Dear London weather. Stahp it. Sincerely, Me.
London decided to bring it’s A game today. A for autumn. Rain, gloom, puddles, and more rain. A combination of this dreary weather combined with the chorus of coughs in the office left me feeling a little worse for wear. Today’s productivity involved a lot of time spent dreaming of devouring a batch of soul-warming, cold-fighting, immune-system-boosting chicken soup. They might as well add it to my job description, that’s how much time I spent. Aaaand that’s why I get paid the medium bucks.
I went into this decision to cook up some chicken soup with high hopes, and minimal planning. I even made the bold choice to go without a recipe. I was also very aware of the fact that my exponentially increasing hunger levels would only render my ability to follow a recipe impossible. I would compare it to that of an 8 year old trying to make sense of The Da Vinci Code. ‘Mary Magdalene what-now?’ Instead I channeled my inner disasasterchef and carefully selected anything in the fridge that resembled a soup friendly ingredient. If I was a taking bets I would’ve given myself 60-40 odds that it was going to be a pretty sub-par meal.
At this point my housemate walks into the kitchen and quips, “Oooh watcha making? What? Soup? You mean it doesn’t come out of a can?” Hahahaha. Oh how I shrugged and I laughed. But at the same time I thought, whoa! Revelation! Why hadn’t I thought of that? Here I was slaving away, assembling a potentially-terrible meal, when there was a much more convenient option available to me – just there ready and willing.
I could have so easily swung by my friendly neighbourhood grocery store on my way home with high hopes and minimal planning, and picked up a can of some humble chicken soup (Although, I could have also just as easily swung by my less friendly neighbourhood chicken shop and bought some chicken tenders but that’s a story for another day). I could have had the same tummy-warming experience, for the low, low price of ‘using Med-High setting for about 10 minutes whilst stirring it with a spoon’. Who am I to deny the efficiency in that? Especially in my state of sickness limbo. The suspense of the ‘Will I? Or won’t I fall prey to the mucus?’ is a dangerous thing to contend with.
For those of you playing at home, the soup I did make was a rare winner. I even patted myself on the back, just like an 8 year old would. Proud as proud can be. It could be argued that only real loser in this situation was time and effort. I mean I managed to get a decent meal right? What’s the problem then? But I’ve made myself a mental note, as well as a physical, hand-written note in the form of a grocery list to buy some canned soup. Because as the saying goes, time is money, people! If I had that time back I would’ve chosen to spend it making something like a sandwich or a whole lot of 2 minute noodles. Because if you’ve ever had soup for dinner before, you’ll know that soup is warm but it isn’t always filling. It’s like I saved those suspect vegetables for nothing.
J.
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