On Thursday I attended a meeting of Suffolk County Council’s Development Committee where the main item on the agenda was consideration and approval (or otherwise) of the proposed Waste Transfer Station in East Ipswich. An existing landfill site a few miles up the road is scheduled to be full (and therefore closed) in 2021. The Waste Transfer Station will be one of three within the County that will receive waste from the kerbside collections and Household Waste Recycling Centres and transfer the waste onto larger lorries for onward transportation to a Materials Recycling Facility, In-vessel Composting facility or the Great Blakenham Energy from Waste facility. There were a number of objection letters from local residents, adjacent businesses, and the developer of Ransomes Europark. Concerns raised included the potential for increased traffic congestion on the highway and compatibility with other businesses. The Officers advised that the proposed development complied with national and local planning policies. It was considered to be appropriately located and would not give rise to unacceptable impacts upon commercial and residential amenity. The development would not detract from the special characteristics of the Suffolk Coasts and Heaths Area of Outstanding Beauty, and would protect and enhance habitats for biodiversity including Protected and Priority species.
So there we are Ipswich will get a new Waste Transfer Station. I visited the site earlier in the month and saw little to complain about. Among the objectors was Ransomes still produce a variety of grass cutting equipment. From professional high quality turf machines to more industrial gang mowers for use on wider areas such as public parks etc. Their complaint was that the Waste Transfer Station could cause an increase of vermin on their site (more than 100 yards away). Upon questioning they indicated that they categorised seagulls as vermin! The chutzpah prize goes to the neighbouring Nacton parish council who thought that a location to the west of Ipswich would be preferable (definitely contestants for the NIMBY Council of the year).
Nice Things
Eating for England
Last week I was taken to lunch at Katz’s Delicatessen, also known as Katz’s of New York City. It is a kosher style (not kosher) delicatessen restaurant located at 205 Houston Street, on the southwest corner of Houston and Ludlow Streets on the Lower East Side in Manhattan, New York City. Since its founding in 1888, it has become popular among locals and tourists alike for its pastrami sandwiches and hot dogs, both of which are widely considered among New York’s best. I went for the pastrami sandwich and as can be seen it looked as though I was eating for England. Was it worthwhile – you betcha! And I also took half a portion of chips and some dill pickles but I eschewed the lettuce as overly green things tend to be harmful.
As well as being a world famous delicatessen it was the feature restaurant in Where Harry met Sally and there is a sign in the restaurant indicating the exact location of that famous scene. More information can be found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katz%27s_Delicatessen
Prayers for the Armed Forces
Last week I was at Mass at the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Raleigh, North Carolina. A cathedral can always be counted on for a decent choir which can more than offset the sermon!
What I found really interesting was the inclusion in the parish newsletter of a request for prayers for the men and women of the parish serving in the Armed Forces. A very valuable lesson in civic responsibility – you may not like the war(s) but once your Commander in Chief has decided to get involved – then you are in it to win it and the whole community is involved.
Such civic collectivity was uplifting to say the least.
Stress Management
I was tidying up my email archive and came across the following :
A lecturer, when explaining stress management to an audience, raised a glass of water and asked, “How heavy is this glass of water? Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.” “If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance. “In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” He continued, “And that’s the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.” “As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.” “So, before you return home tonight, put the burden of work down. Don’t carry it home. You can pick it up tomorrow. Whatever burdens you’re carrying now, let them down for a moment if you can.” “Relax; pick them up later after you’ve rested. Life is short. Enjoy it! And then he shared some ways of dealing with the burdens of life:
* Accept that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.
* Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
* Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
* Drive carefully. It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
* If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
* If you lend someone $20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
* It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
* Never buy a car you can’t push.
* Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
* Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
* Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
* The second mouse gets the cheese.
* When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
* Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
* You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.
* Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once.
* We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names, and all are different colours, but they all have to live in the same box.
* A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
Happy New Year – may 2015 be kind to you.
Snow Clearing
On 23rd December the Health and Safety Minister Lord Freud urged a common sense approach to clearing snow from footpaths and pavements. As we brace ourselves for the first arctic blast of the season, Health and Safety Minister Lord Freud is urging a common sense approach to clearing snow from footpaths and pavements. There are no health and safety regulations that prevent people from clearing snow at their home, their business or at their neighbours’ homes, despite newspaper stories in previous winters to the contrary. Now ministers want to pre-empt the usual health and safety myths ahead of the first snowfall that could prevent people from doing a good deed to help stop others falling and injuring themselves on a path or pavement. Minister for Health and Safety Lord Freud said: “People need to be aware that they will not be reprimanded for doing a good deed by clearing ice and snow. The truth is very simple: you can clear ice and snow from footpaths and pavements but always be careful that you don’t put yourself in danger. “Countless lives have been saved and injuries prevented because of robust health and safety practices. But bogus excuses give real safety laws a bad name and stop people from taking action.”
