Not the best of journeys

Things had been going well.

We started our journey on Friday morning and, apart from a relatively long traffic jam between Waregem and Kortrijk, which cost us about half an hour, the driving was good.

We had taken food and drink along with us to have on the way, so our ventures into service areas were only for quick relief. That evening we stopped in Dijon, and again fed on our own provisions. (We haven't been to a restaurant for a couple of years and are extremely careful in this Age of Covid.)

Saturday provided us again with a pretty pleasant drive, though the expected slow traffic through the tunnels of Lyon gave us plenty of time to breathe in the fumes and admire that town's Guggenheim, not quite up to Bilbao's standard, but still very impressive.

Anyway, after a delay similar to that in Belgium on Friday, we drove on to cross the border into Spain and reach Girona in the early evening. We stayed at our usual hotel, the Costa Bella, where the restaurant seems to have improved. Yes! We ate our evening meal in the restaurant, where, fortunately, very few other guests were present, at least not at the early time by Spanish standards that we chose to eat.

And so to Sunday, when we had planned to drive the rest of the journey, some 700 Km to Guardamar del Segura, arriving there at about five in the afternoon.

The best-laid plans…

Some thirty or forty kilometres before Valencia, the yellow tyre low-pressure warning light came on, accompanied by some loud peeping. I started heading for the emergency lane, but before I could reach it, the rear near-side tyre exploded and things became hairy (thank goodness it wasn't a front tyre). Still, I was able to get onto the emergency lane and bring the car to a halt.

We put on our fluorescent jackets, left the car and placed the warning triangles. The car is fitted with an emergency call system to Citroën Assistance, so then I used that to inform them what had happened and where we were. We expected to be helped within a half hour.

After that time, I called again, had to give the same details and was again told that help would soon arrive. After a couple more calls to Citroën Assistance, a tow-truck finally arrived at about 17.30, some three hours after the problem was first reported.

The car was taken to a strange abandoned petrol station/garage some 20 to 30 Km distant. The wheel was removed and replaced with the emergency wheel, basically an excuse for a wheel with which can drive at a maximum speed of 80 Km/h.

We finally arrived at Guardamar at just past ten o'clock in the evening and then discovered that the bag containing my passport had been lost/stolen in all the confusion.

A new tyre was fitted the next day.

At a cost!

And we only came down to sell the house!

Coronavirus Trump

Trump initially dismissed the coronavirus problem as a little flu that would quickly blow over. Then it was something that he had full control of. Then it was something created by China. Then it was something that would be cleared up by a miracle. Then he started listening to the experts. Then he forwarded his own ideas on how to cure an infection (swallow disinfectant!). Then he stopped listening to the experts.

He still doesn't listen to them.

He messed up everything from ensuring sufficient protective clothing, ensuring sufficient testing, setting up emergency hospitals… the man even failed to present an example of responsible action during his few public appearances during the past several months. 

Because of his ineptitude, 113,000 Americans (and counting) have died up to the time of this post.

Now Trump wants the USA to return to full normality.

According to the experts (yes, he's still ignoring them), this will mean that at least 100,000 more Americans will die as a resutl of the coronavirus by September.

Now, listen carefully, Donald. Here's a bit of arithmetic:

113,000 + 100,000 =213,000

Got it?

That's more than TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND deaths that you would have on your conscience, were you to possess such a thing.

Some weeks ago, I wrote a little song documenting Trump's pathetic response to the crisis. Don't expect greatness—it's the first song I've ever written. Anyway, it's called The Coronavirus Boogie:

[C]You know I just can't sing

I must have that thing 

That they [G7]call the coronavirus [C]boogie 

[C][G7][C]

[C]I've an ache in my head

I should stay in bed 

This could [G7]be the coronavirus [C]boogie 

[C]

[C7]I went to visit President Trump

[F]To ask him what to do

[Dm]He told me not to [D7]worry, son,

You've [G7]only got the flu![G7]

[C]My temperture's high

Right up to the sky

Must [G7]have the coronavirus [C]boogie 

[C][G7][C]

[C]Well I'm feeling bad 

And it's kind of sad

Sure to be [G7]the coronavirus [C]boogie 

[C]

[C7]I went to visit President Trump

[F]To ask him what to do

[Dm]He told me not to [D7]worry, son,

We've got [G7]disinfectant for you![G7]

           

[C]My throat is all sore


I can't swallow no more

I don't [G7]dig the coronavirus [C]boogie 

[C][G7][C]

[C]Now I've started to cough

Think I'll order a coffin—

You can [G7]dance the coronavirus [C]boogie

[C]

[C7]So don't you visit President Trump

[F]To ask him what to do

[Dm]He'll only tell you [D7]loads of lies,

And that'[G7]ll be the end of you! [G7]

[C][G7][C]

(If you're wondering about a tune, I've put a short version of the song on YouTube: you can find it here.)

The illustration at the beginning of this post shows a mural showing President Donald Trump morphing into a COVID-19 virus. It appeared in Balmy Alley, San Francisco, in early March.

Dangerous Trump

It is difficult to decide which of the two figures is worse.

More than 100,000 dead through the coronavirus.

One man killed by four policemen.

