Nic Dempsey

Saturday

Posted on July 27, 2013 by nicdempsey

First up on today’s task list was get hair cut and coloured.

One task down…miles to go.

Posted in How I Live, Random | Leave a comment

Friday Night Cocktail

Posted on July 26, 2013 by nicdempsey

Satan’s Whiskers

I suppose I should wait until Halloween to post this one but it’s good enough that I won’t.

If you use Grand Marnier as your triple sec the whiskers are straight, use Cointreau and they’re curled. Little things like this make me happy…

What

1/2 oz gin

1/2 oz sweet vermouth

1/2 oz dry vermouth

1/2 oz Grand Marnier or Cointreau

1/2 oz orange juice

dash of orange bitters

ice

How

Pour ingredients into ice filled shaker

Shake

Strain into cocktail glass.

Posted in Booze | Tagged cointreau, dry vermouth, Friday Night Cocktail, gin, sweet vermouth, triple sec | Leave a comment

Friday Links

Posted on July 26, 2013 by nicdempsey

Light week for me this week, I’ve been busy and hot and all of the news has been about the royal baby and I’m not too interested in that…

1) Rent control, the idea that dare not speak its name. I know I bang on about housing a lot, that’s because I’m at the pointy end of it..

Building a new property creates jobs and expands supply, and that is a real investment. But that’s not what many landlords do. They are “rentiers” and speculators on existing property, adding nothing to the economy, enriching themselves by gouging ever higher rents out of younger adults. Rent control will make this game unprofitable and cut house prices – a good thing, unless you are a chancellor so bereft of ideas that you think a property bubble is the only way to win an election.

2) Can you tell the city by the Starbucks location? I got 5 out of 20, but I did recognise my city so I feel good about that.

3) Why the case against GMO is overblown.

I think Monsanto is evil, that patenting seeds and suing farmers is unethical, and that some GMO crops (like Roundup Ready Soybeans) lend themselves to irresponsible herbicide and pesticide use and cross-contamination.

But I’m also not going to let my anti-corporate sentiments get in the way of a diverse and promising field of research.

4) Mark Steel on the royal baby.

Posted in Links | Tagged Friday Links, reading | Leave a comment

Survival mode

Posted on July 25, 2013 by nicdempsey

After months of suffering in the cold, dark wet, London has summer weather. So now we’re complaining about the hot, sweaty, sunny weather! We’re English, complaining about the weather is what we do…

I did have a conversation last week that centred on how people who live in places that are really hot all the time EVER get anything done. It’s calmed down a bit now, in the high 20’s but it’s been too hot to want to do anything other than lie in front of a fan moaning about the heat and although that is a great idea, it’s not going to pay the rent or put food on the table.

In addition to having a fan next to my bed, this is how I make my life more bearable in heat…..

1) Water bottle.

When it’s hot you should drink more water, everyone knows that right? Often on the train in the morning, the very hot train packed with sweaty hot people, the water bottle is the only thing between me and faint. So it’s always with me and I fill it with ice, then water. That way I have something to drink and something to cool me down a bit. It’s also useful if you notice someone else about to go, I can’t offer them my seat (like I get to sit down!) but I can offer them some water.

2) Sunscreen.

I’m fairly evangelical about sunblock, I am very pale and burn easily and if I don’t burn I just freckle, which I noticed yesterday makes me look a bit ginger all over (the curse of Irish heritage!). I also spend most of the day in an office but I put my sun block on in the morning, the once a day stuff is good for six hours so I have a bottle of sun spray in my office drawer to spritz on before I leave to go home. For going to and from work, I use SPF 30, for holiday or being out in the sun all day, I use SPF 50 and re-apply more often

3) Iced coffee

I’m not prepared to give up coffee, so I just make it and pour it over ice. Caffeine and cooling and really do you need any more.

4) Anti histamines, nasal spray, eye drops, inhaler, contact lenses and sunglasses.

Air quality isn’t great at the moment and I’ve been suffering from it and hayfever. These help me keep everything under control.

5) Coconut oil.

I love this stuff, it’s from the same range as the Baby Bottom Butter and is great for my chaffing thighs (yes, I went there and no, I’m not sorry!) as well as just generally nice on my skin. I know that in summer you don’t need to moisturise as much (except maybe your feet, they need extra help in the summer!) but this stuff after your shower just before you go to bed is lovely and the smell is lovely and helps me go to sleep. I know it’s cooler this week because last week this was liquid!

Anyone got any heat survival tips to share?

Posted in How I Live, London, Random, work | Tagged heat, heatwave, stuff I need, summer, things I do when it's hot | 1 Comment

Current favourite lunch

Posted on July 25, 2013 by nicdempsey

This is what I’m eating for lunch most days. It’s not so much a recipe more a guide..

It consists of sprouted lentils, roasted tomatoes, pepper, feta, basil and mint. It’s easy packs a big flavour punch with the tomatoes, feta and herbs. It also requires minimal cooking so works for me..

What are you eating most at the moment?

Posted in Food, How I Live | Tagged food, how I eat, lentils, lunch, packed lunches, Things I Like, what I eat | Leave a comment

Want

Posted on July 24, 2013 by nicdempsey

This print from Samphire Bay . Because it would remind me of Northumberland…

Posted in Things I Like | Tagged want | Leave a comment

Chiswick House

Posted on July 24, 2013 by nicdempsey

Last Sunday Ma and I hopped on a bus and went to Chiswick House.

We spent quite a portion of the day kicking ourselves for not going sooner..

