How peculiar it is reading about a battle taking place in a foreign country - and being able to smile.

This is one of the strangest celebrations I can ever remember seeing and it looks as though everyone involved had a really good time. If only all wars in the world were as harmless as this one!

It is pretty incredible to learn how this has gone on for more than two hundred years. Although, I am not sure it would have been quite as much fun in its early days, when ash was used rather than flour…

There should be festivals like this one in all countries around the world. I’m sure we would have a far better sense of community and that people would be much happier if they got the chance to take part in such light-hearted activities. However, I can’t see it ever coming about in Britain.

Imagine something like this taking place over here. Thousands of revellers would immediately be arrested and fined for littering with coloured powder (and intent). But that would not be all; if it ever did get the go-ahead, then it would not be until all of those involved were dressed in the appropriate personal safety equipment. Health and Safety would have an absolute field day. I’m sure none of it would have quite the same level of enjoyment if everyone had to wear goggles, gloves and ear-defenders.

It’s a shame, isn’t it? Flour is so cheap at the supermarket and you could get yourself fully tooled-up for a ‘Self-Raising Armageddon’ with a couple of quid or so. Perhaps our country just takes itself too seriously. It would do us all the world of good to act like a bunch of kids for half an hour every once in a while.

Amazing update everyone, Lesley just got a few months work with a dragons den company that sells summer kaftans , I expect free stuff!

One thing that I find really frustrating is the frequency with which men put down any sort of emotional response to "the time of the month". If ever a girl is upset, or angry, or feel as though she is being mistreated for whatever reason, the old saw of "oh, it must be your time of the month"gets trotted out. I find this both incredibly frustrating and extremely humiliating.
I hate the fact that women are seen as purely emotional creatures who can’t seem to be able to avail themselves of rational thought. But I hate even more the notion that any sort of response from us can be purely put down to the result of our hormones at a particular time of the month. Blaming the "time of the month"for a woman’s actions is basically saying that she’s incapable of logical or rational thought, and that she’s entirely incapable of reasoning with. This sort of attitude in my opinion is morally reprehensible, and is something that needs to be stamped out.
Rather than giggling and putting your behavior down to such things as "time of the month", or letting other people do it on your behalf, make sure that you let people around you know that you’re acting in a certain way because you’re justified, and it is, after all, the way you feel. Ensure that they can’t just blame your actions on emotions that are supposedly the result of hormones. Doing so will only reduce us to a mess of emotions, rather than the intelligent women we’ve fought all these years for the right to be. So the next time someone tries to blame something on "the time of the month", let them know that the reason you’re being so forthright is because you feel passionately about something, not because of your hormones. Speaking of hormones, I have just looked into applying for a job at the new Botox Manchester clinic. How is that for selling out!?

If you have never seen the ‘Knights of Cydonia’ music video by Muse then you really have missed out on an absolute treat. I saw it a few times when it first came out and I had forgotten all about it until just now. Good old You Tube! Even if you can’t find anything new, there is always something good to rediscover.

The video to this song is extremely retro. It is a cross between ‘Buck Rogers’, ‘Star Wars’, ‘Enter the Dragon’ and ‘A Fistful of Dollars’. And the makers have gone to great lengths to make it look as authentic as possible. Even the ‘credits’ at the start are done in a typically 1970s style.

Considering the song itself gives obvious nods to Ennio Morricone throughout, the choice to make its accompanying film in the style of Sergio Leone’s Westerns was a perfect one. And the casting is absolutely brilliant. There is the Kung-Fu-skilled hero, the beautiful blonde heroine and the obnoxious-looking bad guy. You fully expect Clint Eastwood, Charles Bronson or Lee Van Cleef to pop up before it reaches the closing titles.

Muse have released some really good music videos over the years, but this one has to be their best; it’s cool, funny and fits the song like a glove. I don’t think anyone else has had a music video like this one. It’s just a shame that the makers didn’t go on to create a full length movie in the same style, it would have been brilliant!

So, as you all know, it is my birthday soon and in case you are curious as to what to buy me (that means you Colin) I have had my eye on that dvd set for House, just in case you couldn’t think of anything…