Will Ferrell can do no wrong (almost)

Sure, Land of the Lost was absolutely terrible, but when he starred and wrote the production above I think he deserves one free pass.

Today is a great day

I found out my bike thief’s sentence: three months custodial, suspended for twelve months. How do you like them apples? And, I didn’t even have to go to court as a witness because he pled guilty just before the trial. Booyaa!


In other not so empowering news, people more loquacious than I have investigated the latest UK budget and found that the OBR forecasts of growth are predicated on an increase in household debt. From False Economy:

Household debt is set to rise from £1,560bn in 2010 (160% of household income) to £2,126bn in 2015 (175% of income) – an increase of 36.3%. By 2015 UK households will have amassed over two trillion pounds worth of debt.

The household debt-to-income ratio (the best measure of how manageable the debt burden is) fell from 2007 until 2010. It is now forecast to start rising again. Osborne described pre-crisis household debt-to-income ratios as unsustainable – and yet the ratio is forecast to hit a new all-time high in 2015.

To put this another way, compare and contrast:
a) In February 2010 George Osborne described pre crisis household debt levels as unsustainable; and
b) In March 2011 George Osborne delivered a budget with growth forecasts built on household debt increasing to unsustainable levels.

Do the Tories think no-one will notice, or that no-one gives a shit? Either they consider the UK electorate simpletons or lazy, either of which could have led to them gaining power in the first place, so I guess they have a point.

2012 Olympics - what to buy?

For those in London or likely to be in London in 2012, I have had a look through the timetable for the Olympics and as usual there is more that I want to go to than I have the financial resources to fund. Points to bear in mind:
1) All prices listed below are for the second most expensive price band available, unless specifically mentioned otherwise
2) All prices mentioned are per ticket

I am potentially interested in going into the ballot for the following events:

Basketball: £65 for daytime mens’ preliminary sessions (lasting four hours), £75 for evening mens’ preliminary sessions. The preliminary session covers two games, so you have four chances of seeing a top team. Womens’ are £50 for daytime preliminary sessions.
Not that WNBA players aren’t a) freakishly talented, and b) hot, but I reckon the gender differential is worth £15.
Quarterfinals jump to £85 for two mens’ games, so I reckon daytime mens’ preliminaries are the way forward. But quarterfinals does mean you will see four of the top eight teams (ie no minnows), so this is a really close choice.

Gymnastics: £95 for qualifying rounds (two hours), or the third most expensive tickets for qualifying rounds are £65. One gender per session.
Finals are £295, or £185 for third most expensive tickets.
Is anyone interested in chaperoning Marie to a mens’ qualifying round?

Maybe some of either:
a) Handball: £40 for preliminary sessions (three hours). Covers two games. £50 to see one quarterfinal, or
b) Volleyball: £55 for preliminary sessions (three hours). Covers two games. £65 to see two quarterfinals.

Weightlifting: £45 for preliminary sessions (four hours). Covers one lighter mens’ and one lighter womens’ weight class.
Or, if you just want to see one monster class (ie men weighing >105 kg) that is £45 for a two hour preliminary session.
£95 for one weight class final.

Opening and closing ceremonies: the lowest priced tickets for both are £20.12 – the next cheapest tickets are £150, and the most expensive ticket is £2,012 and £1,500 for the opening and closing ceremonies respectively.
The £20 tickets will get way over subscribed, but I think it is worth entering the ballot. There is a limit of four tickets per ceremony per application.



Ruled out on cost, at this point in time

Athletics: £95 for qualifying session (around three hours), £295 for cheaper medal sessions. Medal session for 100m mens’ final is £420 for second most expensive tickets, £725 for top tickets.

Beach volleyball: £65 for preliminaries lasting four hours – two mens’ + two womens’ matches. Yes I am a lech, but the view will be better on my TV.

Boxing: £75 for early sessions – 2.5 hours, however many fights that covers. Just a touch too expensive to be considered.

Track Cycling: £95 for qualifying sessions (only 90 minutes!), and £225 for medal sessions.
Diving: £95 for qualifying (only an hour!), £125 and up for medal sessions.
If the qualifying rounds for either of these were just a bit longer I might be interested, but a price north of a quid a minute is a bit steep.

