A Simple Ham And Vegetable Soup
I cooked this on Friday, using the leftover vegetables from the fish pies, I cooked earlier in the week. The recipe was based on this soup from Nigella.
I started by chopping up an onion, two garlic cloves and a fresh chilli and sautéing them in olive oil until they were soft.
Onion, Garlic And Chili
I then added a diced carrot, two diced sticks of celery, one bubble of some of Waitrose’s ham hock, some chicken stock and some water. I brought it to the boil and then simmered it for an hour.
Simmering The Soup
After that, I added a few sliced courgettes, half a cup of frozen peas, a small tin of three bean mix and a generous handful of pasta and then cooked it for ten minutes, until it was nice and hot.
Cooking The Courgettes, Peas And Pasta
The only problem, was that I made it a bit thick, but it tasted good.
A Big Bowl Of Soup
I think next time, I’ll make a bigger pot of it and work out how to freeze it for later.
Delia has a page here about freezing soups and a whole list of soups. But beware, the page is full of annoying adverts.
Welcome To Kings Cross
I started my trip to Blackpool, yesterday by going to St. Pancras station for breakfast at Carluccio’s, as because of its location it opens early at 7:30 am on every day except Sunday, when it is ninety minutes later.
So to catch the 10:30 train out of Euston to go north for Preston and Blackpool, it is convenient pit stop, as there is nothing but gluten-rich food at Euston. And also at Kings Cross, there is Leon, so journeys to the north for me, nearly always go through the station.
But it was very heartening to be greeted at the gate of the Underground by “Come on the Tractor Boys!” from one of the station staff. So it wasn’t busy, but one of the things that marks out the London Underground above most systems in the rest of the world, is the help, guidance and jokes from station staff.
It all makes the system go round easily!
The Good And The Bad Of A & E
The saga of my hand is hopefully now finished.
But it does illustrate the good and the bad of A & E in the NHS.
The damage happened near to my surgery and the nurse patched it up. She also checked my tetanus and found it was up to date.
But possibly because of my Warfarin, the blood started to seep around the plaster and in the end, when I started dripping blood all over a Victoria line train, I got out at Warren Street station and I went to A & E at University College Hospital. They did a stronger patch but even that fell apart, probably because I type too much and the damage was on the point of the knuckle.
So it was back to the surgery and then on to Boots, where I bought a large traditional plaster to put over the lot, and some white cotton gloves to protect the whole package.
I still have a scab on the back of the hand and now because of the success of the hospital bandage, I wear a wrist support to take the pressure off my wrist and the knuckle.
The treatment, I got was generally good and quick, as who would complain at forty minutes in A & E for a minor injury.
But as I live alone and couldn’t patch it up myself with one good hand, it needed trips to get medical help.
So are we seeing more people going to A & E because so many of us now live alone? And is A & E geared up for it?
But the real problem that A & E has, is the lack of a joined up database with my GP. The nurse at the surgery checked my tetanus status, which I thought was good, but of course, I couldn’t remember the date. The nurse in the hospital asked and I told her it was good. but she had no means of checking.
Incidentally, one thing that saved time in A & E was that I’d been an in-patient at the hospital and I was already registered.
Those who object to a large joined up NHS patient database, are probably the people, who complain loudest at the wait in A & E.
But how much time and effort would it save?
I Miss My Boots
Boots in Islington is being expanded as I showed here.
But it now looks like May 2014 before it is fully opened.
It is a bit of a pain, as it is so convenient and very much up the ladder of helpful.
Stories About Wind Power
I don’t like large onshore wind turbines, as I believe they destroy wonderful views and the economics are not very sound.
On the other hand, when they are offshore, they are less intrusive and the economics might be better. But even so the arrays have to be properly designed and sited.
The real place for wind turbines is to provide distributed power to difficult places, where a small amount of electricity is required and running a cable would be expensive.
I’ve not been happy on the effect of turbines on birds ever since, I read several articles about how in the United States, wind farms kill eagles and other large birds. Yesterday The Times published a similar article about their effect on bats.
I’m always sceptical about the reasons for publishing these articles, as I’m pretty certain, that they are very much the sort of story that pleases Middle England, who feel the turbines will make their house drop in value.
The Times also published a story about a wind turbine on the Welsh Assembly, which is also reported on the BBC. This is the first paragraph.
A wind turbine that cost the Welsh government £48,000 to buy has been generating an average of just £5 worth of electricity per month.
It all goes to show that wind turbines may not be as economic, as their proponents say they will be.
One thing I’d like to see is an open database on the Internet of all turbines, with their detailed cost, subsidy and revenue, so anybody who wanted to, could check the efficiency and economics of any turbine.
Only if that information wee to be freely available, would we be able to know if they were money well spent.
Off To Blackpool Today
I’m going for the day to see my football team; Ipswich Town play there.
I’m dreading part of it. Breakfast at Carluccio’s in St. Pancras will be it’s usual good standard and the Virgin trains to Preston will probably be excellent, but the local train to Blackpool will be it’s usual crap self. Then it will be a walk in pouring rain to the ground, as only locals can fathom how to use, the town’s Third World bus system. But that is probably an insult to places like Goa, where I explored the area on the buses with a titled blonde widow. I think she was rather disappointed, in that she didn’t get her bottom pinched. But then the people of the sub-continent, are generally very polite and courteous.
