Rae Summers's Blog, page 6
April 22, 2011
Earth Day 2011
Today I ask every one of my blog followers to take part in saving our planet. No matter how big or small the action, if every one of us makes an effort I truly believe we can change the world.
Start at home: initiate a clean-up project, change your light bulbs, plant a tree, donate a tweet where it matters most to help raise awareness, or spend a romantic evening by candle-light rather than electric lighting.
If you have a little spare change, make a donation to a charity. It may only be a small amount to you, but it'll mean a lot to the people who are on the front-lines of the fight to save the planet for us all.
Not sure where to put your money? Here are a few ideas:
Sting's Rainforest Foundation Fund
Prevent logging in the Congo basin
Next time you want to buy a gift for a distant loved one, try one of these sites:
There are many, many worthy causes out there, and it's hard to support them all. So choose one that means the most to you. For me, it's saving the rain forests. Trees are the lungs of our planet and we cannot live without them. Sadly, there are way too many people out there who can only see the short term, and the dollars that can be made from destroying these vast tracts of land that provide us with the oxygen which each and every one of us needs to survive. But it's more than that.
Our need for the forests of the world is more than just physical, it's spiritual. Can you even imagine a world in which we could never see sights like these ever again?
Let's make every day Earth Day.
April 8, 2011
How one person can change the world
On Saturday 26th March I had the wonderful opportunity to get together with a few of the Cape Town based members of ROSA (Romance writing Organisation of South Africa). It's always wonderful to meet other writers and to spend an entire evening talking about books and writing, but what made this evening even more magical was that we met at the Bascule Bar at the Cape Grace Hotel. We sipped cocktails as the sun set over the marina, and talked and talked until long after night had fallen.
It was just a little after 8.30pm when I realised that we were now well into Earth Hour, that moment when the entire planet stands together in a show of solidarity and switches off their lights – and the hour appeared to pass completely unnoticed and unobserved at the Cape Grace Hotel.
A week or so later, searching for information on the delicious cocktail I sampled there that night, I stumbled across the hotel's blog and read a post offering advice on how to spend Earth Hour. Incensed that they would blog as if they cared, while ignoring Earth Hour themselves, I dashed off a comment, never really expecting to hear back or even to see my comment make it past moderation.
BUT … this story has a happy ending!
Shortly afterwards I received an email from the PR Executive, Leah de Klerk. She offered apologies, pointed out that the hotel's exterior lights had been switched off, but that the decision had been made not to hinder guests enjoyment of the hotel by switching off the interior lights – and she went even further: for every Saturday in April the hotel will switch off its exterior lights for one hour.
And this is how each and every one of us can make a difference to this planet. One simple comment on a blog led to a response, and thanks to that response a little bit of our planet's resources will be saved. It might not seem like much, but even an avalanche starts with the tiniest snowflake.
I would like to say a massive thanks to Leah for her response, to the Cape Grace Hotel for making an effort (and also for a wonderful evening), and I encourage any of my blog readers to visit the Bascule Bar if they are ever in Cape Town. [PS: They have a very nice selection of cocktails!] And next year, may I recommend that the Bascule Bar at least dim the lights and allow the guests to dine by candlelight? I am sure their enjoyment would be in no way hindered!
March 25, 2011
Cocktail Friday: Obstwasser
Last week Germans around the world celebrated Fasching. This Catholic tradition, known as Mardi Gras in Spanish-speaking countries, is one of the biggest festivals in the German calendar. It's the party that precedes Lent; a time of celebration, street carnivals, and colourful traditional costumes.
In honour of my own German heritage, today's drink is not strictly a cocktail, it's a liqueur that's usually drunk neat: Obstwasser.
Obst is the German word for fruit, and like the better known Schnapps, this clear liqueur is distilled from fruits – in this case apples and pears. The drink has been around several centuries, and was made medicinally in monasteries as long ago as the sixteenth century. These days there are a wide variety on the market. Prost!
March 11, 2011
The Blues
I'm not talking about music or Oxford's rowing team, I'm talking my mood.
My laptop has crashed rather spectacularly (second crash in two years!) so I am now internet-less, document-less, and if it weren't for my trusty Nokia cell phone I'd also be email-less. So my apologies if I'm not around for a while.
In the meantime, I'm enjoying life the way it was in those halcyon days before we lived online. I'm catching up on sleep, reading real books and smelling the roses. Have fun in my absence.
February 25, 2011
Cocktail Friday: The Martinez
One of the first recorded cocktails, this drink dates back to Californian Gold Rush days. It is thought to have been created in 1862 by Jerry Thomas, barman at the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, for a gold miner travelling home to the nearby town of Martinez. Thomas included the recipe in his 1887 Bartenders Guide. Many consider this drink the ancestor of the modern Martini.
Old-style Martinez
60 ml sweet vermouth
30 ml Old Tom Gin
1 dash each of maraschino liqueur and Angostura bitters
Two dashes of gum syrup (if you prefer the drink sweet)
Slice of lemon
Stir the ingredients together, strain into a cocktail glass, then garnish with the slice of lemon.
This original recipe is sweeter than modern versions; Spirits and Cocktails has a recipe for a drier version. For other variations, try curacao or absinthe in place of the maraschino, and orange bitters in place of the angostura.
Search the net and you'll find as many different variations as there are bartenders! So in good Cole Porter style, have fun and "Experiment!"
February 9, 2011
Celebrities of the 20s: Josephine Baker
"Tall, coffee skin, ebony eyes, legs of paradise, a smile to end all smiles."
- Pablo Picasso
Born into poverty in Missouri in 1906, Josephine Baker grew up in a world barely a step away from the days of slavery (her mother was raised by former slaves). But Josephine triumphed over poverty and racism to become an icon.
Dancing on street corners led to roles in vaudeville, and by the start of the 1920s she was a chorus girl on the New York stage, part of the glorious Harlem Renaissance. In 1924 she was the highest paid chorus girl in America, but she disliked the racism and segration prevalent at that time, and left for Paris, where her career truly took off.
Josephine loved the freedom and acceptance she found in France, and France loved her. While in America her nickname had been 'ragamuffin'. In Paris she became an exotic beauty, known for her glamour and sexuality. But she was so much more than just a pretty face. During the second world war, she worked for the resistance. In the 1950s she supported the civil rights movement.
She spent the rest of her life in France, dying there in the mid 1970s, having achieved the headiest heights of fame and fortune.
You can find out more about this fascinating woman on Wikipedia and at her official website. There are plenty of biographies of her life; perhaps the closest to her real story Josephine Baker: The Hungry Heart, written by her adopted son, Jean-Claude Baker.
