to see Cactus take her place on the hill.

Older members have considerable admiration for her intellect she is a confidente of many member of the Business Round Table and many top media commentators and journalists.

So we ask the ACT board and its members - choose wisely and you will see the party grow again.

Choose only men and really odd women like Hillary Calvert and you wont.

STOP THE LAW BREAKING

Ohh Cool! Labour launched a campaign, it was highjacked. They did something illegal. They claimed the law was an ass. The were forced to remove the signs. They looked silly. And in true Labour form they blame someone else for the failure of their poorly executed idea. But the people who took the piss didn't break the law. They didnt make a pigs arse of the campaign and they didnt blame someone else for their cock-up.

TV3 reports that they have had to remove their signs from the main road to Wainui.

And they blame it on some group called "Right Wing Bloggers"

Hail to the Whale and the Kiwi, the Hong Kong Queen of Mean and Keeping Stock.

Let the Game begin.

UNSTOPPABLE CLUSTER F**K

We have had one eye on Labour rather juvenille Stop the Asset Sales campaign using a replica of the Stop sign used throughout the country.

However the whole campaign has been highjacked and is now a farce.

First the website could be easily manipulated and replica stop signs with anti labour messages were spawned on the site. They went viral in social media sites everywhere and the original Stop the Assets Sales site became a farce.

Next the campaign ran for a a couple of weeks with committed Labour Party types taking to the streets with there signs to promote their cause.

Sadly their actions are illegal. The signs are not permitted to be bastardised in anyway for very good reasons.

Labour has goofed in the worst way. They have lost control of the campaign and they broke the law.

A huge pinko failure of EPIC proportions. Well done Whaleoil, Kiwiblog and Keeping Stock. The VRWC lives on.

HIGH NOON

Following Simon Powers announcement today that he is out to tame " the Wild West of the Internet" we reckon that there could be a bit of a stoush looming.

We have often referred to blogs and citizen journalists on the digital media as the last of the Wild West as you can see here

I suppose that means that Cactus is probably Annie Oakley and we must be May Lillie crack shot and horsewoman.

While Power probably needs to review whats happening - who in tarnation advised him to set about making the bloggers and online community the enemy?

Our favourite uber political geek David Farrar so rightly says the way its been done will probably rub a few people up the wrong way. We agree.

So we hope that we get to have a say sometime during the course of the year. We like the idea of workshops to nut out a few ideas.

But at the end of the day one of the corner stones of the media in any form, is freedom of thought and expression. And that must be the corner stone of any thinking around the digital media - it is still the media and today the lines between digital and print and broadcast are becoming very blurred .

While we think that Whale Oils recent case shows we are not above the law we dont want any changes that impinge on our media freedoms.

Otherwise it will be the Battle of the Little Bighorn Bloggers with Power standing in for Custer.

BUSTED BLONDE'S THREE MINUTES OF FAME

Silly bobble head..... but we still love and miss her...

DISSECTION

One of the lessons of the past week and the great Veuve Clicquot scandal was that it showed what an incredible force for communication and change that the social media has become.But you have to know h0w to use it as it is a pretty unruly and hungry beast with a very short attention span.

This is best exemplified by just who ended up carrying the story.

Take for instance this tweet

latest: JancisRobinson @bustedblonde Congratulations! Social media have the power to leech multiple kilos of Veuve C from tight fists. bit.ly Retweeted by you less than a minute ago

Thats gold in social media. Jancis Robinson has 40,000 followers on twitter. They are all people who have a serious interest in wine and food around the world. And she likes New Zealand and New Zealand wine.

So who were responsible for the story gaining a foothold in the social media. At the core were the bloggers. Whaleoil ( who started and led the whole campaign , his ability to get stories into the mainstream media is now well established), Kiwiblog, and Cactus and a host of other bloggers who quickly followed suit, were central to the story getting legs. They all have considerable weight in social media, while for the purposes of this campaign BustedBlonde just has the weight!

Many of them twitter and facebook as well. So its about using multiple channels and quickly.

You have to be bloody nimble and it helps if you have a core team as we did.

So did we have a plan? Nope not really. Just some ideas and some tactics. Its very organic and you need to have faith in your intuition.

