Food and Wines, in England, New Zealand and Australia

I would go from now to the past. 

I intend to introduce this in my book "Vegetarian Saga" as an addendum.

Regarding wine, I now shun all types of alcohol, since all spirits contribute to dementia (read my pieces here on dogs and dementia, for in depth analysis) and loss of memory. Even though, I can remember the spelling, I tend to miss the appropriate word without a Dictionary and Thesaurus, by the side of me. My vocabulary has gone up tremendously but American words like filibustering and gubernatorial are alien and not to my liking at all. 

Internet Dictionary with AI support is horrible.

Australia has a biwildering collection of wines. We were to select a wine as a gift and we could not do that for about 2 hours. I was a beer drinker in Ceylon and my favorite was Gin and Tonic before a billard game at the Faculty Club at Peradeniya Golf Club (it is no more due to Children Hospital). 

I stop drinking beer in UK and gradually learned to pick good wines that came from France. British are beer drinkers by all counts. Regarding New Zealand, in 1990s they had the worst collection of wines.

Let me jump to bread, butter and milk. 

I tasted the best bread in New Zealand, Greymouth over the weekend. It may be that the Irish Baker was an expert in his trade. I have never tested such delicious bread in all my life. 

I do not like sweet tasting cakes except perhaps chocolate cakes. 

Australia has wide variety of pastry. But nothing to beat Singaporean croissants, cinnamon rolls and cheese cakes, I enjoyed in Singapore for 10 days when they opened a new City Hall. They were expensive and fabulous but after 1PM the prices came down to one Singapore dollar per piece, for each item left unsold. It ended abruptly and I was there for only 3 weeks. In my living memory Singaporeans take the gold for bread and pastry. 

I have not bean to France but always ask for French bread and croissants whenever I had to be in a Hotel in UK. I do not think British can make good French bread. 

They call it baguette in France that is all I can remember in my French lessions in Ceylon. La pain is the name for bread and Ceylonese Pan and Patties come from that vocabulary, I believe. 

The French name for bakery is boulangerre.

This is all about wine, bread and pastries.

No entry for milk and butter and they taste the same but nothing to beat Manchester Milk.

British Fish and Chips were the best in UK in the 1980s but one cannot find good fish and chip joints in UK, currently.

By they way, I left Ceylon in late 1970s when we were starving in Ceylon (not really only bread was in short supply). 

I think we have come a full circle and people are starving in Ceylon. 

I of course, left Ceylon well in advance having sensed the impending catastrophe.

This was true in late 1970s.

Come to think about it, in my previous lives I may have treated my fellow beings with good food, unlike Ranil and his clan.

How to Prevent Dementia?

How to Prevent Dementia?

 

I do not think dementia is an invariable accompaniment of Old Age but part of the Total End Organ Failure  that is determined by Cell Cycle Events and the inability to Heal or Repair, lost cells.

  

Healing and Repair are inherent processes which we are born with (it cannot be upgraded).

 

One is free to share this with kith and kin.

This piece is in development stage.

If one modifies the contents one is responsible (copyright) for his or her own vagaries.

I am a scientific man and nothing is granted (do not take any concept as acceptable until proven otherwise) as real or fully understood.

Apply cause and effect principle as the driving force with Kalama Sutta as the safeguard for any diversion in focus of attention.

Let me take the putative causes first.

1. Lack of proper sleep (in reality disturbance of diurnal melatonin secretion).

Early to rise and early to bed is bottom line.

2. Alcohol consumption on regular basis as a energizing tonic. 

 

Alcohol is a universal cell poison including neurons.

3. Over use of cellphone that effect on and off switch of brain frequencies. 

It is much complicated than this (plasticity of brain is a misnomer).

Living under giant Telecom Towers even affect grassing cattle.

Computers and Television Screens are included in this frequency modulation effect.

4. Too much attention to Meditation and physical inactivity (means lack of physical exercise). 

Walking meditation is probably better than sitting meditation.

I have documented cases.

5. Fifth is most abundant and damaging.

Strict conformity to a bizarre religious dogmatism that can cause Third World War.

