Petrol rant!

The title says it all.....

This evening has very much been like every one this week. Got home from work, went to the gym, cooked dinner and settled down to watch some TV, only to remember tonight I need to fill up my car with petrol. If it were any other night, I wouldn’t be worried as I would just give myself extra time before work to do it, but thanks to the clowns in our Government, all drivers in the UK have been forced into panic buying due to an impending fuel strike which hasn’t even been set yet.

I usually fill up at my local supermarket, but walking past there earlier and seeing the queue, I was soon put off. The annoying thing is, I genuinely need to fill up my car and was actually contemplating walking to work tomorrow because of this situation. It was only after talking about it with my housemate that he made me realise at 10pm on a Thursday night, I am probably in a better position to get some without the need of sitting and waiting to fill up, and wasting what petrol I did have left in the meantime.

I have just been to the closest petrol station to my house and was happy to find all 6 pumps were free. I have to admit, I did feel a little smug when I drove in and parked my car but that soon changed when I saw the cost of unleaded: 149.9p per litre. Are you kidding me? I feel like I am being robbed! When the shop keeper told me there were queues from 6am to 8.30pm today, I felt even angrier because I can’t help but think we are being made mugs of, especially after hearing the ridiculously high increase in fuel sales yesterday. I can just picture the big wigs resting back in their chairs and laughing at us right now!

Further to my annoyance at this unnecessary alarm, I was outraged to hear that the Cabinet Minster has advised additional spending by encouraging us to fill up jerrycans as a precaution and store them at home! How irresponsible can you get? I thought these people are meant to be intelligent. I think as a country we need to do a “Lord Sugar” and fire them all!

Part of me hopes there will be a strike now only so we can justify spending more money than has been necessary over the last few days, but something tells me we will soon be hearing the situation has been settled and the panic can now end. Either way, I hope our Prime Minister is ready to answer some questions, because it’s very easy to open a can of worms, but it’s not so easy to close it again!

Thank you......

I have been writing this blog since October last year and never intended it to be as popular as it has been. I'm not sure how my number of page views compares to other blogs, but I am so happy with the responses I am getting and would just like to say a very big thank you to everyone who has been reading my posts.

I will be writing more articles over the next few days so please come back and enjoy more of the crazy and random thoughts going round in my head, because without them, I wouldn't be able to write my pieces.

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Happy reading lovlies!

Tanya :-)

Let the memory live again

Driving to work last week, I was listening to the Chris Moyle’s show on Radio 1 and Dave Vitty was unexpectedly reading the story of Mr Bump. Happily listening to the tale sent me into a nostalgic bubble, reminiscing about the books I used to read when I was a child from Roald Dahl’s James and the Giant Peach, The Witches and The BFG to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Cat in the Hat and The Tale of Peter Rabbit. This has since prompted me to dig out some of those classics and re-read and enjoy them once more.

But it hasn’t stopped there because the books have impelled me to think back to other memories I have as a child. Playing Stony 123 and Queenie Queenie in my street with all my friends, or going into the dens behind our house pretending we were part of Robin Hood’s band of merry men fighting off outlaws passing by on the old train tracks below us. Not forgetting the stalls we used to set up on our front gardens buying and selling items including bikes, toys, games and ice creams with money used from my brother’s Monopoly board game.

Growing up in my street was so much fun. There was always something going on. Camping out in tents in each other’s gardens, playing football and tennis or cherry door knocking! Then there were the times we used to all run to the top of the hill and do a train back down together, some of us on bikes, some on skate boards and the rest on our roller boots. That was before someone, most likely one of the boys, would ambush us with water balloons prompting a massive water fight, and some rather annoyed parents who were unlucky if they got attacked! We also used to have sleepovers where we would stuff ourselves with sweets and chocolates and make indoor tents with blankets and duvets using the pegs off the washing line and then stay up late watching movies and get up early to watch cartoons.

Back then, kids TV was the best. Inspector Gadget, Raggy Dolls, The Racoons, Dogtanian, He-Man, Bananaman, Super Ted, Dungeons and Dragons…the list is endless. Of course being a girl, my favourites were The Care Bears, My Little Pony and Rainbow Brite. I even remember receiving my very own Care Bear with my name on it for my birthday and then my Mum taking me to meet them in my local shopping centre. My Care Bear always had pride of place on my bed alongside my Popples, Pooch and Glow Worm. I still have it today, although it now sits on top of my cupboard rather than on my bed!

Enjoying these memories again over the last week has been lovely. Who would have thought an off the cuff moment on the radio would trigger them but I’m glad it did because it’s been lovely remembering those days. I really hope they continue with story time because let’s face it, once a kid, always a kid!

Food for thought

When I was younger I used to love helping my mum bake cakes. Every week she would make a Victoria Sponge or a batch of fairy cakes. She also made tasty apple crumbles and black forest cheesecakes and would use the left over Philadelphia on top of digestive biscuits for us as a treat. The best part was being allowed to try the mixture before it went into the oven, or better still, lick the bowl! Then of course, there was the fun part of mixing food colouring into icing sugar and adding it to the cakes with hundreds and thousands and jelly diamonds.

Even today, I still love to bake, although I don’t do it as much as I should. However, every now and again you will catch me making chocolate cornflake cakes or my Granny’s cheese straws. She has even given me her recipe for Christmas cake, mince pies and coconut ice which I am beginning to master the art of, although the latter still needs a bit of work!

My Granny always bakes. Whenever we visit she has a couple of homemade cakes ready for us. Walking into her house you are instantly hit by that sweet smell and seeing them displayed on the kitchen table always brings a smile to my face. I spent this weekend with her and my Mum and we indulged in her infamous delights, fresh pots of tea and home made marmalade on toast, along with traditional Sunday roast and glasses of pink champagne with more of my family on Mother’s day.

Nothing can take away the warm feeling I get when I am with my family, both near and far. Every time we are together we create another memory to hold on to and savour so when we look back and reminisce, it feels just as special as when it was created.

Without them, life just wouldn’t be the same.