Then came facebook. That cant be underestimated and its like an infection and of course there is Twitter. If you want to get your message out quick and it gets onto someone site who has 40,000 followers like Jancis then you have critical mass very quickly.

Take for instance this.

August 26 at 1:03pm

I see NBR finally responded!
I briefed a US mate of mine, Colin Clarke, who is commentator on social media strategies and he wrote this, I should let him know NBR has made a move. Well bloody done you. http://marketingsense.wordpress.com/2010/08/25/when-a-social-media-campaign-goes-bad/

When A Social Media Campaign Goes Bad « Marketing Sense

marketingsense.wordpress.com

An interesting case study has recently emerged in New Zealand that underscores the power of social media… and how it must be wielded CAREFULLY.

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So this happened two days ago and and already the analysis of the clicquot competition and the social media response and its impact are flying around the world at lightening speed.

And then there were the emails. And by all accounts there were a few direct to NBR ( we have seen some). And of course TV3.

It defies all the old rules of PR. Its not about planning its more about plotting. n.

So whats the damage to NBR? - bugger all we reckon. As soon as they made amends and publicly people were heaping on the praise for the putting right.

And Veuve? Well the damage might last a bit longer. They were involved in a competition that was supposed to be all class.

I havent seen the winning entry but I bet its all lovely and worthy and romantic . It will tick all the brand boxes for Clicquot.

However the competition was so badly designed and executed that it ended up being all about ass. It provoked crassness. Then when the judges got crassness and not just from our entry but dozens of others as well, things went pear shaped.

For us Champagne is all about fun. And for the last couple of weeks we have had lots of it.

And we have learnt quite a bit as well.

MAIN STREAM MEDIA PICKS UP THE VEUVE STORY

TV3 checks out the Veuve story

THANKS FOR VOTING FOR BUSTEDBLONDE

She has recorded an astonishing 1072 votes to 839. She has promised that she will use the bubbles for a good charity if the judges agree with the public..

Thanks to all the great people who have supported her!

We will keep you posted if she gets the nod from NBR.

VOTE BUSTED BLONDE

OK guys and girls we need to pick up the pace. Busted Blonde is in the lead in the NBR competition to win her weight in Veuve Clicquot. But Joe and others are starting to catch up so she needs you to go to the link and press the thumbs up. She knows how to party and she has assured us the event will benefit a good charity. So please give the big old heifer a hand. And we must say that Busted is a bit like the old widow Cliquot to look at as well.

So Click Here to help Bustedblonde parttayy!!

and send this link to you mates as well.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/40withveuveclicquot/127086

This is a team effort from the Blogosphere. Whale Oil, Kiwi Blog and Cactus have all lent the big old bag their support. Thanks guys....

Kind regards The Brunette.

A STOUT WOMAN WHO LOVED BUBBLES

We wonder how many people will recognise this buxom woman .. she is no less that the Grande Dame herself Madame Clicquot...

Seems she liked her tucker as much as fizz. She really does have a lot in common with Busted Blonde.

And if you want to be BustedBlondes best friend help her on her quest to hold the best party courtesy of the NBR drink your weight in Veuve Clicquot. And if you think it will be all about her - think again , The flaxen haired wonder is cooking up a scheme to turn the party into a fundraiser..

So click here to support Busted ..

BUSTEDBLONDE

Hello all,

I have had a few emails asking why Roarprawn has not been entered in the Air New Zealand Awards for bloggers ( real bloggers). Well as Busted is a little bit of bother which hopefully will be resolved soon, she decided that it would not be appropriate to enter.

However, it appears that Roarprawn could still be a wildcard in the awards which are here

As Busted can't do or say much for the moment, here are our links to some of her best work in the last year.

I like Bustedblondes impressions of Ngai Tahu politics such as this post here. I am Rangitane so I am always interested in what our neighbours in the south are up to.

And I definitely want to hear more about this issue. Scampi may be a tad historical but by Jove it has all the makings of a great yarn.

And who could forget this post about the downside of being a mistress. ( Busted seems to know an awful lot about being a consort) That post spawned an international threat of legal action because some woman claim to own the word Mistressology. The entire VRWC corner of the blogosphere came to her aid and slam dunked the Pommie blogger.

