Open Discussion – Appliances And Carrots And The Art Of Reading

Hello and welcome to open discussion with the three Js. That's me, Julia, Judith and Joy. And today we're going to be talking about appliances, those handy little things tucked away in your home or even large things that are tucked away in your home that sometimes help you or hinder you in your life. Yeah, this subject came to mind for me because I've recently gone through that stressful experience that everyone goes through every few years is when your washing machine has finally packed up. Well, how old is your washing machine? It's, it's probably getting on for 10 years old and it's a Bosch machine and it's been absolutely excellent. But I could just tell over the summer there was some like kind of little dodgy things going on with the electronics and sometimes it wouldn't start, sometimes it would and it started creeping up on me in the fact that this is getting more frequent and I just thought, no, it's, it's going to go soon, we have to start thinking about getting a new one. And of course this weekend when I needed to do all my washing, it wouldn't start at all. And whereas I do believe that you should repair things if at all possible. When I looked on the website they were going to charge me £100, call out fee plus any parts or labor. And when I actually realized I could get the same model but the updated version for around £280, I thought no, I'll just get a new one because it is old. Even though I think if you got someone who knew about washing machines they could probably refurbish it or do something with electrics. It's difficult, isn't it? Yeah, you have to have someone who. And they have to have a computer that they plug into it in some way. Yeah, exactly. They're so complicated these days with all the electronics. So anyway, I ordered the new well washing machine but then there's a workaround is looking on the Internet, comparing the prices, looking at the reviews for the machine, getting the delivery date where at least one of us can be in the house. That's being quite difficult because it's like all day you've got to wait in for it and then kind of ordering it and paying for it and everything. And then there's the other issue is what, what do I do with all my washing that's built up in the house? So I took a whole lot to my mother in law on Saturday evening because we were going out with my in laws. So we put it in the washing machine whilst we went out to dinner and then we took it home late at night and hung it up and then I still had more. And I've actually, my neighbor has agreed this afternoon that I can take the rest of it round to her house while she's out at work. You can still go to laundrettes and get a service wash. You take it in and it comes up dried and folded. Have you got a laundrette near you? Not too near. But the thing is I would much rather use my neighbour's machine while she's at work and then just hang it up to dry. I would have used a service wash in desperation but it would be, you know, it's kind of getting in the car, going some distance, taking it and collecting it. And I also, if it's my clothes, I don't like them going through the laundrette because I think it's. There's a rough wash. I always use quite sort of delicate short cycles so it makes my clothes last longer. And I also don't use tumble dryers because again I think the tumble dryers sort of shorten the life of clothes. So I do kind of air dry everything at home. I mean if I'd have got desperate I would have used laundrettes. But I actually my mother in law was quite pleased to get to do her little boy's washing again because I always felt that that was something I took from her because even though he didn't live at home when I met him, he didn't have a washing machine. So his mum used to do it until I moved it. So she was quite pleased to do it. My neighbor's quite pleased because we're always like doing things like that for each other, which is, which is really good that we have that kind of relationship with neighbors yet reciprocal. So I, you know, I'm sure I've done washing for her in the past when her freezer broke down. I put all the food in my freezer. And so the thing is it's been a hassle and taking up time but it's actually reminding me, you know, that I have people around that can help, that I have a nice neighbor and things. So. But it's surprising how much time the whole thing's taken up this decision and stress. So anyway, that's what I thought of appliances. Well, I'm lucky that I do have actually a laundrette quite near me which does seem to be used by a lot of people. In fact I've got two near me. So, you know, not everyone has washing machines? No, and I think millennials are not buying them because there's smaller living spaces, they probably want a dishwasher rather than a washing machine. Yeah, but they. But because they live in smaller spaces and tend not to buy stuff and move a lot. And I don't think these new apartments have space for drying clothes either. Well, one of my first washing machines was a very. Was a top loader, actually, but it was a drum, you know, a proper washing machine, but just rather than opening from the front, opened up from the top. And it was a very, very good Scandinavian make and they did a mini version of it for small spaces. So that I first heard about it in from a friend who lived in a very, very tiny place and she'd bought this particular model that you can only get in John Lewis. There we are. Or you could probably now get it online. But at the time it was quite a rare type of machine. But there was a worktop machine and it was literally sort of about the size of a sort of big bag. Of course. Oh, yes, there are those as well. Good. Goodness knows what happened to it when it was spinning, when it was sitting on top of your work, dancing around. But they're also. They're also the little mini dishwashing. Oh, yes, your sister's got. Well, yes, the mini. She's got a very good one, small one. But there's the ones that fit on top of a, you know, a unit. Oh, I haven't seen. Yeah, I used to have one of those and it was a very good machine. I have to. No, they existed. Yeah, but, yeah, I think that's good because a small washing machine is fine for one person, because I often don't feel, even though I do washing for two people, it's often I'm not putting