Where low-fat diet clashes with low-purine diet

Breakfast
wholemeal bread: check
non-dairy margerine: check
coffee: decaffeinated - ouch!
non-dairy milk: check
peanut butter (or even cashew butter!) - no
avocado - no
any other spread that is not Marmite - no
sugar (or any slight sweetener for coffee) - no

So we did some provisioning at the local Waitrose supermarket.  Vegetables, bananas, Guardian newspaper, lentils, chili and tikka sauces, cashews, caffeinated coffee, peanut butter, and a good range of vegetarian quick foods - patties, pie, sausages, nut roast, and Linda McCartney (oops! - dairy... if only she'd been vegan).

decisions, decisions

If you look closely at the avocado, you'll see it calls itself "perfectly ripe" - this turns out to be either a brand name or an aspiration, because it's not.

Back to the Marmite.

Not ideal.  A gout-free diet shouldn't include yeast extracts.  Still, I have to wait for the avocado to ripen.

Marmite - a yeast-extract spread, manufactured from 1902, England.  Main ingredients: yeast extract, salt, vegetable juice concentrate
Vegemite - similar to Marmite, with some vegetable/spice additives, developed 1922, Australia
Promite - similar to Vegemite, but softer and sweeter.  Developed 1950s, Australia
(Apparently the Australasian Marmite is made in New Zealand with a modified recipe, including added sugar.)

Lesson: Prepare.  Then be flexible, if you can put up with a temporary situation.

Incommunicado

Weather: mostly overcast, mildly warm, sometimes rain.


A chain of circumstance has conspired to bring our world crashing down: no landline and no WiFi, starting any time today Friday 31st May (which covers Friday PM to Saturday AM in Australia, roughly).

Why? - is to do with why I'm here - to help mum move.  It's been productive so far, but there's a hitch in the move due to the status of the land title.  Apparently this land - which mum is downsizing from - is not registered, so the sale can't proceed until it's established (manually) that nobody has put any sort of claim or financial encumbrance on the title.  Theoretically, this can happen in 24 hours, but the lawyer managing the transaction has not exhibited any dead certainty on this.

This miniature deer, not realising the land title is not registered, snuck through the fence to eat roses.

Meanwhile, because the move was initially scheduled for Wednesday, the telco (BT) cut off the landline.  We suspect they took a shortcut, which means they can't restore it for two weeks.  Similarly, internet is scheduled to die today, whether or not the sale proceeds.  If all doesn't fall into place today, we can only wait until the land title clears, which might be Monday, might be later.  Worst case: WiFi suddenly dies, and we only have emergency phone data - plus, mum's phone doesn't work inside the house, so she has to sit on the back lawn to call someone to check whether we're go or not.
Fragile crockery has been packed, moving blokes booked, and we hold our breath.

Today's lesson: be ready for both best case and worst case, and be reconciled with living through the worst case.

Good luck with exams!