Books Coming Out of My Ears

I've been re-visiting The Turn Of The Screw by Henry James over the past few days and had forgotten how unsettling it was. Not least because as soon as you start to identify with the main character then she says or does something that makes you think she's cuckoo. It's the whole is she or isn't she mad thing. I suppose it's also quite sad because although this was fictional there was a history of Governesses in Victorian times who did go a bit insane because of their situations. Or of course this could all just be me as a reader putting my slant on it and James could have actually written as a ghost story. I guess that's the beauty of it.

I've also received as a gift a wonderful cookbook by Marguerite Patten called Feeding The Nation. It's basically a collection of World War II recipes but fascinating stuff just to see how people coped with so few ingredients. I promised myself that I would make at least one thing from it a month but it was a bit of an empty promise because nothing sounds that great. For example, Whale Burgers - apparently in 1947 it made it's appearance on British Shores and wasn't rationed. Marguerite describes the meat as having a "strong and very unpleasant smell of fish and stale oil", sounds appetising doesn't it?!

To Charge Or Not To Charge

Ok, so one point eight million people signed this online petition against national road pricing, I wasn't one of them but I can understand why so many did. I realise that congestion on Britain's roads is a massive problem but I don't think that pay as you drive motoring is the way forward. Motorists already pay massive amounts to be allowed to be on the road in the first place in terms of Road Tax, MOT costs, and insurance etc... Crippling the motorist financially is not the way, we should look at our public transport and make it more desirable for people to use. Take me for example, I wouldn't be able to get a bus or a train to anywhere near where I work (cheers Dr Beeching!), in fact I would like to and I would rather spend an hour not driving to and from work everyday - but it simply isn't possible. And why don't we like public transport? Old buses, dirty trains, and the expense! The last time I looked at taking the train to my friend's house I was shocked that it would cost me nearly a hundred pounds, not to mention the fact that I could get only one train and that was at 6:05am. She doesn't live in the middle of the countryside or anywhere out of the ordinary so why the stupid times?! I guess nobody has all the answers but I really think that more thought needs to go into it.

In other news I have succumbed to the adverts and bought Guinness flavour Marmite. I was quite excited by this and couldn't wait to try it, only to be massively disappointed as it tastes exactly the same!