The book of the week this week has been Joseph Heller’s Catch-22. One of the few books in the world which created an idiom rather than bring an obscure idiom to public attention. I noticed a Vintage -UK edition on the shelf at a friend’s home and must admit that before I read it I knew very little about it. I’d read a bit about Heller and I had seen the famous Catch-22 quote when Yossarian concludes by observing “That’s some catch, that catch-22″ but I had no idea the novel was set in World War II; nor that Joseph Heller was himself a bombardier who flew 60 missions. There’s a certain credibility, honesty or veracity, perhaps needed by the novel, that his real life experience lends to the jaunty take on bureaucratic military life.

My personal reaction is one of enjoyment. I looked forward to each opportunity that came my way to dip into this wonderful novel. The chronology is vague and there were a number of occassions when I wondered if I had missed my place and would review pages before and after only to find that I was advancing quite normally through the list of pages. At first this was confusing and irritated me; I didn’t like the sensation. Later when I have grown more accustomed to the style of the writing I began to appreciate the regular returns to locations, themes and motifs. The repeat visits, sometimes under almost identical or wildly different circumstances helped to illustrate the illogicality of Yossarian’s military life.

I was also deeply impressed by the characterisation. Sometimes this came all at once and Heller would sketch out some of his character over a page or two. This taking the form of quasi-autobiographical notes made by the narrator. Again, while this felt clumsy on occassion, once I had become more familiar with the mechanics of the novel I was pleased. Heller had accomplished something dificult, wrapping personality up succinctly and openly. Openly because all of his characters are prone to not knowing what to do from time to time. The assertive resolve themselves quickly, the less assertive bumble about more before adapting to a new set of circumstances.

I though the novel was about words, beauracracy, sanity and morality. Faith is touched upon in a few places but ultimately didn’t feel like a core theme, rather a vehicle used to show that, certainly for Heller, the role played by faith is ineffectual outside of personal life. Particulalry in a large organised beauracracy. The chaplain has a wonderful family, he has been able to muster good things to him because of his own goodness. When he is embroiled in the squadron and the war, however, he finds himself a victim just as often as everyone else does, despite his willingness to be of genuine assistance to others. In fact, it is his integrity and morality, as with other characters, ultimately gets him into the most dificulty. Late in the novel when he too abandons some of his personal code, perhaps albeit temporarily, things go better for him and he reflects briefly on how easy it is to lie and cheat for one’s own advantage. I was glad that his voice is used to identify these ideas explicitly, while they pervade the rest of the book.

The vocabulary was less dificult that that I encountered in the Bostonians but was still broad enough to throw up some new terms for me. I’m still not sure if intralinear is really a word although I can follow the logic of its construction. I’m not going to write an analysis of the novel here, perhaps 2011 will open with my opinion of myself as a literary critic and author much improved. Until then I shall refrain from all but personal notes and thoughts. I can summarise those by saying that Catch-22 is a must. It’s brief and easy enough that to ignore it and the ideas it contains would be, I think, a mistake.

I feel strongly that addresses like this one should be considered in their entirety and would encourage even those familiar to read not just the emotive opening statements but the proposals that follow them.

“I am certain that my fellow Americans expect that on my induction into the Presidency I will address them with a candor and a decision which the present situation of our people impel. This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. In every dark hour of our national life a leadership of frankness and vigor has met with that understanding and support of the people themselves which is essential to victory. I am convinced that you will again give that support to leadership in these critical days.

“In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern, thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

“More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

“Yet our distress comes from no failure of substance. We are stricken by no plague of locusts. Compared with the perils which our forefathers conquered because they believed and were not afraid, we have still much to be thankful for. Nature still offers her bounty and human efforts have multiplied it. Plenty is at our doorstep, but a generous use of it languishes in the very sight of the supply. Primarily this is because the rulers of the exchange of mankind’s goods have failed, through their own stubbornness and their own incompetence, have admitted their failure, and abdicated. Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion, rejected by the hearts and minds of men.

