Jamie Oliver and Effing massive TVs

So Jamie Oliver had a go at how families on low incomes shouldn't spend their money on massive effing TV sets but rather make a tasty dinner with 25 mussles and pasta for 60p.

And then he defended himself on the One show by saying that he does more good than harm and that it was all a media outrage that wasn't to be taken seriously.

As soon as I read his initial comments, I was deeply unsettled. The main reason for this is that he feeds into already well established perceptions of the poor being to blame for their misfortune. This is neither true nor helpful.

Let's look at the big picture for a moment: The UK is the 4th richest country in the world, yet rife with income inequalities. We are a rich country yet 1 in 4 children grows up in poverty. Apparently the richest earn well over 250 times as much as the poorest. And there is no way that the poor are to blame for this sorry and unnecessary state of affair. It is true however that the it is in the interest of the rich to blame the poor for their own plight, so that they can defend their own position to be one of merit achieved by hard work and strive.

Personally, I don't think any meritocracy can account for 263 times the income of the poorest, to me that's just greed and selfishness, and if you call me a socialist for saying this, feel free.

Anyway, fact is that in an unequal society is that as long as the public opinion blames the poor and justifies the rich, the status quo can be maintained. Jamie Oliver has done just that. And that is deeply wrong, unhelpful and actually works against some of the really good work he does. It particularly pains me because I like the bloke otherwise and think he has indeed done heaps for making cooking be cool, and ensuring that our kids get decent food at school.

His comments were also misled because they were patronising (he offered a hug to the poor, as if they need a hug, that's not bringing any food onto the table last time I checked) and simplistic. A massive TV? Well, maybe that was acquired before the crisis point, or given by a relative, or maybe it's the one and only item of "yes" in a life dominated by "no's" as the Guardian rightly pointed out.

Interestingly, Jamie Oliver also points out that cooking from scratch is so much cheaper and better for you. I wonder why he sells a range of ready made meals then, making a fortune from them. But more to the point I would actually defy that this is the truth. With the price of fruit and veg, and even staples like rice and bread going up while prices of ready meals are going down, it is actually cheaper to get your 10 (horse) burger pack from Farmfoods. If you even want to buy organic or locally produced food, the price tag is unaffordable even for middle income families, because food is the one cost that can be controlled more than others. If you have a bill for rent, that's paid first: eviction is more serious than having rubbish food for a week. Some examples: a can of coke is less than a bottle of water. When I was a student with very little money to live off, I would eat a chocolate bar and a packet of crisps which was and still is cheaper than a sandwich. And where exactly would I pick up the mussels Jamie mentioned? They are not exactly kicking about in Glasgow. Most housing estates are devoid of any decent shops - it's your farmfoods, overpriced newsagent and chippy and that's that. No market, no fresh veg. If you want that, you need a car or an ever increasing bus return fare to get to the nearest supermarket. I'm not sure where Jamie's idea of that market stall comes from, but it's certainly not the average housing estate in Glasgow.

Then there's the cost of cooking. Gas, pots and pans, even a hob are not things that families on low incomes can take for granted. Nevermind the cost of ingredients - it's nice to do it from scratch but herbs are over a pound a glass and you'll need a few of them to get you started, not exactly attractive if you can get cheap convenience food that fills your tum and tastes ok and can be cooked in 3 minutes in the microwave.

Next up is the whole concept that apparently rubbish nutritioun it's a problem of the poor. Rubbish nutrition is a problem of this country, regardless of income. The rich and middle classes have the means and resources to cook well but do they do it? Convenience food is convenient for them too. Making nutrition into a class thing just misses the point. I am middle class and overweight. My diet is not the best (although it's not the worst) and like everyone else it's bloody hard to resist the ever present temptation of sugar, carbs and convenience foods. Cooking from scratch is a daily hard choice that isn't made easier by the conundrums of working family life. Kids are influenced by their peers and demand fish fingers instead of fish, baked beans instead of lentil bake, and sweetened yoghurts instead of natural yoghurt. And when your children once again tell you they hate what you cooked, the fish fingers are more than tempting because you really don't want to be wasting food again.

