So the dog bite I got yesterday on my leg bled a lot in the night so I had to go out early to the walk in clinic to get new dressing.


( Look away if you are squeamish - includes a picture of the bite )

In the confusion I left most of the books I use to tutor at the dog owners' house, so I will have to get the boy I tutor to bring them to the next tutorial.

I am trying to save money and at the same time keep healthy and well-groomed. I have also forsworn shampoo since it never does anything but irritate my scalp anyway - but that means my hair is a bit random lately.

Anyway, I decided to try and perk up my hair with a home colour rinse thingy made from ingredients I already had at home. It was a partial success.

I don’t understand why people have such a problem with name dropping. Essentially all of us are defined by the people around us - if someone else respects, likes or loves you it goes a long way to helping you assert your self-worth . It can’t all be about external validation, obviously, you have to in some ways not entirely define yourself according to how others see you - that said how others see you is a good shorthand when you are meeting new people. If you can reach out and say “hey look - I know this person you might have heard about and they don’t think I am crap, maybe you will like me too. Please like me, please!” then you get instant validation.

If the person you are trying to impress isn’t impressed then maybe they won’t get on that well with you anyway. If they are more interested in the person whose name you dropped than in you maybe that also isn’t a hugely good sign. If, though, they are suitably impressed that someone they like or respect might like or respect you then you have at least negotiated common ground. Yes, sometimes it might look a little desperate, but really aren’t we all desperate people trying to connect with each other?

Also, sometimes you have to mention names in order to make whatever you are saying make sense. If they are people the other person doesn’t know (eg your auntie Jean, or your best friend when you were 6) then the name is meaningless, but if the person is well known it is a lot easier to say their name in the proper context.

If your best friend when you were 6 was Prince Harry or your auntie Jean was actually Marilyn Monroe I think I would want to know that.

Just had a guy come to the door demanding money with menace. He reckoned he was the son of a man who came to pave the drive a decade ago and that the "vat had never been paid".

I was in the bath but I heard the altercation from upstairs and smelled the pungent and unpleasant cigarette smoke.

I came down, got the jist quickly, told him he was a massive conman and shut the door in his face.

He rang the bell again. I opened it and he threw the end of his fag butt at me and walked away screaming he would be back and he wanted his money.

As far as I can gather he has no case. He wouldn't provide my flatmate/landlord with paperwork, demanded 20 per cent VAT when at the time of the drive laying it would have been 15 per cent.

Also this guy was middle aged and Irish and someone who claimed to be the son of the man who laid the drive came by just before Christmas trying to get us to pay for the drive to be cleaned. He was much younger than this man and not Irish.

Landlord says the job was not done properly in the first place - when we said this to the guy before Christmas he cliamed it was because there is no underlay because "it was never paid for". Well, if it isn't there then the job wasn't done properly and they should have pointed that out at the time, and charged any money they though was owed, and not waited a decade and several years after the death of the tradesman. That makes no sense at all.

And no, we are not going to give a group of people who can't be trusted to do the job properly in the first place more money to do it wrong again.

The man today reckoned he had also been involved in cutting down trees at the back. My landlords says taht was definitely a different group of workmen.

We are plagued with people knowcking on the door offering to cut down trees/mend the front of the house/repave the drive/deal with fly tipping here.

It is almost certain the fly tipping is there because of some of them - people keep dumping old trees out the back and blocking the path and access to the garage (it's not in use, but it's still an annoyance).

Every few days someone comes and claims to be someone who worked on something here before or they are working on a neighbours house/garden and just happen to have some spare paint/plaster/equipment that we would be mad to pass up.

The house still stinks of smoke and he didn't even cross the threshold. We have a hepa filter on full and it's making very little difference.

My landlord is upset and distressed and would likely still be arguing with the conman if I hadn't shut the door and told the man to go.

There is, of course, no paperwork. The original guy who did the work appears to have died some time ago, if any of these people are to be believed, and this man claimed the drive was done "2 or 3 years ago" - it is at least 7 or 8.

Moving in here was delayed originally because of holes in the ceiling caused by another set of unscrupulous tradesmen who gained access to the attic and then did damage they obviously intended to charge for mending.

It is possible these people are related to the latest guy too.

