Thursday, December 27, 2007
Inappropriate responses
The assassination of Benazir Bhutto is, of course one of those oh, bugger, moments when you can see all manner of shit hitting a cornucopia of fans.
All politicking aside, it behooves us to recall that someone has been murdered. Any response other than feeling appalled is inappropriate in the extreme.
So a silver medal of twatdom for Miliband's shrugging "well, she knew the risks", but the gold, as ever, to Dubya for jumping merrily onto the freedom bandwagon and wittering on about her "bravely giving her life" possibly in pursuit of some ersatz notion of "freedom"
She didn't bravely give her life. She was murdered. Please to remember this simple dictum: killing people is wrong.
To cheer us all up, then, a quick visit to longtime perpetual mockarena Have Your Say, and thanks to the marvellous Speak your Branes for flagging it up, a response to teddygate (remember that?) from some random gorm deploring those crazy muslims: "Thank God we live in a secular society"
Drink it in, people, drink it in and feel the cold hand of fear upon your spine. This person has the power of the vote. I've said it before and I'll say it again. These are the End Times
All politicking aside, it behooves us to recall that someone has been murdered. Any response other than feeling appalled is inappropriate in the extreme.
So a silver medal of twatdom for Miliband's shrugging "well, she knew the risks", but the gold, as ever, to Dubya for jumping merrily onto the freedom bandwagon and wittering on about her "bravely giving her life" possibly in pursuit of some ersatz notion of "freedom"
She didn't bravely give her life. She was murdered. Please to remember this simple dictum: killing people is wrong.
To cheer us all up, then, a quick visit to longtime perpetual mockarena Have Your Say, and thanks to the marvellous Speak your Branes for flagging it up, a response to teddygate (remember that?) from some random gorm deploring those crazy muslims: "Thank God we live in a secular society"
Drink it in, people, drink it in and feel the cold hand of fear upon your spine. This person has the power of the vote. I've said it before and I'll say it again. These are the End Times
Friday, December 21, 2007
Ho ho ho
Look, I'm not going into it. The paint, the constant sore throat, the hammers and walls and tiles oh my.
But we managed to open.
So your humble correspondent has been an upstanding pillar of the community, one of Bonaparte's famed nation of shopkeepers for a whole three weeks though, most of which has been spent in a state of blind panic staring at the door and willing it to open. Things seem to be taking a turn for the cautiously optimistic though, and I have been knocking out some seriously decent grub and yes, it is a relief to be my own boss and yes, it is a relief to get to cook with decent ingredients rather than worry about some distant owners unit cost percentage, indeed it's a relief to never hear the words unit cost percentage. It's nice to work my way slowly though the beer list (should you ever come across anything by the Marble brewery of Manchester, buy it, better yet, come to Ormskirk and buy it from me). It's nice to actually HAVE to taste a variety of cheeses, it's particularly gratifying to have people come back and ask if there's any more of a dessert I made that their friend bought and loved (banana and maple bread and butter pudding, since you ask), it's an actual thrill to have people try the ice cream we stock and see the surprise and delight on their faces as they realise what the damn stuff is actually supposed to taste like. It's fun tracking down obscure cheeses that customers ask for, it's amusing handing our vouchers for a free coffee outside the local Costa.
Quadruple the amount of customers and I might even say I'm enjoying myself. Still, early days.
But we managed to open.
So your humble correspondent has been an upstanding pillar of the community, one of Bonaparte's famed nation of shopkeepers for a whole three weeks though, most of which has been spent in a state of blind panic staring at the door and willing it to open. Things seem to be taking a turn for the cautiously optimistic though, and I have been knocking out some seriously decent grub and yes, it is a relief to be my own boss and yes, it is a relief to get to cook with decent ingredients rather than worry about some distant owners unit cost percentage, indeed it's a relief to never hear the words unit cost percentage. It's nice to work my way slowly though the beer list (should you ever come across anything by the Marble brewery of Manchester, buy it, better yet, come to Ormskirk and buy it from me). It's nice to actually HAVE to taste a variety of cheeses, it's particularly gratifying to have people come back and ask if there's any more of a dessert I made that their friend bought and loved (banana and maple bread and butter pudding, since you ask), it's an actual thrill to have people try the ice cream we stock and see the surprise and delight on their faces as they realise what the damn stuff is actually supposed to taste like. It's fun tracking down obscure cheeses that customers ask for, it's amusing handing our vouchers for a free coffee outside the local Costa.
Quadruple the amount of customers and I might even say I'm enjoying myself. Still, early days.
