Number One Danny gave name to giant company

Number One Danny gave name to giant company

Sharon learned about the fascinating history of the giant French food conglomerate, Danone, when she visited the gourmet fair at Torre Pacheco over the weekend.

Passing by the Danone stand she was quickly attracted by the offer of sampling the company's new premium brand dessert yogurts and was soon tucking into a pot of strawberry flavour. That polished off, she then sampled spoonfuls of chocolate and melon as well.

One of the team at the stall, Jesus, explained that the new yogurts are being introduced to the restaurant market and the brand name is La Guinda. The individual pots are made of attractive plain earthenware. La Guinda will not be sold in supermarkets and shops but it is definitely something to look out for on menus from now on.

Although Danone is a French company, and the world's biggest seller of fresh dairy products, it´s origins are Spanish. Last year the company had global revenues of US$19 billion. The story started with Spain´s Jews being told in 1492 by the inquisitor-general, Torquemada, that they had three months either to convert to Christianity or leave the country. Many took the latter option, becoming known as Sephardic Jews, in the places that they subsequently settled in. One family, the Carassos, moved to Greece. However, at the end of the 19th century or early 20th century, they returned to Spain and settled in Barcelona.

During their time in Greece, they became familiar with yogurt. Isaac Carasso noted that many children in Barcelona suffered from stomach and intestinal problems and he decided in 1919 that yogurt would be an ideal cure and preventative. He began to produce yogurt and sold it, initially, through pharmacies. His son, Danny Carasso went into the family business and trained both in bacteriology and business in France where interest in yogurt quickly expanded. Again, the Jews were persecuted and in 1941 the Carassos had to flee to the Untied States. They established their brand there as well. After the end of the war the family returned to Europe and started to expand Danone.

The name Danone came from Isaac’s fond nickname for his son – Danny. This is Danon in the Catalan spoken in Barcelona. In the US the brand is known as Dannon. Jesus explained that the “one” in Danon probably came from the fact that Danny was the first son or “number one.”

Today Danone products can be found in virtually every country on the planet and the health-giving benefits of yogurt are universally appreciated. The wonderful properties of yogurt are illustrated by the fact that Daniel Carasso only died a couple of weeks ago – at the age of 103.

So, what is the expert view on the new La Guida premium line from Sharon? “It is absolutely delicious. It is not like the yogurt I know; it is more like thick double cream with fresh fruit in it. There´s no question of any sort of sour taste like you sometimes get with yogurt. I will certainly be looking out for it on menus for it from now on and asking waiters if they have it in stock. I only wish I could buy it in the shops and use it in my fruit smoothies at home, which would then be creamies.”

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©Phillip Bruce 2009

Snoozy Sam

Sometimes an old dog needs a snooze and there is no place so far as our Golden Labrador Sam is concerned that can beat his beloved old bed.

Sam traveled to Spain in the bed in the back of the car as we drove across Europe and spent months driving thousands of miles looking for a new home. The bed and mattress are a bit battered now but Sam loves them. Whenever he feels tired, he slopes off for a quick kip and at nighttime he snores away happily dreaming doggie dreams in his beloved bed.

OK, it´s a bit tight as he is larger than he was when he first arrived, and so sometimes he sleeps, especially if it is hot, with his head hanging out and resting on the cool tiles. That´s the way to siesta.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009

Refresh with a fizz or two

Now the hot weather is very definitely here many people feel the need for something refreshing towards the end of the morning and there is no better pick me up than a decent fizz.

Fizzes are invigorating cocktails that appeared in the 1870s and the trick is to shake everything together before adding soda or other sparkling ingredients. It´s a good idea to keep the soda and glasses in the fridge to make sure that things are really cold with a lovely frosted appearance. They should be drunk as soon as they are made and not allowed to stand about in the hot sunshine.

Hong Kong, where we lived for many years, once had a famous madame, Maud Jones, who ran a house at Lyndhurst Terrace full of comely Australian actresses. The ladies were very popular with the gentlemen and there was a discreet chit system whereby pleasures could be enjoyed and bills settled at the end of the month. Maud liked a drink, and the Hong Kong Fizz was one of her favourites. Legend has it that she would down nine of these a day.

