Someone’s Feeding the McFoxes
I took this picture at the scruffy end of Oxford Street, whilst waiting for the bus home.
Someone’s Feeding the McFoxes
No wonder we have foxes everywhere, with customers of McDonalds putting their litter everywhere!
Love Is In The Air!
Or is it the Tube?
Love Is In The Air!
I took this picture this afternoon. I hope this guy’s extensive preparations went down well with his wife!
In some ways, I miss St. Valentine’s Day more than others, as C and I usually went somewhere nice to have a meal. I’d also usually got her some nice underwear or cashmere from one of the many on-line sales after Christmas. She was very easy to buy underwear for, as she was a very common size and she always liked expensive sets, that she knew had been picked up for a bargain.
It’s now six years since I had a good St. Valentine’s Day. Tonight, I’ll be cooking myself a pork chop with some vegetables and watching the football. I shall probably have a couple of Celias.
The Enforcer From The World Bank
Thirty or so years ago, I was going to San Jose from San Francisco airport in a limo. There were four of us sharing and one was one of the most dodgy guys I’d seen in some time. He was tall, fit, tanned and about sixty, with a long grey pony-tail, wearing cowboy boots, immaculate blue jeans and a black shirt. His only luggage was a battered brown leather hold-all. He looked just like a Columbian drug baron straight out of Central Casting. But from his accent, we could tell he was an American.
One of the guys politely asked him what he did. It turned out he’d been a US Army Colonel and he’d been recruited by the World Bank to look after projects in the rain forest. He was absolutely fascinating as he told about his work. He said that if you slash and burn the rainforest, you make just a few thousand dollars an acre, but if you harvest it selectively using the local Indians, you make many times more. He told how trees would be left until maturity and how many of the plants were collected for pharmaceuticals, leaving enough behind to collect in following years.
But he said to do this properly you needed to make tracks, which of course allowed the slash and burn merchants access to the jungle.
He also said that a lot of the problems were down to money lenders and corrupt operators, who drive the eco-system for their own selfish ends.
It was an amazing education in a limousine.
Transport for London Improve Their Apologies
I’ve just received the usual e-mail from Transport for London informing me of the weekend closures on the Underground/Overground. They say this about the Metropolitan line.
There is no service this weekend between Baker Street and Aldgate due to Crossrail work at Farringdon.
There is also no service this weekend between Wembley Park and Northwood/Uxbridge while we carry out track replacement work at Preston Road.
Call To Scrap Gluten-Free Food Prescriptions
This article on the BBC’s web site, talks about a call in a learned journal for gluten-free prescriptions to be stopped on the NHS.
I have had gluten-free prescriptions in the past, but quite frankly, living where I do now, to take them would be a waste of my time and the NHS’s money.
So what specific gluten-free foods do I buy?
1. A few ginger cakes from Waitrose, as I find they help my dry throat. I can’t make cakes any more and to be fair, I haven’t got any cake tins.
2. I usually have one loaf of Genius bread a week, which I can buy from any number of outlets locally, like Waitrose, Sainsbury or the Co-op.
3. I’m not much of a biscuit person, but I probably eat one pack a fortnight. I actually prefer genius toast with Benecol and jam.
4. As you see from this blog, I do buy the odd ready-meal like the venison from Marks and Spencer. But these are the standard product.
5. I buy some of the EatNatural gluten-free breakfast cereal. I get through about a packet a week.
6. I do buy a specialist gluten-free beer called Celia over the Internet.
If I take out the beers, which are £2.10 each, I probably spend under ten pounds a week on specific gluten-free food. Although of course, I do spend quite a bit more on quality fish, meat, vegetables and fruit.
If I had to get gluten free food on prescription, it would mean going to the surgery and back. Probably I’d walk, which would be good for me, but I have better things to do with my time. I’d then have to go to the pharmacy to collect it.
So for people like me, this would be no inconvenience at all.
Obviously, for those on a very limited income, it might be more of a problem.
But the real key to a successful gluten-free diet is to eat lots of natural foods like meat, fish, fruit and vegetables. None of these cost more if you are a coeliac, as they’re all naturally gluten free.
The expensive gluten-free items to buy are bread, biscuits, cakes, sandwiches and beer. But it could be argued that most people eat too much of these anyway.
If gluten-free food was stopped on the NHS, the only people who would complain, would be the chattering classes, who are probably allergic to nuclear power, HS2, fracking, the Supersewer, the Congestion Charge and using public transport. Many though, like me, will probably have their lunches in upmarket cafes like Carluccio’s.
I would apply the money saved in the NHS, by using it to subsidise the cost of quality gluten-free bread, pasta and perhaps some cakes and biscuits. So for example a gluten-free loaf would then cost very much the same as a quality gluten-rich one.
That way all coeliacs would benefit.
It would also create jobs. Just think of the quality sandwich shop, where the owner makes his own sandwiches to order. So you want gluten-free bread? – No problem!
We don’t have a coeliac health problem over diet in this country. We have a health problem over diet. So let’s solve them all together with a proper integrated policy to get everybody eating well.
You won’t get everyone to eat better, but at least you’ll get some avoiding the problems of a bad diet.
And People Worry About HS2 And Other Developments!
I do sometimes worry about the grip some people have on sense. Look at this article, about the damage done by the slag heap from a coal mine to the railways near Doncaster.
We should have got rid of our coal mines just after we found we had North Sea Gas and Oil, and probably developed nuclear power for most of or electricity. Instead we struggled on with the world’s most polluting fuel for many years.
Now the Nimbys don’t want any developments, be they fracking, nuclear power, wind power or even new railways like HS2. I suspect, if you had a vote on new motorways it would pass, provided they didn’t build one near to the voters.
But how many people will call this trouble with the trains near Doncaster, an environmental disaster caused by not getting rid of coal years ago? I will!
One Of The Most Significant Places In My Life
After leaving Enfield, I took a nostalgic ride on a 121 bus to Southgate to get the Piccadilly line back to Central London. I pased this anonymous block of modern flats at the top of Windmill Hill.
One Of The Most Significant Places In My Life
So why is it significant. On the site there used to be a nursing home, which is where I was delivered by my parent’s GP; Dr. Egerton White.
Marks And Spencer, Enfield
For many years Enfield didn’t have a Marks and Spencer.
Marks And Spencer, Enfield
They do now! It was always said in the 1950s and 1960s, that the other shops wouldn’t allow them into the town centre. So we always went to the one in Wood Green, which in those days was one of its better and bigger stores. Although last time I went past it, it appeared to have seen better days.
Pearsons Is Still There
When C and I were children, if our parents wanted anything for the home or perhaps some school uniform, we would take the 107 bus from Oakwood and East Barnet respectively and go to Enfield to shop at Pearsons, which was the local department store.
Pearsons Is Still There
It still is, as the picture shows. Although, it is now part of a larger group.
All those days ago, Pearsons was a shop with a central Accounts Department. So if you bought anything, the bill and your money was sent by a system of overhead wires and little trolleys by the assistant and then the change was returned. Later it was replaced by a pneumatic system, which was similar to the one, that Libertys were using into the 1970s.
There’s more in Wikipedia under cash carriers.
The Wheatsheaf, Enfield Chase
The Wheatsheaf, by Enfield Chase station, is another pub, where I used to drink with my mate, Pete, like the Warwick in New Barnet.
The Wheatsheaf, Enfield Chase
Both these pubs were on the 107 bus route from where we lived at Oakwood.
If I’d walked back up the hill in the 1960s, I would have seen the local printing firm of Bennett and Starling, who were one of my father’s competitors. The site is now a littleWaitrose and some housing.
The Anonymous Widower 