Solo trip to Tucson

Day 1

What a long flight, 11 hours with copious free booze. Left the plane feeling dehydrated and vaguely spacey. I seem unable to follow the advice of just about everyone I know to moderate alcohol and hydrate with water. Mouth felt like the terrible carpet at Phoenix airport. Hot tip: if like me you are vegan or have another special meal request…. on BA you get your food first which means less elbow jostling with your immediate plane neighbour.

Immigration was as usual long and understaffed and I was thankful that I had taken the precaution of wearing a scarf as the American hipster behind me in the queue had terrible post flight wind.

A warm welcome awaited me at arrivals, so good to see my brother and looking forward to spending the week seeing my sister–in-law and my nephews after two years of being away from them.

Travelling in January to the desert ticks two boxes. One, escaping the incessant grey skies, dark mornings and deluge of rain in England but two….. for once exiting the airport and was not like stepping into a tumble drier at full tilt. As has been apparent all day today I have seemingly brought the English weather with me.

My first full day has been spent running American errands (somehow fascinatingly more interesting than English errands) and then visiting the Mission San Xavier del Bac. I’ve been before and wanted to come back for two reasons. The last time I visited, I lit a candle for my terminally ill friend who sadly died almost a year ago so I wanted to come back to light another in her memory.

Also….. two they have a super Native American craft shop and I love the earrings there so I bought a few pairs and some white sage to do some smudging. I’m not sure turning up to a commercial meeting at a client’s office and wafting burning sage sound the room with a white (non-vegan) feather would viewed positively but you ever know when it will come in handy!

The afternoon was spent feeling the effects of jet lag and so a walk in the rain to wake myself up was called for which is where we found this fallen angel waiting to be collected by the recycling people.

I think she had been part of a full nativity scene which was still proudly in full swing in front of a neighbouring house. Felt immediately sad I couldn’t rescue her but I am determined to stick to only carry on luggage for this trip.

The evening ended with some family games and a beautiful vegan chilli cooked by my sister-in-law. There is a very marked difference between being vegan in the UK, even away from the big cities as opposed to the American vegan scene but we are off for lunch on Day 2 to see what we can find!

The weather is supposed to be better tomorrow so I’m hoping to report some blue skies.

Suzi x

My best friend died

It’s that brutal. She’s gone. And on Mothering Sunday too….. of all the fucking days to go.

Vegan Paris

As you would imagine, this isn’t a complete walk in the park. Being a vegan in Paris is a bit of a challenge so I thought I would put down my findings after a recent trip to help others who may be finding sourcing great food a bit of a nightmare!

The start … and the end

A new year offers so much promise, even if you aren’t one of those who wants to be defined by a resolution, there is still the promise of a new spring, another year. For some, as with many years, it will mark the end of something huge, a life, a relationship, a job. Some of us know we will have huge losses in the coming months and those weigh heavy but also we are the architects of our destiny to a certain degree and we will make active conscious decisions to leave something that was destructive or painful or just not good for us behind.

On doing nothing

For those reading this that don’t follow my social media offerings, I have recently returned from a short break on the beautiful Balearic island of Majorca where my daughter and I spent 5 days actively doing nothing.

Preparation of the little one – Phase 1 : Corned beef pie

I had a brief and alarming thought this week that I’m not sure if my daughter could survive in the outside world without me (or other adult help). Let me quantify this. What I mean is that in just over a year there is a very likely possibility that she will leave home to go to university or similar and I wonder if she is ready.

Phase 3

At what age do we really know who we are? Funny thing, we think we do at any age, from the naivety of teenage years to the perceived wisdom of our twenties through the dawning of our own mortality we gain in our thirties and forties and realisation of our truth in our fifties and beyond. Maybe.

Micro-irritations

A chat with a close friend recently has revealed some of the above. Listed below in no particular order are my irritations of the micro kind.

1. The word ‘helmet‘. You are wearing a cycling hat – please don’t say helmet.

1. ‘Bell-end’ – let’s just to with ‘end’ or ‘tip’
2. ‘Alrighty‘ – just ‘alright’ is fine no need to add a bloody ‘y’
3. Steering over-compensators – when you are turning right, unless you are driving an articulated lorry THERE IS NO NEED TO SWING OUT LEFT
4. Putting two questions into one sentence that ask exactly the same thing e.g., Have you emptied the dishwasher have you? STRIKE
5. Jeff Stelling – a surefire way to raise my blood pressure and not in a good way. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, STOP SHOUTING
6. Crumbs – underfoot is the worst but equally the crumb-spatter which appears to be invisible to others following toast buttering. ARE YOU BLIND?
7. Passive-aggression – ok that may fall into the ‘major’ category
8. Hot dog sausages – they aren’t even a thing
9. White pepper – why bother?
10. Slip-on Sketchers – M or F equally vile.
11. Scampi – not a real thing eat something proper
12. Spitting in the street. Properly disgusting.
13. Driving under the speed limit (or generally over-cautiously)
14. “As far as I am aware” stop covering your ass and FIND OUT
15. Starting a sentence with “At the end of the day“
16. Not knowing the difference between they’re, there and their but even worse is….
17. Too and to
18. And don’t even get me started on ‘EXPRESSO”

Going for a lie-down

 

x

Veganuary…. the results are in and it makes semi-interesting reading

Dear Reader,

I thought I would write to you, hand on heart, with an excited skip in my step as we approach the end of both Dry January and Veganuary. I thought I would be literally gagging to get back to my wine and cheese habit but…. get this…. I’M NOT. 

Smug bitch

At this point in 2018 I have: