It has been a while since I commented on the evil foie gras trade . I feel a pang of guilt about this as we should not stop banging on about until its sale has been outlawed. For anyone who doesn’t know, foie gras is the so-called luxury food item that involves force feeding ducks and geese until their livers swell. A metal tube is forced down their throats as they are held by the neck and their stomachs mechanically stuffed with grain. This is done three times a day and as the birds become accustomed to the routine they panic at “feeding time”, injuring themselves to get away. The metal cages they are housed in do not allow this, and the procedure goes on until they develop liver disease which gives the pate its flavour. Personally, the stuff would make me want to be sick, and even thinking about it brings on a sense of nausea. It is one of the worst forms of animal abuse we inflict on these gentle creatures, purely for greed and profit. Its produ

So - Admiral Fitzroy was spot on last week, he predicted snow and sure enough the whole country was left under a four-inch carpet of the stuff. But what has he in store for the next seven days? It certainly feels milder, but what do the crystals have to say? The liquid has gone slightly murky and the crystals are much smaller than they were last week. Most of them have settled on the bottom of the tube, although there are one or two stragglers in the solution. So.... The weather will turn to rain if not already, windy weather is likely.

Today I am going to beg just a little indulgence as I redirect you to my column on the Daily Express  website. For my first entry I asked a little help from some pals, fellow Daily Express columnist Alan Titchmarsh, Paul Daniels, long-range weather forecaster Jonathan Powell and of course the Met Office. Yes, you guessed it, my first delve into national newspaper column writing has a slightly meteorological theme. It will be updated with the same regularity as this blog, so please keep visiting the site. Feel free to leave comments, keep it clean, and I'll see you back here shortly.

Here is a snapshot of my last day at school, some two decades ago, when at the age of 18 I had my final altercation with a fellow pupil I shall refer to as Kevin. Kevin and I  are standing next to each other as the school photographer prepares to take a picture of the graduating class of 1992. “Do you mind not standing there,” he says. “It’s just that being stood anywhere near you makes me look bad.” Recognising the unintentional compliment (standing next to me makes him look bad, but he is too thick to notice this), but understanding the jist, I move along a couple of places. The less odious of my classmates don’t mind me shuffling past them, and I put up with the odd grunt of disapproval for the sheer relief of moving further away from Kevin. Kevin, who if he had double the IQ would still fail to qualify for a place at primary school, and whose knack for spitting venom with precision and regularity is admirably unmatched. Of course, Kevin’s contempt for

It has been a very good seven days for Admiral Fitzroy. Last week the meteorological column of wisdom forecast snow. I don't think there is anyone in the country who would disagree it was right on that. For anyone who isn't keeping up, as a bit of fun on a Saturday morning I am turning to the Admiral Fitzroy Storm Glass to see what it has to say about the week ahead weatherwise. And I have to say so far it has been spot on. Last week's forecast was thick air, snow and frost . Not sure about the thick air bit, but in terms of snow and frost, I think it is a pat on the back for Admiral Fitzroy. Now, I have spoken and written extensively about the weather this week, so I have a fair idea of what is going on. But I am going to keep it  to myself as I turn to the storm glass for this week's forecast. The crystals are lying at the bottom of the tube, and there are some big ones towards the top. A couple of floaters on top. V

I don’t think the impact of just how rapidly the world is changing hit me until today. The realisation came with the news HMV is to close its doors, the latest in a string of casualties which have littered the high street since the credit crunch hit four years ago. It's not just the latest to fall as shopping centres and precincts fill with empty and boarded up kiosks, but  one of the biggest. And although we could blame one of the severest recessions in history for our crumbling high streets, it’s not just tighter budgets and a lack of  cash which is sending these iconic chains to the scrap heap. Certainly in the case of HMV, one of the catalysts for its demise is that people don’t go into shops anymore, they buy everything  online. Many people  shop on their PC and iPads rather than actually dragging themselves out of the house and into a real shop. And  it’s only now that the true, devastating impact of this growing cyber dependence is beginning to emer