Cocaine – Another UK first!

Today's theme is mainly about drugs. Well one drug - cocaine and three events that have merged, as it were, into a common theme.

Yesterday I stopped off at a Little Chef, on my way back from Oxford. I had a cup of coffee, well I think it was coffee, it arrived in a cafetière anyway.

You see I just couldn't take any more Woman's Hour and in any case they'd used the word 'impact' at least five times - my usual signal to switch off.

When I went to pay, I noticed that there was a display area selling the now famed ‘I Love Charlie’ T-shirts.






Whether by stupidity or by design, somebody in the Little Chef empire caught on to a winner there. The T-shirts, sold very cheaply, have become student cool wear. They are selling in their thousands.

The little statement on the front has the same street-credibility or kudos as the leaf logo in the seventies. The latter was often assumed by the unknowing to denote a passion for gardening and in any case made a pleasant change from Che Guevara or Led Zeppelin.







It turns out that Charlie, as well as being a common slang term for cocaine is also the name of the fat little mascot favoured by the Little Chef chain. Presumably it symbolizes their loveable in-house cooks, but without the tattoos or acne of course.

Then on getting back in the car, the news was on. It's always good to know that the UK is a world leader. We often do lead, but sadly it’s often for the wrong reasons. For example, the UK has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the whole of Europe.

Now, it seems, the UK is a world leader in another area too. We now have the highest rate of illegal cocaine use in the world.

More precisely, we have the highest usage in the 15-35 year old age group, as this was the study population. It turns out that 10% of that cohort has used cocaine at least once in the past year. So we're now ahead of Spain, with its cultural links with South America. We're ahead of the USA, Australia and Canada too.

Of course, if we were to interview a politician on this, the answer might be some sort of reassurance, that the figures speak for themselves and 90% of that group don't do cocaine. Result.

Here’s few cocaine facts

Cocaine is the most used major stimulant in the USA and the UK. It is now the drug most frequently involved in accident and emergency department episodes. Whilst not a new drug it has managed to maintain a cachet of sophistication about it, supported by its use by celebrities on both sides of the Atlantic.









Street names for cocaine in addition to the word coke are related to its appearance or its method of use.
blow
crack
flake
freebase - a reference to its preparation
lady flake
liquid lady -a mixture of cocaine and alcohol
nose candy
rock)
snow
speedball -cocaine and heroin
toot

It is wrongly assumed that cocaine is non-addictive because it is not associated with the physical withdrawal symptoms seen with alcohol or heroin. Cocaine has strong psychological addictive properties. Whilst used on its own, there is an increasing trend for polypharmacy with alcohol or benzodiazepines like Valium.

The cocaine sold by dealers is usually prepared in South American factories. The cocaine is isolated and then converted to the salt, cocaine hydrochloride.

The problem with the supply of illegal drugs in the UK, is that by the time the drug reaches the end user it has been diluted with an inert substance or sometimes by other illegal substances. Unlike German beer purity laws, the consumer doesn't know what he or she is consuming.

This salt has a high level of purity when it arrives, smuggled into another country. It can be as pure as 95%. But as it passes through many people in its journey from smuggler to end used it gets diluted ("cut") at each stage, to increase profit. By the time it gets to the user it may be as little as 1% pure. Common cutting additives include
corn starch
glucose
lactose
local anesthetics like lignocaine or procaine
quinine
sweeteners
talc


More concerning is that other drugs may be added, for example
heroin
codeine
amphetamine
LSD
THC – active ingredient of cannabis

Cocaine as the hydrochloride salt may be
injected
ingested
applied to any blood rich membrane. This includes the nose, mouth, rectum and vagina.

Most commonly it is sniffed into the nasal passages.







A line of cocaine, as finely divided powder, usually 0.25 cm x 2.5 cm is placed on a smooth surface. Then it is snorted into a nostril through straw or a rolled £20 note.

Cocaine is generally not taken by mouth. Severe toxic reactions, including death, have occurred in people who swallow the drug to avoid police detection.

Freebasing involves the conversion of cocaine hydrochloride into cocaine sulphate that is "free" of the additives and nearly 100% pure. It is not water soluble and has a low melting point, so it can be smoked.

Crack cocaine is extracted from cocaine hydrochloride by using baking soda and heat. The waxy base becomes rocks of cocaine, ready to be sold in vials. This rock cocaine is also easy to smoke.

