Backwards In High Heels

Why weight?

With the recent appearence of the sun has anyone else found that since last year their summer clothes have shrunk in the wardrobe?

Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining!

I had a very busy weekend at the race circuit and it was wonderful. It was the first time in 4 years I was back at the track with my best mate Lynne who has been in Oz. The tag team were back!

On the Friday I was a SEAT media training day watching 'my' driver Freddy be put through his paces as they taught the drivers the finer points of interview technique. It proved as helpful to me and was very interesting. Then it was two days at the circuit.

Lynne has recently been studying photography so not one to miss an opportunity I roped her in as my private snapper for the weekend. It was very handy as we were giving out 100 free AQA books (ask a free question here) and were having lots of fun promoting Freddy and AQA. We decided to go for the 'Stig' look and I think you'll agree its a great set of shots!

The laughter was needed as on track things were not going well for Freddy. The gremlin in the car is now being searched for but it was a bitter blow for a very talented and amiable driver and I'm not just saying that as his PR! After a disappointing qualifying Freddy headed off. Now some drivers can be divas and may throw a tantrum or hide in the toilet but not our Freddy. He reappeared with ice creams for his mechanics!

We got to meet up with some old and new friends. It was great to meet up with journo and fellow PR Leanne for a good gossip as we couldn't help but notice a trend of would be WAGs floating around. Gucci bags, high heels and white jeans. Cue a bit of a bitchy session but heck white jeans at a race circuit? We decided we would have to form Team BAG not WAG. I *try* and scrub up, after all this is my 'office' but I think I can be excused for looking like a bag after being on my feet for 8 hours, putting in miles around the paddock and track whilst trying to keep that upbeat PR feel going. 

Amazing how a bit of fresh air and good company can pep you up so a huge thanks to all and see you at a track again v.soon!

 

More Tulips

No need for many words today. I just love my tulips and as they brighten my garden they may as well brighten my blog too:

Co-op, Compost and Common Sense

My metamorphosis into Victor Meldrew quickens with each day and God bless the Daily Mail for fuelling it.

The latest story to have me rolling my eyes is the story of Mary Whitner. In summary, she has worked at the Co-op for 23 years and lately a customer was buying 4 bunches of flowers. One of these bunches was now out of date so Mary wasn't allowed to sell them, instead she would have to follow the code of practice and throw them in the rubbish bin. But instead she let the lady have that one bunch for free rather than see them go to waste.

A colleague then snitched on Mary to the bosses and Mary was subsequently given the choice of jump or be pushed, just weeks before she was due to retire.

This would be the same Co-op who pride themselves on being as green as possible, fair trade and friendly. Did Mary really commit such a heinous crime?

She wasn't passing off food which could have been contaminated, we all know what flowers on the brink are like. The flowers were destined otherwise for the bin and from what I gather not the compost variety.

And don't get me started on the jobs-worth who reported her.

The waste from shops and restaurants in this country is disgusting. I can't watch bloody foodie programmes. Self important chefs throwing plates of perfectly good food away because his underling hadn't peeled a perfectly spherical pretentious fruit. I actually start to growl.

I feel guilty when  I open the fridge to find another well intentioned lettuce has passed over before heading down the garden to feed it to my beloved compost bin.

And on the subject of my compost bin. Had a great gardening day on Tuesday. the garden is springing nicely into life. Here's a few pictures of the blossoms and flowers:

Bonsai Crab Apple Tree Blossom

Pear Tree Blossom

Yellow Tulip

Matchstick Woman

The matchsticks being required for my eyelids.

This last weekend was one when I had an absolute flurry of motorsport work with two drivers and two teams competing here, there and everywhere. I am very lucky as usually everyone's races are well spread over the season but every now and then there's a crazy weekend!

They all did themselves proud and despite three nights in a row of writing up reports til past midnight, I am still passable as human!

Whilst I deal with the words, I am hugely envious of those with photography skills. Every photo of a race car I've ever taken comes out as migraine blur of colour. Of photos this weekend, this one by Gary for GTGateway.com of 'my' team's car is my favourite

Great shot, isn't it?

You Can't Keep A Good Cat Down

This time last year I wrote a long, sad post as it appeared Wilbur the cat was on his way across the rainbow bridge. One year later and Wilbur is....currently lying on Mum's bed, snoring.

Yes, he looks ragged around the edges with all the tell tale signs of feline age (as does Sammy cat too) but he continues to bask in the enjoyment of his retirement which has lasted another 12 months I wasn't expecting.

Bingo Jones the foster cat who was burnt is continuing to heal well and his fur is growing back and covering his bald spots.

I've recently got some Native American medicine cards and books on spirit healing and reading messages from animals and nature. We all have animal totems with us through life and I have found it strange but comforting how you get messages from animals and nature be it literally when you are out and about or through dreams.  We now have a regular hedgehog visitor to our back door. Hedgehogs are a sign to help us protect ourselves from the negative, and having just barred a very negative person from my life the sign couldn't be more apt!

Mourning in Motorsport

Like many involved in motorsport I was taken aback last night with the news David Leslie and Richard Lloyd had been killed in the Kent plane crash. They were both well respected and very much liked people in the paddock.

