Putting the vegan boot in

So the other story from last night was that we had one of our classic evenings of being bolshy vegans. I didn’t tell the story yesterday because I didn’t want to detract from the wonderful success of colleagues, but basically the Intercontinental Hotel on Greenwich Peninsula proved to be unbelievably incompetent in producing vegan food despite being given advance notice. Everyone else at our table got their starter and then the waiter said we weren’t going to get one because the kitchen was running behind and there wasn’t time to do it for us. After kicking up a huge fuss they eventually produced two side salads. Our main course was a miserable risotto that was about as appetising as uncle Bens packet rice. And only half a packet of that. And it was cold, so we sent it back and had another row. They then produced a vegetable curry which was cold. Stone cold. We then got a third main course which was at least hot and edible, although by now the people around were on their puddings. Our pudding, which turned up during the awards ceremony, was (surprise) a fruit salad.

We did make an almighty fuss but the thing about turning vegan is that it has made me into a radical advocate for minorities. And in this day and age it is inexcusable - this was the Intercontinental Hotel group not your local greasy spoon. What was very disappointing was the stonewalling management response even to the point of saying that we would have to take the matter up with the event organisers. Talk about abrogating responsibility for your customer. At one point I actually snarled “for gods sake just bring me a bowl of chips”. Trouble is we ended up drinking wine with not much food inside us...

Anyway these are my Workers Playtime vegan boots which I took for a test run today. They need some breaking in but are very nice. In many ways they sum up my determination to make the world a better place for those of us that won’t eat or abuse animals (which is the thing I am really advocating for).

On the plus side, I discovered today that Cafe Nero mince pies are awesome and vegan. Go buy one.

By the by, we did have a late night last night. Today slept in and started working from home at ten; then I went into the office at five and had a meeting that finished at nine tonight. So pooped tonight, and a really busy day ahead tomorrow. Oh I so need this weekend ...