My name is Jane Shilling. I eat three cooked meals and drink half a bottle of
wine every day. I am 5ft 7in tall and weigh 8½ stone. I have never knowingly
consumed skimmed milk, margarine or low-fat anything. I have never described
any foodstuff as “naughty” or “indulgent” before putting it in my mouth. I
have never been on a diet in my life.
Very nice for you, I’m sure (I hear you say). But why are you telling us this?
Well, because I’ve been feeling awfully lonely lately, and I thought it
might help to set up a support group for British women who have a normal
relationship with food. There must be a couple of you out there.
Hmm. And would you like to explain what has suddenly brought this on?
Thank you for asking. It was the sight of an article in Monday’s Times,
headlined, “ ‘Intelligent’
shopping trolley is new front in battle against obesity” in which our
consumer editor explained that technology experts (having presumably
despaired of finding any sign of intelligent life in supermarket shoppers)
have come up instead with an “intelligent” trolley that will alert customers
when items of junk food are dropped into it.
The trolley story coincided with the new Vogue, which contains a brilliant
piece on women, food and body image by Alex Bilmes, the features editor of
GQ. The moderate and affectionate tone of his article – he is evidently a
man who likes women – imperfectly conceals a bemused horror at the grotesque
relationship between the female half of the population and what it puts in
its mouth. “Grotesque” is my word, not Bilmes’s, but I use it advisedly.
What other word is adequate to describe the mental state of a population in
which there is raging simultaneously a crisis of obesity and a crisis of
excessive dieting – the latter heralded twice yearly with grave ministerial
diktats as to the body mass of the teenage starvelings who are to model the
new season’s collections.
The bleak truth is that among British women the disconnection between food and
body image is so absolute that it is pointless to talk of a “normal” body
shape. Polarised by the twin crises of thinness and fatness, what used to be
the median dress sizes – 8, 10, 12, 14 – are now regarded by half the female
population as signifying obesity, and by the other half as unattainable
ideals of thinness.
In Britain (following, as always, the lead of the US) abnormal relationships
with food have become the female norm. The anecdotal evidence of this is
widespread and bizarre: impossible to open the plethora of women’s magazines
without encountering a dire monotone discussion of body shape. Bad enough,
you might think, that the obsession with body image impoverishes the
intellectual landscape of women who might be thinking about all sorts of
more interesting things.
Bad enough, as Alex Bilmes persuasively argues, that thinness – both the state
and the aspiration – are categorically not sexy, so the object of all this
fussing about food is pure egotism, not even a generous notion of trying to
please someone else. Bad enough that the preparation of food, which ought to
be an act of domestic creativity and love, should have become a
battleground.
But for the worst results of our dysfunctional relationship with food we can
turn from the anecdotal evidence to early statistics from the Department of
Health, which is conducting a study of childhood obesity.
The full results will be released next spring, but the early indications are
that one in four children is overweight when they enter primary school, a
figure rising in some areas to a third of children at age 11. The
consequences, says Dr Colin Waine, chairman of the National Obesity Forum,
are “type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease and certain cancers”.
This, too, is a female problem, since women still take primary responsibility
for family food shopping and preparation. It may not be fair – we haven’t
space here to discuss the ethics. But the reality is that, as things are at
the moment, a great many women perceive as “normal” a relationship with food
that involves boring their lovers and damaging their children. In any other
realm of social behaviour this kind of selfishness would be described as mad
(or, more modishly, “abusive”). But because body image is implicated with
fashion, media and other commercial interests, including the vastly
lucrative diet-and-treat-ment industry, the “madness” continues to be
treated as an idiosyncratic indulgence, like a taste for couture frocks or
expensive facials.
The origins of our pathological relationship with food are too complicated to
unpick here. The secret of getting over it, however, is not. I know it,
which is how I come to weigh the same in my late forties as I did at 18. And
I am happy to share it with you. Free. No gimmicks are involved, no fancy
treatments, no calorie-counting, no McKeithian analysis of turds in surgical
containers. Are you ready? Here goes.
Step 1. Eat three proper meals a day, made from fresh ingredients. Eat nothing
else in between. You are not hungry. You are bored. Go for a walk or have a
glass of water. While you’re at it, think about people who are properly
hungry and feel ashamed. 2. At mealtimes, stop eating when you are full.
