Most people over a certain age can cook? Certainly some sort of meal can be produced. I know there are levels of knowledge and ability but most of us could produce something edible.

We have access to far more raw ingredients and exotic flavours yet for many they are just ignored. Cost plays a part in why some things are bought and others shunned but that still leaves a shop load that are available.

In the kitchen one doesn’t have to buy every gadget or cooking utensil that is on the market. Far from it but a few essentials are a must. Maybe a few hundred pounds is needed to start with for pans, spoons, bowls and measuring equipment and most kitchen suppliers will be happy to recommend good kit.

One doesn’t have to buy expensive cook books either as there is a wealth of knowledge on-line or within free mobile phone Apps.

Its not hard to make a soup, a tasty main or a cake and a little confidence is all one actually needs. Oh and to be bothered to cook in the first place will help. You don’t even need a lot of space.

As a nation we spend more than ever on takeaways. Thats fantastic news for the takeaway firms and the delivery drivers but bad news for wallets and waistlines. And the younger generations are getting worse. Some have no idea and buy everything from coffee and sandwiches to their evening meals from shops and ready-made meal outlets and this is either they are incredibly wealthy, downright lazy or just plain dumb. It must cost them a small fortune each week.

Ready meals in our supermarkets are flying off the shelves as they have become so cheap that a weeks supply is around half the price or buying fresh. This has got  to be morally wrong and healthily unacceptable. It’s little wonder we are becoming ill with all the extra sugar, e numbers and crap that is shoved into these products let alone overweight.

One doesn’t have to be a top chef to cook and it doesn’t take a genius to start.

Just the other evening I produced meatballs in a tomato and herb sauce with pasta and it took probably the same time as it would have to turn out a ready meal of the same kind. Five minutes to chop and prepare the ingredients and twenty minutes to cook. Whilst that was doing its thing in a pan, the pasta bubbled away in some boiling water for ten to fifteen minutes and voila; on the plate.

I know exactly what was in it and how it was made. Simple, tasty and quick. Its down to education both at home and at school to get kids to be a bit more hands on in the kitchen.

I understand the baking thing. Baking can take up a lot of time and not all of us have the luxury of time every day but not all baking is time-consuming. Bread making is great. So line up a film. Then Mix the flour water, sugar, yeast, salt and oil and knead ( it’ll firm up those biceps and pecks). Pop this mix into a bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm to prove. While this magic is going on sit back and watch your chosen film as in around two hours (the length of a good film) your dough will be ready to knock back and form into a loaf tin. Leave it to rest while you do the vacuuming or tidy the kitchen and then pop it into an oven. In about half an hour or so that fresh loaf will be ready to turn out onto a cooling rack.

So you see it’s a lengthy process but with logical time-management it can be absorbed into a day. Thats the message behind baking for me. Plan a day of housework or telly or radio or reading and fit in the steps of producing breads, cakes and pastries as you go. Unlike a stew which can be left to its own devices all day so one can go to work, ride a bike, play in the park or visit friends as it gently bubbles away for your awaiting repast when you return.

I just find it very sad that the simple art of preparing and cooking a meal is dying out for so many. Open a packet, order over the phone or go out to eat. Lazy, boring, unimaginative, unhealthy and warped are a few words that spring to mind.

Are we really breeding a generation of people who don’t feel there is a need or want to do anything for themselves?

Do the ones who run companies which employ over, say, 250 people care about their customers? Do the actually listen to the frequent comments posed by the people who use their services?

“Your call is important to us and maybe recorded for training and quality purposes”.  

Pah!

I’m not sure if anyone actually believes this.

If this statement read true then over the years the service provided by companies should be second to none but many fall way below the standards set a few years ago let alone fifty.

Okay lets look at this another way.

One wants to buy a new car. There are so many to choose from and they all live in shiny new showrooms dotted up and down the country. It all looks beautiful; even the sales staff have friendly smiles and clean smart clothing. Nothing is too much. Coffee, tea or something? They bend over backwards to try to sell you something there and then.

That’s brilliant so long as you ask the right questions, do your homework, stick to your strict budget and haggle the best deal; it can be fun. Honestly, it can and the results can be very appealing and in your own favour.

So after a few weeks your new car arrives, you shake hands with the dealership boss, get behind the wheel and wave a happy goodbye as you drive away in your gleaming new car.

With me so far? You are happy, proud and basically very pleased with life at this point and so you should be.

However; “Dun dun dun dun dah!!”

After a few days, weeks or even months something goes wrong. This is where the problems start for many customers. You pick up the phone and dial the customers service desk. Once one has tackled the dreaded lists of menus and there is finally a voice at the end of the line, that isn’t automated or transferring your call, one can advise the assistant of the problem. Then they tell you they can’t deal with the problem but promise a member of the service or workshop team will call you back. This seldom  happens and then the above process has to be repeated with a further promise of a call-back. On the third or fourth attempt, and after loosing your temper, you finally get through to someone who informs you they don’t stock the parts but can do the work in two weeks or so when they arrive.

You agree after holding back a tidal-wave of emotional outrage and then finally the day arrives to take you car in for its simple repair.

“It should only take half an hour so if you take a seat in our waiting area then we will tell you when its ready” a nice member of staff informs you. “Help yourself to a drink from the machine” So armed with that knowledge you sit yourself down and relax for a while. Its a great excuse to have to do very little. But these places are very clinical, warm and boring. So out comes the phone and that’s the e-mail done, the Facebook caught up with, the next level in that addictive game reached and a few texts sent and replied to. An hour and half has passed by so you imagine the car to be fixed and waiting but the staff member has forgotten to inform you.

“Is it ready yet?” you meekly inquire.

“They’re just putting it on the ramps now” you are told.

“I thought you said it would be half an hour? And that was an hour and a half ago.”

“We are very busy you know!!” Daggers look response.

On this goes. One has to get angry and threaten complaint in writing to Head Office before finally something is done and some form of satisfaction is reached.

Now this is my point. Why should it be so hard?

It never used to be like this. if someone said they were going to do something then nine times out of ten it was done unless there were unforeseen problems and even then they told you and tried to offer an alternative solution.

If you contacted customer services in the past then your call was answered within 5 rings (or as near as they could) and staff used their common sense to solve a problem and they spoke the local language.

Now it can take half an hour of menu options, being told your call is important but is in a queue, being transferred and re-transferred. Once you get through (if you can understand a word they say) you have to limit questions to what is on their computer screen (any deviation results in a stock answer reply of no use) and get bounced around from department to department as they can only deal with one thing only.

Complain in public about the service on offer or someonelses behaviour and you are subject to red-faced humiliation and ridicule.

There are so many faceless managers and officials with vague job titles that a complaint can be side-stepped as no-one wants or thinks they need to take responsibility (unless you are at the bottom and are a worker which is often the position of “scapegoat”) and heaven forbid they have to make themselves known to the unwashed public.

I know some big companies with fantastic after sales and customer services. Winalot/Purina pet foods, Apple, Garmin, Kellogs, PC World and Tesco to name but a few. I praise these with gusto but this should be the norm across all business whether it be a doctor’s surgery, a new home, a car or insurance issue.

I have tried blanking those who offer poor after sales services or bad customer relations but there are just some areas where this is not possible like doctors, banks and some shops but on the whole its possible to take back some control. Cars; I shall not be using Renault or that group again. Windows and doors; I will use my local chap instead of AllWeatherline Roofing. A Home phone Broadband; I shall never, ever use TalkTalk.

So Business Bosses be warned. Up your game, employ enough staff to deal with complaints and praises, take a more active role in after sales and most of all treat customers with honesty, integrity and worth.