in full loads. So that's. Well, I tend to look after my washing machine because I always make sure I use those. Those tablets with it, you know that. Oh, to keep the scale down. Yeah, yeah. Because it's a hard water area, isn't it, London? What I did was I had a water filter fitted, which is like where the water comes in from the main. You sort of chop a lump out of the pipe. And then this filters for my boiler and. Yeah, because I think I had. For the boiler. But I'd understood that that meant that that covered the washing machine and you didn't used to use those tablets, but I don't know. Well, I think if it comes, if it's on the pipe, that's. If it's on the, you know, the sort of the mains pipe. If it's on that, then it's going to be affecting all of the water everywhere in the house. It does. Because since I had it done, I found that the water tastes better for drinking, which is really nice. You not get the skim on top of things as well because that's what happens when you use a filter in a. A jug, isn't it? You get better drinks. But this made it taste better. So then I stopped buying bottled water because I don't like the taste of London tap water. I'm sorry, I'm not a Londoner. It's the chlorine and it's just. It doesn't taste good. Where I was brought up, it was like we had spring water from. In. In Yorkshire, so it was coming from a natural source and hadn't been drunk by several people previously, which is the case with London. You think of it like that. London tap water. Well, when you think about it, the water in the world has been here a few thousand years, so we've all drunk it and recycled it. I like London water, actually. I quite like the. I love London water. Yeah, it's got a nice hardness about it. It's okay. Once I've had this filter put on, I'm happy drinking it now. Yes. I actually don't like the taste of soft water. It tastes a bit soapy in my mouth. So do you. I mean, do you cook? When you cook, do you use a lot of like, you know, appliances, like, you know, food processors, the slow cookers? I've got a slow cooker. I did. I bought a slow cooker because I thought I'd really use it because I do really like casseroles and stews in the winter, but I haven't really used it as much as I thought I would and I've kind of had problems with it. I think it's hard to kind of thicken the stews in them. Have you got any tips, Julie? Would you not do that at the end of the cooking? What you do is if it's a tried, but it doesn't work. Meat, you put you. You dip in flour or corn flour. Ah, yeah, that. You know, if you've got an allergy towards flour, you would use corn flour. Well, just dip it in. But do you have to fry it then? Yes, you've got to fry it first. Which I think does add to the taste of it. Or failing that, add. Just add some water with some corn flour, mix it together and then just add it to the juice halfway through the cooking. Yeah. Yeah. That's interesting because I tried all these different. Including thickening it afterwards. It didn't turn out. Or if you use potatoes in the casserole, they automatically do start to thick. You know, they start to disintegrate a bit and thicken up the juices. Actually, the most successful one I've had was putting brown rice in and that did. That did soak up the juice and thicken it. So which. That I'd also heard about putting polenta in, but I haven't tried that one. So isn't that. It's a bit like semolina, isn't it? No, palenta is a kind of pasta. Isn't. Looks like long rice, doesn't it? You can get it in several forms, but the original is in a powder and it's made from corn, I think. And then you can mix it up and sometimes it's made into a slab and cut into slices. But it can also be almost like a kind of thick, sort of. Like a. Like a kind of mashed potato thing, but a bit kind of runnier than that. But. So you make it this thing. Would you go further than just ordinary appliances and get one of these. What do they call it, high hive units or whatever, they control all your fridge temperature, you know, everything. I wouldn't go near any of that. I don't like the idea of things in my home or being attached to the Internet because I don't want a cyber attack on my fridge. That's what they've said, haven't they? People are hacking into people's. Because they could turn off your fridge and ruin all your food or something. Or something more serious. But no, I'm not tempted by that. And it's also like, I feel I'm being spied on in my own home if everything's attached to the fridge. So everything is like, you know, everything's connected. Cafetiere rather than the Nespresso and things like that. I don't like those Nespresso because they're very expensive, those little plastic things. And not ecological either. No, exactly. I just prefer to make it in a jug. But we're going to make a cafeteria coffee right now and we'll be back very, very soon. Don't go away now. 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We would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows. The website is www.germanstreettheatre.co.uk. Women's radio station is a not for profit, community interest company. Supporting women is our passion. We're currently welcoming donations to help towards our running costs to keep this important initiative alive. To donate, simply head to our website. Every little will help. Welcome back to open Discussion. We're just finishing off our coffee. Real coffee. This is the filter sort. Not that horrible instant stuff. Oh, no, I couldn't have that. You don't have that, do you, Judy? I do occasionally, actually. If I feel like a coffee late in the day, I would, but I don't. I don't like as much as real coffee? No, no. Well, I. The other appliances I do tend to use is my hand blender, which is very, very good. It's just a question of space. I don't. You know those. Those big contraptions you get? I mean, I'd love to have one of those very, very swanky blenders they use in the British Bake off and things. Oh, they put a whole orange in it. I mean, you know, like, they take up so much space. I agree with you. You can have your whole counter covered with them if you're not careful. And I agree with you about the hand blender, too, because it doesn't take up much space and it's useful. And before the break, we were talking about making polenta. And actually it's really easy for polenta to go lumpy when