Should I also mention that Jamie is one of the rich, who has no experience of the reality of being poor and human decency would dictated that he should keep his gob well shut about experiences he is so far removed from that he has no idea what he is actually talking about.

Above all, Jamie's comments have nothing to offer other than alienating audiences and contributing to perpetuating stereotypes that need to be challenged instead. I'm sure he's done his own campaigns more damage than good (although being in the news with patronising comments is probably in the end good for his profile). Instead, he should offer inspiring and fun ways of cooking with limited resources (i.e. that don't necessitate his cook books, utensils and fancy ingredients), and just be what he's best at: contagiously passionate about food.

And then, if he wants to go a bit further, how about tackling the reasons for this country's inequality and campaigning against the shame of this countries poverty statistics, for a fairer society where no child has to go hungry.

Jamming

Some radio station today had a feature on the word "jam". Which was quite apt as I'd spent the weekend jamming away, after our annual pick your own trip to East Yonderton Farm in Paisley. As I bought the jamming sugar, the woman at the checkout asked if it was easy to make jam, as she'd always wanted to give it a try but then though it may be too tricky.

Well, what can I say, I'm not a domestic goddess, I'm no great cook, but making jam? The easiest thing in the world.

Go on, give it a try, it's really simple and while not cheaper than the cheapest jam jar at your exploiting supermarket, it tastes 100 times better and you know where the fruit came from (if you did pick it yourself, which isn't actually a requirement).

My favourite is rapsberry jam but I've made jam from throwing all odd fruits I had together, from my rhubarb glut when I had an allotment rather than clay soil in my front garden which the rhubarb clearly doesn't like, strawberries, brambles and the Rhineland speciality of plum spread (which is a different recipe and involves a lot more time and patience).

Preparation:
large saucepan, wooden spoon
6 sterilised jars and lids (you can sterilise by putting them into the oven at 150 degrees for 10 mins.) I reuse jars with nice wide opening.
optionally: a funnel, wax discs 

Ingredients
1kg of fruit
1kg of sugar (jamming sugar for raspberries and strawberries, some fruit will require preserving sugar, alternatively you can use normal sugar and add pectin. Preserving and jamming sugar are only stocked at large supermarkets, the packets also tell you which fruit to use it for)
a knob of butter
a splash of lemon juice (both optional)

What to do:
Add fruit and sugar (and optionally lemon juice) to a large saucepan, at least twice the depth of the mixture, slowly heat until sugar is dissolved, stirring with a wooden spoon. Then get the heat on and add the butter. When the mixture is boiling vigorously, start your timer and boil vigorously for 4 minutes.

(this is not a full rolling boil yet. I love my jamming saucepan by the way, it's ancient 

I'm sure but perfect for making jam)

You then may want to test if the setting point has been reached. To be honest, I'm not fussed about this step, Only once did my jam not set and it was still lovely, just a bit runny. But if you have to, this is how to do it: put a small plate in fridge or freezer and after 4mins of boiling, put a bit of jam on the plate, wait 10 seconds and then touch with a finger. If it wrinkles, the jam is done. If not, boil a tad longer, try again.

Fill jam into jars. A funnel is handy for this. If you have wax discs, put them on top of jam, seal with lid. Done. You may want to label or decorate with nice fabric, I'm lazy, esp if I do 4 batches in one night and finish at 1am, so mine look like this.

Finally: Eat. Yum

22 jars of jam, should get us through the year until the next summer.

Hooked

This summer, blogging has been mostly replaced by all things yarny. I've been trying to teach myself how to crochet for ages, with not much success, and a kick start a few years ago, when I went to a half day beginners course while wearing my newborn was great but there's not much time to concentrate on a new skill when you've just had a baby.

