Essentials: Hybrid fatigue, foodie books and a criminally good tour Sales of the Toyota Prius C rose by 24 per cent this year, but demand for all other hybrids dropped. The Gangster London Tour stops at locations from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, pictured, and real-life crime spots from the 1950s and 60s. Greg Malouf's book Marhaban is about cooking in Arabia. Former Longrain chef Martin Boetz is releasing New Thai Food. THE 2013 Australian car sales results contained some disconcerting figures for alternative-fuel enthusiasts, with options other than petrol increasingly shunned. Demand for hybrid vehicles fell 14 per cent, to 11,949, after reaching almost 14,000 last year. Most were Toyotas or models from its luxury arm, Lexus. One bright spot for the company was its mini-Prius, the Prius C - its sales were up 24 per cent. But demand for other models was down. LPG remains the unfashionable alternative fuel and sales of cars with dedicated drivelines (as opposed to conversions) fell 18 per cent to just 4704. One surprise was demand for diesel, which has been rising in popularity for a decade. It remains the fuel of choice for almost four out of 10 SUV buyers and we bought tagTextBox2an additional 8614 diesel-powered high-riders last year. But car buyers have drifted away. Two years ago, 8 per cent of cars were diesel, but this fell to just 6.5 per cent in 2013. The result: demand plateaued and diesel's share of overall sales fell. However, proponents of the electric revolution have least to cheer. Sales rose to 292 from 253 the year before. But they remain absurdly low relative to the hype. Two-thirds of EVs went to fleets, so fewer than 100 private buyers were prepared to dip into their own pockets. Two models dominated: the Nissan Leaf, with 188 buyers, outsold the Holden Volt with 101. FOOD BOOKS: MELBOURNE publisher Hardie Grant has signed up a number of chefs for books this year. Cantina, which will have Paul Wilson's name on the cover, is the distillation of his knowledge of Mexican cooking. New Thai Food is from Martin Boetz, the former Longrain executive chef. Marhaban is the next instalment from Greg Malouf, this time travelling and cooking in Arabia, while Daniel Wilson has penned Huxtabook, channelling his restaurants Huxtable and Huxtaburger. The publisher has just launched cooked.com.au, a subscription site for its substantial catalogue of recipes. An interesting publishing venture. HEALTH: ALMOST one in three people gets motion sickness - some severely - but you can prevent it. "Try closing your eyes or looking out a window or at the horizon" says NPS MedicineWise clinical adviser Andrew Boyden. Avoid reading and playing games as this can worsen motion sickness. Getting a seat or cabin in the middle of a boat or plane or sitting in or near the front of a car can help. You can also feel better by getting some fresh air, staying calm and relaxing, and avoiding alcohol and heavy, greasy meals. If those techniques have failed in the past, chat to your doctor or pharmacist about medication before your next journey. PLAY: CHILDREN right now are out of the classroom and should get out of the house, too. Hunter Medical Research Institute's Associate Professor David Lubans is worried children are not as fit as children 30 years ago and believes television and computer games are to blame. "The important thing for parents is limiting the amount of screen time their kids have - very young children should have none, infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers should have less than one hour a day, and those over five can have two hours," Lubans says. When kids sit in front of a screen they're more likely to eat and less likely to realise they are full. It displaces time when they could be physically active and they're also getting less social interaction. TRAVEL: FOLLOW in the footsteps of London's most infamous underworld figures on a two-hour Gangster London Tour conducted by actor Stephen Marcus, who played Nick the Greek in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels (below). The tour stops at locations from the film and key real-life crime spots from 1950s and 60s London, when the likes of the Kray twins and career criminal Mad Frankie Fraser "ran" the capital. Marcus provides a running commentary on some of the most famous crimes in London's East End and ends the tour with a Q&A session in one of the pubs used as a set for the 1998 Ritchie film. britmovietours.com.