I had the pleasure of meeting David back in his touring car days and as many people are remembering today, he was always amiable and a great ambassador for the sport. I'd never met Richard but his reputation as a good guy went before him. His team races in the same series as one of the teams I work with and I know everyone in the series is shocked and will feel the loss of a great paddock character. Also the news a young engineer, Chris Allarton, died with them is tremendously sad; a young guy at the start of his career in a great sport. The two pilots also proved themselves to be real heroes. A tragedy all round.

Whilst motorsport woke up this morning, still shaken by the loss another story was being bounded around and frankly it was a case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous.

FIA President Max Mosley was featured in a tabloid sex scandal on Sunday and now some people are calling for his resignation. Now, many say it is too salacious to discuss the matter.

Damn my low resistance level to salacious gossip.

"Mosley in Nazi Sex Orgy". Now if you think Mosley and Nazi have been seen together before, indeed, Max is the offspring of Oswald Mosley and Diana Mitford. Hitler was present at their wedding. And to think some people are embarrassed by dotty old aunts on their wedding photos.

The tabloid story says a video shows Mr M (or perhaps Mr S&M would be more appropriate) and 5 prostitutes in Chelsea torture chamber partaking in a bit of role play with one being the Nazi officer and the other a camp inmate. The Times write that part of this role play included Mr M allowing himself to be "subjected to a humiliating inspection for lice". I bet he found nit nurse day at school erotic...

Bernie Ecclestone reportedly said " Knowing Max it might be all a bit of a joke. You know, it’s one of those things where he’s sort of taking the piss"

Surely the furthest you can take the piss with Nazis is a quick chorus of 'Springtime for Hitler' - do you really need the hookers?

When I wrote for Recorded For Training Purposes, the main gist was taking the piss out of modern life, especially parts of the media. When I sat and tried to think of what to write I didn't hire a group of male escorts dressed as Melvyn Bragg and get them to beat me across my bare arse with a copy of the Radio Times. Perhaps I would have been more successful if I had...

Some will say what you get up to in the privacy of your own torture chamber is your own business and they have a point. Nevertheless when you are in a position of authority and have the surname Mosley perhaps entertaining yourself with Nazi uniform clad prostitutes (allegedly blah blah blah) isn't the best use of your leisure time. "I vill spanken ze bottom mein Herr" 

Either way it is a very seedy and distasteful distraction at a time when we are mourning some decent and inspiring people in motorsport.

Sell it To Me Baby

Two things have recently struck me about  adverts.

There is a very definite swing to pulling at the eco friendly heartstrings. Doe eyed children tugging at your conscience that unless you buy a certain brand of biscuits you are responsible for blighting their future.

The current one to get my goat is Persil High and Mighty, sorry small and mighty. Cute voice child insisting that if we buy their new small bottles it will mean half the amount of delivery trucks on the road. But I'm sure they wouldn't mind if their advertising was so persuasive that that their sales doubled and thus they had to go back to the full truck quota. What a cynic I am!

The second thing goes back to that old saying 'don't you know who I am?' Especially in the world of hair care, cosmetics and other creams with added proteins and guilt, they can't get better than a celebrity endorsement. The second you see photoshopped Hollywood starlet your credit card leaps out of your purse by itself. Well, if the said Hollywood starlet is so enticing why do they always have to put their name at the bottom of the screen?

As an aside I was once at a hotel reception when an F1 driver walked in and stood in silence as the receptionist looked back with that 'do I look like a mind reader?' expression. The F1 driver came out with the immortal words 'Do you know who I am?'. To which the receptionist bluntly replied 'No' before turning with a big smile to me and saying 'Ah, Miss Hobbs' (I was having my 21st out there and the receptionists were all very sweet and passing on cards that had been sent to me at the hotel).

I suppose, to quote an advert, the receptionist recognised I was worth it!

This One Goes Out To Lynne

Lynne, this one is for you.

Bingo Jones

You know when you try and streamline life as much as possible to cope with a chaotic time, then someone says 'can you do this?' and you immediately answer 'yes' - hence I have Bingo Jones.

Despite saying I couldn't cope with any more foster cats at the moment, I could not see this one go anywhere else. I have called him Bingo Jones and he needs that specialist Hobbs formulated TLC. He was given away by his original owners, then appears to have become a stray and next, someone threw boiling water on him. He made his way to another garden and, thank goodness, to a caring person who got in touch with us. His burns are a minimum of two weeks old so this is them starting to heal, you can imagine how it would have been at the start, but don't be surprised if these photos make you cry.

He is, understandably, very nervous but very, very loving. He tries to climb up my front and, bless him, purrs away when I bathe his wounds and rub on his ointment twice a day.

He is eating like it is going out of fashion, it's been a long time since he has had regular meals obviously.

He'll have to wear the Elizabethan collar for sometime as I don't want him aggravating the wounds so I go in on a regular basis to give his ears a good scratch!

I'll keep you updated on how he gets on.

Tech Tags: cat, cats, cat care, welfare, foster cruelty, animal cruelty