The day my daughter admired Cheryl Cole's shoes

“Good for Cheryl.” That was my instant reaction to the news that TV critics have given Cheryl Cole’s fleeting performance in The X Factor USA the thumbs-up.

US reviewers saw previews of the opening episode before it aired this week and reckoned she was a better judge than her replacement, Pussycat Dolls singer Nicole Scherzinger.

After her bout of malaria, her marriage break-up and then her ignominious exit from the American version of the X Factor, it’s about time something went right for Cheryl. The US critics’ verdict might be small comfort but at least their reviews show Simon Cowell was wrong to ditch her. And definitely wrong to ditch her in such a humiliatingly public way.

Here in the UK, Cheryl always seemed the most genuine X Factor judge – the only one who knew what it was like to go from Geordie wannabe to global superstar in the space of a few years. My daughter queued for two hours in the rain to be in the X Factor audience last year and said that Cheryl was by far the nicest judge. When the judging panel swept out of the tiny studio during the ad breaks, it was Cheryl who smiled and bantered with the audience. “Dannii and Louis completely ignored us,” my young mole told me. “Simon winked at us and when my friend said to Cheryl ‘I love your shoes,’ Cheryl stopped and said ‘thank you.’”

PS: I still haven't recovered from the excitement of being shortlisted for the Cosmo Blog Awards (please vote for House With No Name!) I had a fantastic evening last night reading lots of the other contenders and thanks to Miss Thrifty’s blog discovered that George at ASDA has a new Barbara Hulanicki collection. The clothes look great and made me reminisce about my childhood, when no trip to London was complete without a trip to Biba, Barbara Hulanicki’s amazing shop in Kensington. Stepping inside Biba was like being transported into an Aladdin’s cave full of sludgy-coloured T-shirts, suede over-the-knee boots, little cloche hats and tiny pots of eye shadow stamped with Barbara Hulanicki’s swirly gold logo. It was my favourite shop ever.

PPS: Twitter is brilliant for seeking expert advice. I’m the world’s worst photographer and needed to buy a camera that was good value and idiot-proof. When I appealed for help on Twitter, several people recommended the Nikon Coolpix S3100. I headed straight round to Curry’s and da-da, the picture above, taken on a walk in the Oxfordshire countryside, is my first effort.