Cold Remedies

Winter is notorious for colds and flu. It is common knowledge that there is no cure for the common cold, you pretty much just have to ride it out, mucus, headaches and all. You can, however, dose yourself with different drugs and homoeopathic remedies that are said to help alleviate the various symptoms of cold & flu, to make the duration of your illness just that little bit more manageable. The actual performance of these cold remedies can vary massively, so in honour of Hot Toddy Day & Hot Tea Month, I will test some of these reputedly remedial drinks, and judge them on both their taste and effectiveness. I don't believe I have tried any of these drinks before, so this will be my introduction to them all. I will try to be as unbiased as possible, but ill brain does not always do as it's told.

So let us begin with the Hot Toddy. The origins of this drink are unclear, however it seems most likely that it was invented in Scotland in the 18th century as a drink for women, who tended not to be keen on the rough taste of the scotch during this period. The contents of this drink are only very loosely defined, and so presumably the taste and supposed health benefits can vary wildly from Toddy to Toddy. Although unproven, it is claimed the a Hot Toddy can soothe a sore throat and dry cough, and work as a sedative. I chose to make mine with the below ingredients, and I used this recipe courtesy of about.com;

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Total Time: 5 minutes

Yield: 1 Cocktail

Ingredients:

• 1 oz brandy, whiskey, or rum
• 1 Tbsp honey
• 1/4 lemon
• 1 cup hot water
• 1 tea bag

Preparation:

1. Coat the bottom of a mug or an Irish coffee glass with honey.
2. Add the liquor and the juice of the lemon quarter.
3. On the side, heat water in a tea kettle and add the tea bag to make hot tea.
4. Pour the steaming tea into the glass and stir.

Verdict:

We chose rum, it being the preferred short of everyone present. The tea used was (unsurprisingly) Yorkshire tea, a good strong blend. I also chose to just put an unjuiced small lemon slice in each cup, so each person could choose how lemony they wanted their drink to be, and added a clove to each cup while steeping for flavour. This drink went down well with with all, my dad included n.b. My dad notoriously hates all alcoholic drinks that are not a standard pint of lager, and so for him to offer this drink praise is a notable gold star worthy of mention for the benefit of hot toddys everywhere. My boyfriend Tom also tends to hate all warmed drinks, preferring just to drink a couple of pints of water every few hours (not for any specific health reasons, just as a straightforward, hassle-free way of avoiding dehydration)and he also gave it a thumbs up. Tom has had a terrible cough recently, and I did notice that this drink did significantly calm his cough down for up to an hour afterwards. Upon further experimentation, it seems as though this drink works well with pretty much any combination of suggested ingredients.  Plus, it was nice and easy to prepare & had a lovely taste :) 8/10

Dad's seal of approval

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Tea Tasting Round 2

In keeping with the remedial theme of this post, today's teas have been chosen not for their professed ability to stave off a cold, but for having the same flavourings as Lemsip medicinal drinks. Lateral thinking or ill brain malfunction, you decide! Blackcurrant tea went first; what I could smell of it through my bunged up nose was lovely, but when sipped it had a rather bland and uninteresting taste. This drink can apparently help in the prevention and treatment of diseases as serious as asthma and cancer(!) It did seem to stop me from sniffling quite so much, but that could easily be attributed to an increase in core body temperatures or any other of a number of factors, so I remain unconvinced. It maybe would have been nicer sweetened with honey or something similarly sugary, but I am not accustomed to sweetening my teas so I didn't bother. I'm in no rush to have another cup. 4/10

My cup of citrus tea again had a pleasant and reassuringly strong lemony smell. But after my earlier disappointment with the blackcurrant tea, I remained wary. It tasted acceptable enough, but  it was nothing special, unfortunately. I found no noticeable change in myself after finishing my drink, remaining as mildly ill as ever. Lemon tea can reputedly help to cleanse the body and energise the mind, very broad claims which make me immediately distrustful. All other health claims seem to mirror those of Green tea, which ultimately I find to be a nicer and more enjoyable drink. I think I'll stick to eating my citrus, thanks. 6/10