A few weeks ago I sneaked in another beginners class which refreshed what I'd forgotten plus showed me the way avoid my rounds getting wavey and my squares triangular. But of course, beginners classes are great to get you started but you only really learn by practising it, and that's where life usually takes over with endless stuff that momentarily is more important thank picking up a hook and concentrating on the slow progress of a beginner.

Enter Crochet Camp.
What can I say? It's basically just what the doctor ordered, an online community of people right into crochet, from total beginners to what I would say advanced masters of the hook (some creations look super advanced to me but what do I know?), everyone is super supportive, brought to you by Kat Goldin, crocheter and designer extraordinaire.

There is something that really works for me, no longer have I got to trail across the city to find a crochet group or work myself through blurry youtube videos and still end up not entirely sure where to insert the hook. Instead, I can follow simple patterns at my own pace, be inspired by the more complex creations, but also able to step by step get more confident. Just being part of it motivates me to pick up the hook even when I'm shattered at the end of a day.

Of course, it's slow progress, but because the camp is so successful and has now well over 1000 people, nobody is behind or ahead, as everyone works at their own pace and there's no pressure, just motivation to have something to show as well. I like the structure too, which is loose, but following the weekly patterns gives me something to work towards which is doable and takes away the difficulty of choice (when you have to choose THE pattern you want to tackle next amongst the thousands that you could be doing from a book or ravelry). It's a bit of "just do it".

And if you get stuck, you can ask a question and your problem will be sorted in minutes.

This week there's a show and tell on Slugs on the Refrigerator, which in turn got me blogging again to show off (ahem) my first crochet creations. I'm still learning but I can see it falling into place and I totally understand now where I went wrong in my first projects.

My first ever project was a t-shirt yarn rug. Wavey (and I frogged the first attempt because it was even wavier) but still treasured in the castle den by the girls.

Second, a t-shirt yarn basket which is actually not bad, and I plan to make more of these as they are extremely handy.

Next, a crochet flower, done just after Kat's crochet beginners lesson that I attended. This is also the current project on Crochet Camp.



And finally at Crochet Camp, a potholder, and a bag in progress (I also made my first granny square but the yarn is dark and not very exciting).

 

I finally no longer feel that I'm holding the yarn in the wrong hand (strangely, although I learned to knit from my (German) mother, she taught me the "British" way), and I can work myself through a simple pattern now (haven't tackled charts quite yet). What's great too is that my kids love the colourful creations, much more than they like my knitting, so I've got a feeling that this bag won't be mine. Or maybe I'll have to make 3. I've definitely reached the point where I'm dusting off my crochet books and feel at home with the hook, rather than throwing it in the corner in frustration and returning to the needles as I used to do every time I tried to crochet.

Now onwards to tackle some charts, and have a closer look at the details that so far didn't bother with. Above all, I'm looking forward to finally tackling some of the project that have been tempting me for years.

Review: Plymouth Touch Control Lamp

When asked if I'd be interested in reviewing the Plymouth Touch Control Lamp, my first thought was, probably not. But I was curious and had a look. And how glad was I that I did! I instantly liked the design of the lamp. I may not be a design expert but I usually know more or less instantly what I like and the Plymouth Touch Control Lamp definitely ticked my like box.

It's a classic design with unusual light turquoise colour and the cable has a woven texture which is a

welcome change from the usual boring black plastic.It gives the lamp a warm and cosy appearance, it's stylish without showing off in any way. It would look equally well as a bedside lamp or a desk lamp, we've opted for the latter simply because the colour didn't quite go with our bedroom colour scheme, and I quite like the combination of our second hand find of a solid wood desk and the aqua colour of the lamp, they're clearly made for one another.

Moving to the practical aspects of the lamp - it is just the perfect size for a desk. It's operated by touch sensors which cover the whole of the lamp - so no looking for a switch or trying to touch it in the right place, it's incredibly easy to operate. There are three levels of brightness which have a great range, from a very soft and warm light that still gives enough brightness to read, to an astonishingly bright setting, considering the bulb range is only 20-28W.

