For a bit of informative light reading the Highway Code is always a good bet. It is a useful little booklet to carry in the car should you ever need to while away some enforced waiting time. I was trying to find the criteria for 30mph and 40mph restrictions insofar as street lighting is concerned, for I have never quite agreed with the necessity of the tiny 40mph stretch between the railway bridge at the Orchard Fields and its other end near Hardcastle's Pit on Old Malton Road. I believe it's something to do with the spacing of street lamps, but couldn't find exactly what. However, now that my stop-watch has come back from adjustment, I have been able to do a little testing, and this raises an interesting point. Leaving Malton at the proper 30mph, one is allowed to increase speed to 40mph over this short distance, to the outskirts of Old Malton, where one must drop back to 30mph. Doing this without any conflicting traffic takes, in round figures, 35 seconds!

However, were you not to take 'advantage' of this speed increase, and continue easily along at 30mph for this few hundred yards, it takes 45 seconds!

So, for just ten seconds, it has been necessary for the highway authority to supply and erect 30mph and 40mph road signs, as well as advance bump warning road marking, at a cost, no doubt, of several thousands of pounds. I question the sense of doing this, with or without the option by law, for just ten seconds.

Ten seconds isn't going to be of much concern to anyone, other than the very impatient, and I've often wondered why it just couldn't have been left at 30mph all the way. Heard on the radio recently a comment on an English team who were, or are currently, playing against an Indian team, which ended with the remark that, "It was a nail-biting match", which added confusion as I had thought it was a cricket match. How things change! This Euro lark is another mixed-up affair, and someone sent me a cutting about chicken imports. Dead ones I assume. It stated that these came in from Brazil and Thailand to the Netherlands, and one wonders what cruelties they had suffered before leaving their country of origin. The birds are processed in the Netherlands and most are exported to the UK, where they are labelled as Dutch chicken despite the fact that they are not. These are cheaper than home-produced birds, despite their lengthy journey costs, which makes it difficult for UK producers to compete. This con is added to when it is found that water is added to chickens' breasts to 'bulk up' their size, and a 100g portion can end up being sold at a weight of over 180g. Keep your eyes open on this so-called Common Market. A question came in this week about 'Willy fra' Stape', and his origins. I well remember a column in the Gazette & Herald each week from that illustrious writer, and whether this went back pre-war I can't say, nor when it ceased. I used to get correspondence a year or so back from such a person, but even this is no more and I was wondering where Willy went. One of our 'back-room-ladies' at the Malton Gazette & Herald office is Liz Todd. She's the daughter of Sister Todd of our local 'surgery', The Derwent Practice, who most of you will know. Liz writes sometimes in the Gazette and, having read my comments on the BeRo books, brought a couple to the office to show me, one of which turned out to be a Russells & Wrangham collection of 'Interesting Recipes for the home'. All good, straightforward stuff, not like the fancy stuff one sees in today's books, and which take hours to prepare. Inside, we spotted Ryedale biscuits which even I could manage to make, and oatmeal biscuits, or oatmeal & cheese biscuits. The first is made with Malton Pride Self-raising Flour, of course, although I think I shall have a go at the oatmeal ones, which I rather fancy. The book didn't have a date, but a note says that some recipes are definitely of the austerity type, although there are some more ambitious and of pre-war composition, which gives a bit of a clue. Austerity cooking is the easiest, so far as I can see, and probably a lot better for us than other kinds. Of course such a book always reminds me of Tom Pickett, Russells' miller whose son Donald and I were firm school pals, and who lives at Scarborough. Likewise of the day Mr Pickett showed me round the mill and allowed me to control the rope which hoisted a sack of wheat up to the top (fifth) floor where it started on its downward path in processing to flour. I suppose I was about 10 or 12 years old at the time, and failed to release the rope soon enough which meant the sack hit the top pulley, breaking the chain which fastened it to the rope, and fell to the floor. "Never mind", he said, "it happens all the time." A kindly man.

Royal quote "I never see any home cooking. All I get is fancy stuff." Duke of Edinburgh (b.1921)

Updated: 11:48 Thursday, February 14, 2002