Part 1 – food
A holiday planned around a wedding in Cambridge was a great opportunity to really relax and switch off. While I could not really resist the temptation to hook onto WiFi and catch up on the news outside, I found the pull of the great town (its history, its food and its shops) to be a soothing palliative to the stress of recent months. Yep, J’accuse went on a sort of mental shut down while walking from college to college in the old University town.
Holiday also meant that the Dukan Diet got a deserved break that kicked off with pork scratching entrées at The Chophouse outside King’s College. They’re fabulous, especially dipped in an apple cider purée and washed down well with a Pinot Gris (we had to add a touch of Greater Luxembourg to the first meal). If you do get down to the Chophouse there is one desert that cannot be missed – the (gluten free) fruit crumble. Divinity on a plate.
I still get impressed at the sanitised manner in which food – packed food and food that screams “I’m both retro and healthy” – is approached in the UK. Places like PRET, EAT and the like line up salad after salad and take-away wraps confounding both stomach and mind as to the choice for the quick solution to accompany your adjective ridden coffee.
Even the Crowne Plaza breakfast coffee is “proudly brewed by Starbucks” which means that your adventure to get the right cappuccino or espresso has to start from outside the haven of the otherwise magnificent breakfast table at the hotel. No worries – Cambridge does not even need to offer you a faux italian establishment for a good brew of the grain (vide Don Pasquale’s in the market square). Just pop over to Fitzbillie’s where your excellent espresso/capuccino/macchiato can be downed with a bite of the Chelsea buns that form the foundations of Fitzbillie’s growing reputation.
For good local food there are two solutions: a pub lunch is always a pleasant option – try the Anchor for example where you can sit back and enjoy the punters if like us you’ve found some clement weather. If you want to have the wankellectual solution then try the Eagle Pub (round the corner from the Chophouse) where Watson and Crick allegedly cracked the DNA idea. Better still nothing beats the marketplace for good food. I am told on a very good authority that the mouthwatering whiff of Ostrich Burgers that pervade the senses upon reaching market square do not lie. The burgers are phantasmagorically scrumptious.
If standing up to chew on a burger is not your style then do not miss out on Bill’s Cafe restaurant and Store. Tasty food homely decor and great service combine to give you an unforgettable dining experience (and moment of relaxation) amidst colourful surroundings. The hummous and halloumi sandwich is particularly exquisite – and you can walk out with a bill’s recipe book as well as some of their wonderful produce.
You can also walk out with a recipe book if you visit Jamie’s Italian. The design and decor is magnificent. The menu is brazenly simple and to the point. The food. Well. Nothing great there to be honest. Our waitress turned out to have worked at Sliema Pitch restaurant for two years before moving to Jamie’s in Cambridge. If I had to be perfectly honest the Angus Steak served at Sliema pitch is a hundred times better than the fare we got on the plate amidst the usual fuss of quaint presentations and “genuine” Italian at Jamie’s.
Cambrigde. Much more than a University town.
Right now is the time of that gap in the time-space continuum when the General Box labelled “Summer” starts to shut slowly taking with it the smells of the sea, the sweaty brow of the aestival traveller and the dizzy dreams of dolcefarniente. At the same moment the musty smells of the humid “Autumn” box start to drift into the atmosphere – spreading like a cold virus at the break of September. It’s a general feeling of stasis before the momentum returns of “work as usual”.
The Times (UK) economic commentator Anatole Kaletsky had a great article referring to the seasonal changes in Wednesday’s edition (Take cover: A financial hurricane is blowing in – *paid subscription required). Kaletsky highlighted the fact that in moments of great financial depression, the worst period to look out for is the end of August – beginning of September period:
Almost all the great financial crises of history have occurred between late August and mid October: the Wall Street crash in September and October 1929, the collapse of the prewar gold standard in September 1931, the sterling devaluation of September 1949, the collapse of the postwar Bretton Woods currency system in August 1971, the Mexican default in August 1982, which triggered the Third World debt crisis, the stockmarket crash on Black Monday in October 1987, the break-up of the European exchange rate mechanism on Black Wednesday in September 1992, the Russian default in August 1998, the Lehman bankruptcy in September 2008 — the list goes on.
Kaletsky plugs into the general feeling of doom and gloom that your average news follower might be experiencing at this moment in history. You know that feeling don’t you – Death’s scythe all over the place, the misery of war, famine and pestilence coupled with stories of natural hurricanes and financial earthquakes. For heaven’s sake, I was reading the same issue of the Times yesterday and I had in mind to do some more honeymoon travel research after that. Sure enough, two (two I say) articles about honeymoons where disaster struck – sharing the same page. A man eaten by a shark and another couple run over by a car. And this was the Times mind you, not the Daily Mail.
