Oblique Advice Off Of Lampposts - Tue Jun 24

About halfway through watching “Super Size Me”, I really really had to get up and go for a walk. The thought of all those burgers. Man. I decided I’d see how far that way I could walk in half an hour and then walk back in time for Helen getting in.

I walked through Fishermead, feeling the warm sun on my neck still slightly stinging from the Waterside weather. I walked through Springfield and saw a bloke pissing up against a wall in broad daylight. I reached the canal, and saw some teenage boys throwing stones at ducks, and then I looped round through Woolstone and back homewards. Along the north edge of Springfield I saw this on a lamppost:

“Super Size Me” didn’t actually affect me that much – I mean, I already know McDonalds is bad for the body and bad for the soul. And in fact I can’t remember the last time I ate a McDonalds. It was at least last year though*. I’ve probably eaten there less than five times in the last five years. I just went off it.

But it is a good documentary. And I’m also currently reading Dave Gorman’s “America Unchained”, so the combination is probably why I’m feeling today like I should be Giving Up Something. Rejecting something that I know is wrong.

I get like this sometimes. I’m really not very political, and I rarely stick to any of my resolves. But hey – if I barely go there at all now, it’s not going to cost me anything, is it? So I hereby declare I will Never Eat A McDonalds Again. It’s a start at least. And if I do, if I break this pledge, I will personally organise a large public event where you can throw fruit at me, locked in some stocks. Munching on a Big Mac, presumably.

I wonder if there are other things I should be giving up? Things that belong to a McCorporate world I largely despise. The drawback with “Super Size Me” was that even while his liver was turning to pâté, those burgers looked a hella nice. Remember when I boycotted Nestlé a couple of years back? That boycott - although still sporadically in place - only really lasted a few months till I really really wanted a Yorkie.

Hmm… something to mull. Tiny steps. It’s easy to boycott McDonalds when there’s two Burger Kings within a few hundred yards of it. One thing at a time though, and maybe it’ll start to stack up. Perhaps there’s even a Gormanesque adventure in it somewhere (we live in hope!), but I really don’t want to atrophy any further. The lamppost is right.

So, Things Matthew Has Given Up:
#1. McDonalds

Feel free to suggest your own! Also, sign this to save Bletchley Park - http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/BletchleyPark/ - or I’ll come round and stab you up. Can't hurt to be on the safe side!

* In fact I’ve just remembered – it was with Martin and Gemma in Nottingham when we went up for Keith’s 30th. So that was November 3rd 2007.