Here´s how to make Maud´s favourite:

Ingredients

One and a half measures of vodka
One and a half measures of gin
Half a measure of Benedictine
Half a measure of Yellow Chartreuse
Half a measure of Green Chartreuse
Half a measure of lemon juice
Four measures of soda water (plain, unflavoured, soda water)
Half a measure of caster sugar

Dissolve the sugar in the other ingredients and shake before adding to a tall frosted glass half filled with ice. Top up with soda and pop in a straw.

Daiquiris are another type of cooling long drink and astute observers of the markets will have noticed the appearance of piles of lush fat peaches, which can only mean one thing – Peach Daiquiris.

Ingredients

One and a half measures of white rum
One measure of peach schnapps
One third of a peach, skinned
Half a measure of sugar syrup
Three quarters of a measure of lime juice
Half a measure of pineapple juice.

Put everything in a blender and whiz until smooth, add a bit of crushed ice and blend again very quickly. Pour into a tall frosted glass and served with a slice of peach on the rim and a straw.

To make sugar syrup all you have to do is heat an equal quantity of water and sugar in a pan for a couple of minutes until the sugar is dissolved. Allow to cool and then pour into a bottle for storage.

“A measure” is usually 25ml or 0.9 of a fluid ounce.


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©Phillip Bruce 2009.

Cartagena´s Rodin treasure

Murcia´s new Museum of Modern Art has just opened in Cartagena and a remarkable exhibition of the sculptures of Auguste Rodin is running throughout the summer.

Frenchman Rodin has been described as the most influential sculptor since Michelangelo and the collection of his works now on display belongs to the Museo Soumaya-Fundación Carlos Slim. Carlos Slim is a billionaire and Mexico´s richest man.

Even people who are not great art fans will probably recognize Rodin´s works, such as The Thinker, The Kiss and The Burghers of Calais when they see them. All these works are featured in the exhibition at the museum, known as MURAM, which has been open for less than a month and which can be found in the Plaza de la Merced in the centre of Cartagena.

One fan of Rodin described the exhibition as wonderful, adding: “If this exhibition was being run in Madrid, Paris or London, there would be a huge amount of interest with big crowds and long waiting times.” This is the first time that the exhibition has been seen in Europe. Rodin´s sculptures are alive with life and movement and the works of other sculptors who influenced him are also on display, including those of his lover and inspiration Camile Claudel. Rodin lived from 1840 to 1917 and was fascinated by the human body.

One of the most interesting aspects of the museum´s services is that special visits can be arranged by appointment for people who are blind or disabled. As Sharon is both, this was definitely something for her. Arriving at the museum we were greeted by art expert Marie Angeles who knows everything there is to know about Rodin and who explained wonderfully all aspects of the sculptor´s story and his works. The museum is housed partly in a new building and partly in the old Aguirre house, the former home of a wealthy local mine owner and industrialist with its richly decorated Rococo façade. The architect has done a great job and there are no problems at all for people in a wheelchair. After washing her hands Sharon was able to feel the parts of the statues that were in reach and sense for herself the energy that flows through the bronze forms

Sharon said: “I can´t believe I was able to touch famous works of art. I have been in art galleries and museums all around the world and it is the first time I have had a very knowledgeable guide who pointed things out to me that I would never have thought of. I was absolutely fascinated. I found it a great help to be able to actually touch the sculptures.

“Marie Angles told me all about The Kiss, which shows a loving couple embracing for their first and possibly only kiss. This is probably based on the story of cousins Paolo and Frencesca in Dante´s Divine comedy. They were reading the tales of King Arthur and of the love between his Queen Guinevere and Lancelot. Inspired by this, Paolo and Francesca kissed for the first time. But this was followed, of course, by tragedy.

“The Thinker is another sculpture I know about. On many occasions it is brought into complete ridicule in cartoons – where the cartoonists feature the man sitting on the toilet. But the statue is terrific, full of power and strength.

“As a disabled person in a wheelchair I was thoroughly impressed with the ease with which I was able to move around the entire museum, with lifts, wide corridors, ramps and plenty of space. Obviously, the designers deserve a big pat on the back for their consideration.

“Even if, like me, you are not a great culture vulture you shouldn´t miss this exhibition. It is so well thought out and presented. There is plenty of information in English about everything.

