Bad habits

There is so much I want to say but I'm biting my tongue.

My children will tell you that I never allowed them to chew gum in my company as they grew up. This last year I've taken to chewing it for some strange reason. Call me a hypocrite but I seem to be hooked on the stuff and chew with alarming speed and often bite my tongue sufficient to water my eyeballs.

I'm hoping my children will step in to ban me, but as yet they are turning a  dry blind eye. Eat your heart out Alex (Man.U manager of similar speed).

Anyway, I've finished the book that Eileen breezed through while sitting in the garden in France. It became a book with a hook as I sneaked a peep at the opening paragraph...

"Someone once said that youth is wasted on the young. Not a bit of it. Only the young have the impulsive energy to tackle the impossible and enjoy it; the courage to follow their instincts and brave the new; the stamina to work all day, all night and all the next day without tiring. For the young everything is possible. None of us, twenty years later, could do the things we did in our youth. Though the vision burns still bright, the energy has gone."

Far too gory for men to read (the clue is found in the print before the title) but it's compulsive reading and a superb social documentary of Docklands East -End London in the 50's. It reminds me of Docklands East-End Sunderland of the same era.

Verdict: Raw, hopeless, sad and chilling as well as poignant, warm, gentle and optimistic.

The cover picture is exactly the way me and Tucker Ellis used to go to school...hole in the seat of my pants and all.

Farewell to the East End, welcome the next good and easy read whatever, whenever or wherever it may be.

Perhaps I should say farewell to a few bad habits too...I'll chew it over :)