The inaugural post for my blog - The A.F.F.
Primarily this is a place for me to record my thoughts, i'm not so crazy about amassing an 'audience.'
People often say that writing things down is one of the most effective methods of clarifying those thoughts. When we see them on paper or on screen, it's a bit like an out-of-body experience as you realize that you've taken a step back whilst your thoughts have stayed in the same exact geographical place. It's like looking at them from the otherside. Hence 'perspective' i suppose.
I'm sure many people know what it's like to reconnect with a memory/song/photo; i tend to connect my memories to music very strongly and songs can act as mental bookmarks in the book of my life. I know someone who is the same, apart from the fact that it is photographs rather than music for that particular person. In fact, i have my headphones on for so much of the day that i think they might actually start to graft to my ears and i'll be stuck with these two dangly things either side of my head. Also - there are some people i see in my 'neck of the woods' who only ever see me as i walk into town or walk to work. I've never walked past these people without my music on. I'm sure i'd feel slightly odd/nervous if i was stuck without my trusty buds as i saw a former teacher of mine who happens to live nearby, walking towards me from a distance away. And i know they know who i am. Sometimes they don't even nod to acknowledge. It's no biggy, it's their loss... I suppose what i'm trying to clarify is what reliance on yourself and your own routines and passions does for your life. Some people aren't self-contented; i think i can be very self-contented. But i also like company. Don't be fooled!
I think the thing that made me think about this is a new job i have just started. I run the kitchen at a gastro-pub for two days when the head chef is off. And invariably that means me in a kitchen, on my own. I just sort of get on with it. In fact, when i heard last night that the other person that was supposed to help me in the evening wasn't coming in, i was initially annoyed; i'd only just started there and was still learning the menu. BUT that feeling subsided and the idea of doing things on my own and getting the job done was nice. I liked being in charge and there's a sense of accomplishment gained from such experiences.
What wasn't nice was coming home and realising that there was no food prepared. I was too tired to make myself dinner. No wine in the fridge either :( I enjoy wine. Sorry, appreciate. People enjoy wine when they get drunk. I appreciate that wine can offer us so many different flavours, textures, aromas, indeed, feelings. Bit sad for a 22 year old...
I have to get back to work now - busy evening ahead, and then the second part of my new job starts tomorrow. The second establishment where i will be working is trying to break into the fine-dining realms of the Winchester restaurant scene, which has in recent times been anything but 'fine' what with the proliferation of franchise pizza/pasta joints. And the weird thing is that they're actually not bad, quite good in fact. Those clever clogs at Pizza Express & Co. have bookended Winchester High Street so there's no escaping! But back to the fine-dining debate in Winchester. It's a bit of a paradox really; Winchester is a nice middle-class town with lots of nice middle-class families who's kids go to nice private schools. When they return home, they do so by luxury saloon car driving down the leafy, green residential street where they return home to their mothers, who are making some fantastic home-cooked food in the kitchen. That they extended a year ago. Here's the paradox; why isn't there a restaurant in Winchester with a Michelin star when all the necessary components of such a phenomenon seem to be apparent? Well here's what my boss thinks. Families make good money - but the 2 things that all that money goes towards are what i hinted at earlier in the paragraph. Housing and education; An 'Englishman's home is his castle' certainly rings true in this town.
As such, families or parents more specifically don't have huge amounts of disposable income to spend on eating out. This explains why the well-priced pizza/pasta joints do so well here. They offer a family of 4 an evening out for roughly £50. 2 people can't eat at a Michelin starred restaurant for that sort of money. Unless it's set menu. And people love choice, don't they...
