A museum piece

Don't you just love a spot of star gazing?

I know I do. And no, I don't mean that I regularly have my eyes trained towards the heavens on the look out for Orion or some other constellation. Nor am I referring to trawling through newspapers and magazines for the horoscope sections. Although I do rather enjoy reading what Russell Grant and the like think the future's got in store for me. Well, it's good to find out what I'm meant to be doing seeing as I usually haven't a clue myself.

No, the stars I'm actually talking about are the celebs we all recognise, but who most of us will never get to see, let alone meet in real life. When did you last spy a celebrity walking down your street or shopping in your local supermarket? Well reporter Hazel Byford did as you'll see in her travel review today, but in my case it's never. Well, not when they haven't been in the town for some sort of performance or other.

Okay, so hubby and I did glimpse some members of Culture Club shopping in a local menswear store in the 1980s, but they were giving a concert at what was The Gaumont that evening. And we're pretty sure we once spied two thirds of Atomic Kitten coming out of a local fish and chip shop, but they too were appearing in Ipswich at the time.

It was also only because Jim Callaghan was doing a prime ministerial walkabout on the Cornhill in the 1970s that my hubby bumped into him. Imagine my hubby's shock when Jim suddenly appeared from around a corner and promptly shook his hand. Well, he'd only nipped out of his office for a lunch-time sandwich.

And I do believe I passed both Mick McManus and Jackie Pallo in the subway in Civic Drive when wrestling used to be all the rage at St Matthew's Baths, but there was no way I was going to ask them to make certain!

I can however categorically state that it was the Queen and Prince Philip who I watched drive down Foxhall Road in an open-top car on their way to visit a nearby hospital in 1977. We lived along there back then and our Old English Sheepdog Dolly and I had a wonderful grandstand view seated in armchairs at the front bedroom window. It was very surreal I can tell you!

When it comes to spotting any stars just going about their everyday lives however that's another story. So I was totally awestruck when a relative told me about his encounter with James Bond - well, Pierce Brosnan - the other Sunday. There he was busy admiring exhibits at a museum when he realised Pierce and his family were doing the same thing merely a few metres away. To top it all another family member recently held a door open for Kate Winslet.

Neither of these events occurred around these parts though I hasten to add. Which leads me to conclude that any celebs who live in our region must do a fantastic job of going incognito. Either that or I must go about most of the time with my eyes shut.

I am what was apparently known in the 18th and 19th centuries as a 'gibble-fist' and I dare say quite a few of you are too.

But before you take start taking umbrage I want to assure you that it means nothing more sinister than using your left hand to write. I'm just so relieved that it's no longer discriminated against. In fact new research is reported to show that it has reached record levels, the number of left-handers having risen from 3per cent of the population one hundred years ago to 11pc today. Despite this surge however we are clearly still remarkably thin on the ground. That's probably why I find any studies in this subject so intriguing. The only trouble is the results don't always appear to ring true.

You see, some experts apparently think left-handers are more creative with language skills. And yet in one of my English seminars twelve of the fourteen people present were scribbling away with their right hands. Not all researchers seem to be in agreement though and have a range of different views on what determines handedness.

I just wish they could reach a general consensus. I'm longing to know why someone like me writes, uses a spoon, sews, irons occasionally, and plucks a guitar - if only I could play - with my left hand, but only ever picks up sporty things such as a tennis racket, hockey stick and darts etc with my right.

I adore jelly. Besides chocolate it lists as one of my all time favourite foods. So I was delighted to see it being served up at a kiddies' birthday party I was invited to especially as we're currently in British Food Fortnight. It wasn't just me and other adults enjoying the delicious raspberry flavoured foodstuff though. The youngsters were all tucking into it with abandon as they were the piles of cocktail sausages and fairy cakes too.

I bet lots of you remember such a 'do' from your youth. You know, when the centrepiece, apart from the cake, was a 'hedgehog' made up of a cabbage covered in sausages on sticks, and you marvelled at the rabbit-shaped jellies, and painstakingly picked all the 'hundreds and thousands' and icing off the buns before devouring them. Ah, isn't it great to know that even in this hi-tech age some things never change.