Changing lifestyles

As we hurtle forward at an ever increasing pace, I don't think that any one of us stops to think about the long term consequences of the way our lifestyles change or what we lose. This was something that came to mind yesterday when I was looking through my cookery books and I realised how many things we are losing or have lost already.
Society has changed dramatically with the breakdown of the family unit, so now a lot of children don't have two parents to act as role models for them and where both parents have to work, the pleasant routines of yesterday have fallen by the wayside along with manners.
This is borne out by the fact that families rarely sit down to eat together now, in fact most evening meals are eaten in front of the television, proper breakfasts no longer exist in most households and many miss this meal anyway. Lunch has become a sandwich which the majority of people 'graze' as they do their lunchtime shopping and most places of work do not have adequate canteen facilities. Afternoon tea with scones and cakes (and tea from a teapot not just a teabag) has died out along with light suppers. When I was younger, meals were social occasions where the whole family sat down and communicated with one another and Sunday lunches and teas were a real events in the weekly calendar.
Nowadays, most people don't cook from scratch despite having kitchens with every concievable time saving gadget. Cookery books only gather dust and the skills of pastry making or bread making are rapidly dying out too. How many young mums today could tell you how to bake a Victoria sponge when most of them probably don't even know what one looks like!
Today, despite having so many labour saving devices, we are 'time poor' and our lives are no longer enriched with so many of the simple social pleasures we once enjoyed.

How many?

Because I thoroughly enjoy cooking, cookery programmes and cookery books, I have spent the day going through recipes and then a lot of the time in the kitchen because it was 'bread making day' today. I also made some rather delicious oaty almond crisps because the oven was on and I thought I may as well use up some of the oats and oatmeal that I have. The biggest problem with having an interest in cooking and living alone is I either have to eat the same dish for several days in a row or fill the freezer, so mine was filled again today!
While I was kneading the bread I wondered just how many recipes I have, not only in the cookery books and those that I have cut from magazines, but also my own 'sawdust and splinter mixtures' (those are the ones I have in my head and a few of my Mum's). The answer is lots, and lots, and lots more!
Nearly forty years ago, I bought the full Cordon Bleu cookery course which was published in weekly instalments and that collection, together with a Woman's Own cookery book that I bought when I got married seem to be really dated now. I can't believe how old fashioned the kitchen equipment looks either but I'm still using a lot of the utensils that I had when I first got married and they don't seem to be out of place in my kitchen today!
I should really start to write out all the recipes I have in my head so that I can pass them on to my grand-daughter as she is more interested in cooking than her Mum, she has already asked if she can have my cookery books when I'm gone and she's only twelve but I'm not planning on going anywhere until I reach at least a hundred! That'll give me time to write my books!

A better day than I thought!

Although I'm still feeling pretty ropey with this cold, I have been out every day this week and this morning the sun was shining so I went across Castle Green on my way to the shops. What a difference from yesterday when it was cloudy, damp and gloomy and everything looked grey and forlorn. Today the birds were really warming up their vocal chords ready to attract a mate, the hazel trees were dripping with luxurious long yellow catkins and the mahonia is just beginning to open giving us the promise of spring. On days like this I think everyone feels a lot better, I know I feel more invigorated and cheerful.
Very often in the shopping centre there are market researchers with their clipboards who have a habit of springing in front of you or the students who are working as charity fundraisers and normally I try to avoid them if I can. Today was no exception but I could not avoid the young man standing just outside the first shop I was about to enter. He was very pleasant and I knew quite lot about the organisation he was collecting for, but I explained to him that he had stopped the wrong person as I could not commit to paying a regular monthly donation from my small pension because the landlady has that. Anyway, we had quite a conversation about all sorts of things including world affairs, education, the countryside and cooking (I even gave him a pasta recipe) then he thanked me and I went on my way.
When I had finished my shopping, I decided I would go back over Castle Park on my way home and again the birds were singing fit to burst, so I sat down on a bench just to listen to them for five minutes or so while enjoying the sunshine. It's amazing how much better I felt with the delicate warmth of the sun on my poor old nose which is quite red and sore from being blown every ten minutes or so and despite coughing and spluttering. I'm surprised I didn't frighten the two squirrels who were busy playing a game of chase up the trees and enjoying every minute of the good weather. They were unaware of my presence there because they were obviously having too good a time.

They don't make things like they used to!

When I got dressed this morning I put on a top that was washed only last week but I was very disappointed to see that a slight stain down the front had not washed out. The trouble is, today's washing machines are just not up to the job and neither are the detergents.
Many times before, I have had this conversation with people who are around the same age as me and we all agree that the twin tubs and washing powders from the 1980's were far better than todays machines and powders.
I used to have a Hoover twin tub which was absolutely brilliant. It was much quicker than today's automatic although it meant I had to be around the kitchen in order to put the washing into the spin part of the machine to rinse it and spin it, but I could do smaller loads and the whole wash was completed in much quicker time and used far less water.
At first I would sort the wash and do the whites that needed a hot wash first, then I would top up with cold water and do the colourfast, then the delicates and finally anything that the colour ran from.
The detergents and powders were also much better and removed stains like fruit juices, tomato sauce and oil but no matter how good todays detergents claim to be they are useless and leave all these stains in the fabric. As for the 'trust pink, forget stains' stuff just forget it. It's a complete waste of money!
I've even tried these washing balls that bash your washing around and are supposed to help knock the stains out, but all they do is make a racket in the drum and give me a headache!
Sometimes I wonder why we don't all challenge the false claims that the detergent companies make about their products in their advertising garbage. Is it that we think we must be the only one who has the problem or are we too afraid to say that our clothes get that bad?
Perhaps we should all be off to the nearest river to bash our washing on a large stone!
Please - won't someone bring back the twin tub?

