Good news for vegetarians - or not?

[Patrick]

Dec 15, 2009 9:10:23 GMT everso said:

I caught mumps off my children when they were little. I looked likea hamster and a pelican all at once.

I didn't know Ikea did Hamsters!

[Patrick]

Dec 15, 2009 9:13:41 GMT everso said:

Dec 15, 2009 0:56:59 GMT @costal said:

I TRIED TO Catch tapeworms once but they were too damned fast.. so i settled for slow worms.

I found a slow worm in our compost heap once. I threw it over into next door's garden. It was pretty big. Mr. E. wouldn't touch it in case it was an adder in disguise, but I put my rubber gloves on and picked it up.

I'm so brave sometimes.

There was one in our garden once, either that or a small grass snake. My Mum had this eccentric moment because seeing it had a hole in it's side she put a plaster round it...........

Only years later did it occur to her that it might have been it's breathing hole!

[aubrey]

Dec 14, 2009 22:34:18 GMT everso said:

Dec 14, 2009 15:51:09 GMT rjpageuk said:

Thats the way it is supposed to be.

I have done my own independent research on this issue and I think the key to long life are Haribo sweets.

edit: esp. cola bottles.

As Barry McKenzie says, when asked how he would like his steak: "Knock its horns off, wipe its arse and bung it on the plate!"


Sparrow - you're right. But the question seemed to come from the other side - the kind of person who'll go down and down - "can you eat shrimps? They're just like insects. What if you get a caterpillar on your lettuce? How about a fly?

Yeah, it's the way it's supposed to be when the animal is running round a field. On my plate I want it properly cooked as I don't want to catch tapeworms.

The steak was in a lovely sauce, which had all blood running into it.

Bleughhhh.

As Barry McKenzie says, when asked how he would like his steak: "Knock its horns off, wipe its arse and bung it on the plate!"


Sparrow - you're right. But the question seemed to come from the other side - the kind of person who'll go down and down - "can you eat shrimps? They're just like insects. What if you get a caterpillar on your lettuce? How about a fly - are you still a vegetarian if you accidently eat a fly?" Pointless stuff like that.
And the Jellyfish thing was particularly pointless - the only way they'll get anyone to eat that is if they charge £300 a serving.

I can't understand the eating fish thing, though. Maybe its because fish are so alien to us that we find it easy to think of them as non-sentient. Also, their intelligence is not like ours so we can easily overlook it. And happily kill them by drowning before eating them (if we kill them at all, that is - some chinese people don't bother).

[riotgrrl]

Patrick . . .your Mum put a plaster on a worm???

[riotgrrl]

I had a vegetarian boyfriend once who ate chicken.

I thought that was off, but i didn't like to challenge him on it, as I was already being much nastier to him in other ways.

(I didn't like him much.)

[housesparrow]

I can't understand the eating fish thing, though. Maybe its because fish are so alien to us that we find it easy to think of them as non-sentient. Also, their intelligence is not like ours so we can easily overlook it. And happily kill them by drowning before eating them (if we kill them at all, that is - some chinese people don't bother).

My late father once treated Jack and I to a lovely meal outside a restaurant in an old part of La Rochelle. We had a bottle of Sancerre and a plat de fruits de mer, which came on a triple-tiered serving platter. I was thoroughly enjoying the different kinds of seafood and was well into the meal when I gave a little shriek. A clam opened up and the very much alive animal emerged.

After that I have not eaten any shellfish unless it is reassuringly pink.

[housesparrow]

Dec 15, 2009 13:16:46 GMT @riotgrrl said:

I had a vegetarian boyfriend once who ate chicken.

I thought that was off, but i didn't like to challenge him on it, as I was already being much nastier to him in other ways.

(I didn't like him much.)

This takes me back to a time I prefer to forget...I can remember a boyfriend I was horrid to, and I resent him bitterly for not chucking me over before I turned myself into a first class bitch.


Men!

[Deleted]

WHY do you ladies be horrible to your men? carnt you juust be nice- or if oyu dont like things call it all off? why be orrible?