Science Time! Start Static

Science seems to be in the midst of a resurgence in popularity. Lots of exciting science headlines have been making the news recently; a potential cure for deafness has been discovered, we've had the Curiosity rover exploring the surface of Mars, and crazy skydiver Felix Baumgarter jumping from the edge of space, to name but a few. An interest in Science, Maths, or even film and video games has gone from being something to be derided to something to aspire to, even for teenage girls. It's becoming cool to be a geek. 

Although geeky in some ways, I myself am not in any way a scientist.  I've read the odd issue of New Scientist and Bill Bryson's excellent A Short History of Nearly Everything, but that's pretty much the extent of it, and most of the information I gleaned has leaked out again by now. The only information that my brain seems to have retained is that Yellowstone National Park is a mahoosive sunken volcano and if it erupts...

Not the most useful information to store away in the old cranium. Today just happens to be National Static Electricity Day. The choice of date seems to have no significance whatsoever, and the holiday seems to be designed just to make more people (mostly schoolchildren, I would imagine) learn about static electricity. My entire knowledge bank of information related to this subject is essentially just that if you rub a balloon on your hair then your hair will stick to it. Oh, and sometimes if you get charged you can give your friends (or enemies) tiny static shocks. The end.

So, instead of trawling the internet looking for a slightly better explanation of how static electricity works, I decided to ask my boyfriend to explain it to me, in layman's terms;

'When non-conducting materials rub together, electrons pass between the two materials, resulting in one becoming negatively charged and the other relatively positive. These electrons can later pass on to other conducting materials, discharging the material and occasionally resulting in a shock and/or spark.

So why does this cause your hair to levitate when it is holding a static charge?

'This happens because when hair becomes highly negatively charged it repels itself, and because hair weighs so little the charge is enough that the hair can defy gravity and actually stand up on end.'

Dropping the science like a bad man! So there you have it. If the wise words of my other half are not enough to satisfy your curiosity about static, more information can be found here, and I've also found a clip online of everybody's favourite Bill Nye the Science Guy explaining the science of static.

So yeah, get involved with a Van der Graaf generator, or alternatively go rub a balloon on your head or something. Celebrate the science!

Shortbread, Tea and Cuddles

The month of January is Hot Tea Month! (Cue applause) Now, while we all know everyone loves a good cuppa (if you don’t, then gtfo, fool!), most people drink tea all through the year, so what is so special about January? Well, the internet wasn't very forthcoming on the specifics of this, so I'm just going to assume it’s because January is very cold and there’s nothing nicer than having something lovely and warm to hold while you slowly metamorphosize into an icy stalagmite. As the second most consumed beverage in the world (after water, obviously) and one of the oldest drinks known to man, tea has played a very important role in society around the world, both historically and today. On my travels across the internet I found a really interesting tea timeline that goes all the way back to 2737 BC, which is apparently when tea was first discovered in China by Shen Nung, the Second Emperor. People have been drinking this delicious beverage for a very long time. I wasn’t initially entirely sure how to celebrate this ‘month of tea’, but upon investigation it appears that the purpose of this celebration is for people to explore the diverse and surprisingly extensive world of tea, expanding their horizons beyond the safe supermarket standard brew.

As a medium to heavy tea drinker, I will be the first to admit that usually I hedge my bets and stick with my standard cup of Yorkshire tea (splash of milk, no sugar) but I have dabbled in other teas, with the odd cup of green, chai or chamomile. Though I have usually tended to enjoy these ‘novelty’ teas, I have unerringly always returned to the old favourite. On top of this, I have rarely bothered to investigate to find out information about any kind of alternative tea other than whether milk is recommended with it or not. Thus, I shall be delving deeper into the world of tea than ever before. I will try as many different types of tea as I can, both the variations I have had previously and those I have yet to try (white tea and oolong, I'm looking at you). As I sample the different tea variants, I’ll delve into their fact sheets and try to provide choice snippets along with my own opinion. Loose leaf tea may be on the cards, but we’ll have to see where this month takes me. If I can find the time, I might possibly also even attempt to make some hot tea cocktails or cook with tea. Tea soup, anyone?

