Packed Lunch
• Kit Thomas
So, do you eat for pleasure or necessity?

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Day-to-day basics, thinking about what to eat and where is in my humble opinion a huge pain in the arse! I mean okay it's not such a dilemma, if you’re either very organised or if you can afford to buy your daily sandwiches from Pret-a-Manger ( London and New York only).
I am well aware that there are other, cheaper, outlets, the likes of Benji’s and what-have-you. But either way, your either "stuck" with the option of spending less money on disgusting food or spending more (anything around the £4.00 mark ($6USD) – a drink and some crisps, and desert an optional extra and geesh! don’t try and ask for some fruit!.

So for me, I opt to the old school, packed lunch. Now this is for me an exercise in absolute torture. For you have to organise, select, pre-buy and prepare - never mind finding the time to shop the day before.

Now, do you do this sandwich making in an evening, say, before bed? Or do you rush around like a (wo)man possessed in the morning, half asleep attempting to chop-up baby-cherry-tomatoes and not getting your thumb by mistake!
And for what? Just to make a delicious sandwich; that you just know is going to resemble road-kill by the time you’ve sardine-d your way into work via the tube / rush hour train.

Sometimes I opt for a healthy salad, and here lies another cumbersome gripe of mine – Tupperware. Now I like Tupperware and have a modest selection from which to chose but and I can't be alone on this one, I never seem to get it right. All too often, going for the smaller, easier to carry box means packing less food and subsequently, spending the afternoon not quite satisfied! Or do you go for the mammoth box that hardly even fits in my – not too practical rucksack – but what do all those other ‘girlies’ do with their teeny-tiny fashion-accessorized handbags? Ain’t no way there’s a substantial lunch in there! Unless, unless someone has indeed created what I am craving – an ittsy-bitsy, fits in the pocket (let alone a bag) pill! – I know it's a shocking concept.

Sure I will have my critics saying oh no, not another bloody diet fad! But that’s not what I am talking about, what I am suggesting, is a nutritional pill, like say a vitamin, but one that will actually fill you up. Where’s the harm in that?

I just can't help but think, that on the days when you want to either splash out and go to a restaurant or go to the trouble to make yourself some lunch (to drag across town) to work, then so be it, but what about a little extra choice?

So, do you eat for pleasure or necessity?
Ever get that feeling, around lunch time, when the smells of other peoples lunches waft over, do you feel, hmmmm, that smells good – that is – hungry? Or a bit revolted, the pungent smell of a fry-up reaching your nostrils before you can take a bite of your own food, you’ve put the fork or sandwich down for later, much later.

On the days when I feel culinary inspired or desperate to try something, anything; as long as it’s new and has more than two differently coloured vegetables in it – Then okay.
But on days when I don’t or don’t have the time or don’t want to spend £4 on a take- out sandwich – why not pop a pill?
(It's got to beat my current bad-habit of nicotine and caffeine – and I say that quietly, as I know, I know!)

© Kit Thomas July 2002
email: goodideaat@yahoo.co.uk

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