10 myths about vegans

www.bboheme.com (who I once bought some shoes from) emailed me today to tell me it's world vegan day and to share with me an advert for their shoes and things, cunningly wrapped in a "10 Myths about Vegans" list. They know bloggers love lists like free London papers like made up opinion polls, and will republish them at every opportunity, so here goes:

1. Vegans are the pale anemic bunch

No way Jose! Get yourself a bucket of cold water before you click into Vegan bodybuilders. Olympic champion Carl Lewis, gorgeous Alicia Silverstone and hot Joaquin Phoenix are amongst famous vegan hotties. You may find the list of vegan celebs at www.goveg.com.

2. If you want to know what’s in fashion, don’t bother asking a vegan

The best fashion accessory for Vegans is the one matching their beliefs. The mainstream has now caught on that "Green is the new Black" and compassion in fashion is in vogue. Stella McCartney is one among many designers who refuses to use fur or leather in any of her pret-a-porter collections.

3. Vegans are Fruit loops

There may be a few fruit loops amongst them but there are a few rather brilliant minds too. Mr Janez Drnovsek, president of Slovenia, is vegan, and just to name few revered veggie brains - Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Schweitzer, Albert Einstein and Leonardo Da Vinci. Maybe tofu is the next brain food …

4. Vegans live on rabbit food

Vegans love their rabbit food but they also love to tantilise their taste buds with scrumptious cuisines from around the world. Does the sound of Brazil Nut Choc Temptation sound too good to be vegan? Go to www.veginity.com for this recipe and more. For delectable ice cream, try B'Nice Rice Cream.

5. Vegan = Stylish footwear = Oxymoron ….. not any more!

Happy Vegan feet can now step out in style with stores like Bourgeois Boheme, www.bboheme.com. Footwear and accessories for both men and women are ethically sourced from around the world. Look out for the new collection under their own label coming out in the vegan month of November.

6. Vegans love animals more than people

The furry, scaly and warty ones are their passion but high on their priorities too is the welfare of their fellow 2-legged Homo sapiens variety too. Wherever possible, vegans look out for fair trade produce; see The Fair Trade Foundation for further information.

7. Vegans will not rest until they convert the entire world into Vegans

They would love everyone to be vegan of course but they do understand that this is the real world. Another way around is to set up a little country of vegans! One group hopes to purchase an island to establish their very own vegan island community.

8. Vegans are all crazy animal rights activists

There are many passive ways to be the voice for animals and to have fun at the same time. One such "cheeky" way is getting for them to get their gear off and run nude along the streets of Pamplona. Intrigued? Go to PETA's (People for the Ethical treatment of Animals) www.runningofthenudes.com for more details.

9. Vegans are tree huggers

Indeed they are and they love hugging lots of other things too! Actually, veganism and environmentalism go hand in hand. Did you know that farmed animals, cow’s flatulence for one, produce more greenhouse gas emissions (18%) than the world’s entire transport system (13.5%)? Go to the Vegan Society for further interesting facts.

10. Vegans have a chip on their shoulders

"Let’s say you were stranded on a deserted island and your only food source was a turtle, would you eat it..?"

Vegans are bombarded with such absurd scenarios everyday; it’s not surprising that they may snap back! If you really want to know what vegetarian ethics is about go to Vegetarians International Voice for Animals website.

2007 :: Comment / reply

Vegans? In Folkestone? Whatever next!

Vegan Willy Wonka Launches new chocolate World Vegan Day... I'm a vegan you know, it's great.

2005 :: Comment / reply

San Francisco

So, part the first of my big holiday / honeymoon write up. Slight preamble, some experiences on the way there. Our flights were at nice civilised times, but to save any rush and extend the holiday a bit, we booked into a hotel at Heathrow. But it was rubbish - I don't recommend staying at The Comfort Inn Heathrow. The TV was fuzzy, the bar / restaurant looked crappy, and there's NOTHING in the locality, it's a ghost town around there. So we made do with crisps for tea, and didn't go in the only local "fun pub" we could find as it also looked rubbish.

Our flight was GOOD! I hate flying, so a ten hour or so flight is not normally fun, but flying with Virgin was OK. We had a full TV on demand system in the headrests, so I watched The League of Gentlemen's Apocalypse and Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy (don't bother) and House with Hugh Laurie and got some sleep. Also they didn't mess up my vegan meal, result!

