Food Diary – June 29, 2011 – and… the virtues of working in an office

Principles of working in an office environment:

• You will start the day pretending you are a yuppie in the Eighties, but with a girly side.

Coffee, buttered bagel, brownie-muffin.

• You will measure your daily intake of provisions carefully as not to oversnack. Pardon me – ‘overeat’.

Bottle of squash, tea, sandwich (defined later), two clementines, brownie-muffin, banana.

• You very much WILL eat peculiar combinations of foods.

Tripledecker on oat bread, with cheese, Brussels pate, margarine and avocado.

• You will fail to count calories towards mid-afternoon.

Mars-bar cake. Yes. "OMG" is the right reaction.

• You will need a pick-me-up. Though being responsible, not an alcoholic one.

Cereal bar with raisins and doused in chocolate. (For those who do not live with BrunchBars.)

• You will eventually find that fibrous foods are indeed good for you.

Prunes!

• You will learn to cook fast meals, in order to avoid fast food.

Spinach, spring onion and cheese omelette, with - what else? - ketchup.

• You will adjust your snacks to suit your fast meals.

Honey-nut shredded wheat. Good snack. Obvidently. (Portmanteau for obviously and evidently, sort of reinforces what you are trying to say.)

• You will drink a lot of water. Water count: ~2l.

Should have mentioned, I sit next to the actual water-cooler in the office. It is truly a common conversation place. Today, the conversation was about getting £5-notes out of cash machines.

Food Diary – June 28, 2011

Quick one!

Breakfast.

Brownie-muffin, a whole buttered cinnamon and raisin bagel, coffee.

Then I went outside, and was amazed to be able to hear lightening and SEE fork-lightning, whilst basking in temperaMENTAL sunshine. Though it was very warm.

Ice cream split. Interpret freely.

Lunch!

Orange juice, pan-friend seafood sticks (ha!) with spring onion, pear pancakes, prunes.

Post-running treat.

The last of the low-fat chocolate orange yoghurt!

Yoghurt is awfully filling, so the dinner was light.

Avocado, tomato, ham, cheese and black olives in a garlic and coriander tortilla; honey-nut shredded wheat and a banana.

Water count: ~2l. Warm days.

Food Diary – June 25, 2011 – and… job cuts in the emergency services

Stepping outside my “comfort zone” if you like: I know that 900 jobs may not be THAT many, but something about the cuts made to public services is making me feel a bit nervy. We know that corporate fat cats work for their bonuses, but there is something about cutting expenditure within health, education and emergency services that feels wrong. Would a fat cat ever consider trying out being a PCSO for a week? To see why they are needed? Is there a charity for this? I feel confused. Help me (in the comments please).

Apologies for falling behind in the food diary – suffered quite a bit of heat-exhaustion yesterday (26th) after running int he mid-afternoon sun. My bad.

Honey-nut shredded wheat with semi-skimmed milk; cup of coffee.

Managed to keep going until lunch.

Cuppa tea, banana, apple and pork stew with olives, toasted oven bottom muffin.

After which I did not manage to keep going until dinner. Oh no.

Raspberries, chocolate buns (diced and toasted) with whipped cream.

You know when you buy something new? And you have to try it out straight away?

Low-fat chocolate orange yoghurt. A beautiful thing.

Same applies for the next one.

Slice of toasted oat-bread. Eaten.

Then I felt that I could only allow myself a small dinner.

Spanish-style spiced potato wedges, wilted spinach and spring onion. With tomato puree and mayonnaise.

With post-dinner sweets, of course.

Two small plums.

Water count: ~1.5l.

Been listening to the radio a lot more recently. Could it be a summer thing?

Food Diary – June 24, 2011 – and… Swedish Midsummer (apologies for deviation from science)

Midsummer is an actual holiday that is gleefully celebrated in Sweden, with lots of shellfish, herring and potatoes, berries and cream, and ‘snaps’. The key element however, is good company. Personally, I left my good company when I left work, but I did stop by the supermarket, tiredly, on my way home, to see what I could find…

Friday = feast day. No? Fine.

Fruit'n'fibre cereal with semi-skimmed milk.

Forgot to prepare lunch.

Provisions for morning-in-office: Milky Earl Grey and a banana.

No breakfast complete without extras.

Imitation Twix.

Tea just isn’t the same.

Coffeeh.

Shop bought sandwich. Not bad, actually.

Chicken salad sandwich on malted, grainy bread.

Nice and polished.

Apple.

Then, I went on a field trip, my first, from my desk to the office biscuit tin. Perhaps I will bake something for it someday.

Syrup biscuit.

Unfortunately, I got more biscuit cravings as a result.

Brownie biscuits.

Then, dinner!

Miscellaneous steamed shellfish. With, er, malt vinegar. And back olives, obviously.

I know the margarine looks rank, but those muffins are so good!

Severely buttered oven bottom muffin.

Then, improv-dessert. Amazing.

Dessert buns, diced and toasted, with whipped cream and raspberries.

Water count: ~1.75l. I did sneak some olives just before bedtime.

Food Diary – June 22, 2011 – …and science “press officership”

I have been interning in the press office for nearly two weeks now, and am really enjoying the work, whilst learning everything I found that I did not know. However, I definitely feel that, despite having been removed from pure science for a couple of years now, my scientist-hat is definitely still (partially) on… …

*Regarding an item on fertility (read: in vitro fertilisation, in this instance) studies”

Supervisor: What do you think in this text (my first draft) might worry the target audience of this information?

Me: Umm… *thinks*

Supervisor: Well, really terrify them?

Me: Oh, that they [the academic] also works with animals.

For me, and many others no doubt, it is fully acceptable, or even expected that a science academic would carry out work in many different areas, separately, and that it probably is useful to be able to make comparisons. Though of course, prospective parents would probably panic, and believe that the scientist is the actual Frankenstein. Or something. So, perhaps I should think a lot more audience oriented-ly as I write. *Learn something everyday? Receive a lesson everyday.*

Now, yesterday’s (apologies) food.

Cuppa tea, two slices of toast with slices of ham, cheese and cucmber.

Then, out of pure laziness, I photographed everything in one go.

Everything at once: banana, apple and pork stew with cous cous, chelsea bun.

There was a cuppa tea at lunch too.

Strong coffee. One in the morning, and one in the afternoon.

Then, of course, I did not eat everything in one go, and interspersed with many other things.

Rolos. Ate in two halves. (Well, seven then three.)

What then happened was that I had a commitment where there were drinks and nibbles, and I forgot to take photographs. I drank a glass of orange juice, a glass of apple juice; ate five cheese nachos, five skips and five mini cheddars.

Brussels pate, boiled broccoli and diet coleslaw. Go ahead and judge me.

Slightly rank looking dinner there, but it did the trick after a long day, with nibbles. Water count: ~1.5l.