Baby steps..

Today I ventured out in the direction of town. It was a bit shocking. Why did I do it? I got an email about my supermarket. Not from the supermarket peeps, but from Flybuys, who run the frequent shopper program and clearly want to hang on to their St Martins clientele. Here is what they say. I've highlighted the exciting bit:

Our hearts go out to all those in the Christchurch community and the surrounding region who have been affected by the Christchurch Earthquake on Tuesday 22 February. New World were saddened to announce that due to this disaster, they have had to close New World St Martin while they rebuild over the next year.

New World St Martin is committed to servicing the community in the future with its quality food and grocery offering at great prices. Thank you for all the messages of support sent to the store during this tough time.

They also practically begged us to remain loyal and offered up some serious bonus points for making the effort to shop at another NW. The next closest to me is in a very badly damaged area and I was suprised to hear that they had reopened yesterday.

.. yes, I am well aware that this post, featuring supermarkets and frequent shopper points is just reeking of housewifery right now and I feel deeply uncomfortable about that. I'll just go and make sure there are no curlers in my hair and that the washing is still strewn around the kitchen. Good.

Given that the only organic shop with a liquor license is currently .. well... (By the way, if you took this pic, please let me know so I can credit you. It's not one of mine)....

.. and given that I have a friend coming over for dinner, and further, that I was feeling goodwill to mankind on account of the eventual reappearance of my favourite shop spot, I thought I might just check out the vino aisle at the newly reopened place, to the mutual benefit of both myself and Flybuys.

Getting there was a bit challenging. There is still a cordon in place for most of the central city, which appears to have been only partly lifted around the supermarket. I was driving past roped off streets, guarded by the army, down which I could see the type of destruction that I thought only existed 'somewhere else', on the news perhaps, or in books about WWII. I had to get inventive in my route, resorting to a unique detour which involved a wrong way manoeuvre down a one-way street (nobody saw..). Perhaps not surprisingly there were only a few cars in the park and the mall looked closed and empty. This was not completely an illusion.

The supermarket may have been open, but nearly every other shop in the mall was closed and stripped of stock and fittings. The tiled floor is cracked and there is evidence of cleaned up liquefaction. It had the eerie feeling of a ghost mall and I immediately felt like bursting into tears. It sounds soppy, but I had vivid memory of being there with my niece when the place was alive and pumping, her jumping around with other kids in the playground. It was all a bit sad - not helped, I might add, by the depressing music that was dawdling from the sound system. I don't know what they were trying to do to us! In the supermarket, shoppers were rattling around the deserted aisles, being driven to tears by 'classic suicidally sad love songs of the 70's'. Thank god I found a decent organic vege section or I might still be there, catatonic on the floor. I also experienced success in my primary mission:

Now, I'm aware that I promised a health blog today, so this will have to suffice. Wine is not bad for you. It's not that good for you either. It is one of the many things in life that can be beneficial or harmful depending on the quantity. As Paracelsus intoned, way back when, 'the dose makes the poison'. It is unfortunately a feature of the prevalent 'good food, bad food' paradigm that people think a healthy thing cannot be overconsumed. Wrong. Particularly for alcohol, which is still a toxin, even in it's red wine, resveratrol delivering, organic version.

The amount shown to be beneficial (in terms of heart health and even memory enhancement) is less than two units a day for women. Unless, like me, you have gone to the effort to find one unit glasses (they are tiny, holding just 150ml), you will probably go over the recommended amount with just one full glass, and therein lies the danger. Over two units a day raises your risk for breast cancer. Over five units a day can lead to cognitive impairment over the long term and it's very easy to do that, without ever getting really drunk. A unit is smaller than you think.

Ok, my dinner guest just arrived, so I'd better post this and go get things happening in the kitch. I hope she will appreciate the level of effort involved in hunting down a bottle of organic vino these days! Trying times.. ;)