The Plight Of The Bees
It would appear that bees are not doing well. Over the years, I’ve known a few people who kept bees and we even had a Primary School teacher called Adams, who was a bee enthusiast and sometime keeper. My physio at the Angel, was even given a jar of Stamford Hill honey from an Orthodox Jewish client. Read why honey is kosher here.
I like my honey and I would miss it, if it disappeared, so I’m watching the arguments on whether neonicotinoids should be banned. Many of the arguments are outlined is this article from the BBC in Scotland, about whether if a ban is brought in, Scotland should delay implementation.
It is the classic argument, where commercial interests, which in this case are farmers and pesticide manufacturers are arguing against the emotions of various lobby groups.
We seem to be getting a lot of arguments like this these days, with fracking, nuclear power, waste incinerators and HS2 producing similar stands-off.
With the bees and neonicotinoids, there is a solution and that is research, performed scientifically over a period of years. But I suspect both sides of the argument, would probably not want to wait for any conclusions and then if it was against their views, they wouldn’t accept it anyway.
Janice Turner in the Times last week, published an article entitled, Hectoring won’t persuade the MMR-deniers. The title alone says it all, about those who are against MMR.
So this argument about bees and neonicotinoids, will buzz on for years.
An Eat-Travel-Watch-Return Trip
I mentioned this in the previous post about next season and increasingly, I’m finding that this is the way I go to football matches.
I eat first, often at the London station, like Kings Cross or Waterloo, but sometimes like yesterday for the trip to Portman Road at home, which is a about twenty minutes from Liverpool Street station.
I then travel out in First Class, so I get a comfortable trip, getting to the match just before kick-off.
Afterwards, I usually take the first train back.
Next Season Is Starting To Take Shape
After yesterday, the matches that Ipswich Town will play next season are starting to come into line.
I can start to work out, which matches will be a bit more than an Eat-Travel-Watch-Return trip.
Looking at Championship promotion and relegation, it looks like the following.
Cardiff are definitely up and although I’ve never been to see Ipswich there, it’ll be one I’m happy to miss. Although, I quite like going to the Welsh capital on the best diesel trains in the world. I must go again to Cardiff or Swansea before the trains are retired from that route.
It looks like the others to go up are one or both from Hull and Watford, and possibly one from Brighton, Crystal Palace, Bolton, Nottingham Forest and Leicester. I would be sad to miss out on the trips to Hull, Watford, Brighton and Nottingham and I’d love to get rid of Leicester, as the ground is so far from the station. I think on balance, I’m prepared to put up with the dump that is Selhurst Park, to see an easy away match. It’s just a pity, that the two to go up can’t be Bolton and Leicester.
Sadly at the other end of the table, three of my favourite away places; Barnsley, Bristol City and Wolves are in line for relegation, along with Peterborough. The only one I’m not bothered about is the latter, as although the ground is one of the worst in the Championship, the city is worth a visit. After my last trip to Wolves, I think that I’ll miss that trip the most.
I’ll deal with who’s coming up first. Doncaster and Bournemouth are definitely up and although, I like Doncaster’s new ground, you have to get a taxi from the station and I would suspect, that Doncaster isn’t the most coeliac-friendly town. But as you go there from Kings Cross, it’s an Eat-Travel-Watch-Return trip. Bournemouth is an easy trip, the ground is very good and I’d probably fortify myself with a good breakfast at Carluccio’s in Waterloo.
Of the other candidates to possibly come up; Brentford, Yeovil, Sheffield United and Swindon, I’m really only against Yeovil, as that is an almost impossible trip. Brentford would be a low-cost bonus and Sheffield United and Swindon are more easy trips. Although, after my last trip back from Sheffield, I’d prefer one of the others.
The big question is who’s coming down from the Premier League, with Reading and QPR, who seem to me certain to get relegated. It’ll either be Aston Villa, Newcastle or Wigan. I hope it’s not Wigan, as that is a bad ground to travel to. I think I’d prefer Aston Villa to Newcastle, solely on the distance involved.
The team I’m annoyed about, who are coming down is QPR, as they have the worst ground for away supporters, where I’ve ever seen a match. Hopefully, they’ll get promoted or relegated quickly, or perhaps their rich owners, will walk away from their toy and the club will do a Portsmouth.
Since I wrote this post, we’ve seen Reading and QPR commit mutual suicide in a monochrome match. So I’ll just have to put on my strongest underwear and brave a trip to Loftus Road for a season or two.
Nuts May Contain Nuts
A supermarket is in trouble for not saying a packet of monkey nuts contains nuts. It’s here in the Guardian.
Mid-Sized Shepherd’s Pies
I recently bought two small Le Creuset dishes that were on offer in John Lewis.
So I made some of my Shepherd’s Pie mixture and made a large individual pie in each.
Mid-Sized Shepherd’s Pies
I then cooked one and ate it as I often do, with lashings of tomato sauce.
Shepherd’s Pie With Tomato Sauce
i wonder if you could have a surprise pie party, as various pies can be made this way. So some would get fish, others meat of various sorts and you might even throw in a few veggie ones.
Holy Crap
This product got a plug on Have I Got News For You, tonight.
I thought it was a spoof, but if it is, the web site is a masterpiece of misleading information.
It is actually a gluten-free breakfast cereal. The product page is here and I only have one problem with it and that is that it contains cranberries, which are a no-no if you are on Warfarin.
My other problem might be putting on a lumberjack shirt and high heels to eat it.
It Looks Like Crunchies May Now Have Added Gluten
I never trust American food companies not to add gluten to products.
When Cadbury was British, you could trust that Crunchies were gluten-free and I’ve ate many without any reaction.
However, this message has just turned up on the UK-Coeliac Yahoo group.
I just had one of those Cadbury Crunchies from a pack of three, and am now in pain and looking 9 months pregnant.
I checked the ingredients first, and it just said “Contains Milk”… Lying Kraft/Mondelez/Cadbury B^&/4£ds!…
I went to Cadbury.com and it went to “Mondelez” which is apparently the new name that Kraft are hiding behind.
It is very telling that the text on the very top of the page is the current Nasdaq share price, and when I searched for “gluten” on their website it came back with “no results found”.
Cadbury used to be very good about gluten, but it is clear that these evil devils couldn’t give a toss about the poisons they put in their products or the people eating them.
Avoid…
I will do what the lady says at the bottom and won’t touch any more Cadbury products again.
So the Americans have ruined a classic British brand.
Pâté, Lovely Pâté
I’ve always liked coarse pork pâté and this one from Waitrose is one of the best! This was my lunch!
Pâté, Lovely Pâté
The only allergen is egg. It went very well with Genius toast and Benecol.
A Bus Stop With A Carluccio’s
The Carluccio’s in Upper Street, Islington, is a uniquely convenient restaurant.
A Bus Stop With A Carluccio’s
Today, I had to get a snack lunch and then go on to Kings Cross station to pick up some rail tickets for my trip to Burnley for the last day of the football season.
So I got a 30 bus to this bus stop, had my lunch at Carluccio’s and then after lunch got on another 30 bus to the station. It really, is a conveniently placed restaurant, at one of those mini-bus interchanges, you get all over London. And Carluccio’s is not the only restaurant in walking distance of this bus stop.
I do think sometimes, that those who open restaurants forget about the buses and don’t think to place their hostelries, where passengers change buses. I can think of a couple of bus interchanges, where the cafe offerings are distinctly poor.
What’s The Difference Between A Sardine And A Pilchard?
A sardine comes in a flat tin and a pilchard comes in a round one.
I found that answer here.
The Anonymous Widower 