Michael Obiora
It helps me and many other coeliacs, when a celebrity, an actor or anybody in the public eye, says that they are coeliac.
So three cheers for Michael Obiora, who has said he’s a coeliac.
He actually seems to have suffered from a multitude of problems, that I didn’t have. So I’ve been lucky! I wish him all the best.
Sausage and Lentil Hotpot
I wanted something different and stole this one from Waitrose.
My version used the following ingredients.
- 1 leek, sliced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 pack of Black Farmer sausages
- 1 medium onion, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 1 large carrot, cut into cubes
- 1tsp ground cumin
- 2 bay leaves
- 200g lentils
- 200g cavolo nero cabbage, shredded
The method was as follows.
- Heat the oil in a large pan, add the sausages and fry for 5 minutes until browned. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon. Add the onion, garlic, leek and carrot and cook for 5 minutes until softened.
- Add the cumin, bay leaves and lentils with 1.5 litres water. Bring to the boil then simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until thick and soupy and the lentils are almost tender.
- Stir in the cabbage, return the sausages to the pan, cover, and cook for a further 5 minutes until the cabbage is tender.
- Discard the bay leaves and season. Serve in warmed bowls
It was good.
Amelie Mauresmo
I thought she was just a good tennis player. But now I read in The Independent that she is gay.
Does it matter? Not one jot!
I suspect too, her fellow professionals, the sports writers and tennis fans didn’t bother either, as she is quoted as saying “I lived 10 magical and unbelievable years.”
Global Warming Denial
The junket at Copenhagen is about to start and we’ll get all of those global warming denial stories. Usually, they are from selfish, overweight people, who are addicted to 4x4s, private jets and all other wasteful indulgences.
But before you embrace what they say, read Johann Hari in the Independent. He analyses all of the evidence and comes to the conclusion that global warming is man-made.
These are the last two paragraphs, which if you can’t bother to read the rest, you should read.
So let’s – for the sake of argument – make an extraordinary and unjustified concession to the deniers. Let’s imagine there was only a 50 per cent chance that virtually all the world’s climate scientists are wrong. Would that be a risk worth taking? Are you prepared to take a 50-50 gamble on the habitability of the planet? Is the prospect of getting our energy from the wind and the waves and the sun so terrible that’s not worth it on even these wildly optimistic odds?
Imagine you are about to get on a plane with your family. A huge group of qualified airline mechanics approach you on the tarmac and explain they’ve studied the engine for many years and they’re sure it will crash if you get on board. They show you their previous predictions of plane crashes, which have overwhelmingly been proven right. Then a group of vets, journalists, and plumbers tell they have looked at the diagrams and it’s perfectly obvious to them the plane is safe and that airplane mechanics – all of them, everywhere – are scamming you. Would you get on the plane? That is our choice at Copenhagen.
Now, I’ll add another thought.
Look at the major countries that are lukewarm on climate change; the United States, China and Saudi Arabia. All have a lot to lose if climate change is accepted. America would have to change its lifestyle much more than any other country, China would have to generate its energy in different ways and poor old Saudi would lose all those oil sales. None of these countries have large areas of low-lying land.
On the other hand, a lot of those countries who believe that action should be done on global warning have a lot of land that will soon disappear. They should know!
So just as the fat bloke in his 4×4 is a denier, so are the United States, China and Saudi Arabia. It is just plain selfishness.
Exclamation Marks
If anybody has read much of this blog, you will notice that I use a lot of exclamation marks.
Why? I just like them!
My father was a fan too. But as someone who has set letterpress type, I can appreciate how some letters are favourites and others you just hate. Try spotting the difference between full-stops and commas in something like 6 or 8 point type. It’s not easy.
But the exclamation mark is always instantly recognisable. So do I use it, as I have this hatred of full-stops?
Simon Mayo asked a question on his radio show, as to whether there were any places other than Westward Ho!, that contained exclamation marks. This prompted a search of Wikipedia and the answer was duly e-mailed in and read out. (Simon must have read out upwards of a dozen of my e-mails, but then his father taught me geography at school.)
Hence this post.
Here’s the e-mail.
The English town of Westward Ho!, named after the novel by Charles Kingsley, is the only place-name in the United Kingdom that officially contains an exclamation mark. There is a town in Quebec called Saint-Louis-du-Ha! Ha!, which is spelled with two exclamation marks. The city of Hamilton, Ohio changed its name to Hamilton! in 1986.
Now reading Wikipedia about exclamation marks, observes that computer programmers like me call them shrieks. I do but not because of that.
My father did too! As a printer he was supposed to call them bangs.
Robert Fisk
There are few writers in the modern world of newspapers to rival Robert Fisk.
His piece today in The Independent on Lebanon, the holocaust, Anne Frank and the relationship between Israel and its enemies is a gem.
Read it!
Anne has always had a strong place in my heart. Whether it is because I have a small amount of Jewish ancestry or just because I hate injustice so much I do not know. Here’s what I wrote after a visit to Amsterdam in April 2008.