“Thank God I wasn´t trying to see this exhibition in a major art gallery in one of Europe´s capitals as I would have never have got near enough to anything, let alone touch. When this exhibition turns up in years to come in Madrid, Paris or London, for example, I can say: ´I went to that that years ago. I´ve already done that. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.”

La Era De Rodin, Museo Regional De Arte Moderno (MURAM), exhibition runs from 29 April to 20 September, 2009. Plaza de La Merced, 16. Telephone 968 501 607.Other Rodin sculptures are also on display at the Museo del Teatro Romano, opposite Cartagena´s restored town hall. All the captions and information, and the catalogue, feature English as well as Spanish.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.

Hungry gourmets head for Torre Pacheco

Anyone who wants to find out more about the delicious gourmet treats of Murcia should head to the IFEPA showgrounds at Torre Pacheco over the weekend. The Murcia Gourmet 2009 fair is being held there from Saturday to Monday, June 1.

There will be hundreds of exhibitors and the event has been divided into three main areas – for food, for wine and for hotel and restaurant equipment and services. The organizers promise that there will lots to interest anyone who loves the good life. The admission charge is six euros and the IFEPA facility is just outside the town of Torre Pacheco with lots of yellow signs to direct. There is plenty of parking. The doors open at 10.30am and things run through till about 9pm with no siesta. See www.ifepa.es.

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©Phillip Bruce

Fighting to keep the water supply

Rolling along the pavement of the dual carriageway that separates the old and new parts of the city of Cartagena today Sharon stopped in her wheelchair to put on a rain cape to protect against a sudden shower.

By coincidence, this stop took place outside the lovely El Regidor building. This was built between 1902 and 1904 to the plans of the architect Tomás Rico Valarino and, said the sign, it is eclectic in construction and decoration.

A short distance away, the rear of the old city rises up and in ancient times the whole of the area where the El Regidor building stands was under water as part of a huge lagoon that protected the northern approaches to Cartagena. Not always effectively, as the Roman marines of Scipio forded it when the tide was low on a moonlit night some 2,200 years ago. They waded through the water to take the city from the rear after Hannibal had left with his elephants and mercenaries to sack Italy.

At the start of the last century it became apparent that the devastating fevers, such as malaria and yellow fever, that took such a heavy toll of lives in Cartagena, could be largely attributed to the mosquitoes and swamps of the lagoon. So, a scheme was drawn up to drain the lagoon and use the resulting land for new housing and development. The lovely building, on the south side of the junction of Calles Alfonso XIII and Ángel Bruno, was erected as the first project and it was the sales office for the development company. Today, many people live in the multi-storey residential buildings of the area.

The building is now used as the headquarters for the organization that runs irrigation in the Campo de Cartagena, the Comunidad de Regantes. They must have been glad of today´s rain. A banner was attached to the decorative mirador, or lookout, at the front of the building.

Cartagena, and Murcia Province generally, have suffered from drought and it was only about 30 years ago that a pipeline system was opened that brought water from the Tajo River system to the north to the Segura River system which supplies Murcia and southern areas of Alicante. With that water came huge agricultural expansion, particularly in the Campo de Cartagena and around Mazarrón. In more recent years other thirsty developments included golf courses and residential projects which attracted overseas buyers.

In most countries no-one knows where the water that flows from the tap comes from and a Londoner hasn´t a clue as to whether his tea is made with water from Wales or Wiltshire. It is different in Spain. The provinces have a great deal of power and independence and some, such as the Basque Country and Catalonia would rather not be part of Spain at all. The Tajo River runs through Castilla-La Mancha province, immediately north of Murcia, and the politicians there have decided to write into their regional constitution a requirement that the water that flows to Murcia and Southern Alicante should be cut off. The water is, apparently, “theirs”, and if there are to be fields of lettuces and golf courses then these are to be exclusively in Castilla-La Mancha.

Naturally, this has outraged the people of Murcia and a vigorous campaign is being waged against this strange regional constitutional change. If it gets passed into law and acted upon then an awful lot of people downstream are going to thirsty and the economic impact will be dire.

Hence, the banner on the El Regidor building which reads “Defend the Transfer Tajo-Segura. NO to the Statute of Castilla-La Mancha.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.

So, what can you see?

Going through ancient family photographs we found a picture of Sharon at the age of one month. She is lying on a comfy pillow with both her big eyes open.

