YOU will all, no doubt, be regular purchasers of batteries for your torches, radios, and portable this and that, unless you're using rechargeables, which I find a bit of a bind.

I use the description 'battery' so that I don't confuse, but really that's quite wrong, and I should use the word 'cell', because the mere word 'battery' means 'more-than-one'. So, if you have a pocket radio which takes four cells, then you now have a 'battery' of four cells. However, it's another wrong word which has taken over in order that the public will understand, and nearly all these bubble packs of cells are now called batteries. And the size description of these has even had to change so that people can understand. They were always, AAA for the smallest single cell, AA for the most popular one, then 'C' for the 'chunkier' one, and 'D' for the biggest of the round, single cells. All that has had to change to cater for the intelligence quotient of more recent generations, and now we have - you'll never guess, S, M, L and XL, which eventually will become self-explanatory. All I haven't yet come across is WX and OS. I wonder if these are reserved for PP9's and lantern batteries? Wait and see!

* In December 13 issue, I talked about the habit of adding a letter 's' on the end of words, which as far as proper names are concerned, changes them completely. I mentioned Butcher Corner being often referred to as Butchers Corner, but after drawing attention to this several times I commented that reference is now usually made correctly as Butcher Corner. Only by the time this appeared in your Gazette & Herald the gremlins were already at it, and it appeared in print as 'Butcher's Corner'. Not only had the phantom 'ess-adder' done just that, they'd also added an apostrophe, just to make it legal, like! You just can't win can you.

* How I hate this EU lark, and the unwanted alterations being forced upon us. The Government seems little bothered that the UK is losing its independence and individuality, and lemming-like goes blindly on taking us deeper and deeper into the mire. I tell you, friends, we've seen the best! So what's this got to do with ginger wine? Well, I always recall at Christmas my mum would make ginger wine - it just wasn't Christmas without it. It was just accepted, I never knew how she did it, and so in my own time it came to be that we always had home-made ginger wine at this time. "Don't forget - when you're down town, get a bottle of Friar Tucks Ginger Wine Essence at the Co-op". And I usually did, for the Co-op was the only place which stocked it. Sadly, nothing is for ever, and doing without this for the last couple of years I thought I'd have a go myself and make some, so into the Co-op for some. I was directed to the wine shelf when that word was heard, but upon repeating that I wanted wine "essence", Friar Tucks to be exact, this met with no understanding and I learned that this product was no longer heard of. So I hunted around and found some ginger, not the good Friar's though, but worth a try. Only, instructions were in euro-English, telling me to add 1 kilo (2.2lb) sugar to 2 litres (3 pints) water, boil, and add 2.25 litres of cold water, after which I should add one crushed Campden tablet. If I wanted the final result a little stronger, then I should reduce the water by 1 litre - which is 1.76 pints. However, this would all have resulted in nearly a gallon (4.54 litres) of wine, and I only had enough bottles for 3 pints (1.70 litres). So a rough division by two would do the trick, this to include the essence which claimed to be 50ml. Could I manage all this without a calculator I wondered? I did revert to pencil and paper, and following the instructions ended up with a panful of brown liquid, which, after the addition of the tablet could be bottled. Even yet, adjustments were necessary, for one whole tablet caters for a gallon, so I only need half a tablet - ah well - that's easy. Except that the smallest amount of tablets one can buy is 125, so I have 124 tablets spare! Result: The 'wine' is a bit 'thin', and too sweet, so I've added a millilitre of essence to each bottle to sharpen it up a bit. It might work, but somehow, it doesn't taste like it did in the old days, and I'm sure my old mum didn't have all this 'going on'. One thing I'm beginning to realise though, is that memories somehow are better than the real thing!

* So-called 'new' words are used in proliferation today, mostly in order to get more sales. Take the word 'thermal' for instance. Any item of clothing designed to keep you warm is thermal, because that's exactly what it means, so don't get taken in by spurious claims, and higher prices, just because it's claimed to be 'thermal'. Everything is thermal. Think about it!

* Remember this. "Nations whose nationalism is destroyed are subject to ruin" (Col Muhammar Qaddafi) b1938.

Updated: 11:06 Thursday, December 27, 2001