FIRST AND LAST...

Our visit to Reading University yesterday was `interesting.` Nice campus, good facilities, appealing history programme but dodgy `halls.`

As for Reading itself, it`s a long walk from the beach and is one of those characterless towns that just seems to be there. It has a history of biscuit making - one of the buildings at the Uni is named the Palmer Building - I suspect after the Palmer half of the Huntley and Palmer`s Biscuit Empire which used to be the town`s main employer. No sign of a Huntley Building though.

Anyway, we`ll see what Exeter has to offer on Tuesday.

On the way home, my grandaughters (yes, 15-years old Emma also came along for the ride - I think the visit may have opened her eyes to University life and encouraged her to have a go herself) got a bit peckish, so we stopped at a service station, where they expressed a desire for some KFC.

Now, in all my nearly 70 years, I have so far managed to avoid KFC but, in a desperate attempt to appear at least mildly `cool,` I said I would have some too. Big mistake, for not even the 17 herbs and spices could disguise the fact that this was cordon noir at its very blackest. Grease in abundance and not even a proper knife and fork to eat it with. And the tea was awful too, as it had cream in it instead of milk.

And so my first KFC `experience` was truly dreadful and whilst I may have been quite pleased with my coolness for at least giving it a go, it was most certainly also my last. In future, I will be more than happy to forego any semblence of coolness for the sake of maintaining a healthy digestive transit. Finger lickin` good? I don`t think so. But then perhaps I should have known, for being American, it comes under the heading of `foreign food,` which is something I just don`t do.