My morning startson the corner

A: “So, I came off coffee for a while and I felt much better. I mean, you’ve made and it’s there so I’ll have some”.

B: ” Yeah, you were better when you were off it”.

A: ” But I’ll have some”.

B: ” Sure, sure. I mean it’s right here”.

A: ” I’ll stop tomorrow”.

B: “Yeah, yeah. Go off it tomorrow”.

… Oh dear.

A perfect cocktail menu for a 1920′s party

We ran a murder mystery night for about 15 friends a year or so ago. The theme was prohibition era Chicago so we needed to serve appropriately.

Running the bar was a bit of craic though cleaning the flat was a trial the following morning (example – cocktail sausages in my shoes and prawns between books on shelves).

But, it was a good menu. So for the good of the interweb here it is:

 

Cocktail List

3 rounds of cocktails with the following choices:

1. Gin Gimlet or Watermelon Martini
2. Bloody Mary or Moskow Mule
3. Whiskey Sour or Seabreeze

Round one:

Gimlet (Gin and lime)

• 2 Measures Hendricks Gin
• 2 Measures Lime Cordial
• 0.5 Measure Soda Water

Method:

1. Pour the ingredients into a mixing glass with ice cubes.
2. Stir well.
3. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.

OR

Watermelon Martini (vodka and watermelon) (make a jug)

• 1 cup watermelon juice (press watermelon through a sieve or cheesecloth)
• 1/2 cup (4 oz) Vodka
• 1/4 cup simple syrup (sugar)
• juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons salt (optional)
• 3 tablespoons sugar (optional)
• ice
• Watermelon slices, for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Mix together the sugar and salt if using.
2. Wet the rim of a chilled martini glass with a piece of watermelon. Dip the rim into the
3. sugar and salt mixture. Repeat for other glass.
4. Place the watermelon juice, vodka, lime juice, and simple syrup into a cocktail shaker.
5. Top with ice. Shake well.
6. Pour contents through strainer into martini glasses.
7. Garnish with a wedge of watermelon if desired.

 

Round two:

Bloody Mary (vodka and juice)

Bloody Mary recipe as taught by the New York School of Bartending:

• 1 oz. to 1½ oz. (30-45 ml) vodka in a highball glass filled with ice.
• Fill glass with tomato juice
• 1 dash celery salt
• 1 dash ground black pepper
• 1 dash Tabasco sauce
• 2-4 dashes Worcestershire sauce
• 1/8 tsp. horseradish (pure, never creamed)
• Dash of lemon juice

Method:

1. Build over cubed ice.
2. Garnish with celery stalk.

 

OR

Moskow Mule (vodka and ginger beer)

Method:

1. Pour 1 1/2 ounces vodka and the juice of half a lime over ice cubes in a water glass
2. Fill with ginger beer.
3. Stir and garnish with a slice of lime.

 

 

Round three:
Whiskey Sour (whiskey and egg)

(If possible replace the whiskey with Peruvian pisco)

You will need:

• Shaker & Cocktail strainer
• Martini/Rocks glasses
• 50ml/1.5oz whisk(e)y of your choice
• 25ml/0.75oz lemon juice
• 12.5ml/0.4oz sugar syrup
• Dash of bitters
• 25ml egg white (optional)
• Lemon slice and cherry to garnish

 
Method:

1. In an ice-filled mixing glass add all liquid ingredients
2. Place the Boston tin on top of the mixing glass ensuring a good seal
3. Shake hard until frost forms on the outside of the Boston tin
4. Strain into either a chilled martini glass or ice-filled tumbler/rocks glass
5. Run a piece of lemon zest around the rim of the glass to release the fragrance
6. Garnish with a fresh lemon slice and a cherry
7. If using the egg white (which you should if you’re going near this drink)  make sure it is really really fresh. This gives the drink a frothy lightness which brings it to life

OR
Seabreeze (vodka – fruit)

• 2 Measures Russian Standard Vodka
• 4 Measures Cranberry Juice
• 2 Measures Grapefruit Juice

Method:

1. Build over cubed ice.

Shopping List

• Cocktail shaker and strainer
• Gin (Branded – Hendricks, Blue Sapphire)
• Rye whiskey (Kentucky Bourbon at a stretch)
• Angostura Bitters
• Tomato Juice x 2
• Cranbery juice x 2
• Orange juice x 2
• Grapefruit juice x 2
• Soda water x 2
• Sparkling water x 2
• A *lot* of limes
• 8 x Lemons
• 5 x Grapefruit
• Cherries
• Watermelon x 2
• Tabasco sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Black pepper
• Celery
• Horseradish
• Eggs
• Cocktail sticks
• Ice

Mmmmm… spermy dinner

I’m unsure about this one.

