Getting the priorities right

Ok – we all know the world is changing but why do we always throw the baby out with the bathwater. There’s loads of good stuff we've got rid of that we should have kept. Um … like men standing up for women on the bus for instance, and saying ‘good morning’ instead of ‘Alright?’ and if cars are parked on your side of the road, the oncoming traffic has priority!

But things have gone too far when McDonalds change the recipe for their milk shakes!  They were the closest thing to heaven that you could find. For ten minutes after you bought them you waited, saliva dripping from the corners of your mouth, for the ice cream to melt enough to slurp it up through the straw. They were so divine that when I collected my daughter from hospital after having her appendix out, we stopped at McDonalds for a Big Mac and shake. (Don’t get me started on Big Macs!). We also stopped there on the way back from hospital after she had her first baby.

On Saturday after a long day signing books at Waterstones in Canterbury, (It was fabulous if you are asking. Running and Time Breaking are super reads) I arrived at Paddington hot, thirsty and exhausted.” Chocolate milkshake,” I said 

… how could they! I was almost apoplectic with disgust.  Chocolate powder carelessly sprinkled into vanilla mush? (Guessing here but I presume a strawberry milkshake is strawberry powder carelessly sprinkled into vanilla mush and banana ... well, you get it.)

I mean, I’ll put up with horrendous weather, overcrowding on the tubes, delays on the railway & a lousy government - again. But changing a life-saving milk shake? What are they thinking about?

Visit my website Barbara Spencer.

Check out my facebook page Barbara Spencer on Facebook.

My latest love affair

I have a new love in my life - no it's not a man. Its railways! Okay, so perhaps railways and men have some similarities. Neither are totally dependable. Frequently, they arrive late and the slightest bit of cold weather and they can't get started in the morning. But unlike men, trains are rarely short tempered, in fact train managers behave with great chivalry and cheerfulness. And trains go pretty much everywhere these days whereas you often have trouble getting the man in your life to even go to the supermarket. And can men introduce you to an amazing kaleidoscope of new people, new places and new scenery? You'd need to change your lover weekly to get the changes in scenery that railways can offer. Usually with men it's same-oh same-oh, and where's my dinner? Of course, Reading's a mess, bitterly cold and nowhere to sit, and the ladies loo at Paddington remains a disgrace even though they have rebuilt most of it. But St Pancras is divine. It's an amazing feeling when, ticket in hand, you arrive at the station and find the train waiting ready to board. You definitely can't do that with a man.

On the downside, if you're waiting at Reading, do keep your eyes peeled on platform 7. Trains arriving there have a nasty habit of leaving behind passengers who are sheltering from the wind and don't hear it arrive. Hmm - that is definitely not like a man - you always know when they arrive!

Visit my website Barbara Spencer.

Check out my facebook page Barbara Spencer on Facebook.

Aliens have landed

You know those stories about UFO's - doesn't it seem strange that since the turn of this century they've all disappeared. No longer do seriously intuitive people see their ships criss-crossing the sky at night like the tail-end of a comet. If I was a believing man, I might say - they've gone because they've completed their mission.


Next time you see kids in the street - take a good hard look. They're most likely aliens in disguise. Nothing else can account for the ease with which they manipulate technology. Take my granddaughter! She walked into my house last Sunday and proceeded to grab a bunch of wires and connect my radio to my cd system - which by the way I've had for at least 7 years without being able to use it - and get it working perfectly in 2 seconds flat.

Logic says that's not normal. I'm normal. She has to be a supreme being - in other words an alien. People like me can't possibly be alien - we are definitely earthbound humans. How do you tell? I would have needed at least a half hour, plus specs, magnifying glass, dictionary, instruction,s and a large glass of wine before I could make it work.

Visit my website Barbara Spencer.

Check out my facebook page Barbara Spencer on Facebook.

So what is life!

