My Fifteen Minutes of Fame

Having a wee browse through the Ciao Café I came across the chance to write about my 15 minutes of fame. Well, it's fame of sorts … The opportunity came 14 years ago when I called in at my local library one evening and got chatting to the new librarian This extremely enthusistic lady published a local magazine called 'The Lochalsh Link'. I had never heard of this magazine but when she showed me the first copy I was most impressed. We got chatting and I said that I loved to write - mainly for personal pleasure and occasionally for gain. "Oh! How wonderful!" she enthused. "We're looking for ... more

My art involves creating beautiful food that tastes delicious as well as looking great, so one day recently I was in a client’s kitchen occupying myself doing just that. As usual I had the radio on as a background and was pottering around getting lunch ready, when I heard the DJ announce something that made me stop in my tracks and take notice. I didn’t hear all he said, but the mention of volunteers for an upcoming nude photo shoot in Selfridges on Oxford Street involving 500 uninhibited people was enough information for me to guess the identity of the man behind this event. Spencer Tunick ... more

… but I was wearing my feminist dungarees! 1984 was the year of the miner's strike. It was also my first year as an undergraduate at Essex University. Much to my mother's chagrin, I'd chosen Essex over York, principally for its reputation as a left wing college. For a stroppy little teenager with agitprop ambitions, Essex turned out to be a good choice. Situated very near the East Anglian port of Wivenhoe, which was taking imported coal to help break the strike, it was the ideal place for we Thatcher-hating undergraduates to put up picketing miners in our hall flats. We went on the pickets ... more

I’ve always flirted with fame, you know. Well, to be honest, I’ve always flirted with pretty much anything, but that’s not entirely relevant here. Sadly, up until recently, my brushes with fame have been infrequent, and never lasted long. The same is also true of my…no, that’s not relevant either! I seem to keep bumping into famous people you see. It all started with a brush with (then) Southampton Football Club Manager Lawrie McMenemy in a hotel in Spain in the Summer of 1976, when I fell over my own feet and he picked me up. My parents were mildly impressed. I was two, so I just bawled. In ... more

*~~~~~*~~~~~* I have started to voice my opinion on the way that the disabled people get get treated. *~~~~~*~~~~~~* How it all started. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Last october my husband purchased a motorised scooter for me, as I have been having problems with my mobility and it's getting worse so with the blessing from my doctor we went ahead and got one. All was fine until I got brave and decided to venture down the town and the obstacles that were in my way were plenty. Obstacles were. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cars parked across drop curbs when they should not be. Crossing the road. Cars parked on the ... more