A good reason not to always travel by boat to Brentford to watch Brentford FC. Thinking of Chelsea…
The River Thames today at around 11 am one hour prior to kick off.
River Thames at Brentford
River Thames at Brentford
Arcticterntalk.org
The blog of a travelling psychiatrist and football lover. Who happens to be a halfway decent photographer. Takes a cynical view of the world
Archive for the tag “beer”
Slovenia and Food
Many aspects of Slovenian food are not unlike good quality British or American food.In 2006, the leading Slovenian ethnologists have divided the country into 23 gastronomic regions. Breakfasts tend to be a mixture of fresh fruit, cold meats and cooked eggs. The quality is exceptionally high. The first Slovene-language cookbook was published by Valentin Vodnik in 1799 and I am not planning the second. A few more curious ingredients it seems also, such as Dandelion being popular in salads, and soups it seems are quite a new invention in Slovenia although they now have around 150, enough for most.
There are however a few more unique aspects to their food. For example a very thin crispy pizza served as a starter, with toppings in different lines of pizza being different. Works well as a starter but a temptation to eat rather more than one might want to. Many countries seem to bring their own cultures and influences. The provision of an extra course of cold meats and cheese after a starter with ample bread also suggests not a UK tradition!
There are however some strange traditions here, like giving cups of coffee seemingly only half full even when one asks for a traditional large Americano!
As Slovenia borders Italy and is not actually a million miles from Venice, there are some Italian influences in addition to pizza and ice cream. Roasted potatoes are simple and ample portions. Pork cordon bleu is almost German in its origin.
Desserts can also be interesting with Tarte Tatin hot with ice cream. Prices are maybe 30-50% below what current UK prices are. 
Swedish Food Photos and Reflections
In general terms the food is superb if rather expensive. Many meals are fish based with excellent quality and also good sized portions compared to some of the anorexic fish that get deported to UK. On the other hand they like their ” bad food” too and many good burger restaurants and suchlike exist, including one that smells at you as you arrive at the airport and clear baggage hall. What however is striking is that the food in the airports is excellent. Take Landvetter airport in Gothenburg, a small airport really but the quality and choice of the foods puts Heathrow to shame. If you are a cake lover then allow yourself an hour and 1000 calories to indulge before your flight. Some of the food combinations also make novel cuisine. Take the combination of cod and chicken in a gravy that i was served at Clarion Post hotel. Excellent and the combination works.
Reflections on Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second largest city in Sweden and the fifth largest in the Nordic countries. The population is around half a million and the city was founded in 1621. Gothenburg also has the largest university in Sweden with 60,000 students. Daylight cana last 18 hours in the summer and only 6.5 hours in December. When one arrives it seems a nice place with most hotels arranged around a central square with the Centraal Train Station on one side.
My impressions of Gothenburg were rather coloured by the huge number of Eastern European immigrants begging in the square rattling their plastic cups in one’s face and trying to sell a magazine called ” Sofia ” which made me presume they were Bulgarian. They were hunting in packs and although not frightening to me, I could see that to others they could be persuaded as being so. In the evnings they were inside the train station taking up most of the chairs and seats and in the day they operated in and around the square. A head ” beggar” a large woman sat on a bench barking out orders in a language that seemed alien to me.
The city of Gothenburg portrays itself as “soft and more human” when dealing with poor EU migrants, local paper Göteborgs Posten wrote. But the situation is far from black and white.
In 2010 Gothenburg’s social services paid for 28 beggars to return home. In 2013 that number was 93. The largest increase of those sent home has been seen with beggars from Romania.Between 2010 and June of 2014, the Gothenburg paid to send home 135 Romanians. Norwegians came in second place, with 35 getting a free ticket home, and Bulgaria came in third with 23 beggars sent home.
The police in Gothenburg suspect the begging is organised, however that doesn’t make it a crime. There’s a difference if relatives are collaborating or if someone forces poor people to beg and then takes the money.
Several cases of human trafficking have been revealed in Stockholm where people have been brought to Sweden by criminal networks. Disabled people and children are in special demand by the networks.
