Today due to various commitments and an inability to say no, I found myself locked in a coffee-room over lunch time, with my penultimate banana, a Tupperware box of rice and no idea where to find a saucepan. After fifteen minutes of rummaging through all the cupboards, I was beginning to lose any hope of having lunch at all!
I did find one eventually, hidden behind some dishwasher trays, and was then faced with the challenge of operating an oven I’ve never used before with no supervision. After a worrying moment of realising the extractor fan wasn’t switched on and I could be steam cooking myself to death, I managed it in the end.
Leaving the house this morning, I rather felt like I was packed for a weekend away rather than a few errands a mile from my house. Origami paper, two uncooked meals, a change of clothes and a towel for just one day seems a lot but it made me think about how few possessions people who live below the line have to get by with. I mean when you see homeless people they don’t often seem to have much with them, do they? Considering they must have all their worldly possessions – there isn’t much ownership in a few blankets and perhaps some cardboard boxes! No origami to keep them occupied, nothing to cook meals on, no change of clothes if they get dirty, and no towel if it’s wet.
On the plus side some people agreed to sponsor me today (which, by the way, you can do by going to my justgiving page), although I did have to sit and watch them eat tea and scones before they signed my form, which was more than a little difficult!
Another difficulty arose after tea when I discovered that my little brother had made a chocolate cake to share and I couldn’t have any. That in itself was temptation enough but what was worse was when I was loading my family’s plates into the dishwasher, there was still chocolate icing on them. Just a tiny smear of chocolate, surely it can’t do any harm? After all I wouldn’t be getting any energy from it really, I just wanted to taste chocolate – but that’s the thing isn’t it – there’s no casual taste testing when you live below the line. So I made my brother lick up the remainder of the icing because I simply couldn’t stand to see it washed away!
On the other hand due to a miscalculation earlier in the week, I found I could have an extra 50g of rice this evening, and I can tell you it made all the difference – for the first time I feel genuinely full – it’s a feeling I’ve missed!
The Elephant in the Room 