Well, Friday the 13th seemed to pass in the Collins household without too many horrors. Of course, I'm not including the shopping trip I was forced to make with Lara for curtains. She practically had me in a headlock for the whole of the afternoon while I trawled through shop after shop. If there's a natural remedy out there for curing flowery blurred vision, let me know, because after having been dizzied by so many patterns, it was a ..

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My letter from last Friday ('Why The Beeb Banned Complimentary Medicine') caused quite a stir! This came as no surprise to my wife.... who often slaps her head in exasperation as I rant about 'natural health' opinions at parties, dinners, shop queues and parents' day meetings. 'Do we NEED to go through this now, Ray?' she says, as we sit at the back of the funeral service. Anyway, the issue of the BBC removing good information on alterna ..

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Imagine a large cattle prod jammed in the spinal column of a live Tyrannosaurus Rex... THAT'S how much of a nerve I struck with my Good Life Letter last Friday (2nd November). Bzzzzzzzzaaaap! Seriously. I've never had such a passionate response to a letter before. Dozens of your emails came pouring in within the first hour of broadcast. It appears that you Good Lifers are even less likely to get hoodwinked by scare-mongering news stories t ..

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Cracking bit of good news on Tuesday... don't know if you saw it... But a new study, reported in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, suggests that drinking coffee can protect your eyesight. Italian researchers looked at the coffee drinking and smoking habits of 166 people with a condition called 'blepharospasm'. This is where you get an uncontrollable spasm in your eyelid. It's not just annoying... it can lead to blindness. ..

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My friend Dan is an architectural historian. Last Saturday, he invited me to a bizarre event. We learned how to build stuff out of mud. Okay, so it's known in the trade as 'cob'. Or to you and me... 'What they used to build house out of in the olden days'. The basic ingredients are water, mud and hay. You stand in a farmyard. You shovel. You trample. You shovel again. You slap it on. We were taught by two artists who have spent the last 10 y ..

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Sometimes you've got to laugh, or else you'll cry... At least that's how I'd react if I had to try this bizarre antiwrinkle treatment... Gold dust at the bottom of the bird cage Now, I know the antiageing market is big business, and people will try almost anything (and pay almost anything) to look younger. But you'd think they'd draw the line at poo, wouldn't you? Well not the ladies of Knightsbridge, oh no... In order to beat ageing, these ..

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My friend Dan is an architectural historian. Last Saturday, he invited me to a bizarre event. We learned how to build stuff out of mud. Okay, so it's known in the trade as 'cob'. Or to you and me... 'What they used to build houses out of in the olden days'. The basic ingredients are water, mud and hay. You stand in a farmyard. You shovel. You trample. You shovel again. You slap it on. We were taught by two artists who have spent the last 10 ..

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Although I am what Lara likes to call “a cantankerous sod”… (Mainly when I'm shouting at the telly or grumbling about supermarkets.) I'm surprised MORE people aren't MORE angry MORE often. The way I see it these days, people spend a lifetime contributing to society... working hard... raising kids… paying taxes... fighting wars... building homes, businesses and communities... Then you get to old age. Suddenly, a switch is flicked. You're no l ..

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For some reason, Lara's taken a keen interest in The Good Life Letter recently. She stands behind my shoulder, humming… occasionally tutting… and pointing out spelling or grammatical mistakes. It's quite annoying. So this morning I used my favourite George Orwell quote. “Correct grammar is of no importance,” I declared, “so long as one makes one's meaning clear.” “Hmmm…” she folded her arms. “So what does Mr Orwell say about CHEATING?” “ ..

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Well today couldn't have started better… I was woken at seven in the morning by the sound of someone trying to break into our flat, I lost my car keys, and Lara had to pop to the doctor because of a stabbing pain in her left eye. Other than that, everything's fine. So, first things first, what happened to Lara? ---------------------------------------------------- The fastest prescription pad in the (south) West ------------------------------ ..

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