ALEXANDRA SHULMAN'S NOTEBOOK: Coco's lost her touch - now mice are at play
We have a mouse in residence – or to be accurate, we’re not sure if it’s a mouse singular or a happy family of mice.
None of us has seen more than one at a time scurry across the kitchen floor then slither behind the central island or cunningly disappear somewhere about the house, but the evidence is increasing that we could be talking about a community.
Years ago, our cat Coco was a determined assassin, enjoying nothing so much as a night in the killing fields, leaving the evidence of her prey – entrails exposed attractively on our expensive carpets or outside the bedroom door.
But now, aged 17, she doesn’t have the appetite for the chase, and while she frequently lies outside the cupboards where we think the mice lurk, she has lost her killer instinct.
Although I have twice been alerted by the most bloodcurdling shrieks and flung myself into the room, only to find Coco gently holding a mouse in her mouth and then releasing it unharmed. (The shrieks are from the mouse.)
I have been pretty sanguine about the occasional mouse for some months, but taking this relaxed attitude has clearly encouraged them to take more liberties. So now they (or it) have begun to brave the higher rungs of the food cupboard.
Flaked almonds seem to be the food of choice. Even though we have moved tins to the bottom shelf as a barricade, this doesn’t seem effective. Nor has my attempt to block possible entry areas with wire wool.
Clearly we have to rid ourselves of the mouse/mice, but the thought of poison and traps is too horrible. The search is on for a kindly terminator.
A mischievous moggy eyes a mouse on a tabletop - although Alexandra Shulman says her cat Coco (not pictured) has lost her 'killer instinct' and prefers to catch mice and then release them unharmed
Proof that hard cash is all that counts
Immediately after Melania Trump stepped out last Monday in her Adam Lippes navy coat, and Ivanka Trump appeared in sensational forest-green Dior couture, the Greek chorus began to chant.
No self-regarding fashion house, we were told, would want to be associated with the Trump clan.
Had the house of Oscar de la Renta scored an own goal by dressing the Vice President’s wife, Usha Vance, in a dashing pink coat?
It was reported that, contrary to normal practice, these fashion houses didn’t leap on the opportunity to announce who, at the presidential inauguration and ball, was wearing their looks.
But the presence of Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods company LVMH, sitting quietly on the podium with his wife Helene and daughter Delphine, told the real story.
Which is that luxury fashion would not exist were it not for the patronage of the Right-wing and authoritarian in society.
Expensive fashion has expanded hugely in the past three decades, almost entirely due to new money from India (the birthplace of Usha’s parents), China, the Middle East and (before sanctions) Russia – places not particularly known for their freewheeling ways.
Closer to home, the queues to snap up a Goyard bag in Mayfair’s Mount Street, or a Hermes shawl on Chelsea’s Sloane Street, are not made up by Labour-voting artistic folk (or even Tory artists, if you can find one) but by visitors from countries with the spending power rarely found in the shared flats of Hackney or Peckham.
Ivanka Trump looks effortlessly chic in a deep-forest-green Dior outfit as she arrives ahead of her father Donald Trump's inauguration
While there are celebrities who might endorse the Democrats, such as Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, who certainly do splash out on designer labels, the majority of spend outside of showbiz comes from people who have made their squillions in finance.
Such types are not known for their support of high taxation for the social good.
Although many independent designers are more aligned to the Left in general, fashion tends to keep quiet on the subject of politics or, like Ralph Lauren, who had dressed all previous First Ladies, allows personal politics a bit of flex.
There may be a lot of noise about dressing the Republican women, but it’s hard cash, not noise, that counts.
A hotel shower? It simply won't wash
We’ve just been staying in a hotel in Marseille where our bathroom had no bath, just a shower. How anyone can prefer showers to baths completely confounds me.
Unlike the ease of sinking into a lovely bath, which incidentally, while running has already heated up a potentially chilly bathroom, approaching a shower tray is an exercise in self-harm.
Either you stand naked, shuddering, risking in turn freezing or scalding yourself in an effort to get the water to an acceptable temperature, or you have to engage in a ridiculous palaver of poking your arm in to test the water, until the correct temperature and flow is achieved.
Whereas baths are one of the simplest pleasures available.
There is little more delicious than the gentle immersion, even briefly, in a scented bath, as opposed to the battering of the shower. Showers are for gyms. Not holidays.
Ryan Gosling washes the hair of Rachel McAdams while the pair take a relaxing soak together in the 2004 film The Notebook
A Scary coat – but a serious message
Davos is billed as a world economic forum, but like all such conferences it now attracts speakers on a wider range of subjects keen to be seen where the global action is. Enter the unlikely sight of
Melanie Brown (aka Scary Spice) speaking on domestic abuse in a Pepto-Bismol-pink coat, urging governments to act not talk.
Let’s hope the primarily male Davos audience made time away from the main agenda to hear her.
Spice Girl Melanie Brown delivered an impassioned speech on domestic violence at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Wednesday
The happy side of Monsieur Grumpy
It is noticeable how much more friendly French shopkeepers and waiters are than they used to be.
No longer do they make no effort to understand our schoolchild-level French or give us one of their infamous ‘who cares’ shrugs.
Even the classic Monsieur Grumpy, who served us breakfast, had thawed out by the time we left. Perhaps it’s one of the effects of Brexit – they feel they can afford to be more welcoming now that Brits no longer have any claim to being European.
