If there's one thing better than a wild night out, then it's a quiet night in. In fact boys, give us a Chardonnay, a romcom and bar of velvety smooth chocolate, and quite often we girls can happily get by without you. Perhaps a woman can't live on chocolate alone, but she can have a darned good try. (more...)

When a friend walked into a party wearing a top with a loud and pronounced zigzag pattern, I suggested that perhaps she needed to adjust her horizontal hold. Now, I'm not saying this was a tumbleweed-across-the-room moment exactly, but several people did look at me very blankly. Clearly you need to (more...)

Three weeks into the new year, and the children in the Simms household are still banging on about Christmas - and expecting me to remember some of the finer details. The other day my six year old daughter asked me for a quick run-down of Santa's reindeer. I quickly reeled off Dasher, Dancer and (more...)

In my school days, I discovered something of talent for tennis. As a somewhat gawky teenager I didn't have the stature, musculature or grip strength for the powerful, wristy topspin shots that characterise the modern game, but I could hit the ball hard and flat from the right flank, and had a solid (more...)

At the risk of starting to sound like a grumpy old man, this is not my favourite time of the year. The fun and festivity that used to surround Halloween and Guy Fawkes night has turned into a right flipping nuisance. What was once fireworks night steadily progressed from fireworks week to fireworks (more...)

There's something inherently pleasing about green technology and sustainable manufacturing - a warm and cuddly feeling that comes from knowing that not only are you doing the environmentally responsible thing, but also that you're the best in the world at it. And the stage is set, the politicians (more...)

This month in the Simms household, the children - aged 5 and 8 - have been celebrating the career of pop icon Madonna as she turns 50. While I have some misgivings about under-tens dancing round their bedrooms belting out 'Like a Virgin' at the top of their tuneless voices, I have to say that four (more...)

As someone with a generally inquisitive mind, I work hard to unravel the mysteries of the universe, for no reason other than my own satisfaction. And yet there are still phenomena whose understanding eludes me: string theory, the Bermuda Triangle, the link between gravity and space-time, and of (more...)

I don't know what it is boys, but there's something about an attractive, successful older man that set's a girl's heart a-racing. So, for example, the likes of Terry Wogan may be happily married, or Stephen Fry happily gay, but still we swoon when those deep baritone voices wash over us. Perhaps (more...)

The modern footballer is, as we all know, a mass of clichés, from his 'sick as a parrot' and his 'game of two halves' to his 'all credit to the opposition' and 'I'm just pleased for the team'. And you can always rely on an 'at the end of the day.' You're guaranteed to get at least one of (more...)