Good eating

Good eating, originally uploaded by Waxy Dan.

Good eating at @BrockleyMarket

Cuts, strikes and such…

Again, I’m trying to my thoughts together in one place.

I’ve been on strike a few times this year and I was on the big march in London yesterday. I feel instinctively that this is the ethically correct choice but, if I’m to argue for it (which I must as I’m challenged on these choices regularly) I need to figure out why I’m doing this. So…

Here I am trying to get my thoughts together. Note that, for the most part, I’m comparing my position with an equivalent in the private sector. When I talk about career progression obviously I’m limiting the job families that discussion pertains to.

1. The public sector is a not a safe playground protected from the recession.
   
   I keep being told that I “don’t know how hard it is out there“, that I have “been given immunity from this economic climate“… and so on. We have taken a hit like “the rest of you“. That’s clearly evident as my colleagues are made redundant around me, my pay is frozen and my pension already reduced (note that it was already renegotiated in 2008).  It’s just silly and uninformed to state that nobody in the public sector is feeling this squeeze or suffering from the impact of the recession.
2. The public sector is not a commercial company – it’s an essential service.

   It can’t take hits like the private sector can (and should) because everything it does is essential (or should be – there are, of course, activities that should be lessened in scale or stopped altogether – I would never argue that there aren’t).

   This is a crude comparison I admit, hospitals need to stay open and working to a certain standard / web design agencies don’t. A capitalist society should go through periods of boom and bust – commercial services like pubs, web start-ups, estate agents and banks should be allowed to prosper and fail accordingly.

   But it is irrational to assume that public services should grow and fail in the same manner. These services are public and not private because we need them to keep going no matter what – that’s the basic function of government and its associated services.

   I’m not stating that spending should not be reduced during recessions – it should of course. But there is a core service that is essential and the quality of that service is now lessened. That means worse healthcare, more kids with nothing to do, less police, more potholes in the roads, increased crime and worse education. And so on and on and on. That’s not okay.

   A friend of mine yesterday phrased it very well – “When a toilet is cleaned in a hotel it is to earn that hotel more money / when a toilet is cleaned in a hospital it is simply because that toilet needs to be clean“.

3. There is deal – less pay and progression for better security and pension.To follow on from the previous point – those working in the commercial world should also be allowed to prosper and fail in times of boom and bust. Have routine nights out and expensive holidays paid for by your company, have your company car and have your bonuses. But accept that, with these things, comes an greater risk of redundancy. That’s the deal.So there’s a trade off. I have, to a degree and only for now, more job security and a better pension that my equivalents in the private sector. (I also feel more enthusiasm about the value of my job to society but that’s perhaps a tangential point). But with that security comes some trades.
   • I have less opportunity for progression than my equivalents in the private-sector. A specialist in the public sector (for the most part) will be unable to progress past a certain pay scale. So I’ll earn less in than my friends who continue to progress.
   • I cannot renegotiate my contract. I’m on a national payscale and that’s that.
   • I don’t get perks. No beers after work or parties or bonuses. Now I’m told that commercial companies won’t provide these when times are tough – fair enough. But they will return when times are good again.
   • I am highly specialised in a relatively small industry. I can’t jump jobs and companies. I work in a university – there aren’t very many of them.

   Now that’s all okay – I made my choices. But so did those in the private sector.

   I’m told on Twitter that I should just leave and look for work elsewhere rather than take strike action. I do see the logic of this but it’s not one that works in the public service. As said, it’s an essential service. It’s suggested to me that staff of quality “should look elsewhere <because> if there’s nobody of worth left, Government will improve conditions to draw you back”. Now that’s sound logic in a capitalist society and in a commercial role. But we can’t think like that because we can’t allow our services to have no one of quality. A generation of poor teachers (for example) doing damage while the government tries to draw them back back (as it did relatively recently with homeshare schemes and such) will have terrible consequences for society.

