Showing the way ...a day of cooking up a curry

Politicans are performers. They all are ...and over the years I watched them hold forth on stage like Shakespearan orators, pretend to enjoy kissing the ugliest, snotty faced babies as part of their election campaigns...and generally strut their stuff in front of audiences of all sizes and types.

But I've never seen a politican, the Deputy City Mayor of Leicester no less, give a live cookery demonstration.That's definitely a first!

But Rory Palmer wasn't auditioning for Masterchef, or for a job on the telly.He was cooking a curry in the middle of Leicester Market last Friday....

 He worked up quite an audience..and really seemed to be enjoying himself. He was, because I know he's passionate about food, both cooking it and growing it.

But why was he doing this? Well, it was  part of the city council’s ‘Have One on Us’ campaign which aims to help people make healthy lifestyle choices and keep well.

Market goers were given samples of the curry, a recipe card

 and a free bag of fresh vegetables to have a go at making the dish at home.

It was all to highlight the fact that responsibilities for a wide range of public health services transferred from the NHS to Leicester City Council at the beginning of April, as part of a national reorganisation of health services.

So what does areas does public health cover? Well,  it's all about  helping people to stay healthy and avoid getting ill - so it includes immunisation, nutrition, fitness, sexual health, tobacco and alcohol use and children's health.

So while market goers were eating the curry and picking up a swag bag, there was the chance to speak to lots of public health officials  about the benefits of plenty of cheap vegetables in a healthy diet.

So what did I do with my free veg?

I have to confess didn't make the curry....instead the cauliflower was smothered in a cheese sauce with some leeks I had knocking around , but the carrots and onions were used to make a low fat , healthy home made soup. But yes, I will be making some low fat curries in the future....

Any initiative which gets people cooking healthy, cheap food from scratch is a welcome one...and  I'm sure the Assistant City Mayor much preferred getting his message across in this way....by cooking up a curry,rather than having to kiss snotty faced babies.....

Today's track is an oldie...."Show me the Way" by Peter Frampton...

 

Richard III -days of hype and hope

Within the next twenty four hours we will know the outcome of one of the biggest historical cliffhangers for many years .

Are the bones that were found in a Leicester car park back in September last year, really those of the last Plantaganet King, Richard III?

 It's a story, which quite rightly has captured the imagination of millions worldwide, and like others , I've been following the story very closely. I was there broadcasting from the car park on the day it was announced that the body COULD be that of Richard III. There's more on that here

http://www.thinkingofthedays.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/the-day-they-found-king-richard-111.html

 I was there at the press conference  where there was a very real sense of wonder as archaeologists Richard Buckley and Lin Foxhall from the University of Leicester itemised their findings so far. And I've interviewed Lin several times since then...she's so upbeat, so engaging about the quest but giving nothing away.

Since then, everyone's been playing a waiting game. Waiting for the DNA results on the body...which locally sparked off jokes about why they would take three months to connect the DNA from the body to a descendent from Canada. when people featured on the Jeremy Kyle show on television can get instant access to their DNA results.

But it's not a question of  just DNA results, the remains have been carbon dated and analysed environmentally in an effort to confirm the identification. Meticulous records, time consuming tests  on a  body in a secret location, baby sat and protected by volunteers for months.

In Leicestershire though, there's a real conviction that the body must be Richard III. Why else would Leicester City Council buy an empty Victorian building next to the site where the body was found?
St Martins Place,which cost £850,000, and formerly owned by Leicester Grammar School until five years ago, could potentially be used as a visitor centre.

I hope with all my heart that it is King Richard III who lay buried for over 500 years a stone's throw from where I work.

Firstly, because I've always been interested in this period of history, subscribing to the belief that yes, he was a "much maligned King", and always hating the thought that his body had been thrown in to the nearby River Soar.

Secondly, if it is Richard, then visitor numbers to the city will rocket...

Thirdly...it will be such a brilliant archaeological coup for the University of Leicester.

And  fourthly, ...and this is the big one.....after some banter on twitter with some other local journalists the other week , I did vow to show my knickers in Leicester's mediaeval Guildhall if the body wasn't Richard.

So there you have it. Until tomorrow I'm wishing and hoping  - that there'll be celebrations  that the King has been found...and that my knickers do not get an airing in the Guildhall.

Today's track is by Dusty Springfield...."Wishin and Hopin"