“True they have tried, but their efforts have been cast in the pattern of an outworn tradition. Faced by failure of credit they have proposed only the lending of more money. Stripped of the lure of profit by which to induce our people to follow their false leadership, they have resorted to exhortations, pleading tearfully for restored confidence. They know only the rules of a generation of self-seekers. They have no vision, and when there is no vision the people perish.

“The money changers have fled from their high seats in the temple of our civilization. We may now restore that temple to the ancient truths. The measure of the restoration lies in the extent to which we apply social values more noble than mere monetary profit.

“Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money; it lies in the joy of achievement, in the thrill of creative effort. The joy and moral stimulation of work no longer must be forgotten in the mad chase of evanescent profits. These dark days will be worth all they cost us if they teach us that our true destiny is not to be ministered unto but to minister to ourselves and to our fellow men.

“Recognition of the falsity of material wealth as the standard of success goes hand in hand with the abandonment of the false belief that public office and high political position are to be valued only by the standards of pride of place and personal profit; and there must be an end to a conduct in banking and in business which too often has given to a sacred trust the likeness of callous and selfish wrongdoing. Small wonder that confidence languishes, for it thrives only on honesty, on honor, on the sacredness of obligations, on faithful protection, on unselfish performance; without them it cannot live.

“Restoration calls, however, not for changes in ethics alone. This Nation asks for action, and action now.

“Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources.

“Hand in hand with this we must frankly recognize the overbalance of population in our industrial centers and, by engaging on a national scale in a redistribution, endeavor to provide a better use of the land for those best fitted for the land. The task can be helped by definite efforts to raise the values of agricultural products and with this the power to purchase the output of our cities. It can be helped by preventing realistically the tragedy of the growing loss through foreclosure of our small homes and our farms. It can be helped by insistence that the Federal, State, and local governments act forthwith on the demand that their cost be drastically reduced. It can be helped by the unifying of relief activities which today are often scattered, uneconomical, and unequal. It can be helped by national planning for and supervision of all forms of transportation and of communications and other utilities which have a definitely public character. There are many ways in which it can be helped, but it can never be helped merely by talking about it. We must act and act quickly.

“Finally, in our progress toward a resumption of work we require two safeguards against a return of the evils of the old order; there must be a strict supervision of all banking and credits and investments; there must be an end to speculation with other people’s money, and there must be provision for an adequate but sound currency.

“There are the lines of attack. I shall presently urge upon a new Congress in special session detailed measures for their fulfillment, and I shall seek the immediate assistance of the several States.

“Through this program of action we address ourselves to putting our own national house in order and making income balance outgo. Our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy. I favor as a practical policy the putting of first things first. I shall spare no effort to restore world trade by international economic readjustment, but the emergency at home cannot wait on that accomplishment.

“The basic thought that guides these specific means of national recovery is not narrowly nationalistic. It is the insistence, as a first consideration, upon the interdependence of the various elements in all parts of the United States—a recognition of the old and permanently important manifestation of the American spirit of the pioneer. It is the way to recovery. It is the immediate way. It is the strongest assurance that the recovery will endure.

“In the field of world policy I would dedicate this Nation to the policy of the good neighbor—the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others—the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a world of neighbors.

“If I read the temper of our people correctly, we now realize as we have never realized before our interdependence on each other; that we can not merely take but we must give as well; that if we are to go forward, we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline, because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. This I propose to offer, pledging that the larger purposes will bind upon us all as a sacred obligation with a unity of duty hitherto evoked only in time of armed strife.

“With this pledge taken, I assume unhesitatingly the leadership of this great army of our people dedicated to a disciplined attack upon our common problems.

“Action in this image and to this end is feasible under the form of government which we have inherited from our ancestors. Our Constitution is so simple and practical that it is possible always to meet extraordinary needs by changes in emphasis and arrangement without loss of essential form. That is why our constitutional system has proved itself the most superbly enduring political mechanism the modern world has produced. It has met every stress of vast expansion of territory, of foreign wars, of bitter internal strife, of world relations.

“It is to be hoped that the normal balance of executive and legislative authority may be wholly adequate to meet the unprecedented task before us. But it may be that an unprecedented demand and need for undelayed action may call for temporary departure from that normal balance of public procedure.