The walled kitchen garden which is run by volunteers was having an open day and produce sale and we bought some rhubarb (there wasn’t much else left)..

We are English Heritage members and did the tour of the villa…

Then wondered around the park.

Perfect way to spend a summer Sunday…

Posted in London, Photos | Tagged Chiswick House, English Heritage, london, Sundays | 1 Comment

Things that are really annoying

Posted on July 23, 2013 by nicdempsey

Given how interested I am in history and especially the Wars of the Roses, it was inevitable that I would eventually get around to watching The White Queen.

It’s based on a series of books by Phillipa Gregory and I’d heard her on Women’s Hour way back when the first book (The White Queen) came out, historical fiction is tricky, (I love Alison Weir’s fact books but really don’t like her fiction stuff and I love Hilary Mantel’s Thomas Cromwell but I don’t expect them to be accurate in every detail. For better or worse the series was part funded by Starz, so I wasn’t expecting it to be a bit rock’n’roll. So, I’ve watched it but I haven’t been too much attention, generally I put it on the iplayer while I’m doing something else.

However, last night I hit my limit. I could forgive how clean everything looked, how stupid Edward VI was in this adaption, how innocent Elizabeth Woodville was supposed to be, the ridiculous hairstyles (Richard’s hair has more product in it than any human head should hold!), the depiction of Elizabeth in sanctuary as if she was camping and the way time is racing by and no-one appears to be ageing at all. All of these things I could deal with. What did for me was Anne Neville having just married Richard, telling her sister, Isabel, they (she and Richard) were going to live at Warwick Castle.

Warwick Castle. Warwick Castle for God’s sake…

Warwick Castle is a fine castle, I’ve visited it. However, Warwick Castle is in, well Warwick. Warwickshire in in the Midlands, the middle of the country. Richard held the North of England for his brother.

The middle of the country is NOT the North. To add further insult to injury, it was Richard’s brother George, the Duke of Clarence (and Isabel’s husband) who took Warwick Castle and the title Earl of Warwick when Anne and Isabel’s father was died, even though technically it should have gone to their mother as they were part of the Beauchamp lands that she brought to her marriage. So basically, we have Anne telling Isabel that she is going to live in the wrong castle, in the wrong area of the country, in a castle that her husband didn’t even own.

It’s wrong, it didn’t happen. There are things you can alter to make things clearer to the audience but why get this one wrong, there’s no reason for it. Things are complicated, history was complicated but this isn’t even that difficult and it’s insulting to the audience to think that it is.

I now have a visions of people, mostly American wondering around Warwick Castls thinking that Richard III lived there, when the actual castle he lived in was Middleham.

This castle in fact (and you can see a statue of Richard III in the bottom of this photo, cause it’s the castle he’s most associated with)

Anyone who’s been around a while knows how much I love that castle (and why) and I am very unhappy and I may have to stop watching it because having seen the error, I can’t unsee it and I’m going to be looking for the others now…

Posted in Random | Tagged Getting history really wrong, History, Television, Things that are annoying | Leave a comment

The Weekend

Posted on July 22, 2013 by nicdempsey

Monday rolls around again…this morning with added thunderstorms. The weather is set to get cooler and wetter after today..we’ll see.

This weekend saw England win the second Ashes test, Chris Froome win the Tour de France and David Cameron talk more nonsense about the Internet so that it’ll look like he’s doing something….it’s the heat. (There’s also a lot being said and written about the Duchess of Cambridge and her labour or lack thereof and whether she’s being induced and I just want it to stop, it’s intrusive and silly. Yes, even a republican like me realises that the birth of a prospective Head of State is news but this hounding of a couple about to have their first child and it is hounding is pretty disgusting, so please stop it. By all means write about the million pound upgrade to Kensingston Palace, because that’s public money but how someone gives birth and whether or not she chooses to breast feed, that’s information that strangers don’t need to know.)

My weekend by contrast was very quiet, on Friday I saw Sarah.

On Saturday, I saw no one and did nothing but it was a lot cooler and I caught up on my sleep.

On Sunday, Ma and I went to Chiswick House, had a wonder around and talked about the next couple of weeks.

There’s a lot going on, Ma retires the week after next, my birthday happens the week after that and we have a lot planed and there’s a lot to do. However, we have a plan now (Lyme here I come and it’s time to re-read Persuasion) and Ma made a list…

How was your weekend? Anyone got exciting plans for the week?

Posted in How I Live | Tagged 11-21 July 2013, 2013, July, the weekend | Leave a comment

Swift’s Poems to Stella

Posted on July 21, 2013 by nicdempsey

I’ve been thinking about Swift’s birthday poem to Stella, this one is my favourite,

Stella this day is thirty-four.

(We shan’t dispute a year or more:

However, Stella, be not troubled,

Although thy size and years are doubled

Since first I saw thee at sixteen,

The brightest virgin on the green;

So little is thy form declined;

Made up so largely in thy mind.

O, would it please the gods to split

Thy beauty, size, and years, and wit!

No age could furnish out a pair

Of nymphs so graceful, wise, and fair;

With half the lustre of your eyes,

With half your wit, your years, and size.

And then, before it grew too late,

How should I beg of gentle fate,

(That either nymph might have her swain,)

To split my worship too in twain.

These poems are so much nicer that some of his others, for instance ‘The Lady’s Dressing Room’

Posted in Culture | Tagged birthday poem, Jonathan Swift, poems, Stella | Leave a comment