Currently it is in active mode.

6. Some medicinal derivatives, especially cholesterol lowering drugs. 

Drug companies are hiding these facts and I have documented this elsewhere in detail.

7. Ayahuasca consumption with Spiritual upliftment (in fact a grand delusion). Delusional states are as worse as dementia.

8. Consumption of beef. 

This is related to Amyloid Proteins which are not broken down to amino acids and deposited in brain in nano quantities to begin with.

Their ongoing assimilation to bigger molecules is automatic and do not need catalytic activity of enzymes.

Read the next item.

8. Certain viruses cause brain damage. Savages in Papua New Guinea known for cannibalism who eat brains of the victims harbour (long names which I have forgotten) these viruses.

This virus was generally named as Mad Cow Disease Virus.

Mrs. Thatcher in 1980s as the PM in UK suppressed this Scientific Information deliberately.

I was in UK during this period and left UK never to return.

Ready made Remedies 

1. Avoid above putative causes and have 8 or 9 hour sleep rhythm.

Power snooze (nap) of one (1) hour on the desk is mandatory at least for university students and school children.

In practice 4 hours of Deep Sleep is enough and Lord Buddha was a good exponent of this strategy and he used his waking hours to the benefit of mankind.

By the way, he walked length and breath of India. 

Sleep less and work more for your fellow beings. 

Do not work like Ceylonese Civil Servants. 

8 hours with big lunch and prolong absence from the desk on working hours.

Better skip lunch.

 

Memory which I have NOT discussed here is established in these 4 hours of Deep Sleep. 

Breaking Sleep and overnight cramming is BAD. 

I never had this habit and slept well the day before the examination (bit difficult at first but one has to cultivate it gradually)

2. Use plenty of pol sambol (kernel) or coconut oil for food.

Coconut fat has medium change fatty acids and are readily metabolized. 

Do not contribute to obesity.

 

Besides, the ketone bodies provide ready made energy even for dementia patients.

It is a fact.

Coconut water (has an excess of potassium) is iso-osmottic and provides electrolytes in a suitable package.

3. Missing one meal out of three (single good meal strategy) with a good breakfast. Hunter gatherer survived on one meal.

A good banana and a good cup of Ceylon Tea (not coffee) for breakfast are adequate.

Too much Tea effects your SLEEP.

4. Regular Exercise at least twice a week.

5. Lots of Fruits and Vegetables with antioxidants including Cashew Nuts.

Cashew is a mild aphrodisiac which one of our previous Residents demanded in Sri-Lankan Airline.

 

I prohibit this delicacy to Presidents and Prime Ministers.

Bottom line is, the temporary loss of memory is an early sign of Dementia and that is the time for one to act and not later.

This transient memory loss comes after 30 years and certainly after 45 years and is probably related to prolonging (lag) of late cell cycles in a strict 50 Cell Cycles Events in Biology. 

Astroglia has some role in this.

 

To learn about the cell cycle read my book on three demented dogs, coming after the Ceylon Elections.

This is the summary of the 1st chapter on Three Dogs with Dementia funded by none other than Maha Brahma, himself.

Humour (not political satire) is the best Medicine and this is what we lack during our extended Election Campaign.

By the way, I sleep well in my retirement.

There is some relationship (brain activity) of calcium metabolism which I do not understand in memory channels or networks. 

I think vitamin D has some relationship which we do not lack in Ceylon (probably early morning hours, later in the day there are more UV light damage).

In the West taking Vitamin D supplement is mandatory.

There is special Vitamin supplement for those who are over 50.

Vitamin B1 and B6 are vital for brain function and Hemoglobin level is also important.

In my case, I have too much of it from early days of my life probably related to sports activity. 

I do not think I have an understanding real tumour.

From Me to Mr. Bill

 From Me to Mr. Bill

This is an old blog post (2011) of mine in asokaplus www.wordpress.com, which I would like to post again.

This is my adaptation from an Email, I received.

I am currently studying birds and bill is appropriate for pecking.

