food additives and sherlock holmes

what do those two people/things have in common???? nothing, except for the fact that i've watched/read about them

i'm nearing towards the end of all sherlock holmes stories (in the penguin complete sherlock holmes book, and it has every sherlock holmes story from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in it.... i think) and i'm in a state of depression about it. what would i do when i can't read anymore unread original sherlock holmes stories in my long sessions of boredom??????? well, actually i read books on philosophy (because my dad's telling me to =.=) but sherlock holmes is so much more better!!!
actually, after a while the stories circumstances got a bit predictable but only a LITTLE LITTLE bit because how sherlock holmes comes to conclusions is still surprising
of course, for those out there who do not like reading, you can always watch the series 'sherlock' from the british channel BBC :D

food additives: it was a documentary on the tv channel SBS (a free-to-air international australian television channel) and a guy in it explains how flavours and colours in the food comes about. they did this thing where they added red colouring to white wine to make it look like red wine and got a bunch of wine tasters to taste it. of course, they didn't tell them that it was actually white wine to see if the tasters could taste the difference and none of them did!!! they all described it as a red wine, not a white one
they did a whole bunch of experiments like that (i didn't watch the last bit) and it was pretty extraordinary.
did you know that the natural purple colour that people use in food and stuff comes from bugs that live on cactuses!! they're called cochineal and the colour is from their blood so they dry the bugs, crush them, mix it with water, boils them, strains it and does that lab process a few more times then there is some solid stuff left (precipitate) that is used for colour
also, BIG MYTH BUSTED (well at least according to the documentary) MSG (THE 'DEADLY' STUFF)  means mono sodium glutamate right? or something close to that anyway. well, mono sodium is basically just salt however glutamate is suspected to be the stuff that seems to make people sick with the chinese restaurant disease or somthing or rather (i'm very vague). well, glutamate is actually a natural occuring substance in food like mushrooms. they did an experiment where they called in a couple of people who were sick after eating MSG and asked them to eat some chinese/asian food in a restaurant to see what was happening. HOWEVER, the food did NOT have MSG in it, only the natural occuring glutamate. after eating the food, the people were sick anyway, complaining of dizziness and headaches e.t.c.
to make sure the sickness wasn't just 'in their head', the guy called in another couple of people who had problems with MSG and got them to eat ITALIAN food with no MSG but has natural occuring glutamate in it and they got sick as well!!!
so basically, MSG IS HARMLESS (well, at least better than what some people thought)!!!!
you know, artificial flavours and colours are really chemicals, and to make different flavours (e.g they showed how lab people made strawberry flavour on the show) they mix together different chemicals!!!

now i'm a bit scared because i remember my teachers always saying "NEVER EVER TASTE, SNIFF OR TOUCH CHEMICALS IN THE LABORATORY!!" guess those people didn't listen to their teachers!!! HAHAHAH, SO FUNNY RIGHT??? yeah.......

well, i have a horrible case of sneezing, that should explain my strangeness

glasses says atishoo later!!!!! hahahha, that was supposed to be funny too :)

Small Island was on Last Night on the ABC!

Hello all,

Guess what I did yesterday?

This may sound boring (until the end….) but trust me… it is necessary to know…

I woke up at 9:ooam, which is the earliest I have EVER woken up this year and ate a breakfast of Asian pancakes. Then I did maths revision and stuff until lunch. Then I went for a walk and then watched Sherlock and Family Guy. Then I ate dinner and then I watched Hamish and Andy Christmas Special and then…

I WATCHED THE FIRST EPISODE OF SMALL ISLAND! It was on ABC last night at 8:35pm (after the Labour ad campaign).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Island_(television_drama)

For those that don’t know what it is which should probably be most of you unless you, like me, are an ABC fanatic? Small Island is a ‘miniseries’ based on a novel about how the War affected people’s lives and how people’s lives entwine. It is technically only two episodes long (I think-I may be wrong) so therefore called a miniseries. The story in a nutshell in the first episode is:

By the by, all the following is told in ‘flashbacks’, the same format as Amadeus, the film based on the play.

There is a beautiful blonde woman called Queenie who gets married to a Bernard Bligh, played by Benedict Cumberbatch-my favourite, favourite actor. However, then he joins the army and gets shipped away. It is then assumed that he goes ‘missing’ as Queenie has no contact from him for a while. He and Queenie were living with his father when he went away. After he leaves, Queenie opens her door to billet men from the army. These men include two white men who are very chippy and talkative and a Jamaican man. Queenie later sleeps with the Jamaican man, name of Michael. Queenie and her father-in-law, name of Arthur Bligh, then move to a farm where Queenie meets another Jamaican man called Gilbert. She then flirts with him a bit in a café when she sees him while she was looking for Arthur (he wanders a bit). Then they get in a queue where two officers abuse Gilbert verbally, trying to get him to join the ‘blacks’ queue. They then call Queenie a whore and so Gilbert goes and defends her, causing him to get physically attacked. Following this, there is a lot of commotion which ends in Arthur dead and Gilbert being arrested and sent back to Jamaica.