Swimming: £95 for qualifying sessions (three hours), £295 for medal sessions.

One thing to be aware of here is that if you apply for four tickets to each of two events and are successful in the ballot, you have to purchase all eight tickets you applied for. You can sell the tickets back to the organisers a few months down the track, but an application for tickets is treated as a binding contract.

Irish terminal decline, two different ways

First, a Vanity Fair piece by the brilliant Michael Lewis, plotting the nose diving Irish economy after the popping of their housing bubble. Heavy on the leprechaun references, but worth a read.
It contains the following brilliant description of the the Irish finance minister:

"[The finance minister] proceeds to make the collapse of the Irish economy as uninteresting as possible. This awkward social responsibility—normalizing a freak show—is now a meaningful part of the job of being Ireland’s finance minister. At just the moment the crazy uncle leapt from the cellar, the drunken aunt lurched through the front door and, in front of the entire family and many important guests, they carved each other to bits with hunting knives. Daddy must now reassure eyewitnesses that they didn’t see what they think they saw."

Second, the New York Times has a description of the crisis of faith facing the Catholic church in Ireland. The article does a good job describing the historical strength of the Catholic Church in Ireland, and the depravity of the sex abuse scandals rocking the Irish Church.

"In proportion to its population, Ireland easily ranks as the country with the most reported cases of sex abuse within the church. It is second only to the United States in the total number of cases, despite a population approximately one-hundredth that of the U.S. The two reports published in 2009... fill five volumes and run more than 2,500 pages."

The New York Times link is quite graphic (words only!)- don't click unless you have a strong stomach.
I was horrified by Deliver us from Evil a few years back, a documentary worth seeking out about a serial paedophile priest who was at large in California in the 1970s. In some ways the NYT article is worse - sure the corruption and cover up in the US went quite a long way up the food chain, but the Irish corruption goes right to the top of the Catholic Church, including the current Pope whilst in his previous role leading the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
I honestly don't see how an organisation which has participated in such wide deceit of the Irish population can possibly claim any moral authority or indeed legitimacy. At least they are not Scientologists...

Music which always makes me smile

Embedding is disabled, so you have to click on the completely safe for work link below, but please do:
Dice by Finley Quaye always makes me smile. I don't know why, it just does. Bonus points if you can identify the awesome backing singer without reference to the interweb - I could.
That's right, I may wreak ungodly havoc on Anthony Bourdain recipes (never triple the volume of wine in a beef bourguignon just because you want to recycle the bottle), but at least I can identify backing singers on chill out compilations. Mmm beef bourguignon. Did I mention I have a casserole dish? Nom nom nom.

That is all for today. I have many things of import floating around my head, but none of them are developed enough to share right now.

Rabbit with chocolate and tomato - 6/10

When we were back in NZ Dad served up his homegrown rabbit for dinner, and it was delicious.

I haven't cooked rabbit before, and as we returned to the UK with our trusty casserole I thought this would be worth a crack. I found a recipe for chocolate and tomato rabbit - apparently the original recipe was an Incan delicacy, with chihuahuas bred especially for eating. Probably tastier than the dog I had in Vietnam, but back to the rabbit recipe:

Brown rabbit and an onion
Cook for half an hour with a tin of tomatoes, a glass of white wine, some stock, and a stale bread roll broken into chunks. It was in the recipe, honest...
Add some garlic, 25g bitter chocolate, some almonds, a bit of parsley, and cook for another couple of hours.

Overall mark for the recipe: 6/10. Good, but no wow factor and it could be better. I couldn't really taste the chocolate, and also, after 3 hours (I cooked it a bit longer, and the rabbit was still very firm) the ingredients which weren't rabbit kind of lost their definition.
I think next time I will cook the rabbit for an hour and a half with just the liquids, remove meat from the bones, and cook the removed meat with the other ingredients for an hour. Wild rabbit really does need a long time at a low heat - at least the one I bought did - but it is quite tasty if you go to that effort. And relatively inexpensive - one rabbit was 4.50, and it easily yielded enough meat for three servings.
Maybe next time I will try rabbit pie. Mmm pie, everything is better in a pie.