Wednesday 29 January 2020

I Have Become A Slow Veggie


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Yesterday I was in Penarth for the specific purpose of having my hair cut in what seems to me to be the only barbers in the town centre where an appointment to cut the fighting silver spiders that pass for my hair these days.I

It was the right time to go given that there was a hailstorm just a few minutes previously meaning that the place in Glebe street was empty. Not only that the lady actually doing my hair, the owner, lived in the Cardiff area of Danescourt, not far away from Pentrebane. Pentrebane is only second in my experience to Ely as the place with "the reputation" in the city. I lived there with the wife since 1997 before we moved to Bridgend and whilst it's not Paris or Milan I had no problems living there.

Anyway I digress. The cut (needed anyway but made pressing as I'm going to a funeral on Friday) was done and efficient. Exactly how I want my hair to be. Not hippy but not US marine either. It was about one pm. Lunchtime. And I was hungry.

I have I must admit toyed with the idea of becoming a vegetarian for a while now. And whilst the demarcation lines between the veggie and the veganie are still new to me the way the environment is going it seemed like the right thing to do.

But.....

And there really are buts for a 56 year old man contemplating to become a non-meat eater. Let's go through them.

1) I am not a regular cook outside of a microwave. OK of course I should learn but if you look at most vegetarian cookbooks it's noticeable that it includes a vegetable that I've never heard of before or is not easily obtainable. So my lack of knowledge of the culinary arts plus the seeming need to become the Indiana Jones of plant based food just to get that extra ingredient is daunting.
2) Being a shift worker when I return to the house at around 22:45 I'm not going to cook anything from scratch oh no. My cooking abilities consist making holes in the seal and heating up a microwave meal. And I tell you vegetable lasagne aside I've yet to try a non meat microwave meal I've truly liked.

3) And I truly cannot express this strongly enough. Meat is tasty. The sizzle of a bacon sandwich, the glories of a sausage, the roast beef to make that Sunday meal complete. These are taste bud memories to be treasured,

So back we are then to lunchtime in Penarth. I fancy a sausage roll. A Sausage roll is one of life's quiet little pleasures. It warms you up. It fills you up. You wash it down with something and you're ready for the rest of the day.

I enter Greggs knowing that they are now selling a Vegan sausage roll for the same price as the meat version. I buy both.

Now this was obviously not a blind tasting but I tell you whilst there was a difference it was slight. Genuinely it could pass itself as the meatier package.

The doubts in my mind have gone away. I will become a non meat eater....but slowly.

For the reasons I gave earlier I will need time to adjust and plan. So my 2020 new year resolution is to become a slow veggie. By the end of this year I intend to have at least one day meat free, by the end of 2021 that will increase to four and by the end of 2022 I plan to have completely changed my diet.

Will it work? We shall see. I intend to chat about my progress as I go along.

Until the next time.

Saturday 25 January 2020

Bridgend Town : The Misery Continues


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

As regular readers of this blog will know I've chatted about Bridgend town many times Appalled as I've been by it's decline which as I've argued before is mainly due to the decisions made by the local Labour council.

It has been a while since I've last visited and as always when I do these talks I stress that it's not scientific in any way. Just one old guy wandering around for about two hours.

I saw a new coffee shop. a vape shop and a charity shop. But they are not places that would revitalised an urban landscape. Also as is always the case with Bridgend Town when a shops open other places seem to close. Now some of them  (such as Bonne Marche - on it's final days) are linked to nationwide issues. But with others local factors also apply.

So let's start with how you see Bridgend Town when walking into it from the local ASDA  You see this. Now the building was the local public toilets. Shamefully closed down by the council last year. However if you look at it now not has the council closed it down but they've allowed it to rot. So not only do visitors notice the lack of public conveniences but also the first proper structure they would see would be this.

Welcome to Bridgend

Regular readers will know the story of the now closed Nolton Arcade a group of small shops which remained empty for years before the council literally closed the entrance. The only two shops remaining were the two that were adjacent to Nolton Street.

However now....

And then there was one

I've mentioned it before but this was a Friday morning in a Welsh town and yet it was comparatively quiet.look at this picture. I've mentioned the bunting before. Nothing has changed. Nothing has been touched and it's been over a year.



And speaking of nothing changing brings us to the indoor market. No new stalls as I could see it though there was something under construction in the centre. No idea what. However being late January what still remains are...

Christmas decorations...in late January

Again image is everything. No one is helping Bridgend Town.

Things are looking bleak.


Until the next time.



Thursday 9 January 2020

I Prefer Chatty Carrie Fisher


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

So what leads me to buying a book from an author I've never read about a film I've never seen? Well for a start it's The Princess Diaries by Carrie Fisher about her experience before,during and after filming Star Wars.

So back to the question. Why did I buy it? Well for a start it was just for 99p in an Amazon Daily Deal. So price was a factor.
I also have an ebook of hers on my epic epile of eunread at the moment
Also Star Wars is that sort of film that 's so famous you think you've seen it all piecemail already.

But finally when I've seen Carrie Fisher in interviews she always seemed entertaining and likeable.

