At Ronnie Scott's

It was our tenth anniversary last week (not wedding anniversary, there still is some time before that, but relationship anniversary), and so we went to Ronnie Scott's jazz club for the first time.

It having been the first time makes it difficult to form a general opinion, I do realise that they will not have Ron Carter with the Golden Striker Trio on stage every night, but I would struggle to come up with the appropriate adjectives.
Actually, there will be some things that will be there every night: the place itself, which was very nice. The cocktails were good, at least for this gentleman who rarely drinks cocktail (but when it's your anniversary and one is called "Ma Chérie", and you are French to boot, it would seem impolite to have anything else). And then, since we had decided to have dinner, the food was very pleasant. By the way, if that's a requirement of yours, there was a vegetarian option, in fact it's what I had, and will probably have every time as it was brilliant.

As for the music, I had already liked the supporting act (there was a late night show afterwards, but we had to go home), and then Ron Carter arrived, which sent you out of this world. There had been a double bass in the supporting act, but the sound was immediately very different. Part of it of course came from the amplification choices, but it was still remarkable to hear how different it sounded (the piano too -although it was the same piano of course). Initially I was a little surprised by the sound engineering, but quickly it was clear that it was just what was needed for this band, which blended wonderfully well. And while all three musicians had their shares of solos, they really played as a band, with incredibly good balance and understanding.

If that was a typical night, then I would say that if you like jazz, go to Ronnie Scott's, you'll greatly enjoy it. And if you don't like Jazz, go to Ronnie Scott's, and then you will.

Tuscany

I – a keen cook and keener eater- have long held the view that there is a considerable contextual element to taste. By that I do not merely mean that the table can be well dressed in a pleasant place and the food set in an attractive way, although this is nice (and something that I tend to be relatively poor at). My point is with the time and place where food is eaten.

Many people surely have experienced the delights of a local specialty that, once brought back home, simply does not have the same appeal. Examples abound –Ouzo is not the same away from the Aegean Sea, mulled beer must be had in wintery Poland, hibiscus tea feels out of place in Europe and, while whisky will be enjoyed at home, it will taste very different in a remote pub at the end of a windy trek in the Highlands.

Today in Newspeak

Reading the New Statesman correspondence section (yes, I know…), I came across a letter referring to a leader that had apparently stated that the UK needed an extra one million houses over the next five years is the level to meet present needs. The letter proceeds to explain via a small calculation that the figure is actually four millions over ten years. So far, so good (or not - I really have no idea about the actual figures, the calculation is worded in a way that might suggest that there is some confusion between yearly need and backlog, and I don’t know the source of the numbers used), I don’t mean to dispute the need for extra housing in the UK.

But the reader, after apparently making a call for a strong building program (this is about meeting present “needs”, not fanciful wishes), then adds:

“A damaged economy cannot afford to allocate such a large share of limited resources to housebuilding.”

This left me nonplussed on several levels.