The was a culinary disaster that will rank alongside the other two great culinary disasters of my life. Neither was my fault.
1) Robin Rowley exploding a rotten egg in the kitchen of the flat in Manchester.
2) Dill exploding a tin of condensed milk in the kitchen in Liverpool.
The coffee incident, serious as it was, comes in a poor third, as only myself and the floors and walls were splattered with coffee. I have not noticed any on the ceiling... yet.
In defence of the Aeropress method I should say that despite this mornings shocking incident I still don't hesitate to endorse this product, as they say.
It makes a damn fine cup of coffee.
I have started to read Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities, a book I frequently referred to while I was at SOAS but never got around to reading from start to finish. Put very simply, its main thesis is the similarity of nationalism and religious belief. Previously nationalism had been considered as a political idea and Imagined Communities became essential reading for international history, and development studies students. After the Cambridge histories the more relaxed style with plenty of footnotes comes as a welcome relief, and I no longer wish for an electronic version to check all the references.
During the Olympics © is a good time to be thinking about nationalism, because I can think of fewer more explicit celebrations of nationalism than the Olympic Games ©. I can't help thinking that the combination of commercialism and nationalism is rather distasteful and detracts from the real achievements of of the athletes. Has there been any coverage of the smaller, poorer countries who have fielded medal winning teams? The fact that only wealthy countries can host the games doesn't seem in the spirit of the Games either. It would be so much better if everyone chipped in so any country could benefit from hosting the Games: like Cambodia or Gabon. Or Andorra, if everyone could fit in.
There is also the perennial dispute about the chosen sports, and I have to admit that these do seem to favour the western nations.
Where are kabaddi, tejo, sepak or buzkashi? All great spectator sports.Look at the video above and tell me truthfully where you would rather be.
I would like to add a few suggestions of my own that would make the
Olympics © fairer for everyone and more interesting to watch.
The 100 metres Burqa Race. This would give the women's teams from Islamic nations a better chance.
The Blowpipe. Allowing archery but not blowpipes discriminates against Dyaks and other blow pipe users.
Spitting. Everyone spits and no specialised equipment is needed. One of the few truly democratic sports.
That is just a selection of three.
I would be interested to hear your own selections of new Olympic © sports.
I didn't mention that after my expedition with Kit we went to a good ol' country jam session at a nearby lancaster pub. Kit took an accordion, but country is not his usual style. Naturally, this led to a discussion about Cajun and Zydeco music and eventually to The Mayor of Bayou Pon Pon.
For those of you who have never heard the story of the eagle and the crawfish, I'll leave you with this, and then get back to learning basic Khmer phrases.