The lamp head can be adjusted through a simple and solid key which allows movement of the angle in two directions, and provides good flexibility.

It's also not easy to knock the lamp over as it's sturdy enough to resist minor knocks.

All in all it's a beautiful and functional lamp that adds a special tough to any room. At £65 I'm pretty sure it provides good value for money, and it's certainly made me have a closer look at the lighting range that John Lewis offers, there's no doubt that our lamps and lights could do with a bit of upgrading.


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Disclosure: I received the lamp to review plus some John Lewis vouchers and the views expressed in the post are from the Mummy do that! household.

A Scottish Summer

In the 16 summers I've spent here, this is most definitely the hottest, sunniest, wonderfullest. It's not just that there are good days between rainy days, no, there's weeks of sunshine. There were summers where our BBQ did not manage to make a single appearance, now, it's becoming the staple ingredient of evening meals (ok, mostly weekends). Usually, a sunny day is so unusual that all has to be done to make the most of it, now we can take it easy and relax knowing that there's at least another week like this ahead of us.

Today, I've been in the Scottish Atlantic for the first time ever and thought it was pleasantly warm. The difference to what it usually feels like to dip your toes (and usually no more) into the Atlantic is quite astounding.

We had plans for the day but the kids knew what they wanted: Beach. And since everyone seems to go to Troon (and we'd never been), this is where we went. It occurred to me that 2 years ago I travelled first by plane and then on a 7 hour train, followed by a one hour ferry journey to see a similar scenery, when actually, the scenery is just a 1 hour car journey away. And of course, having the Arran mountains as a backdrop makes it particularly special.

Sandy beach, mudflats, tideways to splash in, and lots of memories of Foehr and marvelling how we have grown. Dad burried in sand, crabs and shrimps caught and released, water channels built and the tiniest sand castles too.

This summer may be one in a generation, but man, how good can Scotland be if the sun is out.

Who's the German?

There are some things that still surprise me when going between my country of living and that of origin.

• At supermarkets, you need to weigh the produce yourself. I'm so used to the untrusting way of the Tesco that I keep forgetting.
• At the breakfast table, in a restaurant etc, there is often no option of tap water. In fact nobody drinks it. At all. It's the land of Sprudel (carbonated water), which comes in glass bottles. We don't like carbonated water, in fact, my tonsillitis throat doesn't like any type of carbonated drink, so just as well we brought our refillable bottles. The restaurant owner wasn't happy, because it's really really rude not to order bottled water (carbonated) with your meal.
• People take condensed milk in their coffee. The oddity of this is striking. I don't think I know another country that does this, although borderland Belgium also offers condensed milk and no normal milk. On the plus, the coffee itself is good. And there's my favourite incarnation of coffee, the Latte Macchiato, which is painfully missed in the UK.
• As a consequence of the above, many places do not have plain milk available, the drink of choice for the kids, and the stuff I, unlike most of my compatriots, put in my tea.
• When you ask for tea, you are presented with a choice of about 50 teas, only one of which is what is commonly referred to as "tea" in the UK. Even my description of "black tea" (which used to work) rendered a Blackberry flavoured black tea.
• Right before left. I totally get why my beloved doesn't get it. It is rather hard to get, really, The UK traffic system is much more intuitive, and I have to actively remind myself so as not to cause an accident.
• People are so in you face direct. I mean, I've known this for a while, and I know that I've been described likewise. But but but, I'd never dare to moan to a stranger or complain in the right on fashion that I overhear on a constant basis and that makes me blush just for hearing it. On the good side, I found it rather sweet that the hotel staff shared her rather horrid day with me with absolutely no intention of implying that I was part of making it a hard day.
• Homeopathic medicine. I'm not a great fan of "alternative" medicine because in my mind it either is medicine (i.e. has a proven clinical effect) or it isn't. I'm happy to take plant based products of course, but that stuff they gave me for my throat is most clearly absolutely not doing anything and the price tag for this placebo was rather high. It would also be nice to tell me it was homeopathic before I bought it so that I could make an informed choice and say no thanks.
• Paracetamol however is the devil incarnate here and will kill you for sure, and I've already overdosed and just waiting for my liver to pack it in. But of course, I'm not allowed any other painkillers because, shock horror, I'm breastfeeding (for a total of 10 minutes a day only, surely I can have something to help me through the day???? Something that's a real medicine???? Please????)
• German school satchels (that term doesn't actually cut it, they are called "Ranzen" and are square boxes on a child's back, usually obscuring most of the body mass of a first year child) are even bigger now than they were in my day. My notion that it would be nice to totally label my child the odd German one out for the sake of satisfying my sentimentality came to a sudden halt at the price tag of, wait till you hear, Euro 150. For a school bag. Yes, it's well made, branded and lasts for the full 4 years of German primary school, but come on, that's still 30 quid a year?! And of course British kids don't have to carry all their school books and exercise jotters around with them so there's no bloody point anyway to Cubling having one of them. "But I want to look like a German school girl so that everyone sees I'm German!" She protests, and I'm not sure if I should be happy or deeply concerned by this sudden portrayal of German patriotism, kindled by what I'm sure is usually better known as consumerism.

Clearly, I've become a stranger here.

Review: Printerpix Photo Books

With all the photos we take of our adventures as a family, I'm always keen to try out new providers of photo products which bring the images on the external hard drive to life. A new kid on the block (to me) is printerpix, who gave me some photo product credits to play around with and test their products.

I went for a photo book, as it was my dad's birthday and as he's not close by and can't follow the children's adventures, it seemed a suitable undertaking.
So let's start with the finished product: It IS rather beautiful. I chose a scrap book style because I'd always meant to make a scrap book but never got around to it and the design appealed to me instantly (of course there are countless other designs to choose from, many with a particular theme in mind, really offering a wide choice). There are borders and frames around the photos which make the finished page look very special and catch one's eye, and of course it's that kind of thing that you simply can't do if you do it yourself. The colours are vibrant, the images all sharp and even the one image that came up with a warning of low quality looked very nice. At £43 for a hardback book, it's definitely competitively priced. And Opa liked it, which is not an easy achievement.

However, I had a hard time getting there. I do take my time over these things, wanting to do them just right. I also never just let the programme do its thing and just create something out of my uploaded photos. I do like to create themes, and to change layout to suit the theme/photo.

Now, all of the things I wanted to change/customise are doable, which is great. The software is definitely capable of a lot. However, it was a pain in the backside doing it: First of, in spite of a very useful short tutorial, it took me ages to find the zoom function to actually get a decent view of the page that allowed to make any changes at all. But even the zoomed in view was not detailed enough, so there were many mistakes made because I couldn't make out where I should click. I should say that I work on a notebook and on Firefox, so it is possible that the same issues may not be experienced with a bigger screen and a different browser. So after a while I gave up on adding descriptions because the view of the letters was so tiny that I couldn't check my spelling, and time was running out to get it done in time. Thankfully, it was easy to delete existing text boxes and their contents, if they were obscuring parts of a photo that I'd rather not have obscured. Other customisable elements were also hard to deal with, I struggled to apply a frame to a picture if it wasn't pre-set, and gave up eventually too (I'm sure if I had preservered, it might have worked, it certainly looked that it should be possible somehow).

I liked that you could easily save your project, so my stop and go approach wasn't an issue and no data was ever lost.

When it came to buying the book, it never appeared in my basket, which was rather odd, but was still in my projects. I had to contact customer service who were super quick to resolve the issue, so the customer support is ace (and had I known that they respond in real time almost, I would probably have asked them about the issues I had in the first place).

So overall I think Printerpix has some really high quality products to offer but the software interface could be made more user friendly by adding a zoom option. Of course, you could just let the programme do the magic and create a photo book for you and it'll be fine, but for someone who likes to be in control, it's a bit cumbersome.