Both figures originate, of course, from the United States of America.

Both figures are a direct result of Donald Trump's signal failure to act as a President.

Trump has demonstrated little but megalomania, xenophobia, misogynism, antipathy, crudity, vulgarity… during his time as President of the USA. (Anyone who thought that these typical pre-president-Trump characteristics would be better controlled when he became President must feel greatly disillusioned.)

Trump has made the USA a pariah in the world.

Trump blames everyone but himself for what is happening in the USA.

The truth is, the 100,000 deaths and the death of George Floyd are direct results of Trump's bumbling non-leadership.

Trump chooses not to listen to the many experts that surround him and provide him with the information he requires to make fact-based decisions. Instead, he blabbers out his own crazy theories: the coronavirus is no more than a flu; the coronavirus problem will be cleared up by a miracle; drink disinfectant to clear the coronavirus from your insides; it's all the fault of the WHO; it's all the fault of the Chinese; it's all the fault (as is everything else) of Obama.

No, Trump, it's all your fault, with your childish, petulant Tweets, which are little more than veiled attempts to divert attention from your own errors and to target minority groups, women, foreigners, and anyone who disagrees with you.

You are supposed to be a President. You are supposed to be the President for all Americans. You are supposed to lead by example. Instead, you strut around without a mask, you go to Florida to visit a rocket launch, you use demeaning language to describe protesters against the killing of George Floyd, yet you use praise in Tweets regarding ultra right-wing protestors and those calling for the relaxation of lockdown rules.

Indeed, Trump's failure to denounce white supremacists in the USA has now led to the killing in broad daylight, in full public view, of an African American, who pleaded for his life, whilst offering no resistance. This was not just a killing, rather it was a lynching by no less than four police officers.

Trump's rise to power and his misuse of power remind me frighteningly of Hitler's rise. Hitler had the crazy idea that the Arian race was in some way superior to others. He gradually built up hatred of other races, especially the Jews, amongst his followers. He banned books and other publications that spoke against his own ideas, he surrounded himself with yes-men whose only interest was self-aggrandisement… And now we see Trump attempting to manipulate the press, belittling certain reporters, especially female ones, especially non-white ones; we see him surrounding himself with his own yes-men and one by one removing those that dare to contradict him or speak against him.

America, do you not see what this fool is doing to your country?

15561: mean anything?

15561.

Mean anything to you?

Actually, it's 15561 days.

Where were you 15561 days ago?

Well, if you're more than about 45 years old, you probably know, without actually being aware of it.

Elvis Presley died on 16 August, 1977 and that just happens to be 15561 days ago today, 24 March, 2020.

So what?

You might well ask. Indeed, yesterday he died 15560 days ago and tomorrow it will be 15562. What's so special?

Well, Elvis was born on 5 January, 1935.

He lived 15561 days.

Today, 24 March, 2020, Elvis has been dead for just as long as he lived.

Hard to believe, isn't it?

Little Brexit

Much of the Brexit debate in the media is concerned with future relationships between the UK and the EU—the Norwegian model, the Canadian solution, and so on. The complete absence of any agreement between the UK and the EU equally presents much material for commentators. But the impact of these theoretical concepts on everyday life remains vague to the ordinary public, those most affected by the nonsense that is Brexit.

In an attempt to demonstrate the impact on the ordinary UK citizen and their day-to-day activities, Richard Corbett, an MEP, has created an ongoing blog post that contains a Long List of Little Things. And Little Things really do mean a lot: the practical problems thrown up by Brexit that will affect the lives of UK citizens in the following areas:

• Health
• Holidays and Travel
• International Haulage
• Agriculture and Food
• Entertainment
• Sport
• Education
• Technology
• Miscellaneous Little Things
• Many things that already cost more

As one commenter wrote, "Overwhelming. Depressing. The detailed small print doesn’t fit on the side of a big red bus so no one hears it."

Really, it is time for the ordinary folk to stand up against this Brexit foolishness. It's like a mass suicide, a sort of Jonestown on a national scale. For heaven's sake stop it before it is too late!

The link again, should you have missed it above: Long List of Little Things.

Spanish bankers

The Spanish bank world is one full of mysteries. The nicest thing that can be said about Spanish banks is that they do not function in the same ways as banks in countries to the north of the Pyrenees.

I have an account with Bankia.

I did not ask for an account with Bankia.

I used to have an account with Caja Murcia. That was taken over in a more or less orderly fashion by Banco Mare Nostrum.

The one day I went to the bank and it had turned into Bankia. No warning had been given. No information as to why or when the change would take place. No option.

The thing is, nothing worked. I was unable to pay for thing with my debit card and the bank itself was absolutely full of other customers in similar situations. There was no organisation of customers into queues, no attempt to provide extra staff, and the manager stayed carefully in her office behind closed doors.

How long would the problem last? No idea! What can be done in the meantime? Get money out and pay in the old fashioned way. Can you give me money? No, that's a different desk…

The problem lasted more than three weeks. The bank remained crowded with unhappy customers.

Now the Bankia website. It's okay. Nothing to write home about, but for checking your balance, fine. Try to add a fiscal residence (a legal obligation), however, and things go terribly wrong.

