Day #8 and it looks like gherkin's back on the menu, boys...

Welcome to Day #8 and we're a week in!!!  A whole week.  A lot of people thought I wouldn't even last 24 hours.  Some gave me a little more credit.  My boss thinks I'm going to fall off the wagon at the final hurdle - about 3 weeks in - and he's just going to walk into the office to see me completely unconscious on the sofa surrounded by dozens of Big Mac boxes.  Well, if you're going to fall off the wagon, you might as well do it spectacularly.

We opted for pizza in the end yesterday, rather than baked sweet potato or chinese food.  I phoned the local pizza spot; a small artisan sourdough pizza place just outside of town to ask if they do a vegan option.  The chap at the other end of the phone recommended The Good Life; mozzarella, red peppers, mushrooms, artichokes, sundried tomatoes and black olives... only, you know, without the mozzarella.  We got sweet potato fries too, with a sweet chilli dip.

In fairness the pizza tried its best but, it just wasn't pizza.  It was nice, and it helped re-balance me, but still, it wasn't pizza.  I looked longingly at Nats.  "I can't do this Luv.  Not full time."  I think that's the first time I've actually wavered.

Today though, I feel great.  A real bounce back.  I had fruit and yogurt for breakfast, which was fantastic, and I went to work.  I have an office job, so the most manual work I do is probably pushing a pen around a drawing board.  Occasionally, I have to do it whilst holding a ruler.  If I was a brick layer, fruit and yogurt might not cut it.

For dinner, I decided I'd had enough of falafel and houmous wraps from Tesco, so went to Marks & Spencers instead.  The sandwich I got was roasted vegetables and avocado with pumpkin seeds in red pepper bread.  That was good.  Really good.  Top it all off with some crisps and some carrots & houmous and we've got the makings of a good dinner.  The only problem was the cost.  I genuinely can't afford that every day.  A treat it will have to be.

When I got home, Nats was doing some work at the table so I set about making tea.  Wasn't a hundred percent sure what to make so I rooted in the freezer to find some sweet potato falafel, and dug a load of veg out of the fridge.  I found a jar of gherkins too so went to open that... and failed.  Tried again... and failed again.  Jeeze, has the Incredible Hulk been living with us and helping himself to the gherkins?  I put it down, picked it back up again, tried to open it again, and failed again.  Right, no gherkins for tea!

The rest, I threw together in a medley of... well... vegetables to be honest.  A vegetable medley!  That makes it sound more impressive than it was.  Washed some lettuce and squirted some French's mustard and hey presto!  

Just then, the jar of gherkins which I'd previously set on the window ledge went POP and opened itself.  Okay, so not the Incredible Hulk but an incredibly strong poltergeist.  Ah well, in the words of that Orc from The Lord of the Rings, "Looks like gherkin's back on the menu, boys!"

He did say gherkins didn't he?  If might have been meat?  Orcs are vegan right?

I'm feeling good again tonight.  Feeling like I should be feeling.  That makes this whole thing feel easier, although the constant facebook messages from my brother detailing his 'meat eater's anti-blog' is a little tedious.  I don't think he realises that an anti-blog is, by essence, a blog.

Note:  I have read that French's mustard is not actually vegan although other more reliable sources who have actually contacted the company have confirmed that it does not contain any animal products save for the honey in the honey mustard flavour.  Basically, looks like French's mustard's back on the menu, boys!