We’re not on the ration now, it is fine not to finish your plateful. 3. Walk
briskly around the park in your lunch hour (or walk to work, or walk the dog
after work, or whatever). Take the family with you and save the money the
gym would have cost you to go out for supper and a movie. Er, that’s it.
Now, please can I have my own telly series?
Holy grail that can hide but not banish
While I’m on the subject of the peculiar relationship between women and their
bodies, can someone explain to me the point of the control tights heralded
this week as “the holy grail of plenty gain for no pain”? Curious how I
can’t remember the bit in Malory’s Morte D’Arthur about the Arthurian
knights questing after the magic thingy that would squash fat arses into
shape. But never mind that now. The point is that for £12, Aristoc’s
Hourglass Toner tights, “finished with a touch of silk which helps to
moisturise skin”, promise to do just that, and reduce your waist by two
inches as well.
So what I am wondering is this: you spend your £12. You stuff yourself into
this magical sausage-skin. It does the trick. You make all your girlfriends
spit with envy and whip out from under their noses the George Clooney of
your local manor. Then you get him home and at some point you have to divest
yourself of the Holy Grail of blah-di-blah. So what exactly happens when the
unconfined wobbly bits of you fall out? I’m sure someone from Aristoc will
call and explain, and as soon as they do, I’ll let you know.
My café snobbery
The Times obituary of Professor
Michael Frede, an “authority on Aristotle and the Stoics” who died
untimely while swimming in the Gulf of Corinth, mentions, among his other
admirable qualities, that he used to give supervisions at the Little
Clarendon Street branch of Café Rouge. On reading this, a small battle
breaks out between my inner food snob, which has found no empirical evidence
of the Café Rouge claim to offer honest French bourgeois cooking, and my
inner intellectual snob, which thinks that what is good enough for an
authority on the Stoics should certainly be good enough for me . . .
I am 5' 7", and it takes constant diet and daily exercise in order to keep my weight around 8 1/2 stone. This article could have made a good point, and instead it was merely self-congratulatroy. Assuming you are being truthful, you must have a monster metabolism. There's no need to rub it in our faces when you could have just made the point that we should stop worrying about these things.
Steph, Leeds,
Jane, you ride your horse and get out in the air some of us get stressed and just stay in and eat (and drink) we will try to be good girls, we do know what we should do but cannot get motivated to do it. Keep it up please so we can still believe.
Jacqueline, rochester, uk
Whether or not this woman eats healthfully isnt the point. The point is that she has a good relationship with food. That should be something that we all try to do no matter our weight or appearance.
Ariel, SLC, USA
i think that 'intelligent shopping trolley' needs to beep & whizz & go crazy in warning whenever a Cleo/Cosmo/Who (etc) magazine is dropped into the basket also.
That would solve quite a few problems.
Natasja, Melbourne, VIC Australia
Only an American would have a go at someone about the amount of alcohol they consume.
I'm sure if Jane has a problem with alcohol, she would seek help for it or just stop drinking.
mich, Rhondda, South Wales
It's very nice that Ms. Shilling is so sleight at her age, but good genetics are half the battle there. I can walk and eat healthfully every single day, and my weight would naturally be at a stocky 145-150 at the same height as her.
I also find it difficult to take diet tips in an article that is supposedly about women's distorted relationship with eating. sure- eating three meals a day is great. walking is lovely. stopping when you're full is a great thing to do. but when you pronounce that it's a "secret" (and by secret, i assume Ms. Shilling is referring to the secret of maintaining the same weight she had when she was a youth) that secret only underscores a skewed relationship with food.
if you'd like to be truly refreshing, then say that the problem isn't with food, but with the emphasis on weight. being healthy should be the goal, not a number and diets should go the way of the dinosaurs.
We need to learn how to eat again, but not for a number, for happiness, for ourselves.
Jessica Watson, Toronto,
Yes, Ms. Shilling is not overweight. Her vice is alcohol. Half a bottle of wine a day is too much. It is full of empty calories and is bad for your liver. It also promotes breast cancer. Furthermore, most people who think they drink in moderation actually drink more than they say. But just as someone who is overweight need not congratulate herself for not smoking, she shouldn't congratulate herself for not being overweight when she is a drinker. Different people, different vices.
Sheila, New York, USA
My friend Sibyl Yrene has just started a blog chronicaling a year in which she gets to *eat* - not diet - for the first time since she was a child. It's called "Traveling through Time and Weight with Sibylyrene and the URL is http://sibylyrene.blogspot.com.
