There are a large number of women in prison who suffer with mental ill health and there is a sizeable proportion who do not. Whichever category they are in, there is a long history of women in prison whose overall needs are not being recognised. Even though there have been high profile enquiries that have highlighted the inadequacies, official neglect continues.

Female needs and emotional difficulties are entirely different to that of the male prison population. Their requirements have been generally 'catered for' within existing male programmes, structures and norms that do not recognise the distinct differences that prevail between men and women's emotional and physical needs. Usually, men have their wives, partners and children waiting on the outside for them doing whatever is needed with visiting, support and so on. Many women are single parent families, they do not have much if anything in the way of family support. When they are imprisoned, they lose sight of their children, lose their homes - even for the shortest sentences - and have multidimensional deprivation to deal with when they are released as a consequence of the their removal from the community.

Generally, women are imprisoned for lower thresholds of offending than their male counterparts, this adding to the iniquities and inequities of the situation. Yes, they have offended, but let us have some proportionality in the situation, let us have some suitable arrangements for women's needs, and don't let us visit the sins of the mothers (and fathers in the broader overview)onto the children.

One of the primates at the London Zoo is a German 'understander', having recently arrived from a German zoo. He is currently being 'taught English' but "he's a bit slow" according to one of the German speaking staff "What do you expect from a gorilla" he said.

What the Gorilla can do, sounds more advanced than what you find in the class room these days. Maybe the Gorilla, who is showing no sign of being interested in flirting with one of the lady gorillas, could teach our kids a thing or two about focus and communincation. It sounds to me as if the gorilla has those important learning skills.

The Bookseller of Kabul by A Seierstad is not a huge work either in size or literary stature. It is however a written work that was worth putting into the public domain for its perspective on a particular Afghani family. It brings insights into social and cultural orders. The manner in which the various political and religious influences have been mirrored into one family's dynamics lead the reader to easily conclude that this must be a process being repeated throughout that immediate society.

The reader is required to cut themselves off from their own learned morals and norms, else it would be difficult to compare and contrast and comment rationally on what is described in this book.

The writer illustrates the subjugation of women who have no personal will over the way they are used as commodities, it is a system the older generations of women collude with when, as 'senior family members' they obtain a perverse power through it, that helps to perpetuate the process.

Male supremacy and hypocrisy is highlighted. Convenient rule and convention breaking can be tolerated if, for example, the price is right to suit the lisciviousness of the suitor. There are clearly different rules of engagement and punishment for men, with women inevitably suffering the harsher outcomes. Men sit in comfortable judgement on what they have devised as controls to bind and imprison the existence of their girls and their women. These same controls protect the supremacy of the men's existence.

Domestic despotism sharply divides the men in this family. Knowledge is power and this lesson has been well learned by the senior male. Could it be that this is a way of protecting the younger male members of the family from the vagaries of the political regimes they have lived under and those that might return? I question that query. I feel from my understanding of events that despotism reigns under the guise of desired family cohesion.

The book has been translated into many languages. This is a translation that at times, I felt was stilted. There were segments of the book that I skimmed as they were unnecessarily repetitive and did not flow; the language did not live. Other sections were a delight and magnetising. Could some of these sections have reflected the writer's intimate first hand knowledge and narration, rather than a reporting of events that would of necessity have had to be written up as reportage because of their content and location?

Today I got windswept and cold hanging out washing.
I couldn't get my hair to stay tidy whatever I did.
The sun was brilliant by lunch time but with a stiff, cold breeze.
So,I donned my padded coat hat and gloves and went out.
I was glad of the warm clothing till I got down the hill.
Suddenly, I was too warm; my hat was slipping down my forehead,
It was irritating me.

By the time I had reached my goal, I was overheated.
Off came my hat and gloves, I opened my coat and let it flap free.
The wind had either lessened or dropped. What a difference it made to the temperature.

On my return, there was no wind, though being early evening, it was very cool. I needed to do up my coat and put on my gloves. My hat stayed in my bag.

My hair remains untidy; not to worry, as I have to retrieve my laundry from the line, and it has got dark and cold. There is probably a chilly breeze - what the hell... Time to put my coat back on and go outside to get the washing.

Overheard on a train.

"Isn't it funny, when you are going south XXX is your first stop. On the way back, it's much further away and it seems to take longer to get there"

It can't, be, can it?
It doesn't sound like him, hmm maybe it does, just a bit.
There is something about the voice, the inflection? No, not quite.
This conversation is too measured, it's quite intelligent really,
Nope, it definitely can't be him.
He's too much of an idiot, too daft for words.
There's no way he could think, let alone think several insightful thoughts in sequence and make interesting comments, is there?

Isn't it amazing just how a character becomes attached to its creator and sticks. It is the cleverness and skill of the actor that pulls it off, yet it is those very abilities that can make the credibility of the actor, as a person in his own right, difficult to believe in; it is that ability over many years of impressing a character's image into the public mind, that makes him, the actor, so incredibile.

Tonight I heard Rowan Atkinson in sensible discussion and I found it really difficult to accept that he and Mr Bean could be so separate and so different from one another. It struck me that being typecast with your most famous characterisation, may not be the cleverest career outcome. It keeps an income stream flowing into the bank account, of course, but I do wonder if, Rowan Atkinson would like to be remembered for other roles and other abilities, other than being the chief court jester and idiot in the English-speaking world of comedy.

Would you like to pay for bed and full board at her majesty's pleasure, in her institutions, particularly when, you have been imprisoned at her majesty's pleasure by proved wrongful conviction?

Confounded media: how stupidly emotive can you get! A Classic FM news bulletin:-

"Children will be forced to learn languages from as young as seven."

