In certain parts of Westminster, namely Queen’s Park, they are trialling a Parking by Phone system which means that if you park on a meter, you can no longer stick in a quid, slap on a ticket and do whatever you have to. Oh no. You have to waste half an hour of your life registering for an account to pay and get an 11-digit number that you have to input and then pay by credit card.
The system is so badly designed that when you put in your car number plate, it backtracks after every three figures and becomes so confusing that you’ve no idea where you were, end up putting in the wrong bloody information and having to start again. Half an hour later, 10 years older and one parking ticket the poorer.
And the best bit is that if you try to talk to a human, there isn’t one, only some poor woman in customer services whose job it is to re-route irate callers back to the unusable payment line.
I know, I know. It’s just another way to try to part me with my car, but stuff like that just makes me militant. Give me a decent public transport system and I’ll use it. Give me buses that won’t let me on with a pram, and I’ll take my car, thank you very much.
]]>It does make weaning tricky, when health visitors sing only from the baby rice and puree hymn sheet. I was beginning to freak when he wouldn’t even succumb to ice cream in 40+ degree weather during the summer in France (Good for you, boy. Stick to your guns. And spite that face). Then he swiped a piece of toast from dug’s plate and the rest is history.
It’s a bit of a movement, with a yahoo chat group, a queen-bee blogger (who’s actually very good and committed) and even a UNESCO study to add credibility. I had to remove myself from the yahoo group because I was beginning to resent the space it was taking up in my inbox, and I giving less and less of a damn about whether other peoples’ babies shat undigested sweetcorn. So sue me, I used them. They were my brick cart but now I can walk…
What has been fascinating is watching the mental process of an eight-month-old who has figured out that the fastest way to shovel butternut-squash risotto into his mouth is not with his fists but by using a tool, ie, a spoon. Darwin would have been proud.
]]>I abhor Tesco so completely that I won’t shop there, much to Dug’s dismay. They are such a bunch of scumbags that I refuse to give them my money, and here I am taking the Tesco dollar. Now that I come to think of it, that is exactly how it should be.
I was pleased to meet a school mum the other day who hates Tesco even more unreasonably than I do, and whereas I do very occasionally darken their doors, flagelating myself and vowing never again, she won’t even do that. There’s nothing like nursing a grudge to keep you entertained.
The only good use for the word Tesco that I have come across recently was hearing Lily Allen rhyming it with ‘alfresco’ in her genius little song LDN.
]]>She’s got a really great seasonal angle and has posted a fantastic recipe for pumpkin scones. I am a lover of all things sconey so am planning to rush off to the kitchen to give them a go. I’ve only got a butternut squash but I’m sure it’ll work as well.
Oh, and, let’s be clear here — scone rhymes with gone.
]]>Didn’t go very far, just far enough to pinpoint the potential problem areas — left hip, right knee, lung capacity. But hopefully my shiny new pair of Aasics (G2110 - sounds like a motorcycle) will carry me far and wide and to new levels of fitness.
Note to self: must join running club.
]]>Viagra may heat up one’s sex drive, but chocolate can make it sizzle.
And the main content was from Nigeria. Let me see, Viagra and Nigeria… OK sounds like spam to me but anyhow, here’s the rest of the release
The report, produced by Nigeria’s national committee for the development of cocoa, may be a bit skimpy on double-blind scientific tests, but it does refer to the marketing campaign of a British trade association making similar claims.
Baptised “Feeding Your Imagination”, the campaign will soon launch a product line of six energy chocolate bars containing essential oils said to enhance one’s mood, and especially one’s sexual appetite.
Costing about six US dollars (5 euros) per 100 grams, the bars are fetchingly named Sexy, Beautiful, Dreamy, Fantastic, Sensual and Lovely, according to the website foodnavigator.com.
Britons already lead the European Union in chocolate consumption, eating nearly 10 kilos on average per year, and Britain is thus considered a promising market for sex candy.
The bits I like are:
I couldn’t find any mention of the Nigerian story on the website, but I did find this:
MXI Corp is set to build on its line of antioxidant-rich Xoçai dark chocolates next month with a chocolate bar containing omega 3 and omega 6 oils – seducing the US market by promoting the health angle.
This year functional chocolate has proven to be an ever-expanding market with dozens of new products being introduced globally to tempt consumers dissatisfied with ‘ordinary’ treats or needing more of an incentive to replace milk chocolate with the bitter taste of dark.
This is astonishing, it’s like a choclate version of Flora pro.active what’s next, Carol Vordeman encouraging us to eat more chocolate?
]]>However, it being May, there were no fresh ones to be bought, but my mother had a box in the freezer. And a new favourite has been born: porridge with frozen raspberries. It’s fantastic. The sourish ice explodes with flavour from the hot, rather bland oatmeal. I’m going to freeze some other fruits and see if it works as well. I’ll keep you posted.
]]>All my life I have cooked on gas and this new house I’m in has a ceramic cooktop. I detest it. It has the sensitivity of a surgeon in a catcher’s mit, so I’ve been burning a lot of food recently. Also, plasticky things keen finding their way onto hot rings and fusing onto the ceramic. I’m just waiting for my cat to jump up and cauterise her paws, or worse still Clem, because there’s no visual way of telling whether a ring is hot or not, and a small red h on a grid doesn’t mean much to a feline or a three year old.
If someone has a fondness for halogen hobs, I’d be really interested to hear why.
]]>I’m a hopeless addict, even in thise poor, pale, post-Sorkin series (seven), and it kills me to have to wait a week to watch the next episode. I own series one to six on DVD, and once I watch one episode, I can’t resist watching another, then another. So it’s pretty frustrating seeing the credits roll and knowing I can’t just slip in another disc.
And then I went away for Easter and missed a critical episode, which means I’m going to have to wait until it comes out on DVD to find out just exactly how Donna ended up working for the Santos campaign after Josh had refused even to consider hiring her. Oh god.
But Rob Lowe makes a come-back which is worth the wait.
I hope.
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