Campaigning Politicians No 2 - Eoghan Murphy

I try to walk to and from work most days. This means that I'm becoming very familiar with all the the politicians standing for election in my locality. As I walk along, it's "Howya Edie" or "Hey there Proinsias".

There are also a lot of young politicians starting their careers in these elections. Let me introduce you to Eoghan Murphy, a cadidate for Fianna Gael. He has a fine head on him. Seriously, he beams down from the posters, young and confident with a fine head of hair.


Don't most politicians realise the power of hair? Young Eoghan has clearly copped onto that and is certain to go a long way.

On a more serious note, I don't know the man nor his politics. But it is good to see younger people involved and I wish him the best.

The Blue Notebook - James Levine

The Blue Notebook centres around Batuk, a 15 year old prostitute in Mumbai. Given up by her impoverished familty, her virginity is sold to the highest bidder and she is then turned over to work out of a small cell on Common Street. Having been hospitalised as a child in a missionary hospital, Batuk knows how to read and write. She begins to write her thoughts and observations in a blue exercise book with a pencil stub obtained from one of her patrons.

Batuk's imagination and acceptance of her world is simply remarkable. Every horrible graphic detail is recorded without emotion. Instead it is her memories of her father, family and childhood that elicit emotion from Batuk and protect her from the degrading and horrible world in which she lives.

James Levine is a respected doctor at the prestigious Mayo Clinic, but he draws from his personal research to write this harrowing and disturbing book. How does a middle-aged american male put himself into the mind of a poor, teenaged Indian prostitute? According to the promotional material accompanying the book

"interviewing homeless kids on a famous street of prostitution in Mumbai known as the Street of Cages. A young woman writing in a notebook outside of her cage caught his attention, and he interviewed her at length. The powerful image of a young prostitute engaged in the act of writing haunted him"

I think that the character of Batuk is designed to be somewhat emotionless - it is the actions and atrocities that she suffers that will stick in your mind long after you read the book. The awful acts that humans are capable of inflicting upon someone they consider beneath them are nothing new, but still shock. The author is donating all proceeds from the U.S. sales of this book to International and National Centres for Missing and Exploited Children - highly appropriate.


On an aside note, I highly liked the shade of blue used in the cover artwork - but was disappointed to see the book listed with a yellow cover on Amazon.co.uk.

The Horse Dancer - Jojo Moyes

Firstly, a big thanks to Waterstones for sending me this ARC of The Horse Dancer by Jojo Moyes. The photo of the rearing horse and barefoot rider on the cover gave me some thought for pause as I wondered if I had received a young adult novel.

Natasha is a successful London solicitor advocate in the process of getting divorced from her husband Mac. A series of miscarriages have driven a wedge between them and recent cases at work have left her distrusting her judgement.

Sarah is a young teenager living in a London council estate with her elderly grandfather, Henri Lachapelle. In an effort to protect his granddaughter from the crime that surrounds then, Henri has taught his granddaughter all he knows about Le Cadre Noir, an exclusive French riding school, dedicated to the finest horsemanship. Not only that, but he bought a horse for Sarah. Not any old pony, but a fantastic Selle Francaise called Boo.

The paths of these two speparate women entwine when Henri suffers a dehabilitating stroke, leaving Sarah to fend for herself. It's a bit of a cliched tale, but the lonely women and the hurt and angry teenager help each other to feel more human again.

This book surpassed my expectations. Moyes has a deft touch for human relationships. It is a romantic story and has the expected happy ending, but somehow it is also more. It is an interesting look at the disintegration of a marriage under the pressure of repeated miscarriages and the failure of the system to care for lonely teenagers. Highly recommended reading.

Star Trek

Wow! What a fantastic reinvention! The new reworked version of Star Trek pays respect to the classic version, but pushes it into the future at warp speed. Gone are the musings of long-term Starfleet bastions such as Piccard, Sisko and Janeway. In their place is a young, eager and dynamic crew.

