It's over a year since I drove past a little bike shop in Sussex and popped in for some socks. About an hour later I had the socks. And a new pair of shoes. Oh, and a gleaming new roadbike worth £2,000. I've cherished my Trek Madone, with its blue carbon frame and wispy wheels, but last week I was reminded of the perils of the impulse buy – my companion over hundreds of miles is completely wrong for me.

In The Red

It's nativity play time again. My son Jackson has been given the coveted role of third innkeeper. He claimed to have been offered a much bigger solo part but that he turned it down. He said that he didn't really "feel like it". He is four years old – God help us eight years from now. He's certainly a very different character from his older sister, Parker, who four years ago announced to us all that she had the role of Mary. We were thrilled and showed off to everyone until it turned out that she was lying and had simply refused to accept that she didn't have the lead role. "Don't put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington." Well, Mrs Worthington might have been persuaded to put a stop to her daughter's thespian tendencies but there's no way that young Miss Joly is going to be deterred from treading the boards.

In The Red

As the economy nosedives, handbooks on cheap and simple pleasures thrive. Susan Jeffreys reads the new literature of atonement

Dear Virginia, I love my boyfriend very much, but he has bad personal habits and still appears to find crude toilet humour deeply entertaining. For example, he finds burping and farting very amusing, and his smelly feet are a constant source of hilarity. And that is by no means the worst of it. I'm not a prude, but I cringe at his behaviour. When I ask him to stop, he just laughs. His mates are just the same. I know it sounds silly, but I'm starting to get really upset. What can I do? Yours sincerely, Zara

I like finding stuff that others aren't going to have. I got this dress at a jumble sale in Hackney about eight years ago. It was in a suitcase under a table. I love the unusual fabric, and the dancing sailors run all the way around the bottom. It fitted me perfectly, so I decided it was meant for me. It cost me about 50p.

18 March 2002

Does the fault lie in the social attitudes of those who administer and teach at comprehensives?

Jeremy Paxman has found himself speaking for the nation, in an area where spokesmen often prefer to remain anonymous. He wrote, in a personal capacity, to Stuart Rose, the chairman of Marks & Spencer, on the subject of underwear and socks. Mr Paxman, like many of us, had long been buying his essentials from Marks & Spencer, but recently had begun to find that the quality was not what it used to be. In Mr Paxman's words, the pants no longer offered "adequate support". He did not feel that he was alone in this; raising the under-discussed subject with his friends, he uncovered what he called "widespread gusset anxiety".

You've basted the turkey, mulled the wine, pretended to like your presents, and the guests are on their way... But what on earth should you wear? Glenn Waldron deconstructs the festive fashion code

An astronaut from the space shuttle Atlantis collapsed twice at an event to celebrate the crew's safe return from an 11-day mission to resume construction of the International Space Station.