She has such an interesting family. He mother and father seem  to live every day like there will be no tomorrow. This post shows a real soft side to Bustedblonde.

And she has been a very strong supporter of Maori TV. That was apparently one of her most read columns.

She is fervently pro whaling, leaving no room for doubt. She scored a world exclusive piece of footage on the Ady Gil crashing into the Japanese whaling vessel. It was watched on You Tube over 45,000 times in less than 2 hours - before it was taken down - but not before the activists re edited it and put it up on you tube where it was viewed by millions. Busted then put it up again with reworked commentary and today it has been viewed 18,000 times.

So I am sad the Busted never got to enter the Real Bloggers awards and I hope that this list of posts will show that she would have been an admirable contestant.

Toodle Pip

WHALES TALE

Bustedblonde has been a mate of Whale Oil, Cameron for quite some time now. She has told us that Cameron is a unique individual whom she proud to call a mate.

Now we don't know him that well but BustedBlonde has asked that we re -post Cactus Kates column about the shock blogger and his current troubles. BustedBlonde says many people who have a tough exterior, also have big hearts and that's Cactus to a T. She has written a poignant post about Whale.

Cactus and BustedBlonde may not always condone what Whale has written but I am pretty confident they will remain forever loyal to him.

BB says that what Cactus has written is very true.

You will find it here

with a growing number of comments.

And Kiwiblog has some comments

as does Keeping Stock

And here Cactus's post for you to read as per BustedBlonde instructions .

HoS appears to have been reading the sad plight of my mate and the mate of many bloggers, Whaleoil aka Cameron Slater.

Today is probably the most truthful article yet on Whaleoil because it was written with cut and pasted words from his wife and best mate aka Spanish Bride from his blog.

I've only known Cameron for a few years and all the time I have known him has been under the mantra of Whaleoil. Unlike SB, I have not known him as Cameron, before his spiral into depression.

I don't know all the background of his fight with Fidelity and what led up to his depressive state, because I wasn't there. SB was. She remarks that he was a different man before the events leading to his illness. I believe that now totally.

There is no one else I have ever met quite like Cameron as Whaleoil. His behaviour is outrageous. Friends compared notes and said that this is just him. It is not. What makes me astonished though with Fidelity's conduct is that they do not seem to have at any stage lead him to get help. That is medical help and counselling for rehabilitation. It used to be humourous watching Whaleoil be outrageous. It is now not so fun anymore once everyone has worked out he has a genuine problem.

The answer with Doctors has always been to prescribe more bloody pills. Whaleoil is on more pills than patients at mental homes. I know this because unknown to him I checked his dosage on his pillpackets and asked someone I know who works at an actual mental hospital. He is sedated by a cocktail of these pills which leave him tired, moody and disconnected with the world. When I realised his dosage, I knew the seriousness of the black hole he had fallen into. He's tried to come off the pills, that too has had bad consequences.

I hate pills as a solution for depression. They are not and they are over-prescribed. I hate watching all too many friends zombie around on them. They are not real people while sedated under the latest and greatest profit minded cure to make everyone "happy". The underlying problem still remains and I can't see any joy on being reliant on a pill to be happy, or even stable enough to get out of bed. It takes away the human nature of being happy and sad and managing both states.

Whaleoil does not think consequences, SB has highlighted that all too clearly. He will be fine sitting with you in a bar watching you drink (contrary to popular opinion he does not drink regularly and I've only seen him drunk once) then the slightest irritant across the bar and he will be talking about smacking another person's head in. Change the topic and his attention away and he's forgotten five minutes later of even being angry.

While medicated and unassisted emotionally with any form of therapy, he simply cannot work. The easiest question for doubters that he can be integrated into the workforce for a 40 hour week is this: would you want Whaleoil working in your office? Five minutes with him and any HR representative would instantly dismiss his job application. Fidelity's treatment has turned an otherwise creative, intelligent mind into a zombie who now firmly believes he cannot work. At the moment I am on the side of stating that he cannot.

Whaleoil is a great friend because he cares about his friends, but an unreliable one. That is, even the slightest task you know he may not do it on time. As the reliable party in the relationship you have to organise everything around Whaleoil not being able to perform his part. This frustrates him when he realises what has happened.

