How you can eat an organic meal every day for less than 40p.

Given the references in the press and academic studies that heightened levels of pesticides have been linked to raised chances of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, it seems pertinent to describe how you can have at least one organic meal day, just as I do.

It is quite simple, all that is required is to buy some organic breakfast cereal and some milk – et voila! Currently I mainly eat porridge oats. Being a slow release food it is inclined to keep me filled up; and I understand that it can help reduce fat from other parts of the diet. I recommend this start to the day to anyone.

Cost wise, its pretty effective too. I think you can get about one week's worth of food out of a standard large packet of porridge 750g and four pints of milk. Organic milk will cost somewhere between £1-£1.50 for four pints (more than you need probably but we'll be generous) £1.50/7= 21. Oats vary in price, but £1.08 is a figure I have seen quite often at the supermarket I work at. £1.08/7= 15.4, the two together makes 36.4p! Pretty good value I think!

Somtimes, when I don't feel like porridge, I move over to organic bran flakes. Fortunately, both of these meal options are available on the café’s menu.

Room upgrade

You may be pleased to see that one of the rooms in the café has recently received an upgrade. Here is a photograph of my old room, which during the last week of my habitation was looking especially messy.

Now, here is a photograph of my new room. Yes, for the course of the summer at least, yours truly will be living in the nice and new white rooms.

As you can see, it is considerably more spacious than the previous room and the décor has a more contemporary feel to it as well. All in all a real improvement to my living arrangements.

And the personality of the week is…

A little unusually, this week’s personality of the week was by request from a regular reader. I am pleased to say that after due consideration the suggestion was carried forward.

Therefore, I would like to announce Mary Magdalene as Personality of the Week – a cup of free coffee awaits you at the bar.

This aristocratic lady was born some time around 0 AD and is famous today for her role various biblical episodes and the possible mothering of a son of Christ. During the middle ages she was generally considered to be a prostitute who repented of her evil ways and followed the Christian message. A sermon given by Gregory the Great in 591 was influential in forming this belief, but there is in fact little evidence for this suggestion. Magdalene came from an aristocratic house and is therefore unlikely to have needed the money that prostitution would have brought in. Secondly, although a Mary is described by Luke (7: 36-50), this Mary is not identified as Mary of Magdalene, but rather Mary the sinner. Some scholars have suggested that Mary the sinner was Mary of Bethany but not Mary of Magdalene. Given these two pieces of evidence, it is unlikely that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute.

Mary is most famous for her close support of Christ and the disciples. She was a follower of Christ, though not normally counted among the disciples. Feminist historians are keen to point out that it was Mary Magdalene and other women who first saw the resurrected Christ.

Debate surrounds the idea that Magdalene was married to Christ. Against this view, are the traditional arguments about Christ’s emphasis on celibacy and the example of John the Baptist who was known to be holy and a single man by choice. Against this view, are authors such as Elaine Pagels who suggest that the idea of Christ not being married without record in the bible is too surprising to be believed. She reasonably suggests that rabbis in ancient Israel would have been married and expected to be married by their followers. Had this not occurred, it would have been so unprecedented as to require comment. Pagel’s also suggest that the account of Christ’s first miracle at a wedding party was very probably his own wedding, since only someone in the position of groom would have been able to command servants in the way Christ does. Surviving accounts from the Nag Hammadi library also given some support to the view that Mary was married to Christ. However, it is important to remember that many of the sources that do talk about this relationship were written much later than the gospels – the Gospel of Thomas is somewhat of an exception. When coupled with the Gregory the Great Sermon mistake, it is easy to see how some people believe that Christ really was married.

It is too early to say that the marriage between Christ and Mary has been proven, on the other hand it is hard to dismiss it either. I believe it to be true, but can respect others who think it is not.

None of this debate, however, detracts from Mary Magdalene being personality of the week.

(My thanks to wikipedia for the use of the image)

Flashes of blogging

The pleasures of the summer. Currently I am working at a large number of jobs. Those of you who know me will know that this is not unusual. At the moment I am working at a school, offering private tuition and marking exam papers. Somewhere in amongst all of this, I also have to revise for more exams of my own, with the BPS and see about moving rooms on Friday.
Given this, I hope you can understand why blogging has been less fulsome than I would have wished. Still, I expect, as I am doing now a sneeky few minutes can be spent here and there writing about matters of life.
In the mean time, If anyone would like to nominate a personality for the week, I think this would be quite a fun way to make the slot more varied. So, if you feel the urge post a comment and I will consider the personality, or given a good reason why they were not chosen that week.

Café Lumiere’s new piano and the return of father

On Wednesday two exciting things happened: my father came out of hospital and the new piano arrived in the café’s Sussex branch. My father recently went to hospital with a blood problem which caused him to be very out of breath and feel tired. After a transfusion and a few days of rest he is now close to full strength again. A cause for the problem is not yet known and he is having tests in the next few days to ascertain how we can avoid the same thing happening again. The main thing is that he is back at home and well again.

