The Cauldron of Moans

 

Welcome to The Cauldron of Moans

Are you a Moaner Lisa? Do you find life offers you more moans than grins or smiles even? Well, you're not alone. There are too many things going wrong in the world right now which gives us cause to frown, tut-tut, to groan or moan even.

So feel free to add your moans in the Comments Box and join The Cauldron of Moans.

I am fed up with the number of traffic lights which are cropping up everywhere like wild mushrooms these days. It seems like the Local Authorities have spare money to spend/waste and they've decided that traffic lights are the way to do it. They not only slow the traffic down but they are hardly conducive to saving the planet, are they? You drive a few yards and stop, and drive and stop, and all the time yours and other cars' fumes are chocking the planet, and making the birds cough their hearts out. In a stretch of road about a mile long you can be stopped at least six times if not more. That and with lower speed limits (20mph in some areas) it's taking you longer to get where you want to be and you're using more gas and producing more exhaust fumes as well. 

This morning they put a traffic light in my front garden, another in the lounge, one half-way up the stairs and one outside the bathroom door. 

Another moan. There's a new word in town: shrinkflation. Because prices are going up everywhere, a trick by producers is to sell you less weight/capacity instead. What used to be 500 grams of rice or pasta is now 450 grams. It's the same for other products too. There's a biscuit which advertises the virtue that it is ultra-thin. Why not just sell the packaging and leave us to imagine the taste?

And another moan. Confusing news. You get a headline in a newspaper or on TV and when you get to read the story it is a waste of time on a non-story. Like when they mention a celebrity name involved in an incident/accident; you read the story and you find it is the partner of his/her cousin who got the accident and the involvement is merely one of being related to someone else. 

Another headline: New Male Contraceptive. Apparently it is a pill that a man takes to avoid pregnancy. Well, what's the use? Apart from Arnold Schwarzenegger in the film Junior I have not known any other man get pregnant.

What else do I find irritating? Oh yes ... choice. We're trying to save the planet, right? Although I'm not sure what we're saving it from or whether she asked to be saved. Well, if we truly mean this saving thing, then we should reduce waste. And nothing creates waste more than choice. Go to any supermarket to find out. There's at least a million different kinds of toothpaste, and hair shampoo, and washing up liquid, and soap powder ... and even foods like pasta for instance. Why so many different kinds and shapes of pasta? They're all made with the same ingredients, aren't they?

And with choice you get a variety of packaging. Different packets for different kinds of toothpaste and so on. And all those plastic bottles we throw away. They're not all recyclable you know? Let's face it, how can you make a cycle out of a plastic bottle?

Years ago we used to return the lemonade bottles and get a few pence in return. Milk was delivered on our doorstep in glass bottles which we rinsed and left on our doorstep for the milkman to collect and refill. 

Not many tin cans like beer and lemonades in those days. Now they ask us to take them to the recycling centre miles away and waste gas and pollute the planet whilst we drive there.

And also new models ... what a waste. Every few weeks there's a new make or model of cell-phone, or car or electronic gadget. People change their cell-phones every nine months on average. Over here clothes are thrown away after about ten washes. In order to save the planet I now keep my clothes on and wash them every six months or so whether they need it or not. Our clothes are so old that the moths have started a charitable collection to buy us some new ones.

Oh, I'm tired being a Moaner Lisa. Why don't you take over for a while. Place your moans in the Comments Box below.