“I am prepared under my constitutional duty to recommend the measures that a stricken nation in the midst of a stricken world may require. These measures, or such other measures as the Congress may build out of its experience and wisdom, I shall seek, within my constitutional authority, to bring to speedy adoption.

“But in the event that the Congress shall fail to take one of these two courses, and in the event that the national emergency is still critical, I shall not evade the clear course of duty that will then confront me. I shall ask the Congress for the one remaining instrument to meet the crisis—broad Executive power to wage a war against the emergency, as great as the power that would be given to me if we were in fact invaded by a foreign foe.

“For the trust reposed in me I will return the courage and the devotion that befit the time. I can do no less.

“We face the arduous days that lie before us in the warm courage of the national unity; with the clear consciousness of seeking old and precious moral values; with the clean satisfaction that comes from the stern performance of duty by old and young alike. We aim at the assurance of a rounded and permanent national life.

“We do not distrust the future of essential democracy. The people of the United States have not failed. In their need they have registered a mandate that they want direct, vigorous action. They have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it.

“In this dedication of a Nation we humbly ask the blessing of God. May He protect each and every one of us. May He guide me in the days to come.”

Franklin Roosevelt.

Word of the Day: Garniture
- noun

1 – embellishment or ornamentation

But what am I doing now?

The short answer is ‘I’m not sure’. That’s the thing about first days, you are full of expectations and ideas, even if they are pretty dull and inane expectations. You still have them. I arrived knowing that I would be very busy, would be expected to be very organised and would be working around a team of really very senior staff. This last point really serves to add pressure to the mix. After all, it’s a bit harder to crack jokes when colleagues aren’t really colleagues, they’re your boss.

My job title is pretty straightforward, and judging by the events of the day reasonably accurate too. I am an Executive Assistant. Apparently the executive part is there to imply the ability to make decisions independently and ‘get it done’. Things I can do in spades. That’s what I said in the interview anyhow.

Moving jobs, divisions and teams has also brought on a change in location. My previous office is in the thick of things in downtown Stratford. While Stratford (Defiantly not Upon-Avon) may not be the best known place in the world it is destined for considerable advancement and largesse as it will soon play host to the 2012 Olympics and from next year will be the home of one of the largest shopping malls in Europe, not to mention a new international train station.

So if you here anything about the Westfield site or the Westfield Shopping Centre, the Olympic Park or the Athletes’ Village then you should think “Stratford”. Avoid thinking about Shakespeare, he live miles away in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Trust me, the Olympics won’t be there in 2012!

My new team is really quite amiable. I have a healthy list of things to do and I am starting to receive email and work in good doses and that’s after five hours. I could mention the absence of a building induction, or indeed, any form of induction but that would be unfair. I’m quite happy working things out for myself. Indeed after I had picked up my ID card I was quite alright.

The day ended pleasantly with my counterpart giving me a brief whistle-stop tour of the facilities. If you’ve watched Spooks, you’ve seen where I work! What about that eh?

Word of the Day: Palingenesis
- noun

1 – exact reporoduction of ancestral characteristics

One of the things that I don’t think has ever been written up as part of a decent sci-fi or fantasy novel is th audit process. There’s a simple reason for this; auditing is irredeemably dull, which is compounded by the importance of proper auditing too.

I sit as a trustee and I am responsible for making disbursements from several large funds and so I am subjected to the process every six months. It’s not especially complicated and I understand the process and its importance in safeguarding transparency, especially since I disburse the funds of a charity but my goodness someone needs to breathe some life into it.

The unanswered question is how.

At first I though you could have audits conducted by bright-eyed and handsome young men and women but then I realised my error almost, but not quite, immediately. This would only add tragedy to the terror. It would make an audit even more unbearable to sit knowing you were depriving some young soul of access to the outdoors, sunshine, sport and all that. No, better than audits be conducted by sensible middle-aged men and women for whom you need feel no sympathy.

I suppose I am being a little too dramatic about it. The whole thing was over and done with in a little under two hours. Being able to produce the appropriate receipts and documents was quite satisfying. I’m still glad I’m not an accountant though.

