I was at the local fruit and veg supermarket a few weeks ago and happened to walk past a trolley laden with items ‘reduced to clear’. At a first glance they appeared to be a miserable, motley lot, packaged haphazardly with prices scrawled carelessly over the plastic wrap. Clearly the store believed that such produce wouldn’t sell and it therefore couldn’t be bothered to accentuate the appearance of the items. Unperturbed, I paused at the stand to study its contents further. What was so wrong with these items that proved cause for ‘quick-sale’? Not much to tell the truth. A packet of raspberries with a few that had been squished, figs that were ever so slightly discoloured, battered potatoes and a bag of tomatoes that I could not for the life of me work out why they were classed as ‘seconds’. There were many more items, however I would bore you to death if I listed them all here. I was tempted to fill up my basket with numerous bits and bobs, however settled for two packets of strawberries, replacing those on sale that I had collected earlier on. The ‘seconds’ were ridiculously cheap so I figured that I wouldn’t be losing out on much even if half the packet proved to be beyond saving. Continue reading
I was lucky enough to attend an Of Monsters and Men concert yesterday evening. (It was fan-bloody-tastic by the way. Can I move to Iceland? Please?) So after a relatively short nights sleep (my body clock is tuned in to early starts at the moment) I awoke feeling particularly lousy. On days like today I always experience a fleeting moment when I’m tempted to lie in bed and generally feel sorry for myself, however that is rarely a good solution. Instead I jumped, no that’s a lie, half rolled/half fell out of bed and shucked on my running gear. If exercise – and/or good food (note I didn’t say junk food there) – can’t perk you up then I don’t know what can. You’re probably expecting me to say I had a wonderful run and came back feeling on top of the world and very smug and righteous. Well I didn’t. It was a tough run. Some days your body just don’t want to work. My legs were stiff, I got a stitch, which I pride myself in rarely experiencing, and for some entirely inexplicable reason my stomach blew up like a balloon. All of those factors culminated in one of the most uncomfortable runs I have done in a long time. But did it dishearten me? No. If at this point you’re starting to wonder where on earth this crazy girl is going with this ‘story’, please bear with me! 
Taste Without Waste 