Tuesday 6 November 2007

Coals to Newcastle

This is Mount Saint Helens, taken from the 'plane when Kevin went to Oregon last week.

There must be some kind of jetlag associated with the clocks going forward or back. It certainly feels like it. And strange to be walking home in the dark this evening.

A new study shows that breastfeeding can increase IQ by up to 7 points. That, my friend, is seriously significant. Also annoying, because I now realise that I could be missing out on seven whole points of intelligence quotient. Maybe maths wouldn't have been such a nuisance for me. Darn it.

I know I bang on about how much of the US as portrayed on film and TV is actually the greater Vancouver area, but today I discovered something quite bizarre.
There is a Canadian series that I have mentioned before, 'Blood Ties', that is supposedly set in Toronto, to prove this we keep seeing the CN tower, but is shot in Vancouver. There is apparently a set in Maple Ridge where much of it is filmed.

Seeing Kris, recently bereaved of her father, now coming to grips with all the bureaucracy and paperwork surrounding death, reiterates to me how lucky my sister and I were that Austen took on so much of that. It is an absolute nightmare, well it can be, and in our case, there was no squabbling over who should have what at all. Throw that in and the recipe is too potent to handle.

I was astonished to learn from today's Guardian, that Britain, the culinary laughing stock of everywhere except Eastern Europe, is actually doing big business exporting food and drink.
No surprise that Britain is exporting curry to India, nor that she is selling ale to Ireland, but I had to do a double-take over the significant rise in chocolate being sold to Belgium.
I wonder if the Swedes are buying British swedes.

I still, however, think that Canada is the real unsung heroine of world cuisine.

4 comments:

Sleepy said...

I have to admit to believing that the breast feeding propaganda is bollocks.
Other research has shown that 'breast feeders' are more likely to be middle class and that those parents have different attitudes towards learning and education.

I wasn't breast fed either but IQ tests would suggest I'm not a slouch in the smarts department. But then again I think those tests just 'test' how you take a test!
Also, the lack of breast feedage does give me an appreciation of a good pair of boobies!

Mmmmm... Boobies!

Schneewittchen said...

Hmm..interesting, I always thought it was your sexual preference that kept you interested in boobage....

Leigh Russell said...

Yes Sleepy, there are bound to be other factors. Who funded the research? Call me cynical, but I do think there's always an agenda.

So who wants to be good at maths? If you're not, you have more time to spend on interesting pursuits, so count your blessings, scheewittchen - (or maybe not). (No offence to mathematicians, I'm just useless at maths so consider it boring... Or is it the other way round?)

The one that stumped me in your post was the culinary expertise in England... are we talking about fish and chips, or ... er .... baked beans? greasy fried egg? It doesn't sound like the England I know and love!

Schneewittchen said...

King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry did the research.

Well, I've never had any beef ;)with British food, I do love my fish and chips AND mushy peas and I think of Indian food as British anyway. But I think it's fair to say the rest of the world is a bit sneery about our grub.