Thinking allowed and crocuses

Now that I am back on my bike and hoping to get fit again, now that I have more time for longer cycles, I like to listen to podcasts when out on my bike on my own. Yesterday, I listened to an episode of the excellent Thinking Allowed which is hosted by the entertaining and thoughtful Laurie Taylor, a very well-known sociologist. The programme covers a wide variety of topics, often focused on sociological topics and reporting on research e.g. this week’s one featured research conducted on ‘outlaws’ which can be defined in different ways. The main topic I listened to was about ‘What are universities for’ and it was interesting that the professor interviewed, who has written a book about this, argued that universities were not necessarily to be seen as increasing students’ knowledge, but to be seen as increasing their understanding. So, whereas knowledge might seem to be finite in some cases, understanding was a much wider concept. These podcasts are not just available in the UK as I downloaded many for my wife in Australia, who listened to them when out running.

There are a variety of crocuses out in my garden now and I was in Edinburgh at the weekend and Princes St gardens have a vast array out at the moment, I took a close up of some as seen in the picture below. When they bloom, crocuses have a short, if colourful life and it does your heart good to see them in flower as you know that Spring is well on its way. They are delicate creatures however, and the winds of the last few days have already toppled many in my garden.

Galanthophiles and cooking chicken

I love coming across new words which look like one thing and sound like another. Take Galanthophile for example. It’s obviously someone who loves something – the phile shows that. But is it someone who loves galant people or who loves being galant? Not so. A Galanthophile (noted in The Guardian) the other day, is a lover of snowdrops and apparently, people were offering nearly 400 GB pounds for a rare species on EBay recently. I would consider myself an admirer of snowdrops, so maybe not a galanthophile exactly. Below is a picture from last year of a garden full of snowdrops outside a farmhouse about 6K from where I live in Dunbar.

Snowdrops at Pitcox farmhouse

My younger son Stuart is a very good cook and adapts recipes he finds (e.g. from Jamie Oliver), so I copied one of the recipes the other night. I think that it may be called tray baked chicken. It’s very simple to do and looks very good when served. You take 2/4 chicken breasts, score them and rub in oregano and paprika. You then brown the chicken breasts in some olive oil and butter in a pan, and place them in a square ceramic roasting dish. You then glaze the pan with rosemary and red wine, and pur this over the chicken. To the roasting dish, you add a quartered lemon and 4 cherry tomatoes on the vine (not loose), and cook in the oven at 180 degrees for 20 minutes. When you serve the chicken breasts, place the tomatoes on top for a professional look. My own addition to this was to serve the chicken on a bed of creamed leeks (chopped leaks softened with margarine/butter, with a tablespoon of creme fraiche added), and some Charlotte  potatoes. The photo below shows what mine looked like, although Stuart’s looked better. Both tasted very nice.

Chicken with cherry tomatoes

Retirement and Dubai

Well, this retirement lark is OK so far. I have to admit that flying out to Dubai with my wife, to see our son, daughter in law and (get ready for the aaaah) 2 month old twin granddaughters (Abigail and Lola), on my first day as a man of leisure and pleasure (not necessarily in that order) was a very pleasant start. One of my colleagues reckons that within 3 months, I’ll be wanting to do another research project and will be knocking on the door of my local secondary school, Dunbar Grammar School. I went to this school a few decades ago, when it first opened in a new building, and I’ve done some projects there before. At present, I have no plans to do more research in schools but ….

Dubai is a fascinating place and a place of contrasts, where the affluent and the poor are side by side. If you are one of the affluent, there is a lot of luxury about, in terms of consumer products – if you are into shopping, unlike me – and a range of excellent restaurants, if you like great food, like me. The architecture in Dubai is often debated but I think that there are some very impressively designed buildings. The picture below shows the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, taken from the Al Safa park. I think that its anattractive building and you can see how high it is, when you contrast the other buildings, which are skyscrapers in their own right. See what you think.