The Wolf of Wall Street - Jordan Belfort

Jordan Belfort was living proof of the American dream in the heady days of Wall Street. Nicknamed the "Wolf of Wall Street", he lived in a fabulous mansion, with his beautiful wife and child, flew his helicopter, indulged in copious amounts of drugs, all while running a busy brokerage firm, Stratton Oakmount, which he had founded.

Stratton Oakmount found fame as one of the biggest "boiler room" brokerage firms. Belfort was eventually convicted of selling purpotedly profitable stocks at inflated prices and spent two years in jail. This book attempts to tell the tale of his high life and how it all fell apart around him as his drug addiction spiralled out of control.

There is no doubting what this man, and his company did, was odious. But as you read the book, what really comes across are Belfort's superb skills as a salesman and motivator. This is evident in every description of his motivational sessions at Stratton Oakmount, and even later when he was in rehab. You can only imagine what he was like to listen to in real life.

Also apparent from the book is the scale of Jordan's intelligence. He comes across as quite a clever person, who however, devoted a significant part of his life to circumventing stock trading laws. His descrption of how he bugged the SEC personnel who were investigating his books is quite amusing and novel.

His descriptions of his drug taking make you realise how easy it can be for an intelligent person to persuade themselves that their drug problem is under control not a problem at all.

This book is quite a quick-paced, interesting and amusing read. Granted, the subject matter is unpleasant to some, but it is entertaining and quite an interesting insight into the mind of Jordan Belfort.

Where Am I Wearing? - Kelsey Timmerman

I received an advance copy of this soon to be published book courtesy of Kim at John Wiley & Sons.

Kelsey Timmerman is a travel writer who blogs at Where Am I Wearing? One day he took notice of the labels inside his clothes and a quest began. As the author himself says:

I was made in America. My “Jingle These” Christmas boxers were MADE IN BANGLADESH. I had an all-American childhood in rural Ohio. My all-American blue jeans were MADE IN CAMBODIA. I wore flip-flops every day for a year when I worked as a SCUBA diving instructor in Key West. They were MADE IN CHINA. One day while staring at a pile of clothes on the floor, I noticed the tag of my favorite T-shirt: MADE IN HONDURAS. I read the tag. My mind wandered.

I liked the fact that Timmerman's first trip to Honduras to meet some garment factory workers turns out to be not such a success. He found it difficult to frame questions to workers, consequently feelt embarassed and returned home without having really achieved anything. I found this honesty refreshing and in stark contrast to the bolshy attitude of many crusaders.

However, the question remained in Timmerman's mind, and he decided to try again. He travels to Bangladesh where he gains access to a garment factory under the "guise" of an American website owner on the quest for cheaper merchandising. To our hilarity, the aforementioned Jingle These boxers are examined minutely by the garment factory manufacturers in order to determine their providence. He shares a day with Arifa, a determined and able worker in one of the Bangladeshi factories.

Timmerman continues his on his journey to Cambodia where he befriends a group of young female garment factory workers who make jeans andtakes them bowling and for pizaza, much to their bemusement. He then proceeds to China where he meets a young couple who live far apart from their son and family in order to work at the factory where the author's flip flops were made.

In all instances, Timmerman describes the surrounding economic situation of the country and the context/importance of the garment industry within that country. He reviews the western attitude to sweatshops and child labour. Overall, the reader is left with the conclusion that the author didn't visit anywhere that would disgust us, but rather visited places where life is tough and the only option open to many people is to work long, hard hours. It's not the child labour itself that is awful, but the fact that it is a necessity for many children in the developing world to work.

Despite Timmerman's journey, there is a distinct sensation of dis-involvement (is that a word?) or distance in the book. The author doesn't really make any moral judgements, but rather presents the facts for us to read and review. The pace of the first half of the book is somewhat lacklustre but it does gain some momentum and attraction in the second half as the author himself appears to warm to his quest.

