stella41b
Posts: 4258
Joined: 10/16/2007
From: SW London (UK)
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I'm going round the supermarket today and I notice a 'Healthy Foods' section. This is an entire aisle with different food clearly labelled and marked 'healthy eating'.
So what about all the food on the other 48 aisles? Is it 'unhealthy'? Dangerous? Whatever happened to our food? Whatever happened to real food? I mean can you remember going to your grandparents and your grandfather and grandmother would be there and he'd come in and ask her..
'What's for dinner?'
And she'd turn round and say 'Tripe.' And a smile would light up on your grandfather's face and he'd be going 'Lovely.' I mean, this wasn't a generation that wrapped itself up in cotton wool. Together with cow's stomach lining they'd eat sheep's innards shoved into its stomach (haggis), cow heel, pigs trotters, and you know some of them are still alive.
But nowadays? Apparently we expect everything to be clearly labelled with details of all the ingredients on the packaging of the products, polyunsaturated fats, emulsifying agents, E110, E227, strokes, cardiac arrests, high blood pressure, etc..
But what is it with these supermarkets and their 'healthy food' sections? I mean, you don't go into a health food shop and find a 'Heart Attack' section do you?
I mean you don't go down to Stavros in the kebab shop at 4am order a kebab and start asking 'Hang on, has this got any monosodium glutamate or emulsifying agents in it?' I mean you just get a kebab with lots of meat saturated in fat with a little bit of salad on the side (you see? the healthy eating gesture). You never see a drunk kicking off and complaining 'Where's my f*cking salad? Are you trying to kill me?'
And then you get people walking round the supermarket eating food as they go round, and then pay for the wrapper at the end. What is it with these people? I mean, you don't go into Marks and Spencers and prance around the store in the underwear do you?
But we're being made to be neurotic over food. I mean it's like peanuts, normal salted peanuts, and even they have to be labelled. 'WARNING: Contains nuts.' I mean of course.. I mean you'd be a bit surprised if you bought a packet of peanuts and opened it to find pineapple cubes inside wouldn't you?
But it's because it's on the news, everybody's allergic to peanuts.
But it's like flu. In the old days we just had 'the flu' and knew to avoid people who came down with 'the flu'. But now, in this modern consumerist world we now have to have different varieties of flu - Asian flu, bird flu, swine flu.. I mean, you don't get people in China boarding up their houses against Chicago flu or people in Africa legging it from Yorkshire flu do you?
I mean, I'm now waiting for the news story about psychotic squirrels in Far East Asia and a new epidemic - the Taiwanese Nut Allergy so some expert can establish a link between soccer hooliganism and Taiwanese Nut Allergy to justify lenient sentences.
I think it's because of this lack of personal responsibility and conpensation culture. We have to take into account all types of idiots and stupid people. I mean, it's like have you ever seen those commercials on television for compensation? You see the guy telling you 'I was getting ready for work as usual and preparing my ladder, and I started to climb and I just fell off...' The guy's a carpet fitter. Or it's like that woman who says 'One morning I was arriving for work when I noticed some water on the floor so I stepped in it and slipped accidentally on purpose and won five grand in compensation taking my husband and kids on a holiday to Mauritius.'
It's like we don't eat real food any more. It's all got to be packaged, processed, convenience foods. We live in the culture of the take away and the pizza delivery. We get bombarded by pizza leaflets, all with photos and all with the 'n' word - cheese 'n' tomato, ham 'n' pineapple, tuna 'n' sweetcorn, hot 'n' spicy... The 'n' is important because it's the sound you make on the toilet after you've eaten all of this stuff, sitting there with your teeth clenched and your knees together..
But it's like customer service. I mean before you went out and bought things, but now you need to have cards - debit cards, credit cards, loyalty cards, club cards, store cards, and you have to remember all this information, your PIN and CHIP, your great grandmother's maiden name, place of birth, etc. Then when you spend over £50 the store has to contact your bank. It's like a game show.
'Can you tell me the last line of your address?' 'Don't worry about the vacuum cleaner, you've got the vacuum cleaner, and the mixer.'
'Er.. er.. I think I've got it.. can I call a friend?'
'I'm sorry time's running out, there's other people waiting.'
We don't buy things, we win them. But it doesn't matter anyway, because you give anybody your postcode and they know everything about you. Their eyes light up. 'I see you attend the Putney munch too do you?' But we're still surprised when we give them our postcodes and they tell us our address.
But it's like we have to have all the details but they don't. Once they've received payment for something they go all vague. You ask them when they can deliver and they tell you 'tomorrow' and so you ask them what time, and they say 'well it might be tomorrow morning between nine and eleven, or it might be in the afternoon between one and nine, or it might be next month.' It's the same when you buy things online and they tell you that 'we try to ship to you within 5 working days.'
And why is they always come when you're in the bathroom? You sit there and wait, and wait, and wait, and think 'They won't come now I'll risk it.' and you're there on the toilet or in the shower and the doorbell rings. And you get dressed soaking wet or end up using a third of a toilet roll and you get to the door and you get a card left 'Attempted delivery'.
And then when you get it they make you sign for it and ask 'Can you prove who you are?'
Everybody asks this nowadays 'Can you prove who you are?' - the gas board, the electricity company, your bank. They ask you all these security questions. I mean we're talking gas and electricity here, they know my address, it's not as if I'm going to make off with some electricity or the gas meter is it?
I mean it's like when you ring the bank, you type in all the options, you type in your account number, then your sort code, then your date of birth, then you select more options, listen to music, then more options, and then someone comes on the phone and asks 'Can you prove who you are?'
I mean what would happen if I asked them 'Can you prove who you are?'
'We're the bank.'
'How do I know?'
I mean what next? The bank or electricity company asking you to go on webcam? Christ it's going to be just like being on Collarme. And what if you can't answer all the security questions because you can't remember them - do you get branded a fake? I mean do you get these people in customer service departments complaining about fake customers?
Thoughts and comments please..
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