you're making it from scratch. And a really great way to get rid of the lumps is just to put the hand blender in the pan and then heat it all up again. It comes out really easy. I've got one of those nutri blender things we do. Yeah. Which actually I do use for normal blending. You don't have to just use them to make juice. You can put other stuff in them. I was saying that I didn't have any gizmos, but I do actually have a blender. And it's just made me think about, you know, you were sort of saying your slow cooker doesn't get nice kind of thick gravy. If I do things like that, if I make a soup, I haven't got a slow cooker, but if I make a sort of soup stew thing and I want it to be thicker, I actually. Once it's cooked, I actually put some of the ingredients into this blender and blend them all up and that makes a thicker sauce, then it's really tasty. It's like when you make a soup, isn't it? You boil the stuff up and then you blend it and it gets actually thick. Yeah. But if you're just wanting your stew to have a bit thicker gravy, you can just mash up some of the veggies like that, I think. Yeah, I think all these are good ideas. But what I thought with the slow cooker when I bought it was before I went to work in the morning, I would plonk the ingredients in and I would come home and find this magic stew. That's what I wanted. I didn't want to be frying the meat before, you know, or doing things afterwards. I just. And it didn't quite do what I expected it to do, although I have had some nice things from it. It's all in the preparation now with meat. I think it does help to have it to fry it a bit. Who wants to do that first thing in the morning? Yeah, that's it. I've sort of just thought you put all the raw ingredients in, filled in the stock or whatever and then it did it. But it. But I did actually make a very successful casserole. Not doing anything, just throwing everything in. Literally, I had no time. And it was lovely. Right in the slow cooker. Yeah. Oh, what did you put in? It was the slow. It was the very slow thing and not the semi. You know, they have two different speeds, don't they? Well, it was like. It was meat, it was potatoes, carrots, parsley. Yeah. Lots of herbs, which I think helps. Yeah. Stock cube. Just lots of salt and pepper. Talking of carrots, what do you think about Kevin the carrot? Oh, yes, Kevin the carrot. The ladies flying off the Aldi shelves. Must have Christmas present for kids these days. I mean, one thing you can say for Kevin this year, it's a cheap, must have Christmas present. I think they're about £5 for the really massive ones that will be bigger than your child and then it's much cheaper for the tiny little baby ones. And I think there's also a parsnip as well. But usually the things that parents ended up having to have as the must have because they end up being very expensive. I always remember those Cabbage Patch dolls and they were these hideous kind of dolls that looked as though they'd been made out of old tights. And they cost the earth, didn't they? Yeah, they did. I mean, at least I say for Kevin, it is quite a nice thing. It's a nice big cuddly thing. Carrot. Encourage children to eat their vegetables, I suppose. I think that's probably the idea. And it's made by Audi and it's been sold in their supermarkets. But now it's thing parents are fighting over giant stuffed carrots in the supermarket. And in that child we'll have all these rubbish tips full of carrots, full of Kevin's. People have got bored with it, you know. Yes. I hope they're not all filled with that awful perlite stuff, you know, the polystyrene balls. Well, yeah, because that's horrible if something like that bursts. Yeah. I don't know what they're filled with or anything, but I'm sure it's probably the Supermarket have been quite careful about what they use because they're quite conscious because of the size. I imagine they're sort of intended to be used as kind of beanbag things around. Yeah, A child could use them in that way. But you're not tempted to buy one, are you? Well, I don't think I could get hold of one. I'd have to go down and fight all the parents, wouldn't I, at my local supermarket. But I just think it just always amazes me that there's always something every Christmas, isn't there? And I kind of wonder how that one or two items is chosen. Well, I think that marketplace probably does because everywhere's marketing their toys, aren't they? They're hoping to be the one, but it must be somehow that the consumers are latching onto them. But how do they always get that one? Nearly every year there's something. I think it's. It always seems the most unlikely. I can't remember what it was last year, can you? No, but I can remember Cabbage Patch. Yeah. Because I remember those. Because they were just so ugly, weren't they? Sort of sunken eyes, these dark eyes. Yeah. And very overpriced. And everyone was supposed to be unique, but I can't remember any. I mean, there has been like the computer games, hasn't there? Yeah. Over recent years it's been more high tech. So actually Kevin is a positive thing because it's gene and it's not a kind of high tech thing for a child. But the fact that parents are so concerned with giving their child the perfect Christmas that they're prepared to go out and fight other parents for the toys. And a lot of people get into huge debt, don't they? Yeah. And I don't think the children do. The children worry about it. Oh, they do because they prepare at school, don't they? Yeah, everyone still has it. Yeah. Peer pressure thing. It's like the thing with the mobile phones as well, that very young children will get mobile phones for Christmas, maybe iPhones and things. And, you know, I was talking to my hairdresser recently and she said there's a lot of kind of controversy about, do you give your child a mobile phone before the age of eight? And then after eight it's almost like, yeah, well, I give them a mobile phone, but one of those flip, flip top ones. Oh, the shelves. They wouldn't want it to phone anybody. They only want the mobile phones to play games on, don't they? Yeah. Their parents only want them to have them so they can track their Whereabouts? Yeah. Which is kind of brave new worlds here, isn't it? But I don't. I think there's a lot of pressure on parents of young children these days in what you're