Love and lost sleep in Geneva

Sometimes, inspiration comes in the least likely places. I've just finished a crazy, round-the-world, film-work trip that saw me, in the space of 10 days, pass through three time zones and four countries. The sun rose and set over Spain, London, New York, Vancouver, Toronto and Geneva. Geneva, the last place on earth I expected to find enlightenment and yet it came to pass.

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Pyramids and Nanny McPhee

Pesach again. My, but it comes round quickly. I’ve just done the Passover story at my little daughter’s school. She (aka “Princess O”) goes to a secular school and every year I try to find a different way of telling the pupils the tale of Moses, Pharaoh, the Ten Plagues and the Exodus from Egypt.

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From the Gorgeous to the glam

I have been in Los Angeles this week at the rock face of the entertainment industry having meetings, talking projects but mainly throwing myself on the grenade of endeavour by attending nearly every Oscars party going.

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When is a joke not a joke?

I have just returned from New York. It was quite a trip. I managed to "medicate" Mr O to the point where he could shop for seven straight hours without moaning. At least not out loud. Mind you, he didn't have much to moan about. This trip was all about Art and Jews.

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Get ready, it’s time to talk Turkey

So Chanucah is over. The candles — shamash and all — have burnt down for the final time. The doughnuts have been consumed. The dreidels are packed away and the last of the wrapping paper has been consigned to the recycling bin. Now what?

Well, now, the Christmas season is upon us and the perennial dilemma starts. What should Jews do at Christmas? It is a minefield.

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Maureen, mothers and me

This week's column is going to be about mums. But, before I get pinned to the wall of a bakery in Temple Fortune again, allow me to emphasise that it is NOT about Jewish mums. No.

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The land of hi tech and honey

On Kol Nidre, our rather brilliant rabbi asked: "Why do so many of our young people feel disenfranchised from Israel and what can we do about it?"

Five years ago, a poll in the United States revealed that more than 40 per cent of non-Orthodox Jews under the age of 35 felt little or no allegiance to the Jewish state. Since then, that number has grown exponentially.

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I wish I'd been a good sport

From the moment it was announced that London had won the fight with Paris to be the host of the 2012 Games, my heart sank. As Lord Coe (my new crush since his closing speech at the Games) announced, "this is the most fantastic opportunity to do everything we ever dreamed of in British sport", I rolled my eyes.

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Forgotten, but not by everybody

One of the problems of getting older is short-term memory loss versus the clarity of long-term memory gain. Of course, being only 39-ish and fully intending to be that age for the next decade - as Dorothy Parker said, 39 is the best 10 years of a woman's life - my niggle with memory failure is only just starting.

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Flying the flag for chutzpah

What is the most Chutzpahdik thing you've ever done? Indulge me.

What's prompted the chutzpah talk? Maybe the summer that has steadfastly refused to arrive, or maybe the inevitability that England will never win at penalties.

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A stadium full of my dreams

Maybe my expectations were too high. The dream too unrealistic. Maybe when I put pen to paper for my last column I imagined the floodgates opening and a grass-roots uprising.

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Twits like Galloway are spot on

A boy band called One Direction recently broke all records by becoming the first British group to have an album go straight into the US charts at number one. Never mind that this group of sweet young things were cobbled together out of the rejects from the X Factor by Simon Cowell.

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Yes, things really have got better

Nostalgia. The sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time. My life at the moment is giving me pause for nostalgic thought but, as in the words of American writer Peter de Vries, "Nostalgia isn't what it used to be."

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Don't tour with your eyes shut

There is a wonderful talmudic story that goes something like this: a father and son go for a walk, get lost and find themselves in a terrible area where the sick and dying and impoverished languish on the streets.

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One day to change the world

We Jews need to get the message across that we want to make the world a better place, not just for ourselves but for everyone. Luckily, the wonderful Mitzvah Day is coming round again as the perfect opportunity to do just that. The brother of a non-Jewish friend of my daughter was talking about it today as if it was part of the national calendar.

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