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Tea Testing Round 1

Redbush - a Rooibos tea from the Western Cape of South Africa. Rooibos is a relatively young strain, with a history dating back only 300 years. It is completely calorie free, and can be served hot or cold. This brew had a strong, almost tobacco-like smell which I found a little off putting, but the smoky taste was pleasant enough. The aftertaste, not so much. I discovered after drinking that Rooibos is technically not actually a tea, which may account for why I didn’t find it to be entirely excellent. I had mine straight, but my boss drank a cup with milk and sugar and declared it delicious. 5/10

Green Tea has a lovely smell and taste, mellow and refreshing. Green tea is known for it’s health benefits, such as speeding up the metabolism and helping to clear the complexion if consumed regularly, but the internet professes that this tasty beverage also has healing properties, and can even be used as an antibacterial solution, apparently. Who knew?

10/10

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I shall be doing further experiments with tea as the month progresses, but for now what else do we have to celebrate today? Not one, but two of my most favourite things; cuddles and shortbread. If I had to choose between the two, I'd probably choose cuddles, as shortbread, although delicious, is only one of many kinds of biscuit, whereas there is no decent substitute for a good cuddle. Boyfriends and girlfriends are the usual first port of call for such activities, but a good friend can be a perfect cuddle companion too.

You don't even need an actual person to cuddle up, some cuddly toys are excellent. Frank (the gigantic pink dog pictured above) has lived in my bedroom for more than 5 years. Whenever my boyfriend spends the night away from home, I put Frank in his place so I have something soft and warm to cuddle and don't wake up in the night looking for him. Frank has also helped many others, perhaps most importantly my friend & housemate who ended up on the streets of Stratford overnight once, and returned to find Frank waiting for her in her bed to soothe the pain of her ordeal :) Onesies are also great cuddling gear, and kigurumis, like the red panda one I am curled up in below, are even better. However, if you have a paucity of people and things to cuddle up with, cuddling up in bed with a book and a nice warm drink will more than suffice :)

Finally, today is also National Shortbread day. Although shortbread may have come second to a good cuddle in my rankings, this in no way means that I don't still love it. Shortbread was always one of my favourite biscuity treats when I was little. Looking back, this is probably because it is so deliciously sweet and crumbly. Eating shortbread as an adult is always a bit of a guilty pleasure - you know that is is filled with butter and coated with sugar but goddamn it if that doesn't make it an excellent biscuit. Digestives and custard creams pale in comparison (Rich Tea does too, but those tasteless wonders pale in comparison to pretty much any other possible option). Fifteen years ago in the world of Rebecca , the ultimate kind of shortbread was this one...

For the benefit of the uninitiated, the above image shows a Fox's Sports Biscuit. These biscuits always had an image of a little stick man or two doing some kind of sport, presumably in order to encourage fat youngsters to do more sports by eating shortbread. Flawed logic, to be sure, but these biscuits were awesome. I loved them. Whilst looking these up, I discovered that the Fox's biscuit company were originally founded in Batley, an area of my current hometown of Leeds in West Yorkshire, which endeared me to the company somewhat. This effect also came into play when I first discovered Asda were originally a Leeds-based company. Of course, everything is owned bystupidly huge conglomerates now, but it's nice to know some big brands have homely roots in God's Own County. I assumed that the Sports Bicuits had been discontinued years ago as I haven't seen them around for ages, but it seems I must have been walking around with blinkers on, as they still exist, albeit in different form, with silhouettes instead of stick men. Sacrilege! 