At least though, the rain will wash the pavements of Blackpool of the vomit, that they seem to be paved with.
The football will probably be terrible because of the rain.
It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it.
Following Cycling Superhighway 2
I came home from Stratford by following the Cycling Superhighway 2 (CS2)
For the first part of the journey I walked and then I hopped onto a 25 bus.
The first part to the notorious Bow roundabout is very good, but between the roundabout and Whitechapel needs a lot of improvement to make it up to the same standard.
Will car drivers and other road users accept the narrowing of the carriageway and will pedestrians and the numerous Asian businesses along the road feel aggrieved at the reduction in pavement space?
I feel though, that the cycling superhighway should be built to a high standard and separated from other road users.
Only time will tell if what eventually happens is a good decision for all those, who use the area.
But we’ve had too many deaths and serious injuries amongst cyclists.
On a [personal note, if I had a nice cycling superhighway running towards the City, say down the Kingsland Road, it might encourage me to get on my bike. That would be something, that would improve my health.
Kippers And A Kestrel At The Olympic Park
I went for a walk along the Greenway, that crosses the Olympic Park this morning.
I ended up at the ViewTube, where I had some delicious kippers and scrambled egg on Genius toast for lunch!
The shots labelled Landscapng are of the area west of the Greenway, which was the athletics warm-up area.
The Tripe Talked About Building Warships In The UK
I have been listening and watching the debate about BAE ‘s decision to end warship building at Portsmouth and move this all to Glasgow.
Much of the argument has been based on emotional facts like Portsmouth has been building warships since the Mary Rose and political considerations of keeping Scotland happy. Little has got anything to do with having a Royal Navy that is fit for purpose.
This article on the BBC, gives a pretty good assessment of the political story. This section is the heart of the article.
So was this a sweetener to Scotland, to stave off a Yes vote? The Defence Secretary Philip Hammond was asked repeatedly in the Commons to say whether the Scottish poll had influenced his choice.
He made, broadly, three replies to the variety of ways in which he was posed that question. Firstly, he stressed that the decision to locate warship building solely in Glasgow was taken by BAE, with endorsement from the Ministry of Defence. It was, thereby, primarily an industrial rather than a political choice.
Secondly, he stressed the importance of cost. His entire statement was predicated upon the drive to contain rising costs in the aircraft carrier contract. The identification of a sole location was also, he suggested, driven by cost efficiency.
But, thirdly, he made a point with regard to the forthcoming orders for Type 26 ships. Mr Hammond’s core point in respect of the carriers was that a blunder had been made (by the predecessor government) in placing the contracts for these vessels before design was completed.
He would not repeat that error, he said, with the Type 26 contract. It would not be placed before design was “mature”. That would be at the end of 2014. He noted, twice, that would be after the Scottish referendum in September of that year.
So BAE, had to make a decision, before they know what orders are coming. They are a supposedly commercial organisation, so they will do what they see is best for the company. Given that costs are higher in Portsmouth than Glasgow for most things, I suspect that there was only two solutions; persuade the Government to buy lots of warships that we don’t need or close Portsmouth.
In the arguments I heard, no-one seemed to bring up the Falkland Islands. When Argentina invaded, as regards warships we were ill-prepared and had to scramble hard to get a task force together. But the rest as they say is history!
The one thing we can say with certainty, is that if we need to use the Navy in anger again, we’ll have the wrong ships, and they’ll be in the wrong place.
It was always thus!
I would suspect that the Navy goes through some of the most bizarre scenarios, and works out how they will handle them and that there will be a lot of improvisation in there.
Look at the operational history of HMS Ocean and you’ll find a lot of it, is in response to events. If you read the Wikipedia entry for HMS Ocean, you’ll find this gem.
While Swan Hunter viewed the ships as entirely military, “VSEL thought the design was basically a merchant ship with military hardware bolted on.” VSEL’s decision to sub-contract the build phase took advantage of lower overheads at a civilian yard as well as efficiency drives by its parent, Kværner. The cut-price build to commercial standards means that Ocean has a projected operational life of just 20 years, significantly less than that of other warships.
VSEL and Swan Hunter were completing for the work. But there was some serious innovation in the construction of this, in my view, successful warship. It’s certainly got us out of trouble a few times.
Innovation has been lacking over the years in the design of warships, which partly explains, why we and probably every other Navy has the wrong ships for a serious crisis.
One thing that should be thrown in, is if warship building is so important and BAE are so good at it, why aren’t we exporting ships to other friendly nations?
So are we subsidising warship building and BAE to an unsustainable high level?
The Hackney Eight Have Got Tail-Gunners Again
I got the 38 bus back from the Angel this morning, travelling on one of the Hackney Eight.
They’ve now got tail-gunners for the next four weeks as an experiment, according to the driver.
What we really need on the 38, is reinforcements for the loyal eight New Buses for London, we have!
Why shouldn’t the residents of Hackney, Clapton and Islington, not be able to travel First Class?
The Anonymous Widower 