Gordon Ramsey

Chef Gordon Ramsey is Britain’s leading Michelin 3 star chef. A character. A bombast. A superb chef. Our family is interested in Gordon. We have all read his biography, watched several of his UK and US TV shows – Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, Hell’s Kitchen, Boiling Point, The F-Word – and loved them. I really like his campaign to get women cooking again and his commitment to wholesome cooking. His favourite cook is Nigel Slater – simple, honest cooking. He trained with Marco Pierre White, worked in France for a year, was chef to the Australian media magnate Grundy and has spent his life dedicated to cuisine. What is most important, though, is his brutal directness. Many don’t like him because he is very aggressive – but his experience tells him that this is what it takes to get the best out of people and consistency day in day out. He runs several UK restaurants and now has eateries in the US and Dubai. Gordon Ramsey holdings is a multi million dollar company built on the back of this Glasgow lads grind. He deserves all he has. If you get the chance, go onto UK Torrent and download and watch the F-Word. Its great television, lively, fun and informative. Probably the best cooking show on television in the world – makes Rachel Ray look like a puffed up shrimp.

What the UN IPCC Report Really Said

To read news coverage of the UN Climate Change report released recently, you would not know that the UN has lowered their estimation of climate change and significantly downgraded the risk of impacts. So hysterical has the discussion become, that mere facts are not allowed to get in the way of hyperbole and malfeasance.

So, first, some facts. The differences between the 2001 and 2007 UN climate change reports are stark. The UN has lowered its estimation of the impact of humans on the climate since the industrial revolution by one third. It has reduced its estimate of the impact of global warming on sea levels from a rise of 3 feet to a rise of 17 inches by the end of the current century. While carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is rising, global atmospheric temperatures are not. Ground temperature rises due to CO2 emissions have also been scaled down significantly. Almost all of the available data reported in the 2007 summary report indicates that the climate is changing at the lower end of the scale of estimates – it is less of a change than many of the UN’s computer models had previously anticipated.

The UN scientific report has not yet been released, though drafts are circulating. What is clear is that there remains major areas of doubt. First, there is a repeated failure on the part of the UN to take full account of known previous periods of warming – notably the middle ages. Second, the language of the release on 2^nd February is purely political. By emphasising the extreme ends of predictions and downplaying the fact that most of the current data shows the earth responding at the low end of the spectrum, the UN is helping to feed the hysteria that now surrounds climate change discussion.

Let us look specifically at the artic. We have been repeatedly told that the artic is getting warmer, that the sea ice is melting at an alarming rate and that polar bears may become extinct. Some facts may help. Artic temperatures undergo periodic fluctuation. During the last 30 years both the artic and Greenland ice sheets have gained thickness – in Greenland at 2 inches per year. In the period 1924-1945 artic temperatures were warmer than they are now by 1 degree Celsius – Polar bears seemed to thrive then as now.

What are we to make of all this? I suggest that there are four things we can make of this. First, it is now impossible to have a serious fact based conversation about these issues. Science and politics have become inextricably mixed to the point at which it is difficult to separate fact from motive. It is a sad day when it is difficult to separate a scientific contribution from a piece of propaganda. The UN’s past exaggeration of the problem – clearly accepted in the 2007 report – and its negligence in presenting very poor data (e.g. the temperature “hockey stick” now universally regarded as inaccurate) are part of this problem.

Second, the convenient “truths” which politicians and public servants are now campaigning on are in fact questionable, yet questioning them is politically difficult to do. There is no doubt that pushing CO2 into the atmosphere is a bad thing and that we ought to reduce it significantly – this is not what is being debated. What is being debated are the impacts of such activity and the consequences of reducing or stopping it. Tony Blair rightly points out that if Britain shut down its economy completely and stopped cars from being driven on its roads, emissions from China would replace Britain’s green house gas emissions within twenty four months. But being a “sceptic” is the modern equivalent of being accused of being a witch.

