It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Mood:  hug me
Now Playing: Nick Cave
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries

Fighting the urge to drink the whole bottle of wine and snack on chunks of cheese.

A typical afternoon.

Stephen's cooking "Baked Fettucini al Funghi" and I'm salivating at the smells.

We've had a very relaxing weekend of buying & reading books one of which is scaring me off of eating food completely. It'a called "Not on the Label" by Felicity Lawrence. She's been a food correspondent for the Guardian for over 20 years.

To sum up so far:

1. Chicken in the UK is often imported from Holland (who has imported these chickens from Brazil & Thailand). Then they plump up the chicken with water & hydrolyzed proteins. The later are "proteins extracted at high temperatures or by chemical hydrolysis from old animals or parts of animals which are no use for food, such as skin, hide, bone, ligaments and feathers. Rather like cosmetic collagen implants, they make the flesh swell up and retain liquid." This often means that the meat is only 54% of the meat it says it is, and that even Halal chicken can contain pork and beef. Yikes. I'm definitely a card-carrying vegetarian now, no exceptions. Why? Because this chicken from Holland is imported into the UK, where it is processed & then packaged as being UK produce (only because it was packed in the UK. This is consistent with current UK law. So the consumer believes they are buying UK poultry, supporting local farmers. Sorry ol' chap.) The chicken is then sold to all major supermarkets (who are responsible for this system in order to beat competition), catering companies, which provide food to fast food outlets, restaurants, pubs, clubs, schools, hospitals, etc...This does not only apply to chicken; it can be beef, ham, even fish. And this is the tip of the iceberg...it's only chapter 1.

Otherwise, we're just lazy, and enjoying it. We had our first relatively warm & sunny day today, which gives me hope that tomorrow will really bring Spring...please, oh, please!

Finally bought the Driving Theory test manual & highway code & I'm looking into private driving lessons tomorrow.

I've also been reading about the amazing amount of potentially health hazardous chemicals we daily absorb through our skin from lotions, potions, shampoos, make-up etc... this combined with The Body Shop being taken over by L'Oreal (Rodick you are a sell-out and a disappointment!) I will no longer be shopping at my ex-favourite supplier of body butter.

There are alternatives, it only requires a bit of extra work. But it'll be baby steps or burn out.