   So, for the reasons that I chose to work where I work I don’t want to leave. So it’s a long-term thing.

   Which is where the pensions argument comes in. People being hit by the pension reduction now made an agreement decades ago with their employer that they would work for less than their private sector counterparts in return for a better pension – essentially a deferred wage. If the government reneges on that deal not only is it morally wrong it also makes the public sector far less attractive to quality graduates in the future. Even if the government does try to draw teachers (to continue with the example) back – the employer won’t be trusted to hold to that promise in the long term. And by ‘long term’ I mean decades. So with little short term reward and less and less long term reward – it’s a less attractive deal.

   Now I’m also told that none of this should matter because health, education, etc. are vocations and we shouldn’t care about money. First off, that’s easy to say and secondly that’s true… To a point… but we have all begun to weigh our extrinsic motivators to do social good against the intrinsic motivator of a good reward for working.

 

 

…. An additional to the post…

To add to that… I do understand that, in the private sector, if you’re unhappy with working conditions you go elsewhere. I’ve done so in the private sector and do understand how it works.

But please understand that things work differently in the public sector. Partially for the practical reasons I mention above but also because of desire and motivation.

When I talk about “quality staff” I’m not only referring to skills, I’m talking about a desire to have a job in the service of society.
Again, I’ll use a teacher as an example again. A ‘good’ teacher would rather not teach in a private school. That’s not where they do the most good. But, if pushed enough, they’ll have to switch for purely financial reasons.

This isn’t okay. Good teachers who care in private schools while those who can’t find work elsewhere keep teaching the less wealthy? Not a good thing surely?

Please understand that many of us striking yesterday did not just lose pay to protect our pensions. We’re worried about broader social consequence.

My son will be happier than I am

… A tall order perhaps but if I don’t at least aim for that what’s the point, eh?

So, I am now a father. I should really be posting more frequently. Time goes by in a blur of commuting, late night squats (baby in arms), and soon-forgotten wisdom.

… But this one I wanted to note.

I can’t swim. I get a bit better as years go by. At least I’m less fearful of the water. So I can now enjoy tropical holidays and appreciate, if not fully partake in, the calming magnificence of a Thai beach hut just for the two of you (not that I’ll be in that situation anytime soon). But, ultimately I can barely thread water. I’ve tried to learn several times as an adult but just can’t seem to get the hang of it. I jump in full of gusto, relish the sensation of a few kicks, and emerge coughing and gasping a few seconds later.

It doesn’t bother me as much add it once did but growing up it had a real impact. Holidays away, moments of silly fun… Just confidence and such, all took their knocks.

But today I held my son, four months old, in the warm water of a pool and he laughed and gurgled and tried to break free from my hands to glide along the water. He’ll have his first lesson next week. Babies swim beneath the surface apparently and take to it as readily as, well, a duck to water.

I don’t expect him to win a badge at a year old nor to dive at two. But BUT he’ll be free where as I was not and, in a small way, happy where I was not.

I hope he laughs in the water when a toddler. Flirts as a teen. Skinny dips in some dark pool with a girl that takes a fancy to him. I hope he travels and leaps from boats in Halong Bay and dives in the Australian reef.

He’ll have something I didn’t and that’s wonderful. What more could I ask for my son.

The issue of accountability

(Some reworking of yesterday’s post here – apologies for the repetition)

I’m struggling with it. Accountability and responsibility both. Who is to blame for all of this? This is not to simply point fingers and shift the blame elsewhere – rather that we will be unable to suggest a progressive solution unless we can identify the problem.

I’m often assumed to be a good little leftie. And, while I’ll admit to reading the Guardian and voting red every time, those closer to me are sometimes shocked by what are referred to as ‘right-wing’ leanings… I don’t know. I think the left/right dichotomy is a red herring. That our opinions and beliefs are more complex than ‘x’or ‘y’.

I think that a society is responsible for nurturing it’s young. For raising children within a moral framework – a scaffold of discipline and rules that is gradually removed to leave an ethical structure ready to stand by itself. I think that we have failed to do so. We, as a people have dropped the ball and permitted a degradation of youth to go unchecked. At least my own experiences would indicate such. We are responsible for raising these kids. So maybe it’s our fault?