The toxic dose, the amount of cocaine that will cause death or some significant medical consequence is variable. The average lethal dose by the IV route or by inhalation is about 750-800 mg. But deaths have occurred after the snorting of a single line in recreational use where the average dose of 1 line is 20 mg.

In a study in Southern Spain, cocaine abuse was linked to 3% of sudden deaths, a clear reminder that the drug can have devastating effects. In the study, 21 out of 668 sudden deaths were related to cocaine use and all of these occurred in men aged between 21 and 45. Most involved problems with the heart and the majority of the men were also smokers and had been drinking alcohol at the same time as taking cocaine.













Then in the evening I listened to Front Row, again on Radio 4. This cocaine world leader announcement is quite timely, as the Wellcome Foundation in Euston Road, London has just opened an exhibition about drug misuse through the ages. The exhibition, called High Society, is open until 27 February 2011.

http://www.wellcomecollection.org/whats-on/exhibitions/high-society.aspx

While the UN estimates the illegal drug trade worldwide grosses £200bn a year, the exhibition reminds the visitor that the use of psychoactive drugs is nothing new, and that our most familiar ones - alcohol, coffee, tobacco have all been illegal in the past.





From ancient Egyptian poppy tinctures to Victorian cocaine eye drops, Native American peyote rites to the salons of the French Romantics, mind-altering drugs have a rich history.





Cocaine is naturally occurring. It is an alkaloid that is extracted from the leaves of the coca plant. This was first grown in the Andes Mountains of Peru and Bolivia. Now that the cocaine industry has taken off it is grown in
Argentina
Brazil
Colombia
Ecuador
Mexico
The West Indies






Centuries ago, Peruvian natives would chew coca leaves were mixed with lime as a stimulant and to ward off hunger and tiredness at high altitude. The active ingredient cocaine was isolated after the plant was introduced to Europe. Initially it was used to treat alcoholism, depression and morphine addiction. It has good local anaesthetic properties, but superior drugs have taken over this role nowadays.

As some well known celebrities have discovered to their cost. Cocaine destroys more than lives. It destroys noses too.






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"In the Navy" - the Art of Intrusion in the Cyber Village

Our government, through the National Security Council, has classified hostile computer attacks on UK cyberspace as a level 1 threat to this country. In other words, a higher threat than a nuclear attack by an unfriendly power. is there ever a nuclear attack by a friendly power? Probably not.

£500M has been pledged to bolster cyber security, with a focus on key infrastructure and defence assets.

That was last month.



Now, a Rumanian hacker appears to have used some of Guy Fawkes Day to enter the UK Royal Navy's website. Whist he was inside it he managed to recover user names, passwords and those of the site administrator too. He proved this by posting them on the Internet.

A Royal Navy spokesman said "There has been non malicious damage." now the Royal Navy spokesmen have been pretty busy recently, thanks to the now famous reversing into a parking space in a sub manoeuvre recently perfected on the Isle of Skye.



This time they claimed that no confidential information had been disclosed. Well, apart from user names and passwords that is.

The website currently contains a notice about undergoing essential maintenance work. "Please visit the site again later."



If only the hacker had inserted a few hijack links whilst he was there.

Here are some suggestions:-

YouTube - In The Navy video by The Village People. This is significant because the hacker who is called TinKode has done them too. (YouTube -not The Village People.)



http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2b1hf_village-people-in-the-navy-version_music


Cow and Chicken



http://www.filestube.com/c/cow+and+chicken+crash+dive

The Navy Lark


http://www.navylark.org.uk/nlepguide.htm

Great Naval Disasters



http://www.amazon.com/Great-Naval-Disasters-Accidents-Century/dp/0760305943

The Highway Code - Reversing



http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/TravelAndTransport/Highwaycode/DG_070340


Let's hope that the Royal Navy website wasn't being run from their own server.

Nobody could be that stupid, could they?





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Autumn - Season of Soups

I'm having some days off this week, so I've had lunch out on a few occasions, mainly in North Wales, but also in Shropshire - possibly two of the last of the culinary wastelands in the UK.






Everywhere, that is to say upmarket hotels and pubs alike seems to be serving either parsnip or pumpkin soup. Usually uninspiring, over-thickened, probably with corn flour and lacking any sort of imagination. I'm told it's seasonal and even worse, that it's what people want at this time of year.

