Now, I would never, ever try to compete with Russel Davies’s Eggbaconchipsandbeans, but for once in my life I wanted to at least try to emulate the amazing experiences he must have when he sneaks into a new cafe, camera at the ready, poised to picture another perfect plate of food. So, when I had a morning to spend in Ilford (the less exciting East of London’s East End) I found this little gem of a cafe and, wielding my trusty TX1, entered the premises and uttered for the first time the eternal words:

Can I have Eggsbaconchipsandbeans please?

And it worked. After 5 minutes (in which I wanted to write numerous letters to the Daily Mail, as this was the only paper that was lying around) this arrived in front of me (with two enormous slices of fresh buttered bread and a smile)

Now this looks as good as most of Russel’s cafes. The cup of coffee was lovely and fresh, the smiles genuine and the price fair. The beans were desperately clinging to the edge of the plate, not to be pushed into the abyss by the generosity of the cook. The chips were lovely and not too dark, while the bacon made an almost teutonic statement of hegemonical prowess draped over a a third of the porcellain, and only the egg retained a modicum of modesty.

They had more lovely stuff on their menu:

I am now a part of the gobal brotherhood. I will worship in the altar of the greasy spoon as often as my ever expanding waistband will allow me. But I will defintely return to this, my first place of epiphany.

Thanks, Russel.

Noah’s Ark,

10 Chapel Rd
Ilford, IG1 2AG

Ok, that’s it. I am now officially a complete and utter devotee of the man. I am even thinking about buying the whole Buffy set.

Firefly was my first contact with Joss Whedon’s skills as a writer. I was mightily impressed by the wordplay, the puns, the people and the spaceships (even the best girlfriend ever grudgingly admits that Firefly was rather good, and she is certainly no Sci-Fi chick. Nono, Senor, no Star Trek memorabilia in HER house. But that’s beside the point. There is, by the way, nothing wrong with a well placed little figurine when it’s tastefully done. But let’s move on..). And of course the rather good looking cast.

When his Jossiness then pulled off to get Serenity into the cinemas, I secretly started to suspect that the mojo was strong in the dude and that the fuss the interwebs made about was probably deserved.

But this, his latest project is so weirdly, deliciously excellent, that it deserves all the praise this meagre little blog can create. Dr Horrible’s Sing-along blog has just given me the most lovely, enchanting thirty minutes in, er, a VERY long time. After watching act one and two I am already completely hooked and want can’t wait for the final show. Even though obviously done on a ridiculously low budget even for Whedon’s frugal standards, it’s beautifully filmed and has three great leads. Neil Patrick Harris, already mischieviously funny as a semi SS leather clad hero in Starship Troopers is a great lead, believably torn between his evil plans and trying to get the girl. Even the music is pretty good (better than Lloyd-Webber, anyway) and even though the actors are struggling with some of the songs, it’s still enjoyable and not too cheesy.
So, get it on Itunes, watch it live or buy the DVD.

You know you want to.

Let me make myself absolutely clear:

the continuous use and abuse of the phrase ‘absolutely clear’ is making me absolutely mad. It is of course absolutely clear that if you listen to a news/speech based channel like Radio4 and have to listen to the U.K.’s numerous politicians (especially in the morning) it is very soon clear that the phrase ‘absolutely clear’ is terribly overused in this country. In the years of Tony Blair - remember that? - it was ‘clear’, but since that bumbling, but well meaning technocrat Gordon B. has taken over, it is increasingly clear that ‘absolutely clear’ is now the buzzword of the year. Even Boris ‘Mayor’ Johnston’ has -clearly advised by his scary PR team- started to use the phrase.

What kind of political culture do we have in the U.K. if it’s elected representatives only have a vocabulary limited to 6 catchphrases? The most used ones are surely:

• “Absolutely Clear”
• “Going forward”
• “Public enquiry”
• “change”
• “we have got to”
• “hard working “

Funnily enough, Gordon Brown’s speeches (as evident on his homepage) are actually quite good. It’s just a shame that he is not able to convert his speechwriter’s obvious talent into his radio nterviews.

And by the way: since when has it been ok to say “We have got to..”? The ‘got’ in there is certainly perfectly superfluus and just a little bit reminiscent of American action movies.

There I was, trying to get my morning paper, and then it appeared in front of my eyes: a 100 meter queue in front of an O2 shop.