I speak and read Spanish and have always used the site in its Spanish form. I have never been able to add a fiscal residence.

I have spent far too much time on the phone from Belgium talking to Bankia customer support in Madrid trying to add a fiscal residence. All to no avail. I was pointed to Madrid from my branch office. Madrid finally said to ask my branch office.

No matter what I try, I am told:

• We have not been able to complete the operation
• Es obligatorio dar de alta el pais de res. de datos basicos

See the two languages?

That's because I had first tried in the normal Spanish version of the site and kept getting the error (the fully in Spanish). I thought that I was having trouble understanding, so tried the English version of the site. I should have known things weren't going to be any better when, at the start of the procedure, I received this piece of mumbo-jumbo:

You do not have declared no fiscal residence country.
For tax legislation, is necessary that provide fiscal residence your details, although you have as only residence country district attorney Spain. You can add up to a maximum of 5 fiscal residence.
From 01/01/2016, to comply with the standard CRS related to the automatic exchange of information in applicable fiscal matter to Spain, you must provide your/s residence/s district attorney/is via the signature of this Autostatement CRS of way fiscal residence compulsory, although you have as only residence country district attorney Spain. To obtain more information can consult the R.D. 1021/2015 of on 13 November 2015.

Pardon? Really, you'd think that an organisation such as Bankia could get someone to do at least a half-decent translation: this looks like a quick run through Google Translate.

Still, I carried on and ended up with the same error, only now half in one language and half in another.

I have searched and searched, but am unable to find anything about datos basicos (basic information). There's a section on personal information, but there my country of residence is already indicated as Belgium. I have emailed my Bankia branch on several occasions, receiving either no reply or no help at all. Their latest solution is for me to visit the branch when I am next in Spain.

If I had any faith in Spanish banks, I would try elsewhere, but experiences with others do not stimulate confidence. Can anyone suggest a bank that works well and does not require a mobile phone?

And have you been able to declare your fiscal residence online with Bankia?

Optikit No.1

I was walking with my mother in Woolwich one dark afternoon, when we passed a large store in Powis Street. In the window was a display for a new toy called Optikit. It looked fascinating, promising that all sorts of optical instruments and experiments could be made and carried out with this new "construction kit."

Yes, I'm talking about a long time ago. Perhaps approaching Christmas 1960 or perhaps 1961. Whichever Christmas it was, I soon became the more than proud owner of an Optikit No.1.

It was everything that it had promised to be: its instruction manual provided excellent guides on how to construct, amongst other optical instruments, a microscope, a telescope, a sextant, and its experiments provided a good grounding in basic optics for someone just starting grammar school.

Index page of Instruction Manual

The kit itself included metal sections that, when cunningly connected together, provided surprisingly robust frameworks for the various instruments, lenses of various strengths, lens holders, and other items required for either construction or experimentation. The quality was really quite exceptional: I played with the Optikit a great deal and it still looks good, as these photos show.

And to give some idea of the sort of instrument that could be built with this fascinaiong "toy", here's an illustration from the Instruction Manual showing a cross-section of the projection microscope—Lego and Meccano eat your hearts out!

So what became of Optikit? I have no idea. I only know that there was an Optikit No.0, which, presumably, was the first and less ambitious version of the set, but I know nothing about still more advanced sets—was there ever an Optikit No.2? Optikit was made by the Helio Mirror Company, of Belvedere, Kent. Helio was a defence manufacturing company, making periscopes, which was taken over in 1970 by USI (United Scientific Instruments).

I have checked with Google Maps and the store from which the Optikit was bought is no longer in Powis Street. The building is there, but it seems to have been divided between several new owners (one of the storefronts reads Travelodge). Mind you, looking around Woolwich with street view shows a vastly different town to the one I knew as a boy almost sixty years ago: the Gaumont cinema building is still there, but its function has changed (Gateway House is shown in large letters over the doors of the main entrance) and on opposite is the building that once housed another cinema, the Granada: that, heaven help us all, now seems to be some sort of evangelical church, the Christ Faith Tabernacle. What is the world coming to?

Wafels van Moniek

On a recent visit to Belgium, I bought a wafel iron (also called, I believe, a waffle iron).

Having lived in Belgium from 1971 to 2006, I am partial to most things Belgian, such as my wife, chocolates, fine patisserie, chips, and wafels (amongst other things). I also enjoy baking, so the purchase of a wafel iron (wafelijzer) was hardly a great step for mankind.

Mind you, finding just the right wafel iron proved to be harder than I had imagined.