As a psychologist, a third thing is clear to me. Pushing the “fear and ignorance” button for the general public with the intention of shaping an agenda for change is always a sign of some kind of deceit in play. Ask any Canadian “do you think we should transfer $8billion a year for the next five years to India to help it reduce green house gas emissions?” and the answer will be no. If you point out that this is one way we could meet the Kyoto targets, they are surprised. If you ask “do you think you should pay tax on the car you buy based on its emissions and then pay tax on fuelling your car based on emissions” they will say no. Yet this is a key ingredient of any sound public policy on reducing personal emissions. The environment and climate change may be the current number one political issue in Canada, but the likely solutions and their impact will be vastly unpopular. Only fear and ignorance will make their implementation possible.

The last observation is this. We are about to see a raft of climate change initiatives’ from the Federal and Provincial governments. They will not satisfy the environmentalist and will have only modest effects on green house gas emissions. Part of the reason for this is that the public will not accept the truly radical things that might be needed – tolls on the QEII highway, city tolls for coming downtown in Edmonton and Calgary, added tax on gasoline, carbon taxes of $4 on every barrel of oil produced in the oil sands, new tougher building codes. More significantly, there will be a public backlash against the scientists and environmental lobby (as well as the politicians).

We can’t debate these matters. We have lost the art of listening. We have given up on truth seeking. We are in the hands of the lobbyists.

Virgin Brand

The Virgin Group - Rochard Branson's brand - has decided to move into health care, developing a new range of services starting later this year. If they offer midwifery, will it be branded Virgin Birth?

Blair Bye Bye?

There is a quiet scandal developing in Britain. The Prime Ministers most trusted advisor, Lord Levy, was arrested for a second time last week for the cash for honours scandal – where Blair’s team are accused of securing donations or loans to the Labour Party in exchange for donors being made Lords. Just ten days ago Blair’s executive assistant, Ruth Turner, was arrested in this same inquiry. Several others, including his Chief of Staff, have been questioned under caution. Handwritten notes from Tony Blair have been found which appear to confirm his complicity in the offers and arrangements – a criminal offence, if proven. He has been interviewed twice by the police as a witness, at this stage of their inquiry.

Many may not care that Blair’s team seek to play at the edges of the law to secure cash for a fiscally troubled political party, but one of Blair’s commitments in coming to office was to end the era of sleaze which he said characterised the previous Conservative government. A commitment he did not live up to. It is this mismatch between word and deed that is providing the focus for attention.

He has not lived up to other commitments. For example, despite spending billions more on a public health system and leveraging public: private partnerships for health care, the system itself is in decline. This despite a promise to have the “best publicly financed health care system in the world”. In education, “his absolute top priority” on coming to office in 1997, one in twelve schools are now failing their students so completely, according the Governments own school evaluators, that they deserve to be closed. His promise of a new public service for a new century sounds hollow.

Blair’s government was also committed to an ethical foreign policy – a phrase no longer in the lexicon of an Iraq war burdened administration. He has not apologised over agreed deceptions in terms of the reasons Britain went to war with Iraq, nor has he apologised for various “errors of judgements” which have led to significant casualties, including the very public suicide of a senior public servant.

Blair has promised to step down before the next Labour Party annual conference in September 2007 – a promise he will be required to keep. His legacy looks very problematic at this time. If he is arrested before he leaves office, he will have a kind of Jeffrey Archer reputation of being an intelligent rougue who did his best, but focused more on spin, deceit and deception than on substance and sustainable change. If he escapes prosecution, he will have a Houdini-Clinton like reputation for getting away with it, despite the evidence.

None of this is good news for Gordon Brown, Blair’s heir apparent. In addition to the fact that he is dull, dogged and deceitful character himself who has very high control needs, he has no presence and no verve. Dull as ditchwater (despite being very intelligent), Brown will spend his time in office apologising for Blair’s inability to secure needed changes in public service – failings that Brown himself has much to do with. Worse, as Blairs real number two, he will suffer from

David Cameron, the very Blair like leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, will be the beneficiary of all this. Smart, focused and with strong appeal to middle class and green voters, Cameron is likely to win a general election, unless his party starts in-fighting.