“That´s when I had two eyes,” she said looking at the photograph. In fact, Sharon can only see out of a sliver of her left eye today and has been classified as fully blind by both the Spanish and British health authorities.

If you ask her: “What can you actually see?” she finds it difficult to answer, like most blind people. “I don´t know what I should be seeing so how can I describe it?” she said. Most people think of blindness as like being in a dark room with no light. But most blind can perceive light and dark and patches of shape and colour. Her problems are thought to stem from a hereditary genetic condition called Retinitus Pigmentosa. This centres around the photo receptors of the retina at the back of the eye. Actually, the retina is a part of the brain and the photo receptors contain millions of cells, shaped like rods and cones. In a normal eye fluid rushes in and out of these cells in response to visual stimulus creating electrical signals that are interpreted as sight by the retina and brain. With RP, the cells fail to empty properly and over the years become filled with fluid and useless.

RP is rather an orphan disease. It doesn´t affect anything like as many people as cancer or heart disease so the incentives for research and profitable treatments are not large enough to attract major interest from the commercial companies who develop such cures. To be fair, it is profit that provides the cash for cures. RP is a genetic disease and, therefore, it is activity like stem cell research that provides the best hope of breakthroughs. It is a hereditary, chromosome-linked, disease, usually passed down through the male line. Sharon is unusual in being an affected female and it has been speculated in the past that there is an outside chance that her condition is not RP at all – but it shares identical symptoms. Sharon has been told that it was triggered by catching measles when she was 18 months old. “Having an operation,” “Getting special glasses” “Taking diet supplements and vitamins” are no use when it comes to dealing with RP. The retina, or TV screen, is bust.

When down, Sharon, wonders why, with RP, she should have been set a stroke to cripple her as well. But, with her mighty spirit she concentrates on getting on with life as it is rather than as it should be. She is interested in everything, except “boring subjects” such as those that interest her husband, talks all day and loves meeting friends.

Let´s ask Sharon some questions:

Question: “So, what can you see?

Answer: “Colours. Things are blurry looking but if someone tells me what is there or I know already I can sort of work it out in my mind what it is supposed to look like. For example, if I know there is a door there, then I expect to see a big brown patch because the door is meant to be there. I can´t read at all, no matter how big the print is. Because I don´t know what is there I don´t know what I am supposed to be seeing, so I can´t see it. When I am eating I use smell to identify things on the plate. I have no depth of vision, so steps are a nightmare for me, because I don´t know how deep they are. Everything looks flat to me, like a painting on a wall.

Question: “Can you recognize people in a room or passing in the street?”

“No. I recognize people by their sounds of their voices. When I am sitting with a group of people, that is how I work out where people are – by where their voices are coming from. When I could walk, people often commented: ´You walked right past me the other day. What´s the matter? ´ It used to upset me that sometimes people would think I was snooty or being rude and had deliberately not spoken to them.

Question: “What about facial expressions in people who are talking to you? “

Answer: “No, I can´t see them at all. So, if people are making jokes or saying certain things, I sometimes miss this. Or I misunderstand what they mean, sometimes taking things seriously when they are only kidding.

Question: “Can you see the television?”

Answer: I am lucky enough to have a big TV and I can follow what is going on by what people are saying and not by the pictures on the screen. But I often miss lots because I can´t see things so I must miss loads. After all these years I am quite used to it now. I hate it when in dramas they hold up bits of evidence or notes and say what they are or read them out. I recently complained to the BBC about a news item about a new wonder wrinkle cream. The jar was actually shown on the screen but the whole story didn´t once mention the name out loud. I´ve had no response from the BBC.

Why don´t you get a blind dog?

“If we can sell our house and farm and move back to the UK, I will definitely get one. The blind dog people are standing by and will give me a dog. When told that I was in a wheelchair they said: ´We have dogs for blind people in wheelchairs, ´ which was a surprise. Old Sam, my lovely old Golden Labrador, will probably like having someone young around.”

Sharon said: “If anyone wants to ask any other questions about being blind, don´t worry, ask away. I won´t be embarrassed, I have been blind for so long it is part of my way of life. I talk about it as it is just something natural for me. I have no worries whatsoever about discussing it. My husband does the typing and editing on this blog for me.”

For more information about RP see: www.brps.org.uk.

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.