Facing up to the Challenge

I’m aiming to stay head of the game here and not allow myself to be subjected to another haranguing from the dreaded Plans.

Here is the outline for my Ausfood Challenge. I must stress the word outline – I don’t want to paint myself into any tight corner that I might wish to wriggle out of at a later date.

The idle thought which crossed my mind as I was setting up this blog went along these lines:
What would happen if one third of the adult population of this country elected to eat only Australian produced food for one third of each year?

Would this make any difference to Australian farmers regarding their income?

All very fanciful, you might be thinking as you read along here. However fanciful it might be, I decided I might put it to the test and see what was involved. Already at this early stage I am aware that it might not be that easy, there has to be a will to make this happen and where people cannot see an immediate outcome which benefits the person participating (think money here), there will be little or no interest.

I decided, quite rightly - after all, I’m the one making the rules here - that I should ease into this month by month through this year and then face the real challenge next year.

Now, for some boring but simple mathematical calculations.
One third of a year equates roughly with 120 days; this divides neatly, over a twelve month period, into ten days per month. These ten days will be random and as time passes I may find grouping the days into threes, twos or single days may work best.

I will apply the Australian only food rule to all ingredients used in the preparation of all meals, snacks and drinks consumed on the Ausfood days.  There will be no eating and drinking out at cafes etc. because it is impossible to verify the ingredients; eating at the tables of friends will be allowed if I am able to verify the ingredients. I foresee some problems here; close questioning about the verification of ingredients making up a dish and snooping through pantries and kitchen bins may not endear me to many people and may lead to invitations to make my own meals or to stay away until the following year.

It will now be abundantly clear why I have allowed myself such a long lead time; a certain amount of fine-tuning will be taking place throughout this remainder of this year.

I hope, when December 2013 rolls around, to be eating Ausfood for ten days each month and not eating my words.

They're back and they're not happy

I knew it was a big mistake to mention the word backburner in this post.

Only two of them are back. The two who may well turn out to be the bane of my life. That’s certainly the impression I got today when I sat down in the backburner chair and my thoughts turned towards the blog.

The Challenge Plan was in full cry today. If these Plans have beds, then the Challenge Plan got out of the proverbial wrong side today. The situation wasn’t helped by that little creep Team Plan hanging around throwing in unasked for suggestions, some of them downright rude. In fact the whole performance was something I ‘d prefer not to repeat.

The Challenge Plan was divided about to where to direct most of his wrath; at me for being so slack about setting up the required Challenge Plan or at the Team Plan for his constant inane interruptions. In a moment of towering rage Team plan was shoved into the background and was told in no uncertain fashion to shut up and keep out of things. This worked in a fashion, but not all that successfully; for the remainder of the time the Team Plan stood muttering in the background like a backing singer taking up a constant repetitive refrain.

Up to that point the discussion was a litany of totally unprintable words and as a result there will be no dialogue in this post today for fear your screen may melt down as you read. We did however come to an arrangement about the Challenge, mainly because the thought uppermost in my mind was peace at any price and more realistically because I do need to have some idea about how to tackle the serious business of actually eating Australian food in an organised manner and on an organised basis.

As you see here the format has already been suggested, I will now go away and work away at this idea. According to the Challenge Plan I have until the middle of February to get this organised or I will be hearing more.

Hearing more in today’s atmosphere is something I want to avoid at all costs.