Blankets At Carluccio’s In St. Pancras Station
Carluccio’s in St. Pancras Station has started issuing customers with blankets.
Blankets At Carluccio’s In St. Pancras Station
I’m not sure, but I’ve used that restaurant for some years now and I’ve never seen the blankets before. A few customers outside had the blankets wrapped snuggly over their laps and around their legs.
Has this winter been that bad? Or are we all getting soft and feel the cold more?
I did find the blankets mentioned in Trip Advisor for March 20th this year.
Britain Is Running Out Of Wheat
As a coeliac, I had to laugh when i saw this headline on a newspaper on my way to Derby today. But it’s true according to this report on the BBC.
Let them eat rice, maize and millet I say! It’ll be good for them to get off the dreaded gluten!
A Beagle Comes To Hoxton
One of my Internet trawls found this restaurant, called Beagle, that is opening in Hoxton. I paid it a visit today.
It is conveniently situated underneath the railway arches of the East London line at Hoxton station, just behind the Geffrye Museum.
One of the staff said they would be doing gluten-free food, so I think I’ll give it a try after it opens on Monday the eighth and when I return from my travels to Budapest.
The designers seem to have done a good job.
I wonder if it will set a precedent for stylish restaurants in stations on the London Overground!
Wouldn’t it be wonderful to eat and drink your way in a complete circle around London!
Should We Buy Tea Shares?
The Times today makes a joke on the business pages about builders in wet February and freezing March, sitting around in huts drinking tea.
I must admit my consumption, has been very high in recent months.
So should we put our money where our mouth sups and invest in tea shares?
How To Cut Strokes
I like to think, I’m more or less following what is said in this story. Here’s an extract.
Increasing potassium in our diets as well as cutting down on salt will reduce blood pressure levels and the risk of stroke, research in the British Medical Journal suggests.
One study review found that eating an extra two to three servings of fruit or vegetables per day – which are high in potassium – was beneficial.
Funnily enough though, I’ve never really liked salt on my food. Perhaps, it was because my late mother-in-law used it so liberally, but I think the preference goes back further than that.
In some ways though, the older I get, the more I believe that a gluten-free diet is good for you. I suppose Novak Djokovitch would agree!
Reading’s Style Before Substance Maps
On my trip today, I’d planned to have lunch in Carluccio’s, so before I left, I looked up the address and the walking route from Reading station.
So after taking the photos of the station, I walked into the town centre and traced the way my mind told me to go. I had hoped to get help from a map, but all I had were ones like this.
Reading’s Style Before Substance Maps
Stylish they may be, but they aren’t the best, if you want to find a street, you’ve looked up previously, as there isn’t enough detail and no street index.
Luckily in the end, I found a local who knew where Carluccio’s was and I walked there and had an excellent lunch.
Londoners like me, are very used to good maps, as I can always remember them from my childhood, when every Tube station had a local map. Now every bus stop does, like this one at the Angel.
Local Street Map At The Angel
At the Angel too, there are also informational maps of the area, with all of the major buildings and landmarks indicated.
informational Map At The Angel
Reading’s maps may be stylish, but they are useless if you’re not a local and don’t use a smart phone.
But say you want to find Carluccio’s at Islington, you would just say
The restaurant is by St. Mary’s Church, opposite the Almeida Theatre.
Both places are mentioned on Islington’s informational map.
Perhaps the maps in Reading, were designed, by trendy smart phone freaks, who don’t realise how a lot of people think and operate.
The problem was made worse at Reading, because there was no local information or map at the station. This was probably due to the rebuilding. I didn’t even notice the finger posts, I saw the last time I was in the town. Have they been replaced by the maps?
The Joy Of Global Warming
Bjorn Lomborg likes to provoke and this article in the Sunday Times certainly does. He starts the article like this.
As I fly into a snow-bound Britain, I realise that you might be asking where global warming has gone as you shiver in the coldest March for 50 years and wonder what you will do if gas has to be rationed. I have been involved in the climate debate for more than a decade, but I am still amazed at how wrong we get it. Let us try to restart our thinking on global warming.
Yes, global warming is real and mostly man-made, but our policies have failed predictably and spectacularly.
He then goes on to say that Kyoto has failed.
But he does produce a solution that could be a win-win situation for everyone.
He says that we should spend money on research!
He is right!
Just look what has happened to products like computers because money has been spent on research!
I have heard some wacky ideas to generate energy and cut carbon dioxide emissions over the last few years. Some of them might just be the things we do to save the planet.
But then engineers and scientists have a track record in digging us out of the holes that politicians and others have got us into.
Where for instance would Britain be today without the genius of Henry Royce, Lord Hives, RJ Mitchell, Alan Blumlein, Alan Turing and Sydney Camm. Under a Nazi jackboot perhaps?
But they and others answered Churchill’s plea and gave the country the tools to finish the job.
A similar massive effort today on a world-wide basis would I believe solve the problems of global warming and create a world fit for our descendents.
The same approach could be used on all of the major problems of the world like cancer, providing clean water, housing and food production.
The Awareness Of Coeliac Disease
According to the Restaurant Manager, there were twenty-four people on a gluten-free diet out of a total of 1,800 passengers.
But what surprised me was the number of passengers, who on seeing my bread or asking, why I declined a roll and hearing the answer, said that they knew of a coeliac or had one in the family.
Without doubt, the awareness of coeliac disease is increasing and this can only be a good thing!
Lisbon’s Metro
Lisbon’s Metro is modern, fairly extensive and impressive.
I used it several times and especially after I found there was a station by the Cruise Terminal.
One thing to note is that there is a very large El Cortes Ingles built on top of the São Sebastião Metro station, which is on the line that goes to the Cruise Terminal. The shop had a massive food department, so I suspect, it had a selection of gluten-free food.
Chocolates On Oriana
I’m always wary of the chocolates, that hotels and indeed cruise ships, put on your bed at night.
Chocolates On Oriana
This one was from Whittakers Chocolates and the excellent Restaurant Manager certified they were gluten-free. I had no trouble with them, although there was another sort, I didn’t sample.
My caution stems from a night a few years ago, in a five star hotel in Spain, where the chocolate had a biscuit inside. Luckily my late wife, C, was acting as food taster and after eating her chocolate, quickly ate mine as well.
The Anonymous Widower 