Squirrel Pasties Are Go!

An article in Wales Online has announced that Traeth Restaurant in New Quay are offering grey squirrel pasties to customers. The snack is served with roast, chopped hazelnuts, oak leaf lettuce and blackberries and im glad to read that its fast become a favourite.
Why glad? Well for one its nice to see that sense of adventure hasn't been lost in some people, and im not surrounded by simple folk who stick to beans on toast and tea. There are those types of course but they are in their own hell.
Secondly these types of 'game meats' are extremely healthy (and tasty). Squirrel and rabbit are low in fat, a much healthier option than beef and when I think that people eat sh!t like Pot Noodles and fast food (no names mentoned of course but you know who they are) but turn their noses up at fluffy bunnies I really must laugh. So you won't eat Tufty but you are quite willing to poison yourself with crisps and processed cheese?
I think most of the revulsion stems from looking at the fur. Common mistake but if you saw the animal skinned and jointed it looks the same as pork joints. And you eat pork so whats the fuss? You don't flee from the butchers stand in horror do you?


A tasty nibble

Does not the lamb, bouncing merrily in the field in all its buttercuppy innocence, not look cute to you? It can't do because nobody (sane) would turn away a roast lamb dinner, and this is eaten every sunday by thousands of Brits. If people are able to remove the picture of the happy lamb from their minds to be able to plough through a traditional roast dinner, why can't they do the same with squirrels?
As for the comment "its like eating rats", well quite frankly thats completely idiotic. Look at a chicken coop some day, they aren't the cleanest of places let me tell you, and they are not the cleanest species of birds either. Yet the amount of chickens eaten every day is in its millions. Don't get me started with the popular chicken nuggets that teenagers (and lazy adults) seem to exist on. Its not chicken (well not the good parts of it) and the joke is definately on you!
Im tired of typing this but please, for the sake of your tastebuds if nothng else, put down that greasy, sorry mess of a supermarket pizza and try a squirrel pastie instead.

God Speaks Out From A Blog

I wish, pray to this blog that God, or the author of this blog will do something before the time is up. Go comfort the mortals, or pat them on the head or something before they lose their minds. The reason for war? The reason for beer? The reason for ripping your shirt off sex with anyone? The flock is lost, lost I tell thee!
If God would drop us a holy note and tell us the afterlife was simples, I truly believe that peace on mortal souls would be granted to us in an instant. A Big Mac instant.

Word Salad

In this day of text messages and Twitter, does the ability to spell and use good grammar count for anything? Did you know pupils are NOT marked down for incorrect spelling and grammar in english language exams? (Next year they will be im told). Who on earth would be in favour of bad spelling/grammar? I realise we all make mistakes and everything I throw on this screen will not always be word perfect but I do try. This 'text speak' annoys me quite a bit (probably more than it ought to) and I tend to ignore it when I see it.
If someone were to send me an email full of 'grt, scwl, lyk, lol' it would get instantly deleted because more than anything it tells me the author is lazy and unimaginative and I don't have time for those types im afraid.
Yes the way we speak/write does change and evolve over the years, for instance Shakespeare wrote differently from the way we do now but this whole buisness of shortening words is a very poor show. In a word it is shabby. And where does it end? There has to be a certain degree of discipline or else the language will descend into drivel with people spelling however they feel like on a particular day.
Personally I look at those who use 'text speak' in a similar way I look at cheap clothes, and I don't care how snooty that makes me look. At least im being honest.

Shopping In 1971

In 1971 your shopping cost ~

Petrol 7.5p litre
Large white sliced loaf 10.5p
Bottle of Scotch £3.08p
Colour tv licence £12
(The b/w licence was abolished like the colour one should be too).
Average house price £5,970
Mars bar 4p
Prescription charge 20p (since been abolished in Wales).
Cinema ticket 40p
Pint of beer 12p

Average weekly wage for full time workers:

Men £32.90
Women £18.30

The Back No Longer Broken

Way back in lets say 1985 (its as accurate as I wish or can be), I loved camping. I used to get rollercoaster thrills just thinking about planning a trip in the countryside and would spend days simply getting stuck into survival lists and learning how to trap rabbits and flat fish. Alas these beasts might have been unicorns or dewfish for they were never near to my calloused and often scabby fingers. (By the way 'dewfish' is something I made up and exists not in our Creators godly land).
When my friends and I got to our spot in the forest (we usually opted for the cover of trees over open land) it was pure nature and wildlife; torn bark on trees, dead rabbits, fox droppings and the beautiful scent of wild berries. The closest we got to modern life was a few lighters to get the fire going, not even bothering with camping stoves.