Promotion, promotion, promotion ... I'm supposed to be a writer and writers write - well they did last time I looked. I don't get time to write, what between tweeting and blogging and wishing someone a happy birthday on Facebook. I'm sure Ernest Hemingway never had this problem. If I remember correctly he swanned off to a new country, dranks pots of the local vino, and dashed-off a book. The only thing I dash off is yet another email to my publisher asking what font they used on the cover of A Fishy Tail.

This computer age is missing out - big time.We had this poem when I was a kid. 'What is life if full of care, we have no time to stand and stare. No time to stand beneath the bows and stare as long as sheep and cows.'

Does anyone today ever stand and do absolutely nothing but look about them? I wonder. Answers on a postcard please!

Visit my website Barbara Spencer.

Check out my facebook page Barbara Spencer on Facebook.

To be ... beautiful or not to be ... beautiful

Samantha Brick's article in the Daily Mail, about woman disliking her for being so beautiful while airline pilots send her champagne, is a delight. Although no longer young, I was once mixing with princes, prime ministers, world-famous sportsmen, films start, and not a few beautiful woman, including the 1970 Miss World, Jennifer Hosten.

What strata of society does Samantha move in, where women are so jealous of her beauty they dislike her on sight? Definitely not top drawer. Beautiful women - and I emphasise the world beautiful - in my experience are as lovely on the inside as the out. If it is just the outer skin, people rarely find them beautiful and then they cold-shoulder them. I do hope that's not the reason why Samantha find herself out in the cold.

 To give her the benefit of the doubt, either she is writing the article tongue in cheek or she is seeking publicity - and that she has got in spades. I congratulate her on a job well-done.

Note to self:  But what if she really believes this. No way. Nice looking she is, but no show-stopper. I have seen women walk into a room and reduce it to total silence. Would Samantha even be noticed? 

Visit my website Barbara Spencer.

Check out my facebook page Barbara Spencer on Facebook.

Frothing at the mouth

I try to erupt on Twitter but it's not a serious medium so blogging it has to be. So what's got me so riled?

I guess the fact that politicians never learn. In comes a new government and immediately they decide to change everything - no waiting to find out what actually works. A good headteacher changes nothing in the first year of a new appointment. The old adage ' if it ain't broke don't fix it' would save the government billions of wasted money - tax payers money naturally. But do they take notice - no.

So having decided to waste billions changing the health service which was at last becoming efficient, they have turned their attention to roads. Living in the country, thousands of us suffer from a lack of transport. Our last bus to Bath is 5.40 p.m. What happens to workers who finish at 6 p.m.? Cars are a life-line. And now they are talking toll roads! At least they aren't talking but exactly like gas, electricity etc. etc. etc. this is how it will end up. So I am angry. In times like this I wish we were more like the French - expressing disapproval by a visible presence on the streets.

Visit my website Barbara Spencer.

Check out my facebook page Barbara Spencer on Facebook.

A Piece of Paper

I understood the great benefit of the computer society was getting rid of paper. The reverse has happened. Today, no one dare move without the right piece of paper.

At Bath station Saturday morning, the 8.13 for Paddington could not leave the terminus because one of the crew members had turned up for work without the right piece of paper! I guess it was his identity card. Wasn't there anybody on board that could vouch for him? So the railway came to a halt! Fortunately a crew member from the next train went in early and, eventually, 24 minutes behind time - the train appears!

In Sheltered Housing, carers can't change their schedule for an unexpected hospital release unless there is a care package in place to say they can! The only relative of the very ill can't be spoken to by medical staff because they don't have a piece of paper to say they can and the person concerned is too ill to write it.

I despair.
Throughout British society, paper comes first. No one can talk to you, do anything for you, take anyone anywhere, without that piece of paper saying they can! 

If fishing vessels had waited for the relevant piece of paper before they crossed the Channel to Dunkirk, half the men rescued would have died!
I cannot believe the independent streak of freedom-loving Britishers has been wiped out?
It's time we got rid of this obsession with paper. 

Visit my website Barbara Spencer.

Check out my facebook page Barbara Spencer on Facebook.