expected to buy. And also looking at protecting your child from, you know, the Internet and what's out there in the world that I think, you know, people getting stressed and maybe not enjoying their family Christmas, you know, it's kind of unseen now, isn't it, because you. They've got the. The child the other side of the room with the phone and you don't know what it is they're looking at. Well, I'm not really okay with all this because I don't have children and I don't all my. Well, I just. I just see people on the bus, you know, they're all looking at something. You haven't got a clue what they're looking at. Yeah, but they always seem to just be playing games, don't they? I mean, everyone seems to be playing Candy Crush, don't they? I see loads of adults playing. Oh, I know, I can't understand that. It looks so boring to me. But I've also noticed when a child now cries on the bus or the tube. Yeah. They get given the phone, mother gives them the phone, and it may be something like Peppa Pig on it, you know, which seems kind of harmless. I'd rather they gave them a book. You know, something. I'd rather they just talk to them or lifted them up and put them on their knees. I think that's true because I've noticed there's a lot of mothers will be on the phone and the child is screaming on the bus and they just. They want. They don't want to ignore. They want to engage with the phone and not the child. We're shutting up. I'll give them the phone. And don't get me started on that subject. Which one? I find it quite depressing that I've noticed that in a lot of mothers, they don't talk to their children. Oh, yeah. So when you see a mother engaging with her child, you actually, you think, oh, that's refreshing because they, you know, they show them a book or they. Yeah, I saw a mum with her little boy on the bus today and he was kind of just playing with her fingers and she was tickling the back of his neck and he was smiling. He looked up at her and she actually smiled back as well. And it was just a lovely interaction to see. And it was noticeable because you don't see them so Often, quite often the child sort of trying to play and the parent just sort of sits, stays straight faced but you can't intervene can you? You can't say well no just, just, just talk to your child he'll then it will shut up. My friend just talks to the children herself. She does that. I've done that and I've had mothers be quite rude to me. Yeah they haven't like that, you know, you're a stranger, stay away from my child something even when they, you know you're just someone on the bus and you're just kind of trying to sort of smile or wave. Not all the time but I've had some go pull them away, turn them away but most of the time I think that's not the case. They're quite pleased someone's going to interact with their child and I think you do hear a lot about young mothers get really lonely and so they've actually found like through social media they can connect with other mothers to relieve their loneliness But I, it could be interfering with the relationship with their child because it's not a long time that you spend at home with a young child really out of feel like it at the time. Yeah I can imagine it does at the time but you know you can, I mean the. No wonder lots of children start play school or you know first year of their primary school they can't read proper. I mean not notice numbers, count, count, can't speak very well have problems with vocabulary. You know there's all these problems as a consequence of that. Yeah I think that is where it's a kind of, you know there's a lack of social mobility in this country. It starts at that age where the middle class person's teaching their child to read before they go to school and then or at least know letters a little bit. Yeah and other people aren't. You don't have that head start Mind you having said that I was extremely slow reader. I didn't learn to read till I was seven so I, I did because I was dyslexic I, I had trouble learning to read. It took me a lot longer but I got my head around it. I'm now there's no stopping me. I've got a novel on the go all the time so I like reading novels too. Yes A late bloomer is there? Yes, very late. Yes well we are going to have a, a bit of a break here. We'll be back with you very soon. Please don't go away. 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This is where careers ignite, where playwrights take risks, where great actors perform just feet away from the audience. This is where magic happens. We would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows shows. The website is www.germanstreettheatre.co.uk. Women's radio station is a not for profit community interest company. Supporting women is our passion. We're currently welcoming donations to help towards our running costs to keep this important initiative alive. To donate simply head to our website. Every little will help. Hello and welcome back to Open discussion. And we were talking about the influence or not? Well, the bad influence of Media appliances on development of children's reading. And I was saying that I've. I've got a novel on the go all the time, and any novel is fine for me. I'm. I not a terribly fussy reader. I'll read anything. In fact, I usually like the Jack Reacher books. I've got into those at the moment lately. What about Mills and Boone? Oh, yes. No, no, I used to read Mills and Boone. I used to love the Mills and Boone, and they always followed the same old scenario. Nurse, works in large hospital, hates this doctor who's very, very attractive. There's a lot of, like, animosity between them. And then she falls in love and they go into the rainbow. Well, they hit the snog at some point. I mean, nothing untoward. Yeah, in great detail. The effects of this snog on her. So it's doctors and nurses then, is it? Yeah, and. Or else there's sort of a journalist and a, you know, somebody who's. They've been. You know, she's got to travel the world with him and sort of be his PA or something like that always. I used to love the Mills and Boon, but the woman never takes any kind of lead role in a. No career or anything. And then Georgette Heyer. I was very into Georgette Heyer, the, you know, historical romances. In fact, I reread one of them quite recently and I couldn't believe it. I thought, gosh, the language is so