I have had plenty of other tasty shortbreads in my time, and many of them come in tartan packaging with some kind of reference to Scotland, so I was always vaguely aware of it's Scottish roots, but I never really knew much about the particulars before now. Mary, Queen of Scots (1542-1587), the famous Queen with no kingdom, was a romantic figure who spent most of her life in captivity, and she is surprisingly often attributed with the invention of shortbread. Records from the time show she was a big fan of 'petticoat tails', a particular cut of short bread cut from a big round and traditionally scored with a fork.

More often than not when a famous and/or important figure is credited with the discovery or indeed invention of something, it proves to be a false claim. Although earlier in this post I credited Chinese Emporer Shen Nung with the discovery of tea, I highly doubt that he discovered it himself. Neither do I think that Kim Jong Il really invented the hamburger. All contemporary records describe Mary as being a very haughty woman with an extremely high regard for herself, and it is highly unlikely that such a woman would deign to even step into the kitchen, let alone spend enough time in the bakery to develop her own biscuit. But still, she loved shortbread enough for it to go down in history, which is pretty cool. Apparently shortbread can trace it's origins back to hundreds of years before Mary;

The story of shortbread begins with the medieval "biscuit bread". Any leftover dough from bread making was dried out in a low oven until it hardened into a type of rusk: the word "biscuit" means "twice cooked". Gradually the yeast in the bread was replaced by butter, and biscuit bread developed into shortbread.

Today, shortbread continues to have traditional uses in Scotland, from being broken across the head of a new bride to celebrate her marriage, to being used as a traditional gift at Hogmany & First Foot Day. Shortbread can picked up with ease from any supermarket, which is definitely what I will be doing today, but if you would like to have a crack at it yourself, various recipes exist, some of which are here. Enjoy ^_^

References

1. Fox’s Sports Biscuit image http://camresb.blogspot.co.uk/

2. History of shortbread quote http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/Scottish-Shortbread/

3. Portrait of Mary Queen of Scots http://www.mcleanscotland.co.uk/MARYQUEENOFSCOTS.asp

4. Petticoat tails image http://www.deansshortbread.com/2011/10/origins-of-shortbread.html

Prelude to Foundation

As a proud bibliophile, I get through a lot of books at quite a fast pace. Although I try to avoid some sub-genres - particularly the omnipresent misery memoirs that seem to have appeared in every bookshop display for the last five years - I will generally read pretty much anything someone puts into my hands, whether it be an 800 page history tome or a shampoo bottle. I do have my preferred genres, however, and I tend to go for historical biography, historical fiction and fantasy predominantly. Fantasy and science fiction are often lumped together, presumably because of the fantastical otherworldly elements of both, but as any fan of either genre will be able to tell you, there are at least as many differences between them as there are similarities.

In short, I have read and watched quite extensive amounts of fantasy but a very limited amount of science fiction. My Dad was a bit of a trekkie so I watched a lot of Jean Luc Picard & Co in the nineties (n.b. tribbles OWN), and I think I managed to get through most of the Dune novels about ten years ago, but aside from this and the music video Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys, that's about it. I am usually enthusiastic about trying new things (it's kind of the whole point of this blog) so I was quite excited to have a nosey around this distorted mirror of one of my favourite genres.

Asimov in 1965

January 2nd was chosen to be science fiction day in honour of Isaac Asimov, a  science fiction writer who chose this date to be his 'official birthday'. Whether this was his real birthday or not is unknown (to me, at least.) Having now researched Asimov quite thoroughly, I feel almost ashamed that I had never known of his existence before now. As it turns out, Asimov was a bit of a dude, and I thoroughly recommend researching him a little yourself, as there is a wealth of information out there and he was a fascinating man that achieved a hell of a lot for just one lifetime;

Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000 letters and postcards.^[3] His works have been published in all ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (although his only work in the 100s—which covers philosophy and psychology—was a foreword for The Humanist Way).^[4]

Even if you have never heard of Asimov, you have more than likely seen at least one interpretation of his work, the most famous of which are the films I, Robot (sponsored by Converse) starring Will Smith and based on a book of the same name, and Bicentennial Man, a Robin Williams film based on one of Asimov's short stories that I remember watching when it originally came out in 1999 but I don't think I've seen again since. These are the only two notable film adaptations of Asimov's works, which is actually quite surprising given his reputation as one of the 'big three' science fiction writers of the 20th century and indeed the sheer volume of his work.

