You may be wondering if this post is three months late or nine months early – but my point today is that any day is a good day to read this book.

I bought mine (the audio version, read by its many contributors including Simon Singh, Ben Goldacre, Derren Brown, Simon Le Bon (yes, really), Richard Herring, Lucy Porter, Charlie Brooker and David Baddiel) from Audible before Christmas, but only got round to reading it last week (don’t ask – it’s not even an interesting answer).

Perhaps you don’t self-identify as an atheist even though you don’t tick any of the religious boxes on application forms. Perhaps you don’t really like Christmas – or you really do like Christmas and don’t want a load of bah-humbuggers to spoil it for you. Well, you don’t have to be a capital-letter A atheist to enjoy this or an Ebeneezer Scrooge (pre- or post-spiritual transformation).

If you’re at all skeptical in your thinking, or just get fed up hearing people moan on about how ‘Christmas has lost its meaning’ then this is a book for you.

Also, profits go to the Terence Higgins Trust who do some great work. If you don’t want the audio download, then Amazon will sell you this book too.

If you haven’t read Ivan Massow’s touching story of being present for several friends’ assisted suicides during the 1980s, then you should go to The Independent and do it now (or at least in a minute or two).

I hope, of course, that my friends are never suffering so greatly that they want helping over the step. And if they did? There’s certainly a fear of arrest (with a young daughter to care for, it’s not an issue I can ignore).I certainly couldn’t inject them as Ivan’s friends did, but that’s squeamishness and needle-phobia on my part. I know that sounds stupid – I wouldn’t be on the sharp end but there you go.

I can, and have, taken cats to the vets to end their suffering. If they gave me the syringe to do it myself though, I’d be in trouble.  If it was hiding a pill in the cat food, well I think I could manage. Anyway, thank god that vets take care of all this for you.

Perhaps one day, doctors will be able to help people who are suffering in a similar way. Until then, if someone wants me to hold their cup while they sip their barbiturates through a straw, I’d be honoured – and scared stupid – to be there for them.

Which brings us back to hoping against all the laws of probability that our loved ones can all slip away peacefully at a suitably advanced age.

I have mums on my mind today. Partly thanks to last night’s Glee (pop over to pauseliveaction for a top-notch catch-up), but mostly because it seems impossible to fully convey to my brilliant mum just how brilliant she is.

She will go to the ends of the earth, not just for me, but for her grand-daughter too. I must say that I don’t wait for Mother’s Day to thank her for all she does or remind her how much we love her, but I do feel I should make a special effort on this particular day.

Last year I did sponsor a safe birth in Ethiopia for her as well as getting her some flowers. I’m sure I’ll do it again, but it seems a bit of a cop-out to do it two years running. So, I think I’m going to get out my sewing machine and make her a personalised something .(Wheat bag? Cushion cover? Who knows!) It’s not going to damage the environment and, I hope, says I love you more effectively than an icky Mother’s Day compilation CD.

Have you got a better idea? Please let me know! She really is the best mum I know (though my ’second’ mum Patsie  – actually my best friend’s mum – does come close) and one year I hope to adequately express my admiration, affection and thankfulness.

I’ve blogged in support of Amnesty’s efforts in Palestine before and I want to make one thing absolutely clear. I’m not anti-Israeli or anti-semetic. I’m not pro-Hamas. I don’t believe blowing people up is either just revenge or a helpful measure to secure what you want.

However, I don’t like the idea that Israel is denying Palestinians access to water either.  Amnesty has this to say about the outrageous situation:

Palestinians are denied access to the water they need by Israel. At the same time, Israeli settlements in the West Bank, established in contravention of international law, receive all the water they want, sometimes 10 times as much per capita as neighbouring Palestinian villages.

The Israelis have placed constraints on the Palestinian Authority (PA) that prevent it from developing efficient water and sanitation systems, and a third of the water that the PA manages and distributes to the population under its jurisdiction is lost in leakages.

Meanwhile in Gaza, which is isolated by the Israeli blockade, water and sanitation projects are halted because no materials for construction and maintenance are allowed in. Currently over 90 per cent of tap water in Gaza is unfit for human consumption because it is contaminated by seawater and sewage.

You can help Amnesty’s efforts. Please send an appeal letter to the Israeli authorities now. It takes only a minute and it could make a real difference.

