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Category Archives: Food

Resolutions, Schmesolutions! Part 2

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Posted on January 11, 2007 – 09:29

That New Year came and went a bit quick: I didn’t even get ’round to producing my Resolutions Schmesolutions Part 2 post – shame on me! Although, here it is, slightly delayed… better late than never hey?

So, I may be what a lot of people call pedantic and slightly obsessive compulsive. No matter how much truth lies in this it is definitely true that I like to organise things, for better or for worse – and usually the latter, which annoys me! This blog acts as a great place to organise thoughts and construct plans. That’s why, this New Year I am going to use this blog as a regular place to organise and discuss my various plans.

So what are my ‘non-resolutions’ for 2007 then? They can easily be categorised into four broad categories: Food/Health, Work, Hobbies/Travel and Money.

Food/Health: I need to start a proper diet. Not diet in the 21st Century meaning of the word but in the actual dictionary definition of the word: a diet as an eating regimen. One that is healthier than my current one and that is more enjoyable. I’m talking more eastern fresh food and less western modified products; fish; prepared lunches; a lot less junk food and more experimental, colourful and flavourful cooking.
‘Menus’ would be a good idea too as with forward planning I can buy nicer, fresher, cheaper food from local markets rather than plastic-laden, reformed goods from supermarkets.
Playing sport regularly would be good too as my once weekly Squash sessions are turning into once monthly.

Work: A third of my life is spent at work: 8 hours a day, sat in the office, writing code and not progressing – just earning. Investing in myself is key to progressing whilst also earning. Building my work-life reputation and increasing my future worth will in turn further my prospects and undoubtedly make this third of my life more interesting and, dare I say it, fun! Courses, certifications and training will all help me to obtain this, as will offering myself up for opportunities that arise in work and at home. Also, enthusiastically working on projects outside of my day-to-day employment can’t fail but help.
As well as working, a further third on my life is spent sleeping. This leaves, after preparing for and commuting to work and preparing and eating meals, around 6 hours. I plan on rising earlier in the mornings and getting into work at a more respectable time, allowing myself to get home from work much earlier and hence reducing my travel time considerably (no rush-hour to contend with) leaving myself with more time at home during more sociable hours.

Hobbies/Travel: I want to learn to take much better photographs than I currently do, make good progress on my personal projects and travel more: all whilst still being able to sit down, watch a film and have a drink.
A big one though is that I want to make the Internet profitable for myself. How? I’m not quite sure yet, but I do know that I do not want to do it with auction websites and in an ideal world I would like to think that it could open up some doors for myself and possibly lead to another income stream.
Writing for an average of 30 minutes a day would also be nice but is ambitious. It’s not something I’m going to do straight away and give-up on within a few weeks, but rather something I want to work towards. Undoubtedly blog based, I hope this will be a method for me to improve my style and content here.

Money: The ‘big gun’ of my New Years plan and something that I won’t discuss here right now to avert a fully blown (and boring) essay.

I’ve given myself a fair bit to do here and the hardest part is going to be how to start and how to continue. I’ve come up with a simple, two step process for hopefully completing all my objectives or, at least, realising that it was futile: progressive goals and ‘freeware’ testing.

Progressive: These goals are the ones that I neither plan on or hope to achieve immediately and hope to achieve in the long run by working towards a goal slowly. These include writing; photography; project work; exercise; and my work plans.

Tests: You can download ‘freeware’ programs from the Internet to use for a 30 day trial period. When these 30 days have passed and if the program is something you cannot use or can do without you delete it and do not use it again. However, if you realise after this period that it makes your life easier, better, or is something that you cannot now live without you purchase the program and make it part of your life. This is what I plan on doing with a few of my objectives: testing them for a month and seeing if it was worth it or whether the goal was futile.
If after this month trial something has made my life better or I want to continue it, it will be a lot easier to continue as I would have already been doing it for a month. If I want to quit: I will.
The foundation of this test is: if something is difficult I can continue doing it with ease for a month (“I don’t like getting up every day at 7am but I’ll continue for a month and then give up.””) but when that month passes I may be used to it and it’ll be easier to continue (“I hated getting up before but now I’m used to it.”). Whereas if something was not enjoyable or not as expected I’ll simply quit (“I ate fish at least twice a week but didn’t enjoy it so now I’ll stop.”). This will be a better method for my diet, early rising and some of my money plans.

How are you planning on sticking to your resolutions or plans?

Resolutions, schmesolutions!

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Posted on December 20, 2006 – 13:59

A few years back I made some New Year’s resolutions; one of which was to keep a regular diary. If the eclectic posting dates on this blog are anything to go by, you can guess that this was about as successful as a lead balloon. I’ve never considered New Year’s resolutions since. That’s why this year I’ve decided to throw resolutions out completely in an attempt to actually stick to one or two “goals”!

