And Now Geothermal Rum From Cornwall!
This article on ThinkGeoenergy is entitled New Project To Bring You “Tropically” Matured Rum From Cornwall’s Geothermal Heartland.
This is the introductory paragraph.
What a product addition to the United Downs Deep Geothermal Project? Distillery startup Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company is pushing forward with plans to produce “tropically” mature rum using heat from the UK’s first geothermal power facility.
The Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company has a web site for more information.
This is a paragraph from the Think Geoenergy article.
In the release shared with us it is reported that Matthew Clifford, founder of the Cornish Geothermal Distillery Company (CGDC), has submitted outline plans for an ultra high-tech biome which would incorporate his patent-pending, carbon-neutral rum “cask maturation pods” designed by Grimshaw Architects alongside Buro Happold – globally recognised for innovative architecture that respects the planet’s resources whilst being functional and awe inspiring.
It seems to be an ambitious carbon-neutral project that could create up to a hundred jobs.
Second Time Around For A Lockdown
What is different this time around, is that I’ve had three months practice and I believed it would come, so I stocked up with essentials.
My Dalstonista grandmother regretted in the Great War, she didn’t stock up, so wasn’t caught out in the Second, with a hundredweight of both jam and sugar in the cellar.
My essentials are a bit different.
- Adnams Beer – 0.5 % alcohol.
- Tins of sardines in tomato.
- Gluten-free pasta
- Muesli
- Pots of porridge.
- Pots of M & S luxury honey & ginger yoghurt. For adding to fruit, muesli and as a pasta sauce.
- Ready meals in the freezer.
I would assume, I can get gluten-free bread, bananas, milk and eggs, when I need them.
Gloria Gaynor’s song is in my brain.
Le Pain Quotidien Has Reopened
This is good for coeliacs, as they do reasonable gluten-free food.
I can also get a 73 bus directly to Goodge Street station, where there is a particularly good Le Pain Quotidien, close to a Marks & Spencer food store and a Rymans.
What more could I want?
Note.
- I caught the bus close to my house and sat in the tail-gunner’s seat.
- The 73 bus has now been rerouted down Tottenham Court Road.
- The green-glazed building is University College Hospital. I now have a direct bus to the hospital, where I sometimes go for appointments.
- Tottenham Court Road is now two-way for buses, cyclists and taxis.
I shall use that Le Pain Quotidien more often.
The Small Sign That Means So Much To A Coeliac
I’ve bought Marks & Spencer’s mackerel pate for any years.
It’s the first time, I’ve noticed the packaging has the gluten-free symbol.
More please! My eyesight needs glasses to read the allergies!
Suzie’s Cup Of Joy
It must be very difficult for small cafes in this pandemic, but Suzie’s Cup of Joy in Cleethorpes seemed to be managing. They were certainly doing all the right things.
I had a gluten-free breakfast there on Wednesday.
I would have sat outside, but it was rather breezy.
Lunch At Cafe Piazza In The Hays Galleria
I had a gluten-free lunch in Caffe Piazza in the Hays Galleria near to London Bridge station.
I only had a baked potato and chilli con carne with a glass of wine, but that was all I needed.
I’ll definitely go back again.
Coulsdon South Station Has Gone Step-Free
Coulsdon South station went step-free a couple of months ago, so I went to take a look.
These are my thoughts.
The Bridge
Mechanically, the bridge is typical of many in the UK, but someone has taken care over the design, by the use of well-chosen colours and bricks.
The Café
We need more station cafes like Jaconelli’s Espresso Bar.
- Full range of proper coffee and other drinks.
- Cakes and snacks.
- Gluten-free options.
- Wude selection of alternative milks
- Knowledgeable and friendly staff.
I suspect it is also owner-managed, as most cafes of this type would be in Italy.
It’s one of the best cafes of its type, that I’ve found in a long time.
The Old Bridge
According to one of the guys in the café the old bridge needed replacing.
But leaving it intact, gives the young, fit or agile a second route across the tracks.
Local Walks And Attractions
There are walks nearby in the Surrey Hills and on the London Loop.
I was also told, that you can get a bus to the Lavender Fields.
Zone Six Station On Thameslink
The station is in Zone Six, which puts it in Freedom Pass territory.
It also has two Thameslink and two Southern trains per hour, so it is easily reached.
Car Parking And A Taxi Service
This Google Map shows the station.
Note the car parking and a taxi service, which is called District Cars.
Conclusion
Coulsdon South is now a very well-equipped station and it must be an ideal place to meet a friend, family member or work colleague to either have a chat or a serious discussion.
Surely, with more people continuing to work from home, the need for meetings between those in the office and those at home will grow! Zoom etc. can only do so much and the cpncept doesn’t suit everybody!
So perhaps we’ll see more community-managed meeting rooms, like the one I described in The Newly-Decorated White Horse Room In Westbury Is Open For Bookings.
Dexamethasone Declared First Drug To Save Lives Of Coronavirus Patients
The title of this post, is the same, as that of this article in The Times.
