Back from Manchester. Mardis Gras Saturday night was fun- though not enough dancing for this Dancing Queen (sorry to mention it again, Brian…;) All of the streets around Canal Street were blocked off- no cars, just boyz and girlz and Draggies and everything in between wandering around. We went to Mantos- where I boogied a bit and hung out on the balcony outside watching everyone walk by… Then we went onto Bed, where once again I danced up a storm…

Then far too soon (sorry again, B ;) we headed over to Rusholme had a curry and discussed whether or not people in the public eye *should* have their privacy protected. Brian argued they shouldn’t, I (and everyone else) argued they should. I think there’s a definite difference between one’s job and one’s private life and, unless I offer up my private life freely for public scrutiny to the highest bidder, then I *should* be able to walk down the street, go to dinner or play with my child in the park without being photographed or intruded upon…. I think Brian’s previous experience with fame came at a time in his life when he didn’t *have* a private life!! When I was in my early 20s- before I had Mo- I wouldn’t have cared one bit and wouldn’t have really understood why people who worked in ‘entertainment’ *wanted* their private lives to be private…. But I certainly now feel that it’s a nasty, evil intrusion and causes untold misery and damage. And *that’s* why I don’t buy newspapers, kids….

Except for Monday’s Guardian, of course!

Other than that- to keep you up to date on my work situation- my next BBC World stuff is going to be on the 1st and 2nd weeks of Sept, I’m doing *more* pilots for BBC Network Z (pronounced ‘Zed’ for all you Americans), been pencilled for a pilot for Screenhouse Productions (fingers **very** crossed for that one- it sounds totally cool), am designing a website and am going to talk to the London Academy of Radio, TV and Film about teaching some presenting courses… so that’s cool…

At the train station in Manc today I bought Nick Hornby’s ‘How to be Good’. I’m halfway through it… the first quarter of it (before David’s changed from ‘The Angriest Man in Holloway’ to neo-hippy-freak-man) is *so* like my thoughts were 18 months ago (apart from the Stephen in Leeds bit!)… He writes a good female character, does Mr. Hornby. Surprising, really. I mean, we all know Tom Robbins understands women better than most women understand themselves (or is it he understands *me* better than I do?), but Nick Hornby, Mr.Man’s Man Mr. Hornby? Who knew? Respect.

If you’re a girl and always wanted to learn how to pee standing up- go here. This past weekend I was glad that I had visited that particular site as I really, really, really had to pee and I had waited in this massive queue for the toilets and when I got there it was covered in other women’s urine and there was no toilet paper. I thought, ‘What the hell?!’ and had a go standing up (I *was* wearing a skirt)… Perfect.

NOTE: I have kept most of my earliest blog posts private. They are mainly crap. I have, however, tried to make live at least one from each month.