The Great British Vomitorium

WE do eat well in Germany at Christmas but there is more the expectation of eating something a bit more special. I don't miss Xmas Pudding or mince pies anymore and have much less indigestion than when I continued to make them.

My complete family met up for an evening meal on Xmas Day and each brought a speciality for the buffet type meal. The children were soon finished and were dispatched upstairs to play and we grown ups sat on for 4 hours just talking. It was lovely. - and no TV!

Peerhaps a résumé would be that we have totally lost our natural relationship with food. That more and more we oscillate between obscene over-eating and obsessive dieting, and that the huge number of cooking programmes on TV, whilst more and more ready-made and take away/fast food is consumed- is becoming totally ridiculous. And in many ways, it makes sense, no? He does make me laugh - so like many things, I do not seem to fit in anywhere (which is totally fine, lol). Bonne Année à toutes (et tous).

crimson it's the BBB syndrome! Bullsh*t baffles brains...

I'm so relieved that others don't know what the heck he's talking about. It's always been an Emperor's New Clothes thing with me and his writing. You can fool some of the people some of the time etc etc [but y'can't fool us gransnetters...]

I didn't know about the heroin habit!

He looks as th0ugh he's never quite got over it.

This article was broadcast again this morning on Radio 4. I listened all the way through. Finished up not knowing quite WTF he was on about.

At first it seemed to be "if you can't pig out at Xmas, when can you?" - which I heartily agreed with. Then he launched into modern day more adventurous British cooking as compared with yesterday (our era!) and that's when I lost him. Then he was talking about food banks.

I think he meant, it's ok to enjoy food but not too much as the people at the end of the road might not have enough.

No shit sherlock. I think.

We had the very last of the turkey soup today. I always stock up like mad before Christmas because there's nothing nicer than not having to give a monkeys about food shopping until it's all eaten.

Having worked in three different supermarkets over the years I have to say that the amount of food people buy at Christmas is jawdropping. We used to have the same people coming in day after day stacking up trolley loads of the stuff. Of course when you read about the number of people who don't know what to do with leftovers you can begin to understand it. Some of them must be cooking from fresh for every meal. The only things I've got leftover now are half the cake, which will keep for ages, a few vegetables and a lot of cheese which again will last for quite a while.

Will Who? I Googled him but it hasn't really helped. I'll have to pay more attention to who's on Question Time.

Looking out of the window at a dreary dark drizzle outside, why shouldn't we have a bit of a blow out at Christmas. It's traditional. Yes, some people go a bit overboard, but when watching the pennies all year a break is needed. The problem I think is all the media hype and pressure which pushes the less strong willed into going just a bit too far.

I actually like his very dry drone - and he makes some excellent points I think. The over-indulgence at Christmas is obscene, isn't it (us included I hasten to add) - followed by the just as ridiculous dieting. If we looked at it from afar, we would be really wondering if we are sane at all, no?

He is brilliant when on Question Time- again, dry as a bone and so to the point. He dares say what so many think, but daren't express. We need more like him, I think.

Can't disagree with a word of that nanaej . Especially the 'pompous' one ....I think if many other people had written it I would be agreeing totally with them.

Crimson maybe he learned a lesson? We all make mistakes in our lives but should that negate our ideas or opinions that grow out of that situation?
I too find him pompous & I find it difficult to empathise with him because of his delivery style!

We did have a feast at Christmas. But that followed a month of very abstemious meals during Advent. The money saved goes to Christian Aid.

Yes;I was going to mention that but I wanted to check it out on wikipedia first and it keeps crashing on me. I think someone who indulged in drugs of that kind are a bit two faced if they preach about over indulgence.....

I used to love Christmas Eve as a teen/twenty something..met up with loads of friends in the pub and had a great time. The same gang now meet up for a Christmas get together on the first weekend of December.. 40+ years on!

We do have favourite foods at Christmas ..it's a celebration... we probably do over indulge for a couple of days but hey it's Christmas and it happens once a year!

I do think the media has become a hugely food obsessed ... so many foodie programmes on TV about 'fine dining' etc and a certain amount of food snobbery going on. I quite enjoy watching some shows and I enjoy cooking a special meal occasionally but generally eat a balanced diet of mostly fresh veg!

Will Self was a heroin addict. May have been a cocaine user as well of course ...

Yes indeed granjura been there and got the t shirt. And then they do it all over again a week later. Yuk. So glad my sons are past that stage.
Mothers day used to suffer as well as it always seemed to be the day after DS2's birthday night out!
Didn't Will Self have a really bad cocaine problem at one stage? I seem to remember his partner... Deborah Orr... writing about it in the Guardian?

One thing which has always upset me in the UK, is the fact that young people consider Christmas Eve as the numero uno night to get totally trashed - thus ruining many a family Christmas with hung-over youngsters on Christmas day.

I saw the title of this thread and thought it referred to the vomit I have to carefully pick my way through on my way to the station the morning after some or other celebratory occasion. Will Self is decidedly odd, I sometimes think his name should be Self Will.

I'm unable to listen to himSelf as 'the content is not available for your device' (I'm in America with DS DDiL and DGCs).
But
1. I don't overeat at Christmas or at any time of the year.
2. I nearly always manage to use up left overs.
3. I see nothing wrong in having interesting, appetising food. My memories of meals at home in the fifties are best left undescribed, suffice to say that my mother's lack of interest in food, combined with austerity meant that meals had to be got through rather than enjoyed.
I can still remember when green peppers first became available in the late sixties - and when I discovered garlic, life was never the same again!

Petallus That's Will Self well summed up!

The shops may have been open on boxing day but not all of them had food because of the factory closures on christmas day. Returning to GB on 27th we were unable to buy ingredients for a meal and were unable to get bread until yesterday.

Havnt read the article but would be good if we didnt get caught up in this frenzy of shopping whatever it is for. It seems that people (and A friend of mine confirmed this before christmas) get carried away with what the crowd is doing. The supermarkets are full of people buying for one days food.The supermarkets are open on boxing day so whats the panick.

I gave up on Will Self a long time ago [he didn't notice; was too busy rabbiting on in his usual dreary way]. Always one to not use one word when twenty [or more] will do. Get to the end of a paragraph and have to re read it because I've lost the plot of what he's talking about. I may click on the link just to see if he's changed recently, but I think not.