Forest Walk

Just walking in the forest near Lough Key...

Saturday: No Wicked Chicken, replace by a very nice concert from Fionn Regan in Dolans.
See Fionn Regan in the RTE program Other Voices.

Irish spring ... hot hot

It has been the warmest April recorded in Ireland, according to Met Eireann. And the driest at Shannon airport... I would not more agree... No rain for 2 weeks, then 2 days of rain, and now great sun.
For example, maximum temperature yesterday at Shannon airport: 16.7.

In the house the garden has seen its first roses....


A follow up, to the previous post, the good thing about food in ireland, is that you rediscover French food with an incredible pleasure, you might also rediscover the most simple pleasure ( french green beans just fired to be crunchy, with a nut of butter ).

Food in ireland

Seafood

Some thinking about food in Ireland. Even if Ireland is an island, surprisingly Irish people don't eat fish. I admit you can find the traditional fish and chip which consists of deep-fried fish (cod most of the time) in batter or breadcrumbs with deep-fried potatoes.

Sea Food is rare, even if there is an oyster festival near Galway ( to be consumed with Guinness), i've never seen people here eating blue mussel or other "fruits de mer".

The deep-fried approach seems the based of any cooking here, the specialty of one of my first Irish roommate was fried sausages at 3am when coming back from the pub ... lovely smell in the house.

There is a socking contrast between the brilliant TV program you can see here( mainly British: The F word, R Kitchen's Nightmare, ...etc... ) about food and the quality of the food you can find here. If I compare with France, we certainly don't have that many hours dedicated to food on television ( except Maiite and some lunch hours short programs ), but the education about food is done at school and home with much more variety and choice in your daily food.

Breakfast
Very symbolic the traditional Irish breakfast is composed of:
toasts, fried sausages, fried tomatoes, black pudding, baked beans, bacon eggs and coffee or tea.
And as you can see it's brilliantly fat ( and perhaps unhealthy ? ) !

Food is a common source of criticism for French expatriate here in Ireland as developed in an interesting point of view of French people ( in French ) about Food in Ireland (mfe.org).

Cheese
In one word, I am sorry, but cheddar is not real cheese ! Viva unpasteurized cheese !
The situation is slowly progressing, as you can now find some French cheese in supermarkets ( at prohibitive price )

On other milk product, I've never seen people eat so much butter with just a slice of wheaten bread ( at breakfast, during their tea break ), every restaurant will provide you with a couple of slices of bread and some butter.

The traditional cooking is simple (Irish stew, baked potatoes ), and only recently starting, with the country becoming economically healthier, to be a bit more varied and elaborated.
See History of Food in Ireland.

Nice restaurants in Limerick area:
- The Green Onion (Rutland St, Limerick) +++
- Copper & Spice (CornMarket St, Limerick) +++
- Brulées (corner of Henry Street and Mallow Street) ++++ (but expensive)


Some links:
- Italian Foodies (limerick)
- Marmiton (there is an english version but mainly in french)
- BBC Food (Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Bill Granger )
- Traditional simple Irish recipes

Cinema de quartier

Jean Pierre Dionnet dans ses oeuvres....

By the way, "El Topo" and "Holy Mountain" has been re-released in DVD.

Work, create, be interested....

A gardener has decided to retire... at the respectable age of 104... putting his longevity down to having "plenty to do and being interested in it". That's quite a fantastic example to follow.
Full story at BBC News.

It seems according to a recent study (BBC News again) Danish people, are the happiest people in Europe because of lower expectation or more realistic expectations. Danes (according to the study ) just take a more realistic view of life, and year after year are just simply happy that things didn't go as badly as they feared.

Is the secret of an happy life a simpler life (and avoid too high expectations) ?

That remind me of the truth told by buddhism, life is suffering because of desire (desire of renewed life)...

Also in the news the administrative court in Nice, has pronounced the expulsion of the homeless which were staying of the beach of the "Promenade".... just a question of prestige, it did not look good for the image of the city.... It's very hypocrite decision when you know that the promenade is full of working girls... but these ones are probably good for tourism.....


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Finally a bit of media:
Happy Birthday Tracks, and its ten years on the German/French TV Channel.

And don't forget from April 23 to April 29, it's Turn Off TV week... so TV couch potatoes, switch it off, go out !


I know it's a bit paradoxical, to celebrate in one hand the 10 years of a TV show ( a brilliant one) and on the other hand to incite people to switch off their TV.

NRA update

Finally an article in the NYT ask the question of gun controls.

Deomcrats mainly, and particulary J.Edwards, but for J.McCain (quoted yesterday): This brutal attack was not caused by nor should it lead to restrictions on the Second Amendment, which guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms.”

Seems the debate about gun control in usa is a real taboo.

N R A .......aaaaaaaaa

Quotation of the day ( taken on the nra website a day after Virginia Tech Events )
"The National Rifle Association joins the entire country in expressing our deepest condolences to the families of Virginia Tech University and everyone else affected by this horrible tragedy.
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families.
We will not have further comment until all the facts are known.

Andrew Arulanandam Director of Public Affairs National Rifle Association"

Got a couple of questions: What facts do they need to know to do any further comment
? Is it the same statement they use for every school massacre ?

I think i am going to be sick..

As pointed out by Corine Lesnes in her blog (in French), the American media does not talk at all about gun control, even hours after the continuous coverage of the shooting. Nothing about gun control in the article from the NY-Times (yet), i have not heard any candidate talking about gun control after the event (yet ? )..... But the readers comment are full of angry message against NRA...

Update:
Apologizes i found a politician comment about Gun Control
"We have to look at what happened here, but... I do believe in the constitutional right that everyone has, in the Second Amendment to the Constitution, to carry a weapon. Obviously we have to keep guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens." John Mc Cain...

So the solutions, if I understand correctly is: more gun... maybe all students should have one to be able to protect themselves... for me its a nonsense.