David L. Atkinson's Blog, page 86

Tuesday food blog - Rip offs!

It being the holiday weekend I decided to treat myself to bacon for breakfast. I usually have cooked breakfast when away on holiday but thoughts of freshly cooked bacon tempted me. I made the mistake of buying the bacon from the supermarket, you'll see why below.
Raw bacon
This was a rasher of Morrison's bacon before cooking. It wasn't particularly expensive, unsmoked and just their usual ordinary own product which I felt was fine for a breakfast sandwich. Now look at the same bacon cooked.
  Cooked bacon
I fried the bacon in olive oil and it is half the rasher I originally purchased. It's not the fact that the bacon has shrunk but also the white deposit that is left in the pan, which I believe is brine.
It is topical in a week where there has been a TV programme about the importance of natural fat in our diet. Yes too much fat is bad for you but I was educated at a time when two conditions prevailed, one was that there was little in the way of processed food, and secondly, we were told in school that a balanced diet consisted of three parts carbohydrate to one part protein to one part fat. It may seem that the same amount of protein as fat seems unbalanced but in fact the fat was found on the outside of meat, in the butter in your mashed potato and so on. So you could have the required amount without seemingly having any on the plate. I am not about to go into why it works that way but suffice it to say that you need the good fat not the bad. The bad comes from fats in foods such as spreads intended to replace butter. Yes natural butter is good for you!

That segue's nicely into the way we used to buy our food. My mum worked in a corner shop in the late 1950s early 60s and you could buy your butter in half pounds and pounds. These were cut from a large round of butter, weighed out and individually wrapped. The same went for lard, cheese, and even sugar was delivered to the shop and weighed out. There were similar systems in the cooperative store which at the time was the equivalent to the supermarket. The point is that there were fewer stages between the beast producing the food and the shop where you bought it and that also meant fewer opportunities for so called entrepreneurs to create profit opportunities and therefore put the price up for the consumer. There has a wealth of common sense been lost to the god profit.
[image error]Butter mountain
Yet again my segue skills are working well because that leads into the announcement over the weekend that the caps on the amount of milk produced in the EU are being removed. This comes at a time when farmers are suffering because of the low price of milk which could take us back to the days of butter mountains, milk and wine lakes and so on.At that time my father used to complain bitterly that these mountains went to waste whereas they should have been sent out to countries in food poverty. Will the same happen again - probably.
A greedy and grasping person destroys community; those who refuse to exploit live and let live.Proverbs 15:27
This is one of many translations of the saying but the bottom line is that the entrepreneurs, middle men, corporate fat cats, whatever you want to call them are wringing the life out of countries and societies so that they can make even more money.
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FYI Proverbs is the second book of the third section of the Hebrew Bible. Many of the sayings are part of a framework for life that endured for a thousand years.
I know I've wandered from the subject of food somewhat but what is written does link and allows me to soapbox jump. If you return to the subject of the bacon you will understand where I'm coming from. Consider why salt and water is added to bacon - to make it heavier - and therefore your getting less meat for your price. 
So you may get 10 rashers for £2 but if an average rasher weighs for the sake of argument 50g and costs 20p but then you can replace 5g with salt and water then for every ten rashers you have saved one and therefore increased your profit by 20p. (These figures are illustrative and not accurate.)Sadly, it isn't just bacon that is 'doctored' so that greater profit can be made.
God Bless

Writing - What is Easter all about?

We all know about the arguments over Easter and commercialism, but what is it all about anyway?