The Chair of the Health and Safety Executive Judith Hackitt said: “Anyone can clear ice and snow from public spaces, so don’t be put off because you’re afraid someone will get injured. Remember, people walking on snow and ice have a responsibility to themselves to be careful. “Health and safety legislation is designed to protect people where there is a genuine danger that someone could be killed or seriously injured, not to stop people from getting on with their lives and certainly not to stop people from reducing the risk for themselves and others by clearing snow and ice.”
More information can be found on https://www.gov.uk/government/news/snow-clearing-health-and-safety-myth-shattered
Photo source: http://bahnbilder.ch/picture/7697
Winning isn’t Everything
Garrison Keillor once wrote that there are some prizes which are not worth winning. He cited a pie eating contest as an example. But perhaps there are times when even the taking part may not be as worthwhile as intended. Recently World Pie Eating Championships held in Harry’s Bar in Wigan were declared invalid after suppliers sent the wrong pies to the event. The large Adlington pies were destined to go to a Divorce Party. They were twice the size of the pies specified for the contest and the organisers decided to go ahead with the contest by cutting the pies in half. A competing fitness instructor/warehouse supervisor, set the best time of 42.6 seconds for eating half a pie, but the umpires declared the results null and void because of safety concerns. They said eating the 24cm (10in) pies could result in a dangerous “swallow stall”. The pie specifications are quite detailed and include the rule that there should be no gravy due to worries that competitors would mix in cough syrup to speed-up consumption. Competitors practise pie eating to get ready for the competition but not all took the mix up in their stride. Julie Welsh hoped to be the first woman to lift the trophy but walked out before the start because of the last minute pie change. She said: “I’m sick with disappointment but there are some principles you can’t compromise. I’ll be back next year, if they see sense.” Local pie-eating athlete, Andy Driscoll, said: “My mate and I have been practicing for weeks on small, soft Wigan pies, and at the last minute, they’ve substituted these monsters.” And amid the tumult the accusations fly – the pies weren’t even from the north (of England). Vince Bowen, the pies’ maker, was slated for originating from Southern England and including steam holes that could allow the pies to be contaminated. Bowen retorted to the criticism “I may be from down south but I know what makes a good pie.”
And if all this trivia was not enough The people of Wigan are called ‘Pie-eaters’ because during the general Strike of 1926 workers from Wigan were the first to go back to work and break the strike. From then on they were called ‘Humble Pie Eaters’, now just ‘Pie eaters’.
For more information and comments please see:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/12/18/controversy-at-world-pie-eating-competition_n_6348408.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-30538447
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2879878/So-ate-half-pies-Popular-eating-competition-declared-void-wrong-sized-products-delivered-venue.html
The photograph is Melton Mowbray Pork Pie by Innocenceisdeath – Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons – httpcommons.wikimedia.orgwikiFileMelton_Mowbray_Pork_Pie.png#mediaviewerFileMelton_Mowbray_Pork_Pie.jpg
Heaven for Dogs
I was not surprised to see an article on the Pope’s supposed statement about dogs going to heaven on the front page of the New York Times.
I always thought that as dogs had a sense of humour they were created in God’s image and therefore worthy of a place in Heaven.
Apparently the Pope spoke his words to comfort a little boy whose dog had just died. The Italian press quoted the Pope as saying: “One day, we will see our animals again in the eternity of Christ. Paradise is open to all of God’s creatures.”
Father James Martin, (Jesuit priest, writer and Culture Editor of the Jesuit magazine America) seemed unconcerned with the reality of what the Pope said, and took the opportunity to understand the statement as saying that the Pope’s statement means that “God loves and Christ redeems all of creation.” Therefore, according to Fr. Martin, “He said paradise is open to all creatures. That sounds pretty clear to me.”
Not to be outdone, the New York Times quoted the Professor of Religion & Environmental Studies at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas and “an expert on the history of dog-human interaction”, as saying that she believed that there would be a backlash from religious conservatives, but that it would take time.
“The Catholic Church has never been clear on this question; it’s all over the place, because it begs so many other questions,” she said. “Where do mosquitoes go, for God’s sake?”
