Butty Heaven

After spending ten days back in the UK, I have to admit that I miss the food. I miss the food terribly! Stuffed full of chips, pasties and cakes, I could hardly fit into my (roomy) trousers reserved for the plane ride back.

My other half was equally impressed with the food; especially after a delicious Sunday roast at Gordon Ramsay’s Devonshire Pub Restaurant in Chiswick, London. Faced with this challenge we gingerly entered a local pub for lunch the following day – not expecting much. I was surprised to see the “lowly” chip butty on the menu.

Now for those of you not familiar with this English delicacy, have a ganders below: -

Yes that is a bread roll stuffed chockers with British chips and lashings of butter. Simply heavenly delicious.

So if you’ve got a few calories to spare, well actually several thousand calories to spare then have a go. Just remember that the more butter the better and the more chips the better. And no margarine allowed!

Oh-My-Bama!

Life is very interesting…

It’s interesting how people in general live blinkered lives only to remove these blinkers when involved in an emergent situation. Yesterday I listened to a radio host spit fiery words about President Obama and how he had failed miserably in his capacity as president.

You see, according to this host President Obama had made so many promises to the American people and had fallen short. I kind of let out a small eek and had to suppress my disbelief at how insular and narrow-minded many people seem to be.

My question to these so-called “real American people” is, how much have you accomplished in the last three hundred and sixty five days? Running the biggest government in the world efficiently and trying to appease over three hundred million people at the same time is no small feat.

In my view, it’s time that all inhabitants of America take a close look at what is happening around the world and not just what’s outside their front door. It’s easy to pick and complain about our own situation but compared to the majority of the world we still have it good.

Count your blessings and be patient.

Unusual Weather

The UK and much of Europe has been hit by the coldest and snowiest weather seen in decades – much to their chagrin! Having lived in the North East of America for several years I am almost accustomed to the snow and bone-chilling temperatures.

In the UK everything ground to a halt – trains, buses, airports – the whole lot. Emergency crews were overwhelmed and everything that could shut down was shut down.

When I was very young I remember a snowstorm in the UK that crippled the entire transportation system and gave all of us kids several days off school. When we woke up and saw several feet of blanketed snow outside just ready for us to dive into and rumple, we could hardly contain ourselves. I had ever before seen so much snow in England before that and never since.

I thought it funny when several callers in to a TV station at the height of the storm, enquired whether or not global warming was the culprit for this type of weather anomaly. I was pleasantly comforted when the weather reporter insisted that these types of weather variances have been happening for centuries. It’s just that it hasn’t occurred in the UK for such a long time, we had almost forgotten. Well I haven’t forgotten and like the majority of things in life I am certain that we have not seen the last of unusual weather activity.

Grateful

This week’s anecdote and Word of the Week is all to do with being thankful for what you have.

After the horrific disaster in Haiti that has possibly billed thousands of people, you have to take a step back and think about what is really important. It is very easy to complain and whinge about the uncomfortable things in ones life.

So on this rather cold Thursday morning in Connecticut, I will not bemoan the weather or the remnants of snow outside my front door. I won’t groan when it takes five minutes for the heat to start working in the car or when it takes forever to defrost the windscreen.

I will be grateful.

Meat-Eating Vegetarians?

This week’s anecdote in the Well Being section is about a new phenomena sweeping across the vegetarian world.

As I have expressed in previous posts, I am coming up on my twentieth year as a vegetarian. For me vegetarianism is all about trying to only consume produce that is grown from the earth. It’s also about respecting animals by not chopping them up and putting them on your plate! Although I must stress that this is a personal choice and I am not the type to frown upon or reprimand anyone who chooses to eat meat.

However I do take exception with the nouveau vegetarianism that allows one to consume meat. These meats are of very high quality and are from organically grass-fed animals that supposedly have a decent life before hitting the chopping block. For these so-called vegetarians it is more about how animals are treated before they end up on their plates as opposed to the idea of a living creature having to die for their consumption.

In my view this is much worse than the normal, slightly ignorant carnivore who just wants to know what’s for dinner. The snobby vegetarian who thinks that they are somehow superior by eating better quality meat at exorbitant prices is the personification of pretension in my humble opinion.

2010 Aspirations

We have all fallen victims to the New Year’s Resolution trap! They rarely work and from the majority of anecdotes I have read, they merely pay lip service true dedication and commitment.

In spite of or despite the failure of my own annual self-promises in the past, I have decided to post a little list of things I would like to see accomplished in 2010: -

Solutions that work
All too often I will come up with a great idea that just isn’t practical. It seems as if I’m not the only one with this problem. Just take a look at any government.

Maintaining Strength
As we get a little bit older, we get weaker. My personal desire is to get stronger mentally as well as physically, in addition to maintaining the great personal characteristics I’ve already cultivated

Openness
Fear makes us weak. It also makes us narrow-minded and leads us down a blinkered path of monotony. Being more open and receptive to different cultures and places is a good thing.

Dedication
It’s easy to do something you love but much harder to stay dedicated when it feels as if no one is paying the least bit of attention.

Will I even come close to achieving these goals? I think I can. At the very least I believe that in trying one will become more defined and aware of our surroundings.
Let me hear all of your targets for 2010. Do you think that you can be successful or are you as convinced, as I am that these types of plans always go slightly awry?