In Other People’s Shoes

06 Dec 2013 5 Comments

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , , , , ,

In Other People’s ShoesSo the HCRV diet is going rather well. I’m hoping to get over to Thailand next summer for the inaugural Thai Fruit Festival, but situations may not conspire to make that possible. Never the less, I am trying to make the causes to see it through to fruition.

I have to be careful, however, not to evangelise about the diet too much, even though the benefits are incredible.

It’s easy to sit here, in the quiet of my living room, and pontificate about eating a vegan diet, when I only have myself to consider. Being able to do so real life family situations is so different from the theory, but it does give you a really good measure of how much you want to make the change.

When you read some of the topics on my blog, and think ‘I could never be like that’ or ‘I would like to give that a try, but I just can’t see it working for me’ remember that I’m only human too, and that even though I do try my very hardest to practice what I preach, it doesn’t work all the time.

The trick, if that’s what you would like to call it, is not to give up completely just because you have a slip up. Learn from the slip, in this case seeing things from another’s viewpoint, and be determined to try harder next time. You will get there in the end.

Food For Thought

29 Sep 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , ,

Food For ThoughtA splendid time was had by all at the Thai Restaurant in the old town in Poole tonight. This was much to my relief, as we were all there on my recommendation, although I have to admit it was a pretty safe bet, the food, service, setting, everything is always first class.

Obviously, with Jill’s mobility issues, it was also a good choice, very close to the hotel, no hills or steps, apart from the one at the front door, almost perfect. But the physical attributes of the restaurant weren’t the only consideration.

Jill also suffers from a marked lack of taste. No, she doesn’t wear strange colour combinations, like psychedelic blouses with a flamingo pink feather boa, she just cannot taste much of the food she eats.

It serves to remind us, that the world out there, is only made manifest to us because our senses link it to our inner consciousness. Take away those links, be that sight, hearing, touch, or in Jill’s case taste, and the reality is altered.

So to make up for the dulled nature of her taste senses, she tends to eat more spicy food, and hence the choice of a Thai restaurant. It is interesting however, that she can tell whether a tea or coffee tastes nice or not, so there is a neurological element to the problem.

This all lead us to wondering whether there is a taste equivalent to colour blindness, flavour blindness if you will, where the taste of food is different for each individual. There is a degree of evidence that supports this. Some people love really hot curries, me being one of them, others cannot stand anything hotter than a korma.

Suffice to say, not only did we have a very nice meal and a very enjoyable evening, but Jill also enjoyed having some tasty food, and we stretched the boundaries of science a little by discovering taste blindness. All in all a great night out.

A Piggin’ Dilemma

22 Sep 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , , ,

PiggiesIt’s been a beautiful day, blues skies and bright sunshine, although the breeze had a little autumn nip to it. Because the weather forecast has been warning that it will all change tomorrow, we decided to take a trip out to the Frome Valley farm shop at Frampton Cotterell.

It would be a lie to say that I am a vegetarian, but I don’t eat a lot of meat these days. But as Bumble has been suffering from a lack of iron, we went to the farm shop to buy some ‘happy’ lamb’s liver. I say ‘happy’ because the butchers in the farm shop know exactly where their meat comes from, and more importantly, that is has been reared in an ethical and humane way.

As we arrived, we could see that there were a lot of people feeding scraps to the pigs who live in the enclosure next to the shop. But as we got out of the car, we could smell the unmistakable aroma of frying bacon. There are few things that smell quite as nice as bacon in the pan, but it did seem a bit sad when you could see the parents and siblings, the relatives of the rashers that were sizzling away.

Now I’m not saying that we should stop meat production, or that it is unethical to rear animals for food, but seeing the livestock rooting in the mud, whilst smelling the results of their slaughter being fried so close by, I did wonder whether they associated the smell with their recently missing relative.

Pigs are pretty intelligent animals, by all accounts, and although they clearly happy to wallow and root around in the mud of their nice little field, I really hope they are unaware of their ultimate fate. If not, I doubt that ‘happy’ would be the right word to use.

Boogie Woogie Poppadums

04 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

by Anupadin in Buddhism Tags: , , , , , , ,

Chicken VindalooSaturday night and we’re out with Charlotte and Rob at the Rupali restaurant in Kingswood. The boys are being looked after by grandma and we are free to have an evening to remember.

The food is great, chicken vindaloo for me, preceded by a pile of poppadums with the obligatory accoutrements, lime pickle, diced onion, mango chutney and some kind of yoghurt sauce, yummy.

It’s a really nice place, very friendly. The last time I was in there was after Rob’s stag night. He wasn’t with me that time, he was safely at home, being tended by his brother, after a slight over indulgence of the amber nectar.

It’s funny how some memories come flooding back, whilst other stubbornly refuse to put in an appearance. I know was there with his mate Jason, both of us slightly the worse for wear, but I have no recollection of how we managed to get back to Longwell Green that evening.

Anyway, I digress. After the meal we walked up the high street to the Black Horse, where Rob’s mate Richard was playing lead guitar for a local blues band. It was loud, it was hot and the landlord, who is know for his abrupt nature, was rather abrupt. But it was a great gig and the place was heaving.

It’s been a rather long time since I’ve been out with C & R without the children, and I’m sure it was as nice a change for them as it was for us. They say that a change is as good as a rest, and this change was great fun, we mustn’t leave it so long next time.