Everywhere in Amsterdam, there are posters of Anne Frank.
Not exactly Anne Frank, The Musical, as I really don’t think that would be the ideal work, but a symphonic tribute is being performed in Amsterdam based on her life and the famous diary.
It is quite right, that a little Jewish girl, her family and her diary caught up in the tragic events of the Second World War still hold the world in their thrall.
Her diary has now been translated into fifty-five languages and has sold over 20 million copies.
When we forget the story of Anne and the diary, then we will probably have lost our humanity.
As I write this book Cyclone Nargis has just devastated Burma or as the dictators prefer, Myanmar. Those dictators are ignoring offers of help from outside preferring to distribute the aid themselves, as letting others in might undermine their cruel regime, with thoughts of freedom and full stomachs.
Having read Wages of Destruction, by Adam Tooze, a book which describes the economic methods of Nazi Germany, I feel Hitler would be proud of their actions.
Because of the festivities the Anne Frank House was closed.
But next time I return to Amsterdam, I shall visit.
The festivities I spoke of, were the Queen’s birthday celebrations.
Ed Miliband and Disposable Nappies
Ed Miliband is getting a lot of criticism over using disposable nappies on his six-year-old son. Here’s the Independent.
This is absolutely right!
We used proper nappies for all our three sons. I know it was around 1970, but the pressure to use disposable ones was even then great from the manufacturers. I must admit, that we did use a disposable liner in the nappies, but this meant that you saved on the washing as the nappies weren’t so dirty. Tricks like this make proper nappies much cheaper and more environmentally friendly than disposables, which make up four percent of all household waste and end up in landfill.
The real luxury though was for the last baby, where we used a nappy service. You just put the dirty nappies in a bucket and a cheery guy collected them as he returned the freshly laundered ones. Much easier than anything else!
I think that I’ve heard that some councils are subsidising nappy services to cut the disposable ones going into landfill. If they aren’t, they should look at it.
Shame on you Miliband!
Common Sense from The Duke
The Times today carries an article about engineers from the Duke of Edinburgh.
What common sense!
I like this bit.
Yet engineering remains the driving force behind all technological advances, and plays an immensely important part in the improvement in social conditions. Furthermore, it is probably the greatest wealth creator in our whole society.
But how he ends the article is something that all politicians should note.
As the ever-growing human population consumes more and more of the Earth’s natural resources, it is going to take all the ingenuity of inventors, engineers and designers to maintain the rate of improvements in developed societies and to bring better standards of living to more and more people in the less prosperous countries of the world. If this is to be achieved in the 21st century, the challenge will be to make sure that bright young people, whatever their background, who aspire to do something creative and fulfilling with their lives, can achieve their ambition through engineering.
It will be engineers, that get us out the mess we are in.
Not politicians! How much hot air will they be blowing in Copenhagen?
Felixstowe Docks and Landguard Fort
On Wednesday, I went to view the docks at Felixstowe and the restored Landguard Fort at the point opposite Harwich. Note that I say docks, as I can remember when it was just a small square dock with a flour mill and a ferry across the river. It is now the Port of Felixstowe and is the largest container port in the UK.
The fort is well worth a visit, although it has to be said despite living in Felixstowe in the 1960s, I didn’t visit it until the early years of this century. Perhaps, it shows how we treat history.
I did though cycle to the other Felixstowe fort at the Dooley in those far-off days, where with friends we wandered all over the ruin. Type “Dooley Fort Felixstowe” into Google and you’re find all sorts of memories of the place.
The Dooley Fort is now under the dock. As is the Little Ships Hotel, the old dock basin and the army barracks.
This post is on a forum about Felixstowe.
It is very disappointing that whenever I visit Felixstowe I see more country side destroyed.
The Orwell estury was an area of natural beauty with marshland, shingle, sand & mud. It abounded with wild life. The creeks were full of shrimps, crabs, and I even found a sea urchin. You could collect winkles and as a child shore crabs.
The marshes were a wonderful place for collecting mushrooms. They were everywhere. The ruined Dooley Fort was a magical place. We kids spent many happy hours playing there while the Old Man was at the Dooley Pub sinking a few and a few more pints.
I can remember those times and the writer sums it all up well. Especially, as the whole area behind the Port is now a sea of houses and supermarkets. In the 1960s it was all green fields, except for the pub and a few cottages.
Photograph a Chip Shop and Get Arrested
There has been a spate of officers arresting people for taking photographs in public. The Telegraph details it all here.
Here’s one example.
In the summer, Alex Turner, another amateur photographer, was arrested after he took pictures of Mick’s Plaice, a fish and chip shop in Chatham, Kent, evidently a building of great strategic importance to the jihadi godfathers in Waziristan.
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I take a lot of photographs. Perhaps, I should be hung, drawn and quartered for taking a photograph of a secret radar station!
The police should remember that they are a police service and they serve the public. How many people stopped for doing innocent things, will in future look the other way and ignore a suspicious package?
The Anonymous Widower 