When we got married, we were given a wafel iron as a wedding-present, and in those days you had a choice of a Nova or a… well, there really wasn't anything else, at least not in the electrical ones. You could, of course, have the non-electrical ones, but then you also needed a Leuvense stoof with a special wafel-iron-holding lid, so that sort were rapidly becoming nothing more than quaint decorative items (heck we threw out several that we had managed to collect, but which were useless without that Leuvense stoof). Nowadays, however, the choice of electric wafel irons is overwhelming. Well, it's overwhelming in Belgium; here in Spain, we had the choice of a single model, which made only small wafels, with fixed plates and which was not reversible. In Belgium we must have had a couple of hundred candidates: removable plates, non-removable plates; duplicate as a croque monsieur machine; different patterns for the plates; different wattages; reversible or non-reversible; plastic covered or full metal; thermostatically controlled or fixed temperature…

In the end I plonked for a FriFri Wafelijzer WA106A 4x7, which seemed likely to produce a sort of happy-medium waffle of both the Brusselse and the Luikse variety and would allow me to install different shaped plates later on, should the urge arise. Strangely, it closely resembles the Nova we received 46 years ago as a wedding present. Good designs don't disappear…

I prepared the first wafels following a recipe from Laura Vitale. I had already tried this recipe with the Spanish wafel iron and wafels they are, and quite pleasant, too, but Belgian wafels…? No, nothing like either Brusselse or Luikse. They did, however, prove that the new iron worked, and worked well. The mission now, then, was to locate a decent recipe for real Belgian wafels of either the Brusselse or the Luikse variety.

Fortunately, when chatting to a neighbour in Belgium, Moniek, I mentioned the new wafel iron and asked if she knew any decent recipes. Moniek assured me that she had an excellent recipe for Brusselse wafels and that she would email it to me. This she did and, upon arriving back in Spain it was not long before Moniek's recipe was put to the test. I prepared just a half of the amount, and just as well! That was sufficient for no less than 17 wafels and they were as close to the genuine as-sold-in-the-Belgian-patisserie wafels as you can get with a non-professional iron. Of course, we could not eat anywhere near all of them at one sitting, so many were kept for the next day, and the next… Easy to store and re-heated in the wafel iron or toaster they are as good as or even better than freshly baked.

In case you don't know, wafels are eaten covered in butter and brown sugar, or with cream and fruit, or with chocolate sauce and… well, whatever.

Bedankt, Moniek!

Here's Moniek's recipe (I have halved her original quantities):

• 500g self-raising flour
• 0.5 litre sparkling water
• 125ml milk
• 2 eggs
• 50g brown sugar
• 2 packets vanilla sugar
• 250ml corn oil or groundnut oil (I used sunflower oil)
• pinch of salt (I did not use any)

Mix the beaten eggs with the flour, sugar, salt, and oil. Gradually add the milk and sparkling water. This results in a liquid dough that can be used immediately.

Now I have to find a really good recipe for Luikse wafels. Anyone?

Rock and Roll Shakespeare

Chuck Berry died on Saturday, 18 March, 2017.

Some twenty-five years ago on a Macintosh Plus, I created a HyperCard stack (remember those?) called Chuck's Intros. It was a little quiz in which the user had to identify recordings made by Chuck Berry, based on a few bars of his guitar intros. Not too many people seemed to care about Chuck Berry back then, but I enjoyed using the stack from time to time as a way of sharpening my own recognition of his wonderful intros.

I had been a Chuck Berry fan for a long time. I still am. I have no idea how I discovered him, but I knew him before the Rolling Stones released Come On back in the early 1960s. I expect I got to hear of Chuck because of my liking of Elvis Presley, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis and everything else Rock and Roll. Holly recorded Brown Eyed Handsome Man, of course, so that might have been my introduction, trying to figure out the intricate lyrics. What with witness stands, the Milo Venus and references to baseball, I was at a loss!

Arrested on charges of unemployment,
He was sitting in the witness stand

The judge's wife called up the district attorney

She said, "Free that brown eyed man.

If you want your job you better free that brown eyed man

."

Flying across the desert in a TWA,
I saw a woman walking 'cross the sand

She'd been walkin' thirty miles en route to Bombay

To meet a brown eyed handsome man

Her destination was a brown eyed handsome man



Way back in history, three thousand years,

In fact ever since the world began

There's been a whole lot of good women shedding tears

For a brown eyed handsome man

It’s a lot of trouble with a brown eyed handsome man



Beautiful daughter couldn't make up her mind

Between a doctor and a lawyer man

Her mother told her darlin’ go out and find yourself

A brown eyed handsome man

Just like your daddy—he’s a brown eyed handsome man



Milo Venus was a beautiful lass

She had the world in the palm of her hand

She lost both her arms in a wrestling match

To meet a brown eyed handsome man

She fought and won herself a brown eyed handsome man



Two, three count with nobody on

He hit a high fly into the stand

Rounding third he was headed for home

It was a brown eyed handsome man

That won the game, it was a brown eyed handsome man

Chuck Berry was the Shakespeare of Rock 'n' Roll, the Bard of the Beat; no other songwriter was quite able to match Berry's masterful ability to summarise in a few verses and with brilliant phrasing the hopes and wishes of youth. Nobody wrote lyrics like him. And they just seemed to flow effortlessly, despite their clever rhymings, unusual settings, and occasional strange words.

Chuck's personal life might have been somewhat questionable (though much of the allegations against him were very likely racially based), but his music was simply wonderful: Carol, Little Queenie, Sweet Little Sixteen, Memphis Tennessee, Roll Over Beethoven, School Day, No Particular Place To Go, You Never Can Tell, Brown Eyed Handsome Man, Johnny B. Goode, Promised Land… and many, many more. I still have well over a hundred of his recordings in my iTunes library. (It is rather unfortunate, however, that he seems to be as much remembered for his one really rubbish number, My Ding-a-Ling, as he is for the rest of his catalogue. Still, he seemed to enjoy playing the number live, so who am I to judge?)

