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!