Looking back at looking ahead 2

[Sundae]

Weirdly, reading it has made me appreciate how much easier things are for me than for my Grandmother.

I'm 34 and divorced, and while that's nothing to be proud of at least the choice is there. It's not a case of being unhappy in a relationship or being ostracised.

I live alone and can choose to have my dinner from the freezer, from a can or from a take-away. I can still make healthy choices while doing this, although of course it has made it easier to abuse my body... But that's my weakness, not science & technology's.

I can live on my own, and work, and not be thought of as wrong in any way for not having children. I remember going to get a contraceptive injection just before I got married. The nurse said to me, "I suppose this is the last time we'll be seeing you then!" This was only 10 years ago But at least even then she was in the minority in expecting all women to want children.

I can choose to eat foods from around the world. When I think about what we used to eat even back in the 70s I feel blessed that I live in the 21st century. In the cupboard for lunch tomorrow I have boil in the bag rice (lazy, but I'm at work), wasabi, a tin of tuna and some sheets of sushi nori. Guess what I'm having for lunch? Yup, faggots. No, sorry, sushi of course.

I know I'll have to look at my consumption of overseas fruit at some point in the future (in order to save the planet for your children ) but for the time being I glory in the fact that I have a choice of cherries, figs or lychees for my morning snack tomorrow, all a couple of hundred yards away on my local market. The standards are also on sale, but winter used to be a no-go for me, being a picky fruit eater.

And yes, I love tinned beans. I've soaked and boiled my own on many occasions (kidney, haricot, borlotti, etc etc) but how much nicer to scarf down beans on toast after 5 mins preparation.

I know some of the above isn't specific to food, but hey - I'm happy to be alive this afternoon and I thought I'd share it