I read his autobiography shortly after it was published and enjoyed it greatly. If you're interested in his real story, you might wish to try to find a copy for yourself.

Above all, keep enjoying his music.

First the USA, now the world

There's a thing called the National Prayer Breakfast, held each year in Washington DC.

Now, the thing is, this event is really a gathering of religious leaders, who happen to be joined by high-ups in the business world and others from across the world that are invited. So it gives these fortunate individuals an opportunity to ponder over the fate of the millions of starving poor and homeless, while they stuff themselves in the luxury of the Washington Hilton.

Nothing could be more Christian.

The president of the USA attends the event, so this year Herr Trump was there and he gave one of his arm-exercise speeches.

Well, "speech" is perhaps too loose a term for the diatribe that poured forth from the orifice in Trump's orange face (that is, after he had asked his audience of so-called dignitaries, church-leaders, etc. to pray for Arnold Schwartzenegger).

Apparently the man is not satisfied with solving the problems of the USA, he is now also going to solve those of the rest of the world, as well. The language he used, the allusions he made, the lies (sorry, alternative facts) that he told, once again show the man to be dangerous.

But perhaps he is more than just the devil incarnate. Perhaps he needs help. Is he suffering from megalomania? Could Trump be mentally unstable? Should he not be placed in a mental health establishment and treated for whatever ails him?

Really, if he is allowed to continue the way he is going, then we shall end up with a real-life enactment of Dr Strangelove, with Trump playing all the main rôles.

Herr Trump

Thank you, people of the USA for dumping Trump on the world.

He's been in office for just over a week and he has even managed to exceed our expectancies.

During the inauguration, he demonstrated what a boor he is in the way he treated his wife. Does the man have no manners, no gentlemanly traits? And apart from being downright rude to the woman, he clearly said something to her that turned her pretend smile into a very real look of fear.

His first week has been marked by lies, "alternative facts" (lies, in other words), numerous decrees, and what must have been a big disappointment for him during the first official visit of a foreign head of state.

Trump lied blatantly about the size of the crowd that attended his inauguration and found the subject so important, that he even had a enlargement made of a photograph showing the sparsely attended area in front of the White House and now has it hanging in that building (perhaps he thought that enlarging the photo would enlarge the number of people. He then lied about the vastly greater turnout for the Womens March, that took place not only in Washington, but around the world. Perhaps Trolland Dump has his own size issues…

So during his first ominous week he started or put in place processes with the following aims:

• to end the semblance of decent health insurance that the people of the USA so desperately need;
• to actually build his ridiculous Mexican wall and to insult that country's people by insisting that it will be built at their expense;
• he has opened up the possibility of building huge nature-destroying pipelines across the USA (pipelines that will cross homelands of Native Americans, who really should build their own walls to stop the pipelines);
• to prevent nationals of various foreign states from obtaining visa to enter the USA;
• to suggest that Christians be allowed to enter the USA, but not Muslims (I'm an atheist, so where do I stand?)
• to indicate that he is in favour of torture and, in particular, waterboarding.

The first foreign head of state to visit Dumpy Trumpy was the UK's Theresa May. Old Donald must have got himself very excited at the prospect of meeting her, as the White House had been tweeting and sending out memos informing about the upcoming visit between Trump and, as they called her, Teresa May (note the missing "h" in the given name). If Trump had Googled this, he'd have come up with someone looking like this:

For Teresa May is a soft porn star and "glamour" model.

Instead, he got this:

Now, all this lying, pontificating, and getting rather important details wrong may seem jolly amusing and I have come across a number of television and radio programmes that have a good old laugh at it all.

But there's a serious side to it, too.

If Trump can treat his wife the way he does, if Trump finds it important to lie about small matters, if Trumps advisors are incapable of getting the name of a visiting head of state right… then there is something deeply, deeply worrying about the presidency of the USA.

And, as if that were not enough, if the president of the USA is capable of such inhumanity, such disrespect of nature, such clear religious discrimination… then there is something deeply, deeply worrying about that man.

Not only worrying, but quite frightening.

Not since the 1930s and the lead-up to the Second World War, when a little man named Adolph Hitler stirred the German people into a frenzy of nationalism, xenophobia, and religious fanaticism, has a more dangerous person held such an important position.

Please, please, if you have a blog, if you have a newsletter, if you are on social media, then help fight the hate that Trump is fermenting. Write something.

Please.

Bake some sandwiches

Huh? Bake some sandwiches?

Surely you don't bake sandwiches? After all, they're just a couple of slices of bread (and that's already baked) with something edible stuck between them. Indeed, look up "sandwich" in Wikipedia and you'll come across a long article describing that item in just that way, and including the following explanation as to the origin of the use of that word:

It was named after John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich, an 18th-century English aristocrat. It is said that he ordered his valet to bring him meat tucked between two pieces of bread, and others began to order "the same as Sandwich!" It is commonly said that Lord Sandwich was fond of this form of food because it allowed him to continue playing cards, particularly cribbage [an excellent game, incidentally] , while eating, without using a fork, and without getting his cards greasy from eating meat with his bare hands.

