Wine Post

Picture the scenario - it's a Friday evening, it's wine o'clock, and suddenly something incenses me or something earlier in the day has incensed me.

Up comes the laptop lid and I let fly.

It never ceases to amaze me the ease with which I type a post having wellied into a bottle of wine.  Yes, I know all the statistics about drinking.  I'm not making an excuse and I don't recommend it (well I do actually - but not officially). 

The posts I write in these circumstances are what I refer to as my rant posts.

They get the largest number of views by a mile.

The fact that they have to be edited the next morning is hardly surprising but what is surprising, is that the editing is surprisingly small.  When I sit at the keyboard stone cold sober, I change every sentence over and over, to get it just right.  I deliberate on how I want to lay it out, I wonder if my punctuation could be better, have I checked my spelling.

What I really want to know is; who reads them.  What does the reader think.  Do they agree or disagree.  Do they think - oh no here we go again.

It's like I'm ranting in a vacuum.  It's like a very unsatisfying row where no one is countering with the opposite viewpoint.  I love a good row, I always have done.  But a rant is not the same as a good row.  It's self-indulgent.

So my question is - should I give up the wine or should I give up the writing under the influence of wine? Is the rant a result of the wine or is the wine a result of the rant?

Tags: Wine Post Wine

Dear Tesco

Dear Tesco,


I am writing this letter more in vain than in hope.


You opened a huge new superstore near me in a bog in Co. Cavan, not long over a year ago now.  When you opened it was a miracle!  Suddenly we had a shop that supplied dragon fruit, fresh tuna and papparadelle.  It was a miracle - no a mirage - in a bog.

The locals had never seen the like and the "foodies" were in heaven as they had no longer to drive to Dublin to get ingredients.

I was able to tell my sister, resident in Blackrock, Co. Dublin, that I could get her celery seeds so that she could pickle her glut of cucumbers.  Who would have thought?  (or if you are on Facebook, who would "of" thought?)

It was sheer bliss; but like the megastore you opened in Bloomfield in Dun Laoghaire with it's stunning fish display - it was short-lived.  You realised - no profit realised - that Cavan people were; "meat and two veg" and not much else, so the rest of us, could get lost.


The dragon fruit was replaced with swede and parsnip and the tuna with chicken fillet.


The pasta aisle diminished from De Cecchi to Dolmio, from oricchiette to short-cut macaroni.


The spice racks from galangal to cinnamon.


We, foodies were of no importance.  But to be fair we realised that you had profit margins and shareholders to consider. 


However, the final straw was, as far as I am concerned, your decision to stop stocking free range chicken.  We here in Ireland have access to British television though Sky.  We are aware of Jamie Oliver's campaign to try to improve the plight of the intensively-reared chicken.  Some of us actually care that chickens have horrendous lives.  But your care is only "lip service".  The free range chicken in Bailieboro does not sell so instead of making the effort to sell, you take the easy way out and stock the intensive stuff. 


Your staff in Bailieboro are probably the nicest and most helpful in Ireland but they haven't a clue about food.  You don't bother to invest the time to train them. So the friendliest staff have no idea of the hapless lives the chickens lead that they sell on the shelves.  It's no wonder that they look at me like I have ten heads when I ask, "where are the free range chickens"?


I know your answer before I ask - profit margins.


But sometimes principle must come before profit; even in the multi-nationals.  Sometimes it is right to do something even if it does not make a profit.  Sometimes a company has to be reputable.  You are a British multiple trading in Ireland.  You are responsible for the displacement of many local retailers and suppliers.  You have a responsibility, albeit a moral responsibility to consider the welfare of animals you supply as meat.  You have responsibility to your customers, to give them the option to make the right decision. Do you care? Do you heck?

Tesco   Free Range Chicken  Jamie Oliver  Galangal  De Cecci  Dolmio  Celery Seed  Cavan

Calories and Yobs

Two things have infuriated me recently (well actually probably far more than two).  The crazy idea that if we display calories on menus that somehow we will reduce the level of obesity.  Obesity sadly is a fact and the numbers defined as obese are increasing every year.

Smokers are on the increase too and this is despite warnings printed on cigarette packs and a ban on smoking in most public spaces.

Alcohol has warnings printed on bottles and there are restrictions on sale and advertising.

So despite all these dire warnings and bans what have we actually achieved? Not much if the truth be known.

I was in a very small bakery/cafe in Dublin's city centre recently where the menu was displayed on the wall.  We were sitting on bar stools facing the wall.  I glanced up and saw that beside the price of each sandwich was displayed the number of calories in each item.  There was a negligible difference between any of the options apart from one which was the "diet option".  If I had seen the calories displayed previous to making my choice would it have influenced me?  Unlikely, because I do not eat out very often and I am educated enough to be able to tell bad calories from good.   If a sandwich contains good bread, cheese, roasted vegetables and olive oil then yes it will be calorific but the calories are more beneficial than that supplied by a chocolate muffin and a latte full of refined sugar and hydrogenated fat.

Stand in a supermarket any day of the week and look at the items people buy.  The people who are on a low budget invariably buy the most amount of processed foods.  It is no coincidence that they are the most expensive, the most calorific and the person making the purchase is at the very minimum overweight. Stick a label on the shelf with the calorie content and see what difference that will make to the decision to purchase.  I would be willing to bet none. 

What is required is education; but that would be too easy and too logical for our legislators.  A programme should be introduced in primary schools where the children are educated in nutrition and beneficial calories.  The subject should be given the same status as the core subjects.  After all the outcome of this education is going to have far more impact on their lives than any amount of maths, language or science. 

All of which leads on very nicely to yobs.  Yobs in every society are thankfully the minority.  However, we now have to legislate for them and not for the rest.  Because they can't control their bad behaviour, drinking, drug taking; the rest of us who can - are to be penalised.

In the UK recently I was in a lovely old fashioned pub selling real ales on tap.  We were asked were we intending drinking inside or outside and as it was a nice evening we said outside.  The barman then started pulling my ale into a plastic glass.  When I asked could I not have a real glass he replied "I am not allowed to give you glass if you intend drinking outside".  So because there was the possibility that a few yobs could hit each other over the head with a real glass, the 50 people outside sitting quietly, enjoying their beers on a balmy summer evening had to drink from a plastic glass.

Because a minority of people at weekends get drunk, coked up and start fights and cause mayhem the solution is to restrict the sale of alcohol and to increase the price.  Once again the majority have to pay for the actions of the minority.

The actual solution is far more logical but would require a declaration of intent.  Zero tolerance against any sort of anti-social behaviour and a change in legislation to allow severe punishment for any misdemeanors related to drink or drugs.  Yobs need to know that should they behave as yobs the consequences will be swift and severe.

Then maybe the rest of us - the majority, can get on with making informed decisions as to what we eat and what and where we drink, to relax and enjoy our occasional treats without financial pain or guilt.