A la carte

I’m writing from the departure lounge at St Pancras station waiting for the 16:25 departure to Paris. A while ago my partner realised he would be working in the South East of England on Friday and Monday either side of this weekend. We originally contemplated a weekend in Canterbury. But then quickly realised it’d be just as cheap to pop under the Channel to Paris for a short weekend break (as Bridget Jones put it: A Mini-Break means true love). With the help of my Nectar Card my return ticket cost me just £50, and my partner will join the train at Ashford. So what’s the plan for Paris? primarilly to sit in cafes, drink coffee, eat croisants and soak up a bit of Parisian autum. What more could a boy want from this Indian summer?

Rainy Days and Mondays…

…always get me down, The Carpenters used to sing. I am not sure that’s what Channel 4 were thinking about when they commissioned their latest sculpture I saw outside their offices on Horseferry Road today, Monday.

The impressive sculpture, replicating the Channel’s idents, featuring a “you couldn’t tell from a different angle it’s a digit” gigantic Number 4’s, is made up entirely of umbrellas.

I did see that today’s Sun (or possibly Mirror) headline could have better referred today to Rainy Days and Mondays, being “countbrown” (referring to Gordon Brown’s expected relatively limited time left as Prime Minister. However I was disappointed that, especially after the European elections caused a further crisis for the PM they didn’t go the whole hog and recall Europe’s “The FINAL Countbrown”!

I cannot write much about politics these days, but couldn’t pass by the fact that not only did the Centre Right increase their control over the European Parliament, but also that the British National Part got two seats from the UK. The blogospehere’s now alive with shock, but perhaps we are the more politically enlightened who express our opinions online. And much has been blamed, particularly the Proportional Representation system which gives more ability for smaller parties to get into parliaments than the traditional British “First Past the Post” system. But the BNP seats say a lot about the attitude of the British public, increasing dissatisfaction of the white working class and, in some ways, are a successful result of a democratic system, albeit one where people have been so dissatisfied with Politics that they are apathetic to voting.

Proportional Representation also gave the Greens an increase in their UK vote, and gave two seats to the BNP. (An interesting aside: some countries (mostly smaller European countries) split their vote nationally, rather than by region. If the UK vote was split nationally it would look like this). But, whatever you think of them, it shows how the system can work for the smaller parties. The next task is re-enfranchising people with politics so they vote.

European Election Day

This morning I left home and went to work via my local polling station
in order to vote in the European elections. There are no local elections
this year. I hadn’t had a single European focused leaflet through the
door from any of the main parties. The Lib Dems sent something but it
was only focused on them cutting council tax: perhaps they forgot that
it’s European and not local elections here.

I did get leaflets from the greens, christians, socialists, christians
and an independent. The first leaflet I got, however, was from the BNP.
Now I cannot go into the detail of who I voted for, or why, but I did
change the habit of my voting life.

Of course people have rather varied feelings about the European
parliament, but one thing is clear: there are things we need to work
together on. We live in a globalised world with global problems and
often tense relationships, we cannot always stand alone. Tomorrow, it
seems to have been forgotten in the UK, is World Environment Day:
there’s a great example of where we need to work together and, if we are
to get anywhere in tackling climate change, it perhaps cannot always be
by voluntary global discourse. And, we shouldn’t forget, it is only 60
years ago that the second world war started in Europe. As my old German
friend’s father used to say, if we’re talking at least we’re not
fighting.

Importantly, I did vote, and urge everyone who can to do so, regardless
of who for. Apathy is, although arguably more understandable than normal
right now, one of the biggest risks to democracy. Even if you cannot
stand to vote for anyone it’s better to go to the polling station and
spoil your paper to register disapproval over apathy.

Eurovision

Well last night’s Eurovision party was great fun. Noway, represented by Alexander Rybak (born in Minsk, don’t you know) were a well deserved winner (pic below). Any guy that can Fiddle with himself on stage should get full makrs in my opinion. Also worthy of a mention was the UK, Sweden (whose operatic act was accompatied by six dancing Karen Walkers), Armenia and those Balkan Girls (who came an undeservedly low 19th).

who came a disturbingly low 19th)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweden_in_the_Eurovision_Song_Contest_2009

Bull! Lies!

The last week hasn’t been a good one for British politicians. The expense scandal, whether claiming for bath plugs and feather dusters, second homes, moat clearing, swimming pools or porn, the Daily Telegraph has been ‘exposing’ the lies and bullsh*t of politicians claiming expenses within, or beyond, creating plenty of public anger.

Not a good week for politicians, especially when the European and local elections are coming up in June. Norman Tebbit even advised the public to protest by not voting for the big parties in the European elections.

Which is why I was interested to see the juxtaposition of a poster saying “make sure nothing stops you voting” with two posters for a mobile phone company in Camden Town station pronouncing simply BULL and LIES.

Of course, one of the biggest risks of the expenses story is disillusionment with politicians in general, politicians of all parties, and voter apathy caused by lies and bull. But voting is an essential way of exercising you democratic right – so maybe we shouldn’t let lies, bull, or anything else, stop us doing so on Thursday 4 June.

Flying South

So last Friday, after leaving a job I’d been doing for 5 1/2 years I went on a short holiday for some winter sun. Well, I had some time off work so thought, why not! It was the kind of holiday I’d never had one to go on before. Three hen parties, lots of young families and the odd gay boy flying with EasyJet to Las Palmas airport in Gran Canaria with us.

We had an “oh my gosh I’m on the kind of holiday parents take” moment, you know, when you arrive at the airport, hire a car and drive to the coastal resort to pick up the keys for your accommodation. It was certainly not like my normal holidays which more often involve a train or bus from the airport for a city break.

We stayed in Playa del Ingles which, in itself, is multiple holiday destinations: the hen parties and ‘lads’ holidays, families, gays and hundreds of snowbirds – though these were mostly older German couples there for a quite some time.

The beach though was amazing, the dunes great to walk over, and the weather warm (not hot, but warm) and hot when the sun was clear. We also spent a day driving inland – well worth doing if you ever find yourself on holiday in Gran Canaira… Amazing scenery although scary roads (narrow, mountainous, winding and with large coaches driving in the opposite direction). We drove to Fataga and San Bartholomew.

Of course, returning to London after six days was quite a shock, cold, wet and rainy – a months worth of rain fell in just 12 hours yesterday. Despite how much I love living in London, and how much I wouldn’t want to live in Gran Canaria, it does sometimes make me whether somewhere warmer would be more enjoyable – perhaps I’ll become a snowbird myself… Or perhaps I’ll just keep hoping – as usual – that we get some kind of summer in London this year. And if not then I’ll keep my promise to myself to go to South America next winter…

At least after all my wisdom tooth problems I can start to eat properly again and, even better, cook properly! Now I have to start preparing for my new job… an exciting task ahead of me