Disaster has struck in the form of microwave-breakage. I mean this is ridiculous, how is one expected to make a decent latte in their own home without the assistance of hot milk?? If I were a student I'd be starving right now!
I'm reading the second book following on from Jennifer Worth's Call the Midwife and they've both really made me think - I hate it when I have to think. But they're fascinating to read - although I would strongly suggest to anybody with a weak stomach to get somebody to have a quick read through first and veto certain things. Occassionally it goes into very gory detail regarding the tenements in London and how, for quite some time before they were demolished, hundreds and hundreds of people in the tenements were all going down to use the same few toilets in the yard outside. I'm sure I don't need to elaborate here. Plus there's a particular heavy section where she talks about some of the prostitutes on Cable Street and what they had to endure. The story about the young prostitute who became pregnant was particularly harrowing; abortions were a back-street botch job and death tolls were high.
The thing which struck me most reading these books was how families in post-war London used to cope with everyday problems, which a lot of us nowadays make a big deal of. Women were popping babies out nineteen to the dozen! Mainly because the men refused to wear any kind of protection. But it seemed to be the norm for eveybody to have a family of 3+ children and some of the families spoke of in this book were taking care of up to 10 children. A lot of these Cockney families had virtually no money and lived in squalid conditions, but they just got on with it. The theme seems to have been "Don't let the bastards get you down". Health & Safety laws were virtually non-existant and a lot of mothers didn't have time for sterilising bottles. They certainly didn't have the facilities to wash the baby clothes and blankets on a 60 degree wash to "kill bacteria". Homes didn't have the fancy washing machines we have now so it was a case of "bung the kettle on" and boil the laundry.
Whilst begging the microwave to "pleeeeeease work...pleeeeeeeease".......I suddenly develop a huge respect for those people who lived in slums and had to "Make do and Mend". If I had lived through the 40's and 50's I'd be grateful for everything. We take so much for granted nowadays and, as much as it doesn't make my need for hot milk grow any less desperate, it certainly makes me wonder if maybe I should just chill out a bit more and appreciate he fact that compared to 50 years ago our lives are very much priviledged!
Maybe I'll just stick to PG Tips.
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