Because of this damn heat I’ve been having salad for dinner A LOT. So, a recipe:
Ensalada Rusa (Russian Salad)
Potatoes (boiled. Preferably new potatoes or salad potatoes but really any good potatoes)
Eggs (hard boiled)
Tinned tuna (in an ideal world I’d use in oil – drained, but I’ve been buying in spring water because calories but is this really any way to live?)
Green beans/frozen peas/lettuce (or all three or some or none. It’s your life)
Mayonnaise (again, in an ideal world – full fat but I buy “light” mayo. It’s fine)
Lemon juice in the mayo, if you want.
What to do?
Boil the eggs and the potatoes (and green beans if using) and mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl with the mayo. Do chop the eggs and potatoes into reasonable sized chunks.
Sit down. Listen to me. Listen. To me. You know pigeons? You’ve know them, you definitely do. I know what you’re thinking and you’re wrong. They’re good. You’re thinking “feral” and “ugh flying rats”. You’re thinking “filthy vermin”.
Well, shut up. Listen to me. They’re nice. It’s all our fault (as per) and they deserve to be treated better.
For five thousand (5,000) years pigeons were our friends. ALL OVER THE WORLD we kept them and loved them, fed them, used them for work (sending messages), and taught them to rely on us. And then we abandoned them. Because we’re bastards.
We really are bastards.
And isn’t it funny how doves are pretty and used at weddings and on greetings cards? Well, guess what. PIGEONS ARE DOVES. So shut it.
Since learning of the human abandonment of pigeons I have softened towards them. They’re cool. They lack nest making skills because we bred them as pets for all that time and they lost the ability to live wild and now they don’t know what they’re doing and I understand (I overstand, to be honest. And the older I get the more I realise no-one knows what they’re doing and that’s scary).
Don’t misunderstand me. This isn’t some coming out as a pigeon-fancier post. I’m not going to be buying an aviary and getting racing pigeons. I’m just saying can we please be kinder to the creatures? And, when you go to the park to allow your toddler to feed the ducks leave a little for the pigeons (and the starlings, the robins, the crows, and all the other birds) too.
The picture (above) was taken at Lordship Lane Recreation ground. I had purchased some “wild bird feed” which the birds were NOT interested in but they flocked for the slightly out of date brown bread which is apparently bad for them. Maybe that’s the bird equivalent of having a cheeky McDonald’s? Well, I mixed the bird feed with it and tricked ’em. So, HAH! I’ll make the north London bird community fit and healthy whether they like it or not. This was the same occasion I got sunburn because I was too busy ensuring that all the birds managed to get some food. They’d better have appreciated it.
I’ve been thinking a lot about self-improvement. It’s an ongoing battle to become the self-actualised version of myself I wish to be. I know that all I really need is £1,000,000,000 but I refuse to associate with billionaires since they’re all evil… anyway, I digress. There’s this TikTok video (quelle fucking surprise) and I keep thinking that the line, “Do it lady” is just great advice. I think it’s the delivery of ‘Lady’ too. Like, it’s just sweet but not too #girlboss #sistersdoingit #aggressivecapitalistbullshit #hustleculture. It’s just, hey, gently, hey you, do it. NOT like Nike’s Just Do It. Don’t ‘just’ me. There is no ‘just’. I don’t know, maybe I’m being sensitive but ‘just’ implies that I should be doing it because it ain’t that hard. Yeah, well what if it is? I ain’t doing anything. I think the delivery of it here is comforting. “Do it lady,” do what? “all of it. Yeah.”
So what am I saying here? Well, apart from proving that I have a TikTok addiction (see previous). I’m saying: we’re here. Let’s do it. “It” doesn’t have to be big or life-changing or world-breaking. “It” can be sitting quietly and living your life how you want to. How YOU want to. For too long, and for too often, too many of my friends and peers have bemoaned that they’re not where the should be. Not not where they want to be. Should. According to whom? According to the world. Society. I am not saying we should all be outliers, living like banditos, off-grid whatever, whatever, whatever. I am simply saying:
Vicky Goes On (Again) 