Insurance companies are not paid to care. I feel however they are paid to follow contracts and assist their clients back into the workforce so they are not made to rely on payouts. There's no doubt in my mind that Cameron Slater as Whaleoil is one of the most clinically depressed people I have ever met. While the original event leading to this depression may have been minor in the scheme of things Fidelity and the medical professionals who treated him from that point in time have failed miserably and created Whaleoil as we all read him today on his blog.

Fidelity created the monster that is Whaleoil. There is no doubt about that after watching him the past few months. Even when Fidelity were still paying him, the posts were written when he wasn't actually getting better. On a few good days, a Whaleoil post can be brilliantly coherent, well-reasoned and rational. On a bad day a Whaleoil post can be the most offensive thing on the internet.

There is only so much that friends and family can do for Whaleoil. The frustrating thing is that no one can wave a magic wand and make him better. It has gone past that and I've seen everyone try. His close family we can see have tried everything. His wife and kids are amazing in the circumstance, their love is unconditional.

Whaleoil needs serious medical attention from medics without a conflict of interest from working for an insurance company or more medics who border on being criminals in my view - the depression script writers. They should be given Oscars for their script writing abilities. He needs a time out, away from the stresses of modern life getting back to basics of routine and normality. But most of all he needs help and therapy to re-connect with himself, his old self. The one that his wife speaks of but most bloggers would never have seen.

Cameron Slater.

Heard that he is a fucking great bloke.

If Fidelity Insurance found that bloke, I'm sure they would have a case closed and not look like the bunch of cunts they will be made to look like when it is disclosed they haven't done a single thing, other than medication, to try and find him.

Busted reckons that Cactus is on the button.

Moby Dick Lies With The White Witch

David Farrar has a thread about a Kawerau man charged with covertly filming a tenant in their bedroom. Here is a typical comment on the thread:
mikeysmokes (136) Says:

May 16th, 2010 at 2:21 pm
Thats fucking dodgy. Is this guy suggesting that as a “red blooded male” what he did was ok? I reckon he should go for a skate for that.

The moral outrage is running high and presumably the authors are morally squeaky clean in their own behavior (ignoring moral relativism). Similar moral outrage was expressed on the NZ blogosphere when Tiger Woods was outed for being a serial adulterer. Two NZ politicians in particular are targets of an Ahabian quest to expose their alleged infidelities. It often appears that moral outrage is often accompanied by a prurient interest in the events being disapproved of.

Undeniably there are many serpents living the dark places of the world. We do wonder if perhaps some of those serpents lie frozen within those who are most willing to call to account the worms within others. In reality Moby Dick lies down with the White Witch and both feast upon the Tigerpig.

Psychological projection or projection bias (including Freudian Projection) is the unconscious act of denial of a person's own attributes, thoughts, and emotions, which are then ascribed to the outside world, such as to the weather, the government, a tool, or to other people. Thus, it involves imagining or projecting that others have those feelings.

Projection is considered one of the most profound and subtle of human psychological processes, and extremely difficult to work with, because by its nature it is hidden. It is the fundamental mechanism by which we keep ourselves uninformed about ourselves. Humor has great value in any attempt to work with projection, because humor presents a forgiving posture and thereby removes the threatening nature of any inquiry into the truth.

Paleo-anthropologically speaking, this faculty probably had survival value as a self-defense mechanism when homo sapiens' intellectual capacity to detect deception in others improved to the point that the only sure hope to deceive was for deceivers to be self-deceived and therefore behave as if they were being truthful.

One modern, radical view of projections is that they are prerequisites for normal social functioning. Persons incapable of ascribing their own feelings to themselves have great difficulties in understanding them. Unfortunately, human beings have done great harm laboring under the delusions of projection. This is especially true for historical cases of projection between ethnic or cultural groups, for example in Apartheid or Nazism.

In classical psychology, projection is always seen as a defense mechanism that occurs when a person's own unacceptable or threatening feelings are repressed and then attributed to someone else. Wikipedia

Knee Jerk

We posted a link to this story about the decimation of the bee population in the United States on our Facebook profile.

Disturbing evidence that honeybees are in terminal decline has emerged from the United States where, for the fourth year in a row, more than a third of colonies have failed to survive the winter.

