4 Hairy Buddhas

Went to see Andy, Stanton Delaplane, Dan and Dave play their second Hairy Buddhas night at the Landsdowne on Sunday and 'twas much fun. Very cosy, lots of pretty candles and slides courtesy of Andy's housemate James. Be good if they could get a regular acoustic night here as it's a nice little venue. More people there than last time too.
Yesterday I bought a ukulele for £15. Got to learn how to play it.

Warm Squash and Walnuts

Great little recipe courtesy of the Guardian's River Cottage Cookbook Supplement last week.
Easy peasy and pretty damn tasty too!

1. Cut a good sized squash into chunks.
2. Cover well with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
3. Pop in the oven at around 200C for about an hour or until the squash is roasted.
4. Add 100gms of walnuts to toast, after the squash has been in the oven for 45mins or so.
5. Line dishes with pre-prepared herb salad (the recipe suggests using a rocket salad but I found that coriander worked really well with the roast squash).
6. Cover salad with roast squash pieces and toasted walnuts, and enjoy!

Best to eat this ASAP as the squash doesn't hold the heat very well and it's consistency changes as it cools. But we found this so good that it really didn't last very long anyway.

Uncovered Meat, anyone?

Australian Islamic cleric Sheikh Taj Din al-Hilali made the following abhorrent comments at a Ramadan sermon and created a media storm yesterday which resulted in his suspension from religious duties for two to three months.

"If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in
the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come
and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cat’s or the uncovered meat? The uncovered
meat is the problem," he said in the sermon.
The cleric also spoke of womenwho "sway suggestively", wore make-up and dressed immodestly "and then you get a judge without mercy and (he) gives you 55 years".
"If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2424864,00.html

It's pretty disgusting stuff and, given the force of the remarks I'm not convinced by claims the message could easily be misinterpreted. What is particularly worrying is that this tripe easily translates into the Patriarchal misogynist bullshit attitude ,that women are "asking for it" if they choose to wear say a short skirt. Hmm...sound familiar? Remind me what century we're living in again? I heard a man on the radio yesterday claiming that in a Democratic society "Freedom of Speech" should be alllowed. But we condemn incitement to religious hatred, and this is basically incitement to sexual hatred.

Feminists fought for the right to vote, to express opinions, and to have equal rights in the workplace. Although some gains have been made, evidently we still have a long way to go. It's that bloody 'Original Sin' which blocks our progress every time.

Nova Scotia gig and Milkteeth

We went to see Toby play at the Nova Scotia in Spike Island the day before yesterday and it turned out to be a kind of benefit gig for Leili from Milkteeth. We didn't know this before we got there but apparently she died from glandular fever/pneumonia about a month ago. Really sad.

Just handed my Dissertation in!!! :)

Eat my Humble, Christmas Pie!

Been staying at another B&B - 'Christmas Pie', named after a village in Surrey where the owners came from.
It's a lovely, friendly place with a HUGE breakfast menu, the likes of which I've never seen before.You get to choose options from British, American, Continental or Indian breakfasts and its pretty fantastic food.
Today, for example: chorizo and scrambled eggs on toast and Alex had eggs benedict and a tower of pancakes and maple syrup which neither of us could manage.
Plus little Lindt chocolates on the pillows and sparkly elephants along the skirting boards becuase we were in the 'Indian' room.


On the downside, the head of dept. wants me to cut out 1,500 words from my dissertation "just to be on the safe side". I have about 30mins to do this otherwise I'm gonna miss the train to Bristol and really can't afford any more catered sleeping options. Think I'm getting a stomach ulcer...

Rumination on the rain...

Back in Swampea whinging and moaning because of the rain, staying in a pretty dreary B+B in a last-ditch attempt at finishing my dissertation. Avoiding work as per usual - hence the blog entry.
Have had a pretty miserable couple of week's. Here are the editied highlights:-

A really annoying Asian toddler bawled on the train all the way from Newport to Swansea while his parents desperately to control his tantrums, alas to no avail; a nasty man shouted at me in an incomprehensible language after I took my umbrella into his shop, "There's WATER coming in!" he screamed (I think) whilst pushing me out of the door. Hardly surprising given that it was pissing down outside and I don't think a few drips from my umbrella would be any worse than the 1000s of drunkards on East Street trudging a load of mud through. I only wanted a bar of Dairy Milk, and it wasn't even for me, it was for my housemate. 3rd instance of rudeness was in Indian restaurant the day before yesterday where we were constantly harrassed with the sour faced waiters trying to nab our plates so they could keep their production line factory-restaurant running smoothly. And I was given a Starter I hadn't even ordered.