Travel snacks, windows and wheels

We are constantly warned of the obesity epidemic in the UK. The newspapers tell us all that we are eating not only the wrong food but way too much of it and as for exercise, forget it.

As a regular traveller I have to take odds with the idea that we are incapable of turning down food, indeed I would say that the very opposite is true. Every other shop at train stations and airports sells food, as if that wasn’t enough there are carts occupying internal and external floor space. Far from being a nation addicted to food I think that a lot of us do a fantastic job of avoiding gluttony.

I do wonder though about those who are snared in the trap of food sales. On a ten o’clock train you will frequently see people consuming a full meal. I seriously doubt that these people ducked breakfast or will be skipping lunch it is just a snack for the journey. If the government wants to reduce the propensity to obesity they could cut down on the opportunity by reducing the shops but there is an easier way.

Let’s remind people that we give children snacks to stop them getting bored on a journey we, as adults, don’t need them. Seriously, randomly eating when travelling is no different to your mother making you a snack pack for your trip. You are an adult, buy a book and grow up!

The end of last week brought some positive news on the current pub target. Whilst the news of itself changes nothing it does offer an easier road than that which I expected. With no news from either roofer or stonemasons my surveyor has been directed at them this week and I hope to have some information with which to make a decision. As is common with pub company disposals there is a desire to get income booked by a period end deadline and, at the moment, this looks like an achievable window.

So, if I can get the reports in this week, I may be able to move this project forward at long last. I am hitting frustration again at the moment for the fact that I have nothing tangible, other than a pile of paperwork, for the long search so hoping to have a more positive update soon.

I have to share with you the scene that entertained me last week. I watched a man pushing a woman in a wheelchair whilst she yelled abuse at him. Quite what had annoyed her I didn’t discover but boy was she angry.

At a kerb the guy spun the chair and headed back past me to, which only increased her anger. By the time he had reached the door to the building that they must have left she was apoplectic but all the while the guy took it and said not a word. At the door to the building there is a step and here he stopped, before turning and walking off. The woman, for her part, was a unique combination of incandescent with rage and helpless.

Me? I was tempted to buy him a pint!

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It’s cos they are ladies

I was on a train today and, as often happens, I was made to feel old. In fairness it is not so much an age thing more that I felt totally disconnected from the modern world.

A gaggle of young girls were responsible for this particular experience although I am not sure if gaggle is the correct term for the multiple. The girls started by discussing physical attributes of class mates which all seemed rather normal but then they demonstrated the age gap. The conversation turned into an expletive riddled biological assessment of the lads in their class.

I know that we were all children but once again I was astounded by the apparent desire of young girls to sound like navvies. I struggle to reconcile the effort made to look feminine with a similar effort to sound masculine and coarse. The conversation drifted into an attack on a girl who had put on weight as a result of birth control and herein lies the title. Despite a vocabulary that a drunken Irish man would be proud of not one of the 5 girls could bring themselves to use the word ‘period’.

It was more than that though they didn’t have a code word they genuinely couldn’t vocalise the event. How odd that the most feminine aspect of the conversation scared them mute. I think perhaps there should be a test before these people are aloud to purchase makeup, some sort of basic English language test. After all if you are prepared to spend money looking like a lady at least attempt to sound like one. If we stay as we are I fear a generation of lads that will use “trade description breach” as the reason for their divorce.