Just imagine: a world with no MacDonalds, no Burger King. 

[Pause for thought]

My childhood was enlivened by the occasional visit to Norwich and to the burger palace of the times: the WIMPY!

Fried egg, beef patty, chips and that curly frankfurter.  I don't remember what it was called, but otherwise the Wimpy meal of my childhood is unforgettable. Sadly, however, the UK's Wimpy bars of yore are no longer.

Why this reminiscence?  Hacking along the N2 highway in South Africa we encountered - yes, a Wimpy!  In fact, several of them.

OK, I thought, fried egg, beef patty, chips and that curly frankfurter.  But, no, the Wimpy of 2009 is no different from from MacDonalds or Burger King and not the place of my childhood reminiscences.  Instead of the long-remembered meal-on-a-plate, this Wimpy served the wraps and burgers that every burger palace sells these days.

But I still miss that curly frankfurter ...