I don't believe that people are more concerned about the chocolate than the message of Jesus, I've just returned from a church full of people enjoying the message, the music and the happiness as well as the Easter Egg hunt for the children. I just wonder whether one of the problems about church is time.As a child my Easters, even when we didn't go to church was about quietness and a degree of reflectiveness. I was brought up in an era when usually there was only one working person in the home, where children had simpler pleasures not linked to electricity, and where teaching in schools included a level of instruction in the predominant religion of the country. It was very much a simpler and more ordered life.Nowadays families are pressured to the point where, if there are two adults in the home both are expected to work, children are out of the house at two years old in some kind of childcare situation, and where to stress one religion is considered bigotry. I believe that it would be better for the country if children had more time at home with one or both of their parents and where a national identity, whatever that might be, gave the people of our country something on which to have a degree of hope and belonging.
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When Jesus was preaching he was being quite political in that he was preaching about the acceptance of non-Jews into their religion without being circumcised and being allowed to eat non-kosher food. He was preaching against the establishment's intransigence and He was supporting the less fortunate in society. Even in the twenty first century Jesus would have been listened to by many and feared by the establishment.
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As there is an election in a few short weeks Easter comes at a time when we should be considering what is the best way forward for our country. It is the time to consider what we as individuals believe is the best way forward for people and not for our own personal wealth. It is okay to be considered one of the richest nations on the planet but how can we have any pride in that when the number of people accepting food handouts from food banks is on the increase? We give millions in share dividends and yet we cannot effectively care for our elderly, and that says to me there is something fundamentally wrong with consumerism.

My own personal plea is that at this time of Easter we put people before possessions.
God Bless

10 things we didn't know last week - Happy Easter

An agglomeration of stuff for a lighter Easter.

1. Male mice sing love songs to females.

More pointless research.

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2. Guests at Mark Zuckerberg's Game of Thrones party stick around afterwards to watch the sitcom Silicon Valley.


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3. Norfolk has its own species of man-shaped fungus.


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4. Michael Jackson made a series of prank calls to Russell Crowe.


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5. As people get older they become more tolerant of discordant music.

Who says?
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6. Greater Manchester Police name all their serving horses after characters from Charles Dickens novels.

Chuzzlewit, Rudge, Haversham - really.


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7. Around the Mediterranean people prefer living in towns, while near the Arctic Circle it is in rural areas that people are happier.

So there are lots of towns within the Arctic Circle then!
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8. Being close to a supermarket boosts the value of a house (compared to those in the same area) unless it's an Aldi or Lidl.


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9. Aston Villa and Tottenham are the clubs that have had the most England players - 73 each.


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10. Cats like classical music, particularly the compositions of George Handel.

Hallelujah!


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Easter journey
A moveable feast of chocolate and eggsjarped in celebration of the life of Christ.Colourful, laughter, Lenten reliefemerging at last from winter’s grief.

Presaged by waving fronds of palmand singing the praises of the doomed Christ.Looking forward to the silken, sweet taste of chocolate, guaranteed to be no waste.
A modest supper of bread and wine,a betrayer’s escape under the gaze of Christ.A night of confusion and something’s amiss,finally, Jesus betrayed with no lover’s kiss.
A trial, railroading, bribing andjealous denouncing of the innocent Christ.Hand washing by a Roman master,seemingly creating a human disaster.
Mother and friends supported and caredfor the agonies of a crucifying Christ.A void of despair where one once cherishedwhen He declared ‘it is finished’.
Days later and several strange signsevidencing the coming of a risen Christ.Blessed relief and hope for the futureto one and all a Happy Easter.© David L Atkinson April 2015
God Bless

Writing - Eastingle

We have all heard of Christingle where an orange is dressed in colours and sweets and given to the children in one of the pre-Christmas services. Now we have Eastingle which is quite new, the first reference I've come across was 2006.


[image error]Eastingle
Instead of a Christmas orange this service is centred round spreading the Easter message using a dressed hot cross bun. There are already a number of traditions surrounding the bun itself. Although it isn't the case these days hot cross buns were eaten on Good Friday only. It was believed that a bun made on Good Friday would not go mouldy if kept for a year. Finally, a hot cross bun was often kept in case of illness, and if someone in the household fell ill the hot cross bun would help cure them. The cross on the top representing that which Jesus was crucified upon.
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The hot cross bun is dressed in three colours,
Purple for royalty - Jesus was King of the JewsRed for blood - The blood of our LordWhite for purity - Purity and new life
In fact this new service principally, for children and families, is an excellent teaching exercise which I find very optimistic in these days of increased secularism and consumerism. My church held their second Eastingle service this morning and was very well attended. It provides the opportunity for families to come together and relax in church with some singing and fun. Our Christingle service usually attracts around 300 participants, this new service has started at around 100 attendees. I believe that even as an adult, it is important to be deflected away from the noisy, dazzling consumer driven society, and to have the opportunity to consider people.
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The books featured below are available in all formats.