The book is written very much in the style of a blogger, as opposed to a serious journalist, and is a suitable read for someone wishing to learn more about the world of cheap, mass-produced clothing. Timmerman doesn't overwhelm us with statistics and obscure legalities and economics, but presents it as he saw it. The decision is up to you.

Ananda Indian Restaurant - Dundrum

Ananda is the newly opened Indian restaurant in Dundrum Town Centre. It's been open for a few weeks now and I had eagerly anticipated a chance to eat there, which finally arrived last night.

When we arrived at the restaurant, the hostess went to check on our table, leaving us to stand in the corridor outside the restaurant. At this stage I felt a little like an orphan child sneaking a peek in through a window, but not being allowed to eat at the table. Eventually, the host/manager noticed us standing rather desolately outside and he apologised for the lack of seating for waiting guests. We were seated at the table, which was still in the process of being set with silver and glass ware.

However, any upset we may have been feeling disappeared once we got down to the serious business of reading the menu and selecting our dishes and wines. Poppadoms were served to the table along with a choice of 4 sauces, two of which appeared to be mango chutney and none of which possessed any real heat. The toasted spice tomato relish was very nice though.

Our starters consisted of a duck platter with a terrine of confit duck, tikka duck, pickled cucumbers, mango sauce and apple sauce. The terrine could have benefited from being slightly warmer in order to release the flavours a little more, but the duck tikka was delicious, especially with the accompanying mango sauce. Our other starter of free range guinea fowl fillet was served with a deliciously spicy tomato based sauce and potato crisps. It left a wonderful warming heat in the mouth long after it was cleaned from the plate.

Mains were monkfish tails, served with rice and a green curry sauce which was flavoured with curry leaves. The other main of duck chettinad (sliced fried duck breast served on crushed potatoes with a fantastic aniseed/star anise flavour).. A chili cheese and a gluten free roti bread were our accompaniments to the meal.

Throughout the meal, the attention to detail and presentation was top notch. Each sauce focussed on one or two flavours rather than hitting you over the head with strong curry flavours. House wines were excellent value and served to complement the food.

Two espressos served with little chocolate bonbons rounded off our meal which came to approximately €90. The only downside was the slow service, but the hostess did apologise for this, stating that they were short-staffed on the night. Personally I don't want excuses, I want service to continue and not be left waiting for 5 minutes to get a refill in my water glass.

What do I think overall? This is what I would consider the second good modern Indian restaurnt in Dublin (following the excellent Indian Summer in Kilmacud). There is no doubt that Ananda has the greater pedigree of the two with the involvement of Michelin chef Atul Kochhar. But will it be enough in the current climate?

Dublin still awaits the arrival of a good value everyday Indian.

X-Rays from Sticky Tape - Who'd Have Thought?

I just love it when physics intrudes into everday life. I love the idea of flashes of light from collapsing bubbles which have been excited by sound (sonoluminesence), or the idea that some hard sweets spark in the mouth. It's also well known that unwinding sticky tape produces sparks of light that can be seen in the dark by the naked eye (a phenomenon known as triboluminescence).

Well, sticky tape has taken it one step further - it's capable of producing X-rays as it is peeled. Researchers Carlos Camara and Juan Escobar, at the University of California used a motorised peeling machine to unwind a roll of Scotch tape at a rate of 3cm per second. When they placed the equipment in a vacuum, they were able to measure X-Rays of sufficient strength to take an image of a human finger!

This is the kind of experiment that I would have loved to have performed in my lab when a postgrad. The story is detailed in this week's issue of Nature.

I may not be a physicist anymore but I am still in love with the subject. I truly believe physics is the most fundamental and valuable of all sciences - not knocking zoology! Discoveries like this one add some excitement to the world of physics and help bring it to a wider audience. If this discovery gets people thinking about the world that surrounds them - then that's a great thing.

