I want to be entertained

No big suprises here, but scientists have been arguing the case for and against drinking while pregnant. While most would agree that drinking heavily while pregnant is a very bad idea, drinking less, say a glass or 2 of wine per week has been a hotly contested subject for ages. Some say that there is no evidence either way.

Who writes these articles? I am pretty sure this is very old news and scientists and Health proffesionals have been saying this for a very long time. Its not that hard to lay off the booze just in case is it? After all, surely its better safe than sorry..

No real surprises here, but the BBC reported that giving children under 15 any alcohol at all is a bad idea. Sir Liam Donaldson advised that childhood should be an alcohol free time and that children who drink were at risk of serious harm.. Whatever that is supposed to mean.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not in favour of drunk kids wandering the streets, but I think this kind of statement that is not backed up by any research at all does more harm than good. Take kids in France for example, who often have the odd glass of wine with a meal. Does them no harm at all.

The problem here is and always has been that the blame lies on the parents and no-one else. If your child drinks every day and you don’t do anything about it then you are a bad parent. Same story with smoking, drugs or anything else.

As a followup to my post yesterday, it turns out that the noise restriction plan that was causing such a fuss over the last few days was a hoax. Its pretty funny in a way.. Facebook collected over 65,000 people in a group petitioning agains a hoax plan.

A spokesperson for the Department of Media and Sport told NME.com, that they were unable to speak for the government as a whole, but there is currently “no universal plan to fit noise control devices, or any plans at all to fit them in the way described [by the petition]“.

Looking back, I’m also pretty sure there would be no need to fit devices toanything as councils have the right to decrease sound volumes or even shut down noisy gigs, nightclubs and anyone else who is causing a fuss.

So there has been a bit of a buzz the last few days over a massive noise restriction ban comming to the UK. The news has resulted in a massive online petition being signed on Facebook. The petition has collected over 64,000 results and has kicked up a bit of a fuss with pretty much everyone who enjoys having fun. It is currently in the top 10 of most signed petitions on the Internet.

Apparently there are plans to fit devices to gig equipment to limit the amount of noise generated at gigs, nightclubs and bars. While I can understand the reasons for the devices, I can’t believe that the govournment would go this far. Do we really want the nanny state to take more of a hold over what we do?

I sure as hell don’t

I have never been to Cloud 23, it’s a bit of a shame, because I keep hearing great things about it.  Half way up the Hilton in Manchester, there is a glass floored bar that serves a rather nice selection of cocktails. Entrance is via the main lobby where an elevator takes you up to the 23rd floor.

Just a couple of warnings though: I have heard that the drinks prices are pretty steep (which i guess is understandable) and apparently there is woman with a clipboard that goes around throwing people who don’t make the cut out. It sounds pretty exclusive, but worth a try i guess…

Sipping mojitos while looking out onto Manchester sounds rather nice to me.

I’m a big fan of Pizza Express.. For the uncultured, here are the basics:

Great Pizza: I mean really great pizzas. Mouth watering, thin and crispy authentic (i guess) pizzas in a great range of toppings.

Fantastic Service: I went there with my parents a while back.. My dad had been to another one a couple of times, so he ordered his favorite pizza (with an egg on it) When it came out, the egg was hard boiled, then put on the pizza.. The one he was used to was cracked onto the pizza while it was cooking (mixing with the base and making it much nicer) He mentioned it to the waiter, not complaining, but just telling him about how it was done in this other restaurant.. Ever since then, whenever we have eaten there, they always ask how you would like the egg done. Pretty good huh?

Crayons: They sometimes leave crayons in the center of the family tables, so you can write on the paper table cloths. Brilliant fun for the kids.

All of these are great, but leaves me with a sense of utter bemusement when I look at their name. Pizza Express sounds like a grotty take-away opposite a club that serves nasty frozen pizzas with a thin scraping of cheese served from the owners armpit. They are in such dire need of a rename/re-brand that whenever I mention it to someone I feel compelled to say it’s not as nasty as it sounds. Its not as if it takes a lot of effort to come up with some vaguely Itallian sounding name..

I have lumped these 2 bars together as they are pretty much on top of each other. There in Dukes Court in Macclesfield, that little funny posh bit just off Mill street near The Silk Worm (which used to be baracuda).

Dukes Court has always been more than a little posh, Toast and Ronnies are no exception. The main turnoffs to both are the size of the places and the cost of the drinks. Both get rather packed some nights so you are pretty much expected to stand outside in the cold (they do have patio heaters though!). There is usually a decent crowd in there so its usually worth putting up with.

All things considered, its always a good idea to walk past them both on a night out in Macclesfield, as there is no entree price and you can pretty much have a look in to see if it’s worth staying that particular night.

..Continuing from my post earlier on weird resteraunts. Have a look at these:

Rather inappropriately, the burger chain buns and guns sells a range of weaponized food including the M16 Carbine meat sandwich, a Mortar burger or a Terrorist meal (which happens to be vegetarian). Its more than a little bad taste as it is situated deep in Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs. The chefs wear military helmets, the food is wrapped in camouflage paper, and the motto is “a sandwich can kill you”

This one has the silly idea of putting the entire eating area in pitch black and making all the customers wear night vision goggles while the eat. Cheaper than getting decorators i guess.

Anyone fancy eating in a giant coffin? nope me neither. But the owner of this death themed restaurant certainly thought there was enough of a market to warrant building this monstrosity.

This one takes creepy to a new level. You and your friends can order a life size edible dough person to tuck into. They wheel it out to you on a hospital gurney where a waiter cuts into this things side with a scalpel to reveal life size edible organs for you to enjoy all coated in a delicious blood red tomato sauce. This pretty much takes weird to a new level.

I know I have put a lot of posts recently on beer and related subjects, but it is such an important brittish pass time that I believe that it is worth the time and the effort to keep it alive.

Writter for the Guardian Malcom Gluck said recently that beer is on it’s way out, favouring wine to take over as a more sophisticated and civilised drink. Among his arguments against beer (which i strongly believe is utter tosh) are the steady rise of wine sales, the fact that wine is good for you (if drunk sensibly) and stating the blatent lie that pubs struggle to sell beer.

I would reply to this pretentious pratt with the following:

• Beer is not struggling at all. there were 250 craft breweries set up in the UK in the last 3 years. How many new vinyards where set up?
• Choice of beer has never been better. With 500 breweries in the UK, there is a huge selection of beers here in the UK.
• There has been a stady rise in craft beer sales by 10% over the last few years. This should be celebrated rather than mocked. Brittish brewers need all the help they can get.

Malcom Gluck:

Well, beer is only drunk by losers and sadsacks, unsexy people who care nothing for their minds or their bodies.

What an arse.

Enough said.

I’m conscious I have been blogging a lot about beer recently, so I thought I would do a couple of novelty restaurants from around the world:

1st up is the rather impressive underwater restaurant:

Access is by some stairs that go down under the water about 5-10 meters where customers can enjoy eating seafood whilst watching stingrays swim about them. All I can find out about the location of this place is that it is in the Maldives, so if you are on holiday there in the next few weeks.

From the really quite cool to the completely bizar, the restaurant above has people sitting on toilets instead of seats. Oh the hilarity.

Not surprisingly, this one got shut down until they changed their name to a more anonymous “The Cross” and got rid of all the nazi memorabilia. I guess the Mumbai culture is a little different to ours.

More in my next post…