Well I didn't meet any celebrities last week but I did manage to get out to one of Leeds' newest eateries.

Bibi's in Criterion Place is a restaurant where on a Wednesday evening you watch performers on stage - it was a Supremes tribute when we went - while you're tucking into your dinner.

It sounds old fashioned but we did have a great night out and I've booked a table for my Sister's birthday in May. Sometimes however, I feel as though there are no new ideas any more.

Films all seem to be remakes, pop stars are singing cover versions ... where are the fresh ways of thinking, other than about how things can be repackaged and resold to a new generation?

Don't get me wrong, recycling is great but it's something for newspapers and baked bean cans, not nights out and chart hits.

Showbars with acts on were in their prime at the same time as everyone went to working men's clubs ... a bit before my time but they were still popular in the late 70s and early 80s when I first started going out and about.

I remember DJing at the Pussycat club in Wakefield, wearing a flashing hat like Timmy Mallett, as I got the crowd geared up for a show by someone like Russ Abbott - another would-be comeback king, I see.

You do still get places like Peter Kay's famous Phoenix Club but increasingly it's places like Wetherspoons pubs that are taking over this market. The traditional working men's club is a huge square room with cheap drinks and no-nonsense service.

It's no wonder they can afford to do cheap booze, they don't play music and for pubs and clubs that do, the license fees are really steep, we pay up to £15,000 a year for each of our venues.

If you go to a Wetherspoons in the day you'll find lots of older folk having a half of Guinness and a chocolate muffin in the middle of the day. All that's missing is the cabaret.

Don't worry, I don't think all our nights out will be like Phoenix Nights any time soon. It's a sad fact that the likes of Batley Variety Club - where the Jackson Five once played - just can't make the figures add up any more. The performers want too much money so they can't get the big names in.

The pundits are saying the anti-smoking laws coming in this summer will kill off a lot more clubs.

If you ignore all the binge drinking ,we must be getting healthier. I'm waiting for things like juice bars and oxygen bars, which have cropped up with varying degrees of popularity in America and Japan, to catch on.

They'd be perfect for me as I don't drink alcohol - an amazing range of luscious fruit juices would be heaven to me, instead of those sad little bottles of orange you have to settle for if you can't get a J20. And oxygen for a natural high? I'd be first in the queue, it sounds incredibly wholesome and health-giving.

The other day I read about a sleep' bar - I think it was in New York - where you pay to have a power nap in a special pod.

I'm a huge fan of grabbing 40 winks wherever I can. If I've a meeting in Manchester or Birmingham with colleagues, I'll get them to drive so I can have a sleep on the back seat on the way. That comes from being a night owl, I suppose.

But I doubt I could be persuaded to pay for the privilege, pod or no pod. And it's hardly very social is it, going out for a sleep?


King Knut!

Could it be that we're bored with human celebrities?

It certainly looks to be the case if you count the column inches that have been devoted to Germany's superstar polar bear cub, Knut, this year.

When he was tiny, he was gorgeous with his big, fat paws, pure white fur, and cute little face. The world fell in love with him.

Several weeks later, we still can't get enough of him, but I'm wondering how much longer this'll go on for. He's looking a lot less cuddly now ... and more capable of ripping someone's head off.

When our Rottweiller, Roxy, had pups they were the most adorable little dogs and we gave them away to friends and family. Then when they started getting bigger, people started giving them back. We've now got four of the original six back with us.

Early last week, reports were that Knut was poorly and off his food. Then there was an anonymous death threat, causing alarm at Berlin Zoo on Thursday and prompting heightened security.

But this frenzy will surely dwindle away. He'll slip into anonymity like so many boy bands who lose their looks and youthful appeal, then disappear. It's cruel but true!

Call me a cynic, but how long d'you think it'll be before the papers are running "Knut: Where is he now?" features.

Green day

I mentioned recycling briefly in my rant about the state of entertainment.

But I have to admit I'm the least-green person I know. I drive around all day, take lots of flights and I wouldn't begin to know what to put in a recycling bin.

Let's just say it's a good job we have a housekeeper!

Green issues have been in the news so much recently that I'm starting to feel really, really guilty. The latest, apparently, is that the world will have to axe greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050 to have a chance of curbing global warming.

How long will it be before I'm socially unacceptable, and disapproved of by everyone I know, if I don't change my jet-setting ways?

Will chucking some paper in a bin become the equivalent of lighting up a cigarette on a maternity ward?