My 10 books as of December 2014
Steele   My hero was created post recession and so has no concept of how 'good' things were pre-2008. In 'I Have To Get It Right' when he began to flex his muscles he was working in an accountant's office. Then after the Gurentai took him under their wing and removed all of his financial worries, it was justice that was his major concern. He did become involved in international relations in 'The 51st State' but it was for the maintenance of a respectful distance between countries, rather than economic reasons. His trips into the USA had repercussions which can be read about in 'The Biter Bit' but then by the time things began to change in 2011 and the recession was really biting, Steele was trying to make sense of the state of the nation in 'A Changed Reality' and coming up against some really nasty people taking advantage of the shortage of money. By the time the USA are out of their recession Steele's steps are still being dogged by an unknown enemy from the same country. In 'Inceptus' we also find out more about what makes the man tick. The most recent Steele book 'Castled' where Steele is once again at risk from unseen enemies. It would seem that he has become quite recession proof!The most recent addition to the Steele family is Earth plc in which our hero is concerned with political and emotional issues in this crime fighting adventure.
All books are available in paperback or ebook through Amazon, Smashwords and all good book shop websites.


Cessation 


This is a dystopian story that hinges directly on the state of the nation as a result of fiscal mismanagement. Having said that it is more a story of human relations, privations, love and loss.
Poetry - there are also two thin collections of poetry available solely through Amazon.
The Musings of a Confused Mind 
and
Words from the Raindrops 

God Bless

Writing - Yesterday's medicines today's drugs.

In my attempts to educate the world as to its follies and general foolishness I come across some weird s**t.
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It is easy to say the phrase 'drugs are bad' but that is the precise point at which you open a can of worms. I have known someone who smoked marijuana because of back pain, people who can't take ibuprofen and people prescribed aspirin to thin the blood. Morphine is a derivative of poppies as is heroine so where does good end and bad begin?
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A  bottle of Bayer's 'Heroin'. 
Between  1890 and 1910 heroin was sold as a non-addictive substitutefor  morphine.
It was also used to treat children suffering with a strong  cough.
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Metcalf's  Coca Wine was one of a huge variety of wines with cocaine on the market..  Everybody used to say that it  would make you happy and it would also work as a medicinal  treatment.

Mariani  wine (1875) was the most famous Coca wine of it's time. 
Pope Leo  XIII used to carry  one bottle with him all the time.
He awarded Angelo Mariani (the  producer) with a Vatican gold medal.
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Maltine  Coca Wine was produced by the Maltine Manufacturing Company of New York  .
It was suggested that you should take a full glass with or after  every meal. Children should only take half a  glass.
Cocaine  Tablets (1900).All stage  actors, singers, teachers and preachers had to have them for a maximum  performance. Great to 'smooth' the voice.
Cocaine drops for  toothache.
Very  popular for children in 1885. 
Not only did they relieve the pain, they  made the children very happy!
Its no wonder they were called the 'good old days' EVERYONE WAS STONED
Of course it wasn't all good. My grandmother died aged 41 in 1933 from rheumatoid arthritis. She was my mum's mum and my mum was orphaned that year aged 11 as her father died the year before. Of course this was 14 years before the NHS and the organisation of health care on a national basis. My mum often told of the attempts to gain pain relief for my grandmother at that time and none of them included heroin or cocaine. Old wives tales focussed on such delights as drinking boiled celery water.
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I must confess that this is one of my soapbox moments. There have been arguments in the last ten days between the drugs administration body NICE who are responsible for licencing drugs to be used by the NHS, and drug producing companies who want more money!!!! 
The fiscal greed in this country sickens me!
A drug company producing the vaccine to help prevent the dangerous meningitis B disease is holding out against the government who only want to pay £5 - £7 per dose whereas the company wants ten times that amount. In the meantime children are being maimed and killed by the disease.
Then today another drug company is demanding hundreds of pounds for a daily dose of medicine to help slow the affects of age related macular degeneration which can result in blindness. The even greater sin is the fact that cancer drug atorvastin has been discovered to be affective against the condition at a tenth of the cost. Some doctors have been prescribing atorvastin but are going to have to stop because the drug hasn't had the necessary clinical trials. NICE wants to carry out the trials but the drugs company are trying to stop that happening. One of the purposes of the trials are to test its safety for human use!I'm either naive or stupid or both but if the drug is licensed to be given to people to help in the treatment and cure of cancers, then it is safe to be taken. The side effects are known. The only aspect that isn't known is the benefits to the eyes, but surely it has been already discovered that atorvastin is of benefit to the macular condition or doctors wouldn't be giving it to sufferers. 
Am I being too simplistic?
So where does writing figure in this blog today? Well. it is written, there is research, and a historical perspective. There is information that can be used in stories, there is emotion in the form of anger, frustration and sadness; and, there are human relationships. However, much of the above is totally factual whereas when we write we can bend and shape those facts for the entertainment of our readers. 
It also must be remembered that historically, writers did not just stay limited to fiction but were revered and sometimes reviled for their views on the state of things during their times. Samuel Pepys was a fabled diarist and this week I've written about the 17th century writer and philosopher John Aubrey. 
So if you write and there are issues of the day that concern you then write them down and put them out there to be read.
God Bless

