Lunchtime weirdness

I really struggle at lunchtime, because I try not to eat wheat -- which rules out sandwiches, which make up 90% of what is available in the upmarket suburb I work in. Occasionally I get pissed off and have a sandwich, and am almost always disappointed. They are pretty over-rated foodstuffs.

However, anything which *doesn't* involve wheat -- jacket potato, sushi, non-pasta salad -- tends to cost a lot more than a sandwich. So, apart from those days when I bring my lunch, which are shamefully few and far between, I seem to spend ages wandering aimlessly between shops and eateries mulling costs and options.

Today I went for a Quorn cottage pie to go in the microwave and a bag of salad -- half to eat for lunch, half to take home. They came from the Co-op, which I try and support. But when I got back to the office I found that the cottage pie film was already open and it was all hard inside, and that the salad smelt of pickle and was mushy in the bottom of the bag.

I should have taken them back, but I was so dejected I just threw the whole lot in the bin and ate a few emergency oatcakes with the rest of yesterday's smoked salmon pate from M&S, which I try not to frequent, but which annoyingly delivers the goods far more reliably than the right-on Co-op next door.

My fair trade orange juice was good though, and then a colleague turned up and reminded me that we had arranged to go out for lunch with a consultant. Which I had completely forgotten.

So I guess it has all turned out for the best, in a funny kind of way. I may have paid for two lunches, but I only have to eat one. This is an improvement on a couple of weeks ago where I ended up eating twice.

joella