if you get bored with food, you better go and play around on facebook

at a party tonight, (my sister's, if you want to know) we were talking about food and food being my favourite one of my favourite subjects, i was having a grand old time. i mentioned how crazy it is that we who live in the western world, with an embarrassment of riches, seem to be the ones who eat badly. how crazy it is that we will pay money to learn to eat less! my friend, jenny suggested that in the places where poverty is known people will make more effort to make good food. i hadn't thought about it in those terms before and was momentarily bamboozled but of course she is right. if poverty is a daily companion there is no money to spend on frivolous pursuits so it would make sense that a necessity would also be used as a creative outlet, it would mean that if there is enough money to put good food on the table it will be treated with some reverence, it will be treated as a luxury or a privilege. no poor person is going to be producing show-offy dishes that cost a fortune, they are going to do a simple thing and do it as well as possible. broadening the argument a little, i have been known to get on a soapbox about the way people i listen to every day resent paying a fair price for their everyday essentials. they want cheap food, cheap petrol, cheap clothes and cheap utilities. they want these things to be cheap so they can have more money to spend on entertainment, travel, flash cars, bigger houses and expensive hair -dos. there is nothing wrong with wanting those things, i like them too but i think that as a society we tend to make mistakes with priorities. i think that one of the reasons we eat rubbishy food (and i am not going to pretend this is a simple issue) is because we lose sight of how fundamental our food is. familiarity has bred contempt. if more of us occasionally wondered where our next meal might come from we might have a whole new attitude. we might eat more seasonally, we might eat less, we might eat more vegetables and think of creative ways to reduce waste. we might eat more like the chinese or the greeks or the italians.

I'm Snarly

Daily you will rise and go to your keyboard. You will blog. And you will read what people write in response to your blog. And you will write responses to what they have written. And then you will visit the blogs of those who have responded to you. And you will write pleasant and cheery comments there. And then you will go back to your own blog, to see if anyone has responded to your responses. And then you will go back to the blogs of others, to see if anyone has responded to your responses to them.

Yes, that's me.
I haven't checked my sources but I believe that this is an excerpt from an article on why writers shouldn't have blogs. It apparently talks about how blogging distracts from the business of "writing".
I know I should check the source, read what I'm talking about but I'm not a journalist and I'm about to tell you my opinion, yes opinion, so I can say what I want without following due process.

The quote above really irritated me. Maybe it annoyed me because I recognise my own stupidity in the description or maybe it irritated me because the writer is looking down their nose at blogging.

The thing is, I'm not a writer, not even an aspiring writer so blogging isn't distracting me from "writing". It is, however, distracting me from the television or this morning it might be distracting me from the newspaper. So? What have I lost so far? A newspaper full of news I'll probably read later? A good number of nights in front of the box?

Millions of sports fans all over the world spend hours watching other people chase balls around courts, pitches and fields. They watch people drive cars around race tracks and people who want to swim faster than anyone else. Does all that sport achieve anything much? Do the spectators gain from it?

I know a woman who loves quilting. She makes beautiful quilts, bags, wallhangings, whatever. Her work is beautiful but she spends a lot of money to make these items when she could just buy them much cheaper and I wonder just how many beautiful bags, wallhangings and quilts her family needs. Should she stop quilting?

Thousands of musicians just jam in their garages with their mates, they never play in orchestras or become the Rolling Stones or write songs. They just play for enjoyment. Should they be striving for something greater?

You can see what I'm saying in my very subtle way. Sneering at blogging or bloggers is just intellectual snobbery.

When I was a little girl I was at the beach with my family and I made a disparaging comment about a largish woman who should have been embarrassed to be seen on the beach in a swimsuit. My Mum told me that the woman was to applauded for getting out and enjoying a nice day at the beach and not worrying what she looked like. (We all know that she probably was worried about her looks and decided to do it anyway, but that only enhances my argument)
I can't say I've always heeded that lesson but it has stayed in my head.

Our artistic or leisure pursuits are our own and we'll do what suits us.

