The Black Market in War time London was a real godsend. My parents knew a London taxi driver who seemed to be able to get anything. He would turn up unexpectedly and always at lunchtime with such delicacies as bacon, eggs, sugar, tea and butter. My mother always gave him her dinner while she made do with very little as there simply wasn't enough to go around. She made a couple of ounces of meat go a very long way by giving us kids any vegetables plus a slice of bread smothered in gravy so that it looked like meat. I must say it was tasty as the gravy at least was genuine. I thought I was being helpful one day as while my mother was cooking the dinner I emptied the teapot and made a fresh pot of tea. I announced that the tea was ready and was told that the tea had only just been made previously and had been left to brew. I had unwittingly thrown away a fresh pot of tea and wasted precious tea leaves. Fortunately I didn't get a scolding this time. I was glad of the black market margarine, sugar and eggs. At school the girls still had domestic science lessons and we had to ask our mothers for an ounce or so of our precious butter or margarine ration and one egg in order to be able to make tiny cakes in the cookery lesson. The school wasn't issued with a ration of ingredients so we were asked to supply our own. Not all the girls were able to do this. Only those who had access to the black market could provide their own ingredients. When it came to jam making the cookery teacher got a supply of fruit, plums I think it was and we all brought a tiny quantity of sugar and one large pan of plum jam was made and we each took home about a cupful. It was a relief when dried egg powder became available, from America I think it was. I really liked it, it made really nice omelettes.