Well, that's not what a sandwich is in Belgium!

There, that type of sandwich is called a boterham, whereas the word "sandwich" (with the "ch" pronounced more like "sh") refers to a soft, elongated bread roll, made from an enriched dough.

A Belgian sandwich is something like a Spanish medianoche, though, from the recipes I have found, seems to be rather richer, incorporating more eggs.

It is quite difficult to find a decent recipe for sandwiches, even with the amazing search-and-find capabilities of the Internet. And even if you find a recipe, it is very likely to be written in Dutch (the majority of Belgians speak Dutch), which is a tad difficult to follow if you are not able to read that language.

I have, however, come across a couple of recipes, and by far the best is provided by a Belgian television chef by the name of Roger van Damme here. See what I mean about the Dutch?

But never fear! Here's a translation.

Ingredients for 15 sandwiches (I had a couple more)

500g strong flour
225g milk
35g fresh yeast (or 12g dried yeast)
3 egg yolks
50g sugar
10g salt (I used less, so suit your taste)
80g unsalted butter + a little extra in order to grease the baking tray

Method

(I prepared my dough in a mixer, so have adapted the method here). Place the flour in the mixing bowl and add the milk, yeast and 2 of the egg yolks. Mix with the dough attachment on a medium speed until everything is incorporated. Add the sugar and salt, followed by the butter, which should be cut into small cubes and added gradually.

Allow the machine to continue kneading at a medium speed until the dough is smooth and supple (the time will depend on your mixer, but reckon on about ten minutes).

Empty the dough out of the bowl and, if necessary, complete the kneading by hand. Make a ball of the dough, place in a bowl and cover with cling-film and a clean kitchen towel. Leave to rest for 35 minutes.

Knock the dough back and cut into portions of 50 grams, forming these into balls. Place these bottom-side up, cover with cling-film and allow to rest for ten minutes.

Press each ball flat and then roll the dough back onto itself to form the long sandwich shape. Grease a baking tray (I used two) with a little butter (I didn't do this, to no ill effect) and place the sandwiches on it, leaving sufficient space between them (they will rise a lot). Cover with cling-film (I used a clean kitchen towel) and allow to rise for 60 minutes.

Beat the remaining egg yolk (actually, I used a couple of quail eggs, including the whites) and carefully brush the tops of the sandwiches (this will provide the typical glazed finish).

Bake in an oven preheated to 230ºC for 8 minutes.


You should end up with some deliciously soft rolls, which are good to eat with either savoury or sweet fillings.

Enjoy them, or, as we say in Belgium, "Smakelijk!"

(If you wish to see Roger van Damme preparing the sandwiches by hand, a video is available here. Roger speaks Dutch, of course, but at least you can see what he does, and particularly how to roll the sandwiches.)

Here are the ones that I made:

Sublime, ridiculous

Barack Obama's farewell speech as president of the good old USA on 10 January was just excellent.

He was his usual controlled, gentlemanly, presidential self and wowed his enthusiastic audience with a summing up of the achievements realised during his terms in office.

(Not least of these is the achievement to offer the citizens of the USA at least some type of social security in the form of the so-called Obamacare, a health insurance system that a supposedly developed nation should have provided its people with long, long ago.)

I'm not one for political speeches, nor for politics, nor for politicians—can't really give them the time of day, but I followed Obama's speech from beginning to end and thoroughly enjoyed it.

As my late Auntie Ruth would have said, "Sublime personified."

What a contrast to the theatricals of buffoon Donald Trump a few hours later, when he gave his first press conference as president elect. The man is clearly incapable of normal activity and how such a juvenile-minded individual (as evidenced in his "tweets") can still be considered suitable to occupy the most important seat in the USA quite simply beggars belief.

Trump's reaction to a CNN reporter's request for a question was that of a spoilt 10-year-old brat. And, unfortunately, this reaction was only one instance of such juvenile tendencies.

Some days earlier, Meryl Streep made a speech in which she chided Trump, especially for his imitation of a disabled reporter. Trump's come-back was a series of "tweets" in which he first declared that Streep was an "one of the most over-rated actresses in Hollywood."

Now that's very strange, for in 2015, during an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, when asked if there were any actresses he liked,Trump answered, “Julia Roberts is terrific, and many others. Meryl Streep is excellent; she’s a fine person, too.”

As for imitating a disabled reporter, Trump then tweeted a denial, stating, "For the 100th time, I never "mocked" a disabled reporter (would never do that)…"

Well, Donald, that's a downright lie, for you mocked that reporter on 24 November, 2016, during a campaign speech at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and your actions were filmed.

Trump, lad, you lied.

Either that, or you don't know what you are doing for a great part of your waking existence.

Christmas 2016

Designed by Geoduck

2016 has been a lousy year.

Numerous events throughout the year have shown just how far to the right, the ultra-right, many people have allowed themselves (hopefully unwittingly) to be dragged. They also show the dangers of organised religion.