At the bottom of this quagmire is a reality – the Labour Party Is a financial mess, with fewer than 300,000 members nationally. There are more people watching football on a single Saturday than belong to the party. While the Tory party under Cameron has secured large amounts of new funds, it too is in debt. Who knows if the Liberals have any cash at all. Corruption and insolvency appear to go together with deceit.

Making the Most

I checked into the Westin in Ottawa last week and yet again found myself in the disabled 
suite on floor 21. This is the seventh year in a row this has happened to me. So I checked into
this. Turns out one of my former MBA students, who was in management for Westin, flagged
me as "permenantly disabled" (I have no disabilities, as far as I am aware).  

He wasn't being malicious, in turns out. Its a very large suite. But, well you know...

Went to a wonderful performance of Bach motets and choral pieces on Sunday and managed to see
Helen Mirren in The Queen - a stunning performance.

Its nice to be back in action after three weeks of coughing, spluttering and general exhaustion.

Cough it Up!

There are several different kinds of cough.

There is the cough one makes when entering a room unnoticed when others are present so as to avoid their embarrassment when they realize that they have been talking about you while you stand quietly listening.

There is that delicate cough you make when you doctor is holding your testicles in her hand and is trying to establish a connection between the brain area and the pleasure area, sometimes to no avail. This is not the same cough one find oneself making involuntarily when the prostrate is examined by a doctor responding to your request for a second opinion.

There is the cough one makes at exactly the wrong moment in a performance of a delicate string quartet that gets you into trouble with all around you, most especially your partner. While there are some string quartets where such a cough is probably more musical than the notes being crafted by the skilled players, generally it is not a welcome kind of cough.

There is the cough-like sound one makes to cover embarrassment – for example, when someone is about to provide too much information on a subject and you don’t want the listener to actually hear or to cover an indiscretion. “To look at her, you wouldn’t believe that my wife is actually (cough) years old”, is a helpful illustration of such a cough.

Then there is the hacking cough I had all last week which comes from the tip of your toes, through every sinew, stem cell, tissue and fibre of your body and erupts from the base of your stomach through your chest and out through a sore, desperate throat. The kind of cough that bruises your rib cage, leaves you a shivering wreck and exhausts you. In one hour of this, I counted that I coughed thirty six times – each one leaving me a wreck. I did this for eight hours solid this one day (Tuesday). That is close to three hundred coughing fits or 200 minutes of coughing. No wonder I felt like a fifty five year old dish cloth who had not a single thread of its cotton fibre left for such things as thinking, reading, smiling, talking. My brain numbed to a complete frazzle.

I am starting to get over all of this now, after nine days of flu-cold symptoms that have been most debilitating. A visit to the doctor produced what I already know – rest, plenty of liquids, no alcohol, cough syrup and throat soothers and let it take its course. Its course was meandering, painful and left me thinking how a real illness would be. But I am out the other side, coughing once or twice a day. Hot flushes now and again, snivels and the occasional heave from a tired and bruised chest. Not a nice time.

Reed Henry

This is Reed, son of Mark and Denise Henry. A young man with a great future. Just 18 months and really into walkie talkie (well, more walkie than talkie). He gives me the kind of hope one needs for the future. He is a very handsome young man who enjoys his food (two very fine crab tarts not to mention turkey, ham and wonderful pudding), but is also the youngest of three, the other two being very energetic, intelligent sisters. Happy new year Reed!

Lynne and I are about to leave for San Francisco until New Year - so enjoy. Take care. Have fun. 

Happy Chritsmas

There I am between James and Lynne on the back row - Glyn in the middle holding a nice glass of Cedar Creek Meritage (we'd just switched from their Merlot). Glyn is between Lena's parents, and Lena is at the front with her brother in Law, Rui (Lena's sister took this photograph - thanks Christina).

