The girl racer is back!

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A storm in an AA cup

It's war! To be specific it's "Bra Wars". I'm waging a one woman crusade against the sizeist shops that don't stock bras made for my petite frame. After travelling from A to B in cup sizes while pregnant, then from B to C while nursing my son, I've hurtled at breakneck speed after weaning back past my original size to an AA-cup. What a white knuckle ride that's been, watching my assets depreciate. After a brief flirtation with bountiful curves, I'm not complaining, being small up top is "me". My physique is fairly unscathed by childbirth and my boobs, while small, haven't headed South. It's a blessing and I'm counting it. No, I haven't got a beef with Mother Nature, just the lingerie departments that stock only a smattering of bras in my new size -- and hurtfully describe them as "training" bras. At 33, I'm past wearing L plates -- I've come to terms with womanhood and love feeling sexy. But now I find myself banned from wearing seductive, fashionable lingerie. Bra Wars have begun and my search for undies that fit continues -- and, if the grim assortment of teenage bras on offer on the high street is anything to go by, it looks like it will take me to a galaxy far, far away...

The Pterodactyl has landed!

Come on!  Lee McQueen has triumphed in The Apprentice... The lad came good with his mix of charm and brashness, which led him to become Sir Alan's favourite. He didn't so much as trounce Claire as capitalise on her annoying "motor mouth" trait: Alan decided that her grating stream of consciousness would just be too much to bear, despite Claire being streets ahead of Lee in toughness and confidence. As for finalists Alex and Helene, being boring was their downfall. Alex "only 24" Wotherspoon and Helene "it wasn't me" Speight delivered a mind-numbing presentation to launch their Dual perfume. And Alan smelled a rat when he saw their expensive bottle design, which would have wiped out their profit. It was a satisfying end to the show for me -- I just hope Lee doesn't let success go to his head. He says he wants to go out and buy a Porsche -- just what the world needs, another cocky salesman driving a Porsche!

Top 5 Good News Stories

Anyone else had their fill of bad news?  I know I wish I could turn on the 10 o'clock news without wincing at the stories of people going hungry, getting poorer, losing their homes and jobs... 

So, I'm hot on the trail of some much needed good news and here's what I've found:

1. Peter Andre is voted "top dad" : One of my guilty TV pleasures is Katie & Peter: The Next Chapter. Pete seems like a nice, down to earth bloke and a good dad so it's nice to see him recognised, even if it is in a contest sponsored by Daddies Sauce.
2. Women with breast cancer can now live just as long as healthy women: Successful breast screening programmes mean that tumours are being found early and women can go on to lead a healthy life. Good to hear a positive story about the NHS.
3. Four cups of tea a day cuts heart attack risk: I love a cuppa, so it's great news that tea drinking has been found to cut down the chance of a heart attack, as well as boosting hydration and alertness. At last, a favourite British pastime that's healthy!
4. The world's oldest church is discovered in Jordan: A news story thats genuinely amazing -- archeologists have discovered a church they believe to date back to between 33AD and 70AD, which makes it the earliest known place for Christian worship. 
5. Sir Alan will choose his Apprentice today: As a fan of The Apprentice, I'm revving up for tonight's finale. It looks to be an exciting send off for the show, as an unprecedented four finalists get to show their mettle in a last ditched attempt to get hired.

Phew!  I set out to find ten stories, but have settled for five: it's tough uncovering the heartwarming, uplifting, exciting and amazing -- and I didn't want to resort to the story of the pig in boots that doesn't like walking in mud... although it did make me titter.

Summer playtime for big kids

I played rounders yesterday with a group of friends that are big kids just like me.  Despite not having played the game since we were all about nine, we loved it: the thrill of running in the sunshine, the boys' delight in the inability of girls to catch a ball, the cut-throat competitiveness between boys and girls teams -- it was exactly like the summer PE classes of old. Probably two decades have passed since most of us last picked up a rounders bat, but it was so much fun. After one game, in which the girls team was beaten by an unchivalrous boys team, we all collapsed: nine year olds have more endurance it seems in this particular sport. We returned to our picnic blankets where our babies were busy with their own games -- but I know who got a bigger kick out of this afternoon of play in the park.

Surely it's crunch time for loan sharks?

With the deafening noise of the credit crunch being blasted from the TV, radio and newspapers, it's impossible to avoid the bad news of economic downturn. So, why in today's post am I offered a £7,500 priority loan from the people with whom I have an agreement to pay for my sofa in installments? The fact that I can afford a £600 sofa in a few bite size chunks doesn't make me one of their "best customers" surely. If they bothered to check, my income is pretty low right now due to taking on minimal work while I look after my baby boy. So how come the loan sharks are still circling me? It's a bit of a worrying thought that people with as little disposable cash as I have may well be dipping into loans like this just to break even with rising costs of fuel, food and mortgages. The people sending out these loan offers should be held to ransom for putting temptation in people's paths. Now, where's my shredder...?

Sex & The City Fever

In 2004, I joined two girlfriends for a farewell party to see off four of our closest friends: the Sex & The City girls. Knocking back Cosmos, we enjoyed the final thrilling circuits of a rollercoaster ride full of emotion, laughter and tears.  The series had been in our lives for six years: when it started I was 23, living in London, a single girl about town, looking for love, passion, excitement. Which is why the sexploits of Carrie and friends had me drooling in anticipation of each new episode. SATC offered counsel to girls like me and uplifting mantras to chant when hot new men revealed themselves to be cads. When Miranda learned that when men don't call you it means "He's just not that into you!" she was grateful of the simplicity of the explanation -- and we were too. After 4 years, the new SATC movie stages a reunion between fans of the series and our favourite ballsy New York gals. But can it work? Or are we all just too much older, too fragmented, too different to be brought together again? Take me -- the girl about town is now a married mum that's decamped to the country. How can I relate to Carrie now? I went to the movie feeling excited to find out what had happened to her and the rest of the fabulous four... I found out that they, like me, are a tad more serious, have a few more wrinkles and a bit more flab (okay not SJP). Unlike me, they have inexplicably fabulous wardrobes (how much do writers and lawyers get paid in New York?). But three of the girls (or scriptwriters?) seemed stuck in a loop repeating the same old mistakes (or story lines). And, whereas the series SATC was about "sex" and "The City", the film has little of either. The characters' sex lives and New York fade into the background, while the film's spotlight is on Carrie. I wanted more, more, more juicy details about the lives of the other three and I left the cinema with my appetite not sated (not counting the bag of Butterkist popcorn I gobbled). An entertaining film, yes.  But, for hard-core SATC fans, I'm not sure the encore is worth the wait.

Who will you support?

I'm getting jarred off by the BBC's ads for Euro 2008. "Who will you support?" Gary Lineker chirpily asks? I'll tell you who -- no one! Are the Beeb deluded about the British generosity of spirit? Without our own team to cheer or jeer, the event's a dud. And the ads just keep re-opening the wounds we sustained when our nations failed to qualify. The BBC would do better to focus on other Summer sporting events rather than flog this dead horse. Events we have a chance of winning, preferably. Let's face it, it's a big enough stretch for an English person to support Scot Andy Murray at Wimbledon.  But we'll back him if he'll let us, as he's a rare hope of British sporting glory.