EEENNN EEE WAAAYYY i remember being on holiday in La Rochelle as a kid, with my family, and i remember my parents ordering ' fruits de la mer' or somesuch and when it turned up twas like an all singing all dancing culinary version of the muppet show.. there were things popping up and tentacles gliding about all over the place.. very much alive alive O... freaky dinner.

[riotgrrl]

Dec 16, 2009 0:45:36 GMT @costal said:

WHY do you ladies be horrible to your men? carnt you juust be nice- or if oyu dont like things call it all off? why be orrible?

.

I feel bad.

I pride myself on being an open and decent person, but you're right, i did treat this boyfriend badly. Can I tell you for why?

So we met, we got on well, we went out on a dinner date, that went well . . . . so far, so run of the mill.

But then suddenly, within days of the dinner date there were all these assumptions being made (by him) about the nature of our relationship. In the initial loved-up stage of the relationship I kind of went with the flow (when now, being wiser, I would have ignored the good vibes and put my foot down.)

He was a needy romantic, convinced from an early stage that I was the love of his life and that we would be together for always.

I was a single parent of two very young daughters dating him. I thought it was a bit more . . different. I thought we were just, you know, dating.

The relationship rumbled on from about February to November. I went that summer to stay with my parents for a couple of weeks and left him my house keys to water my plants.

When I returned home, he had repainted my house. Which was nice. I mean, it really was nice. What kind of a bitch would complain about such a nice gesture? Except . . . it also was kind of invasive and assuming.

The final straw was my birthday, which he had decided was to be a string of surprises. I don't like surprises. But he had decided it was to be a full production number, with event after event, and present after present, one after the other, all fancy and hand-made (he was a designer to trade), all supposed to render me gooey-eyed and overcome.

And I just found it really, really manipulative.

So why didn't I split up with him earlier? Well, some people make it very hard. It's hard to just split up with someone who is telling you all the time through the medium of hand-made cards and workshop-designed posters about how special the relationship is.

When every day is filled with huge romantic gestures, they all start to feel less genuine and more manipulative.

So, you - that is to say me - kind of behave badly, get drunk, do things like that to try to put him off because the idea of actually honestly telling him that you don't see a life-long future with him (and that when you accepted the invitation to that first dinner date you weren't actually looking for a life-long future - just dinner) becomes terrifying. You hope he will go off you.

But in fact he won't. Because people like that don't actually LOVE you, the love the idea of loving you, they love the version of you that's in their head.

So the relationship trundles on until (in my case) one night you get just drunk enough to say that you don't see this ending in marriage, that you can't imagine sitting next to them holding hands in the old folks hand - and indeed, that you're getting pissed off with them insisting on holding your hand and pawing you every single time you're out in public.

The ending is absolutely brutal, because once I started I realised I had to be totally 110% utterly brutal, to extinguish all hope.

I was a coward of course. But I did like him at first, and at first I did enjoy all the big huge romantic gestures and surprises and hand-made gifts . .. but they became wearing. And all the effort he was putting in to it made me feel guilty. He would go all moody if I didn't respond to every new creative, romantic gesture with oohs and aahs of delight. He insisted that I FEEL a certain way, and went in a bad mood if I didn't.

In retrospect, I think he was manipulative. It turned out he had form in this kind of thing. Two previous serious relationships had floundered on the rocks of his incessant romantic gestures. One girlfriend had split up with him the night he had staged an impossibly complicated and surprise proposal of marriage.

But I was a coward. Behaving badly to try to get him to split up with me was manipulative of me.

And that's why, dear Costal, I behaved the way I did.

Mea culpa.

[housesparrow]

Wow.

I have only a vague memory about the way I behaved, which was nearer 40 years ago than 30. It may have been that I wanted the guy to be different to the person he was, coupled with the same kind of discomfort that Riot felt, a feeling of becoming trapped when I was still testing the water .

And I still feel bad too.

[Patrick]

Wow! Indeed!

I once got rid of a fairly uninspiring date by trying to view a picture in the Tate Gallery by standing on my head.