Dear Mr.Bill
This letter is from so and so to so and so.
I bought a computer recently and unfortunately I found the following problems.
1. When I connect to the Internet and opened the e-mail and whenever I type my name I get a CAGE called password and a number of asterisks ****** .
I leave the asterisks and type my password in the rest of the fields.
As soon as I type letters appear as true to form and nothing else happens afterward.
I do not know how to solve this problem.
I checked with the hardware vendor (Kandy) and he checked the keyboard and said it has no problems.
I got a brain wave and opened the email with the word password and asterisks ***** but that did not work.

2. When I click the "Shut down" button I am unable to do anything else afterwards with the computer.
I thought the computers work 24 hours without a break and without any complaints.
Please let me know how to solve this problem.

3. However, there is a button called "Start" but there is no button called "Stop" when I want to go to the loo.
I request you to solve this problem.

4. I find there is a 'Run' button in the menu ( I don't want to have runs after a meal-diarrhoea- especially the type of meal called "On the go", I have in my office).
One of my friends told me I should do a run in the evening after sitting long hours in front of the TV screen learning new computer techniques and concepts.

5. Click and Run is dangerous even in Kandy with so many "Bills on the Beat" with  AK45s in their hands.
I don't like to run.
Please change it to "Sit and Wait".

In fact, I do this when I have a problem with my computer.
I believe even the ordinary citizens do the same thing ("Sit and Wait Patiently") nowadays especially when they come to Colombo for some work.

6. I would prefer a "Bicycle" with a click of a button instead of a "Pizza" available in the system.
With petrol going up that is good for my health and my purse.
As I find only "Re-cycle" and that is a gross oversight by the computer wizards of America.

7. By the way for people who have money and a scooter another option called "Re-scooter" is desirable.
Unfortunately I do not own a scooter.

8. The 'Find' button is not working properly.
My wife lost the door key and we tried a lot to find the the key with this "Find" button but it was not possible.
Is it due to a bug?

9. Every night my sleep is disturbed since the Cat come looking for the "Mouse" at odd hours in the night.

I propose you should make a game called Cat, Mouse and the Dog and ask the Disneyland to train all the domestic cats , dogs and mice to play this game without killing each other like the humans do.
We humans can learn from this game a few earthly visions.

10. My child likes to learn the Microsoft Word now. 
It is better one should develop the Grammar and the Sentence Structure since our children are very poor in English as a language.

How we lost the Electronic Stores-USA

Guy like me who was a gadget maniac has posted the true reasons for disappearance of Gadget Stores.

1. Online Stores

2.  Cellphone 

3. Price Level

The items were 10 times expensive and the seller had a big margin of profits.

I need to add another fact.

Outsourcing production facilities to Taiwan.

With low cost wage structure in Asia, American could not complete.

This is the same problem Presdent Donald Trump would face in his America First initiative.

Is Elon Musk going to use AI technology to counter?

NO.

China already has DeepSeek in their possession.

Tamils and Chetti and Singala Origins

Thu, Feb 20, 2025 

Tamils and Chetti and Singala Origins

I can remember Rukmanie Devi and Edi Jayamanne. She came to Ceylon and my mother wanted to see her live (not performance). It was a stampede and I never went see a film until the Western Films started coming to Ceylon.

Nada is my batch mate and is a Forensic Guy who would not utter anything, without checking historical facts

Only highlighting and capitalization in this piece is my editing.

Kasinathan Nadesan
  
To my knowledge they came from Chettinadu in Madurai district, Tamils and Hindus. 

Also we had Telungus including last king of Kandy. 

But these Telungus came from Tamil Nadu, spoke Tamil and Hindus. 

Telungus, ie Nayakas  later became all the well known Singala Nayakas, bandara nayakas and mahanayakas who called themselves as high caste singalese. 

They accordingly changed their religions and languages for convenience and worst some of them became utter racist, against Tamils. 

Many still don't bother to learn the true history of Ceylon, thinking its people are very authentic. Sinhale is one such nonsense. 

If not for Buddha and King Ashoka and the Portuguease, the story would have been entirely different.