My vegan experiment

My Italian housemate has just gone out to buy an almond croissant. My other housemate said sorry as she took a packet of bacon out of the freezer.

It's okay. I'm only on Day 5 and haven't really craved anything yet. I'm happy with my power bars packed with chia seeds, flaxseed, dates, raisins, coconut oil and cacao nibs. I'm looking forward to ginger peanut somen noodles for lunch, and I've even made my own hummus.

So far it seems like it's just a matter of being organised. Beans soaking overnight and lots of tupperware containers for the bulk buy of obscure products from an online health food store. This week I've spent at least three times my usual food budget, but if we're struck by a natural disaster, I'm the one who'll be full, not to mention regular, and we'll see who's saying sorry then.

I don't actually know what made me start this experiment. I usually rebel against any imposition of order. I once joined a gym and subsequently stopped going to the classes I'd been attending regularly as a casual user.

But the other day I was walking through the common trying to figure out why I'd been feeling a bit off for a while. I usually eat fairly well and keep fit, and I hadn't changed anything to account for it. A couple of hours later a friend mentioned he'd recently gone vegan and has never had more energy. I stared at my Lucozade collection in the bottom of the fridge and thought that maybe there was something to this.

When I looked at my spreadsheet of ingredients for my first order, I wondered if maybe I hadn't gone mad rather than vegan. But it's worth a try.

In true form I kicked off Day 1 with honey toast, honey being the divisive product between hardcore vegans and, well, us less fanatical people doing it for health reasons rather than the more virtuous grounds of protesting against animal cruelty. Of course I'm all for that as well; back when I ate meat and dairy I always went for free range organic stuff.

I can't say I feel any changes yet, but I'm not sure how long it'll take for any noticeable difference to kick in. I'm also not sure that taking a raw carrot cake with cashew cream cheese frosting to a party tonight is a good idea, but if I keep their glasses filled with Loire goodness maybe they won't think anything of it.

Anyways,  Day 5 and all going well. Time to go grate some carrots.

Organisation

Cheers

Couldn't get tickets for David Sedaris, but hey, I saw Kevin Barry!

Post-holiday-what-do-I-do-at-this-laptop-confusion is gone.

I walked out on it on Friday morning. I don't miss it, and I have the photos to remember the holiday.

Last night I went to the Word Factory's June event. It was a warm night, Pride night, and the event was over-subscribed. The doors were open, and all sorts passed by, lost in the lanes and closed streets of Soho, curious about the people in the doorway, the concentration in the room, about what exactly was going on in The Society Club.

NOT to detract from Keith Ridgway and Mary Costello, if you've never seen Kevin Barry interviewed or reading his work, do*.

He read us 'Ox Mountain Death Song', a short story in 17 parts, published in The New Yorker last year. The crowded room in turn laughed, looked pensive, nodded, wry smiled, laughed, and clapped long enough for Cathy Galvin to say, 'We can't really call encore, can we?'

I'm sure many of us would have liked to.

I'm back in the writing swing of things after my holiday. Though it is Sunday. And sort of sunny. And I've got all these souvenirs to sample, so...

Spoils from Sat night in Soho

Looks like Sunday

*There's plenty of clips to choose from, but 'The Apparitions' is a fine one to start with.