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Disclaimer: I received credits for Printerpix photo products in return for a review post.

Down at the Mela

Every year, as part of the Glasgow West End Festival, the Mela transforms Kelvingrove Park into something rather special. We love the Kawa Circus (I'm a bit of a fan of street artists anyway), and our rather aimless wanderings brought us to storytelling, apple juice making, the best vegetable curry I've had in years and bumping into a number of friends we hadn't seen in a while. For once we managed to stay clear of overpriced rides because apple juice making and storytelling totally roped the girls' attention in. We were so busy enjoying these highlights that we kind of only happened across that we didn't even explore all that the Mela had to offer. Definitely an excuse to come back next year.

Today  I loved the way my big girl became so focussed on squashing apples and pressing juice, on listening to wonderful stories and on being enthralled by the Kawa Circus. This child of mine who is ever busy moving and has boundless energy, totally immersed in the process of apple juicing, or in the stories that appear to become real in her imagination, and then amazed by the magic of the circus.

And I felt rather sad having to wave goodbye to friends who are leaving Glasgow. 

Enough Food for Everyone

1 in 8 people go to bed hungry every night.
At the same time, there is enough food for everyone.
Around here, we throw food away while around here too, people go to bed hungry.

It's not right and a better world is possible, if we put our energy towards it.

There are 10 days left before the G8 meet and today will see the London leg of the Enough Food IF campaign events in Hyde Park. I'll be travelling there today accompanying a group of 9 Young Leaders, young people aged 14-18 who've been involved in campaigning on child poverty in the UK with Save the Children.

I'm very excited, I don't get to London very often and it's rare that I take part in big campaign events these days. It's great to be able to be part of this, and see the next generation get behind the issues that my generation still hasn't managed to solve.

I'll be tweeting on route, my Twitter ID is @cartside. We'll be spending about 11 hours on the train to be in London for 4 hours, and it's so going to be worth it.

In the meantime, please have a look at this video and check out the Enough Food IF website. Sign up and be there in spirit if you can't be there in person by uploading your picture for the big screen.

There is enough food for everyone in the world and it's our responsibility to ensure nobody goes hungry, because nobody needs to.

The Getaway

Of course we adore our children, but sometimes, just sometimes, it's also great to have a bit of a break. To do something that's neither work nor child related and not even a home chore.

My favourite getaway has usually something to do with making things, and while one could say that I'm free to do this after the kids are asleep, truth is that it doesn't happen a lot. Too many chores, too tired, not enough light. Above all, too tired (did I mention that already?)

So I had this cunning plan of gifting a crochet class to my wonderful sis-in-law, and cheekily joining in the fun. Ahem, that wasn't actually the plan but that's kind of what happened. A morning crochet class with Kat of Slugs on the Refrigerator (incidentally one of my favourite blogs ever, with never ending beautiful and inspirational pictures of things involving yarn, kids having fun and generally all that makes life worth living, that bring a smile to my face with every post). While the mamas were having fun up the road in Alloa, the four kids were left with my beloved hubby to jump on a trampoline.

Oh the bliss of it all, being treated to not just a fabulous crochet lesson but also tasty AND pretty cupcakes in herstunning studio, filled to the brim with little treasures and so much love to detail that it was actually not an easy task to focus on the crochet hook (some of which were also distractingly different to anything I'd seen before).

Time flew and when the time drew to a close I was sure we'd only just sat down and no way that 3 hours could have passed just like that, time clearly flies when you're enjoying yourself. Thankfully the weather was stunning so it was great to leave into the sunshine and an afternoon of being spoiled with lunch waiting for us, more cakes and Italian souvenirs by t'inlaws (who'd arrived in the meantime). We even worked hard on our crochet "homework", while the kids were having a blast with the hose...

Summer in Scotland. When it comes, nothing can beat it.

PS Kat has a few more crochet classes scheduled (including one in July in Glasgow's Stitchery), check out her blog for details and to sign up.