All well - hope the same is true for you. A Happy Christmas to the 800 or so people a day who check out this site. 

Well..Its Christmas.

So its Christmas. That's CHRISTMAS not the holidays or some other politically correct term. Its CHRISTMAS.

The good news is that we are all well, enjoying each others company; that we're off to San Francisco for a week on Boxing Day and, though I will get presents, all I need is my health, my partner, some good food and wine and I am happy.

The bad news is that we have snow and mud ("snud") on the ground which will stay until March and its -10 (ish). The bad news is that there is nothing on television (thank goodness for DVD recordings of Gordon Ramsay's The F Word), Charlie Drake died (someone I gre up laughing at) and the global warming hysteria continues unabated (probably the most ill informed push for public poilicy this century). The bad news is that I am getting older.... so when you look at it, there is not a lot of bad news.

I hope that this is the case for you.

Smile - You are on Camera

Security cameras are everywhere in Europe. In London, the police are able to follow the movements of an individual almost anywhere and use powerful computers and many hours of labour to reconstruct a day in the life of…when they are in public places. Given the attempt to reconstruct the final days of the murdered Ipswich prostitutes, you can see why this is being done – despite the implications this has for civil liberty and privacy.

Now, in the Netherlands, the cameras listen. They are not listening to an individuals speech (though its just a matter of time), but to the pattern of speech listening for aggressive tones and sudden shifts in the pattern of sound. When it detects these, the camera moves to capture the new sound location and sends an alert to the control room.

More recent developments, not yet in public use, is to be able to use a range of biometric information to locate an individual in a crowd and then train the cameras to focus on the person and “hand over” the tracking to the next camera so that it will be easier to piece together the public behaviour of a particular person.

Liberty issues abound here. In Alberta, there is a total unwillingness to use cameras even on known trouble spots, except during special occasions and known trouble events. Here, the liberty issues outweigh the security issues, which is interesting. In Britain, at least when I last lived there (1998-2003), there was very little debate – the cameras just grew, multiplied and, well took over.

George Orwell would have been fascinated by all of this. When coupled with continuous news, some of it using CCTV footage, the society he wrote about in 1984 is closer than we think. When we then see Universities requiring politically incorrect students to undergo correctness rehabilitation at their own expense – based on the political correctness reports of fellow students – then we know that Orwell was right. If we had “seeing and listening cameras” on campus, Orwell would smile and simply say “I told you so”.



 

Naked News and Other Stories

The Vatican announced today a major new initiative which will radically change the perception of the church. They are to create a professional football team that will compete in the Italian league and hopes, with the help of God, to make it to the European finals within a decade.

Whatever next ? I can imagine the US House of Representatives creating an all star wrestling team to tackle the Senate. How about the Sisters of Constance, a veritable order of nuns, joining the Naked News team to give it some spiritual guidance and class. Or what about the English cricket team becoming sportsman and, well, playing cricket competitively?

It must be the season. Lotus, partnering with a California company backed by Google billionaires, has launched an electric sports car that can do 0-60 mph in just under 4 seconds. Called the Tesla Roadster, it can achieve the equivalent of 135 mpg. Top speed is estimated at more than 130 mph. More significantly, Tesla claims the car can run up to 250 miles on a charge — a huge leap over earlier electric cars and vehicles, such as General Motors' EV1. You just need a very long cable.

There are some other headlines or news items that caught my eye today. They include these:

• A man sued his doctor because he survived his cancer longer than the doctor predicted.
  
• 
  
• Two robbers were in the process of their crime when one changed his mind and arrested the other.
  
• 
  
• A woman had her husband's ashes made into an egg timer when he died so he could still "help" in the kitchen.
  
• 
  
• Only 68 of 200 Anglican priests polled could name all Ten Commandments, but half said they believed in space aliens.
  
• 
  
• An American Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing Monday morning after a passenger lit a match to disguise the scent of flatulence, authorities said.
  
• 
  
• The world's only bald, Welsh-speaking, Elvis has been receiving death threats.