While Jane may have had a normal relationship with food all of her life, Sibyl is just figuring out that hers has been typically abnormal, and nudging it back into the 'reality' column might take a week or two.
Anamortia Plurabolt, Austin, USA, TX
I agree wholeheartedly about the three meals, no snacking and plenty of walking rule.
Four years ago I swapped a semi rural lifestyle, where I had to get in the car, even for a pint of milk, for a city one without a car and have never been healthier. I walk my children to school, walk to work, but the added benefit is that as I can only buy what I can carry from the supermarket, my basket is basically devoid of 'junk' food.
While there are days when trying to wrestle with a three year old and shopping bags is no fun, at all, I grit my teeth and tell myself that I'm standing myself in good stead with all this weight bearing exercise .
With my daily life revolving around exercise, I am no longer in the farcical situation of paying for a gym membership but not ever going because I can't face heading out in evenings again in the car after a day of sitting in it, rushing in a mental but non physical way between places.
Katie, Stockholm, Sweden
I find the comments to this article extremely ironic. For a start, there is the woman who is so blinded by her psychological problems with food that, ironically, she has seen in this article a new type of diet (Lisa, Sydney). What do you mean what portion sizes or food types?! Have you understood nothing at all? Eat whatever you want, but stop when you're not hungry anymore. Don't eat what you think is good for you, feel saintly but unsatisfied, and end up bingeing. People don't seem to realise that their relationship and obsession with food is what makes them overweight. In most cases (unless there is a physiological illness) obesity is a fully psychological problem. Putting your body through the stress of yo-yo dieting destroys your metabolism, and makes you fat. I'm 5`8 and somewhat under 9 stone. I eat what I want when I want. But only if I want it. Chocolate cake will still exist tomorrow if I feel full today. My body is under no stress, so keeps naturally lean, and doesn't hoard.
Eva, Lonodn,
I am also 5' 8', but I'm 11 stone. I also eat three meals a day and nothing in between, and I also swim 4 times a week. I am overweight and probably always will be. I don't agree with anything Ms Shilling says as we can't all be the same body shape or have the same lifestyle. Just let people do what they wan't it shouldn't be anyone elses problem whether people are skinny or not or whether they obsess about food. People will always find a way to spend money on fads and waste time on things that don't work, so getting on a high horse and telling people how perfect she is, is not really going to help!
Ambrosia , Nicosia, Cyprus
I agree about not eating between meals. I was brought up to eat only at mealtimes, and I have stuck with that throughout my life - I am now just turned 60. I am 163 cms and weigh about 8 stone, perhaps a shade heavier than I was at 18. When I am at work I sometimes find I want to eat largeish sandwiches at lunchtime, and then find I feel full. If I still feel full at the time of my evening meal I adjust the menu for the evening meal to compensate. Or eat only half ..... It is possible to do interesting things with leftovers the next day.
Lucy, London N20, UK
Ms. Shilling's advice seems quite sensible and refreshingly free of gimmicks. However, after a lifetime of dieting and obsessing about food, it is difficult to know what types of food to eat and what portion sizes are appropriate. Do any readers (or Ms. Shilling, for that matter), have any advice to offer?
Lisa, Sydney, Australia
I was really angry when I read your column, if it was that easy we'd all be 8.5 stone!! But after a few days reflection I have decided to try and live and eat your way and see what difference it makes. Day 3 today very stressful and really hungry between meals, how do you mamage not to eat between meals? I can assure you I am very hungry! About 1.5 stone overweight, ask me again in 6 months time.
Wendy, Reading, UK
Jane, it’s good to read of the importance of balance, rather than a list of don’ts. .
Foods rich in refined carbohydrate can confuse the self-regulation of the appetite.
The Chinese approach to quantity should also help – breakfast half full, lunch three quarters, dinner half empty. Please excuse the imperfect translation.
dr venables preller, Warminster, UK
thanks for your article it is so true about women in uk and believe me it is so catching as I came to England 12 years ago with no problem with my weight and food I ate but gradually I became a very obsessed person about what I eat what I feed my family and what to shop to eat!!!!! 15 kgs heavier than 12 years ago I want my old self back with very healthy behaviour towards food but it seems very difficult to even pick old habits up.