Camping: never forget your pipe

These days however, going camping and sleeping under the stars is a little different. Make that a LOT different. In fact we are hardly sleeping in the great outdoors anymore because we have taken the indoors out. The internet, mobile phones with countless handy applications, television, iPods, laptops, cameras, everything people have for entertainment at home can now be taken on a camping expedition. We even have satelite navigation in the car to find us the perfect spot!
Back in my day all we had for entertainment was what mother nature provided for us; rivers to fish in,giant oaks to climb on, brambles to shred clothes. Our only entertainment was feeding the fire with wood, alcohol, a portable radio and books. That was it really, apart from the 'fun' of finding your way back to the tent after a late night trip to the bushes for a pee. Now I can take every classic novel ever written with me, along with my entire record collection. I have even seen mobile satellite dishes so campers can tune into their favourite television series while skinning their freshly caught rabbit. Or more likely tucking into a freshly cooked lasagna, nuked in the mobile microwave.
Its hardly survival and I personally think that having all these modern devices on a camping trip ruins the fun. When everything is to hand there is no pleasure or excitement in having it. I admit we carried lighters but certainly a camp fire made with the age old method of rubbing sticks together is infinately more satisfying. And speaking of fire, this should be the ONLY source of light. Seeing the glow of tv and computer screens is just plain wrong when you are out in the bush as our Australian friends would say. Have we become so dependent on 24 hour news and social networking websites that we cannot escape their clutches even for a few days camping? Have we become so lazy that fish bought in Morrisons is preferable to ones caught fresh? Of course we have. The things we had originally for convenience have overtaken us, swallowed us whole and robbed a lot of us of adventure.
Mobile phones are a good idea to have if you intend trekking to desolate, often dangerous parts of the world, or if your children decide to camp out on the beach like I used to do. Phones are useful and can be a lifesaver, but do people really need all the rest of it? The kindles, iPods and satelite dishes? Afterall camping is supposed to be getting you away from it all, not bringing it all with you like a bleeping and pinging ball and chain. We have become our own prisoners, trapped almost in a cold digital world where nobody really cares and nobody is really your friend.
When I next go pitch my tent in Newgale or Freshwater East in beautiful Pembrokeshire, im leaving the keyboards and clicks behind and going naked. It feels good to be free from the internet umbilical cord. Try it.

Rest In Peace Brother

Jani onstage

Sad to hear about ex Warrant singer Jani Lane's passing a little earlier. Apparantly Jani was found dead next to vodka and pills. I am a huge metal fan, and love all the genres from glam to death metal and Warrant were a great little rock outfit back in the day.
I remember when Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich came out in 1989 and being very impressed with the tunes on it.Of course there was little MTV in those days (music vids were only just emerging) so these bands, especially in the metal genre had to rely on good songs and even better to gigs to grab peoples attention. Jani Lane and crew did exactly that to me and many, many others.
When Cherry Pie was released in the following year (1990) my tight fit panted friends and I would be rocking out to it as the beers and good times rolled like they were never gonna end. F**king epic times! Rest In Peace Jani, you were one of the bubbles in a glass of memories in my head that will never lose its fizz or sparkle.

Don't Fear the Pepper

Last orders

The most popular soft drink (no hard stuff permitted) chosen by condemned inmates in the United States is Dr Pepper. A drink funnily enough concoted in the 1880s by a guy (Charles Alderton) in Texas, the countries most active death penalty state.
I wonder what it is about the drink? Is it the unusual taste the inmates love? Or does it ring the old memory bells taking them back to childhood and to happier times? Id go with the latter although I would have imagined Coke or Pepsi to have been more popular.
Anyway whatever the reason, this quirky fact brought to you from the grim belly of death row, is the reason the Dai Jakes Book exists. Something a normal person wouldn't be thinking of, but now that you have learnt it, you are happy you did.