Martin Lewis vs School dinners of the 80s

GOOD THING: MARTIN LEWIS
If there's one thing I'm not, it's a financial expert. If there's one thing I am, it's a cheapskate. And also low-earning, which helps to enforce the cheapskated-ness. But listening to money guru Martin Lewis on the radio, or surfing through his fantastic website (www.moneysavingexpert.com) is like having your own financial advisor - without actually having to pay for one, a neat saving in itself! Martin Lewis has revealed his strangeness on Radio 2 with his admission that he doesn't like ANY music, and going out with him would probably be economical but quite annoying - but when it comes to taking revenge on the big banks, businesses and insurers he is The Man. I worry that he is turning me into a money geek. But seriously, by just following Martin Lewis' advice, I managed to save £116 on my car insurance and found a really bargainous home contents insurance package. I also found a great online savings account in which to stash my hard-earned pennies. And now I sound like one of those 'real people' on insurance company ads. Great.

BAD THING: SCHOOL DINNERS OF THE '80S
Thank God that Jamie Oliver is doing something about school dinners - not necessarily because they're unhealthy but because, if they're anything like they were when I was at school, because they're rank. I seem to remember that middle school was the worst, and the absolute pits was being on fourth-sitting, which meant you got that food that 3/4 of the school had rejected. Those were the weeks to bring your packed lunch. The worst offenders on the menu included spinach tart (how many 11 year olds will find that appealing?) and sausage pizza, where the cooks used to slice sausages in half longways and stick one of the bits in the middle of what was basically a large savoury scone covered in bright orange cheese. Some of the desserts were almost as awful: the cake and custard, where the cake was the size and texture of a house-brick and the custard formed a skin within 0.3 seconds; and the strange dish that involved cornflakes stuck together with syrup, topped with some sort of Instant Whip and a mandarin segment. But I still remember a trauma I suffered in nursery school of all places, where I was forced to stay behind when everyone else had finished lunch, because I wouldn't eat my mushy peas. Mind you, if someone put mushy peas on my plate now, I'd still end up sitting in the canteen alone...