complicated. It was worse than Jane Austen. Really? Well, I think the. The writer, Georgia Hayer, she'd obviously researched how people spoke in the 18th century. You know, you know, sound realistic, but it was so realistic that the sentences were so convoluted you. I had to keep reading everything twice to get the gist. She's not the one that wrote about people in the East End, is she? No, no, there was somebody that did. She had done historical novels about sort of everyday life. She was also. I think she also had another pen name. I think maybe Victoria Holt. Same person. Oh, really? Didn't you write them? The same historical crime novels? I used to read them when I was a teenager by Jean Pleady, who did a lot. The COVID the student period. And they were like romantic novels, but they also did have historical detail. No, you're right, because it's. Jean Pleady was also Victoria Holt. I think they're one and the same person. Yes, but that's how I learned about history. The book that I'm reading at the moment is actually like a fictional history book. And it's called Fire and Blood, and it's by the man who wrote the Game of Thrones, and he's actually written a prequel, which is of history of what happened before the events in Game of Thrones. And it's written purely as a. A fake history book, not as a novel. And it's actually really gripping because after kind of all the Game of Thrones, all the intrigue, and I've read the books and watched the series, I always wondered what happened, you know, in the period before. Well, I'm not being a follower of the Game of Thrones, because I don't have. Is it Netflix? Is it Sky? It's on. I actually watched it on DVDs. I'd have to say I bought the box set on that. But I'd read the books beforehand. And I actually think the books are jolly good. And they've got a lot more detail in than the series. Although they have produced it wonderfully with the sets and locations. I do think it's worth read, watching and reading. I wonder how many people, if they sort of look at the history, start to believe that it's real. You know, people get so caught up in stories sometimes they. They can't actually differentiate between what's a story and what's actually real history. I'm hard with this. Yeah. That's why I said, yeah, Garden today, looking. There's a shop that has the Harry Potter merchandise, the Game of Thrones merchandise, like chess sets, all manner of memorabilia associated with that series. I mean, I don't know Game of Thrones, but the Harry Potters are doing very well. I mean, they're all. You can now buy the. The book for each house of the Harry Potter School. The robes. I was watching something on Dave the other night. It was a bit of a Graham Norton show. And it was one of the guys that was a Hobbit. And they were asking him questions about, you know, has he got any memorabilia from there? And he just took it all very, very seriously. And it was a. It was a real hoot because everyone went, are you for real? You know, Cause he's saying, yes, I've got this and I've got this book and I've got the book. That was a really good thing. And he was just so straight. And he was absolutely, sort of obviously worships, you know, Lord of the Rings and everything to do with it. That's the problem. You get all these fans who take it very seriously. He's the actor that did it, or maybe he's been paid to do that by the people who sell the merchandise. He did it with such a straight face. And he said, and Hobbiton. And they said, you do realize that Hobbiton doesn't exist, don't you? And he said, but he does. Because he said. And he went into great detail as to how the first one was built. It was just facades and it was going on for so long and they needed something a bit more robust that they actually built Hobbiton. He said, you can go there. He said, it's a tourist attraction. No, I think he's right. No, honestly, there is a place that they built. Yes, I know there is, but it was because he was on Graham Norton and you know, Graham Norton is not about people being really, you know, earnest. Earnest and serious. Yeah. And everyone else was just sort of in the. They couldn't quite believe just what his response was like, because he didn't though. He brought no humor into it at all. It was just absolutely weird. It was. It was really weird. It's like real nerdy stuff, isn't it? Some of this fan basic I noticed when I walked into Primark recently, one of the large stores, and I was just surrounded by Hogwarts. Oh, my God, such a dining. Harry Potter. Yeah. Duvet covers and pajamas and just everything. And a massive selection of it and. Yeah, I don't understand. I'm not a Harry Potter fan. See, I like the Harry Potter and I also like the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Oh, I thought that was awful. The first one? Yes. Oh, I like the first one. But the second film, which has just come out with Grin Crimes of Grindelwald or something with Johnny Depp in the lead, was not very good, actually, I have to say. Who was the guy in the first one that was the lead actor? He was the one that. Oh, I'll remember in a minute. He was the one that did the film about the transsexual and he also did the one about, you know, the science man. Oh, yes, I know. Yeah. And I think I watched that other film, the Fantastic Beast, because he was in it because I thought he'd done two such amazing movies. I couldn't believe that, you know, whatever film he chose to do, he'd kind of raised the game of it and I just thought it was awful. Maybe they paid him a lot of money to do it. I mean, I thought the storyline for the first Fantastic Beast was quite good. I thought the effects were very good. Well, yeah, the effects were very good. So what didn't you like about was just such a weak storyline. Well, it's even weaker in the second one. I thought that was weak. You have been warm. Oh, I'm trying to remember his name. Don't worry. Stop thinking about it. It'll come back. Yes, if you. If you. If I suddenly shout it out, you'll know it's gonna. Suddenly remembered. Eddie Redmayne. That's right. Yeah. Eddie Redmayne. Yep. I knew it was well done. So what have. Yeah, I. I've seen actually A Christmas Carol I've seen twice this last week because it's near Christmas, obviously, and that's fortitude. Watching it twice. Even one of my favorite stories of Dickens stories, this