BOYS will be boys. And sometimes that's the trouble. Girls are overtaking boys in exam results. For the first time ever, they have outperformed the lads in A-levels and rumour has it that tomorrow's GCSE results will show an even bigger gender gap. Government and experts are getting worried.

Strange, isn't it, that for years, generations, centuries even, girls didn't do as well as boys - didn't even get the chance to do as well as boys - and most people hardly turned a hair. Still, don't let's get bitter.

Now the time has come to sort the boys out. So far, David Blunkett is thinking of separate classes for boys. Well, yes. There is certainly something to be said for boys to be taught not only separately, but by male teachers.

There are precious few men in primary teaching - and many of those are coming up for retirement. So, even with the greater numbers at secondary school, by the time a boy gets there, he's already dismissed education as a girly thing beneath his notice. Male teachers are not just teachers, they are role models - often able to connect with horrible adolescent boys in a way that's impossible for women.

But where do you stop?

Once you start with separate classes, the next thing is separate schools. And haven't we just joined the 21st Century? Boys, apparently, don't like GCSEs. They depend on fairly steady coursework over two years, instead of a last-minute cram and a flash of brilliance on the day. Well, tough.

Are we to have different exams for boys and girls? Different universities? Different work places?

Well exactly - for centuries that's just what we had. Boys and girls were educated differently and separately and rarely worked alongside each other. But now we're all in it together, girls are doing better than boys. And women are beginning to do better than men.

Interesting that in the lists of top earning women at the weekend there were, as always, a lot of writers, actresses and singers, but there were also businesswoman, computer experts, entrepreneurs and financial wizards - the sort of jobs normally thought of as the boys' own.

Not any more.

We cannot put the genie back in the bottle and hold girls back. So boys are just going to have to work harder. And in many ways, it's up to men to make sure they do.

This is the way the world is now. And they're going to have to learn to cope with it. Soon.

£10 to visit your GP?

There'd have to be discounts for low earners and children and the chronically sick, of course.

But considering BT wanted £35 just to look at my fax machine and the washing machine man charged £39 before he even took his tool bag from the van, £10 for the doctor seems a bit of a bargain.

Especially if you could get an extended warranty.

SO we're frittering away a lot of our money on luxuries, are we?

According to a report from Barclays, we waste £95,000 a minute on treats for ourselves instead of doing the sensible thing and putting that money in a pension fund. Mind you, the man from Barclays considers a tumble drier a luxury, which only goes to show that he's never had a house full of young children in a typical British summer.

But the thing about luxuries - especially small luxuries - is that they are really a necessity and a lifesaver.

We've all had days when a glossy magazine and a bottle of wine... a meal out instead of eating at home... a trip to the pub instead of tackling the garden... have changed our day, lifted our spirits and transformed us from unutterable gloom to happy contentment.

Little treats keep us cheerful, keep us sane, keep us off the anti-depressants and save the country a fortune.

And - sorry, Barclays - are a lot more fun than a pension fund.

IN the interests of research and because the boys were watching it, I tried to watch Big Brother. Really tried.

But I had to give up. Instead of being fascinated by the relationships, the double-dealing and the way they all worked together, I was just amazed at how dim they all were, how exceedingly irritating.

Thousands of people apparently auditioned for the show. Which doesn't say much for the rest.

THE ice at the pole is melting. My garden on Monday was ankle deep in hailstones.

I'm confused. Is this Global Warming or a New Ice Age?