Recently I have been on a mission to find somewhere around here that sells :
a) good free range meat.
b) good fresh fish.
I am pleased to announce that I think I have, at last, found two such places. I went to a butcher about 5 -10 minutes away and they sell only free range meat - also game and seem to be a proper, no frills butcher. I have bought some stuff for this week so we shall see.
I have also found a fishmonger. There was a tiny shop near me that had to shut down after the owner died, but it re-opened this week. I went along and the fish they sell is gorgeous ! I bought some hake which they cut from a great big fish and filleted for me. Lovely.
I just want to eat good quality food and I am not prepared to eat the plastic wrapped, homogenised fare that the supermarkets sell. I want better than that.
Well, that's a bit dull isn't it ? Still.....
Anyway - on a far more interesting note - I was listening to the radio today and heard an interview with Frank Gardner. For those of you who don't know, he is the BBC's Security Correspondent and is an expert in Middle Eastern affairs. He was shot in an attack in Saudi Arabia in 2004 and very seriously wounded. His cameraman Simon Cumbers was killed in the attack and Frank Gardner was paralysed, completely from the knees down, but with not very much feeling from the hips down.
I have followed his story closely. I was staying with my cousin in the Lake District the week before the attack and we ended up chatting about him. He and his wife had stayed there recently and my cousin had said what an interesting man he was. Then, lo and behold, the following week came this harrowing shooting. I felt a link with him, albeit a very tenuous one.
It has been great to see him back at the BBC working again as Security Correspondent. He is fascinating to listen to and obviously a very talented and intelligent man. He is also an incredibly determined man, for he works from his wheelchair and sometimes he stands in his calipers to talk to camera.
Today though he was talking about his new job - working on Ski Sunday. Don't think this is instead of the day job, its as well as !! He skied before the shooting and he still skis. How cool is that ?! He was talking about a sort of ski chair device that he uses. Amazing. I can't wait to see the programme.
I am just blown away by people like this man. People who suffer massive trauma and yet have the guts and determination to fight to live, but more, to fight to live life to the full. I don't know if I would have gone back to work, never mind do what Frank Gardner is doing. When you see him he is so unassuming - certainly not a gung-ho hero bulging with muscles like a film star. But, my God, he is an amazing man.
1 comment:
I had never heard of him before but you made me curious.
He really sounds like an incredible person!
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