So I bought it.

Let's say first that for the most part the title is misleading. It's not really a diary, neither is it a reel by reel account of her time with the franchise. What it is. And what works is that its like she's having a coffee somewhere with you and chatting away with tales of a time that whether she liked it or not probably shared her life forever. Including a fling with co-star Harrison Ford.

And as long as you're not upset that the title is misleading you will enjoy this book. What you won't enjoy are the bits which are actually taken from her diaries at the time which really are just a load of teenage twaddle (including - you have been warned - poetry). It really is the worse part and you're grateful that teenage Carrie reverts to being Chatty many years under her belt Carrie again.

Most of all on completing this you will realise how much you miss the fact she's no longer with us. Consumed in that cull of celebrities that swept 2016. You miss the humour, the never took herself seriously, the kookiness and yes the grace.
And remember I've never seen Star Wars.

Until the next time.

Saturday 4 January 2020

As Donald Trump Leads Us Into World War Three Let's Chat About The Loss Of The Library Date Stamp.


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

A couple of days back I was able to go into what is since our move the local library in the centre of Penarth Town. I'll chat properly about it another time and will obviously chat about the book I borrowed when finished. Though for the purposes of record only this was what I took out.



What bothered me about the experience was what happened after I approached the library desk to get the book checked out. Instead of having a simple stamp inked into the first inside page giving a clear unequivocal idea as to what the date of return would be before the Penarthian literary police threw the book at me.

Instead I was lead to a relatively tall impersonal machine by a kindly lady librarian, clearly weary about having to show this to people like me. I was told to scan the barcode of the book, and then the barcode of my library card. Out from the machine Bank Slip style came this.

Pathetic Isn't It?
I hated it. There was first a certainty about the stamp and the emboldened date of return which this ticket does not have. Also it was always interesting to see how popular a book you had chosen was by looking at all the other times it had been borrowed.

There is also the environmental impact of all those little pieces of paper being created when the old ways were actually more friendly given that the paper and the stamp itself was recyclable Also of course it's likely for these scraps to be lost.

But of course what I really hate about this. And I mean HATE. Is that it represents change for change sake. One less job for the librarian to do does not that he/she is going to be doing something else. No it means that a Vale of Glamorgan councillor will advocate that there will be less librarians and more volunteers to save money further. More @Community libraries@ which I must be honest I hadn't realised that my previous library in Sully was. Librarians as profession, let alone libraries as an institution are under threat by people who hardly read anything without pictures and don't care anyway.

Saving money in the short term will mean losing money in the long term as people will have less free access to information that will open their minds and perhaps their futures. Perhaps that's the idea.

And why does this come back to Trump? Because this idea of thinking outside the box misses that the box is there in the first place because it's secure. Without the box things tumble out and are difficult to control. It's the sort of right wing thinking that has taken hold and needs to be attacked before it does even more damage.

Until the next time.





Thursday 2 January 2020

A Weapon Of Wax Destruction


Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

A couple of days ago at work I noticed that a colleague wasn't walking comfortably. I asked why and she explained that a candle had dropped on her foot breaking two toes.

Now I must admit that my first reaction was to laugh (well you would wouldn't you?) in the same way that you would on seeing someone slip on a banana skin showing concern instantly afterwards.

Only later did I realise that when she was talking of a candle my colleague wasn't talking about a small thin white construction that people might use if there's a power cut. No she had been injured by a Yankee Candle or one of their competitors type of waxed construct. In other words a heavy lump of wax encased by a heavier lump of glass. So whether the candle had been dropped by accident or thrown in anger (I don't know) it would hurt.

A quick digression. I've never understood the popularity of scented candles. Or at the very least a candle whose scent is not easily identifiable. In our bathroom we have a Yankee Candle with the scent of "Wakiki Melon". Now unless you're a resident of the area or an expert in exotic versions of everyday food then how do you know it's accurate? Where (my case Wales) are there such knowledgeable people close to hand? It all seems very dubious to me.

Anyway back to the subject of a candle as a weapon other than for pyromaniacs. And this is the moment when I'm going to chat about a Roald Dahl story so you've been spoiler alerted.

There is a story where a wife kills her husband using a frozen piece of meat only to cook it later thus the evidence unknowingly finds itself in the stomachs of the police officers investigating the murder. Well exactly the same thing could happen here.

Your only real requirement is a good throwing arm. But if you're able to hit and knock out the victim you can then light the candle in it's normal place before leaving the house thus assuming the person is slowly dying because of a head injury or falling down the stairs their last moments are at least full of probably some obscure scent. The weapon will be hidden in plain sight.

You then return, feigning shock and distress as you call the police and then watch as they ponder what has happened. If (and it's a big if) your throwing arm is good then there  is a good chance that you will get away with it. If only because the means is not clear.

Before you ask I wouldn't do it personally. Because a) I love my wife b) I don't have a good throwing arm c) I would be an instant suspect because I've written this post and d) I've already told her of my theory.

Still the capacity of those big fat glassed candles as a weapon of wax destruction should not be overlooked. You have been warned.

Until the next time.