THE less she says and the more little snippets of information we glean about her, the more fascinating Cherie Blair becomes.

Ever since her hair blew back in the wind to reveal an acupuncture ear pin, designed to boost energy and help the wearer stay calm, we have been even more intrigued.

Those of us who do not manage to combine being a mother-of-four, wife of the Prime Minister and a high-flying barrister, can only look on with awe. Does Cherie, fresh-faced and full of vigour, realise how totally inadequate she makes the rest of us feel?

I watched The Real Cherie Blair on TV at the weekend, hoping some of her secrets would be revealed. They weren't. But the programme did highlight the fact that, when Tony and Cherie got together, she was by far the brightest, she worked harder too.

Yet, when Derry Irvine came to offer one of the two pupils a tenancy in his legal chambers, Tony got it. Then, while Cherie was offered an unwinnable Labour seat, Tony sneaked into safe Sedgefield and cruised it.

To say he was a jammy beggar is putting it mildly. It was as if feminism never happened. The exceptionally bright, hard-working Cherie kept her head down, juggled career and family and stood by her man, putting off her dream to become a full-time judge.

So now Tony runs the country and, at times, it appears, the world, while Cherie keeps mum. Far from tearing her hair out or screaming from the rooftops: "It should have been me", she appears oddly content. Those ear pins must be pretty powerful.

WE'RE all increasingly aware of how life has changed since September 11. Things will never be the same again. But the air of gloom, which we are all trying to put at the back of our minds, can hit us when we least expect it. We took the children to see the comedy film Cats and Dogs at the weekend. The plot involved dousing mice in a chemical that they would spread throughout the world, making all humans allergic to dogs. Cartoon maps showed them carrying the chemical through the sewers. In this age of anxiety, particularly about terrorist plots to contaminate our water supplies or food chain, it was hard to laugh. Then we went to buy a birthday present for our ten-year-old's best friend. He had seen a model aeroplane kit weeks ago that he knew his friend would love. But when he showed it to us in the shop, it looked just like an American Airlines passenger jet. We bought a helicopter instead.

BOB Geldof spoke honestly and eloquently on Parkinson this week about his heartbreak when his wife Paula Yates left him. He talked about how he suffered very real pains in his heart and how he cried for his lost love, while empty nights turned to days, weeks and months. Sitting beside him, listening open-mouthed, was Tory MP and proud spinster, Ann Widdecombe, who talked earlier about how she had not missed never having had a man in her life. I didn't know which one to feel more sorry for.

THE European Court of Human Rights has condemned the noise from Heathrow Airport's night flights. It decrees that a good night's sleep is a fundamental human right. Could someone tell my two-year-old?

Published: 05/10/2001