Why Is Marks And Spencer At Eastfield, So Bad For Gluten-Free Food?
Sometimes, I will buy a gluten-free sandwich from Marks and Spencer! Not often, as their selection at the moment in many stores tends to be just a cheese ploughman’s, which has never been my favourite, as I generally only eat soft or blue cheeses. But most stores in London and especially those at stations sell them, as they did yesterday in Birmingham New Street station. My two local Marks at Islington and Finsbury Pavement, always have them.In the week, I also bought the excellent gluten-free breaded cod from Finsbury Pavement.
But why are there no sandwiches at the large Marks in the Eastfield shopping centre at Stratford? Or gluten-free cod either! It’s as though specific gluten-free products have been banned at Eastfield, as try to get a gluten-free meal there in any restaurant and they say they haven’t got anything. I also heard that the other restaurants said they didn’t want a Carluccio’s there.
So if you’re gluten-free, I recommend that you don’t go anywhere near the dreaded Eastfield!
The Dalston House Goes Worldwide
Type Dalston House into Google News and you don’t just find stories from the UK. There’s this story from the Baltimore Sun, which has an extensive set of excellent pictures, a long article from the New York Times, this story from India Today and another from the Daily Bhaskar.
Has Dalston now got its name into the news in such a way, that people will know where it is and something about the area?
It’s certainly all very positive!
Robert Peston On Wonga
Everybody and especially politicians of a certain colour, love to hate Wonga. I have little time for them, every since I saw a presentation by one of their founders at an Internet awards ceremony.
But Robert Peston in this article on the BBC web site, asks whether we look at Wonga through the wrong set of glasses. This is the first two paragraphs.
In many ways Wonga.com is an impressive, even admirable business (and please resist your temptation to send me hate mail – I am feeling delicate).
It is, for example, funded exclusively with equity capital, or £100m genuinely at risk of being lost if things go wrong.
The article also says that as it takes no deposits, it can’t suffer a run and be bankrupted, as effectively happened to Northern Rock. And will probably happen to other banks in the near future.
Remember, I used to part-own a finance company and did a lot of analysis of the dynamics of the loan business. Hence my admiration for the Zopa model, which I think is very stable. I said that here in a lot of detail.
Obviously, Wonga did a lot of analysis on their data and this has led them to their success, as they have the right model and technology. Peston says Wonga’s technology is world class. If banks such as RBS, Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley had had world-class technology, they might not have gone bust.
Most of the comments on the article, seem to say Wonga and their ilk should be banned.
But you’re going for an easy target, that plays well in the media.
The real problem with Wonga, is the appalling level of financial education in this country, which means that people succumb to the charms of the likes of Wonga.
If people knew how to manage their money better, there’d be no need for Wonga. But that doesn’t happen to people until they’ve had at least one financial crisis!
Look At This Guy!
Everybody is getting into the swing of the Dalston House.
These two pictures show someone enjoying himself.
Happy Hundredth Birthday To Isotopes
I was having a cup of tea in a cafe, when the geologist I was talking to, said that isotopes, were first discovered a hundred years ago, and that there was a bit of a celebration.
I learned about isotopes in my physics many years ago, but now all that I seem to remember is that two isotopes of the same element, have the same numbers of electrons and protons, but differ in the number of neutrons. Carbon for example has three forms, Carbon 12, Carbon 13 and Carbon 14. The three forms all contain six protons and electrons, but 6, 7 and 8 neutrons respectively. If you ever have heard of the Carbon 14 dating of objects, there is an article here, which describes the process.
I used the different isotopes many years ago, in one of the first pieces of decent software I wrote. I was trying to analyse the compounds in the output of a mass spectrometer. The samples contained lots of carbon compounds and I was told that the two common isotopes of Carbon 12 and Carbon 13, were in the ratio of ten to one, which meant that if you had a compound with several carbon atoms, you got a particular pattern. Experienced operators could identify the patterns. So I worked out how to calculate the patterns and match them to the compounds.
So that is how I learned about one of the uses of isotopes in the analysis of compounds.
