Shropshire Star

Cathy Dobbs: When you can't have your cake and eat it

Cathy Dobbs’ weekly look at life.

Published

There is nothing worse than a co-worker doing a Greggs run when you are a couple of weeks into your diet.

Actually, there is, it’s saying no to the offer of cake and then having to watch as your colleagues sink their teeth into a Belgian bun or an éclair.

Well, this could all change as Professor Susan Jebb, chairwoman of the Food Standards Agency, has said that bringing cake into the office should be as socially unacceptable as smoking.

I wonder if a ban on cakes at work will start like the ban on smoking did. First, there will be a room all the cake eaters have to go into, to gorge on their Victoria sponge or lemon drizzle. Next, maybe a shelter will be set up outside so they don’t get their flapjacks wet and finally they are out on the pavement, shivering with their cake-eating co-workers trying not to get jam from a doughnut down their suit.

It’s a sweet idea – but the temptation would be too much for some who would keep packs of Mini Rolls in their desk drawer and then scoff them while no-one’s looking.

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Around a million people signed up for a scheme which sees them being paid to cut their electricity use – the first time was on Monday between 5pm and 6pm. The National Grid scheme sees householders paid as much as £10 a day. If you are looking for an excuse to switch the TV off, not do any housework and read a book instead then you’ve got it.

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A campaign called Free the Nipple has prompted society to consider the inconsistencies around going topless. On a hot summer’s day, it’s not unusual to see a young man walking on the beachfront or even down a high street with his top off. If we saw a woman doing the same many would be shocked, and even outraged. This inconsistency has been highlighted in the last week as the oversight board at Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has called for an overhaul of its rules banning photos of bare-chested women.

Stars including Rihanna and Miley Cyrus have backed the campaign which would see women treated the same as men. Women spent years getting breastfeeding in public made acceptable, but is the next step in this process being able to post pictures on social media of breastfeeding or sunbathing topless on holiday? Are there some things that shouldn’t be shared? This is definitely one news item to watch – but not too closely, as you may get in trouble!

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Former US astronaut Buzz Aldrin got married for the fourth time on his 93rd birthday. It seems the former pilot said he and new wife Anca Faur were as “excited as eloping teenagers”. I suppose he’s one of just a small group of people who knows what he’s talking about when he tells her he loves her ‘to the moon and back’.