"Man holds in his mortal hands the power to abolish all forms of human poverty, and all forms of human life." John F. Kennedy

‘I’d love to see that film but I haven’t got anyone to go with’ is something I’ve overheard a lot recently. I’m fascinated by the stigma of ‘going alone.’ From a young age, we’re drawn towards ostracising the loner, making time spent alone to be a very bad thing indeed and worthy of a snigger or two.

“Ask a kid: “Who are your heroes?” Chances are they’ll give you the names of made-up people. Huh? He-Man. Barbie. I don’t understand this about heroes? It really does bother me! What happened to the time when heroes were flesh-and-blood people?

I’ve had two encounters with gambling in the last week, which got me thinking about my favourite blog subject of money and how it affects our lives.

The Festival in Edinburgh usually creeps up on me. Before I know it, any vague ideas of going to see numerous shows, and of regaling friends with all the interesting, previously unknown talents that I discover, have slipped by and I console myself by thinking that next year it will be different.

The idea for this blog popped into my head this week as I sat on the train down to Hull, trying desperately to block out the sound of Mamma Mia being played on DVD without headphones by the family next to me.

The sun has re-emerged this week and it has definitely got its hat on. The great big ball of burning gas must have been reading recent health reports citing that us Scots were chronically lacking in Vitamin D and decided to do something about it.

At the Bookbug Annual Conference a few weeks ago, our wonderful key note speaker, Naomi Eisenstadt, talked to us about her experience as the key civil servant behind SureStart in the early days of the New Labour government. One of the things she said was “All politicians essentially want to do good”.

I’m 36 years old today. I know I’m not extremely old but this is the first birthday when I’ve felt that I’m definitely not young. Or perhaps what I mean is I’m no longer the person (or persons) I was, the ones I defined as "young".

The title of this blog is inspired by my dad’s attempts to recollect the lyrics of the Prodigy song Firestarter. I remember the day well. It was 1996, my brother, my dad and I rolling along in the Audi listening to Dad’s famously bizarre compilation tapes.