As another response, animal rights activists are heralding the advent of a “vegan world”.
All very good issues, no doubt. But dogs display loyalties which are not always present in other animals, dogs feature in a significant supporting role in the Book of Tobias and dogs deserve their place in Heaven.
It’s good to know that Pope Francis and myself are thinking as one.
What more can one say?
For more discussion please see Father Richard Gennaro Cipolla http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2014/12/dear-father-v-could-there-puppy-heaven.html#more
Small Success – Threadneedle Street
I’m grateful to be able to report a small success and an election issue resolved.
Since early 2012 I have been working on upgrading a footpath in Threadneedle Street at the back of the Eight Bells public house. The footpath got missed in the planning process for the houses at the back of the pub. For the last few days the street has been closed off and this morning when I called, the path had been cleaned up and was ready for a proper coating of asphalt or whatever passes as a suitable covering.
What is important is that children and adults on their way to school will have a cleaner and safer path. The job is well under way and it shows what local politicians can do!
Budapest Cafe Orchestra
Yesterday we went to the Apex in Bury St Edmunds to see the Budapest Cafe Orchestra. (http://www.budapestcafeorchestra.co.uk/review.shtml) We were expecting something authentically ethnic but instead their leader hailed from Haringey and the team came from all over the U.K.
Fortunately the orchestra did not take themselves seriously and describe themselves as “the finest purveyors of Balkan music this side of a Lada scrap heap”.
To quote their web site: The BCO is a music-driven phenomenon, a specialist performance-entertainment outfit, certified to enthral audiences everywhere. The infectious energy of the BCO sweeps you off your feet and stays in your heart forever. One journeys from one emotional pole to another: from a desperately tragic evocative heart-rending ancient Jewish melody to a dance from Romania or Russia and all the fiery exuberance that goes with it.
The Budapest Cafe Orchestra share as many blood cells with the folk of Hungary as the Penguin Cafe Orchestra do with the web-footed fellows of Antarctica. Their Magic Potion is a closely guarded recipe of malt, hops, yeast and water, handed down in the secret tongue of Estuary English through generations of Professional Gypsies. With a sole mission: to entertain and enchant audiences, they are undaunted by even the most demanding and wildest village hall crowds, for example those inhabiting the darkest corners of Warwickshire.
We dined at Carluccio’s before the show and it was overall a very good night out.
Your Public Servant
The Spectator (Coffee House Blend) reports this evening as follows:
David Cameron told colleagues last week that he had been nervous about what sort of a speech Ed Miliband would produce this year. He’d done two very good ones for the past two years which had set the agenda for the autumn, the Prime Minister pointed out. So how was this last conference season before the General Election going to work out? Well, he didn’t need to worry too much about that as the Labour leader gave a poor speech last week and the Prime Minister gave one of his best speeches of his career this afternoon. First, the substance. Cameron announced the following: – The personal tax allowance will rise to £12,500, taking everyone on the minimum wage out of income tax. – The threshold for the 40p rate of income tax will rise to £50,000. – The Conservatives will protect NHS spending in the next Parliament. – Cameron will ‘get what Britain needs’ on freedom of movement (without any definition of what Britain does need). – A Tory government would scrap the Human Rights Act and introduce a British Bill of Rights. The conference liked the bit about the personal allowance (the Lib Dems didn’t, accusing Cameron of being ‘shameless’), but they loved the bit about the 40p. But this wasn’t just a speech aimed at the core, though as James says, it seems to have given them more of an emotional connection to David Cameron than before. It was a speech that tried to tell floating voters that the Tories are now the ones occupying the moral high ground, not Labour. It was angry in parts: Cameron became unusually personal and emotional when he talked about his own experience of taking his son to hospital, turning furiously on Labour to say ‘how dare they suggest I would ever put that at risk for other people’s children?’. And he barely restrained himself from attacking and ridiculing Ed Balls and Ed Miliband, contrasting their pitch for government with his. He was unusually self-deprecating, joking about his verbal slips and the time he left his daughter in a pub. And when he talked about his own leadership, he tried to be humble, saying: ‘I don’t claim to be a perfect leader. But I am your public servant, standing here, wanting to make our country so much better – for your children and mine. I love this country, and I will do my duty by it. We’ve got the track record, the right team…to take this plan for our country and turn it into a plan for you.’ The question is whether the tax cuts and moral high ground-hunting in this speech will be enough. It may well be that voters are more annoyed by George Osborne’s two-year welfare freeze than they are impressed by what David Cameron had to say today. But if conference speeches could win elections…
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