Word of the Day: Saccate
- adjective

1 – sac-like

I’m not going to say too much about how I feel. A few colleagues asked me if I were very emotional. Some, among the more forthright, asked me why I wasn’t bawling. I had no idea that I had established so firmly in their minds the, perfectly accurate as it happens, idea of my attachment to what we do here.

Instead of focusing on all that stuff I thought I would talk briefly about my leaving do. It was brilliant. Lots of people brought food; I’m not the big hungry giant by accident. Some staff from satellite offices came back to visit with me and crucially some didn’t. I’m not sure why but it was reassuring to know that my departure was part of the standard operation of things. That while I would be missed by some. I would not be missed by all. I would be promtly replaced and the activities of the enterprise would continue.

I found the sense of that strangely relaxing. Even those who occupy the most important positions are able to be replaced. It’s one of the things that makes me smile when countries go to inordinate lengths to preserve the life of their commander in chief. I know it’s inconvenient if something does happen to them but ultimately there is a chain of command in place. Should some mishap befall the person at the top then their responsibilities will fall to the next person in line.

As we say in England, “The King is dead, long live the King!”  That’s not because we have a universal faith in instantaneous resurrection or immortality, but instead there is a close recognition that when one person who happened to be the king or ruler dies that their role is instantly taken up by the next in line. The expression captures the idea that all loyalty and support also passes to the new incumbent.

I’m not the king. I’m a support worker to a small office in the East of London. But I was cheered by the idea that the small number of people I worked with and among would miss me and yet carry on regardless. Its the simple pleasure you can derive simply from things being as they should be.

I can’t wait to get started on Monday.

Word of the Day: Tabellion
- noun

1 – a scrivener or notary under the Roman empire or in France under the old monarchy

I’m not going to say a great deal about it really. Only that initially I forgot all about it. When I remembered I quickly learned a very important lesson.

Don’t eat pancakes you buy from the store. Make your own. I tried some from a supermarket in Stratford which shall remain un-named. Both, the pancakes and the supermarket. Rather than limit my disdain for these appalling creations as marketed by a particular chain I thought it best to condemn them generally. If you would like to nominate some exceptions to this general, and dare I say it, important rule then please comment away!

Making pancakes is easy. Flour, milk and egg. you can fuss about with extras like salt and chocolate chips but really I reccommend that you avoid detailed recipes. All that they lead to is mild panic that you may have added 220g instead of 230g of one ingredient or another. You can’t go too wrong with pancakes.

Take some flour. Plain is best but I have used self-raising too and I’m still breathing. When I say some I mean the sort of amount you would put of a favourite cereal in a breakfast bowl. Some. That’s going to be enough for one person like me and maybe one and a half, or perhaps two, persons of more austere appetite like you. When you have some flour put it in a measuring jug. If you have more than you can fit in a measuring jug then stop eating so much cereal. What are you eating out of? A salad bowl?

Crack an egg and drop it on top of your small mound of flour. yes, the one in the measuring jug. Don’t mix it in yet as this will make a sort of flour-egg glue which will stick to the sides of your measuring jug unpleasantly.

Pour on some milk. Again some. I like the breakfast analogy because that’s how much milk is in some. You know how you pour milk directly onto your cereal in the morning without measuring it? That’s some ‘milk’. Pour that much milk on top of your flour and egg.

Now mix it all up. the toughest part about this stage is not doing it so vigorously that you cover yourself with soft clouds of flour and splashes of eggy milk. Eggy milk doesn’t just rinse off, you’ll have to wash your clothes. Keep the splashes in the pancake mix!

Ok, while you are mixing it up you will learn about the consistency of the mix you have just made. If it is the consistency of milk then you may have poured the milk into an empty bowl rather than the one with the flour and egg in it. Try again please. If your mix is too dry then, again, you may have poured your milk in the wrong bowl or you have just worked out why your cereal is so crunchy all the time!

If the mix is too thick add a little more milk, mix it up and try again. If it is too thin, drop in a little bit of flour. This is actually quite tough to incorporate so I reccomend trying to cook your mix if you think it is too thin before you start trying to add more flour.