        

As previously mentioned, Asimov has an extensive library of works. Even after narrowing it down to purely his science fiction novels, I was spoilt for choice. Foundation seemed to be his most lauded work, so I turned towards the Foundation saga, and eventually decided to start at the beginning - not with the original Foundation novel, but with the prequel, written much later. Similar situations crop up in fantasy series, usually when a writer has written a much loved book and feels the need to go back and fill the reader in on some the early back story only hinted at in the original books. When given the option I much prefer to read the tale in chronological order according to the novels themselves, as opposed to chronologically according to publication date. When the book arrived, however, I was surprised to discover that it wasn't the first chronologically. In Asimov's foreword, he explains how he has pulled all of his different story arcs together into one timeline, meaning that Prelude to Foundation is the ninth book, not even close to the beginning. Oh well, I tried. It's the first in this particular story arc, at least.

Spoiler alert - sparse plot details; Dr Hari Seldon, a Mathematician from the backwater planet Helicon publishes a paper positing that with complex enough mathematical formulae, and with enough time & data it is theoretically possible to loosely predict the future. He calls this 'psychohistory.' Although Seldon does not at all suggest that this is practical, the paper attracts the attention of numerous important people and organisations across the Galactic Empire, and he is called to the central planet Trantor for an audience with the emperor. Soon afterwards, Seldon finds himself chased through a number of the 800 different sectors of this domed city planet, trying to escape the grasping hands of the empire and it's enemies while also attempting to develop psychohistory into a practical idea that can be implemented to 'save the galaxy'. Asimov begins each section of chapters with an entry from the Encyclopaedia Galactica , a fictional document supposed to exist within the world of the novel. It is a good technique for hinting at the events about to unfold, and an ideal way to draw the reader's attention to a specific character or place in the upcoming section of chapters.

It is a very interesting and quite surreal experience reading old science fiction, as it is essentially a past conception of what the author imagines the future to be. I shall give some choice examples that gave me a start whilst reading. This book was first published in 1988, the year after my birth, and in it Asimov predicts stylus-operated tablet computers, or microcomputers as he calls them (please excuse my poor quality photography...)

...and also Facebook, or something akin to Facebook. In Asimov's world many thousands of years into the future being searched for online is seen as an invasion of privacy that could easily cause offence. It is interesting to compare that mindset to all the personal information that billions of people choose to share today, less than 30 years after Prelude's publication. 

There is also some racial profiling. In a Galactic Empire encompassing thousands of planets, there are still easterners, westerners and I believe southerners, although the meaning of these epithets are lost in time, they are still apparently also capable of causing discomfort when used. 

Considering Asimov was writing in the not-particularly politically correct eighties, he's not done too badly, and there is nothing really bad in this paragraph unless you are to count the 'overachieving Asian' stereotype insulting. As I said previously, the book is a very interesting read for a number of reasons. Considering the amount of things that happen, there is not actually that much action, and possibly an overabundance of explanation. There is a tendency for Seldon in particular to repeat himself over and over saying the same thing to different people. I understand it serves the purpose of reasoning out the plot but it's not really my cup of tea. I remember what was said twenty pages ago in that other sector, thank you, I don't need it reiterating now. All in all though, I enjoyed reading the book. I was definitely out of my comfort zone, but I was intrigued by many of the concepts Asimov posits, and I do now intend to find out more about Asimov himself, and read more of his works. Thus I declare today a success; it has kindled within me curiosity for this cult genre.