I checked out the Darwin Awards and came across this:

Phoenix Field airport in Fair Oaks had been subject to recurring petty thefts from neighborhood teenagers, so a security firm was retained to patrol the grounds. Thefts decreased sharply, but fuel consumption was on the rise. This puzzling situation continued until late one night, when a passerby noticed a flaming airplane on the field.

By the time the fire department arrived, the plane had completely melted into the tarmac. While they extinguished the residual flames, the passerby noticed a uniformed figure lying facedown several yards away. It was a security guard!

He was revived and questioned. Turns out he had been siphoning fuel from small planes to use in his car. The plane he selected that night had a unique fuel storage system involving hollow, baffled wing spars. When the determined guard shoved the siphon in, it stubbed against the first baffle. No matter how he twisted, pushed, and pulled the hose, he could not siphon any fuel from the plane. Exasperated, he lit a match to see inside the tank... and the rest is history.

Guess the world is still normal..



 

A Happier New Year?

Many find the season to be gloomy – they spend too much, eat too much, spend too much time with relatives they don’t particularly like and watch very poor television. It makes them cranky, flatulent and negative. For many, the season brings out negative emotions and impressions about the state of the world.

Yet the world is in a very good shape. It is richer, healthier and cleaner than ever. Let’s look at some facts.

Daily food intake in poor countries is now 2,666 calories per person per day – an increase of 38% since the mid 1960’s. This has occurred despite the significant growth in population in these countries in this same time – up by 83%. One factor that helps this is the significant decline in world food prices over the last four decades – down 75% in real terms.

Poverty, though still very real for many, is on the decline. In 1820, 85% of the world’s population lived in abject poverty. Today the figure is nearer 20%. The number of people living on $1 a day is around 6% - down from 18% in the late 1970’s. The $2 a day number is also down from 39% to 18% in this same time frame. We don’t yet see the end of poverty or its implications, but these numbers represent real progress.

Life expectancy is also on the rise. In 1900 life expectancy around the world was 31 years – now its 67 years and rising. In Canada it is currently 80. While some countries are still low – Angola, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe are all under 50 – the average continues to rise. The gap in life expectancy between rich and poor countries is now just 12.2 years – it was 25 years in the 1960’s.

Child labour is down. In the early 1960’s one quarter of all children under fourteen were working. Now it is less than 10%. More children are in school than ever before and global rates of illiteracy have fallen from 46% of all children in 1970 to around 18% today.

We use much less energy than we used to. One tone of coal produces twelve times more energy than it did just a century ago. Energy intensity of developed nations – a way of measuring the energy efficiency of a nation – has been falling at 1.3% each year for the last century and demand from the richest countries will fall this year, despite strong economic growth. Intensive agriculture has made it possible to produce more food from less agricultural land, enabling land to be returned to different uses. A recent study showed that our forests are making a comeback – trees are thicker now than they were one hundred years ago and the volume of trees is rising in China, Vietnam and Spain. One forecast suggests that, by 2050, the global forest will have expanded by 10%

The driver for all of these developments is economic growth. More specifically, it is the strong globalization of trade, knowledge and skills. As we support the reduction of poverty in India and China by enabling them to engage in the global economy and as we transfer skills, knowledge and resources more freely now than at any time in history, the quality of life for people improves. We still have a long way to go, but we are making real progress.

While global warming is a fact, the impact will be less than anticipated. The United Nations International Panel on Climate Change next report due in February is expected to indicate that the impact of global warming on sea levels will be less than anticipated and that the role of humans in creating warming is half that suggested in previous reports. In fact, the role of the sun in climate change – the sun is now warmer than it has been in over 11,400 years – is much greater than hitherto acknowledged. We need to leverage the opportunities of global warming rather than implementing draconian measures which will halt the war on poverty and hunger. We need to redouble our efforts to develop cleaner energy technologies and require their use, but not at the expense of a firm focus on growth.

