This is not a rabbit, but a hungry grey squirrel. They are a common sight in the south-east of England, a successful invasive species from North America which has displaced the indigenious red squirrel in almost every part of England. It has been nearly twenty-five years since I last saw a red squirrel in the wild in the UK, but now if I want to see one I have to go to a small solitary island off the south coast of England (where grey squirrels have not been able to penetrate) or to Scotland. Still, I don't hold it against the grey squirrel, life after all is a game of survival of the fittest, and their aggressive nature and superior size means that they are more competititve than the red. Hardly their fault!




I went down to the local park to feed them some nuts, but this was just really a crafty way of getting close to them so I could take photographs.



In any case they are not shy, in fact when they discovered I had nuts one or two of them decided that the best way to get at them was to scale my legs and body!


And here's a smaller red squirrel which I spotted last year in Finland, thankfully still going strong in other parts of Europe!

So much for the mild weather! Winter finally came today...

Great Tit

The European Robin, also known as the Robin Redbreast, is one of Britain's most iconic songbirds. I spotted this one this morning and its sweet song was the perfect medicine for my Sunday morning hangover. It also gave me a great excuse to get my camera out, something which has been all too rare of late. I am trying to get back into taking photos but I've been seriously starved of inspiration lately and the UK is simply not as camera-friendly or, dare I say it, photographically-stimulating as Japan. If there's one thing I do know though, it's that there a few better sights in the world than a beautifully-breasted bird, wouldn't you agree?

Racist Britain?

Fierce storms have battered the UK in the last couple of days. Trees have fallen over and everything. The country is in the grip of crisis as trains are cancelled and people are blown over! No seriously, eleven people have died, mainly as a result of shoddily-built walls and roofs collapsing.


Introducing Shilpa Shetty

But aside from storms of a meteorological kind, Britain has been gripped these last few days by a storm of an altogether different sort, namely the racism scandal of Celebrity Big Brother. The nation is currently locked in a heated debate over the treatment of a glamorous Indian actress by three of the British female housemates. Even Tony Blair has become involved.

Shilpa Shetty, 31, a sophisticated and glamorous Bollywood actress has been on the receiving end of what the general public has regarded as racist bullying at the hands of fellow housemates Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara.


Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara

Goody, 25, who apparently rose to fame in the non-celebrity version of Big Brother four years ago and who is now a reality TV queen and darling of the tabloids, has received the most criticism. Lloyd, 23, a former Miss England and current girlfriend of footballer Teddy Sheringham, and O'Meara, 27, former singer and actress with S-Club 7, make up the troublesome threesome.

In what some view as racist behaviour and others more as the cultural ignorance of the British "underclass", the three British girls have been seen to continually bully and gang up on Shetty. All three of them have been seen making fun of Shetty's accent, claiming she can't speak English properly and making explosive remarks about her.

Trouble first brewed when one culturally-ignorant housemate, Jackiey Budden (ironically Goody's mother and no, I haven't misspelt her first name, it really is spelt like that), constantly referred to Shetty as "the Indian" and asked her "Do you live in a house or a shack?"

Later O'Meara suggested that Indians were thin because they are always ill as a result of undercooking their food. The trio also complained that Shetty had touched other housemates' food with her hands and then began poking fun at her accent and questioning her hygiene. The fact that Shetty is more articulate and has a better command of English vocabulary and grammar than all three of the British girls in question (even in spite of English being her second language) seems to have escaped their attention. Then O'Meara and Lloyd, showing their wide cultural knowledge and tolerance of others, asked each other whether or not people in India always ate with their hands. Or was that in China, they wondered? O'Meara added that she didn't care and that she just didn't like that sort of thing because "you don't know where those hands have been."

In the latest row Goody told Shetty to "go back to the slums." Danielle Lloyd, just out of earshot of the actress agreed by saying "I think she should go home." And yesterday, unaware of the controversy and outrage going on outside the house, Goody yesterday referred to Shetty as a "poppadom". When asked by Big Brother to explain her statement Goody claimed that she "didn't say Shilpa Poppadom in a racial way".

As of Friday afternoon a record 38,000 complaints have been made to Ofcom, the national TV regulatory body, and thousands more to Channel 4, about the programme. No other TV show in British history has recorded anywhere near the same number of complaints. The issue was then raised in parliament after MPs received complaints from their constituents.

The furore then saw Prime Minister Tony Blair, Chancellor Gordon Brown and opposition leader David Cameron being drawn into the row, whilst thirty-five MPs have signed a motion condemning the programme.

Blair told the House of Commons that although he had not seen the programme "we should oppose racism in all its forms". Tory leader David Cameron urged viewers to switch off in protest and Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain said the attacks on Shetty were "grubby, racist behaviour".

Chancellor Gordon Brown, currently on a potentially problematic visit to, guess where, India, condemned anything that went against British "tolerance". MPs have speculated that the row could cause serious damage to foreign relations, and Brown was expected to apologise on behalf of Britain when he met the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, in New Delhi yesterday. There has been widespread uproar in India with Channel 4 effigies being burnt in streets. Ads have been taken out in Indian newspapers inviting "Jade Goody and friends" to come over to India and enjoy the county's "healing nature".

