A bit of this and bit of that…
Our fear of commitment is even affecting the way we eat
According to an article I read recently by one of the chief inspectors for the AA Restaurant Guide in England, we have lost the taste for the traditional three-course meal. Instead, the trend is for lots of baby dishes, billed as ‘tasting’ or ‘grazing’ menus, which allow customers to mix, pick, share and generally suit themselves. What the AA man might have gone on to observe is that grazing also allows diners to avoid the stress of committing to one dish and the anxiety of wondering if their neighbour has ordered more wisely; it reduces the guilt of waste (who cares when the portions are teeny) and counters the boredom that can descend when you are halfway through a chateaubriand. Being Greek of course, eating like that is nothing new, we just call it mezze. In other words, the taste for grazing at the table precisely mirrors the way we live now.
If slacking defined a certain sort of 1990s mentality, grazing sums up the way the majority of us now approach everything from shopping to relationships. And I don’t mind admitting that my grazing is starting to scare me. I haven’t watched a television programme from start to finish, without a channel-hop, since the 1990s (including The West Wing, which I was glued to, but the automatic grazing reflex still got the better of me).
The fear of missing something better is fundamental to the grazer’s psyche. It is also the reason why we find committing to social engagements such a struggle, and will lie, prevaricate and pay over the odds to keep our options open until the last minute.
Fear of commitment is just another small step along this road. Grazing inevitably effects relationships (you’re looking over his shoulder), work (‘I’ve started this, but maybe I’d like to do that’) and anything to do with planning for the future – which is why this the first generation to reject pensions. ‘Always open to offers’ has become the philosophy by which we live. Grazing is also attention deficit disorder by another name. Not only do we hate to make a choice, but the flick-flick opportunism of our daily lives has affected our ability to live in the moment once we have made a decision. When did you last switch off your mobile while having dinner with a friend? Have you ever texted someone in the middle of a face-to-face conversation? What was the last album you listened to from start to finish, and/or is the iPod shuffle the answer to your dreams? Do you think of an hour’s lunch with anyone other than your best friend as an oppressive commitment? Exactly. Just guessing, but at your last social engagement, did you leave early, arrive late, or disappear in the middle?
Grazing is being heralded as the healthy future of restaurant eating, but it is a sign that even our metabolisms are now in sync with the surfing, skimming, clock-watching mentality, and that has to be a recipe for life indigestion in the end…
I’ll have a big MAC?
I have been an avid fan of the MAC make-up range since a guy in Harvey Nick’s made me look like a Greek goddess in a matter of minutes at the flick of three brushes and a palette of colour. So, full of excitement I rushed down there with a list of lipstick colours that I had run out of and a pot of blusher whose name and number had worn away, hoping that I would be able to find a match. A cute little shop, the set-up is the same as with other MAC shops, but I’m afraid to say I was very disappointed with the service. I browsed for a good 20 minutes without anyone batting an eyelid, which is fine when you are looking for clothes, I hate shop assistants chasing me around, but when you are in the mood to spice-up your make-up bag and one of the assistants is doing her own face and the other is chatting to a customer about some concert, you just take your business somewhere else. The Mac staff at Heathrow duty-free are much more helpful and welcoming…
On the subject of disappointment and before I get off my soapbox, I was also unimpressed with the new M&S Home store. A nice caf?, and a nice building but the furniture was boring and the home wear was just a larger version of the section in the Acropolis store. Where were the Christmas gifts and the wonderful goodies in the food section? Ok, I know it’s only just opened, but first impressions as the say…