Well, here's my answer. Seasonal, comforting and moreish, if there is such an adjective. Celery and chestnut soup.





Here's the recipe. I hope that you enjoy it.

Celery and Chestnut Soup

Preparation Time: about one and a half hours, but some of that is waiting about so you can do other things.

Ingredients
2 Celery hearts, chopped
1 Large onion, chopped
4 Small potatoes, peeled and diced
10 Chestnuts, cooked and peeled*
2 Cloves of garlic, crushed
1 Bay leaf
1 Litre of chicken stock
Salt and pepper for seasoning
30 g Butter
1 Tsps Ground turmeric
40 ml Crème fraîche
Grated nutmeg

* (I use Clement Faugier brand, in lovely corrugated tins



Directions
Melt the butter in a large, heavy bottomed pan that has a lid.
Add the celery, onion, potato and garlic. Cook over a low heat until the onion becomes soft and starts to become translucent. Be careful at this stage not to let the vegetables burn.
Add the chestnuts, bay leaf and seasoning.
Add the chicken stock and increase the heat until the liquid just starts to boil. Then lower the hear so that the mixture simmers. Stir every 10 minutes or so, to avoid any burning at the base.
After about one hour, remove the pan from the heat, fish out the bay leaf, then blend the pan contents with a hand-held blender.
Add the crème fraîche and mix it in.
Serve hot, with some grated nutmeg on the surface and a little swirl of additional crème fraîche, if you're trying to impress.







It goes well with some wholemeal bread, with added raisins and figs, topped with a slice or two of Reblochon. Or if you prefer a British cheese, then Shropshire Blue goes well with it.







And of course a glass of Shropshire Lad.






Pub food doesn't have to be so predictable. Then again, nor do pub names.








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Blow the Wind Southerly - Submarine Homesick Blues

Well, shiver my stealth technology cladded timbers.

This submarine incident in or rather adjacent to the Isle of Skye in the Highlands of Scotland, or Scotlandland as George Dubya called it, seems not to be going away.





In summary a brand new nuclear stealth submarine costing about one billion pounds sterling got stuck on some rocks near to the Skye Bridge.






The Royal Navy describes the vessel in glowing terms. "Astute class is the largest, most advanced and most formidable vessel of its kind ever operated by the Royal Navy. She incorporates the latest stealth technology combined with a world beating sonar system and equipped with Spearfish torpedoes and state of the art Tomahawk land attack missiles to make her a supremely effective naval asset."

Being a naturally superstitious maritime nation, it looks like the Duchess of Cornwall is off future launcher guest lists.

We have an ever-shrinking Royal Navy as witnessed in the new entente cordiale with our French neighbours. I think the deal was something like "If there's an 'r' in the month it's one of yours we land our planes on."

As expected from this island nation there's been endless theorising and advice about the Skye submarine fiasco.

Some of my favourites include:-

The submarine is very long
- It's about 100 metres long.

The submarine is very big
- Actually it's 7800 tonnes, about the same as 1,000 London buses.

The sea is very shallow there!
- There are charts
- Even the Royal Navy could follow channel markers.

At least there was non environmental impact. I do hate that word.
- actually there was an impact - the sub hit the rocks.






The embarrassing fact is that the submarine managed to ground it's stern in a manoeuvre in which they were allegedly letting some crew off the vessel. Perhaps they were foraging for wild mushrooms to add to the recipe for the evening's supper. Goodness knows what they were up to.

The manoeuvre in question looks and sounds more like something from a canal holiday in a 70 foot narrowboat.

Matters have got even worse today, when it emerged that the tug boat that helped to free the unfortunately named HMS Astute managed to damage one of the submarine's foreplanes. - Oops! Expensive.






Somebody has to take responsibility for this embarrassing accident and it looks like the chance of the commanding officer, currently only a commander of becoming a flag officer is now minimal. In summary, no progression to admiral rank and no knighthood.






Never mind the official enquiry. If he's going home I'd advise the insertion of a cricket box.

On the other hand his wife may just be a good old-fashioned socialist who doesn't believe in all these titles. like Mrs, now Lady Prescott.

