Nic Dempsey’s blog

So Ben and Laura asked and were told he was going to be a girl but he was clearly being modest.  My new nephew was born today, Oliver James Dempsey, born (like his father and aunt) just in time for lunch!!

I couldn't be happier for Ben and Laura and having just seen a photo, thank God he's not an ugly baby and has more hair than his father....

Can't wait to see him (and his Mum and Dad) tomorrow.

And from now on you may address me as Aunty Nic!!

Jezebel how you have expanded my minds in strange ways..

...most of this week has been a complete washout but this has cheered me up immensely.....

September

So today I started playing around with the baked meatball recipe.  It started off like this, but wasn't really working for me.  So I tried a tomato sauce, passata with some balsamic vinegar added and it was ok but it was also the definition of bland.  What to do...

Today, I mushed the chicken mince with minced garlic, onion and some parsley butter.  But more importantly I changed the sauce. I've been searching the interweb for sauces for baked meatballs and found a recipe for meatballs on The Pioneer Woman, and the sauce was made with ketchup, as for years and years this kind of tomato sauce was the only one I would eat (and I ate it with everything), I thought I'd give it a try.

So 1 cup of ketchup (controversially, I prefer Sainsbury's tomato sauce and don't like Heinz!), 2 tablespoons sugar, 3 tablespoons white vinegar (I used white wine vinegar as it was what I had), 2 tablespoons worcestershire sauce (and on a side note is there a brand of worcestershire sauce other than L&P - 'cause I've never seen one, though I have a recipe for one in one of my cookbooks and no I won't be trying it any time soon..).

It was fab...like crack in a sauce form...and look what it did to my meatballs..

Yum

I'm not quite an aunt yet but I'm preparing through knitting....

Finished

This has been really bugging me.

These things are facts.

1) Nick Griffin is the leader of the BNP. 
2) In the last elections to the European Parliment, the BNP won 2 seats.
3) The BBC has rules that state when a political party has a percentage of votes in the country, they and their policies need to be aired on television and radio.
4) The BNP have that percentage, they had that percentage before the BBC invited them on Question Time.
5) The BNP have policies that are racist, sexist and homophobic

These things are my opinion

1) The BNP have no policies on the environment, the economy anything else that contributes to the running of the country or the mess that we are in.
2) Nick Griffin is a nasty, stupid man
3) If we actually asked him what he is going to do about running the country he wouldn't have an answer.
4) Although the BNP had a right to go on Question Time, the questions should have been about more than Nick Griffin being an idiot and the BNP being racist. Could someone have asked him what he's going to do about the economy, or the NHS (other than maybe ban non-white people from working in it - 'cause that would fix it) or even where he intended to re-patriate black and asian people born in the UK? Then we would see that the BNP have no policies....
5) The Daily Mail and Daily Express do a lot of 'reporting' about immigration that really isn't true so this morning's outrage is a bit rich, where do they think that people get the impression that the country is overun with foreigners stealing our jobs and taking our women??
6) That applies to the Conservative Party as well, stop talking about immigration and Europe for God's sake, that isn't the problem.
7) Maybe just maybe, if we were less outraged that the BNP had a platform, we could think about why people voted BNP, rather than getting angry and calling them idiots. Surely that just entrenches opinions.
8) The rise of the BNP is about the failure of mainstream political parties to connect with,  dare I say it?, the working class (of all races) and develop policies that are about changing outcomes, rather than pandering to the middle classes and their need for choice and condemnation.
9) Banning people from expressing their opinions, however vile, doesn't stop them having those opinions, nor does calling them idiots.  Only when you engage and debate do you have a hope in hell of changing them.
10) There has been lots of talk about facists, nazis and Churchill etc.  Churchill and other politicians of that era, expressed opinions about race that weren't all that different from the BNP.  It was a different time.  That doesn't mean that today he would support the BNP or people who do great things can't have vile opinions.  Also, we need to grow up and stop referencing Churchill and who won the War as a way to decide who we are as a country. 
11) Finally, I don't expect reasoned debate or sense from the BNP, but I do expect that from mainstream politicians, last night and this morning I haven't seen that.  This is making a big deal about something that didn't have to be and failing to address the real issue but as we aren't talking about the bankers bonuses or MP's expenses, maybe that suits them...

.....YouTube silliness

Came via Mighty Girl

Not (just for a change) a drink but a band.  I heard about them via House of Jules bought an album, then another one. 

At the time, Ma was transferring her CD collection to her computer and I knew that she'd like them...she really did. However, they aren't huge and although occasionally, I'll walk though M&S and 'Eugene' will be playing not many of the people I know have heard of them...

Last week at dinner, Ma wished Pink Martini would come to the UK and do a concert.  I told her it was unlikely, but I was signed up to emails so would let her know.

Yesterday, I got the email, 16th November.  Ma has already booked the tickets.....