Poetry Thursday 154 - Something for the weekend.

The Easter weekend approaches and also it is over a week since 150 people died at the hands of a sick man. A couple of poems trying to embrace each of those events.

Easter journey
A moveable feast of chocolate and eggsjarped in celebration of the life of Christ.Colourful, laughter, Lenten reliefemerging at last from winter’s grief.
Presaged by waving fronds of palmand singing the praises of the doomed Christ.Looking forward to the silken, sweet taste of chocolate, guaranteed to be no waste.
A modest supper of bread and wine,a betrayer’s escape under the gaze of Christ.A night of confusion and something’s amiss,finally, Jesus betrayed with no lover’s kiss.
A trial, railroading, bribing andjealous denouncing of the innocent Christ.Hand washing by a Roman master,seemingly creating a human disaster.
Mother and friends supported and caredfor the agonies of a crucifying Christ.A void of despair where one once cherishedwhen He declared ‘it is finished’.
Days later and several strange signsevidencing the coming of a risen Christ.Blessed relief and hope for the futureto one and all a Happy Easter.
© David L Atkinson April 2015

A well known story often told in schools but perhaps not as universal as I would like it to be.
The next poem is really about some of the characteristics of depression.


Remembering what’s his name
It lurks in the dark places of every being,awaiting the opportunity to overtake the mind.The approach making consciousness unseeing,inducing irrationality in human kind.
When opportunities arrive it pays a callengineering alterations in ones reactions.Knowing people don’t know you at allhad you not obscured resulting actions.
Now it only allows permitted glimpsesof those symptoms one didn’t choose.Appearing only as concentrations lapsesoffering loving observers the smallest clues.
But working its evil patterns in the braincreates the excuses to bring down a plane.© David L Atkinson April 2015

Depression is something that can strike anyone hence the reference in the first verse to 'every being'. The overall aim of this poem is to educate the reader to the insidious nature of the mental illness which adds to the difficulties in both detection and treatment. At the same time spare a thought for all those who died on the French mountainside on the 24th March.
God Bless

