The Return of the Plans

It’s been very hot today. I’m tired. I drop into the backburner chair and close my eyes. What direction should I take now?

I don’t have to wait long. The Plans are waiting for me. And they are not waiting patiently. Impatience is writ large all over them and they all speak at once.

“Where have you been? You said you would be back in a week. Don’t mess us about!”

“I’ve been busy. My life doesn’t revolve around you lot you know.”

“Ah, what a load of rubbish. We know….”

“Quiet!” It’s the Master Plan, and he’s furious. I’ve never heard him yell like this before.

There are muttered responses, jostling and shuffling and eventually quiet, apart from a brief whispered aside and a smothered laugh from two of the Plans.

“Challenge Plan, if you have something to say, say it. And Team Plan, just shut up. You’ll get your turn but it won’t be today.”

Master Plan turns back to face me.
“I’ll let Challenge Plan tell you what we have come up with.”

Challenge Plan is well named; a term in use a while back, to describe some-one who was short in stature was “vertically challenged”. This description fits Challenge Plan perfectly. However, what Challenge Plan lacks in height is more than made up for in self importance. There is much shuffling of a sheaf of papers, throat clearing and finally a start is made.

A fleeting passing thought, and one that makes me sigh inwardly, is the idea that this plan might be convoluted, time consuming and difficult to follow.

“Ms Blog Author, you need a specific aim. You need to set a target; give yourself a challenge to meet. Don’t make it too difficult or you will give up. Look at this year as a research and training year. A warm-up year if you like and next year you will be ready to face the real challenge. Here’s a brief outline of what I have in mind.”

Challenge Plan pauses, shuffles through the papers, takes a deep breath and starts reading.

“Let’s look at next year first. In order not to over reach yourself, consider one third of the year, or 120 days, as your target for eating only 100% Australian food. When I say 100% Australian food, this means as close as you can possibly get to that target from reading the label on the packaging. If you spread these days evenly over twelve months, it‘s only ten days per month and that should be achievable. The real work here is how you will deal with the detail of each of these days in a blog post. It will need to be as simple, informative but very importantly, verifiable. Anyone can claim to spend ten days each month eating only Australian food. Talk is cheap. Proof is something else. Now I realise you can’t have the Food Police at your shoulder you while you shop, cook and eat, but there are other ways of approaching this situation. “

At this point Challenge Plan stops reading, looks at me and raises an eyebrow.

“Are you following me so far?”

I nod. I’m really waiting to hear what is in store for me in the first half of this year. I’m more interested in the now, not some time a year distant. I’m sure I will hear about this when the reading starts again.

After another brief rearrangement of the papers, the reading continues.

“Now, this is what should happen this year. It is almost the end of January. You should see January as a starting point but from here on you will need to apply yourself to the Challenge. Master Plan and the rest of the team are pleased to see you have already made a start on one day of  eating only Australian food .  To meet the Challenge you will need to increase you Australian food days – we are going to call it Ausfood from today - by one day per month and by October you will have reached your ten day target. What do you think about that for a plan? “

“Sounds good to me.”

“You need to remember” Challenge Plan continues “the 120 day Challenge is only part of the deal and the tricky part is to set up the ingredient verification chart. Now this is where Food Plan will help you out with ideas about setting up the chart. I’ll just see if Food Plan is about anywhere and you can both talk about it now.”

I am galvanized into action. Talk about it now? No way. Challenge Plan expresses disapproval but I am not about to be browbeaten. I am off to Rutherglen later this week to take in some country air and see what the town has to offer in the way of Ausfood.

I suggest that Challenge Plan pass on my busy schedule to Food Plan and they can get back to me when I return from the North-East.