Swans, Sherbet and Coathangers

THIS IS A GREAT LITTLE VIDEO. It makes the point that the idea of 'beauty', as portrayed by countless fashion magazines, is total nonsense. We all know this of course, but this rams the point home once and for all.

In other news, I'm still trying to figure out why Heather Mills deserves such a huge slice of Sir Paul McCartney's fortune (£24.3 million awarded). If I were the judge, I'd have bunged her a million and told her to shove off. It's not like she had a long, happy marriage with the guy, is it. Plus, she's not even trying to maintain a positive media image any more. She threw water over Sir Paul's lawyer! And then launched into a major rant in front of the assembled press...

Blah, blah, blah.

My dear brother is living in Japan at the moment, and this brute is native to him!

The Japanese giant hornet. Lovely.

Apparently it can spray flesh melting poison. Uuurgh. It'll happily chase you for up to 50 miles, and once it's squirted you other hornets in the area can smell you, find you and get stuck in to a jolly fun stinging session.

Just thought I'd share.

In other news, our cat Sparkle has settled down a lot since her arrival three and a half weeks ago. She still gets extremely jumpy at unfamiliar sounds (sizzling sausages sends her scampering for cover), but generally speaking she's much happier. Perhaps too happy - she likes to sleep on our bed at night, and cries if she isn't allowed. This issue still needs to be resolved! I don't mind either way particularly, but having a vibrating (purring) cat across your legs at 4am can be disconcerting.