Cook a small pancake. Eat said pancake while adjusting the temperature of the pan/griddle and adding salt if required. Remember, you can always add more salt, you cannot take salt away! Be sparing.

That’s it, you now know what to do. Don’t buy them in the stores, make your own. Preferably thin like crepes with lemon and granulated sugar. Mmmm.

Word of the Day: Cachalot
- noun

1 – A sperm whale

Experiencing this sensation led me to think about change more generally and that, sometimes, most odious of human tasks, moving on.

We move on from all sorts of things: friends, places, school, college, environments, illusions, ignorance, pain, happiness and misery. Those who have shed unrequited tears know that moving on is sometimes painful, those who have escaped know it is sometimes joyous in the extreme.

Generally, despite the improvement it may lead to, moving on, which I suppose is a euphemsism for change, is an unpleasant experience to contemplate. There are all sorts of unknown variables in any change no matter how small or insignificant it may be. There are, of course, those who welcome the churning twisting experience and describe it as fun or thrilling, while all the while there are far more who would rather things stayed just as they are, no matter how inferior present circumstances might be.

Think about some of the expressions which address concerns about change and moving on; better the devil you know than the devil you don’t; look before you leap; out of the frying pan and into the fire; fools rush in where angels fear to tread, and so on.

If you searched the internet for something along these lines you would find a sizeable number of websites promoting themselves as the exclusive home to the silver bullet solution. Even Roosevelt had a stab at it with his famous remark which shall serve today as my conclusion. Although I might remark, as a preamble, that to my mind is entirely applicable to our present topic, the fear of change. It’s not the fear of anything other than changing circumstances, and it is due to this ungrounded, unidentified nature that we fear change so much and so generally.

“[L]et me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts…”

Word of the Day: Cainotophobia
- noun

1 – An abnormal fear of newness

While I don’t generally watch television (do you watch it as often as you used to?) I must admit being quite keen on Heroes. We’re well passed the opening series and in some ways it’s an established show but there is much that feels experimental about it too, and not the sort of toeing-the-line experiemental that a producer might be hoping for but more of the sort of learning what everyone else knows experimental stuff. In short, despite my hopes for the show, I often find myself disappointed with the plot, the characters and the overall feel of the programme.

I suppose I should first explain my hopes. Production technology has certainly reached the stage where Heroes and other similar shows can incorporate regularly and efficently effects which were once the reserve of medium to large budget feature films. The everyday use of supernatural powers being a staple of the Heroes diet makes it an excellent programme to produce today in an environment where the impossible can be made to appear reasonably plausible to a tight schedule. Think about the classic six million dollar man and some of the things they had to resort to to convey speed and power and then think about some of the effect deployed in Heroes.

All of these possibilities led me to believe, perhaps erroneously, that the effects would take a back seat and the drama and plot would shine through, even against such a ridiculous premise. Certainly for much of the properly maligned series two, this wasn’t the case.

The plot arcs are just too complex to be enjoyable. Contrast the goings on in Heroes with the Simpsons. Perhaps two extremes of the plot salad bar. At one end you have a show where every episode is entirely self contained. At the end of your thirty minutes all of the characters are returned to their original status and made ready for essentially any other episode to follow. The weather is the same, the characters don’t age or improve their circumstances. It’s the perfect sandbox for writers who can explore an idea and its permutations at their leisure in a controlled environment. Many of the most popular television series use a similar model. Think about Star Trek, they just kept on boldy going and did so until not enough people wanted to boldy go with them.

At the other end of our illustratory salad bar you have shows like 24, Prison Break and Heroes. While each episode is largely self-sufficient, and those that aren’t form explicitly linked pairs or triplets of story, there is a progressive story arc. Each episode develops the overall story and the characters who feature in an episode are changed by that episode to a lesser or greater extent. For example, if Homer gets shot he will heal completely in time for the next show, if you shot a character in Heroes then they’ll carry a scar for the rest of the season. Let me be straight, I think that’s a mistake!