UK political debate programmes have been dominated by the controversy. BBC Question Time, a high-brow political show where members of the public are given the chance to grill the nation's political figures on the day's burning issues, last night featured outspoken former Health Minister Edwina Curry. She labelled the three bullies "slags" and got huge applause when she called them "witches with a capital 'B' !" On another programme the situation was described as "three thick girls ganging up on a glamorous lady from India".

Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights, said "What we are seeing is a noxious brew of old-fashioned class conflict, straightforward bullying, ignorance and quite vicious racial bigotry. It is outrageous, and it is unpleasant."

As a result of the row Danielle Lloyd has lost a six-figure modelling contract whilst high street retailer The Perfume Shop has withdrawn Goody's fragrance from its shelves. For Goody, who shot to fame in big Brother four years ago, the irony could be that the programme which made her could also be the one to break her. I won't cry if that happens.

To make matters worse, and in a twist of fate that not even the most evil script-writer could have dreamed up, Goody is up for eviction from the house tonight with...yes, you guessed it, Shilpa Shetty!


Let battle commence! Goody vs. Shetty

The two go head-to-head in what promises to be compulsive viewing. If Goody loses, she will come out to a hostile public and the prospect of her career in tatters. And due to what they call "heightened feelings", for the first time in Big Brother history Channel 4 bosses have announced that there will be no crowds waiting outside the house for tonight's eviction.

In the extemely unlikely event that Shetty should be evicted, Great Britain will have to take a seriously long look at itself in the mirror. The treatment dished out to this beautiful and intelligent woman, whose only crime is to be different, has been nothing short of scandalous. We have seen three ignorant, spiteful, and culturally-unaware British girls showing a side of British character which is all too common. Shetty has represented her country admirably and she has maintained her dignity and integrity despite the abuse she has received. The same cannot be said of Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O'Meara, who have not only embarrassed themselves and done probable harm to their careers, but they have also embarrassed the nation and damaged our reputation.

And just out of interest and for my north American readers, Americans Muhammad Abdul Aziz, 53, better known as Jermaine Jackson, brother of Michael, and former A-Team star Dirk Benedict (the actor who played Templeton "The Face" Peck), 62, are also among the show's participants.

Click here to see a BBC report on the scandal.

¡La nueva Betty!

The new "Ugly Betty" and the original "Betty La Fea"

Almost eight years after the first airing across the Spanish-speaking world of Belly La Fea, a hugely successful cult telenovela from Colombia, the programme has been re-made in English for the American market. The new show, Ugly Betty, has already proved a success in North America and since January, in the UK too. And whilst it doesn't quite have the same character and appeal as the original, the new version has been pretty good fun so far! The new Betty isn't as ugly as the old one of course, well, you can compare for yourself above. I remember watching in Spain back in 2002 the last episode of the original when Betty has a complete make-over, has contacts fitted and her braces removed. And how do you think she looked?

Absolutely gorgeous!

Slide to unlock

A big thanks to everyone for all the supportive messages and emails I've received over the last few weeks. I can't stress how much I appreciate the kind words.

Right, let's get on with things then. The new iPhone, unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs at last week's Macworld 2007, has met with a mixed reaction here in the UK. Some newspaper columnists have predicted it to fail, lambasting it as a jack of all trades and a master of none. And without having seen anything of the new device I had almost been duped by the press into believing that it was nothing more than a gimmick. In fact I wasn't in the least bit interested in owning one on the basis of press and news reports I had seen.

However I stumbled across the video of the iPhone presentation on the Apple website and I changed my mind. Literally minutes into of Steve Jobs' demonstration I was sold and by the end of the presentation my head was spinning just thinking of the possiblities that the iPhone offered. You probably don't need me to tell you about the tech specs or the iPhone's capabilities. It is quite simply one of the coolest pieces of kit ever built!

The iPhone may or may not sell well, I don't know. My inkling is that it will. I mean, it is that cool and that far ahead of anything else on the market that it cannot fail to take off. In the very least the iPhone is going to radically change the face of the telecommunications industry as we know it, especially as other companies battle in vain to emulate some of the iPhone's features in an attempt to retain their market positions.

I can't wait to get my hands on one!

If the world was your oyster, how would you eat it?

As we all know, despite the best of intentions things in life don't always go according to plan. And for me that has certainly been the case recently. Anybody who knows me will know how much I was looking forward to going to Birmingham and making a new life there after my three years in Japan. Unfortunately however, due to reasons which I don't really want to discuss here, my time there has come to a premature end.

They say that the best things in life come to those who wait but I'm not so sure. Leaving Birmingham after only three and a half months is not something I ever envisaged and the hopes and dreams I had for my new life there just didn't happen. I feel like I've spent a year searching in dense rainforest for the fabled City of Gold only to arrive and find it ruined and treasureless. That's life I suppose, I'm not going to complain or winge about it, I just have to get on with it.

So, I have left Birmingham and the world is once again my oyster. I can go anywhere I want. Nothing is holding me back. Should I stay in England and build a future here, for example in London? Or should I go back to Spain? Maybe I should try pastures new such as Portugal, India or Singapore? Or maybe even return to Japan? Choices, choices, choices.

If the world was your oyster, how would you eat it? I suppose the beauty of this particular oyster is that everybody eats theirs in a different way. Maybe I've been eating mine the wrong way? Perhaps I just need to find a new eating technique? If I do, then maybe my oyster will begin to taste sweet again!