A Country Dweller: Not so Fast Food

Before I went to University I had never really experienced fast food. Well, obviously I had... but not on a regular basis, and it didn't ever seem to haunt and stalk me the same way it does now. Here, in Cumbria, I can go for a jog up the fell, and feel invigorated by excercise. In Stoke, whilst at Uni, I go for a run and pass McDonald's billboards every 300 metres- which just makes me want to go and order 3 large Big Macs!

Picture courtesy of www.adsoftheworld.com

Anyway, regardless of the effect this food has on my health, wallet and figure, when I'm at home, I do kinda miss it. A friend and I really wanted a quick food fix the other day. The theory that when living at home your parents wait on you hand and foot is a myth. Or at least in our households it is. No home cooked evening meal and no parents in sight. To top it all off, bare cupboards. We may aswell have been still at uni. And we'd have had better luck finding ourselves some gnosh if we had been! We weren't able to call Dominoes as there isn't one anywhere near us. That's no exageration. I genuinely don't know where our nearest one would be! (OK, so you inspired me to do some research...!)
I made this chart to show the distance to our nearest fast food outlets.

From top to bottom: Pizza Hut, Indian, Chinese, Burger King, Chippy, KFC, Subway, McDonald's

Given that wherever we were to travel we would have to incur petrol costs, it was unfortunate that we didn't fancy fish and chips. Travelling anywhere further than 5 miles makes for a rather expensive evening meal. So what did we do? Hit Westmorland, where we both work, and got ourselves a panini and a portion of chips each. Lord knows why we thought this was a better idea, as the hefty service station prices didn't make for a cheap stomach filler by any stretch of the imagination and the meal was probably as calorific as a McDonald's. In hindsight, we shoud've stayed in and ate cereal.

A week In The Life of a: Country Dweller

Despite Cumbria being truly beautiful, (and let’s be honest, there are worse places to live than on the edge of the Lake District!) living in the countryside is quite often a challenge in itself- this week I’ll be keeping you informed of all the drawbacks, and highlights, of being a country bumpkin!

Whilst some readers may blame the tube, public transport or general busy traffic as excuses for running late for work, my manager told me today that when I drive to work and run late, I most commonly blame getting stuck behind farmers moving sheep and for the most part, this excuse is genuine!

Delays: Enough to drive you baaaaaa-rmy!

Rather than me describe what my surroundings are like, I thought I’d make the most of multi-media, and let you view the sights, and hear the sounds of the countryside for yourself.