I am, as they say, conflicted about obesity. You can say it's not your fault, but it is entirely your responsibility to do something about it

Simon Fanshawe: I went to a vegetarian restaurant the other day (bear with me on this). The food was terrific. But more than that, Halli restaurant somehow summed up the idea of a plural city.

Simon Fanshawe: For one man who worked on the show, it was the first thing he'd been able to invite his daughter to.

Budget pressures, media scaremongering, law changes and a fearful public are making it harder for care workers to do their jobs properly, says Simon Fanshawe.

Simon Fanshawe: I've been talking to young people, and it scared me. They were lovely. Four lads from east London. They are 14 and have the innocent posturing of the almost-young man - plus, of course, the bumfluff and creaky voice.

Simon Fanshawe: When Tyneside Cyrenians decided to improve its hostel, it took a risk and recruited from the people who used its services.

Simon Fanshawe: A fresh approach to Women's Aid refuges in South Tyneside is making a real difference.

Simon Fanshawe: This month in Brighton there is a hole in the city and in our public service after the death of Tony Miller, a splendid, funny, clever, modest and original man.

My friend Brendan is a doctor, and a Catholic. I have another friend, also a Catholic, called Seamus, who is an adoption social worker in a Catholic agency. They have both been wrestling with their consciences in the past few weeks, says Simon Fanshawe.

Simon Fanshawe: Neil Ackroyd's life was trolling along reasonably easily into his late thirties. He was in work, married, and had a boy and a girl. But then he and his wife separated. The kids were 10 and 13 when he first collapsed, one day in 2000, while crossing the road outside his mum's house.

Staff need help to involve patients, and the organisation needs to promote change based on patients' views, writes Simon Fanshawe.

Simon Fanshawe: This is a conversation I had recently with a young Muslim woman. I know few practising Muslims. Which is hardly surprising. After all, they constitute only 3% of the population. She has profoundly opened my mind about her faith.

Simon Fanshawe: Steve McGuire, the director of capital, estates and facilities at Guy's & St Thomas' Hospital NHS Trust in London, is quite chuffed that they didn't win the main Sterling prize for architecture last weekend for the Evelina, their new children's hospital. Instead, they won the People's Prize.

Simon Fanshawe: We have lost control of public space because we have lost the power of disapproval.

Simon Fanshawe: This column is usually about other people. But this time, as the tag line for the worst of the Jaws sequels said, "it's personal". In this season of Gay Prides, I have been trying to work out how gay I am. And, at this time of year, Brighton, as you can imagine, is in full pink swing.

Simon Fanshawe: Normally, this column is about an individual. This week, it's about a doorbell. And a gym and a bus. To tell the story, we have to go back to 1975, when the IRA bombed the Caterham Arms on the southern boundary of Croydon.

Simon Fanshawe: Ian Fife is 62 and always wears a small sailing cap. It started, he says, because his girlfriend likes to sunbathe and, since he's pretty thin on top, he was getting burned. He is a property journalist for South Africa's Financial Mail, and one of the sharpest and most interesting property developers in South Africa.