January 2016: SUNSHINE-GLARE---It-s-sensible-to-take-care
The picture is at the Chapel Real Ale Festival in Essex last year
This is a heritage rail museum. Camera IXUS60
Trains were delayed because of the sun in the eyes of the drivers and the guard. I thought the delay because of that reason should not be criticised. Many other delays are ridiculed but the reasons are reasonable and in any case, people support cutting off slack anywhere so there is no way for these issues to be avoided.
The letter was published one day short of the 39th anniversary of that multiple-car crash that I mentioned.
A comment
made to me many years ago observing that there was a money lender in God's temple made me laugh (mortgage broker on the left). This had been a Victorian
stone-built traditional church and it was redeveloped by the church
about 20 years ago. The money lender was there for many years but in
recent years has changed.
Photo taken using a £20 Dummy's guide on
digital photography with Jenoptic point-and-shoot camera kit in about 2010?
In discussion on Facebook
The conversion was carried out led by the then Rev John Banner. He exposed himself to much ridicule in the local newspaper to promote several things; Fly a balloon to save his church I recall for one.
I am told he was an exorcist for the CofE and it was said he had some rather stone-age views on women.
I was reminded of a letter in the Courier not long after Banner took over
likening the dereliction of the site to God's plan for Liverpool in
getting them rid of Banner and inflicting him on Tunbridge Wells.
The group that tried to save the Opera House was chaired by the Rev. They were very well advised but the planning decision was fudged. In any case, the outcome of Weatherspoons seems to be more appreciated than trying for a big lottery grant to put the building back to its original use.
There is evidence that humans are all suited to a vegan diet and are better off with such a diet. For a while, there was a theory that some human blood types were better suited to different diets but that theory which had been well-researched is discredited. However, the theory still has some interesting observations.
Vegan lunch at the Bakehouse, Tonbridge in January 2016. A feature of eating here is that the vegetables are not cooked or are lightly cooked. So unusually for eating out I can enjoy the veg a lot as well rather than put up with it. This is not a vegan bakery but covers all types of food particularly well.
There is an anthropological view and evidence that humans were descended from apes and that fire and meat-eating distinguished us from our ape ancestors. Further to that the theory is that the brain developed from hunting but I am sure that aggression developed in the humans that left the "Garden of Eden". In the film "2001 a Space Odyssey" - Chapter 1; Dawn of Man, The author Arthur C Clark was a science fiction (prediction) writer and took great care checking his facts and predictions;
The link below states a fairly well-accepted view that humans came from plants and vegetables + some insect-eating ancestors. It also says the similarities in the stomach and intestine with humans, apes, gorillas and monkeys are very close - Viva (an organisation promoting veganism) goes further in the anatomical comparison. An article in December 2015 on Radio 4 said that monkey, ape, gorilla and human digestive systems are identical if you dissected each you would not know which was which but that there are differences in relative sizes of each part in humans from different parts of the world correlating with there diet as well as with the other common ancestor species.
Unfortunately, this is not a sharp picture but I have
made it small so that that is not too apparent.
Waitrose promoted this really lovely almond and cherry slice for 50p then 60p for a few years but despite how very nice it was and cheaper than other cakes in their cafe it probably was not popular and was eventually withdrawn. It is a strange habit of people not choosing very nice things if they are too cheap, the reverse of praising some very poor Wetherspoons despite mostly poor food served with items, missing which people do but perhaps they had experienced an exception and what had been delivered to the table was okay?
But Gorillas eat a lot of grasses and their digestion is comparable to a cow in fermenting in an enlarged bowl rather than in a stomach as a cow has. Otherwise, more and more evidence shows that veganism covers everything a human needs not as super-foods popularly stated but are just food. The link below expresses an underlying view that is at variance to this view;
There are many Vegan groups some bring food to share some meet in vegan cafés such as this one.
This is Fortify café in Maidstone, Kent - now closed, unfortunately.
Here is another perspective based on blood group types of recent humans for the past 50,000 years; I have been told of some research that vegetable-only eating humans were buried separately in prehistoric times. The variance in this perspective and the out of (the jungles of) Africa plant and insect eater view may just be due to the relatively shorter period of this newer understanding and that the article concentrates on blood groups. So perhaps what is being observed is an adoption back in blood but with no basic anatomical changes;
Type O is the hunters
Type A beings that have adaptations for vegetable eating.
Type B is those who have adaptations for milk and wheat.
This is a lovely meal that is an off-menu selection from Zorba Café, Tunbridge Wells. I usually add salad and occasionally the owner makes lentil soup for his staff and a few customers. The café did not know what vegan is but a lot of Mediterranean food happens to be vegan. This lunch may not be vegan but it comes close. Since I wrote this Zorba has become a Turkish restaurant with vegan options but no English breakfast fry-up options.
It turns out that my blood type is not the Hunter type but it may be a coincidence that red meat does not suit me and milk is not ideal. Having said that the personal observation may also be more an adverse reaction to the other things that are in modern intensely farmed animal products. At a Tunbridge Wells UNA meeting in October 2015 I heard worryingly that the productivity of modern farming is; (Barrie Bain a consultant to the International Fertilizer Industry Association advising on United Nations affairs)
Chicken is 2 times the input for a given food output. Vegan groups say the same (Animal Aid).
Lamb 4 times,
Beef 7 times. Animal Aid said this summer (Kent Vegan Fare 2015) that the intensity is not so high and has a figure of 15 times for beef and 100 times for Goose meat.