This was in 1969 and the mechanics of writing the program on a machine with only 4 Kb of memory, were much more difficult than the methods involved.
The Dalston House
I went to look at the Dalston House Art Installation by Leandro Erlich, this morning.
The idea is basically very simple. a fake house front has been created on the ground and a large mirror at 45° has been placed so that if you say sit in the windows of the house, you can see yourself sitting in the reflection.
It was fascinating and many of those exploring it, seemed to feel they were children again.
One of the best things, was seeing the expression on a three-year-old’s face as he walked towards the mirror, seeing himself sticking out of the wall.
I can see that this simple idea being replicated all over the world.
My mother used to work at Reeves just round the corner and she used to tell a tale about how an enormous German bomb in the Second World War, destoryed a lot of the area. I checked at the library and the whole site, where the Dalston House has been built was a bomb site. They have a copy of the LCC Bomb Damage Book, which is a must-read book, for anybody, who lives or is thinking of living in an area of London that suffered bombing.
And to make everything even better, there is no entry charge to see this unusual work of art.
You just turn up and play! But they do limit the time you spend walking up and down the house to five or six minutes!
Would I Go Back To Hamburg Again?
Hamburg disappointed me. I think most of this was because I couldn’t get a decent pocket guide and it was just so hot and humid.
I suspect, I won’t return, as if I want to spend a night in that part of Germany, I’ve found a good alternative in Osnabruck. But I would take the Bird Flight Line again!
No Maps At Hamburg Station
There were no maps at Hamburg station. But there were cigarette adverts.
No Maps At Hamburg Station
In fact, there were cigarette adverts all over the city.
A Few Hours In Hamburg
I got to Hamburg about eight in the evening and my first priority was to get a hotel. It was a new hotel by the station and I booked for two nights.
Hamburg Station
The hotel was a disaster, or more likely the weather was, as my meter was showing 32°C and 70% humidity. I had to wedge the window open with my shoe and that just made the room hotter, as the air outside got in.
When the Tourist Office opened at ten, I was outside and got myself a free map, after a breakfast of orange juice and coffee, as true to form, there was nothing gluten-free in the station.
The map wasn’t the best, as it was far too large and was gradually disintegrating in the heat and humidity.
Hamburg’s Street Map
As the picture shows, it was impossible to hold with one hand. Luckily there were a few decent signposts and maps.
A Map In Hamburg
Eventually, I found my way to the impressive Rathaus.
Hamburg’s Impressive Rathaus
I had heard of a restaurant called Rudolph at Hafen City, that did gluten-free pizza. If this was as good as those in Munich, then this looked to be worth investigating for supper in the evening. The Internet entry said, that it was near to the U-bahn station. So I went into the U-bahn, quickly and easily bought a ticket and then spent thirty minutes wandering underground trying to find the platform for Hafen City. If I sometimes find Green Park and Kings Cross stations bad in London, they have nothing on the Rathaus station in Hamburg.
Eventually, I didn’t get tpo Hafen City, as the station hasn’t been built yet. So was this a case of “We have ways of getting you lost!”. It was also so unlike Munich, where things the information systems seemed to work well. But I also had a good map from the hotel.
It was then that I said that I should cut my losses and move on. So I went back to the hotel, packed my bag and then returned to the station, where I bought a ticket for Amsterdam.
Looking For A Stackable Dining Chair
In my house, I have an unusual elliptical table. I need some chairs to go with it, as the original Habitat ones C bought, are gradually giving up the ghost.
I’d seen one in a shop that might do, near to the grotty hotel, I’d spent the night in. But it was the other side of the station, between the station and the Metro station at Federiksberg. So I took the Metro to that station and then walked back. It was raining hard and my map had collapsed in the rain. I was on the point of giving up and trying to hail a taxi, when I found a parking map, and a helpful Dane, who said I could walk it in about ten minutes. I actually, ran it in five!
The chair is called Zesty and comes from PlyCollection. It is shown here.
At the price shown on the ticket, they are around 290 pounds. But the Latvian company, who makes them, don’t seem to have an agent in the UK.
In the end, I made the train with fifteen minutes to spare.
The Anonymous Widower 