Writing - Reports by writers endure

As anyone who has read my blogs over a period of time will know that I enjoy history. Today I'm indulging that tendency by looking at the 17th century through the eyes of writer and natural philosopher John Aubrey.
[image error]John Aubrey 1626 - 1697
In fact there was considerable material for Aubrey to expound upon in the 1600's; Civil War, Plague, Fire of London and much more.Civil War began in 1642 and lasted nine years but the run up to that must have affected everyday life. Thomas Hobbes was a philosopher who took the position that the monarchy should be absolute but was forced to flee to France to avoid being taken to task over his ideas.
Aubrey was an auditor (listener) at James Harrington's Rota Club, a coffee club, that met in the Turk's Head, New Palace Yard. The meetings were a forum for republican views. Aubrey said that the discussions were the most 'ingenious and smart' he'd ever heard. After the Civil War had ended Harrington was arrested and held in the Tower of London for a while but released later.
[image error]John Milton
John Milton, a republican polemicist, seemed to have missed the boat in being late in publishing his work 'The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth' which wasn't printed until 1660. That was two years after the civil war had ended and the year that the monarchy was restored in the form of Charles II. The ordinary people had turned strongly against republicanism at that time and Milton was arrested and his books burned.
Writers in those times were considerably fewer than the present day and had greater influence but they seem to have one attribute in common and that is that those of us who write are driven by the art once we have set foot in that world. The term 'publish and be damned' is very much a truism.
As a footnote, after the Great Fire in 1666 Aubrey records that he visited premises deserted due to the conflagration and collected a world of antique curiosities during the excavation of the ruins. A year after the fire he found that 'all the ruins in London were overgrown with herbs, especially one with a small yellow flower. On the south side of St Paul's church it grew as thick as could be, even on the top of the tower. The herbalists call it Ericolevis Neapolitana, small bank cresses of Naples.'
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These are words from almost 400 years ago and for me point out that what we write, no matter how seemingly trivial, has its own value. I was asked last evening about a subject that I knew nothing about in connection with the tragic events of 9/11, from the point of view of conspiracy theory. The question was whether or not the blog on that subject should be written. My answer was and still is a resounding and deafening 'yes'. In a world where we value freedom of speech we are the people who should exercise that right. I won't pre-empt that blog but will just write - Building 7!
God Bless

Tuesday Recipe - Cholent

A friend of mine threw a word at me as I was leaving the club last week - 'Cholent' was what he gave me.
Cholent
Now the first thing I needed to do was to find out what he meant by 'Cholent' - here goes.
Cholent or Hamin is a traditional Jewish stew which is usually simmered overnight for 12 hours or more, and eaten for lunch on the Shabbat. Cholent was developed over the centuries to conform to Jewish law that forbids cooking on the Sabbath.
I also discovered that there are as many recipes for Cholent as there are Jewish homes in Israel. The first recipe I found had butter beans and pearl barley included, two ingredients that I'm not terribly keen on so I kept looking and came up with the recipe which you will find in full on the TAB at the top of this page. Instead of butter beans, baked beans and also included was sweet potato. I think it is the kiddies version!As I am not a follower of Judaism there wasn't the need to simmer overnight but I did cook it for around seven hours in a low oven and the meat came out as tender as chicken.
Today's Health Watch

Apparently, a significant number of parents don't see that their children are obese. I can hear the term 'puppy fat' echoing around the homes of some families in the UK!
God Bless

Writing - Research and value

Writers all know how important it is to get their facts right and one way is to carry out painstaking research. With the advent of Google and other search engines it is no longer necessary to pack your bags and go to the places that feature in your stories. But there is research and then there's research.

Hadron Collider
Then of course there is scientific research. It is often the case that innovations in the real scientific world can be introduced into fiction but the reverse is true. Innovation is thinking outside the box and then realising the outcomes in the real world.I am reading 'A Brief History of Time' by Stephen Hawking and much of his work is cerebral rather than practical based, but it struck me that it is the result of creative thinking on a mathematical plane.You can look at research establishments such as the Hadron Collider above and I've no doubt that it will feature in literary works. There is a hint in Dan Brown's 'Angels and Demons' and even in the film 'Terminator - Rise of the Machines' of that facility. Another possible piece of equipment that could lend itself to literary works is the 3D printer. I can see them being used to 'print' guns and the like in future novels if not by me then some writer will consider the possibility.
3D printer
Of course in real life there is the cost of all these fancy machines and sometimes I wonder at their true value. When they talk about billions of pounds to build and use such machines and yet we still can't cure athlete's foot it makes me wonder!

Having said all of the above there is value in visiting places that you intend to include in your stories. I find that there is something intangible, which I describe as atmosphere, that you need to experience to be able to give a reader full value when they apply their imaginations to your efforts. In the books I've written so far many of the foreign places included, I've been fortunate enough to have visited in the past and long may that be the case.

The books featured below are available in all formats.