On to San Francisco then! We had a car booked, but decided to leave it at the airport, save having to struggle round town with it for the four days we were there, and also save on the parking. I was nervous about driving in America at all, until just recently I'd taken something like a ten year hiatus from driving, was a fly drive thorugh California such a good idea..? Put it off for a few days anyway, we got a shuttle from the airport to our hotel at Fisherman's Wharf. It's a tacky sort of place, we were expecting that, but somehow we were the only people in the world who didn't know it would be cold and foggy. HEY, If you're going to San Francisco, forget about the flowers in the hair, wear a big jumper! Our hotel was the Holiday Inn, it was all OK, free drink on arrival, coffee percolator in the room, pool table in the bar, but kind of average really. Went for a walk around Fisherman's Wharf, it's more rubbish than we suspected, a faded fairground area like Southsea. We saw the sealions, and completely failed to book onto a trip to Alcatraz. I'm not so keen on the Sealions, maybe it was just that it wasn't warm anyway, but thinking about them just sitting there in the harbour on decking doing nothing made me feel colder, and a bit sad. Alcatraz though, we knew we should book onto it in advance, we thought perhaps just the day before so didn't do it right away... it was a weekend and it was booked up four days in advance, so we completely missed out. If you're going there, book onto a trip as early as possible... We got some food in the Hard Rock Cafe (hey you can mock, but it's good to have somewhere reliable) left the Wharf seafront bit, and had a few drinks in Kennedy's bar nearby. It's a proper pubby sort of pub, they have masses of beers on tap, scruffy pool tables, and DARTS. We have recently got WELL into darts, so this was great. There's an attached curry house to this pub too. We came back here again, though not to eat.

We mooched around town a bit, there are shops there, it is a city. The shops were OK, though I found myself looking at the same sort of things I would have done at home, like the Levis store, department stores, and various kitchen type things. One place that sounded ALRIGHT in the guide book was the Embarcadero centre, The Lonely Planet guide made it sound worth a visit, but it was rubbish. One place we found by ourselves that was very nice though was the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building. Not sure you'd call it a real farmer's market, but it had lots of nice food and drink stuff all in one place, including the biggest selection of wild mushrooms I've seen...

We found getting around San Fran to be quite easy, it's not all that big, so we walked quite a lot of it, and got a cable car and trolley bus a couple of times. Food was alright in San Fran, though there weren't as many vege places as I expected. One delightful exception was Millenium, a full on vegan restaurant in the Savoy Hotel. As a birthday treat Clare took me to dinner there, and we had the full tasting menu - many courses, plus a different accompanying wines with each one. It was quite amazing, it's pretty much unheard of for me to go to a fancy restaurant at all, but to be able to eat everything there made this feel like a total one off. We got pretty squiffy, even though were being given half glasses of most of the wines (as there were so many) and it was a really great night. I can't recommend this place enough, helps if you are a vegan, but Clare liked it too. If you're going there, look out though - when we were trying to find the place at first, we stumbled into the Tenderloin San Francisco - didn't expect San Fran to get quite so grim so quickly, lots of homeless mental health issues, crack being smoked on the street etc. Lots of cities have this, but it's how close it was to such a fancy place that got me. Reminds me of Buffy "The bad part of town is just half a block from the good part of town - we don't have a whole lot of town"...

We also took a walk (past lots of NICE houses) to the Exploratorium, it's like the play and learn bit in the basement of The Science Museum here... there are lots of workshops and things, but also STUFF to try out. It's perfect for kids, the place was crawling with them in fact, but it was quite interesting for us too. Some of the exhibits / demos / toys there felt a bit shabby, but that must be just because of the thousands of tiny hands doing their best to break them each day. It's all in a nice park too, which you can probably see in a few of our pictures of San Fran.

Possibly from our pictures you can't tell just how steep the famously steep roads of San Francisco are. Man they're steep, feels like 45 degrees or more. If you can't do hill starts, don't try and drive there. Seems an insane place to have a bike race, but that's what they did, the San Francisco Grand Prix closed down the town while were there...

A final highlight of our trip to San Fran (I didn't think I enjoyed it as much as this!) was our fire engine tour of San Francisco. We got to put on fire-fighter uniforms and see the sites of the city (including going over the Golden Gate Bridge) on a Big Mack Shiny Red Fire Engine. Much recommended, the people who run it are a bit eccentric, and they like to sing all the way around the tour. Anyway, pictures of what to expect at www.fireenginetours.com, and more in our pictures of San Fran.

On to Monterey!

2005 :: Comment / reply