I am going out of my mind.  I know this is not a real problem but booking a holiday?  Sheesh.  When did this become yet one more thing which has become so complicated?  Choice was meant to free us but I feel it has done the opposite.  I remember booking my first independent holiday in the mid 80s.  I waltzed into a travel agent, looked at one brochure, made a decision based on my budget and put down a deposit.  Then pretty much forgot about it till it was time to shop.  I'm probably over-simplifying but I'm not far off.  Now?  Gawd, tons of brochures, types of accommodation to decide on, a kazillion online additional ways of finding a holiday and  Trip Advisor, oh the dreaded Trip Advisor!  We continue searching because of the 'what ifs'.  What if I can get this one cheaper, what if a better place is out there?  All this, just for a few days in some sun.  I can fully understand why people return to the same place year after year.  They just cannot be arsed to do the research.  I am seriously not designed to be living in this era.

I know that I am becoming extremely curmudgeonly of late but am just watching the news and am wondering if it is really necessary for a reporter to be standing outside Downing Street to talk to us about the election when it would be perfectly ok for the newsreader sitting behind the desk to tell us?  If it's from one of the channels where newsreaders are still allowed to sit that is.

Am very interested, as too is everyone else, about the so called obesity epidemic and what may be causing it.  We all talk about the vast choice of ready to eat food that is available to us in the West that was not before but I think we also need to consider how this food is actually sold to us.  I remember shopping with my parents in the early 70s and it being such a treat to buy a Wagon Wheel, a little bottle of Cresta pop, a pineapple yogurt.  A single one of all these things.  Did you hear me?   Just one.  Everything now is multi-pack and if that multi-pack gets into your home......well, you know the rest.  Someone recently said that you say no once in a supermarket but continuously at home but that is the only way we can buy them.  Trust me, they know what they're doing.

The main reason women see cooking as such a burden is because........well......it is a fucking burden!

The Housewife's Greatest Burden - The Tyranny of Meals.  'Looking back on my life, I feel my greatest enemy has been the cooking stove.  My life is a constant round of washing, cleaning, cooking and serving meals.'  Hannah Mitchell, suffragette and socialist.  I hear ya sister!

There comes a time in ones life and probably more than once, where it's time to get real and accept defeat.  I once wrote about the bones of where I live being all wrong.  I've done all I can, moved things around, brought things in, thrown things out....it aint working.  Time to accept that no matter what I do, it will never look right, it will never feel right, it will never be right.  Time to stop trawling design blogs, pinterest and tumblr.  Time to close the laptop. 

I've been involved in a couple of conversations recently which have got me thinking about how easily we comment on peoples appearances, maybe more so on women.  One convo was about a well known model and the fact that she has been married for ages, someone questioned why would her husband stray when she was in fact so gorgeous?  How do we know that she is not some mad harpie indoors?  I did in fact see her interviewed a while back and didn't like the way she came across at all.  Then another older famous woman was commented on how rough she looked in real life.  This woman is not a model, not an actress but a presenter.  I find it so sad that we don't seem to be allowed to age anymore.  Finally, when someone mentions someone and I ask what are they like, I am told that they are absolutely stunning.  It doesn't really tell me what this person is like.  Am I really odd, I hope not?

In case I'm ever tempted to diet again..........fucking DON'T!

I miss the days when I first got my own place and all I had to occupy my evenings were the TV, my books and my music.  I love technology, I love Tumblr and Pinterest and following blogs.  I love Facebook and as if that wasn't enough,  I'm even following a few people on Twitter.   I love the way that anyone remotely creative can now have an outlet.  But.....it's all just so time consuming.

I would no more binge eat than I would take the car to the petrol station if the tank was already full.

Why is it that whenever I start anything even remotely and I mean seriously remotely resembling a diet, the rebel in me surfaces in a huge way and says 'are you tarkin' d'me?'?  I will seriously not be told what and when to eat.  Will I always be like this?