Barrel wine and the war on moisturiser June 21, 2008
Posted by CamdenKiwi in : Miscellany , add a commentI remember now why I gave up flying. When the automaton at the airport took my conditioner because it was 150ml, not 100ml, I’m sure the free world was saved from an atrocity. It’s the first time I’ve had to do the shoe thing, which just shows how long its been. Of course, its deeply uncool now to winge about these nasty little nuisances. The terrorists won long ago, aided and abetted by NuLabor.
Greece, the sea and some sunshine are worth putting up with bureaucratic silliness, and I spent the afternoon wandering around the waterfront of Thessaloniki. Looking for dinner at about 8.30, I turned a corner and found the local Goths, though they seem to be the only life around the place. The bars and restaurants of Ladhadikha, the district behind the port, have emptied for the summer and sensible Thessalonikans have headed for the beach.
Still, I managed to find a pleasant wee taverna called Negroponte, with a drinkable barrel wine and basic menu, recommended by the Rough Guide but with local and tourist clientele. No menu, so I thought I was in for one of those kitchen adventures you occasionally get in places which don’t have a lot of tourists, where they take you out the back and show you boiling pots of stuff which smell fantastic, taste wonderful and could be stewed cat for all I know. But the waiter explained the dishes perfectly, and I found myself with a very good salad and rather boring meatballs. Eating in this part of the world is less about cuisine, and much more about being outside, taking it slowly and watching the world go by, and the bill only came to €14.
Tomorrow, museums and ruins, and trying to work out which beach to go to for the second half of the week.
Somers Town needs Council Housing, not Scaremongering April 27, 2008
Posted by cathrynsymons in : Camden, Politics , 1 comment so farPosters have gone up around Somers Town suggesting that the new British Library International Science Site (BLISS) medical research centre planned for the land behind the British Library would be an inner-city version of Porton Down, and an article in the Guardian Education supplement last week sent me off to the local Community Centre on Saturday morning, where staff from the medical institutions involved were available to talk to local people about their plans.
I firmly believe that the BLISS should not be built on that site, because this area desperately needs more affordable housing, and the government should stand up to its promise to build council homes. There’s a strong local campaign underway trying to make that happen. However, it hadn’t occurred to me that the likes of the Medical Research Council or Cancer Research UK would be dangerous neighbours. After all, they’re both already in the area anyway, and there are a lot of other medical research facilities around here. It’s a major local industry.
Talking for nearly an hour with Sir Leszek Boryziewicz, the CEO of the MRC, completely upheld that opinion. He is a tall, quietly spoken gentleman. He introduced himself, I thought, as ‘Les’, saying the s oddly so it must have been ‘Leszek’. He clearly, but without being patronising, explained the type of research they are likely to do, the sorts of security that would be in place and the risks involved.
A scientist rather than a PR person, he qualifies his statements unless he is absolutely 100% sure of something. I find that reassuring, though it may seem uncertain. So, because the committee working out what science would be done in the new centre has yet to report, he won’t guarantee that this will not be a category 4 lab as discussed in the Guardian article, though he thinks it unlikely. Diseases like Ebola and Lassi Fever are not even dealt with in civilian facilities in the UK - if there was any work with them, it would be in a military facility like Porton Down. There is no reason for Somers Town to be patrolled by armed police, as suggested in the posters which have appeared.
It is unlikely that the level of hazard here will be any higher than it is in many labs and hospitals around Bloomsbury and Holburn. The MRC does research on HIV, malaria, tuberculosis and flu, and it is likely that would continue in the new lab. Given that Somers Town has a very high incidence of tuberculosis that is perhaps something we should support.
Sir Leszek is a man who was knighted for inventing a vaccine against cervical cancer, and likes Ben Goldacre. If it turns out that we can’t make council housing happen, then I’ll be very pleased indeed to welcome him to the area.
