Smoke And Mirrors?

I know you know I don't rate Alan Shearer much. Other than as a footballer in his day.

And of course in football part of 'it' is having extreme opinions, which don't necessarily have to be based on much evidence.

But although I have real misgiving about Shearer's potential as a manager and believe his appointment is motivated by a political desire to appease the sentiment of Newcastle fans, I'm also a girl who believes in magic.

There are of course different sorts of magic.

There's magic made up of tricks. The use of smoke and mirrors to deceive the watcher.

And there is real magic.

So in the interests of fairness, I'm going to suspend belief and be prepared to consider that something magical might happen.

To that end I have decided to follow Mr Shearer's spells. To see if I can weave some of the magic into my own life.

My lover and I will be stepping up our social life over the next few weeks in order to maintain a high level of communal eating. We will be in by 9.30pm at night. And we are going to work very hard.

Oh and of course, we have kitted out our chest freezer with the odd cushion to offer a bit of comfort to our evening routine.