From the Guardian: Scotland has second highest murder rate in Europe. Another depressing report on Scotland’s crime rates (top for violence too).
Another study from the University of California, to be published later this year, will claim Scotland has a higher homicide rate than America, Israel, Uzbekistan, Chile and Uruguay.
So, statistically, I’m less likely to be murdered here than in Edinburgh? Don’t think so, matey…
From the Guardian: Suspicious behaviour on the tube (via Nosemonkey).
Having found some time to browse the blogs I’ve not had time to read over the last two months, I’m starting to regret spending my Sunday on the computer. It’s sunny in LA. I should be on the beach. But instead, I’m sitting on the patio, reading about the enormous pile of horse dung that Britain is turning into. It stinks.
If you want to feel really pissed off, read the article above. It is a scary account of the loss of liberty and privacy in London today. Orwell wasn’t bloody far off when he wrote 1984. And while I haven’t been to London since the bombing, my brother lives, studies, and commutes in London. He would perfectly fit the description of someone acting suspiciously, as defined by the Met:
[David Mery was] stopped and searched because:
- they found [his] behaviour suspicious from direct observation and then from watching [him] on the CCTV system;
- [he] went into the station without looking at the police officers at the entrance or by the gates;
- two other men entered the station at about the same time as [him];
- [he was] wearing a jacket “too warm for the season”;
- [he was] carrying a bulky rucksack, and kept [his] rucksack with [him] at all times;
- [he] looked at people coming on the platform;
- [he] played with [his] phone and then took a paper from inside [his] jacket.
And so would almost every 20-, 30-, 40, 50-something year old male with a knapsack-style laptop bag. And so would I, but being female I guess I’d be slightly lower on the dodgy-scale. Although I’m outraged about what happened to David Myer, and the fact that he now has a police record he does not deserve, I can’t say I’m surprised. My bro has had his bag searched several times. And so have his friends. I’m loathe to ask if there’s a trend amongst his friends between the number of bag searches and the darkness of their tan. I’m afraid to hear the answer.
And there I was complaining about the ridiculous number of security checks I’ve had to go through to get to the US… Imagine being stopped and searched just to get from point A to B in your own country. Oh, hold on… These folk would know all about it…
From BBC news: Ministers ‘back’ Brown for leader.
“My vision is to build a home-owning, asset-owning democracy, a Britain of ambition and aspiration, where all and not just the few have the chance to own their own homes, buy shares and build up assets,” said Gordon Brown…
Oh lawdy-lawd… “Ambition and aspiration”? Fine sentiments, Mr Brown. Sure, we all want to own our homes, and be worth something. But just watch that “i want, i want” culture aspirate the last drops of socialism out of the British. Methinks you are trying to appeal to the last dredges of Old Labour supporters, while using the aspirational language (read: spin) that New Labourites understand so well.
Are we moving towards the American model of self-sufficiency? While a nanny state is not desirable, neither is a health service run by profit. Sure, reform of the NHS, welfare and education systems are needed. But not in the direction New Labour intends… Through my naïve eyes, these bodies are top-heavy; full of well-educated, well-meaning managers, who are essentially bureaucrats, pushing memos and papers from office to office. Is it too simplistic to ask that many of these people be replaced with those who do the real work (you know, nurses, docs, teachers, care workers)? And while the managers are happily imbibing chardonnay/cabernet sauvignon (which grape are we casually insulting now?) in their Wimpey/Barratt houses, and climbing the property ladder, support staff find it almost impossible to convince banks to even give them a mortgage…
Oh dear… How did we get here again?
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If you were in Rouen this summer, you would have seen a light show (Cathedrales en Lumiere) projected on the west facade of Rouen’s Cathedral, famous for a series of experimental paintings by Monet. The series is scattered all over the world, and I’ve only seen a few: a few housed at the Musée d’Orsay, one at the Louvre, and one or two others (can’t remember which ones), which were part of the touring Monet exhibition a few years ago at the National Gallery in London. They give an insight into how Monet experimented with his technique, as artists are wont to do. I don’t get all the art-farty significance of it all, and can only say “Oh look! Pretty piccie!”. All the same, I was sorry not to be able to show P the gorgeous collection of Impressionist art at the Musée d’Orsay due to poor planning on my part (and being ill too). And as a double-whammy, my fall-back, the Orangerie, was closed for renovations. It looks like they’re expanding the place. Hope the builders they’ve got in are more careful than the norm: there are some precious Monet murals of water lilies in the basement. Now, you wouldn’t want a burst main to flood that particular cellar, would you?
Some links to online images of Monet’s Rouen Cathedrale series (will add more later; feeling lazy):
Technorati tags: monet, rouen cathedral.
Links to sweets I’ve made or eaten:
Saw Flightplan last night. Was pretty good, if you like Hitchcockian thrillers. Could not stop from drooling whenever the Bean appeared on screen, which kind of spoiled the odd moment of suspense…
Small irony in choosing the Bean to play an airline captain since he’s afraid of flying… (useless trivia gleaned from hours of lotr dvd extras)
Not sure if the new Airbus 380 was used as a model for the plane, but it’s not so far-fetched to imagine a child getting totally lost on an airplane that gargantuan.
Minor nit: Since Kyle Pratt was an aeronautical engineer, who designed the propulsion engines, shouldn’t she have been flying in at least business class? Didn’t really notice anything else… Too busy mopping up the drool.
Technorati tags: flightplan, movie.
holding post
over the next few weeks, i’ll be slowly moving all my food posts from the “talking rot” blog to this new food-only blog. it’s going to be a slow copy-paste process because i’m too thick to figure out how to shift posts between blogger blogs.
as you can also see, i’m just using a standard blogger template for now. again, this will be changed when i get any downtime…
Edit: Was particularly brainless when considering the move of all food posts to a new blog. Back to square one and an empty blog.
Santos writes about a whole snap* of KitKats, which, despite knowing they’re probably full of E numbers, make me crave that feeling of teeth sinking into the yielding, softly crunching wafer, accompanied by the brush of the lips with a smear of chocolat. Which lasts all of 5 seconds, after which the whole finger is consumed, never to see daylight again.
Not that I’ve had a KitKat in many, many years. For they are manufactured by that naughty conglomerate: Nestlé. I’ve been boycotting these guys so long, I’ve almost forgotten why! But fortunately, a brave (or foolhardy) food blogger subjected himself to a gawd-awful Lean Cuisine meal recently, made by the self-same company, and included this link.
And the irony? My dad used to work for Nestlé. I grew up on Nestlé powdered milk. I spent my childhood eating food manufactured by Nestlé’s subsidiary: Maggi. And I even had dolls from Switzerland, thanks to my dad spending months at a time out there. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.
Although I’ve been KitKat-deprived for years, fortunately for my junk food cravings, I was living in Scotland: home to Tunnock’s, makers of the Caramel Wafer. The Caramel Wafer (and it deserves those capitals) is one you either love or hate. Unlike a KitKat, it takes some time to devour (savour, if you wannae be posh about it). That thin layer of sticky caramel makes it all the more special; sticking the soggy wafer to your teeth for the rest of the day. And while the chocolate coating has as little cocoa in it as KitKat’s, it’s a wee bit thicker and less sweet. Now, that I miss! A lot!
*as suggested by manthatcooks
Technorati tags: caramel wafer, kitkat, tunnocks.
akatsuki ra-ra-ra 
