SO, no women on the shortlist of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. Should we care?

Probably not that much.

Despite the incredible achievements of sportswomen such as Sarah Stevenson, Chrissie Wellington, Rebecca Adlington and others, they are still on the edge of the big boys’ club that is the world of sports journalism. The journalists and editors asked to make the nomination were all men. Well, there’s a surprise.

There again, watching sport, reading about it, is always more of a boy’s thing. How many women’s magazines have sports pages?

There have been calls – from Harriet Harman for a start, of course – for compulsory inclusion of women on the shortlist. No thank you. That would be patronising and our women sports stars don’t need to be patronised.

As in everything else, for women to succeed, they have to be twice as good as the men. And they will be.

Anyway, the competition is probably not so much about who deserves to win, as who runs the best PR campaign Nothing to do with sport at all. The women are probably best out of it.

Internet shopping - so quick, so easy!

WELL, that’s me – one of ten million nails in the coffin of the High Street... Yes, I’ve done nearly all my Christmas shopping online. Took me a couple of hours and I was cross-eyed and numb-bummed at the end of it. But the job’s pretty well done – and at a tiny fraction of the trouble it would have been to go out there in the real world.

This year I have an excellent excuse for not battling into town – I’m recovering from a knee operation, which makes things tricky. But, truth to tell, I’ve been a committed internet shopper from the very beginning – so quick! So easy!

I like real shops. I like shoe shops and posh frock shops, farm shops and book shops and delicious delicatessens, and for the rest of the year, I spend a lot of time in them too.

After all, for more than 20 years, it was my job to find interesting shops to tell you about. New shop? Nice things? Couldn’t keep me away.

But not at Christmas. Not any more. I don’t like crowds. I don’t like queues. I don’t like wasting time waiting in places that haven’t got what I want. Although I like Christmas trees and fairy lights, I loathe jolly Christmas music bellowed at me. Especially when the carols are sung in American. And that’s when you’ve found a parking space...

So yes, when the death of the town centre is finally announced, you can probably blame me – and the ten million others who are shopping online this month. Shopping online is easier, quicker, and a lot more efficient.

On the other hand, nothing compares with actually seeing what you’re buying, a chance to judge quality or be entranced by something you wouldn’t normally look at.

So yes, I shall not desert the High Street for ever. I’ll be back – but probably not until after Christmas...

Pedlar puzzled

WHERE have all the pedlars come from? Hard times, I guess, have driven many young lads with huge sports bags over their shoulders to knocking on doors in our village. They say they’re setting themselves up to go to college or until they find work.

Admirable. At first I always bought something, but now there are so many, I have hardened my heart and said no – there’s a limit to how many high-priced, lowquality dusters I need.

They seem to come mainly from Middlesbrough. One asked me to write a cheque to his sister. They seem to have a genuine enough pedlar’s certificate.

Yet I’m puzzled to where they’ve all come from and who, if anyone is organising them.

Anybody know?

Can't always rely on granny

ON Wednesday, the day the public sector workers’ strike closed schools, everywhere seemed to be full of children being looked after by their grandmothers.

But if their grans are going to have go carry on working until they’re 67, then who’s going to step in next time there’s an emergency?

Such a hip little baby

I LOVE the way you rarely see Victoria Beckham these days without baby Harper perched on her hip.

She’s clearly an utterly besotted mum. Even when she was at the fashion awards, little Harper was just upstairs in the hotel room, being looked after by Victoria’s mum.

But I still wonder if she’ll ever get round to buying a buggy...

What a difference a year makes

THIS time last year there was so much snow everywhere that when we tried to clear the drive we were left with walls of snow at head height and practically needed pit props. Crawling along the A1 on ice that even tons of grit hadn’t touched, I noted that the temperature, at midday in glorious sunshine was minus 12 degrees. Brrrr...

Okay, today’s colder, but this week I mowed the lawn. We still have borders full of flowers and colour and pots of geraniums blooming by the front door.

And they wonder why the British are so endlessly fascinated by the weather.

Backchat

Dear Sharon,
ON reading your comments on Hayrunnisa Gul’s outfit I thought how different was my perception of the same photo. Her outfit did indeed cover her from head to toe but was very tight. The one area she had control over – her feet – were fashionable, extravagant and very feminine.

S.Pope, Durham.

Dear Sharon,
THE attitude to learning languages is completely different in other countries. My brother married a Polish girl and whenever they are in bars and cafes over there and people hear them speaking English, they immediately ask if they can talk to them to improve their English.

Imagine that happening over here. He says it has also happened in Germany. The reason the English are no good at learning languages is because they just don’t want to.

Jo Minnis (reasonable French, a little Italian and a smidgin of Polish) by email.