The last 6 months or so have been psychologically and financially significant for me; I’ve started, for the first time in my life, to mange my finances properly, set targets in my work and home life, eat more sensibly and healthier whilst being more socially aware. These things weren’t accidental: I worked towards them gradually, and I’m still a long way off perfecting them.

Whilst this gives me clarity and a target I want to achieve in the relatively near future, it’s also very confusing: I now know what I want but I don’t necessarily know how I’m going to achieve it or how long it will take.

  • I’m managing my finances; but why? It’s not just to ensure that I’m not an identity theft victim (1 in 10 in the UK are!) or to ensure I’m not spending too much money on unnecessary alcohol, snacks and food: I want to increase my wealth by spending more economically. How can I measure my success at this, and how can I even start?
  • I’ve set targets at work so that I can become more successful at what I do. What exactly is being successful at what I do? What exactly is desirable – what will make me more employable?
  • At home I want to practice and get better at my hobbies. I want to learn to take much better photographs than I currently do. I want to make good progress on my projects whilst still being able to sit down, watch a film and have a drink.

How can I train, holiday and eat better food whilst not spending so much money? How can all the above tie-in with me being more environmental and socially conscious?

There’s a way… but I’m currently trying to find it. I’ll let you know what I find before the New Year.

Cheap Food Nation

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Posted on November 22, 2006 – 11:12

The Sierra Club is America’s oldest, largest and most influential grassroots environmental organisations whose aim is simply to protect communities and the world as a whole. Bimonthly they publish a free online magazine on a wide range of topics. This month they concentrate on how the world looks at food.

I recommend having a read of it, whether you agree with their sentiment or not, as the information provided is pretty useful. Just substitute ‘America’ for ‘Britain’ as we’re not far behind. Contents include:

  • Cheap Food Nation, written by Eric Schlosser (author of Fast Food Nation and Reefer Madness), is especially interesting. He notes that “Americans spend a smaller percentage of their income on food than any other nation, but it costs [them] dearly”;
  • Produce to the People discusses how Farmer’s Markets and Community Gardens are starting to challenge convenience and fast-food stores;
  • From Cotton to Collards concentrates on Alabama’s Farmers Market Authority who are connecting consumers and farmers with a ‘Buy Fresh, But Local’ campaign in order to target obesity;
  • Ten Ways to Eat Well, Secrets of the Supermarket, Truth in Labelling and the other articles are also well worth a read.

    • The one that struck me the most and left a lasting impression was the last page of the magazine, comparing how different countries consume food. It shows four pictures, each of a family with a week’s worth of food:

    Guetemala
    Cuchumatán, Guatemala

    California
    California, USA

    China
    Beijing, China

    Mali
    Kouakourou, Mali

    Don’t just look at the foods, their apparent quality and packaging – take note of the number who must share this food.

    Well, this lunch-time I’m off to the market to get some shopping. I suggest you do the same.

    Coffee Wars

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    Posted on July 5, 2006 – 22:53

    On my way to the wonderful Trumps Coffee Shop on Bute Street to pick up my lunch for today, I spotted a building under development right in the heart of the Cardiff Bay area. Intrigued, I walked past to discover that it is to be a Starbucks – a few minutes walk away from the independently owned and run Trumps and 10 steps away from Coffee Mania, another chain.

    I’m not going to digress into anti-globalisation rhetoric or argue a case for resisting multi-national corporations. After all, I’m an advocate – realising that they have their problems like all other ideologies but they’re a necessity in this world we live in. Neither am I particularly anti-Starbucks – after all, you don’t build up a global empire with a business plan that doesn’t appeal to anyone. Plus, Starbucks is a long way from the worst corporate neighbour, with an environmental mission statement, progressive labour benefits and a host of cooperative charitable activities – whether they stick to them or not. It’s not my place to play with facts and hearsay.

    What I do have a problem with though is unethical predatory business practices where free enterprise is overshadowed by unfair competition and Starbucks taking the successful elements from coffee shop culture and mass-producing it for each of its venues.

    Quirky and eccentric local hotspots are replaced with generic, uninteresting coffee shops with no character – apart from the ‘art’ that is hung on the walls… produced by the marketing team and available to buy.

    Instead of unique or unusual coffee blends we now have the Frappuccino®. Omitted are the diverse musical tastes of the clientele or staff played through the store, and instead we’re offered a branded CD that wouldn’t be unsuitable as an ‘easy-listening’ background piece at your next pseudo-intellectual (read: pretentious) dinner party.

    It’s not all bad though – here in Cardiff there are only 4 (now 5) Starbucks in the entire city and maybe an extra 10 or so other coffee shops that are chain-owned. In the 5-mile radius around Cambridge Circus in London there are 165 Starbucks – click here and see how many are in your area? Can you beat that?

    (Want my opinion and not just my observations though? I believe Starbucks sell fake corporate and ecological responsibility as a way to rid itself of its 1999 WTO image as the evil face of globalisation and I would walk twice the distance to get a cup of coffee somewhere else – even though it isn’t all that bad!)