As for critical illnesses, such as aids, malaria, TB, diabetes, treatments are improving and breakthroughs in genetic engineering, stem cell research and our understanding of the functioning of human systems are all providing new routes for cures. Just recently a team working at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the University of Calgary and the Jackson Laboratory in Maine have found a diabetes pathway that originates in the nervous system. It appears that the nervous system closes down the effective insulin production of the pancreas, but that this can be reversed by a simple injection – ending diabetes, at least in mice.

Technological innovation is this stimulating significant advances in biotechnology, fuels, the more efficient use of renewable resources and for different forms of transportation. Skilled scientists, technologists and engineers have made major contributions to global well-being and will continue to do so, provided we continue to invest in innovation, research and commercialization.

So, as you face down that final piece of turkey and set aside the seventh glass of something or other, think of the world as one of hope. The evidence is there that mankind can manage its existence on this planet – we don’t have to start looking for new homes on the planet Mars or give up all our habits to save the planet. We are making progress. There is always more to do, but we can do what is needed in the spirit of moving on rather than in the spirit of turning back the clock.

Blair Escapes from the Nick

Christmas came early for Tony Blair. The long awaited police interview over the issue of selling honours (peerages, knighthoods etc) took place this morning. He was not interviewed under police caution nor was he arrested - such was the fate of many of the ninety one other people who have already been interviewed. As a lawyer, he would have played this very carefully. It is a criminal offense to sell peerages.

It is still too early to know whether he is off the hook, but his reputation is permanently damaged. It is a scandal, the depth of which we are yet to see. It reaches to all levels of the Labour Party - Lord Levy (senior adviser to Blair) has been arreseted and others expect to be.

Other parties are not immune from this, but the mud will stick to Blair. One of his major election platforms when first elected was to end the sleaze of the conservatives and to be cleaner than clean. His government has been riddles with scandal since the very beginning. The Deputy Prime Minister, Peter Mandelson and others have all been challenged and resignations have occurred.

Blair may have "got away" with this, but it will be his successor Gordon Brown who will have to live all of this down.

Giving Ed Room

Our soon to be Premier - he'll be sworn in tomorrow - held a press conference and announced a major restructuring of Government. From 24 Ministries to 18 with Economic Development, Gaming, Aboriginal Affairs, Community Development, Restructuring & Efficiency (which was about neither), Human Resources & Employment, Innovation & Science all gone.

The key new Ministry is Treasury Board President - a control of spending position. Good thing too - ours is out of control with $1 billion over-spends every year. There are also adjustments to other Departments - Advanced Education gets the I&S role, there's a Ministry for Parks, Recreation and Culture, Energy gets the biofuels and bioenergy portfolio and so on.

Its a good start. Now the next question is WHO - who will get which Ministry's. Lets hope Hancock gets Advanced Education and Technology - its his dream job (well, Premier was, but then..).

We need to lok at the politcal balance - especially any role Morton has and any role Oberg has. These will be key indicators of where the cookie crumbles.

Bush - Isnt That the Truth

There is no need for comment...though I did see a packet of mints in Oregon with GWB's image on them - they were called Impeach Mints. 

Gordon Ramsey, OBE

He is a very creative chef and a talented TV reality show maker. He swears a lot. Pokes fun at other chef's (they are all "gob shites" to him) and doesnt worry about causing controversy.

The key: he is a wonderful chef. Watching him on Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares or The F Word or Hell's Kitchen you can see he is passionate about food, focused on simple dishes that taste simply amazing.

His autobiography Humble Pie is a must read for those wanting to join the trade (as is Heat by Bill Buford) - gritty, determined, focused, thorough - these are the words I would use to descibe him. But try his food. Any criticism you may have just go out of the window.