There are several reasons for my opinion. First, continuity in a fictional universe is hard going. There are whole communities out there dedicated to identifying and publishing continuity errors and illogical decisions. Think about the head in the box in Prison Break… That wasn’t so much an error as a massive inconvenience when audience surveys revealed that practically everyone wanted that character back! You could also think about 24 where working within the constraints of the show just isn’t feasible all of the time. What sort of president calls eight cabinet meetings in one 24 hour period?

A second reason is that the lack of a sandbox environment really makes it hard on the writers. If you have one writer, like Babylon 5 did then the multi-season story arc works really well. After all, one person has the whole thing mapped out from start to finish and that makes keeping things coherent much more straightforward. At least they should do. If the writers or Heroes know where the story is going then they really aren’t doing the best job of showing it. Think about Voyager, a solid example of how to progress without ever making any progress, while the episodes are sometimes bizarre all of the characters have a clearly defined purpose and role which best of all is achievable and yet entirely beyond their grasp. The ship is so far away from home that progress as much as they want, home stays firmly out of reach. In short, Voyager managed to make ongoing progress part of the sandbox model and is a successful example of a multi-series story arc which delivered progress and development in a very stable plot environment.

Finally the characters. While I appreciate a bit of character development I think that it’s a bit too epic for a TV show. The regrettably late Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time consumed eleven large books to convey Rand’s development as a person. Even then you could argue convincingly that the series constitutes an investigation into his character, through his associations and experiences over an extended period rather than his personal development. The characters in Heroes are so changing and dynamic that it is hard to associate with them, to identify with them. When you do, they change on a whim and you are left longing for the consistency of Bart or the recalcitrance of House’s dislike for the world.

Despite all of this you can bet your bottom dollar I’ll be watching the next episode. After all, they might get it right this time.

Word of the Day: Abacist
- adjective

1 – A person using an abacus

My own travel was almost as easy as being flown. At least it was after I discovered that my mobile phone, a Sony Ericsson C903, includes an efficient route finding programme called, easily enough, Navigator. It was that discovery that brings me to my topic for today. Satellite Navigation systems or Sat Nav’s.

We’ve all heard the horror stories about roads which lead across farmers’ fields, through buildings, off cliffs and across impassable gorges but the more common problems are always the most unsavoury, not least because the common problems are the ones you are probably going to have to experience yourself. After all, no one worries too much about the person who drives off a cliff following a merry yet authoritative voice’s instructions. We can console ourselves with the sheer remoteness of the possibility that this might ever happen to us. It is horrible of course, yet most people have untold capacity for ignoring those horrid things which happen to others as long as their personal occurence remains most improbable.

When the probability of something untoward occuring personally increases, man’s ability to defer his concern reduces in directly inverse proportion. Terror becoming certain when the terrible thing itself become certain. So it is with satellite navigation. The notions that your battery might give out on you, that you may lose that precious signal or that you may pay too much attention to the screen and not enough the world in which you are driving are not only unpleasant but pretty likely too.

What surprises me really is that we render so little attention to the fact that a pocket portable device which can retain a charge for over a hundred and twenty hours can tell me where I am and show me where to go so that I might arrive at where I am going. Most of us are less concerned with the how than we are with what it sounds like when it rings or the colour of the case it comes in. For example, did you know that sat nav systems have to account for relativistic differences in time, produced by the distance and relative speed of the satellites, when calculating your location from the signals they receive? Thank you Einstein. Thank you Sony Ericsson.

Now, if only my C903 had come in glossy red.

Word of the Day: Insatiate
- Adjective

1 – Insatiable: insatiate greed
2 – not satiable;  incapable of being satisfied or appeased

It concerns an establishment called PFC in Stratford. That’s Stratford as in 2012 Olympics Stratford not “To be or not to be” Stratford-Upon-Avon. It’s awful. The food is Ok, but orders when you wait for ages only to find that what you have carried away with you certainly isn’t what you paid for. Well, something needs to be said. Given the profusion of such establishments in south east London I would gently recommend that you find another. I’m not even going to reveal the exact location of this place. If you see a sign proclaiming PFC (a humourous UK take on KFC used by smaller kebab and fried chicken establishments) then avoid at your leisure.