These are the introductory paragraphs.
British scientists have hailed a “huge breakthrough” in the fight against Covid-19 after a cheap drug was declared the first to save lives.
Dexamethasone, a decades-old steroid that costs about 50p per day, was found to reduce deaths by up to one third for the sickest patients. NHS hospitals were advised to begin using it immediately.
According to a retired Senior Hospital Pharmacist friend, Dexamethasone has been around a long time and is used in shock. She added “So don’t know why not tried before.”
The Times article says this about previous use.
While it had been administered to Covid patients in China and elsewhere its use was controversial, with no definitive proof that it worked.
Could it be that the research was discounted on ageist grounds against the drug?
Wikipedia also says this about the drug?
it was the 259th most prescribed medication in the United States, with more than a million prescriptions.
That is about 1-in-327 of the US population.
Dexamethasone And Coeliac Disease
Out of curiosity, I typed “Dexamethasone and coeliac disease” into Google.
I found this page on SpringerLink, which is entitled The Role of Corticosteroids In Celiac Disease.
This is the first sentence.
Since Dickie first described the benefits of a gluten-free diet in the 1940s and 1950s, this diet is the standard of care for all patients with celiac disease. For patients with a new diagnosis, dietary compliance can be difficult to achieve, possibly resulting in a clinical course marked by delayed recovery and persistent symptoms. This is of particular concern for patients in the developing world, where gluten-free food items may be difficult to obtain or to identify. While dietary modifications are likely to remain the treatment of choice in celiac disease, the use of adjuvant corticosteroids in newly diagnosed patients is a topic that has been addressed previously.
I’m no medic, so what follows in the scientific report is beyond my limited medical knowledge.
However in A Thought On Deaths Of The Elderly From Covid-19, I estimated that there are around 120,000 undiagnosed coeliacs in the UK, who are over 65. I used data from Age UK and Coeliac-UK.
According to Joe West of Nottingham University, diagnosed coeliacs on a gluten-free diet have less chance of getting cancer!
Could it be that this group of people, of which I am one, have a strong immune system?
So could the reverse be true and that undiagnosed coeliacs on a typical gluten-rich diet have a compromised immune system?
My son was an undiagnosed coeliac, with a poor diet who smoked. He died at just thirty-seven from pancreatic cancer!
Could some of the patients, who recovered from COVID-19, when given dexamethasone, have been undiagnosed coeliacs?
I, of course don’t know.
But the role of coeliac disease in the recovery from COVID-19 must be investigated.
A quick way to test my theory would be to survey the catering departments of all hospitals and see how much gluten-free food was being sent to wards, where COVID-19 is being treated.
Coeliacs, whether diagnosed by doctors or self-diagnosed, will probably be vociferous in their need for gluten-free food. I certainly was, when I had my stroke in Hong Kong.
Give me the data and I’ll analyse it!
I would also like to hear from any coeliacs, who have been given dexamethasone!
Will Bread And Circuses Help Us Through COVID-19?
Bread and circuses is an old phrase that goes back to Roman times.
It looks like TV and on-line cooks and chefs and the supermarkets have given us the first, so do we need more of the second?
At the weekend, I enjoyed watching quality horse-racing on ITV, so wouldn’t it be sensible to get football on free-to-air television as soon as possible.
It might encourage people to stay-in, rather than gather in groups.
Would it cut the spread of COVID-19?
COVID-19 Pandemic In Cambodia
The title of this post, is the same as this entry in Wikipedia.
This is the introductory paragraph.
The first case relating to the COVID-19 pandemic was confirmed in Cambodia on 27 January 2020. According to Global Health Security Index’s report in 2019, Cambodia ranked 89th out of 195 countries in preparedness for infectious disease outbreak.
It doesn’t prepare you well for the remarkable statistics from the country, given in the Wikipedia entry.
- Confirmed cases – 123
- Tests conducted – 15,162 as of 17th May
- Active case – 1
- Recovered – 122
- Deaths – 0
The Wikipedia entry then lists all of the cases in detail.
I know we can say that any country with an important amount of revenue from tourism can massage the statistics, but I do feel that the data is reasonably scientifically correct.
So why are Cambodia’s statistics so remarkable?
I have never visited Cambodia, but Cambodian cuisine used to be recognised as completely gluten-free, when I was diagnosed as a coeliac by Addenbrooke’s hospital in 1997. I was told by a dietician at the hospital, who joked that someone should start a Cambodian restaurant in Cambridge
There is sufficient data on the Wikipedia entry to almost do a professional track and trace and it appears that several cases came from a cruise ship and others from foreign travel.
But even so, only 52 Cambodians have been admitted to hospital with Covid-19 and all have survived.
Could it be that their diet gives them a strong immune system?
I seem to remember reading somewhere, that a scientist postulated that one of the waves of plague that swept Europe happened, soon after high-gluten wheat started to be grown in great quantities.
Conclusion
The Cambodians are obviously doing something right!
The Anonymous Widower 