The decline of the country's estimated 2.4 million beehives began in 2006, when a phenomenon dubbed colony collapse disorder (CCD) led to the disappearance of hundreds of thousands of colonies. Since then more than three million colonies in the US and billions of honeybees worldwide have died and scientists are no nearer to knowing what is causing the catastrophic fall in numbers.

The number of managed honeybee colonies in the US fell by 33.8% last winter, according to the annual survey by the Apiary Inspectors of America and the US government's Agricultural Research Service (ARS).

What I found interesting was a comment on my post from a leading member of the local VRWC jokingly blaming the decline on Obama. (As an aside the problem began on Bush's watch.)

There is a danger in any closely or loosely aligned group of group-think occurring. One area of group think that appears to be a feature of the right of center political blogs in New Zealand is global warming. Another is promotion of mining in the conservation estate that 40,000 people marched against last weekend.

This group think can evolve into the kind of roving bands of internet thugs that rove the threads of Kiwiblog and that suppress meaningful discussion.

HOW MANY IS TOO MANY

David Farrar seems to have a fascination with our past sex life.

Not sure why - it may have something to do with this little blog.

Now Farrar was reporting on a story in the Herald that says we kiwi gals are the most sexually experienced women in the world.

Its based on frequency - apparently we have about 2o sex partners in a lifetime.

Sexologist Dr Michelle Mars puts the result down to the failings of Kiwi blokes.

"New Zealand men aren't very good at picking up women unless they're really drunk. So what tends to happen is in New Zealand, women are just as likely to ask men to have sex as men are to ask women.

"While a lot of people would read that statistic quite negatively, I think it's quite a positive. It's more of a gender balance in people getting the kind of sex they want."

Bollocks.

We can honestly say that we have surpassed the national average but we were never the seducee that often. And we weren't a push over either - we needed a good poke.

Now here is our theory - we kiwi sheilas have so many partners because it takes that many to find a decent one.

There are a lot of dud roots out there.

And remember that in the 70's and 80's there was bugger all on TV worth watching so sex was a recreational activity - pure and simple.

By the nineties we were all too scared to even kiss much because of AIDs and herpes.

So it would be interesting to see the batting averages for each decade.

They are the sorts of figures that would get the stats meister Farrar really frothy.

Now Kiwi women, we think, are very discerning so the fact that we try 20 before we buy shows we have some class.

And it pretty hard to tell if someone is a lousy shag. Guys that look good enough to eat leave a sour taste after you realise that they feed on their own ego.

Personal referrals don't tend to be the best. Just because your mate and you both love the same movies and shoes does not mean you have the same desires and needs from a bloke.

Size does not matter. Touch does.
And Mr Boring and Dull can end up being the uber lover.

Successful and powerful men have their own unique attraction and while the waves of passion at first can be intense - the tide soon goes out. The self absorbed man is only ever good for the zipless fuck.


And as for that age old question how many is too many?

Too many is when you meet old lovers again and cant remember a damn thing.

You lament the fact that you wasted an hour of your life. And life is too short to waste a minute on crap sex.

Sexual politics is fascinating and has changed considerably in the last few decades. We think we are back to the 70's and 80's type attitudes again.

Is that a good thing? Well all we can say those were the years we were in our prime and we can still remember their names -well at least twenty of them so we reckon that makes us pretty normal.

SPIT OR SWALLOW.

Nationals big economic moment????

Spit.

Well actually its not tooo bad.But its not tasty enough to swallow whole.

Like the GST. Like the get tuff on serial beneficiaries. Like the mining stuff. But should have had land tax.
We agree with Kiwiblog... on just about every point...

But we expected big bold moves...

and we are underwhelmed.

We hope that things harden up in time for the budget....

DPF FEARS NO COMPETITION

Now david p farrar aka Kiwiblog seems to be a happy soul and at his age being a happy soul means you are well feed, well watered and well laid.

So it was with great interest we read this story about a girl drought on Great Barrier Island, one of Mr Farrars hidey out places.

So we can come to one of two conclusions..

• David has secured a permanent bit of island crumpet which must piss off some of the crusty old dispairing dogs who call the place home.

