Wasted food, congection and Jan's nearly ready for her hols

10 January 2013

It seems that 50% of all food produced is wasted.  Various reasons were given for the waste, like supermarkets only taking perfect or visually attractive fruit and veg along with crops left in the ground because of being unacceptable to supermarkets; BOGOFS; shoppers buying too much; short use by dates and so.   

They did miss one though.  Last Saturday I went out to a local chippy and bought myself cod and chips.  The cod was huge, the chips portion was huge.  That happens time and time again at different fast food places.  The only place I know of which doesn't is MacDonald's - but I'm not over fussed with their stuff.   

There are a lot of reasons for waste of so much food but how do we prevent it happening?  At least as individuals we can cut down what we buy, but that will only save a small part the waste mountain.  How the others deal with it will be a hard fight because of the supermarket's getting away with their bully-boy tactics for so long.  They won't be happy at any effort to make them change their practices.

The congestion we were promised is happening OK.  Today's News reported on some of the Twitter feeds they had received.  "One hour to travel 3 miles," said one; "Half an hour to travel 2 miles,"; at least one person was told off for being late for work while school runs have been disrupted.  This is supposed to be going on for seven weeks too.  OK, the drivers could leave home earlier but that may well just bring the congestion forward and perhaps drag the rush hour on for longer.  Alternative routes could be used of course but schools usually can only be reached by one route or an alternative route will meet up with the other one near to the schools themselves.  As I said yesterday the work has to be done.  Being in an urban area though would mean it can't be done at night.  Bright lights and heavy machinery outside your bedroom wouldn't go down well at all will it.  All this is happening on the other side of town to us so it's actually not having any effect on us.  But that doesn't mean I don't care about it.  I do care, very much.  They are fellow Dorktowners and anything that effects them should be of concern to all of us.

Jan is in the bedroom right now and is packing her case ready for setting off tomorrow around 10(ish) tomorrow morning.  She's excite about it now and Lynda is just as excited as she waits in Antrim.  What has caught us out a wee bit is that the ferry terminal in Stranrea has closed and a new one has been built just up the coast at Carinryan.  Jan has booked B&B for tomorrow night so I hope it's not too far from ferry terminal.  She will soon find out ... ... ...

Now there's a thing ... I have a whole week - eight days actually - to get up to all sorts fun and games.  Now what can I get up to ... ... ...

So a photo is now due; still not had chance to give the A77 a good workout yet so how about ... yes, that's the one ... 

Blackpool Tower at night.

And as for a funny I offer ...

While stitching up the hand of a 75 year old cattle farmer out in the mid counties, who cut it on a gate while working cattle, the rural doctor struck up a conversation with the old man. Eventually the topic got around to David Cameron and his position as Prime Minister.
"Well, you know," drawled the old farmer, "this Cameron fellow is what they call a fencepost tortoise." Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him what a fencepost tortoise was.
The old farmer said, "When you're driving along a country road and you come across a fence post with a tortoise balanced on top, that's called a fencepost tortoise."
The old farmer saw a puzzled look on the doctor's face, so he continued to explain, "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he definitely doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he is up there, and you just have to wonder what kind of idiot put him up there in the first place".