Friday 27 November 2009

Crash, Bang.....What a pretty picture!

Well, it has certainly been a busy few days this week since I Blogged you last!! Firstly, I finally recieved a reply from my local M.P concerning the issues over food waste management that I had raised with him. Basically it was a lot of stuff about how food waste needs to be cut down and is starting to be used to generate power and how, enviromentally, we are currently behind other European countries such as Germany in our use of such energy supplies. I decided to write back a reply and have stated how that was not the point I was trying to make and that I was more concerned with how food becomes classified as "food waste" in the first place!

As a chef, I am acutely aware that some foods (such as fruit as illustrated in Jimmy's Food Factory) can be eaten after their use-by date with no ill effect. I am also aware of the reasons why supermarkets cannnot sell this produce however once it has surpassed its shelf-life. But my burning question is why this cannot be then distributed to people living on the streets rather than unnessecarily being broken down to create energy? Surely if the food is acceptably edible, then this is almost as bad a waste of resources as just chucking it away! I fully understand that morally it is better to use it for energy than bin it and that this DOES address some enviromental concerns but I am equally sure that, to quote my letter, "homeless people on the street care less about enviromental issues and more about where their next meal is going to come from!" But then, homeless people don't vote do they or is that just me being a tad cynical? Anyway, we will see what kind of a response that gets me......I quite understand why it is impratical to transport surplus food to third world countries where there is famine or people are going hungry, after all we are supposed to be reducing our carbon footprint and besides much of the food would spoil en route, but really- what is wrong about helping our own people who are less advantaged than us for whatever reasons?

My M.P also mentioned in his reply the work that a charity called Fareshare do without actually explaining who they are or what their policy is. I know I could look it up on the Internet and find the answers in 5 minutes but I have never heard of Fareshare and am blissfully unaware of what good deeds they might perform. Which lead me to wonder if anyone else had any idea without looking it up and cheating? If anyone reading this actually DOES know, then please enlighten me. In turn, I will ask a few people at work to see if any of them know of this Charity's work. Consider it almost as a social experiment if you will...if I find that nobody really knows anything, only then will I do my research on the Web and track the Charity down.But my M.P used the name as if it was something I OUGHT to recognise......

The other thing that has happened recently is that I have had a little prang in my car! I was supposed to be meeting friends in the city after work Tuesday night as someone from work was leaving and they had all gone out for a meal. I was going to meet them later on at a little pub close by when, turning right at traffic lights, I collided with a Taxi!!! My car needs a whole new wing and a headlight replacing but this is going to cost me my excess which is £200!!! A costly price for one second of not paying enough attention!! I am not happy about it but have kind of resigned myself to the fact that it was all my own stoopid fault and there is nothing I can do about it now anyway as what's done is done! Still, is quite annoying as you can imagine as I don't exactly have £200 just laying about!!

As far as my reading is going, currently I am reading Richard Dawkins' book "The Greatest Show On Earth" all about how the theory of Evoloution cannot be disproved! Though I have put this on the back-burner for awhile while I read Stephen King's latest, Under The Dome, which is all about an invisible barrier that shuts off a New England town from the rest of the world leading to all manner of Lord Of The Flies power struggles and heirachy emerging amongst the townspeople! It is very very good, an epic read and very much written in the vein of It, iNSOMNIA, tHE sTAND AND nEEDFUL tHINGS. It is especially good because there are subtle nods towards his other books hidden in the text. For example, one character describes the area of blackness outside The Dome on the other side as being a Dead Zone; the title of a classic SK novel famously made into both a film starring Christopher Walken and a T.V show. In another segment, a poster on an Internet forum describes what has happened to the town as being "just like in that movie, The Mist!" Which is another SK film based on a short story he wrote.

If you are a fan of Stephen King, then this is one book you need to be picking up as it is AWESOME!!!

Thats all for now folks...nyuk nyuk nyukk!!!

2 comments:

Hazel said...

Ooh thanks for the mini review of The Dome. Will look it out to read soon. Xx

Karen said...

Good for you writing to your MP, not surprised he totally missed the point. Always Missing the Point and Never Giving a Straight Answer, two essential qualifications needed for working in any sort position requiring liason with the public!