Why not add to that;

Children as young as four will be forced to learn phonics or;
Children as young as five will be forced to learn to write or;
Children as young as six will be forced to learn to read or;
children as young as seven will be forced to learn maths and science.

I left it to its own devices for 5 hours. With supreme self control I did not even take a peep. As there was no external way to view,I had no idea what the end result would be, what it might look like.

At about 3.30pm the process ended. It beeped, I went to my machine, opened the lid and to my absolute delight I saw a beautifully domed, even coloured 100% wholemeal loaf. As I write and drink in the lingering smell of fresh baked bread, my masterpeice is cooling on a wire rack.

I'm still trying out the recipes in the book that came with the machine. There was only one size for this loaf, though there were two different times for cooking. Three hours would create a slightly smaller loaf that had a heavier texture; it would be interesting to try a shorter processing cycle to compare results. On the other hand, I could look in my own books and see if there's a recipe devised for a smaller sized loaf.

The big decision to make now is, do I store this one or not. It is a big loaf, indeed an extra large one. The judgement of Solomon would be the compromise solution, that is, to cut the loaf into two, store one half and use the other. I can almost taste fresh crusty bread and butter for tea, now! D

Those expansive statements like, 'We're all creative' which often come out as throw away lines, in my view, need some explanation. Because it is a positive statement this type of comment is often accepted without question. Who wouldn't take a compliment, enjoy feeling good. I would and you would, I am sure.

What would happen if we were told 'we're all bad'? Apart from a sense of affront, It is likely demands would be made for an explanation; why? Because it is a negative statement which none of us would like levelled at us. In fact it is a contentious accusation for which we are entitled to an explanation in order to defend ourselves.

So, we just accept without question anything with a positive connotation. It gives us a warm glow. I agree, we deserve some of those nice feelings too. Yet, specific complimentary comments should, I believe, be expanded upon in the same way as negative ones need to be. In general they are not casual throw away lines they are statements containing carefully crafted expectations. We are unwittingly drawn into a collusion, an acceptance we have 'X,Y, or Z', the consequence being, that we feel obliged to produce the goods that go with the 'X,Y & Z' that we are told we all have. On the one hand it can be a true motivator, on the other, it can place unreal expectations upon us that set us up to fail. A conundrum indeed.

Where the house is situated is a quiet sort of place; it has lost it's outpost medical practice, there is now a very part time pharmacist who offers two general practitioner sessions per week in store, where you are greeted by a nurse badged and in modern uniform, who doubles up as the shop assistant. Here too, the pharmacist, a proficient amateur artist, displays and sells his watercolours. There is a part-time local library service a couple of small grocery stores, a bakery and a bank. The secondhand bookshop is also the post office.

The place is called 'the village' and I suppose in some ways it is a rather like one. There are buses that run through the one main street (there are other streets but they are not part of a bus route), lots of fast business traffic has to use the same road. With no off-street garaging and consequent congested sidewalk/kerb parking, it can be tricky at times for other road users to negotiate that street.

The local station has regular trains stopping at rush hour that travel into Edinburgh. There's one train an hour during the non-business times of day. The station itself is noteworthy, with its delightful banked gardens. It is proudly well kept and frequently wins prizes. The ticket office is only staffed at busy times; the station master is totally people-orientated, or at least the one I met was.

All the long distance trains pass through the station. Some of them stop at the busier station hub about 5 miles futher on. It is worthwhile trying to park and ride within reach of the hub station if you're going into Edinburgh by train, as you increase your choice of return trains, especially in the evening, when there is a reduced service. It means you can relax more about transport availability when having an evening out in the city.

Close by the house, there is a beautiful sandy beach. It is reached by walking over lush green fields and it links you to the Firth of Forth. In good weather many families take picnics to the field and the beach. There is also a pleasant official local path walk which takes you past delightful harbours and some residential areas with gloriously old featuristic architecture and design. There is also a castle ruin, but not so ruined that you can't get the feel of it and let the imagination loose!

On a clear and frosty Saturday night, the following observations were made while peering through binoculars up into the glittering heavens above:

"It looks rather like an eyeball."

"Oh yes, except it doesn't have the veins that are behind the eyeball."

(The eclipse of the moon 3rd March 2006)

How do they do it? For two consecutive years my cell phone company has managed to double bill me for the pleasure of an advance rental with them and on the same bill.

Last year it took three months of frustration to retrieve a refund. If you have ever advised an individual over a phone, in particular a cell phone, of the inadequacy of their advice and information, you will have some idea of the levels it went to... up, up and up to senior management and someone who knew that if you helped yourself to extra money from someone's account without permission, you were seriously, legally, out of line; and
"Of course madam, we must give you your refund," and
"No madam, we are not tied to giving you a credit on your account"
(one which would have kept me going for at least 18 months of use!) and
"Yes madam, you will have your money refunded immediately", and
"I can assure on behalf of.....that such a problem will not recur, it was highly unusual".

THE PROBLEM DID RECUR - IN 2007, AND IT IS NOT THAT UNUSUAL.

The reason given for a repeat of this incompetence;
"The system thinks (it thinks!) that if a customer gets a specific credit on the bill that is related to the renewal, the line-advance has to be re-listed". Is 're-listed' a euphemism for 'overcharged', it looks very like it to me.

You would not be remiss in thinking quality control should exist. However,in this day and age, it is the overpaying customer who has to fulfill that role.

One last operator question to customer;

"Would you like to complain?".

"We like our reporters and journalists to have their own agendas"
Andrew Marr: Start The Week BBC Radio 4 Monday 26th February 2007.

Now we definitely know what we always knew.