Among the most tragic of these events are:

• the bombing of Zaventem airport;
• the bombing of the Brussels underground;
• the terrorist attack in Nice;
• the Brexit vote;
• the election of Donald Trump;
• the destruction of Aleppo;
• the refugee camp at Mosul;
• the terrorist attack in Berlin.

Let us hope that 2017 will be a better year and that people will come to their senses. The way things are going, however, I see the USA developing ever more into a power-crazed theocracy, where fundamentalist Christians have the sway.

Then it could well be goobye from me and goodbye from him.

The card accompanying this entry was designed by Geoduck and is inspired by a quote from Desmond Tutu: Hope is being able to see that there is light, despite all the darkness. A lone Christmas tree stands in the all-enveloping gloom, but a single little candle still offers a ray of hope.

Year Of The Buffoon

Let the Chinese keep their Year of the Horse, the Year of the Monkey, Year of the Rat, and all the other animal signs.

Let Al Stewart keep his Year of the Cat (and how many of you remember that?.

This year must surely be the Year of the Buffoon.

Just consider: Nigel Farage, Boris Johnson, and, wait for it, buffoono supremo Donald Trump. What a set of human disasters they represent!

Then add to this sad list the names of the likes of Recip Eroğan, Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un, and the ultra right-wing upstarts in Europe.

All you then need are some religious fanatics and you've got a recipe for disaster.

Oh, hang on, such religious fanatics are already present in the USA in the form of fundamentalist Christians (home teaching, anyone? Yes, the world is six thousand years old. I ask you!) and in Europe and the Middle East, Daesh, who claim to be fundamentalist Moslims, but act like no true Moslem would ever act, fill that rôle. (Personally, I think that fundamentalist Christianity, as practised in the USA, is a far more dangerous manifestation.)

Generally, the world seems to be going to pot, with ultra right and fundamentalist viewpoints gaining way too much ground, as people look for simple solutions to relatively minor problems that are blown up out of proportion, as a way of gaining support for extremist ideas and movements.

I had intended on writing rather more on this subject, but came across an excellent article that really says all I have to say, so rather than read my drivel, please take the time to carefully read Brian McNair's When Terror Goes Viral It's Up To Us To Prevent Chaos—it says it all.

(But just to finish, can you really imagine Trump as the president of the USA?)

Castilla y León

Elise and I have not long returned from a trip to a part of the north of Spain with which we were not previously familiar, Castilla y León.

The initial idea was to go to León and from there to drive further to Bilbao. That's not the way it worked out, however, and instead we visited a number of other places in the same autonomous community as León itself.

The main purpose of the trip was to see the Pantheon of San Isidoro in León, and to visit some Romanesque churches. A strange goal for a couple of atheists, you might think, but we look upon these treasures perhaps in a different way to that in which Christians (and so-called Christians) do.

The trip was a great success: León is an excellent mixture of old and new and harbours plenty of interesting things to see.  From León, we travelled to Astorga, and from there to Zamora; we then drove via Toro to Segovia, which we had altready visited a few years ago, but this time went with the purpose of seeing the gardens of La Granja.

Sadly, photography is very restricted in most of the ancient attractions, so here are some links to sites where others present a visual appreciation:

Royal Pantheon of San Isidoro, León

Virtual reality visit to Zamora, including three excellent views of the Flemish tapestries

Flemish tapestries of Zamora (information in Spanish)

Romanesque churches of Zamora

Portal of the collegiate church of Santa María, Toro

I have placed some photos that Elise and I took during the trip on Flickr:

León (incl. Parador, cathedral, Gaudí building…)

Astorga (with one of only two Gaudí buildings outside Catalunya)

Zamora and Toro

La Granja (gardens and fountains)

Bridiots

So the voters of the United Kingdom have chosen to leave the European Union.

Well, that's not entirely true.

The results of the referendum are not legally binding. The decision for the UK to leave the EU can only be made in the UK parliament. The majority of MPs are in favour of staying with the EU, but whether they will have the guts to stand up and vote so in the eventual debate is, of course, a different matter.

As for the referendum itself, it demonstrates just how divided the UK itself is.

The UK is an old union of four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales.

The English voted 53.4% to 46.6% to leave the EU. Hardly overwhelming.

Northern Ireland voted 55.8% against 44.2% to remain in the EU.

Scotland voted 62% to 38% to remain, a huge win.

Wales voted 52.5% to 47.5% to leave (an even smaller win than in England).

So two countries voted to leave and two countries voted to remain. The countries that voted to remain did so in a far more convincing manner than those that voted to leave.

Hardly a United Kingdom!

(Incidentally, I am of Welsh origin and am deeply ashamed that Wales voted to leave the EU.)

Assuming that the UK parliament ratifies the decision to leave, what might the consequences be?

Well, the break-up of the UK seems highly likely, with Scotland the first to go. If Northern Ireland has any sense, it will also leave the UK and allow Ireland once again to become a single island nation.

Wales, of course, followed England. Hardly surprising, given the high level of unemployment there (and the high number of English who live in Wales): the No campaigners put the blame for high unemployment on the EU and particularly its immigration policy. People like to believe easy solutions and look no further to find the real truth. I wonder how the people of Wales and the rest of the UK will feel when unemployment increases as a result of less sales to the EU and less investment from the EU.

