August Bank Holiday Weekend

It’s been a few weeks since I posted anything on here and that’s partially due to my own laziness and partially down to being back at work after a brief period of being furloughed, I managed about a month before I was asked back into the office, and clearing the backlog that being away from the office, for even the briefest time, creates.

The weekend just past was the last bank holiday before Christmas, and the only time off I currently have between now and then, and I spent the long weekend taking in some pretty spectacular views up in the hills of deepest, darkest Shropshire.

It's been a while so it was definitely good to get out and hiking again, though I did manage to hurt my back and mildly sunburn my face.

I stayed in a lovely little shepherds hut, with a nice log burning stove, a comfy bed, a composting toilet and nothing or no-one else, other than the farm it is situated on, for miles around.

My car had a hell of a work out getting there, it's a little, low slung, 1.4 litre hatchback. It isn't really designed for steep hills and rough roads, but it managed admirably and, other than a few extra scratches, doesn't seem any worse for wear.

It's Tuesday now and I'm back at work, which is a hell of a come down, but at least I have some nice photos, and a sore face, to distract me.

Dieting and the Rising Cost of Living

So this started life as me moaning about being poor and ended up going off on a slight tangent: When you’ve been dieting for months, and have basically been living off porridge oats, lettuce, cucumber and 20p tins of tuna, you finally reach your target weight/size and realise that the cost of living has increased by so much that you can no longer afford to replace the clothes that are now several sizes too big for you and, since your wages haven’t gone up at all, you can’t even afford a sustainable and healthy calorie intake that would allow you to maintain your current weight.

It’s strange how the extremely rich, and extremely well paid, people working at the top levels of government seem to think that the minimum wage is a ‘living’ wage. These people have never and will never experience life at the low end of the pay scale. I work full time, I work in a fast paced, mentally draining environment, I come home tired every single night, I’m actually paid above the national minimum wage and what I earn would barely be enough for a single person, living on their own, to survive on never mind actually have a decent quality of life on. I honestly don’t know how the minimum wage could ever be referred to as, or actually considered to be, a 'living’ wage.

Slow Realisation

Sitting in bed smoking, listening to music and slowly coming to the realisation that the only original things I've posted in months are my poorly written, somewhat derivative and overly simplistic recipes... damn I'm a boring old fart.