Roksana, London, UK
Have you noticed guys, No.1 wife is either complaining when you don't eat all of her over-sized meals, or berating you for being fat? Strike a cord? Time to move out, because the life you are saving is your own. Fortunately here in Japan, no problem finding someone to pick up the slack in the home comforts department. One thing about these "model girl looks, model girl figure, less than half your age" bimbos that keep following you home, they can't cook for toffee.
Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Nagano
I was brought up on three meals a day. Cooked breakfast, packed lunch (sandwiches for school), cooked dinner, normally with a dessert. Absolutely no in-between snacking. A cardinal rule was that no food of drink was to be consumed in the sitting room in front of the TV!
All seemed rather hard at the time, but to this day I still practise (or became conditioned) to this was of eating. I has served me and my siblings well - we have no weight problems or any strange relationship with food. Eating is just a part of living.
"Does one eat to live or does one live to eat"???
brooks, Munich, Germany
"oh, my friends, be warned by me,
that breakfast, dinner, lunch and tea
are all the human frame requires..."
henry king
cautionary tales for children (and adults)
susan griffith
susan griffith, Londonm,
wholly agree with you - the idea that by walking rather than driving everywhere one is "being good" and the oh so predictable "oh I shouldn't" when the biscuits appear - try just don't then?! It is all so boring! I am lucky, though,in that I am scared of lifts, and chocolate makes my head ache...
Jenny, Inverness,
While I would agree that it would be hard to conjure a more prosaic and intellectually noble end for Frede, if you are really intent on following in his foot(mis)steps, I trust you are planning an end that is personally more prosaic, productive and ultimately postponed (something to do with both self-will and metaphysical cupboards, perhaps). Still, your comments on dietary will and self-discipline are timely and apropos; perhaps as a riff on Frede's own 1997 Sather lecture "The origins of the Notion of the Will." This is a part of our western European heritage that may require greater emphasis in the balance against the narcissism/egocentrism inherent in the "body image" concept, divorced both context and social reality. Refreshing, too, to note your own optimal balance between mass and intellect; you may become a yardstick yourself if you are not careful. Thanks.
Federico, Washington , USA
You could be my twin - same age, height, weight, diet. And it is sometimes rather lonely when all around are saying "oh I mustn't." I completely agree with everything you say.
Deb, Cheshire,
21 units a week is fine! at the upper end of the 14-21 units recommended by doctors for women per week. it's more about have a sensible attitude to life - which this is! she's not binge drinking!
Anna, london,
I too am "normal" I am 5ft 10ins size 10-12 and have been 9 stone since my early teens. I am fed up of being told at the ripe old age of 50, that "it is ok for you, you can eat what you like, you have always been thin". NO !! I just eat until I am full and then stop, it is that easy! Yes I do eat butter, cream and cake! I think that there is so much pressure on women to look and feel a certain way that we have forgotten to eat AND enjoy our food. Thanks for the article.
JAN NORMAL, northants,
I'm a 17 year old with an unhealthy relationship with food and would like to say thank you for this article. It is great to here some simple advice rather than being bombarded with all sorts of ways of 'controlling your diet' which in the end only contradict each other and leave you even more confused!
AP, London, UK
dear Jane, it's so great you don't have to diet or exercise. obviously your advice works for you. and I'm sure it works for a lot of other people as well. like my sister - she can (and does) eat absolutely anything, she never exercises and she's as thin as a stick insect. I count my calories like a hawk, always finish eating before I'm full and work out at least for an hour 6 times per week - and I'm still 2 sizes bigger than her.
so according to you, the solution would be to stop that nonsense and start eating 3 full meals and swap my running and gym for walks with family?
well, my bet would be that in a couple of months I will be 4 sizes bigger than my sister.
as someone already said - if you don't have the problem, you can't assume that everybody else is actually just like you.
inga, Stockholm,
I agree, I know so many women that will eat a tub of ice cream and feel incredibly guilty and hence not eat anything else all day, I know of an equal number that after not eating hardly anything all day think a tub of ice cream has just destroyed their diet so consume their bodyweight in biscuits and chocolate to make it worthwhile. I lost 3 stone and have not put it back on since, that is 4 years. I like the gym/vigorous exercise, I do not like chocolate, living in Switz. for a year I ate enough to last a lifetime and now dislike the smell, oh and I used skimmed milk in my tea because it tastes better but still have toast for breakfast.
People shouldn't feel guilty about indulging themselves but should ask instead if they really want that cake. The author is right, go for a walk or do something else and often you'll realise you didn't want it after all. If you still do then please savour every mouthful and forget the guilt.
Leave out the processed food and you can make the choice.
Rebecca Comley, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
If only it was that simple! The author has obviously not had health problems and had to overcome them, and does not understand those who do.
Many of those who over eat do so because they are nutritionally malnurished. Either because they have a poor diet or, increasingly, their digestive systems are underfunctioning and they cannot absorb the nutrients.
For these people, the cravings for sugar,alcohol or any instant energy provider can be truely overwhelming.
Many of the intolerances that are so often mocked in the press are an example of poor digestion and the toxic by-products.
There is so much misinformation and biased studies in this field that to try and fight your way through the labyrinth and re-establish health and a healthy weight can be very frustrating.
Articles highlighting ways of improving either diet, or ways of improving digestion and absorbtion would help the health of not only the adult concerned, but also their bored lover and and their damaged children.
Lucy, Kingston,
Your metabolism starts to 'slow down' in later life because you tend to lean tissue (muscle) - unless you do something about it. I don't think Jane was being smug Carole from Barnet.... it really is as simple as eating sensibly and getting some exercise. Sort out your posture with something like The Egoscue Method, and you're able to exercise without damaging your joints. Thin and untoned is just as unattractive as fat. Food is an enormous pleasure, and I'm sure Jane didn't mean to make anyone 'feel bad', but there also comes a point where people have to face facts, take responsibility for their eating behaviour and stop making excuses. Or face the consequences.
Patricia, Oslo,
couldn't agree more - the massive anxiety created in (mostly) women about body size and shape serves several highly profitable industries and no one else. We have never had scales in our house, but my clothes still fit as they did twenty-odd years ago when I was a student. We eat three meals a day, and both my son and daughter enjoy their food, their bodies and their lives.
PKR, Cupar,
Congratulations Ms Shilling in being so self satisfied, must be those 3 cooked meals, incidentally how do you achieve that - cooked breakfast? Have you had your cholesterol checked recently?
I too am a skinny (5'7" 10st) but it's really not as simple as Ms Shilling says. Genetic make up has a part to play. I don't eat between meals either and I get lots of exercise but I am not the weight I was at 18. After 35 the metabolism slows down and having been able to eat as much as I liked prior to that I now have to be a bit more careful. I have no problem with my 'body image' but I don't want to put myself at risk of heart disease etc.
Ms, Shilling, imagine how you made all those people who really struggle with their weight feel? Did you help them? I think your smug attitude probably made them want to spit! I know I felt like that and I have never ever dieted. Around people who do spend their lives dieting, I tend to keep quiet. They probably feel quite bad enough already.
Carole, Barnet, UK
Delighted to have found someone normal! Three meals (well, four, actually, if you count the children's tea) and a walk with the dog each day is pretty much my routine. I don't suppose anyone believes me that I've never been on a diet. I'm 5'7" and around 10 stone, but haven't had a set of scales for years, so am only guessing. I live in Derbyshire and despair of the friends who join a gym or Weight Watchers, but fail to put a pair of boots on and go into the Dales, 10 mins away?! Just got lucky with my genes, I guess (and my sensible mother who showed me the way to go )
Lizzie, Ashbourne, Derbyshire
Excellent article. My parents are in their late 60s/mid 70s, and have subscribed to the same approach, including desserts. They are both in wonderful slim shape, my mum looks in her early 50s. Their main exercise is walking and gardening. I work out with weights and jog, but can't keep up with them gardening! Completely untrue that you automatically put on weight in your 50s. I have many friends and family who stayed the same - they are all active.
B Cooper, Orange County, CA, USA
A great article; both practical and compassionate, it highlights how much of our attitudes to food , especially women's, are a negation of both health and pleasure.
Gordon Rae, Totnes, Devon
You're like one of those people who, having never fallen into the trap, assume that giving up smoking is easy. Having never had a problem with obesity, simply cannot get their head round the idea that a healthy lifestyle is a difficult thing to acheive. In fact I'll go further; I'm willing to bet that if you went out to try and put on a damaging amount of weight you would struggle.
The problem is changing one's lifestyle, and that is always difficult, especially when it involves giving up things that we find exciting, addictive or comforting (and bad food easily falls into all of these catagories).
PS The half a bottle of wine issue. It's not unhealthy. In fact, those who consume alcohol regularly, in excess of "their doctor's" recommendations, have far fewer mental problems in later life.
Abstaining from drink all week and then having 3 bottles on Friday would be unhealthy.
Steve, London, England
Good grief, Neil, no wonder women get into unhealthy relationships with food. Why do you enjoy carping at a woman with a straightforward, healthy appetite who is doing you no harm? Jane sounds like she lives an enviably happy, non-neurotic life. What's so marvellous about your life that puts you into a position to wag your finger? Cheers Jane, great article.
Anna, London,
Being an Oxford Don, he would have given Tutorials, rather than Supervisions - the Cabridge Equivalent . I recently defected from Cambridge to Oxford, and my first group of Tutorial students recoiled in partisan horror at the suggestion of a 'Tab' supervision, Cafe Rouge or no Cafe Rouge...
JB, Oxford, UK
Neil's comment is quite typical of the 'food police' attitude. Doctors DO NOT KNOW BEST. They may know more, but they are not gods. Likewise nutritionists, wassername mckeith, and all the rest who make their livings by telling us (usually falsely) how fat/thin/malnournished/overexercised/underexercised we are. If Jane wants to drink half a bottle of wine every day, an amount that would be considered perfectly normal in France or Italy for example, who are the BMA to say otherwise? A couple of glasses with meals is not lethal.
I feel obliged also to point out that according to doctors and their idiotic BMI, the current rugby world cup is being played for by the clinically obese. Try telling that to Sebastian Chabal with his body fat % of 7.
Alan G Melville, Edinburgh,
Dear Jane,
Your remarks about the 'control tights' and what happens when you remove them, reminded me of a schoolboy parody we used to chant to the tune of "You left me lonely nights" ie: "At the parting of her stays, both her hips went different ways..."
Hugh , Dover, Kent, England
Bewarned dear Jane, you might be 5ft 7ins and 81/2 stone AND drinking half a bottle of wine every day, but as soon as you hit the 50 mark, from out of no where, the weight will pile on. It will and does in all women as they hit the menopause, dieting is not good for you, so earlier good habits are better.
There are so many hidden calories in alcohol!
Juliet, London,
The most sensible article on eating and diets I heve read in a long time, I become enraged at those 'isn't it so hard to keep track of what you eat and remain healthy ' advertisements and programmes which then usually advocate a ridiculous alternative. Its not that complicated: eat well and less, do a little exercise and accept that you are pretty much stuck with whatever body shape you were born with...
Ellie, London,
sorry to nitpick, but actually half a bottle of wine is often more like 4-5 units of alcohol these days now that wine is stronger, so it's more likely she's consuming nearer 30 units a week, which is definitely not healthy. pleased you manage to stay thin, but perhaps you should think about your liver.
Cupp Cake, Leeds,
Great article on women and food. About time someone said it. I'm thin and a 3-meal a day plus snacks eater. I eat when I'm hungry, and stop when I'm full. Simple as that. It concerns me that the word 'anorexic' is being used to replace the word 'thin'. Not all thin people are anorexic, some of us are just born that way!
Abigail Vizard-Williams, Worcester, U.K.
I would like to thank Jane Shilling for the image of getting a saucy and curvacious love-interest home, only to discover she is Jabba the Hutt. Next time I am tucking into my second helping of curry, I will think of the avalanche of grey fat escaping fleshily from control tights and it will quite put me off my food.
I would also suggest to Neil that 21 units of alcohol a week when one is 5'7'', weighs 8 1/2 stone and exercises/eats properly, is considerably better than drinking 14 units and eating all the pies in the shop.
Simon Lunn, London, UK
Never mind food, Jane Shilling appears to have an unhealthy relationship with drink: half a bottle of wine a day is 21 units a week, or 50% more than doctors recommend as the upper limit for a woman.
Neil, London,
"Eat three proper meals a day, made from fresh ingredients".
I'd love to, but I am disabled and living solo and shopping exhausts me. I do it rather than have it delivered because otherwise I don't meet anyone apart from work-mates: and I certainly can't carry the results of a shop-for-the-week on crutches.
So will you come and shop for me? ;->
Excellent article, however. And the Clarendon Street CR does do good coffee ...
Jane, Gosport,