Right then, today I’ll start with a question.  What are these?

Yes, correct.  They are small sachets of salt and pepper.  Specifically in this case – they are sachets of salt and pepper which I picked up for free in a motorway service station yesterday, and which I intended to consume with the nutritionally questionable pie and chips that I had purchased just moments before.  However, having sprinkled the aforementioned condiments on my meal I then began to read the packaging.  No, I wasn’t reading it because I’m sad, but simply because I was travelling alone and therefore I had very little else to do with my life at that precise moment in time.

It was the title of the packaging that caught my attention; “Lo salt”.

Now we’ll ignore for a moment that the manufacturer can’t even spell the word “Low”, but even when we’ve cast that factor aside there is still a glaringly obvious issue.  What on earth is the point of having low salt salt?  The whole point of the exercise is that it’s salt!  One chooses to use the product because one considers that one has insufficient salt for the activity in question.  It’s like marketing low oil oil, or low wax wax.  Why oh why would anyone want to do it?

Intrigued, I read the packaging further…  Apparently this particular product boasts that it contains 66% less sodium.  I paused mid-mouthful.  So what, I asked myself, was I eating apart from the salt that I wanted?  The packaging, as perhaps you might imagine, failed to provide the required answers so I chose to visit their advertised website and soon found that I was eating one-third sodium chloride and two-thirds potassium chloride, plus some anti-caking agent.  Furthermore, this product has apparently been specifically designed to help lower my blood pressure.  Well guess what Mr or Mrs LoSalt?  My blood pressure is now significantly higher than it ever needed to be; not because of the chemical composition of your product, but because I am now worrying about precisely what your ingredients are doing to my innerds!

What I wanted on my chips was just salt.  Good old-fashioned, plain, simple, sodium chloride salt.  If I want to consume less salt, then I shall adjust my diet in a very quick and simple way; I’ll sprinkle less of the damn stuff on my meal!  Frankly, I think you’ll be forced to agree that my solution is quicker and considerably easier to implement as well.  I’m an engineer and therefore I am taught to make the solution to every problem as simple as possible.  This problem is arguably an extremely simple one, and therefore the solution to it certainly does not require the intervention from a bunch of trumped-up, ponsy, nannying do-gooders who are fascinated by the unnecessary faffing about with the fine details of my diet.  And to add insult to injury, this new miracle wonder-product is doubtless costing the service station a fair amount of cash, which in turn is escalating the cost of my pie and chips.

Well thanks, but kindly stop it.  I want salt – is that clear?  Right, thank you.

It has been a fantastic weekend.  The weather was superb, the folk from Iceland saw to it that there were no disturbances from overhead aircraft, and I had almost nothing better to do than lounge about in the sun.  Or at least that was true until I started playing Kubb.  Now if that means nothing to you, then please read on.

Kubb is a game which is still not terribly well known in the UK, although it seems to be gaining popularity the whole time.  The origins of it are a matter of contentious debate; some say it was invented by the Vikings, and others claim it started in a school in Harrow (near London).  The two stories don’t seem terribly compatible, but frankly I don’t care because the important bit is that it was invented.

Like all good games it’s phenomenally simple, and can be played just about anywhere where you can find a  8 metre x 5 metre flat surface.  Grass is ideal, but a beach or even a paved area would work fine too.  A Kubb set comprises of numerous wooden pieces of various different sizes;  There are six tubular throwing sticks, ten rectangular Kubbs, four corner markers, and a large “King”.

The rectangular playing area is marked out by the four stakes, one in each corner.  The King is placed in the middle of the pitch, and finally a line of five Kubbs is set up between the corner markers at each end of the playing area.

Kubb is a game of two teams comprising of up to six people in each, but if you have fewer players then it makes absolutely no difference at all.  The aim of game is to under-arm throw the throwing sticks to knock over all of the “Kubbs” in front of the opposing team.  Once knocked over, the members of the opposing team have to throw the toppled Kubbs back into your half of the pitch, and they are stood up to become additional targets for your opponent.   Play then switches sides, and the other team attempts to knock over as many Kubbs as possible, starting with the ones which you forced onto their target area.  This simple process continues until there are no more Kubbs left on the opposing half of the pitch for you to knock over, at which point you are allowed to attack the King in the centre which will win you the game.  There are some additional rules which add some cunning twists to the game, and if you’re interested a full set of rules can be found at http://kubb.co.uk/ .

Although it might initially sound simple, it’s actually a game which requires skill, strategy, cunning, and obviously a good aim.  Personal experience has taught me that a plentiful supply of something alcoholic adds to the enjoyment of the experience quite significantly!  Kubb sets are cheap to buy, or if you are handy with wood then you could easily make your own (and probably gain a lot of pleasure from doing so).

Kubb is one of those games which is almost impossible to adequately describe without actually playing it.  It’s roughly comparable to Boules but requires more ingenuity and is considerably better fun.  It’s not athletic, and the mentality required to play it is similar to that of watching cricket.  “Lazy” would be a good word, thus making it a very good way to spend some time in the fresh air doing something very marginally above “bugger all”.

Roll on Summer!