Take loads of sunshine, mix in liberal quantities of Pimms, serve with homemade scones, jam and Cornish clotted cream and this is what you get.

I know this is totally unprecedented in the long and august history of ‘Commenter of the Week’, but this week there are two recipients of this prestigious award.

I’ve just had an email from The Brother (yes, the one with all the dietary advice and peculiar taste in interiors) asking for sponsorship for the Paris-Roubaix cycle ride – all 260km (162 miles) of it in one day, some of it over cobblestones.

I’ve done a bit of cycling in my time – have been on mountain biking holidays to Sri Lanka, Tuscany and Spain and have cycled from London to Bath over a period of three days – but the furthest I’ve ever cycled in one day has been 50 miles from London to Cambridge, so I’m absolutely beside myself with admiration. Just wanted to let you all know how proud I am of my little bro – and if you feel moved to sponsor him it’s all for a very worthy cause (Oxfam).

Forgot to mention that we had two excellent bits of press coverage in April. The Creation Mathias Bath Confetti were featured in the FT’s How to Spend It section and the Darling It’s Perfect Earrings in Marie Claire.

Which would help to explain why April was an absolutely stellar month for us, while May has been about as mediocre as a Big Brother contestant.

Commenter of the Week!

The second mirror mirror Commenter of the Week is my very good friend and yummy mummy ‘Camilla’ (aka Fiona) – one of my few real life friends who comments on this blog and also the bravest woman I know.

Fiona was diagnosed with colon cancer and secondary liver cancer back in June last year and decided to start a blog as an efficient way of letting her friends know about her progress. Since then we have wept and cheered along with her as she discusses debilitating chemotherapies, horrific post-operative infections, appalling eczema, battling consultants and Anthea Turner‘s wig – always with wit, style, candour and good humour. It truly is an inspiring read.

Having already undergone one operation to remover the tumour in her colon and loads of chemotherapy, this month she has a final operation to remove the lesions in her liver. So far she has been responding very well to treatment, so hopefully this final operation will mark the end of a long and difficult road.

We’re all very much hoping that Prince Charles will buy Camilla (Fiona looks like a more youthful and far more beautiful version of Camilla PB) a new frock for her red carpet appearance.

Confusingly, Commenter of the Week is not awarded to the commenter who posts the best comment that week. Anyone who has ever posted on the mirror mirror blog is eligible. Just think of these comments boxes as a global cocktail party with me frantically trying to make the introductions.

At Jake the Rake’s birthday picnic, the Minx upholds the family tradition for pursuing younger men.

The reason you haven’t been updated on my spectacular weight loss recently is that there hasn’t been any. To be fair I haven’t exactly been following the Paul McKenna rules over the last couple of weeks either, so it’s hardly surprising.

In my ongoing quest for the ultimate weight-loss quick fix, I have, however, become intrigued by the online discussions of the Shangri- la diet.

I first came across the diet (which isn’t really a diet at all) via a post on Creating Passionate Users which is a very sensible blog with much of interest to say to marketers and geeks alike. It seemed so wacky that at first I thought it was just an elaborate hoax, but further reading seems to indicate that it is genuine.

The diet has been devised by Seth Roberts, a Professor of Psychology. He seems to be saying (I haven’t read the book, just paraphrasing stuff I’ve read online) that our natural instinct is to eat a lot when food is tasty and plentiful in readiness for times when it is not so easily available. Our weight problems are caused by the fact that nowadays food is always tasty and plentiful so our body sets a high natural weight ‘set point’. What the diet does is to trick the unconscious mind into believing that food is scarce by suggesting that we eat tasteless but calorie-rich foods – after all we would only choose such foods if there were nothing more tasty available. This apparently sets the body’s ‘set point’ lower.

The two foods he suggests are light, flavourless oils or sugared water. So apparently we should all be taking a tablespoon of neat oil or drinking some heavily sugared water a couple of times a day without eating anything else during a two hour window. And that’s it. Apparently this is quite enough to suppress your appetite, reduce the amount you eat and lead to permanent weight loss(Check out the CPU blog entry for more details or Seth Roberts’ own forums). .

Yes, I know it all sounds completely ridiculous. But too intriguing not to try for a couple of weeks or so. So over the last couple of days I’ve been chugging 1 tablespoon of oil mid-morning and 1 tablespoon of oil in mid-afternoon (I’m not doing the sugared water as I suspect it will play havoc with my blood sugar levels). I have decided to use Cool Oil, so that at the very least the oil I’m swigging is healthy, though rather than being tasteless it is completely disgusting. I don’t think I’ve lost any weight yet, but I do seem to be eating less and craving more healthy options such as fruit and vegetables rather than cheese.

Is this thing f*cking with my brain?

Click to read

An article I wrote on interiors trends for summer has appeared in Exeter Living, one of those freebie property magazines which come through the letterbox and make you wish you had several million quid to blow on a large Georgian country property.

It’s not quite House and Garden but I’m sure they’ll be on the phone any moment asking for insightful quotes.

(Thanks to Lissie of this blog and Managing Editor of the magazine for the opportunity to contribute.)