Parliament Goes Quack!

Thanks to Rich for raising this one... A few months ago, one Rudi Vis, MP, raised an early day motion on NHS homeopathic hospitals. Basically, an EDM is a sort of petition used so that matters of interest to individual MPs can be aired without needing to take up a lot of time. This particular one calls on the government to support homeopathic hospitals through the NHS as they have "the potential to offer clinically-effective and cost-effective solutions to common health problems".

Now let's be clear on this: homeopathy is, according to all scientific studies undertaken so far, snake oil. It relies on patients taking doses of water (active ingredients are diluted to the point that not one single molecule remains in a typical dose) or similar carriers and can be shown to have no benefits at all beyond the placebo effect. At a time when proven effective treatments are being withheld from patients because there just isn't the money to go around, should we really be spending public money propping up superstitious quackery?

I've written to my MP about this as he is one of the poor, misguided fools who have supported this EDM. With a little luck (and some badgering) he may see the light.

If you want to know more about homeopathy, Google is your friend. There is an article on Quackometer about this EDM and many good debunk articles from fairly solid sources floating around.

It's a Bird! It's a Microlight! It's...

On Sunday <3 and I took the Youngling to the White Horse Show near Uffington (just a few miles down the road). The little'un seemed to really enjoy gawping at all the sights and sounds of an English country fair, but there was one thing that really caught my attention as one of the most inspired, bonkers and generally cool things I have ever seen...

There is this French fella called Christian Moullec, who has made it his mission to help save the lesser white-fronted geese which used to be common in Scandinavia, but which are now close to extinction. These geese are being bred in captivity, but to be successfully released into the wild, they need to know how (and where) to migrate. So, M. Moullec has been working with groups of not-so-endangered geese and learning how to lead them on migrations in his microlight, with the intention of learning how to lead the captive bred white-fronted geese on their migrations.

So, the upshot of this was that we spent a little while sitting in a field, watching a microlight flying circles above, in formation with seven geese and (bizarrely — and I never found out why) three storks.

Bonkers. Shine on, dude!

C'mon and shake it on baby

On Sunday afternoon we had a nice family outing to a folk music session at a local pub. Yep, that's the whole family, including the Youngling. This wasn't actually the first session for the Youngling, but the last one was a few months back and she has grown so much since then. <3 and I were a little on the nervous side abonut how long it would be before we had to get into lots of baby cuddling, feeding and so on.

We needn't have worried. The Youngling sat in a highchair for ages, just listening and watching with a rapt expression on her face, occasionally shaking her maracas, banging her tambourine or yodeling along happily. Nobody seemed to mind that she couldn't tell the difference between a jig and a reel, and several folk added to the fun by pulling faces at the little monkey. After an hour or so, <3 fed the Youngling and she was OK again for a while longer, though eventually tiredness set in a bit and it was time to take her home (though I was able to stay on a little longer and play some more thanks to <3 volunteering to be on baby duty).

We're now wondering what instrument we should be providing our wee little prodigy. It would be nice to have a fiddler in the family, but perhaps we're getting a bit ahead of ourselves...

Anniversary Binge

So yesterday was our anniversary and as a friend of <3's had volunteered to babysit for us we managed to celebrate by going out for dinner. The one friend had actually turned into two and they happily spent the evening watching Serenity while the Youngling snoozed happily in her bed.

Dinner was at the Yummy Thai restaurant in Wantage, chosen because we both rather like Thai food and have walked past the place on many an occasion and figured that we really should try it out. Now, I reckon our standard benchmark for an eatery is would we take our foody friends, E. and I. to it? Based on ambience (very homely, reasonably busy for a Thursday, quiet music, very friendly and polite staff) and starters (very nice dim sum and tempura) we decided that this place passed.

The more advanced standard for a restaurant is if, having brought E. and I. along, would E. use the word "sublime" about the food. I think, having tried the crystal scallops, the answer to that is almost certainly yes. Melt-in-the mouth scallops in garlic, lovely stuff. The rest of the food was excellent too. We'll definitely be going back.

<3 and I had agreed to stick to token presents to mark the occasion. She got me a pair of rhythm bones, curved sticks that can be held in one hand in such a way that they can be used as a sort of rattle. All I need to do is learn how to do this properly — I'm slowly making progress.

Crowds of People Create Risk Shock

New in from the department of "Well, Duhh" the startling news that forcing crowds of people to huddle together in compact queueing systems for significant periods of time might actually create new security risks. Yup, the current airport security procedures do, indeed, mean that terrorists are unlikely to have the opportunity to kill themselves in a plane toilet with an explosion barely powerful to blow the doors off, thus meaning that dozens of passengers will have to use the other toilet for the rest of the flight (which, of course, will result in an emergency landing, oh the terror), but surely everyone realises that if you simply crack down on one (largely imaginary) threat you leave, or even create, many other gaps.

I am pleased to announce that we now have a fully double-glazed house. Over the last couple of days a couple of nice fellas from Zenith Staybrite ripped out the last of our original, thermally rubbish, steel framed windows (plus our rattly, ill-fitting front door) and replaced them with shiny lumps of uPVC. The last bit of the job involved hacking out a chunk of (steel) wall below our dining room window in order to turn it into a big, patio door. The room is now somewhat transformed.