If he comes back we might phone the police - or Rogue Traders. Get on the TV with our story of dodgy builders!

This story about immigration and benefits on the BBC makes me mad, because it is rabble rousing and does not give the full facts.

Anyone from Britain can claim benefits from other countries in the EEA including in Bulgaria and Romania so why single Big Issue sellers from these regions out? As I understand it selling The Big Issue does make you self employed, so what is the big issue?

As over 100,000 of those surveyed are from the EU, 54 per cent are British citizens, some are from the EEA and undoubtedly most of the remaining 2 per cent are very likely claiming because they are refugees and so entitled to claim, I would guess there is absolutely no story here.

It looks to me as though this whole story is based on racism, xenophobia and also another attack on a benefits system that is very much needed, and will be so for some time to come. I still don't believe it is being abused as much as all these stories would have us believe.

I don't know why the BBC has been so superficial in this report, but it certainly isn't the whole story. This is the sort of story and style of reporting I would expect in the Daily Mail.

Statistics are very easy to fudge and mould to your own ends and the quotes used to back up these claims come from very dubious sources. Migration Watch is a Right Wing lobby group. How is that a reliable source? It is a very partisan report.

Not good, BBC, I expect better.

There are still flowers in my garden. This time last year it had already snowed by now, but they were out in November even then. Don't think this rose is properly acclimatised.

I switched on auto transcript for my short film http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YUgdn_zR9Y





This is what it gave me:

( Bad Transcript )

I think I had better work on an accurate version!

Recently posted recipe videos for parsnip crisps and honeycomb toffee. They are both delicious and quick.

Was a member of Gwent Young People's Theatre years ago - it was the youth theatre part of a thriving Theatre in Education company (Gwent Theatre). I was just wondering what the chances of going back home to live and working for them would be, maybe helping with the youth theatre or the touring shows. Turns out it would be nil - it was forced to close in June 2010 because of Arts Council cuts.

As the cuts are even more extreme now I would guess the chances of getting work in regional theatre and theatre in education are getting more and more minuscule.

I was never the most successful member of GYPT - I was only 14, chubby and bespectacled and I although I got cast as Sheila in An Inspector Calls (as a replacement for someone else) I was humiliated for putting on weight over the Christmas period and replaced by the stage manager, while I took on her responsibilities. I am a rubbish stage manager as I prefer to be out there performing.

All in all it was a mixed experience. I made many friends and had a good time, but one of the tutors there played too many mind games for it to be a wholly positive experience. My confidence was damaged and I never got as much as I should have out of the experience. This is probably not a great example, but for all my humiliations and failure I still think it was a worthwhile opportunity. Would have been better without a psycho tutor, but you can't have everything.

Still, now nobody in that area even has the chance to do any Young People's Theatre. It was relatively local and inclusive and a very important part of the community.

I am a bit upset it no longer exists. (Although further research seems to indicate there is still a Gwent Young People's Theatre, just not the TIE company).

How does community theatre get funded these days?

Parallel to this the courses at my new local arts centre, The ArtsDepot in North Finchley have recently be almost entirely cut. Tutors were sent letters recently telling them if they wished to consider continuing their courses they would have to hire the space and deal with all the administration themselves. As the upfront costs are prohibitive it means most of the courses will no doubt disappear.

I am a member of the Actors Company and although that is continuing we will very likely have to find ways of funding future productions that don't rely on The Arts Depot.

I would like to do something about the situation but I have no idea what I could do.

I realise everything has been cut lately and many people would argue that the arts should be a low priority but those people are wrong. The arts are enormously important. My father was the first generation after the war to get funding for further education and took advantage of this by going to Art College. He spent 30 years teaching children in a deprived area of Wales - so he definitely gave something back. Funding his education was certainly worthwhile for the knock on benefits. And people who are educated in the arts and go on to achieve greatness, or even mediocrity are all giving something back - although they cannot do so if the funding isn't there.

Without the opportunities nobody will achieve anything, society will stagnate and everything will be even more depressing than it already is.

In short. I am mad and I'm not going to take it anymore.

Or rather I am, because I have no clue what to do, no real opportunities to do it and certainly no funding or infrastructure any more.