"Food, glorious food...

...hot sausage and mustard”, as Oliver once sang. If only a) it was possible to get a decent banger b) I actually had the appetite to eat in the heat. One of things I’ve had to adapt to over here is a change in diet which is extra challenging when it’s so hot...

Curry is wonderful. I’m not complaining about eating it every day, I could quite happily do so forever but variety is the spice of life, particularly when it comes to food, one of my great loves. The biggest change in my diet since living in India has being finding my inner Linda McCartney. Most people tend to be vegetarian and it’s very hard to buy reasonably priced good quality “non-veg” e.g. meat. So I have adapted, but endlessly fantasise about bacon sandwiches, sausage and mash and steak. It’s made doubly hard by the fact there are so many cows wandering around...

We have a standard VSO issue gas hob to cook on. I really miss baking things. Oh to be able to cook lasagne / pizza / cakes anything that does not involve a saucepan. If I need a fix, I treat myself to some food porn and go on the Waitrose website and drool at the monthly recipes, tragic I know. When the heat reaches 45°c+ there is a 10 minute rule for cooking. It’s so hot in the kitchen you have to get in and boil / fry in less than 10 minutes before you are looking like you’ve been locked in a sauna in ski wear, have lost all appetite and are blinded by the sweat in your eyes. My diet has become very egg based. Egg mayonnaise sandwiches and omelettes have become a speciality. I feel like Gwen from Gavin & Stacey as I once again reach for the eggs in the fridge.

It’s difficult to be inspired at our local supermarket the infamous ‘Star Bizarre’. One of the joys and sorrows of being a volunteer in a capital city is the fact you have access to everything and anything, but can’t afford it. Star Bizarre, is an extremely prophetic name. Imagine the number of products of a large Walmart crammed into a tiny Tesco Metro. It’s the worst supermarket planning in the world. The shelves are piled high, the aisles are crammed by more products on the floor causing you to walk down them sideways like a crab, they have those irritating tiny supermarket trolleys and there is normally several fairly ‘shapely’ middle class customers endlessly browsing / blocking the aisles and queue pushing.

The one benefit is that they have a ‘Beer & Breezer’ counter. The only alcohol they sell is beer (Kingfisher of course) and Bacardi Breezers which seem to be ladies choice of drink in this part of the world. You can’t buy beer at the same time as your food shopping which is a tad irritating but the benefit is you don’t get groped which is standard practice for any hole in the wall speakeasy style off licence ( the only other place you can buy booze). One day the ‘Beer & Breezer’ counter disappeared overnight. It was replaced by men’s underpants. On enquiring why they’d introduced a new line of briefs in the place of beer I was advised the government had taken away their licence. Two months later the beer returned and the pants got upgraded to the top floor which is also a toy shop. How Bizarre.

Highlights: my work week – I had a really interesting and satisfying week with productive meetings about online individual donor opportunities, support for sports and development for a blind cricket project and was part of a corporate ‘Make a Difference’ day, appreciating a good night’s sleep - having enjoyed a weekend of sleeping without my AC, getting used to it again has been difficult as on the sound scale it has gone up in irritation factor of a mosquito mating with a pneumatic drill, rain storms – it finally cooled down for a few days and it’s a joy to be able to be outside a bit more and do things like go running much to the amusement of the gangs of boys playing cricket in my local park...