“Inbetween Days (Acoustic Version)” by The Cure… “And I know I was wrong when I said it was true that it couldn’t be me and be her, inbetween without you. Without you…”

Here’s something that should sit pretty with those of you who know the feeling of being overdrawn with a credit account you can’t afford… the boss of Barclays slipped on the proverbial banana the other day by admitting that he doesn’t use credit cards to borrow money! Maybe it wasn’t clear to everyone, but his latest gaff is going to destroy profits in his company all at the expense of being considered a craftier credit card company. He’s also advised his children to not use credit cards to borrow money, because it’s too expensive! Erm, you don’t have to live in the UK to realise that interest rates that fluctuate in the region of 15-25% are not considered a good deal! I’ve never borrowed from banks nor will I intend to at this rate and I’m always shocked when I hear of people who’ve run up lofty debts on their credit cards with spontaneous hefty purchase combos. So here’s a piece of free advice from me if you’re planning on making a down payment on something big, like a yacht, my Christmas present: a yacht, or a year’s supply of Jimmy Choos: get a personal loan instead. They’re usually around half the interest rate of credit card rates and give you around half the chance of cardiac arrest at a later date. And let’s be realistic, you’ve got to think about both your heart and your financial future.

All the time I’ve grown up, I’ve seen gingerbread come in many shapes and sizes at the bakery. The ginger based crumbly snacks and treats I’ve seen through the years are either in biscuit form or in some sort of indentifiable form, i.e. you can buy gingerbread in its many flavours depending on what snacking purpose it will serve. You could buy them in gingerbread biscuit form for dunking in your hot coffee or you could buy them in gingerbread man form to… erm, dunk in your hot feminist coffee.

My mum bought me these gingerbread fishies yesterday and made me feel like 9 again. I can’t even remember the last time I had a novelty gingerbread figurine snack, but it must have been around the same time everyone wore shell suits (thankfully only the latter died out). These fun snacks were always fun to consume as a kid and I have to admit the novelty hasn’t died out with age. I also don’t remember ever seeing gingerbread sold any other way at the bakery. It has always been gingerbread cut into shapes that children could relate to from their exposure to books that teach the alphabet. Gingerbread houses with icing sugar roofing, gingerbread cats with icing for whiskers and gingerbread people decked out in iced suits. I’ve never seen elaborately iced gingerbread xylophones or gingerbread zebras though, so there’s a niche market worth tapping into for the younguns. Kids do love xylophones and zebras, right? But whatever the shape, it’s all good marketing to cater gingerbread snacks to its target demograph. Kids wouldn’t be in such a hurry to snap up “Gingerbread slabs” or “Gingerbread voodoo boys (for the young feminists).”