As a final note, the Coast Guard tugs, like the one that helped out here are going to be removed from service as part of the government's austerity measures.

It's unlikely that the Royal Navy will be able to get itself out of trouble in the future, shrunken as it is.

There is hope. Many passed-over naval officers can get a job as a bursar in the public schools of our glorious land.

surely you can't cause any damage with a Biro. Well.....






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Cooking with Gas in Lowry Country

According to the urbandictionary.com website the phrase ”cooking with gas“ means to efficiently perform a task after a long period of inefficient performance, or possibly failed attempts at a task or project. Hardly Dr Johnson, but there you have it.

Firstly may I extend my thoughts to the good folk of Salford, Greater Manchester, who got caught up in the gas explosion yesterday. Especially so to the poor elderly lady who is critically ill with 30% burns. On the face of it she appears to have been the unwitting cause of the conflagration that partially destroyed a terrace of houses. The fact that the lady in question was blown out of her kitchen into the street was a bit of a clue to where the problem started.

Gas, or more precisely, any combustible gas is a hazard. Cooking with gas became popular in the 1880s. Initially appliance rental schemes were introduced. Ironically, the first scheme was pioneered by the Manchester Gas Committee in 1884.

It seems that following the recent explosion in Salford, up to 30 families may have to be temporarily re-housed. Three houses have been totally destroyed in the unfortunately named Merlin Road.

The Health and Safety Executive is on the case. The fact that a company had recently been doing some work in the kitchen that became the epicentre of the explosion may not escape their notice.

A spokesman for the Manchester Fire Service said that wreckage was strewn up to 100 metres from the blast and that the first thing they noticed was a bath in the middle of someone's garden. I have to say that this by itself is not a discriminator for devastation as you will find a similar sight in council estates across the UK.

One wonders how the artist Lowry, who painted so many of his pictures based on life in Salford would have portrayed the scene in Merlin Road.

Don't forget. Always check that your cowboy - sorry, your home appliance engineer is Corgi registered.

Let's hope that all of those injured make a speedy recovery.

An Anglo-French Naval Agreement - Entente Frugale?

The Anglo-French agreements signed today herald a new dawn of co-operation between two closely matched military powers. Perhaps.

It will mean that UK planes will be able to land on a French aircraft carrier and vice versa. 

I can see a lot of co-operation in the form of fact finding trips over the next few months. We will just have to accept that catering on the French side will far outstrip anything that the British Navy can manage afloat.

Meanwhile, I would advise the French fact-finders to adopt the “Thank you, but we've just eaten” approach.

With this in mind I offer the following simple recipe that even the gallant crew of HMS Overindulgence should be able to knock up.

Coq Sarkozy

A tough old bird with a hint of Eastern Europe.

Preparation Time: 12 hours, but some of that is while you are sleeping.

Ingredients

Meat

2kg chicken, cut into 6 large pieces or 10 boneless chicken thighs

100g of short Hungarian or Polish sausage, cut into slices

Veg

2 white onions, chopped

2 carrots, cut into 2-3cm pieces

• 100g tiny onions or shallots 
• 100g of mushrooms, sliced

2 stalks of celery, chopped

1 tomato, chopped

Liquids

1 bottle of red wine - ask the chaplain

30ml brandy

30ml Olive oil

Extras

• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 5ml dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 30ml of chopped fresh parsley
• 3ml ground black pepper
• 5ml salt
• 10ml sugar
• 30g butter for frying
• 30g butter, softened for the beurre manié or kneeded butter, used to thicken the sauce, just before serving.
• 20g of plain flour

Preparation

Put the dismembered bird into a large casserole dish. Place the vegetables, herbs and seasoning over the meat. 

Meanwhile in another bowl mix the wine, brandy and the olive oil. Then slowly pour this mixture over the chicken and the vegetables in the casserole dish. Place the dish and its cover in the fridge overnight.

Wash your hands, wash up and then have a cup of tea and a fag outside.

Allow the marinate the mixture overnight, for 8-12 hours.

Next day

Get the oven to 220C. 

Meanwhile in a large frying pan melt 30g of butter. With a slotted spoon remove each piece of the chicken and brown them on each side in the frying pan. Set aside the chicken in a separate bowl. Then fish out all of the vegetables and cook them for 5 minutes, until they start to become tender.

