I started this challenge partly out of a sense of utter disgust with the whole News of the World scandal. Whatever journalists did to get their stories, they did to satisfy a prurient and rabid public. Admittedly, some of the stories were in the public interest, but other than that, tabloids create a toxic froth of meaningless news that feeds on itself. Likewise, expansionist supermarkets and the death of the high street annoys me, but we are all part of it: lazy, incontinent shoppers who demand to be able to buy anything from anywhere, any time of the day or night. Cut me an apple. Peel me a grape. Dry me a tomato, grate me some cheese.
One of the unexpected joys of supermarket-free life is freedom from loyalty cards. I hadn’t realised how the daily questioning at tills ‘Clubcard?’ ‘Bootscard?’ ‘Nectar card?’ and so on wears me down. And for what? The savings are miniscule, and hardly worth the imprisonment within the system. They cajole you into loyalty to one big supermarket, rather than a sense of loyalty that might be better placed with your local shops.
The other nice surprise is that when you shop locally, it’s easy to spend several days without reading a tabloid headline, because it’s supermarkets, not grocers, who sell them.
The joys of Dawat
I was too tired to cook tonight. My normal thing would be to grab something microwaveable from Tesco, but in any case, I had a craving for takeaway chicken. I went to friendly Dawat round the corner where you can watch all the cooking going on right in front of you. Two vegetable samosas, delicious chicken leg, naan bread – £3.70.