is another my favorite authors is Dickens. I did read A Christmas Carol about a year ago and it's an amazingly good. It's more of a short story, isn't it? Yes, it's a short vellum. It's fairly short. But the detail in it of Victorian life and Victorian Christmases was so good. And it's just a really gripping story. It was far better than I thought it was going to be. Even though I do like a lot of those old films they've made of it. I can enjoy that. But that's amazing. And that was the first Dickens that I actually read. And I will approach some of his other novels because I got them all on Kindle for free. Yeah. Which is. I think that's amazing that you can get that on Kindle. The whole kind of works of an author, if it's gone out of copyright, I think he's quite a difficult reader. If you need. You've got to concentrate. Yes. I was thinking it's really interesting to read books by historical people, the original books, and you realize just how much the English language has changed, the structure of it and the words that are used and the whole kind of. Of atmosphere of writing is ever so different when you. But there are writers today that are. Are very. Shall we say F. F. No, no. Their use. Vocabulary is quite complicated. Yeah, but they're doing it on purpose, aren't they? Whereas somebody like Dickens, for example, will selfish. If you hear him talking, it feels like, you know, he sounds like you swallow the dictionary. Yeah, but you know, somebody like Robinson sounds like he was just. He was just speaking in the vernacular of the day, wasn't he? When he did performances, he didn't change his language from what he'd written, he was just reading out from his books. And everybody understood him because that was how people spoke in Victorian times. But the syntax has changed. And our structure of English changes. Like, they wrote. I think he wrote a particular style. And the man in the street didn't speak like. But he used to read. He used to do loads of performances. I'm not saying he didn't, but. And he used to read. But he was using that as an effect to create a world. People, normal people, probably didn't speak like that. Yeah, I don't know. It was a posh voice. It was just the way of talking. It was. They were serialized in newspapers as well. They were definitely meant to be popularists. And it's an interesting point, because I don't know if that's the way people talked or maybe it was a certain class of people talked like that. I can't imagine the working class. But look at the language in Shakespeare. I mean, I know it's rhyming couplets, but basically the language that's being used is medieval English, isn't it? It wasn't. It's not 21st century English. It wasn't medieval English. Shakespeare. People didn't talk the way Shakespeare. Well, no, they. He didn't. I thought I said it. They didn't talk in rhyming couplets, but that kind of way of speaking. I don't know. Well, I mean, I don't mean. I'm not. I'm not a linguistic expert, so. Oh, now, look. Are we running out of time? Oh, yay. We are the ending of time. We must at once hurry and buy some coffee at the. I'm trying to think of something. Ye oldie. Coffee shop around the corner. Yes. So gather forsooth and meet us back here in about 5. 5 seconds. No, 10 seconds. Anyway, see you soon. Welcome to women's radio Station, the voice of women worldwide. This is Women's Radio Station. You're listening to Avril Price with Kitchen Sink Spirituality. It's Anna Kennedy talking all things autism. And my guest today is Karen no. Welcome to future Classical woman awards with Ms. Stefania Passamonte on women's radio station. Women's radio station, we want to hear from you. I listen to women's radio station. Women's. The possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. Hi, I'm Liz Van Linden, a UK travel consultant for Hazelmere Travel. People come to me as they want unique experiences and a personalised service. This happens from the moment that they enquire till they come back home. I work with luxury tour operators. You can contact me on 078. And Liz spelt L I S hazazelmeretravel.co.uk hi, I'm Mariam Jamaux and I'm the founder of WCAN, a young social enterprise ensuring an increase in employment progression and retention of black women in the corporate world. We specialise in the professional and personal development of over 3,000 young black women in the UK. To get involved, please sign up or learn more via wcan.co.uk, visit our Twitter or Instagram caanetwork. If you're a corporation interested in sponsorship, email sponsorshipcan.uk Are you struggling with money? Turn to us. As a national charity, helping people struggling to make ends meet. Job loss, illness or bereavement can cause a real financial crisis. We give practical help to get people back on track. Whether you're thinking of having a baby, trying to get out of an unhappy relationship or just unsure what benefits you may be entitled to, we can help visit turntous.org.uk Let me tell you about Jermyn Street Theatre. This is a secret theatre in the heart of the West End. One found never forgotten. This is where careers ignite, where playwrights take risks, where great actors perform just feet away from the audience. This is where magic happens. We would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows. The website is www.germanstreettheatre.co.uk. Women's Radio station is a not for profit, community interest company. Supporting women is our passion. We're currently welcoming donations to help towards our running costs to keep this important initiative alive. To donate, simply head to our website. Every little will help. Hello and welcome back. Hope you've had your gruel or your. I don't know, what. What do they have in Shakespeare's time to drink? They didn't drink mead. Did they have mead? Yeah, they mead, didn't they? And they used to drink beer all the time because the water was undrinkable. Yeah, and gin, but. Yeah. Oh, yes, gin, definitely. That's a. But. I'll tell you what I. Another book I recommend, if you like Tudor England and you like the Henry and the Elizabeth I is the. The Shard Lake novels. Oh, I love those. Yes, they're wonderful. Yeah. What's the name of the writer? Samson. Samson, Yeah, I think it's C.S. sampson and CJ. CJ Samson. Yeah, and the Shard Lake. And. Yeah, he was a. A detective in the Tudor times, in the Tudor court. So he's like. He's a bit independent, isn't he? He's a kind of outsider because he's got A hunchback. But he's a lawyer and he always ends up in political intrigues because people at the centre of power actually employ him. And now also, he's quite likable as a person. He's very likeable. The new one is out, Julie. Oh, it is. Novel is out in hardback at the moment. Oh, right. I have to wait for paperback, I'm afraid, because it's. Because I was thinking. I was thinking the other day when Nick Shardlay. Because it's been a while, but if you like crime and you like history, put them together. And another good historical writer is cj. No, not CJ Sampson. Paris. I can't remember. Oh, yeah, initials. And that's also an Italian monk. Yes, they're good as well. I like those. And he's on the run from the Inquisition, and so he sort of hides in London and solves crimes. And there's another one, it's Philip Kerr, I think the author is Bernie Gunther, who is a detective in Nazi Germany. Oh. But then it also takes him right through to being in the Cold War as well. And they're worth reading. Yeah, yeah, they're really good. And they said he's a murder detective in Berlin who kind of isn't a Nazi, but gets dragged into working for them because he doesn't have a choice. And he's a very sympathetic character. He prides himself on how much he drinks and smokes and he refers to his lungs as tar pits in the most recent time. But, yeah, they're good. I think all of those. They've been really. There's so many good crimes. And do you guess who's done it before the end of the book? No, no, they're all quite complicated. No, they're very well written. If anyone wants a good read over Christmas, I would recommend any of the Shard Lake novels. They are gripping. You can't put the book down. I mean, I don't have a Kindle, and I was in Waterstones today and I thought, gosh, there's so many wonderful books. You know, it was packed. Because I know it's, you know, people are buying lots of. Well, that's good news that people are buying books. Yeah. They're not relying on their Kindle, though. I think it's a good. It sounds like, you know, a cheap way of getting access to, you know, good novels. If it sings out of copyright. Yes. You can get whole collections for free and it's good for that. I also find a Kindle good in the fact that I can adjust the size of the text, yes. That's because I need reading glasses, so I can make it a bit bigger. And also it can reduce the contrast between the text and the page because it's gray, which is easier for me because I'm dyslexic as well. So I actually find them very comfortable to read. It's not like reading from a screen, a Kindle, because the paper white version, it's actually more like read. It's reading from a paper text, so you don't get that. That glare you get from screens. Do you think they've improved the kin? Oh, yes, definitely. Yeah. I don't even have the latest one, but I like being able to sort of, you know, if there's not a word that's. It's got all the dictionary. Oh, yes, that's wonderful. And all the phrases and the translations of bits of foreign language as well. Yeah, that's it. Put your finger on the word if you don't understand it and it opens up the dictionary and you find it out. So, yes, all. But new technology can be wonderful. It can drive you crazy. Which it was to me earlier today with my computer. I got seriously annoyed trying to upload images to a website. But then there are all these wonderful things as well. So did you get rid of all your books, your paper books? No, but at least I've stopped accumulating them because I don't live in a very large house and it was. It was filling up with books and also with CDs and DVDs, so it does actually help. But I wouldn't get rid of my books and I have a lot of books anyway. There are art books with pictures and things, so they're not suitable to look at on the Kindle. I only get rid of some really rubbish novels. I know. Intention of a reading again. Yes. I went through a lot of my books a couple of years ago to decide which ones I'd read again and which ones I'd, you know. So I've read them all and some. Some of them went down the charity shop and the others thought, I still wanna. I might read that again. I can never understand how some people read, you know, sort of two or three books over and over and over again, though they sort of say, oh, I read this every Christmas or every summer holiday. I take such and such a book with me and read it. Because for me, reading, I mean, I was never sort of pronounced as dyslexic or anything, but I'm a very slow reader, so, you know, it can Take me three weeks to read a book. And I suppose a lot of the books that I read are not kind of stories, you know, they're usually sort of scientific things that are of interest with, you know, sort of psychological stuff and science stuff. So it's. It's often quite difficult just to kind of get through a page sometimes to sort of know quite all the words they're talking about. I know I've. I've read philosophy books and psychology books and. Yeah. And you have to keep going over them to. And I kind of think of myself as a slow reader. But then if I do get a novel, I sort of zoom through it and think, well, perhaps it's just the kind of books that I read. You have to, you know, concentrate more on those type of books. I mean, I am talking about Waterstones again. They've got a very good selection called Ideas. So they're slimline books on different types of philosophers. Rousseau, Voltaire, all throughout the ages. Cicero, George Orwell. You know, they're like. So they're like the Reader's Digest. It's a bit like the thinkers of the various eras. And they've put them in the very, very slim volumes. And I've bought a few of them intending to read them, because I do feel a bit ignorant sometimes when I. And I think the thing about rereading things is there's so much out there that I haven't read that I want to read. It's like traveling to places. I think I've almost kind of stopped going back to the same places, even though I think there's a lot of value in going back to the same places and you learn more about somewhere. But you kind of think, I'm going to run out of time to see everything I want to see. And yet it's also the same with reading, which is fantastic, actually. I don't think I'll ever run out