• Or David the uber politico geek is the girl magnet we suspected some time ago and he is finding easy pickins on the hippy hidey away..

So Whaleoil can play with his dork as his on site popularity grows but he is beached in the sexy stakes- its DPF who leads that race.

WHALEOIL - HERO OR DORK?

We will be watching with interest the outcome of the audacious Whale at Gotcha who breached some suppression orders of a couple of apparently semi famous people. Whale's Gotcha is not for the faint hearted.

With think we push the boat out at times but Whale pushes it out and opens up the throttle.

Now there are those out there who will think that Whale is doing all this purely for the publicity and its no secret the Whale is happy to blow his own spout so to speak. And everyone is listening as he has, we understand, broken Kiwiblogs stranglehold on the NZ blogosphere

But make no mistake he also has a strong sense of justice and he makes no secret of what he believes in.

We have spent a bit of time with him here and there over the last year or so and he openly admits to suffering depression.

He also claims to be mad and seriously after a few hours in his company its not hard to believe that a psychiatrist would certify him as bloody barmy at best and completely certifiable at worst.
But just because he suffers from depression doesn't mean he is stupid. He is highly intelligent actually quite likeable and above all fearless.

For that we have a great deal of respect and admiration.

We too have a bloody problem with suppression orders. They should be only used to protect innocent victims.

So we think that this is an issue that needs debating. And we thank the Whale for being the one to really get the country thinking about what is a very serious issue about fairness and our court system.

So Hail to the Whale!

WHAT WE WANT FOR XMAS

For our blogging mates



For Cactus - a stunning looking rich as bloke who doesn't have a wife at home.
Nah - what we want for Cactus is a newspaper to realise the talent and hook her in as a columnist .




For Whale - someone to deliver a bad ass tank to his front door.
Nah - what we want is for him to have a fantastic day with his family

For the boys at No Minister - lots of sex and booze
Nah - recognition that they are the best team bloggers around.

For Motella - A full house over Xmas
Nah - a contract to write for the AA magazine.

For KiwiBlog - A super rich cute political loving geek chick that roots like a rabbit.
Nah - actually super rich cute political loving geek chicks who root like rabbits in every town in NZ.

For Red Alert. - A poll that shows they are closing the gap on National
Nah - a poll that shows Shane Jones is more popular than Phil Goff.

For Alf Grumble - a fine paddock or two of hay.
Nah - A posting to be our man in the Ukraine. We think he would do wonders for our trade relations in Eastern Europe..

And what do we want for Xmas? Well we have got all we wanted.

Family around us, good food wine and the expected company of good friends to our little piece of kiwi paradise.

Our partner – the Aussie Rock has been toiling away building a house that will be our retirement abode and a place for our friends to parkl up and shoot the breeze.

The Rock bought me an ice making fridge,/freezer - something that I have always wanted above all other material possessions for no good reason. It shines like a diamond in the yet to be completed kitchen. We love him all the more.

Our son is seeing the fruits of hard graft and has a career he loves flying helicopters.

Our job is interesting and has some importance so we are feeling a measure of satisfaction.

Ma and Pa are looking pretty good for 70 plus coveys.

Lambcut has given up the cancer sticks and her eyes and skin have shed years in a matter of weeks. It almost made us cry to see her smoke free.

In the New Year we vow to support the agencies who work tirelessly to stop our children from ever taking a puff.

So for 2010 we just want the same again thanks

We wont blog too much over Xmas - we have things to eat and drink , people to talk to, places to explore, gardens and flocks to tend to and families and friends to love.

Merry Xmas and all that....

AHH WHAT MASTERY

We went to a superb event tonight. It was a birthday party.. Bril it was... There was a low brow affair over at Dockside and some Totty do at the other end of Shed Five but it was the Green Room that was the place to be seen. Wall to wall blondes and a peppering of politicos and diplomats. Power was the perfume. Everyone was gold elite..

And the queen of PR and schmoozing, the luscious LM, was the goddess of good times we happily paid homage to.

We were her servants and waited and feted her as was fitting for the queen of plonk and prawns. As this picture shows our Indigo Lord of Blogs himself was happy to ensure that she was kept perfectly coiffured.

The great mystery of the night is how did he gain such expertise in perfectly applying lip gloss?