Worked a treat - she definitely wasn't in touch with her 'inner space hopper'.

[Deleted]

AWWW! that was really interesting Riot ~hug~ ( not too hard a hug thou..) and useful thanks for that insight into a female brain

[riotgrrl]

Dec 16, 2009 19:37:32 GMT @costal said:

AWWW! that was really interesting Riot ~hug~ ( not too hard a hug thou..) and useful thanks for that insight into a female brain

I think it's just an insight into my brain, not the whole female genders!

I'm sure some woman love really set-up romantic gestures and respond with delight.

[artistlily]

"I once got rid of a fairly uninspiring date by trying to view a picture in the Tate Gallery by standing on my head.

Worked a treat - she definitely wasn't in touch with her 'inner space hopper'. "

Patrick, this is the time you needed me. I would have stood on my head right with you. (hopefully neither of us would be wearing a skirt though). I think that is brilliant and I would have bought you a big bunch of flowers. You are better off wivout her. No imagination.

Costal, your post on seafood has damaged me. Not really, just jokingly. I had dental surgery yesterday and look like all of the mumps patients in the world joined up onto one head. So the laugh you gave me was a bit painful.

Maybe I should be IN the Tate?

I could be entitled : "woman with head most resembling a cube of fudge" ??
So anyway I read about the singing dancing meal you were served and larfed a bit too much, but it was worf it. Thank you!!

Now, riot dear. I sympathise with you re: the bloke. I think this is a shining example of the trouble caused by self help books and relationship books. They TELL blokes to do this stuff. Unfortunately, chaps, I think it is worth thinking about this; ONE gesture of this nature goes a long way. A regular gesture like this becomes scary.
I also agree riot, that some people of both gender, become convinced they are madly in love but really they are needy and looking for a "cause" or emotional aspirin. The bloke, for all his efforts to make you lerve him, obviously was not very good at reading non-verbal communications. Or perhaps verbal ones too, like the time you said "eff off you freak" (joking again. I think it is the dregs of the Midazolam in my system. Sorry).

I once thoroughly misjudged a boyfriend (rephrase that. I probably ALWAYS misjudged my boyfriends) and thought he would appreciate me sending him a postcard to his stuffy office with about a million employees between him and the mail room. It was addressed to him in big bold letters and announced that his sex aid was ready for collection, with an apology for the delay. It explained that due to his unusual measurements and requirements, it had taken longer than usual to make.

[Patrick]

Dec 16, 2009 21:51:06 GMT @artistlily said:

"I once got rid of a fairly uninspiring date by trying to view a picture in the Tate Gallery by standing on my head.

Worked a treat - she definitely wasn't in touch with her 'inner space hopper'. "

Patrick, this is the time you needed me. I would have stood on my head right with you. (hopefully neither of us would be wearing a skirt though). I think that is brilliant and I would have bought you a big bunch of flowers. You are better off wivout her. No imagination.

Oooh! I know! The best art - is the touchy feely type, and beauty is very much in the eye of the beholder - which ever way you look at it.

[Deleted]

yes it was useful as a different perspective for me there are elements of your description of your fellow that reminded me of me ( but i am NOT in any way as OTT as that fellow sounded! ) so its useful to see that perspective and take heed of how things can be perceived. its a fine line isnt it, between doing nice romantic things and being an actual psycho. ~grin~

[Patrick]

I think any relationship is a fine line these days! I'd hate to be going through it all again really. Dabbling in a bit of 'Lonely Hearts' stuff ten years ago was a bit of fun - but the niceties involved and what's expected or not expected! Well. People make good livings out of books on it don't they! Just go with the flow is my mantra. Trouble is, I've missed a few opportunities by doing that! On the other hand I've had some narrow escapes too!

[Deleted]

ITS NOT SO BAD! just i struggle a bit on the line between being romantic or 'playing it cool' ..

[Deleted]

anyway, we're supppose to be talking about vegetables...

[Patrick]

OK! Love is like a sack of potatoes!



(Did you see what a neat segue back on topic I did there??)