Arrange the chicken in the casserole dish, add the vegetables, then pour the liquid over the whole lot. Add the sugar and salt and bake it in the oven for 20 minutes.

While the chicken is baking, fry the sausage until it is golden but not crispy and then set it aside to drain in a strainer. Now, using the same frying pan sauté the mushrooms and onions until they soften. Remove the casserole dish from the oven, then add the sausage, mushrooms, and onions. Put the lid back on and return to the oven for 30 minutes.

To prepare the beurre manié or kneeded butter, mash the softened butter and the flour together with a fork. You will end up with a paste. 

Add the beurre manié to the chicken and vegetables for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Then remove the casserole dish from the oven and stir the beurre manie throughout the dish to allow the sause to thicken uniformly. 

Braized Red Cabbage

Ingredients

Veg

• 1 red cabbage, shredded
• 1 onion, shredded

Liquids

• 125ml water
• 30ml red-wine vinegar

Extras

• 30g butter
• 60g brown sugar
• 3ml teaspoon black pepper
• 5ml teaspoon salt
• 5ml cinnamon, ground fine
• 
  

Preparation

1. Cook the cabbage and onion in butter in a large pan, until it collapses down.
   
2. In another bowl, mix together the water, vinegar, brown sugar, and seasoning until the sugar has dissolved.
3. 
   
4. Add the liquid mixture to the cabbage mixture. Bring it to a boil, then simmer. 
5. 
   
6. Continue to cook the cabbage until it is tender. This may take 15 to 20 minutes. 
7. 
   
8. If you prefer you could make the cabbage at the same time as the marinaded chicken and keep it in the fridge overnight too.

Good luck. 

And never, ever say “Bon appetit”.

Picture of a politician

I've never thought that highly of David Miliband or for that matter his smarter kid brother of "Mithter Thpeaker, the prime minithter hathn't anthered my quethtion" fame.

Come back Spitting Image.

- Until the weekend that is. Since then my respect for him has risen enormously. Well from about zero in fact. And it's all to do with a painting and the right to hang whatever you want on your walls at home. And it all happened by accident.



We're not talking Che Guevara or Hieronymus Bosch posters here - we're talking about 13 ladies dancing, naked in a circle. The artist was Michelle Dovey.

An amateur photographer kindly asked if she could take a picture of Mr and Mrs Miliband, in their home. They obliged, as it was for a competition, rather than the usual paparazzi. This was the result.


The photographer won her competition, the picture was published, then despite other more significant matters in national and world news, all he'll let loose.

Stephen Bayley, a style critic, whatever that is, wrote a long piece about the picture in the Torygraph. It attracted 150 comments on the electronic version.

Extracts from the piece include:-

Criticizing David's shirt - fair
Criticising part of a visible cushion - overzealous

As to the painting he described his delicious voyeur’s sense of delight at the discovery of a hitherto secret (and very horrible) family indiscretion. A bit like finding a severed head in the linen basket, a gun in the bathroom cabinet, a whip in the downstairs loo.

He poured scorn on Louise Miliband for having bought tfor picture for David’s 40th birthday.

He Even implied that it was one of those decisions possibly made after lunch.

He described the painting, that looks like it was based on Matisse's La Danse series as not even bad. "It is middle-brow junk. It is the sort of thing you can find arriving in Ford Transits at the dreadful Affordable Art Fair in Battersea Park."

He quoted many other writers, presumably on the basis that it's easier than producing original thought of ones own.

In summary, the piece was hurtful, snobbish and smug to the point of inducing nausea.

This is the same Stephen Bayley who was involved in the Millennium Dome fiasco. Even Mandelson sussed him out and he resigned from the project. His contact details on the web are self-opinionated beyond belief.




This is the same Stephen Bayley who wrote a pile of crap called Woman as Design, Conran Octopus £50, all 336 pages of it.

But revenge is sweet. Amazon is selling this for £27.

His book called Taste at £47 is going for just over £4.

Well done David, for standing up to this nonsense. You can hang what you like on your own walls. But hold back on the flying ducks.

There's probably never going to be a better time to buy a Michelle Dovey painting. She does trees too. You don't have to keep it in too prominent a position, but you could make a few pounds over the next five or ten years.





And finally, the winner of the caption competition.



Hillary Clinton explains the length of Bill's problem - to the nearest inch.




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