Doom and gloom or not, September has come rushing in closing what has been for the North of Europe the coldest summer in living memory. We might still be in time to witness the collapse of an economic system or at least feel the full brunt of the economic crisis. We might still witness more death and disaster before the month turns into October and drags to All Hallows Eve. September might be the time to appreciate the little moments of calm. Just like the lady I caught lounging on the grass on the bus stop behind the EIB (European Investment Bank).
The flags fluttering in the late summer breeze, the sun bearing down in a warmish afternoon and the relaxed fonctionnaire lapping up (or should I say stealing) the last of the summer rays. Forget the hurricanes for another day. It’s time for the galactic lunchbreak.
Carpe diem.
[learn_more caption=”photography”] Photo shot using Hipstamatic app on an iPhone 5. lens: Libatique 73 film: Cano Cafenol place: Kirchberg, Luxembourg (BEI Bus stop) date: 01.09.11 around lunchtime.[/learn_more]
George Vella, Malta’s possible future Foreign Minister has drawn his own conclusion about the best possible outcome that could result from the toppling of Gaddhafi. The Times online title says it all: “Libya can boom and ‘absorb’ immigrants“. Nothing wrong there really is there? I mean surely we cannot criticize George for hoping that Libya gets on its own two feet economically and thus act as a magnet to all potential North African emigrants. Let’s see how George put it (our highlights).
Libya could become an investment hub, “the Dubai of the Mediterranean”, and it could also capitalise on its white sandy beaches and crystal-clear waters to become a front-runner in the tourism industry, he said. Throwing into the mix its oil riches and small population density, if Libya opened to free trade it was bound to begin “absorbing” immigrants rather than remain a stepping stone into Europe, Dr Vella argued.
Right. I guess in the world of Realpolitik this is definitely much nicer and presentable than a plan to round up immigrants and send them back into the welcoming arms of deranged Colonel Gaddhafi (Gieh ir-Repubblika et al). When we remember Labour’s last pronouncement with regards to the Arab Spring though, it tends to bring out an unpleasant truth about the party that is suddenly become (at least according to some ) the bastion of Civil Liberties. Do we not remember Joseph Muscat’s gaffe that the troubles in North Africa might bring about an economic boost to Malta’s ailing tourism industry?
Joseph was busy holding an “Iftar” with the Muslim community so he might have missed George’s latest solution to Malta’s immigration woes. Pity. It would be good to know whether this reflects general Labour thinking or whether it is just a frijvowt issue – where opinions are like genitals… to each his own. Here is what Joseph said at the Iftar…
Dr Muscat said he expected that the PL would be criticised for its initiative to hold this ceremony, but this strengthened the party as an organisation which wanted to bring down barriers and believed in a society which respected everyone.
Respected everyone? Sure. So long as the dregs of the earth and the hapless immigrants find some other economy to drain. Who knows.. if Libya booms and absorbs well enough there might be no one to attend PL’s Iftar come a few years time… I wonder… would that be a bonus or a minus? Don’t ask me.
Ask George.
Or Joseph.
***
Addendum: other interesting George Vella observations:
Gode di Immunità
Debbie Schembri left a note on Facebook informing the world that she is happy to have been reinstated as a lawyer in the Ecclesiastical Tribunal. To people like myself, Schembri’s message is once again equivocal to say the least. I had high hopes that the likes of Schembri would survive the divorce debate to form a Civil Rights movement that would press on to reform our laws. One such important reform would be the divorce between Church and state matters − a marriage that has only harmed both parties since 1995.
Schembri had no obligation or duty to do any of this. It is disappointing to see the “bright star” of Maltese progressive politics melt into the establishment day after day. First there was no Civil Rights movement − Debbie preferred to join opportunist Labour; now there is no hurry to divorce Church from State − Debbie is quite happy to perform her duties as a church approved lawyer. Ah Tommasi di Lampedusa… how right you were.
(…) allow me a few words on the Julia Farrugia business. It has been intriguing for me to monitor the reaction to the decision of the Press Ethics Committee regarding MaltaToday’s reporting of the Joe Mizzi Affair. You’ll find a full review of the issue on the J’accuse post entitled “De Moribus Viator”. What I found particularly jarring was the repetition of what happened in the Plategate Affair a while back.
Instead of discussing the ethics of what was done (and instead of addressing the issue of improving the ethical performance of the Maltese journalistic sector), what counts for Malta’s opinion press and opinion formers pounced on the opportunity to engage in their national sport: character assassination.
If denouncing the free manner in which any excuse is a good excuse for a slag contest makes me a speaker from a high horse then call me a cavalier. When I am accused of speaking from the “moral high ground” because I have denounced the lax standards of the gutter press, the accuser fails to realise that this IS all about morality and ethics. The moment that you make the mental choice to accept the kind of sewer-bred smear tactics that are perpetrated daily in the Maltese media you become a willing accomplice of that dirt.