The people cast their No votes based on a lack of information and misinformation. The result is a demonstration of why one should not allow ordinary people to decide such vital issues : they simply do not have the knowledge to make a decision based on facts, so instead they make an emotional decision based on fiction. They look at short-term issues that seem important, such as immigration, and ignore the long-term, truly important issues, such as investment, development, long-term employment… These are the things that will play huge roles in the lives of the now young people of the UK as they grow older. Basically, their future has been destroyed.

More worrying than the self-inflicted problems of the UK, however, are the possible knock-on effects in the rest of Europe. Extremist right-wing factions will be spurred on by the unfortunate result to further their own causes, perhaps to demand referenda in their own countries, with the possible break-up of the EU.

As nationalistic tendencies grow in these countries, so, too, will grow the likelihood of conflict. The EU (and its predecessors) have kept Europe at peace for seventy years; prior to that achievement, Europe suffered almost constant conflict in some part of its boundaries. In the first half of the previous century alone, two World Wars were ignited in Europe, during which millions of people were killed and otherwise suffered. Nationalism of the type displayed in the UK and in other countries of the EU is likely to lead to similar conflicts should the EU break up. Furthermore, Russia will feel less reticent to atttempt to take back its former territories and will therefore likely set its sights on the Baltic states, the Ukraine, and elsewhere, in the face of a weak and divided Europe. Clearly a recipe for a Third World War.

The EU has made mistakes, of course. Any organisation attempting to achieve what the EU has achieved is bound to make mistakes. But this does not mean that its members must bleat and moan: they must learn to work better together, to learn from what is wrong in order to create a better right. The achievements of the EU should be applauded: peace, a single currency, freedom of movement of people and goods, the world's largest trading bloc…

Some sense

Belgium's a great place. I'me Welsh, so I'm also supposed to be British, but I spent 35 years of my life in Belgium (more than in any of the other three countires in which I have lived, Wales, England and Spain), so I feel as much Belgian as anything else. I left the country for health reasons and miss its tidiness, its completeness, its pastries…

Belgium has had it rough during the last few months, having been shown to be a spawning ground for terrorists and now, just this week, being itself the target of some major terrorist attacks.

Sadly, the growth of terrorism has been matched by a growth of right-wing tendencies, with foolish non-thinkers jumping onto the easy solutions of "keep out the refugees," "down with Islam," and other nonsensical nationalistic propaganda.

Thank goodness, then, for some good old common sense, as demonstrated by Anwar, a young schoolboy, when he was interviewd at his school gates on the day after the attacks in Brussels for VTM News:

Here's a translation:

Reporter: Indeed, the attacks do not represent true Islam, says Anwar.
Anwar: Muslims are not like those that you see; Muslims are people that love peace and not killing.
Reporter: That's an important message.
Anwar: Yes, a very important message. Thank you very much.

What do you know about the EU?

Soon the UK will hold a referendum to allow its voters to decide whether to stay in the EU.

Bonkers. The average bod has no idea what the EU does, what it has achieved, what its powers are, what its powers most certainly are not, and so on. Most people are swayed only by what they are told by ignorant spouters of nonsense on the television, or by what they read in the gutter press that is so prevalent in the UK, where such intelligent publications as the Sun tell half-truths at best and downright lies at worst.

The Establishment of the UK of course wants the voters to choose to leave the EU: this will provide them with the continued power they seek. What it will not do, is help the ordinary people of the country. But what does the Establishment care for them?

How much do you, dear UK voter, actually know about the EU and how it functions? Very little, I bet.

Well, here's a chance for you to find out a bit more before you go to vote.

The EU has just published a report on its activities in 2015. Do you want to know what the EU achieved in 2015? What progress it made in delivering on its priorities? The measures it took to boost jobs, growth and investment? The part it played in the climate deal achieved in Paris? How it handled the refugee crisis? And how EU citizens benefited from the Union? You can find the answers to all these questions and more in The EU in 2015.

The publication is available in various formats (HTML, PDF, EPUB) for free (a printed version can be purchased) at http://publications.europa.eu/en/web/general-report (It can also be obtained in numerous other languages through the dropdown menu at the top right-hand corner of the page.)

And if you'd like to learn more about the EU, or to find resources for use in presentations, a good place to start is http://europa.eu/publications/index_en.htm (again, information is available in other languages through the dropdoan menu at the top right-hand corner of the page).

USA

To quote another obnoxious American, "You cannot be serious!"

Still, at least we now know the real meaning of USA:

Unbelievably
Stupid
Americans

To allow a creep like Donald Trump to run in the primaries for the election of the new President of the USA is crazy enough; that such a buffoon, such a mountebank, such an obnoxious, megalomaniacal, clearly prejudiced individual can then actually gain sufficient support to win numerous primaries and to look as if he stands a good chance of becoming the Republican Presidential candidate is just grotesque (as if the Republicans were not already grotesque enough!); it is frightening, not only for the USA (the country and those Unbelievably Stupid Americans), but also for the rest of the world.

Eat your heart out, Dr. Strangelove, for here comes someone far more sinister.