As Asimov himself said; The true delight is in the finding out rather than in the knowing. 

References

Used throughout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Asimov

Asimov in 1965 http://www.jwoolfden.com/asimov.html

Final quote http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/i/isaac_asimov_2.html

Older Asimov http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Creator/IsaacAsimov?from=Main.IsaacAsimov

Hair of the Dog

Today is January 1st, or New Years Day as most people in the western world tend to call it.  But were you aware that the first day of the new year also happens to be National Bloody Mary Day? I'm not quite sure which nation this applies to, but I'm presuming it’s America as that is apparently where this questionable cocktail was invented. Why questionable, you say? I have always been highly dubious of Bloody Mary cocktails as a drink of choice, to the point where I'm not actually sure if  I've actually had one before.  It’s more than possible that I have had the odd drunken sip of someone else’s cocktail, but as everyone knows this must always be done when one goes for cocktails with one’s friends, and one must bear in mind that when one elects to go for cocktails with one’s friends, there is a high chance one will have a very sore head and not remember much of it in the morning, until photos surface on the internet the next day...

...and that was before we went out. If we are to presume that I have in fact never really had a Bloody Mary before, why do I have such a deep distrust of them? Well, let us begin with tomato juice. I LOVE tomatoes, whether raw or cooked, cherry or beef, on or off the vine, as a snack on their own or as part of a bigger meal, I think they’re amazing. When I was a kid my dad used to call me the tomato vampire. Yeah. Tomato juice though? Ugh, no thanks. I have half buried memories of being forced to drink disgusting tomato juice that I hated with a passion (and even, horror of horrors, being given it as a treat that I was expected to be grateful for!) and although this was many, many moons ago I remain unimpressed at the prospect of facing it again.

Regarding vodka, there is only one thing I have to say: vodka always ends badly.

So, let’s move onto the garnishes. Notably, celery and shrimp. No token floppy slice of citrus for this cocktail, oh no. Let’s stick some salad and fish in there instead. I have a tempestuous relationship with celery at best. I like the vast majority of produce out there, and it is only the odd vegetable that I don’t get along with. I make an effort to try and conquer all of my fears and aversions as much as possible, but despite my repeated attempts to train myself to like celery, I still hate it. My personal pride won’t allow me to admit I've been bested by a vegetable, so I keep doggedly buying it, biting it and then throwing it away, but in my heart of hearts I know that celery is evil & (pardon my French) can go fuck itself.

The above picture was sent to me by a friend who knows about my issues with celery. Usually, you can draw a tiny face on pretty much anything and I will love it inordinately, and yet my heart did not melt at this image; if anything it hardened further, becoming even more impenetrable to this most odious of leafy greens. This reaction, possibly above all else, is testament to my deep-seated hatred of celery.

So onto shrimp... I'm trying to get over it my natural distaste but I'm still not keen on fish, and I'm not very good with the idea of eating a creatures face. I've had this fear for as long as I can remember - for years as a child, flying in the face of logic (but then, what use do children have for logic?), I flat out refused to eat a Jelly Baby’s face. I would eat the rest of the Jelly Baby quite happily, but not the face. Never the face. I would get very upset if some other family member went to eat my carefully collected Jelly Baby heads as I didn't want them to die. This reaction was prolific enough within the limited social circles of an 8 year old for me to be teased about it to this day. I've come on in leaps and bounds since then (I ate an entire whitebait last year for the first time, and it was quite a milestone for me ^_^) but I'm still not a fan. Furthermore, I would imagine that shrimp has a similar texture to prawn, and the texture of prawns freaks me the hell out.