The world cannot sustain this level of consumption and has already stopped providing people with grass-fed meat and free-living animals as a food source for nearly all people and has never done so in the past. The world has to be managed sustainably and consumption must not grow whether denied or acknowledged but avoided either way. The modern culture of home-delivered pizza and the couch potato where people try to live as medieval kings and suffer diseases of those wealthy only - works for us whilst money is created in London and the income from keeping the world in conflict by war.
Farming rings a considerable amount out of animals and this motivates people to mistrust at least and be concerned about what we lose in quality and humanity for achieving such productivity.
Personally, I do not like the high concentration very apparent in the taste and smell of body excretions (urine and poo taste) in intensive-farmed animals and fish. The one I found hardest to pick out what was bad about it was milk. But it has a yuckiness in its taste. I found that milk is subtle one in itself seems okay but when stopped after a year other apparent sensitivities disappear and the effects of hayfever diminish. I used to refuse to eat meat when I was very young. And it was not that Mum and dad were trying to force or coax me into something bad. But I am certain that my reaction was right in that case.
Photo Tonbridge Castle and River Medway, January 2016 - Camera; Cannon IXUS60.
In discussions on Facebook;
Books have been written on human anthropology but a view that fire and eating meat gave humans an advantage so that our stomach size could be reduced. "Catching Fire" by Richard Wrangham. Well was recommended.
In the summary of the book; Cooking and eating meat gave humans the genetic opportunity to reduce the amount of body mass taken up by chewing and digesting.
An off-menu pizza but with no cheese once again this may be vegan. It is particularly nice and Fagin's, George Street, Hastings has always been accommodating particularly when I used to take my father, in a wheelchair. That tends to sort those who will go out of their way to help and those who will put up with a special need.
The blood group type article would coincide with that more recent history case. Humans moving into colder climates such as Inuit for example who traditionally lived hard but short lives. Having said that there is a path for us back to the Garden of Eden (with tablet computers and mobile phones) or at least the diet that goes with it but there is no other path on offer that involves the continuation of the amount of pain, consumption and exploration humans cause now.
I found my Blood donors card turns out that I am A rh D+ whatever that means but I think it means that I am of the vegan blood group. But I am not convinced and neither are many others that the problems with animal and wheat things are just those but the consequences of what is forced intensely into the animals and added to other foods due to modern intense farming that in turn harms me if I then consume them. But vegetables beans nuts seeds are optimal foods for humans seems clear.
I have been working on tuning my senses to my body's needs. Something my Dad coached me on is to learn to like what is right and to not like what is poisonous for example sweet smell of paint.
Another book recommended was Grain Brain. It apparently says our brains developed with the use of grains. That makes sense the group B or AB blood type being more recent than the hunter blood group O.
A friend also recalled some information about uric acid in meat ... due to the stress of modern killing methods ... meat eaters are, in effect, eating urine. I can confirm that I do and I can smell it (cooking meat can make my eyes sting). As that friend can also. And I agree with her that; " But frankly, given the delicious beans and grains and veg" I have cut the quote.
Hawkwood College, Stroud, Gloucestershire, venue of recent VegiVentures Christmas holidays.
Having good vegan food such as I have with VegiVentures I always come away wondering why anyone would want anything else? Also true of making my own but I agree that it takes a while to learn but there are a lot of people who have and if you join in with a vegan meet-up you may experience such food. The kitchen management is a model for any business creating Michelin 5* food with a mixture of people.
When people find vegan food does not seem to suit them;
My experience of being vegan or being mostly vegan is feel very good about it the more strict I am about it. But in the discussion, some people have said they honestly tried and they have problems. There are junk food vegans who will expose themselves to the risk of scurvy as much as any meat eater can. If you want to live like Royalty you still have to eat your fruit and veg and the veg be lightly cooked or raw like Royalty do. As I said above.
This is proper vegan junk food it is totally eye candy and is everso sweet and horrible but very enjoyabledespite that. Vbite's in Brighton is a very smart place to eat making this experience even nicer and it happens not to be expensive. Also, there is no feeling of I wishI had not had that after anything I have eaten at VBite's, no bloating,no lethargy, no body aches or headachesunlike what I would feel after eating animal products, particularly red meat.
Some mothers do not produce milk for their babies or use another mother's milk. Formula cow's milk is not necessary and can be plainly bad with lactose intolerance. Nut milks risk, scurvy also but apparently Soya Milk seems to be good. There are a lot of things like this that will concern people but the old myth or truism to eat your fruit and veg but not processed and factory food is generally good. I add water and raw or lightly cooked, unsalted and not sugared salad, veg, and fruit is essential as everyone knows but often they choose to miss out.
Here is a guide which personally I can not endorse as I do not experience the slightest problem anyway with eating vegan but it looks good; In any case, I do eat no salt, and raw and lightly cooked foods because they are very nice.
I do eat too much but unlike my father, it is not always fruit. Dad would keep eating any fruit until someone made him stop he did it as a boy all through life because he enjoyed it. My mum who was also born before World War 2 is Scottish and has a reasonable appetite for root vegetables consequently and tells me if she was hungry as a child she would take a potato rub the dirt off and eat it.
What we choose to eat probably overrides our natural instincts. When I was not too bothered about what I eat, that was up until about 1985, I still found Coca-Cola and McDonald's very horrible but then I have never conformed and went vegetarian when I left home.
Tunbridge clock tower. The building opposite was very nicely rebuilt in 1992 with the Royal Victoria Place from the former Army & Navy then finally Chessman's department store. Only to be spoilt in 2015 by the bold bright blue red and white bank owned by an American.
Panoramic photo taken in January 2016 - I am surprised how it came out considering people and traffic were moving between each photo. But the Chessman's building shows a fault in the photo stitching and a double roof join can be seen. Camera; Cannon IXUS 60.