A BIG WIND IN ESSEX SHATTERS THE PEACE AND QUIET

A major hurricane (Hurricane Shazza) and earthquake measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale hit Essex in the early hours yesterday with its epicentre in Basildon. Victims were seen wandering around aimlessly, muttering " Faaackinell". The hurricane decimated the area causing approximately £30 worth of damage. Several priceless collections of mementos from Majorca and the Costa del Sol were damaged beyond repair. Three areas of historic burnt out cars were disturbed. Many locals were woken well before their giros arrived. Essex FM reported that hundreds of residents were confused and bewildered and were still trying to come to terms with the fact that something interesting had happened in Basildon .

One resident - Tracy Sharon Smith, a 15-year-old mother of 5 said, "It was such a shock, my little Chardonnay-Mercedes came running into my bedroom crying. My youngest two, Tyler-Morgan and Victoria-Storm slept through it all. I was still shaking when I was skinning up and watching Trisha the next morning."

Apparently looting, muggings and car crime were unaffected and carried on as normal. The British Red Cross has so far managed to ship 4,000 crates of Sunny Delight to the area to help the stricken locals. Rescue workers are still searching through the rubble and have found large
quantities of personal belongings, including benefit books, jewellery from Elizabeth Duke and Bone China from Poundland.

HOW CAN YOU HELP?

This appeal is to raise money for food and clothing parcels for those unfortunate enough to be caught up in this disaster. Clothing is most sought after - items most needed include: Fila or Burberry baseball caps, Kappa tracksuit tops (his and hers), Shell suits (female), White sport
socks,Rockport boots and any other items usually sold in Primark. Food parcels may be harder to come by, but are needed all the same. Required foodstuffs include: Microwave meals, Tins of baked beans, Ice cream, Cans of Colt 45 or Special Brew. 22p buys a biro for filling in the compensation forms. £2 buys chips, crisps and blue fizzy drinks for a family of 9. £5 buys B&H and a lighter to calm the nerves of those affected.


***Breaking news***

Rescue workers found a girl in the rubble smothered in raspberry alco-pop. 'Where are you bleeding from?' they asked, " Bleedin Romford" said the girl, "woss it gotta do wiv you?"

With thanks to friends who sent this - thirty two of them...

Fallen Trees, Fallen Snow

Sometimes our weather can produce evocative images. 

Winter Films

The Great New Wonderful – another movie of vignettes which doesn’t work. Since Crash, there have been several of these. The trick with Crash was that the vignettes eventually connected – same with Syrianna (both not great films). This one doesn’t work. Edie Falco and Olympia Dukkakis both make small appearances and I suspect they are not annoyed that it wasn’t more substantial. Maggie Gyllenhaal is the key to this movie from an acting point of view, and she is accomplished in the role of a stuck up, arrogant and snotty cake maker. Its about time we saw her in something challenging – something that demanded real acting skill. This isn’t it. Avoid.

The Illusionist – a real showcase for Edward Norton who is outstanding as Eisenheim, the illusionist of the story. Paul Giamatti as the chief of police, Jessica Biel as Sophie (the love interest) and Rufus Sewell as the Crown Prince all put in stellar performances to make this a truly memorable film. A great script too, one with a brilliant twist at the end – made the whole film even more powerful. Phillip Glass wrote the music. A definite “must see”.

Munich – I think Spielberg has given up on editing – it runs for 164 minutes (except in the Philippines, where they cut 1 minute). Its about 64 minutes too long. An interesting story – how Mossad tracked down the Munich Olympic Massacre assasins and dealt with them. Some strong roles for the lead actors – Eric Bana (Hector in Troy) plays lead alongside Geoffrey Rush, Ciaran Hines (Caesar from the TV series Rome and a key player in The Statement) and Daniel Craig, among others. The film looses pace in the middle and ends in a way that suggests the crew just gave up. Moderate interest.

Going Nowhere, Fast

We talk a lot about the weather here. There's a reason for this. Since the end of October we have had some 3 feet of snow and its been in the -20 C range for some days. Ri9ght now, its around -6 and on the odd dayy its +6. So confusing.

When it warms and then gets cold, we develop "snud" - a kind of muddy snow.

The thing that most people outside the north don't udnerstand is that it will be like this until March.