Zenith do seem to have done a good job for us: the process from order to fitting was well within their estimated times, their fitters were quick and personable, and the product seems to be good. However, we were very much less than impressed with the salesman who originally came around: it took quite a lot of effort to get the key pieces of information we wanted: why his products are better than the competition and how much it would cost to get the job done. Eventually we had had enough with the salesman's somewhat hectoring manner and told him we weren't interested. This resulted in <3 having a frank and open exchange of views with the sales manager over the phone, which in turn resulted in a very large discount. We had already had some other quotes and knew the ballpark of prices to expect, so were confident that the discount was genuine. Basically, the quote was too good to miss, so we signed up.

Next up is the conservatory which we are expecting to have built, probably in a couple of months' time...

It's a Long Way to Tipperary

...But driving from Wantage to Sligo is also a sizeable journey (about 900 miles on road for the round trip), even when the bit between Fishguard and Rosslare involves sitting on a boat drinking coffee and we stop at Athlone for a couple of nights before doing the rest of the distance. One of <3's cousins was getting married in, so we drove over with the Youngling (who was suffering from a nasty cold) and the necessary paraphernalia to stay with the in-laws and go with them to the wedding. It made for a good trip and driving almost from corner to corner of Ireland helped me appreciate what a beautiful country it is.

Amongst other things...

• It would appear that playing "I Used to Love Her" by the Saw Doctors at an Irish wedding has a similar affect to playing "Delilah" at a Welsh do.
• There was a small swing band playing at the wedding reception (billed as "The Irish Rat Pack", which made the female singer and the Abba covers seem a bit incongruous), which provided a great opportunity for <3 and I to dust off our half-forgotten jive moves. Great fun even when we are so out of practice.
• We spotted a poster in a shopping centre in Portlaoise calling for help in finding Madeleine McCann. Well, you never know, do you?
• At the same shopping centre, we rolled up at a café just in time to get first dibs on a freshly made batch of scones to have with our tea while we fed the Youngling. Sometimes it all just works out. I am now more convinced than ever of the righteousness of my long-term ambition to run a little tea shop where scones are baked fresh throughout the day/
• Dosing the Youngling up with Calpol and/or Tixylix isn't easy, though we are starting to get the hang of it with a technique that probably has more in common with drenching sheep than holding out a spoon for a child to obediently drink from.
• There is something comical about a bunch of early-teenagers playing "Killing in the Name Of" at a charity fundraiser in Strandhill, near Sligo, particularly when the singer's voice hasn't broken.
• The coffee on the Stena Europe ferry was better than that on the Stena Express, which we took on the return journey. However, the latter was, true to its name, an hour and a half quicker, so there was less time to ponder beverage inadequacies. Plus we had fresh Wexford strawberries to eat, picked up at the side of the N11 on the way to the ferry. You pays your money and takes your choice.

Autorotation

I got up this morning to find <3 acting all excited and telling me to watch the youngling, who was wriggling happily on the floor. Right on cue she rolled over onto her tummy (the youngling, that is, not <3, who has been able to do this for some time) and proceeded to lie there looking pleased with herself. So, another little milestone: 20 weeks and 3 days, rolls onto tummy. This is both very exciting and a worrying step towards mobility...

Trust me on the sunscreen

Over the weekend a friend quoted something at me. I think he said he saw it as graffiti, so I have no idea of the original source, but it made me laugh and I don't want it to be lost...

Love like you don't need the money.
Dance like you've never been hurt.
Work like nobody is watching.

Young, Foolish and Chopping Onions

Last night <3 and I actually went out for a dose of live music. A friend kindly agreed to babysit for the Youngling and having safely deposited her, we got to Newbury with enough time to spare to get the drinks in.

The show was a regular (mostly monthly) one hosted by the Mandolinquents, and is billed as a sort of folk and world music evening. This time, the band, a quartet, was down to 75% of its normal strength and the focus of the music was blues, and through the first half we had a good variety of pleasing acoustic music which really showed their singer, Hilary James, in a great light. <3 tensed up visibly when Hilary announced that she was going to sing Down by the Sally Gardens, but relaxed significantly when she did a really good job of the song — though the additional verse (which I didn't notice, not knowing the song very well) didn't really strike the right chord ("she's not exactly Yeats, is she?").

The second half saw the introduction of the evening's special guest and the reason that I had wanted to come to this show: Brendan Power, a fantastic harmonica player who I have previously bought CDs and customised harmonicas from. Brendan was awesome: he is equally at home playing blues, Irish traditional, ragtime or any number of other styles, and was a great fit for the other musicians on stage. The show was clearly being winged to a great extent (as one of the band commented, "not tired from over-rehearsal") and had a great energy and sense of fun.

All in all, a great evening and we came home with smiles on our faces and a clutch of CDs to listen to at home. We may even go to another of these shows some time. And to put the icing on the cake, when we picked up the Youngling, she was asleep and had, apparently stayed asleep all evening. Excellent.