Beware of mouldy post-festive supermarket veg '“ Verity Lush

Most disappointingly, I have also purchased some unwittingly and only discovered the putrid items upon returning home.

I once phoned the company and suggested they take a more Waitrose or M&S attitude to the quality of their fruit and veg, and they generously put 40 pence on my clubcard for my efforts.

I'd rather have had ingredients that weren't found to be decomposing just as I went to cook dinner.

I realise you pay more in the aforementioned stores, but just because you pay less in the supermarket that I visited today, it doesn't mean you should be fobbed off with rotten goods.

So much of it was absolute dross that had you bought it, you'd have spent more than you would have by shopping in the organic Waitrose veg section anyway because so much would've ended up in the bin or on the compost heap.

There were rotten peppers (standard '“ check your packs if you're getting the one with 3 in), rotten easy peelers, and rubberised parsnips that were suffering from a touch of droop.

As long as you know to look at all of your fruit and veg carefully, and to carry out a thorough inspection before placing the mouldy goods in your trolley, then all is well.

But this is time-consuming and simply shouldn't be a requirement anyway. It's like the Russian Roulette of Root Veg. 

On December 23 I was next to one poor customer who'd purchased extra thick double cream for a festive meal.

Her guests had poured it on their dessert the previous night, only realising when they went to take a bite that it was reeking, having gone off well before its use-by date and therefore ruining all of their puddings.

She was visibly upset and staff were mortified too.

Don't be hoodwinked by sophisticated fraudsters 

The BBC seemed to win in the TV stakes this Christmas and good job too, given that we all still fund them with our TV licenses. 

I received an email recently claiming to be from TV Licensing telling me that my payment had not gone through and to click on the link to my account.

Thankfully alarms bells rang but it looked legit and it would have been easy, had I not been thinking at the time and distracted by something else, to just go ahead with the fraudulent instructions.

They'd also spelt '˜license' wrongly and had put '˜licence' but again, had I not been focusing, this could have passed me by.  Keep a beady eye on your emails and watch what you click. It looked totally above board.

With every new day I become a little more like my mother

Our children have reached the miraculous age where they lie-in.

They've always been good sleepers through the night, but this was counteracted by their waking at 5.30am full of beans and ready to rumble for the next 14 hours or so.

I've always been grateful that they zonked out through the night from an early age. I don't care whether other parents establish routines or are led by their babies, I just like sleep, and as long as I'm getting it all's fine by me.

I fear that my on-going metamorphosis into my mother is continuing apace as I have now invested in ear-plugs so that I can enjoy sleeping during my children's lie-ins, but also any external noise that wakes me.

I pop them in and bingo!