Saturday, 23 April 2016

Peasoupers and nice grub


St Georges Day



For those of us are proud to be English I’m sure I don’t need to tell you what is happening on 23rd April. Whatever, go slay a few dragons guys n gals.



Oh dear; last night I went off to bed, not quite as normal. There have been more than one occasions that I have forgotten to take my morning dose of pills, but last night was the first time I forgot my night time dose. What a silly billy eh?



There I was in bed reading some more of Val MacDiarmid and she mentions heavy fogs and car pollution. And that got my grey matter going. In the late1950s-early 1960s I remember there being some really think fogs and our village was the first place to lose its bus service. In London it got so bad that they became known as peasoupers. Eventually things got so bad because of the numbers of deaths from all the pollution coal fires, a new law was into being, meaning on smokeless fuels only could be used anywhere in the UK.



Slowly the pollution cleared up and the peasouper became a think of the pace, and I’m sure we all felt the benefit of it, even we never actually thought of it; at least for a short time. But are we any better off these days though? Pollution levels are increasing, especially in urban areas. Asthma levels in children are increasing too. It is thought the main cause of it is the amount of exhaust fumes from road traffic and other transport system. Add in the pollution from industry and power generation, and we are living in a thick fug of invisible chemicals. If you have ever followed an old vehicle throwing out thick, black smoke and you will know how bad it can be. So we may not be all that better off from the Clean Air Act.



I do enjoy watching food/cooking programmes on telly. Last night I caught the last few minutes of a Rick Stein show in which he visited a restaurant in France where they serviced a chicken dish I hadn’t seen or thought of myself. Basically it’s a cottage pie made with chicken and not minced beef. It really appeals to me; but with its garlic, fresh tomatoes, spices and cheese, Jan would not even think of trying it. However, I can have a play with it so she will eat it. A lot of these dishes on telly shows are fairly complex and use a number of ingredients that tend to be a bit expensive for just one of us, and that makes uneconomic for me for try.



I did find The Food Network last night too. The hope was that I might get some more ideas on there. The first two I tried have made me rethink it. Those two shows were based in the States, and true to form, they were full of OTT people who just don’t know how to show pleasure without making an Oscar winning performance. There are far too many of these morons on telly, and normally I keep well clear of them. Pity really, cos what they are showing is pretty good, but I can’t be doing with all their silly whoops, yells and fist bumping and hand and arse slapping crap! Enough of that …



Today’s photo …

a shark.



Today’s funny …



  What is the inscription on dead blues-singers tombstones?
"I didn't wake up this morning..."
         


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