For the sake of keeping the peace I had to bite my tongue. The meal had been a rare treat: succulent sirloin steak cooked medium-rare, smothered in a rich, creamy peppercorn sauce, served alongside bowls of al dente vegetables. But as the plates were piled up at the end of the meal, I watched aghast as I glimpsed a kitchen bin lid being flipped up and two thirds of an uneaten 10oz steak being scraped into the inky blackness of the bin liner. Not only had a week’s worth of sandwich fillings gone for good but a cloud of planet-warming gas would soon be billowing heavenwards when that lonely piece of cow flesh reached its journey’s end in landfill.
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It’s been about a year since you last read one of my blog posts and I confess that book writing is a busy, all-consuming existence. This much-loved blog has been sadly dormant whilst I have chiselled away over a hot laptop in my writer’s cave. Throughout this blog wilderness, I have been key-tapping and kitchen experimenting for Book Number Two, which I am delighted to say is now available for purchase 
Now that the end is nigh for 2017, I think we’d all agree that the last twelve months have had more than their fair share of memorable moments. We’ve seen Donald Trump begin his reign of power, Kim Jong Un shoot off his shiny new intercontinental missiles, the Grenfell tower block burn down in the UK, and the bell ring for round one of the political bout that is Brexit. It’s hard to remain upbeat with a steady trickle of terrorist atrocities, a never-ending migrant crisis, and Middle East conflicts that show no sign of ending. There has, however, been a lot of good news that has slipped under the radar. This blog post is about my choice of what didn’t get the publicity it deserved. Not everyone will agree, and I’d be interested to know what other people would choose (feel free to comment below).
In November, gene therapy was used for the first time in a 44-year-old man afflicted with Hunter’s Syndrome – a hereditary condition causing stunted growth, low IQ, and progressive disability. And just 
Once upon a time, vegetarians were seen as weirdos who had to make do with a cheese omelette when dining out. Today, non-meat eaters get some of the tastiest options. There is no shortage of meat substitutes foods to sink our laughing tackle into, like Quorn, ‘soy mince’ and tofu. But there is a newcomer crawling onto that non-animal list is heralded as the ‘next protein’. It is apparently going to feed the world, help undo climate change and make us slimmer and healthier into the bargain. The only fly in the ointment? This wonder food is insects. 
We’ve all done it: mixed up our numbers and telephoned the wrong person. It’s an easy mistake that’s easy to forgive, but for one Starbucks employee, Meseret Kumulchew, getting her numbers in a jumble landed her in very hot water. While logging the temperature of fridges and water onto the duty roster, coffee shop worker Meseret accidentally wrote the numbers the wrong way round. Apparently accused of fraud and ordered to retrain, she was 
The sun is shining, the birds are singing and it’s the start of a brand new day. Like many people, I love the mornings and consider myself an ‘early bird’ (after the first coffee, that is). It wasn’t always that way, however. During my teenage years, getting out of bed before 9 am was so difficult that the bed clothes might just as well have been made out of lead. Such slothful adolescent behaviour is common and the cause of endless parental exasperation. Youngsters may not be just being lazy, however, as something strange is happening in their brain. From around the age of 14, the childhood brain rapidly rewires as it matures and develops an adult mind. Throughout this turbulent time of mood swings and emotional angst the teenage body clock also steps back two time zones. 
As a child, I thought “go to work on an egg” was an advert for oval shaped cars. Starting soon after the end of World War II, “Go to Work on an Egg” was a long-running campaign that became one of the most successful food promotions of all time. Humorous television (see below) and newspaper ads encouraged the British public to eat an egg at breakfast and, by the 1960s, we were each dipping, scrambling and frying our way through five a week. Back then, every doctor in the land said eggs were good for health but come the 1970s our love affair with them started to crack. Medics warned that eggs could raise cholesterol levels and when Conservative MP Edwina Currie suggested that all British eggs might be infected with Salmonella in 1988, egg sales went splat – dropping by 60% overnight. 
It’s every gardener’s nightmare. Digging deep into the earth, you strike something hard and, with a metallic thud, a geyser of water fountains up into your face. One of our neighbours recently experienced such a shovelling disaster while erecting a new fence when an old lead pipe supplying her mains water was punctured by a misplaced spade.