I was a little apprehensive that J.J. Abrams had been named director for this latest film in the Star Trek franchise. There's no doubting that he has vision and a creative bent (Alias, Lost, Cloverfield), but there is something undefinable missing in a lot of his work - some sense of conclusion perhaps. But Abrams is not the writer for this film - that burden falls to Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci, both of Transformers fame.

Dedicated Trekkies (myself included) will love this rockfest, high-octane version and it should bring a whole new generation of young fans to the Star Trek series.

Campaigning Politicians No 1

This leaflet appeared in my postbox today. It's from Cllr. Edie Wynne who currently represents Pembroke/Rathmines on Dublin City Council. It's bad enough to be continuously trekking from my postbox to my green bin to dump unwanted junk mail, but junk mail from a politician promoting recycling takes the biscuit. We've already received leaflets from Dublin City Council and from Greyhound Recycling about waste management. Why waste more paper doing this?

Sweet Basil Thai - Rathmines

I've been a bit of a economic doom-monger for the last 3+ years. I was flabbergasted for years at the prices us Irish paid for property (and take-away coffee). Us Irish are suckers for trends and the Celtic Tiger gave us the money to follow any trend we wanted. Still though, there's no satisfaction in seeing the recession bite. However, one thing hasn't changed and that's our liking for a good trend. That and the fact that most Irish people wouldn't recognise good cooking if it bit them on the b*llocks. We tend to like what we're told to like.

The new trend is frugality and value-hunting. Blogs, websites, papers and magazines are suddenly all full of articles about the best bargains and deals. So much fuss has been made about restaurants offering value menus. This is all good, but we're getting so carried away in our enthusiasm that we're ignoring restaurants that were always good value.

One case in point for a restaurant that's always been good value is the Sweet Basil Thai Restaurant in Rathmines. All evening, every evening, you can have a starter and main course for E12.50. (Seafood for E15.00 and fish for E19.00). The restaurant is sparsely decorated and can feel a little cold, but at these prices, I won't complain too loudly.

I ordered prawn tempura and duck red curry while he went for the soup and beef in chilli oil. My 3 prawns were plump and juicy. They may have been frozen (I'm not sure) but the crispy batter was light and served with a delicious fish-sauce dip. A good thai soup has the chicken just cooked in the soup before serving and that was the case here. Excellent.

Mains were just as good. My curry was flavoursome and creamy with plenty of veg and duck. It wasn't very spicy in its own right but there were plenty of chili slices present to add some bite. The beef chili sauce stir-fry was perfectly balanced.

My favourite Thai restaurant (at the moment) in Dublin is the Siam Thai in Dundrum. I think the food is good and the dining room is beautiful. But it is pricey - even the lunchtime menu is E25 per person. For the same money we can both eat in Sweet Basil Thai with next to no loss in taste and flavour.

Total cost for our two starters, two mains, one white wine and one beer (Chang) came to E33.50. If you can get over the decor, you will be immensely pleased with the delicious food and great value offered by the Sweet Basil Thai.

Sweet Basil Thai, Lower Rathmines Road, Rathmines, Dublin 6. 01 - 497 0000

New Toy for Hamsters

I'm amazed at the energy that my new little Roborovski hamsters display. They're like little elastic balls bouncing around the cage. Their level of activity means that I'm going to have to buy a new cage but in the meantime I decided to get them some new toys.

I went into my local petshop on Camden Street today and bought the Super Pet Puzzle Playgrounds Junglegym - talk about a mouthful. Assembling the damn thing proved a wee bit frustrating - to be honest it nearly went out the window a few times. It looks simple - a snap together assembly, but in reality, if you apply too much pressure, it just falls apart and you have to start again.

But it's been worth it. The hamsters are now buzzing around the assembley and they've already moved past the stage of trying to eat it. I tried to take some photos, but the little fellas just move too fast. Here's the best that I've gotten so far.