My 10 books as of December 2014
Steele   My hero was created post recession and so has no concept of how 'good' things were pre-2008. In 'I Have To Get It Right' when he began to flex his muscles he was working in an accountant's office. Then after the Gurentai took him under their wing and removed all of his financial worries, it was justice that was his major concern. He did become involved in international relations in 'The 51st State' but it was for the maintenance of a respectful distance between countries, rather than economic reasons. His trips into the USA had repercussions which can be read about in 'The Biter Bit' but then by the time things began to change in 2011 and the recession was really biting, Steele was trying to make sense of the state of the nation in 'A Changed Reality' and coming up against some really nasty people taking advantage of the shortage of money. By the time the USA are out of their recession Steele's steps are still being dogged by an unknown enemy from the same country. In 'Inceptus' we also find out more about what makes the man tick. The most recent Steele book 'Castled' where Steele is once again at risk from unseen enemies. It would seem that he has become quite recession proof!The most recent addition to the Steele family is Earth plc in which our hero is concerned with political and emotional issues in this crime fighting adventure.
All books are available in paperback or ebook through Amazon, Smashwords and all good book shop websites.


Cessation 


This is a dystopian story that hinges directly on the state of the nation as a result of fiscal mismanagement. Having said that it is more a story of human relations, privations, love and loss.
Poetry - there are also two thin collections of poetry available solely through Amazon.
The Musings of a Confused Mind 
and
Words from the Raindrops 

God Bless
Visit David L's profile on Pinterest.

Here is the news - my view

The news this week has been dominated by the plane crash in France. Like everyone else I have my views but, as someone who has been diagnosed with clinical depression, from the point of view of businesses trying to legislate for their operatives suffering with such mental problems.
1. Plane crash

It is incredibly sad to consider that one man has caused so much heartache but how did the authorities miss his mental state? In my opinion it is because mental illness is particular to individual sufferers, it can be suppressed and no 'test' can accurately measure or predict how someone will behave whether mentally ill or not.
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2. Prison escape
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So a conman in Wandsworth jail engineered his own release on bail! This resourceful and obviously bright guy smuggled in a mobile phone, set up accounts, imitated a female voice and produced an email in an official looking format granting him release on bail.Why is he not running the country?
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3. Cow texts farmer

The above device has been invented to help farmers out. It sends the beleaguered gentlemen a text when his cow is about to drop a calf. Really!! We still can't prevent athlete's foot but we can do this? Someone needs to take a hold on the money wasted on pointless research.
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4. Mushroom to lampshade

In fact this is rather clever. The mushrooms are put into a mould with flour and water and 'grow'. They take between 4 - 7 days depending on the size.
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5. BBC grew a pair!

As a raging pacifist (is that a contradiction in terms?) I was delighted with the BBC growing a pair of balls and sacking Clarkson. Consider the position scaled down to an ordinary working situation, the call centre, a factory floor, or M & S, there would be no question of him being retained. However, where the great God money is involved it is harder to make the right decision. Well done BBC.
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6. Carolina Butcher

Carnufex carolinensis was a 5 feet tall predatory carnivore that roamed the forests of Carolina during the Triassic period before the age of the dinosaurs. If you came across one - climb a tree - quickly!
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7. Cameron v Milliband
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The first TV 'debate' between the two men, one of whom could possibly to be PM come May 8th. took place on Thursday this week. It wasn't really a debate as the two men didn't face each other, were interviewed separately and then answered questions from an audience on their own. My opinion - inconclusive and inadequate.
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8. Porky Pets
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Our pets are carrying too much fat. We are treating our animals the way in which we treat our children - overfeeding and a lack of exercise.
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9. Cane toads
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China wants Australia's cane toads to help cure cancer. Routinely clubbed to death by the Australian public this creatures venom could have curative properties but in tablet form as it tastes vile.
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10. A man's home is his phallus (oops! palace)

This Sydney home is up for sale. It was originally erected (pun intended) in the 1950s by Australian architect Stan Symonds and is caused Sherwin House although neighbours refer to it as 'Penis House' and journalists as 'Buckingham Phallus'.
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God Bless