Let the supermodels prance around looking gorgeous, worrying about getting their hair wet and how to maintain the perfect figure.
I'm going to lie here like a beached whale in my string bikini, enjoy the sun, splash around in the water, get a bit sunburned if I'm not careful enough and go home having had a pleasant day at the beach.


"A man who works with his hands is a laborer; a man who works with his hands and his brain is a craftsman; but a man who works with his hands and his brain and his heart is an artist."
Louis Nizer

Grumpy Old Women

On Sunday night I went out with a girlfriend again, it doesn't happen often, that's why I have to tell you about it. We went to Darling Harbour which I guess might be described as an entertainment precinct. I don't go there too often and pretty much never at night so it was an interesting night for me.
There were all kinds of folks out at all kinds of functions and in all kinds of dress. There was a party where everyone was wearing white- an all white "red Indian", an ancient Roman in white toga (please don't tell me that's a Greek!), girls in white mini clothes (no that's not a mistake, they weren't just mini skirts)
I just wish I knew what that party was about!

My girlfriend alerted me to the massive amounts of cleavage on show everywhere. I don't know why I never notice it, apparently it's very fashionable right now.

There was a girl wearing a tight jersey dress that, I swear, was going to ride up to her waist.

Talking of fashion, my girlfriend and I wondered about the trend towards "Brazilians" (Fellas, if this post is too girly for ya, bail out now, it gets worse)
Please tell me you all know what a Brazilian is? Well if women were blokes you'd be justified in calling them "nude nuts" after a Brazilian!
Why, we asked, would a girl do that? are all the bright young things doing it? or a loud minority?
Imagine getting it done...or worse, doing it! .....for your job!...... all day!
And would a man do a thing like that to impress a woman?

I only have to think about it for a second and I want to grab my boys and shake them and say "You. just. can't. demand. that......and I'd disown you if you did"

On the trip home I saw some young women out for a night on the town in the most up-to-the-minute gear. They were probably in their very early twenties, the peak of their looks but the clothes were just horrible. I wondered why the brightest, most gorgeous young things are the ones wearing terrible fashions. Why spoil natural beauty with shocking clothes?

Of course, there's nothing new in all of this. It's the way of the world and the bright young things are, after all, the ones who can afford to wear something ridiculous because they have youth and beauty on their side.
I just thought the whole thing was rather amusing. I'm becoming a grumpy old woman!


"Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months."
Oscar Wilde

Sorry

Finally someone has acknowledged the pain, suffering and loss suffered by our indigenous people and in particular the stolen generations.

Now for the Rant......

Well, it's been interesting to see to see what you have to say before you know what I think! I was waiting to be told I'm sloppy for not quoting my source...and no-one told me :)

The blog is "no new shoes"

I have never celebrated lent and I can't say I'm going to start now but thought that my regular anti-consumption rant fitted nicely with the premise of lent. Correct me if I'm wrong but lent is about forgoing something as a reminder of Christ's sacrifice?

I have told you that I love fashion (one of the most wasteful and vacuous industries around) and I have lots of other hedonistic tendencies so I can't suggest that you give up your snacks or your golf(Brian) or your music (attenuator)

I can say that I hope that I live my everyday life in a spirit of mindful consumption.....for me everyday should encompass a tiny bit of lent.

Was that too preachy?

Pancake Day

I borrowed this list from a blog focussed on reducing consumption. I don't have time now to make the comments I want to but I thought it was a good way to kick off lent so read it now and I'll comment later :)

Essentials:

• Food and Drink


• Exercise


• Toothpaste


• Deodorant


• Soap


• Underwear


• Birthday presents

Non-essentials:

• Gambling


• Cigarettes


• Pay -per-view


• Half-time pie


• Golf?