Now I’ve got all off my personal prejudices off my chest (I know I sound like a massive hater but I am quite a positive person, I promise, I just have strongly held opinions), we can move on. I find it somewhat apt that January 1st is Bloody Mary Day, as traditionally (and I am using nothing but my own personal experience as reference here) it is known for being a good hair of the dog hangover cure. Thinking about it, it is quite possible that more people are hungover on New Year's Day worldwide than any other day of the year. In fact, today is also International Bad Hangover Day, a holiday that people around the world will be celebrating whether they know it or not, as it mostly consists of rolling around in pyjamas nursing your sore head. Even better, there is actually a website to honour this holiday that consists of nothing other than a up to date stream of publicly available tweets with the hashtags #hangover and #hungover. As far as I'm concerned, both the holiday and the website are excellent.

After doing a little research into the Bloody Mary, I’ve discovered the cocktail's supposed origins. There are various slightly different stories, most of which are unsubstantiated , but they mostly seem to agree that the beverage was invented by a bartender called Fernand Petiot, probably at Harry’s New York Bar in Paris circa 1921. This trendy venue was frequented by the likes of Ernest Hemingway during his time in the French capital in the roaring twenties, and referenced in numerous Ian Fleming novels, most notably in For Your Eyes Only as being the place James Bond was drinking the night he lost his virginity.

I have to admit, I watched Woody Allen’s latest film Midnight in Paris quite recently, and I did get a little swept up in the romance of the period. Paris in the twenties seemed to be a hub of creativity, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it is from this exciting environment that the Bloody Mary originates. Why is is called the Bloody Mary, though? Well, the most obvious answer would be that the drink was named after Mary I of England, the staunchly Catholic Tudor Queen who earned herself the sobriquet 'Bloody Mary' by the widespread persecution of Protestants during her short reign (1553-1558).

Alternatively, it has been suggested that the myth of 'Bloody Mary' was the inspiration for the cocktail's title. If you are unfamiliar with this spooky story you may know it as something else, and aspects of it have appeared all over the place in popular culture; when I was a kid we called it White Lady. It consists of standing in front of a mirror and saying the words 'Bloody Mary' 3 times, (a la Beetlejuice) in order to summon her ghost, which presumably once beckoned comes and rips your head off or something. I'm unsure of the specifics, as the White Lady never actually showed up for us when I was ten. Surprisingly, however, it seems that the name came from somewhere completely different;

He (Petiot) had no idea that his concoction would become world famous when he agreed with the guy in the bar who suggested he call the drink "Bloody Mary." The patron said it reminded him of the Bucket of Blood Club in Chicago, and a girl he knew there named Mary. 

Well, I didn't expect that. As it turns out, this cocktail has got a much more colourful and interesting past than I originally anticipated, and I am definitely willing to put my predispositions aside and give it a go. I will try to be as unbiased as possible...

I opted to forgo the traditional garnishes as it seemed wasteful to pick up a bunch of celery and a packet of shrimp if only one tiny portion of each was going to get used. Therefore I used a slice of lemon as my garnish, as lemon juice is recommended in some recipes. I also added the customary dash of salt and pepper and a reasonable helping of Worcester sauce aka Tabasco sauce for wimps. The result tastes...interesting. It's a cacophony of strong tastes that all fight for dominance in your mouth. I'm not really sure how this drink can be an effective as a hangover cure, unless it it used to induce vomiting from the riot of flavours and how heavily it sits in your stomach. After about 5 mouthfuls I remained unconvinced. To be honest, it felt like I was drinking mildly spicy ketchup, and unfortunately ketchup is pretty much the only other form of tomato I'm not keen on. I tried to persevere, but I had to admit defeat and abandon the attempt after only finishing half of it. Still definitely not the drink for me I'm afraid. Yuk. Maybe next year...

For anyone who would like to celebrate Bloody Mary Day with me, it’s basically just tomato juice and vodka really, but various recipes can be found here.

References
1)Top image of cocktail http://www.lucini.com/recipes/category/breakfast/sensational-bloody-mary
2) Portrait of Queen Mary http://thetudorenthusiast.weebly.com/1/post/2012/07/mary-tudor-becomes-queen-of-england.html
3) Name origin quote http://www.bestbloodymary.com/history.php