A new piano also arrived this week. My brother and younger sister, who are very able musicians have been struggling on with our old piano for some time. Whilst it has been in the family for 50 years it is need of a rebuild – which costs more than to buy a working second hand piano. For that reason, we have bought another piano. It is a Berry piano made in about 1930 and rebuilt in about 1960. The case was restored again in 1990 or so. Consequently, it is a very smart addition to the café.

We were lucky, as we were able to get it for just over £500 of which I contributed £440. I think it is money well spent, and the sound is much better than that which we had become accustomed to.

(NB, this is not the actual piano but it bares a close resemblance - a photograph of the genuine article will appear within the week - when I can photograph it).

Did someone say hemp paper?

If you could save the environment and save money, whilst also keeping your standard of living the same, would you do it? If I told you the answer lay in hemp, would you believe me?
Friends will know that I advocate the use of hemp for making paper and a variety of other things. Unlike the wood we currently use, hemp paper would allow the rainforest to be saved and would mean we would give climate a sporting chance of sorting out some of the problems caused over 500 years of pollution. Hemp is also very cost effective. It will grow almost anywhere and takes just 120 days to grow to 8 metres, ready for harvest. Compare this with the 100 years of many trees! That is also before you consider the transportation costs of shipping much of the world’s wood half way across the world. Hemp can also be made into furniture and is considerably more durable than wood. Paper made from hemp is also far more recyclable than paper from trees, as the former can be reprocessed more times before breaking down.
Of course the various paper companies do not want you to know this. Where would the money be? For those who disbelieve this, I will quote a brief section from wikipedia on the subject of hemp and paper production

"In 1916, U.S. Department of Agriculture chief scientists Lyster H. Dewe, and Jason L. Merrill created paper made from hemp pulp, which they concluded was "favorable in comparison with those used with pulp wood."^[3] Jack Herer, in the book "The Emperor Wears No Clothes" summarized the findings of Bulletion No. 404:^[4]

"In 1916, USDA Bulletin No. 404, reported that one acre of cannabis hemp, in annual rotation over a 20-year period, would produce as much pulp for paper as 4.1 acres of trees being cut down over the same 20-year period. This process would use only 1/4 to 1/7 as much polluting sulfur-based acid chemicals to break down the glue-like lignin that binds the fibers of the pulp, or even none at all using soda ash. The problem of dioxin contamination of rivers is avoided in the hemp paper making process, which does not need to use chlorine bleach (as the wood pulp paper making process requires) but instead safely substitutes hydrogen peroxide in the bleaching process. ... If the new (1916) hemp pulp paper process were legal today, it would soon replace about 70% of all wood pulp paper, including computer printout paper, corrugated boxes and paper bags."

The decision of the United States Congress to pass the 1937 Marihuana Tax Act was based in part on testimony derived from articles in newspapers owned by William Randolph Hearst, who had significant financial interests in the timber industry, which manufactured his newsprint. As a result of the Marijhuana Tax Act, the production and use of hemp discontinued.

If anyone could grow and harvest hemp, how would they continue to make the vast fortunes that big paper giants do today? Where would the taxes be for governments?

Things are changing however, I attach a link below to a hemp resource page. Enjoy, and remember smoking hemp does not cause you go get ‘high’. Let us hope that if we all push this agenda, we will see greener sources of paper becoming the standard in the future. As for me, I going to start getting green paper asap!

http://www.birminghamfoe.org.uk/newslet/news0898/story13.htm

my thanks to http://www.illuminati-news.com/graphics/hemp.gif for the use of image.

Personality of the week

To regular readers of the blog, you may have noticed that there has been a high number of white anglo-saxon males and (usually) protestant at that. Though this group has done much that is credible, the cafe wishes to acknowledge the very considerable part played in our world by people outside this group.

This week, then it is with great pleasure we announce….

Morgan Freeman – our congratulations to you a free cup of coffee awaits you at your convenience.

Morgan Freeman was born in 1937 in Memphis Tennessee. Despite humble circumstances early in his life he won a number of drama competitions eventually resulting in him winning a partial scholarship to Jackson state university – which he turned down in order to work as a mechanic in the United states air force.

During the 1960s-1970s, Freeman worked in a number of film related roles without really entering the big time. He worked as script writing assistant and also had a number of minor roles in films.

It was during the 1990s that Freeman came to popular attention. A number of strong supporting roles, which included the respected films ‘shawshank redemption’ and ‘Amistad’ raise his status to that of a house hold name. It is for this reason, Morgan, that we give you this week’s prize!

(my thanks to Wikipedia for the photograph)