• Gadgets


• Eating out


• Alcohol


• Bought lunches


• Music


• Games


• Snacks


• Hair dye


• Ebay


• Make up


• Books


• DVDs


• Accessories

On my Soapbox

One of the news items this week has been an announcement from the Prime Minister, saying that there will be an inquiry into grocery prices in Australia.
There is a duopoly in the Australian grocery market and from what I can tell (I don't follow these things closely) Woolworths is becoming so powerful and Coles doing so badly that we're very close to a monopoly.
What this means, of course, is that Woolworths basically controls the market. They control the prices given to our farmers for their produce and they also control the prices paid by the consumer. The general trend is to pay less and less to the producers and ask more and more of the buyer. The profit margins on some products has grown hundreds of percent in relatively few years and everyone but the supermarket is suffering for it.

Another issue which is strengthening the stranglehold on the market is the increasing number and variety of "house brands". Once upon a time the supermarkets would produce a discount range of products, the "No Frills" line. The consumer could choose the discount brand or they could choose a more upmarket product produced by another company. These days the supermarkets have a discount brand, a mid-range brand and an upmarket product all of their own and all priced just a teensy bit under the competitor.They are squeezing the suppliers through being powerful buyers. They are squeezing the consumer by eliminating competition from other retailers and they are cornering the market by making sure that once we enter the shop we are more likely to choose their brand as well.

I have considered a boycott of the big supermarkets or at least the biggest but truth be told, the smaller suppliers just can't compete on varierty and usually can't compete on price. To shop independently would also require more travel. It would be incredibly difficult to boycott the big two and that is the whole problem.

As I thought about this situation one of the reports I heard talked about an inquiry into the price of an "average basket of groceries". I wondered what an "average basket" is?
A basket for a family? for a couple? for elderly people? young and busy?

I thought about my spending habits: I don't generally buy fruit & veg at the supermarket or meat, fish and poultry. I prefer independent specialist suppliers (You know, the old fashioned butcher and green grocer.) but I'll bet that these products are included in an average basket. I also buy bread from the local bakery and bread would have to be part of an average basket.

Eventually it dawned on me that my shopping habits are part way towards a solution. If we purchase as much as we can from other retailers and choose independent brands when we do enter a big supermarket, if we all do this all of the time we could create a shift in the market. We could shake the stronghold enough to drop profits and then maybe the big companies would have a little more respect for the market. The independent manufacturers and the independent retailers would have more power in the market and the monopoly/duopoly would be broken. Good news for us all.

On my Soapbox

It seems that I can't get God out of my head right now. I'm far from being terribly righteous but I don't think I get a choice on this one!
It started with watching The Abbey, a TV show about a group of women who live for 33 days with an enclosed order of nuns.
Then I heard Ben Elton on radio discussing some of his ideas on life, including God.
Next I picked up a second hand copy of Dante's Inferno, sometimes called the fifth gospel. (after Matthew, Mark, Luke & John)
After that a doco called "the Miracles of Jesus".
Last was the Compass special where leaders from different faiths (two Archbishops, one Mufti, one Rabbi and an Atheist Historian/Anthropologist) put forward their ideas on how their faithful should vote in the forthcoming Federal election. There were no direct recommendations, but a checklist of things to consider.

There's no way I can pull it all together for one post, possibly no way I can pull it together ever, but over the next little while I might have a look at some of the ideas I'm thinking about.

The one I'll start with came from the atheist. (Inga Clendinnen) She sees a need to return to an ethos of "moral frugality". Thankyou Inga.

There has already been a lot written about this and I can't imagine how I can add to the debate but I would like to pose some questions:
Why does it take an atheist to draw attention to our overly consumeristic habits?
Where is the church on this? and why have I read about this subject in the light and ultimately meaningless fashion columns but never heard it discussed as a matter of Christian faith?
Does the church's teaching on stewardship spell it out enough?

Can I consume less?

It is a difficult area and there can be no hard and fast rules on acceptable consumption but we all have an obligation to be careful about consuming. It is not only an economic issue but an ethical one and people of faith need to be leaders on this or risk being hypocritical. Change starts with mindfulness.

OOLF: I'm off to the mall to buy something useless and take my mind off my woes :)