There is also a second storyline. A Jamaican woman, Hortense lives with her guardian and a boy whom I think she loves. Basically she is a teacher and one day there is a hurricane and she and another teacher are stuck in a church-like school. Then the boy Michael (the same one as from the Queenie story) appears and it is then revealed then he and the other teacher who is married-a beautiful blonde who is NOT Queenie-are having an affair. As this is considered a very disgraceful thing, which it is, her guardian sends Michael to ‘volunteer’ in the RAF and for Hortense to be sent to a teaching college. At the college, Hortense befriends another lady called Celia. A few years pass where a lot happens including Michael going missing. I should probably mention here that she is obsessed with going to England because she believes it to be on an equal level as heaven. Anyway, Celia is revealed to be going out with Gilbert (same one as above) and he tells her that he is planning on going to England (as soon as he finds enough money). Celia, in front of Hortense, loudly exclaims that she is going to go to England and that all her dreams will come true. Hortense is so jealous and infuriated that she tells Gilbert a very important secret about Celia that ends Celia’s relationship with Gilbert. She then offers to Gilbert the money he needs to go to England as long as he marries her and sends her to England after he finds a house and a home for them. Gilbert foolishly accepts the offer.

After these two stories, the series goes back to the ‘present’ where:

Gilbert has invited the woman to live with him in his ‘home’, which is Queenie’s house. He ironically is also living with Queenie. It is then heavily implied that Queenie slept with Gilbert and is pregnant with his baby… SHOCK HORROR!

My description is probably not as accurate as is preferred but you can probably find a better synopsis on the internet. Anyway, after all that waffle, your brain is probably a bit frizzled, but the show was fantastic with some very realistic and smooth acting and some very authentic settings and buildings. I have not yet read the novel upon which it is based on but I am planning on reading it so I can see how the television adaption and the novel are similar. I very much enjoyed Small Island and am SO looking forward to the next episode. Apparently, in the next one, Bernard comes back and so does Michael… either way... it should be amazing judging from the first episode.

Usually, I would not have watched such a show as it was on a tad bit late and also I should be revising my maths test, but the fact that Benedict Cumberbatch was in it really drew me in. I do love him (see my below post on him). The final episode is next Sunday- Don’t Miss It!

I shall be continuing my love for the British and shall inform all of you of any new television shows that I watch. Luther on the ABC is pretty good, so is Spooks. I shall know of more once the holidays kick in!

Tata for now!

Cello xx

Benedict Cumberbatch and the British TV

Hi all,

BC as Sherlock

I know I rarely ever post on this lovely thing but there just happens to be ONE thing that I just had to share with some people. :D

It’s a certain actor called BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH! OMG! He is tre cute… very lovely and a BRILLIANT actor. If it were not for the fact that he smokes…. He would be perfect J But let us not forget that he is with one Olivia Poulet… a very beautiful actress who makes a cameo as Amanda the secretary in the 2^nd Sherlock Season 1 Episode: The Blind Banker.

It was the television series Sherlock that first got me to notice him :O. But this role is certainly not his most acclaimed. Other media things that he has been in include:

Best photo of BC ever

1.      The crazy rapist in Atonement (Paul Marshall)

2.      The STAR of the Last Enemy

3.      The Ends of the Earth- Edmund Talbot

4.      William Carey- The Other Boleyn Girl J

5.      Stephen Hawking in… you guessed it… Hawking

6.      Quadrillions of Theatre roles J

He has lately been in ‘After the Dance’… a very interesting 3 hour epic British play by Rattigan about an alcoholic historian named David Scott-Fowler and his going ons. It has also been announced that he shall be playing, on alternate nights, Dr. Frankenstein and his monster, opposite Jonny Lee Miller, in a stage production of Frankenstein.

Unfortunately for me I live in the lonely land of Australia where the population has decided that it prefers dramatic American TV series to the wonderful and terrific Television of the British people. I cannot stress how much I prefer Agatha Christie and JK Rowling to James Patterson and many other popular American authors. While I admit that there are some FANTASTIC American books and media in history, British media and books will always be the dominant in my heart.

Some other fantastic British shows and movies include:

Doctor Who

Movies

1.      The Boat That Rocked

2.      Love Actually

3.      Atonement

4.      Notes on a Scandal

5.      Pride and Prejudice

6.      Hot Fuzz

TV:

1.      Miss. Marple

2.      Poirot

3.      DOCTOR WHO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4.      The Mighty Boosh (bit wacky but worth a look)

There are tonnes more… but I can’t think of them off the top of my head. L

Unfortunately, as I live in Australia, nearly all British TV gets routed to ABC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Sherlock is one of the few British shows that go on commercial channels. While the ABC broadcasts AMAZING shows (the Librarians, We Can Be Heroes etc.), any show that gets aired on it gets little to no attention at all. Doctor Who, one of the most respected shows of all time, gets almost no viewers when compared to the commercial channel viewers.

Una Stubbs

Sherlock, which happened to be one of the best TV series of all time, received hardly any recognition here in Australia even though it was on Channel 9, a much respected channel. It was far too understated and under-promoted for such an amazing series and it clearly did not receive the acknowledgement it deserved. Most of my friends don’t even know who Benedict Cumberbatch, Una Stubbs or Martin Freeman are.

Anyway, I shall stop complaining and just move on… even if it will do my head in. I am very much looking forward to next year when the second series of Sherlock gets released and we finally get told what happens to Watson and Sherlock!!!!!!!!! EXCITING! I am praying for something that involves Mycroft… gotta love Matt Gatiss! Or even Molly, or even Sarah or Lestrade… gosh… now I’m wishing that Rupert Graves appeared more… he appears far more in the pilot than in the actual first episode… one of the many things that makes mw wish they aired the pilot… though the first 90 minute one was in fact better :D

GO SHERLOCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! See you all later!

Cello x