The Gothenburg police have not been able to clarify if there is someone in the background making money from the beggars in the city.
In contrast the hotels are nice, comfortable and the staff ultra polite. The food is good, heavily fish-based. The affluence is obvious with hotels like the excellent Clarion Post having expensive Japanese Sushi restaurants. In the square one must avoid the trams if not the beggars as they take no prisoners and seemingly come from all directions. There is also an amusing angle with the emphasis in Sweden on living healthily, and thousands of bicycles in the square, but with some sponsored by burger companies. This seems a good city of not an exciting one.
Gothenburg
Rumours of Calum Ferguson coming to Brentford from Inverness Caledonian Thistle? Any Truth?
Media tonight are suggesting that Calum Ferguson may be on his way to Brentford Fc. His footballing statistics are somewhat curious. He is a 20 year old Canadian yet to make a first-team appearance, but has played 4 times on loan with Montrose last season, 3 starts and 1 from the bench, without scoring. More recently he has been playing in the2015 CONCACAF UNDER-20 CHAMPIONSHIP in Kingston and Montego Bay, Jamaica 9-24 January, 2015 for the U-20 Canadian.
His height is reported as 176 cms making him around 5ft 9 ins around 64kg and left footed. And he has a dual British/Canadian passport.
So, a curious potential signing, but the Scottish element suggests possibility here. Lets wait and see.
Amazing Superbowl Snack
This is the most amazing snack that will see even the most hungry American through Super Bowl and potentially through the whole of next season. Enjoy.
Huge Superbowl snack
World Food Photos. Like food, like photographs of food
Just a various eclectic mix of food photos taken in various locations. Nothing special. Just enjoy and be hungry.
Coconut Tart
Sliders and Beef Wellingtons
Ice and Snow. What can we learn from Scandinavia? Oslo airport. Gardermoen.
At around the same time Manchester airport was being closed due to snow and bad weather, the weather was not so different in Oslo and flights were leaving on time. Not so many are aware that Norway is the northernmost, westernmost and easternmost all all the three Scandinavian countries and has a population of only 5 million, mostly Norwegian people. And it also is a country without an official religon having separated from the church in 2012. And humble Oslo is only the 17th busiest airport in Europe with 24.2 million passengers in 2014. About half the airport operator’s income is from retail revenue. There are twenty places to eat or drink, in addition to stores and other services including banks and post. In all, 8,000 square metres (86,000 sq ft) are used for restaurants, stores and non-aviation services. And yesterday it felt like an expedition to get through the duty free zone to anywhere near a departure gate. But as Oslo airport is connected to 162 other airports, maybe I can excuse the retail element. This of course has nothing to do with why the airport functions when all others close down.
The reality is pride and equipment and foresight.In Nordic Countries, Skill at Keeping Airports Open Through Blizzards Is a Point of Pride. Winter can last 6 months and airplane de-icing starts in august.Across the chilly water, on the bleak Svalbard archipelago in the Norwegian arctic, winter temperatures can drop to -55C. In winter, airport employees work round-the-clock shifts, at the first sight of snow.
Another Nordic secret: pushing producers for absurdly powerful equipment. Oslo Airport runs two of the world’s largest self-propelled snowblowers, built by Norwegian airport-equipment maker Øveraasen AS. Only two other of the TV2000 units operate at airports; they, too, are in Norway.The 2,000-horsepower machines can shoot 10,000 tons of snow an hour more than 150 feet from the tarmac.
So we can say that foresight, effort and equipment play major roles in explaining why Scandinavian airports stay open , but also airport capacity . Heathrow for example, one of the worlds worst airports in my opinion, operates to 98% capacity and thus even small disruptions can be chaotic. Stockholm Arlanda has over 40 people dedicated to snow clearing during the winter.The airport has 18 PSB (ploughing, sweeping, blowing) machines. These are followed by snow throwers which move the line of snow left by the PSBs. Behind these come friction measuring vehicles that test the likelihood of skidding on the runway.
A Great Place
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 