The Secret Lives of Men - Christopher Blazina

I received a copy of The Secret Lives of Men: What Men Want You to Know About Love, Sex and Relationships from the author Christopher Blazina, who took pity on me following my surgery to correct a detached retina, and promised to send me a copy to read while recovering. Unfortunately, the book arrived long after I had returned to work, but I still looked forward to reading it. So a big thank you to the author for following through on his promise.

TBH, self-help and guides to better living are not generally my thing. I do take a certain pride in the fact that I think things through as much as I can, and also discuss things very frankly with my better half. However, you can never know enough and different perspectives can be quite illuminating. So I approached the book with an optimistic and open mind.

To be honest, while the title of the book concerns itself with males, both sexes can learn valuable lessons from this book as the author takes an unbiased approach. He aims to teach the important people in a man's life on how to connect and interact in a meaningful way. The author states the 10 commandments of being male and the pressures and fear that face modern men on a regular basis.

My only complaint is that the book is possibly too long. A shorter snappier book might be easier for people to complete and digest. However, it is an interesting take on how to emotionally connect with an important person in your life.

The Final Reckoning - Sam Bourne

I wanted a nice easy book to read on the Eurostar between London and Brussels, and I hadn't read a thriller in ages. It's pretty clear when you look at any bookstore shelves at the moment that Sam Bourne seems to be the nom de jour. The Final Reckoning is his latest novel and judging by the author's notes and comments at the rear of the book, it is well researched and very much based in fact.

A elderly man is shot dead in front of the UN in New York. A disillusioned ex-UN lawyer is asked to visit the relatives of the deceased and stumbles upon a secret reaching all the way from the Holocaust and some of the darkest times known. Excepting the relationship between the lead male and female characters, the book fairly rattles along and is an easy, gripping read. Other characters come in and out of the novel and are dropped before the climax leaving you with a sense of shadows and unfleshed characters.

The great positive about this novel is that it left me with a desire to find out more about the historical events and people upon which the novel is based. Sam Bourne isn't writing anything incredibly new or original, but for the most part, he is writing it well.

Fabric Shopping London October 2008

This weekend, I used the excuse of cheap flights and the need for a weekend away to get over to London and undertake some fabric shopping.

To get to London, I took the Eurostar from Brussels Midi to St. Pancras Internatioal in London. What a treat - no fuss with security, liquids, gels or the like. Straightforward and simple. What a pity that there isn't such a service between Dublin and Brussels - it would beat the pants of the combined depressing, soul-sucking experience that is Brussels Airport and Aer Lingus


We stayed at the Crowne Plaza hotel on Shoreditch High Street. The region of Hoxton and Shoreditch has become quite cool and trendy of late, with some cool bars and restaurants to be found along Old Street, Shoreditch High Street and Kingsland Road. We had a relaxed time wandering around the locale on the Friday and Saturday night, taking it easy and absorbing the London cool.

On Saturday morning, we headed off on the tube to Goldhawk Road, home to many fabric shops, which sell fantastic selections at fantastic prices. The shopowners can be a little pushy as they try to sell to you, but hold tough and take the time to browse the shops. You will not be disappointed.

My first purchase was an embroidered brown satin material at £2 per metre. I'm not quite sure yet what I'm going to do with this, but at that price, I wasn't leaving it behind.


My next two purchases were in the same shop. First was this textured black cotton fabric, which I can see becoming a smart work dress or suit. If I remember correctly, this was £2.50 per metre.


My other purchase was a patterned satin fabric. Again, this is great material for a dress or skirt. It's nice and lightweight, with a nice drape. The pattern is nice without being too busy and I think it came at £2-3 per metre.


My last purchase was the reason I had gone fabric shopping in the first place - my material for a Christmas party dress. I like the idea of a raw silk, but lots of the bolts that I saw were of the wrong colours, or had vertical threads running through the fabric. In the end I opted for gun-metal grey and steel-blue taffetas priced at £2.75 per metre. Now I just need to find a pattern that I can work with to make in two colours.