Sandra Harris Writes

  MISSING YOU ALREADY, STRICTLY! BY SANDRA HARRIS. © STRICTLY COME DANCING held its twentieth final the other night, and peel my tangerines if it wasn’t a total glamour-fest! My kids and I have been watching it for about twelve or thirteen years now and it’s been the highlight of our winter televisual viewing season ever since. This year they celebrated their twentieth anniversary and this added an extra element of nostalgia and excitement to the whole thing. Back in the days of X FACTOR, when the two shows would clash on rival stations, we’d have to make do with watching STRICTLY during the breaks of Simon Cowell’s massive brainchild (that’s kind of an odd image, isn’t it?) , but, with the demise of X FACTOR, it’s been STRICTLY all the way ever since on a Saturday night. It's a dancing talent competition show with ‘celebrities’ as the contestants, as opposed to the ‘ordinary’ folks utilised in regular talent shows. I put ‘celebrities’ in inverted commas because, sometimes,...

LET’S HAVE A HALLOWEEN CATCH-UP! BY SANDRA HARRIS. © It seems like ages since I wrote anything personal so I thought a dreary Monday afternoon in the run-up to Halloween might be a good time for a chat. Speaking of Halloween, I’ve officially decided that it’s my favourite festival of the year, even more so than Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and I’ve had some magical festive seasons, but I’m fed up with the terrible commercialisation of Christmas. The pressure to spend money on certain things is ridiculous. In previous years, I’ve given in to it like a turkey to the slaughter, but no more! No more tubs of feckin’ Celebrations, Cadbury’s Roses, Miniature Heroes and Quality Street that will be still sitting there in the cupboard in March. No more chocolate-covered toffees, sexy-delicious as they are, and no more of the boxes of jellies, fudge or liquorice sweets with the smiling Santa on the box, because, you know, our teeth, lol.  And in what universe would ...