Our current government, acting under clearly ideological motivations, have hardly helped matters. I think that there are obvious consequences to profound and swinging cuts to community funding. That if you make Higher Education a choice only for the wealthy elite. You go to US private providers and proclaim openly that public healthcare in the UK is up for sale. You allow the financial sector to go unregulated and unpunished for a catastrophe mostly keenly felt by those outside it. You close libraries and community centres, public pools and gyms. You take away the EMA struggling families. You clearly evidence that only the wealthy are protected and served by the state. You do all of these things in a society that is the most stratified in the developed world and this is what happens. They are responsible for pushing a malicious and vindictive agenda of social engineering too far and too fast. For setting light to a very dry and very ready tinderbox. So maybe it’s the Tories?

But your environment does not excuse your actions. You are responsible for what you do. The closure of your local pool does not justify your arson nor your manslaughter. I understand that if you and your forefathers are utterly disenfranchised then you may feel compelled to take payment from society where you can. But that does not make it right. So it’s their fault and theirs alone? Because goodness is an objective truth that exists apart from your upbringing – to act in a malicious manner is not excusable.

… But I don’t know… I’m really struggling… A friend of mine has commented that she was afraid of consequence as a child. Of parents and the great bearded sky wizard who threatened damnation, and indeed interviews with looters have revealed that it it’s the certainty that will be no retribution that has spurred them on… but I don’t know… It wasn’t *only* the fear of consequence that limited my actions as a child. And it’s not only the fear of consequence that stays my hand today. I did and do possess some kind of basic morality.

Those who have carried out obscene crimes in the last few days are accountable and should be held accountable. As individuals… But… it’s up to all of us, state and society, to try and create an environment that nurtures a different kind of child.

Male teachers in primary schools for kids raised without fathers. Activity centres offering alternatives to spending one’s time lustfully looking at a culture of excess that you are ostracized from. Paradigms for parenting that allow both profound love and stern discipline without seeming contradictory. Mixed housing schemes to banish the ghetto. Deeper and more complex (and more expensive) community policing methods than the criminalizing stop-and-search… So many ideas. But the real difficulty is that these pursue long-term goals. We don’t conceptualize the long-term very well. We expect results immediately – certainly within the span of one government. Cameron will flood the cities with police today but will he re-open schemes to put a local Bobby into every school and estate? Pump funding into teenage mentoring schemes? Complex plans that won’t benefit his government or even the next. Plans are about human relationships building over decades rather than immediate headlines and target figures.

This should not happen again – that responsibility is shared by us all. It is perhaps distasteful to admit that many of those who looted in the last few days are lost to us. There are no means of saving them. That does not mean that their progeny are also write-off’s; continued neglect evidently doesn’t work. We need to take better care of our society’s children.

What do you think?

Cameron, here’s your f*cking Big Society.

So you cut funding to the community, to people’s lives, and then you ask them to engage in that society. What happens?

You make Higher Education a choice only for the wealthy. You go to US private providers and state openly that the public healthcare is up for sale. You allow the financial sector to go unregulated and unpunished. Libraries are closed. Community centres shut down. Public pools and gyms shut up shop. You allow wealth boroughs to charge for entry into public playgrounds with the explicit aim of pricing out those from poorer backgrounds. You slash child benefits. You cut into police funding. You price poor people out of wealthy boroughs and into new ghettoes on the fringes. You do all of this in a country that is already the most socially stratified in the developed world.

You then you ask everyone to pick up the slack you’ve left? Ask people to engage in your Big Society? Well, they’ve engaged now. Looting and arson are explicit messages, no?

David Cameron, there’s your f*cking big society. You f*cking idiot.

Misty Mountain Hop

Misty Mountain Hop, originally uploaded by Waxy Dan.

View from the Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu

With fatherhood a week away

Hospital’s aren’t nice places no one but brave staff go there by choice. I hate them. l hate the smell. I hate the labyrinthine corridors. I hate cold colours and the insipid art.  They’re nasty cruel places. No matter what we do to make it otherwise. I’ve been anxious at the thought of going to one for the delivery.

But.. but the anxiety of the hospital time is replaced by a growing unjustified certainty that things are going the right way. That fatherhood is a good thing…

… Which is damned lucky I guess all things considered.