In Ilford !

Iphone fever must have truly gripped the last corner of the British Isles.

image courtesy of the bbc

I don’t watch a lot of television. Nevertheless, the Observer’s TV guide heartily recommended the new BBC1 show ‘Bonekickers‘, featuring a ficticious archaeological team that through sheer luck and scientifical reasoning unearths a new mystery every week. Think Indiana Jones meets ‘Carry on Camping’ and the ‘X - Files’.

So today I was treated to sixty minutes of worried looking faces, jokes about bosoms and pubs, a terribly bad man that was killed by losing his footing and tumbling into a small fire and all sorts of terrible cliches.

Rarely does the BBC get it so terribly wrong.

I really wanted this show to work, as it promised everything that one loves about archaeology on TV: weird men wearing hats, women with degrees and sex-appeal, terribly evil people, traps, conspiracy theories and, in ths case, real ale.

What did we get? A story David Duchovny wouldn’t get out of bed for and a bunch of characters so cliche ridden that it was painful to watch. There was some completely unnecessary gore in form of a ludicrous beheading. There were monks. The final showdown between good (feisty archaeologist with cleavage) and bad (creepy christian who wasn’t able to stand up and dust of a couple of flames from his evil trenchcoat) was so embarassingly painful that I started to watch Sky One on the other screen instead. A terrible disaster.

It can only get better from here.

Funnily enough his German understudies refuse to translate his last comments.

I used to be a happy Ryanair client/customer/passenger. I was happy to accept the comfort and the standing in line typical of a London bus journey and did not grumble about their sometimes creative airport naming, as I was aware that I was flying 1500km for 20 pounds, which is a great price for such a long journey.

For one or the other reason I had no need to fly with them over the last number of years, so when I took a Ryanairflight to Porto last week I was a little bit surprised to be greeted by a neverending, loud soundtrack reverberating through the cabin, which, accompanied by an accoustic attack that makes the ‘fastfood song’ a piece of suave classyness, was telling me that I was able to drink even more alcohol for less money (by purchasing their ‘premium spirits’, served in little plastic bags), buy phonecards and scratchcards. This ran for ca 20 minutes during boarding and was repeated during the flight.

I am aware of the economics of no-frill flights, but isn’t Michael O’Leary taking this a little bit far? Most of the passengers in the cabin looked initially bewildered and then disgusted by the endless aural mayhem that was inflicted on us.

I flew back with Easyjet.

This week’s New Scientist has a superb feature on the current state of research on the Tunguska event. Just to refresh your memory, on 30 June 2008 an explosion 1000 times more powerful than the nuclear detonation over Hiroshima incinerated the sky over the northern half of our planet. Originating somewhere above the Tunguska river in Siberia, it knocked down trees over an area of 2000 square kilometers.

image courtesy of wikimedia

This week, a bunch of scientists will be meeting in Moscow to discuss the current state of knowledge about this immense event. The theories are mindboggling. There’s the usual UFO theories, the more plausible explosion of an asteroid, and the intriguing idea of the ‘Verneshot‘: with other words an ‘Earth Burb’, in which  a large bubble of C02, accumlated via vulcanic activity, suddenly gets released, spewing toxic gases and large chunks of matter into the atmosphere.

And why am I interested in all this?

Ghostbusters, of course.

….or how else could you describe the remarkably fast counting of votes in the presidential run-off. While in March the electoral commission wasn’t able to announce results for more than a month after the ‘election’, ‘President’ Mugabe is scheduled to be sworn in today, 2 days after the poll.

Congratulations to the Zimbabwean electoral commission for a significant improvement in performance, but I can’t help wondering what kind of incentives were being introduced to bring the commission up to speed.

Axes?

The best girlfriend ever and myself have been spending the last days travelling down the atlantic coast from Oporto via Torreiras to Lisbon. The last two nights were spent at the delightful Pousada da Ria. Classic sixties architecture with a sprinkle of Bauhaus and a dose of Art Deco, it’s a wonderful building, full of surprising spaces, comfy corners, a great bar and an excellent restaurant. The choice of meat on the menu was nevertheless surprising:

The best girlfriend ever and I were made thoroughly welcome and its location meant we had easy access to the marvellous beaches at Torreira and Sao Jacinto.

So today we’re exploring the Baixa in Lisbon. Wish us luck and gentle weather.