You can read more about this issue - including the full Amnesty report – and learn how to donate money if you choose. Israel is not punishing terrorists – it’s punishing farmers, mothers, fathers and children. Please ask them to stop.

I don’t care that Terry Wogan, Ainsley Harriet and Amir Khan are lending their celebrity weight to a new safety campaign. I do care that you and your family are safe in your bed tonight. It’s very simple – buy a smoke alarm and test it once a week to make sure it’s working. If that’s too much trouble, then buy a Fire Angel plug in smoke alarm. It screws into your light fitting and charges itself everytime you turn the power on. If the charge runs low it beeps to warn. You can test it by flicking the switch on and off quickly and ‘enjoy’ the ear-piercing shriek that is emitted.

You can buy Fire Angels in supermarkets, large DIY stores and online. They cost a little more than the cheap, battery-powered versions, but you don’t have to test them or buy batteries. Fires spread faster than you imagine – don’t let one kill you or your loved ones – if you haven’t got a smoke alarm buy one right now. (If you do have one, test it right now – and keep testing it every week.)

And the second thing? A carbon monoxide detector. If you have a gas fire or boiler, you need one of these too. Don’t think carbon monoxide poisoning won’t happen to you – it happened to a lovely girl a couple of years older than me at university, it could happen to you too. So while you’re shopping online for that smoke alarm, add a carbon monoxide detector to your basket too. Sweet dreams.

It’s hard to say which of the irritating adverts on TV gets my goat the most, but vying with air freshener ads (can’t stand air freshener – vile stuff) for first place in my brain are the ones banging on about the dangers of hidden germs. If it’s not extra products to clean the inside of your dishwasher (because clearly the usual tablets only clean crockery, glasses and cutlery, not anything they come into contact with…), it’s ads designed to make you fear everything in your house.

False-colour transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of the Gram-negative bacterium Listeria monocytogenes.

Last night I suffered two of this type almost back to back – one for Dettol and one for Vanish. Both insinuated (with identical germ avatars) that without their products your surfaces and sheets will be buzzing with lethal bacteria that will harm your children. Quite aside from the fact that bedsheets can be washed on a hot wash if required (and it does your washing machine good to have an occasional hot wash run through it), bacteria are an essential part of life.

True you don’t want listeria, salmonella, e.coli on your work surfaces, but good hygiene practices (washing your cleaning cloths daily for example) and a homemade mix of white vinegar and water can keep your kitchen as clean as you need it to be.

eHow has some excellent tips on keeping your kitchen clean and hygenic using simple and cheap methods; and there are plenty of other sources of advice to be found using your preferred search engine.

So, strike a blow for common sense and resist the lure of Reckitt Benckiser’s vision of a germ-free world. For vinegar, bicarbonate of soda and other green cleaners in bulk, head to Summer Naturals (delivery costs are pretty reasonable if you buy lots of stuff at once). This site also has some useful recipes for cleaners too. I promise it’s no harder to clean with this stuff than bottles of bleach and other environmentally-damaging products. I’m no domestic goddess – I don’t want to spend a moment more cleaning than necessary, so believe me when I say I wouldn’t be using vinegar and bicarb if it wasn’t easy!

The Cat in the Hat at the Young Vic

I’ve sat through plenty of children’s theatre. None of it was terrible, but all of it was put in the shade by The Cat in The Hat at the Young Vic on Thursday afternoon. MI Junior and myself both had a fabulous time. I was on the edge of my seat as the Cat balanced an increasingly precarious pile of objects as he hopped on the ball (look at me,look at me, look at me now! It is fun to have fun, but you have to know how…).

There were raised eyebrows in some quarters at the notion of travelling 100 miles or so to London for less than an hour of children’s theatre. Aside from the fact that I’d travel twice that far for this – it’s that good – it’s a shame we don’t think our kids deserve quality theatre. I don’t know if The Cat in The Hat will tour, or extend it’s run at the Young Vic, but if you have young children (or can borrow some), don’t miss this fabulous show.

I haven’t nailed my political colours to any particular mast – but it’s fair to say of all the masts available, the Tory one is the least attractive to me. And so I rather enjoyed Thomas Sutcliffe’s piece in The Independent today – it features a website where you can vote on various subverted versions of the Conservative’s recent We can’t go on like this poster. Like this…

…and this…

… and this …

Head to Mydavidcameron.com to enjoy more posters or even make your own. If you like what you see, then why not take up the chance to donate to Oxfam’s Haiti appeal while you’re there.