Oh! Change the record!

Well, I've heard it all. Today on the news there has been concern expressed about the numbers of elderly people that have Alzheimer's Disease. Discussions between various so called experts are blaming it all on bad diet and lack of exercise - again!
This is ridiculous because the scientists do not know the causes of this dreadful disease and as there is serious underfunding for research into it, I'm sure it will be a very considerable time before they will be able to tell us for certain what the causes are and this will probably not happen in my lifetime. Perhaps if they had put all the money wasted in the panic about Swine Flu into research for Alzheimer's it would have been better spent!
The other problem I have with the 'bad diet and too little exercise' theory is that the poor people that they showed who have the disease were not overweight but every one of them looked undernourished. Now I know that when someone has this disease they very often do not eat properly and many have to be fed, but I still think that the answer to any health problem these days is always the same - give up smoking, cut out the fats, sugar and salt and get more exercise! This is the advice they give to prevent heart attack, stroke, diabetes, infertility and anything else you care to mention. Maybe I wouldn't have this darned cold if I hadn't had that pork crackling and ice-cream at the weekend!
Have they not thought of perhaps blaming it on the chemicals we unknowingly consume in the quick, ready made, processed foods that are so popular in this 'no time for anything' life most people live? Or maybe those we ingest or inhale from our ever filthy atmosphere?
Perhaps it's the pace of life we are forced to live or that we are crammed into ever smaller homes with no privacy or room to move.
I believe in 'all things in moderation' and that's what I will stick to.

What happened to swine flu?

Well our ignorant politicians have done it again! All the fuss that was made about the 'swine flu pandemic' and how it was going to cause hundreds of deaths in the UK has all come to nothing.
They spent millions on 'swine flu' jabs and Tami flu doses that weren't really needed and as the vaccine will be totally ineffective if another strain of flu develops next year, as it will, they have wasted our money.
Every household received a leaflet telling us what to do if we displayed symptoms and newpapers carried full page adverts too so all that money has been wasted unnecessarily when it could have been put into the NHS.
We had a similar situation with bird flu, but at least on that occasion we weren't bombarded with leaflets and those of us with compromised immune systems weren't summoned to our local surgery to be used as pincushions! On that occasion it was DEFRA getting up the noses of farmers and smallholders.
The problem with politicians is they don't trust scientists to do their jobs properly and they most certainly do not have scientific brains themselves. All they do is cause panic in the hope that if the worst case scenario happens, then they will be able to say that their 'quick' actions helped to prevent hundreds of deaths (particularly important as this is an election year).
Instead, the whole thing has fizzled out quietly as these things do and I'm quite sure we have heard the end of this latest 'serious pandemic'!

Unreliable x 3!

My landlady wrote to me in December to say she was appointing some letting agents who would be responsible for repairs to the property and that she would soon contact me to let me know who it would be. So far, I have heard nothing more from her but on Thursday last week a young lady contacted me and said she was from a letting agents and had been asked by the landlady to take on the responsibility of the property and asked if she could visit this afternoon to look around. I did explain the the landlady had not come back to me but the young lady said that her company would not agree to act until they had seen the property and as she knew the landlady's details I believe she is genuine. The appointment was arranged for two thirty today.
When I got up this morning, I felt dreadful because my throat and windpipe felt as if they were on fire and my ears hurt like hell especially when I swallow. As I hate feeling unwell, I got up and got on with a few chores as usual and then I had to go out to the surgery to collect some of my prescription items which the pharmacy did not have on Friday when I collected my prescription. I walked to the surgery thinking perhaps my symptoms would improve being outside in the fresh air but I was wrong.
The pharmacy still did not have one item for me because they said there was some problem with the supplier so if I had enough of these tablets perhaps I could ring in a week to see if they had been able to get some. Still feeling wretched, I walked back home and had a light lunch which hurt me every time I swallowed so I thought that after the visit of this lady from the letting agents, I could have a large brandy as that may kill off any germs (or intoxicate them thus rendering them harmless!).
At two thirty I waited for the young lady to arrive and five minutes later I had a call from her office to say she had called in because she was having problems with her car and would it be alright if they rang later to arrange another appointment. I did explain that I would be at home all afternoon so it would be OK for her to come whenever she had got her car going. The other young lady said this would be fine and I left it at that. Then another fifteen minutes later, the office rang back to ask if someone could come tomorrow morning instead but I told them that would not be convenient so the appointment has been re-arranged for tomorrow afternoon at three thirty. I hope it has stopped raining by then because I can't be doing with someone traipsing around inside and out with dripping clothing and wet shoes.
I can't cope with unreliability, especially today, so I have just had a large brandy and now I'm going to have a nap to see if I feel better later!