of novels to read before I die, which is a comforting thought. One thing I do enjoy reading is biographies, Autobiographies. Yes. Yeah. So I've collected quite a lot of comedians, autobiographies, because it's I. You know, people like Joe Brand. Yeah. Dawn French. I've got quite a few. Trying to think of the others. Peter Cook, a book on his writing and some sketches. I mean, I just find the whole thing very, you know, interesting to find out how people tick and what they think about themselves, you know, and their perspective on life. So, yeah, so I've got quite a lot of those, but I tend to dip into those I don't read them cover to cover. Yeah, some books you need to dip into, you can't. I'd love to be able to speed read. Like the people that sort of judge these various, you know, booker prizes and things like that and have to read so many books. They do speed reading courses. Well, I know they do. I don't think it's guaranteed that everybody can learn to do it, though. And I think for factual things, yes, it could be useful to pick things up. But for a novel, I don't think I'd want to speed read it because you must miss half of it. You just get the thread of the story, wouldn't you? You'd get the first idea that the author would come up with without any of the padding that goes around it. Yeah, because I enjoy all that and all the detail. And I think I do read novels to relax. They're probably my main way of relaxing in winding down in the evening is to read for about an hour. Lull anything else. Well, I was just thinking about you doing that for an hour every evening. And I'm thinking, what do I do to wind down? I go and practice on my piano because I'm still plugging away at that. And I do crosswords and sudoka, because that is. I really don't have to think in a kind of literary way at all to do that. And it's kind of stuff that I'm doing all day, thinking in language and talking to people. And it's just so nice to do something completely different. I don't want to. I don't want to look at any more words on any more pages. So I don't actually get through that many books. Yeah, I don't get on with crosswords at all. They're just not. Oh, I don't do the cryptic ones. I do the easy ones. Well, anyway, yeah, I don't. It's. I think what I really value is doing something to relax that's not on the computer, because I hate that if I've been on the computer all day and then in the evening, I need to get a job to do on the computer. So I actually can take that as my time away from everything else. Yeah, I was reading an article today about the. The Fangs people, you know, the Facebook, the Amazon, and all of those Silicon Valley people with their children. They're all sending them to these incredibly expensive schools. Like 40 grand, $40, $40,000 a year, where the children have no iPhones, no iPads, no computers, no wi fi, nothing. And they are Made to sort of do things. They're sort of in the Wendy House by the sounds of it. Sort of doing things in the kitchen and having adventures like the Famous Five. Yeah. And they're being ready stories and a lot of the education is outside. They're sort of putting a big emphasis on the benefit of being outside while you're being educated. It sounds very good. It sounds like the architects that built brutalist buildings high rise for other people to live in, they actually live in. They lived in sort of little cottages covered in roses themselves. It sounds very much like that. Yes. Because there's. They're feeding all of this stuff to everybody else's children and protecting their own. Yes, exactly. Because they realize it's detrimental. Yeah. Well, that's the end of the show, I'm afraid. We've got to sign off now because we've come to the end. It's goodbye from us. That's me, Julia Collier, Judith Walker and Joy. And if you want to contact us or catch up on our previous programs, you can have a look at the presenters page on womensradiostation.com or tweet us. Womensradiostationstn. And thank you so much for listening. We hope you've enjoyed the show and if you've got any ideas, please get back in touch with us. We look forward to hearing from you. Women's radio station is a fresh new broadcasting platform driven by love and passion. Connecting women around the world in a global network is all about diversity from opinions, career, ethnicity, education. We aim to show the individuality of every woman everywhere providing opportunities and a platform for your voice. Women, the possibilities are endless. That's what makes us different. I'm Tamina Zaman, founder of Empower and Enrich. When it comes to money, do you clam up or get confused? Do you wish you could save more money or are you hoping you have enough for retirement? You are not alone. Many women want to be smarter with their cash, but just don't know where to start. @empowerandenrich.org you will find a host of options to help you take charge of your finances and learn how to put your money to work for you in an easy, affordable way. Get in touch with me@empowerandenrich.org and let's change your future together. Hi, I'm Lara Heems, founder and designer of Lara Heems Jewellery. I make luxurious jewellery at affordable prices using silver, semi precious stones and high quality triple A cubic zirconia. It's elegant, stunning, stylish and long. Lasting. Who needs diamonds? Find us at House of Fraser stores or Ella Boutique, Knightsbridge. If not, Visit us at double www.laraheems.com Make a statement and sparkle this season do you need mediation? We are the A Project charity. We provide convict resolution and community engagement services. Our services include community mediation for neighbour disputes, family mediation for separating couples, special education needs for parents, carers and their children, and young adults, as well as workplace mediation and restorative services. To find out more, head to womensradiostation.com or theaproject.co.uk Let me tell you about Jermyn Street Theatre. This is a secret theatre in the heart of the West End. Once found, never forgotten. This is where careers ignite, where playwrights take risks, where great act actors perform just feet away from the audience. This is where magic happens. We would love you to join our mailing list or become a sponsor or just buy a ticket to one of our shows. 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