July 4 - Independence

  Happy Independence Day to all my yank mates!  In honour of this day, here is one of my favourite photos taken in Lexington, the birthplace of the American War of Independence.

The Minute Man Statue, Battle Green, Lexington

  Lexington is proud of claiming 'The first shot was fired here..' on April 19, 1775.  The Declaration of Independence was purportedly signed on July 4, 1776 however the war lasted until September 3, 1783.  So there you go.
   I found Lexington was a great place and I miss my mate Teddy.  He actually had to come and pick me up from a historic tavern later that same day, I got very dehydrated and kind of fainted a little bit.  That's what you get for walking over a mile on a 28°C (82°F) day with no water and only icecream and candy in your tum.
   I did discover something very weird about their food though.  It's sweet.  I can understand why they are so overweight as a nation (not that I'm throwing stones here).  I bought bread over there once, just plain white bread.  It was so sugary I couldn't eat it unless it was cooked! 
Luckily I had brought my trusty Vegemite with me!
But enough reminiscing, on with today's consumption!

  Breakfast: I forgot to defrost my berries last night so since I'm not keen on crunchy berries I switched to passionfruit as my mix-in fruit today.  True, passionfruit seeds are very crunchy too, but in a pleasant not so cold-on-the-teeth way.  So to sum up, yoghurt with two passionfruit and fibre toppers.

  Morning snack: A Kiwi fruit with the skin on.

  Lunch:   A Vietnamese roll spread with a quarter of a hass avocado, then baby cos lettuce, Virginia ham, half a tomato and one slice of Bega tasty cheese.  Followed up with a bright green granny smith apple.  I don't like eating whole apples, I don't know why, but I really infinitely prefer them cored and sliced.  I think it's because then they feel like snack food, that same sort of hand-to-mouth action comes into play.  Anyway, I have a neat kitchen gadget to do this with (pictured).  I keep one at work and one at home so I never have an excuse not to eat fruit!

  Dinner:  A Khobz flatbread microwaved for 30 seconds on high then spread with 40g of Philadelphia cream cheese, 50g of smoked salmon and slices of continental cucumber!

  Dessert: 10g Lindt 85% Cocoa dark chocolate.  Mmmmmmmmm.

  Now, back to the theme of independence.  I've been living on my own now for almost eighteen months and I've found independence and solitude do indeed have their perks:

• I can run around the house naked
• I can have guests stay anytime I like (obviously the running around naked stops during those times to preserve the illusion of dignity)
• I can do things in my own time or at my own pace
• I can read or play on the computer for hours without feeling I'm ignoring anyone
• I can rewatch Calamity Jane for the billionth time and sing all the songs really loud and not have someone want to strangle me!

 It does however also have some downsides.

• If I don't feel like doing something, there is no one to push me but myself.
  I did do the cross-trainer today, never fear, but in 3 months time I might have more trouble convincing myself!
• Cooking for one without being wasteful can be difficult to get used to!
  I am hopeless at freezing things.  Well actually, I'm very good at freezing just very bad at defrosting.  Though a friend of my aunt has a website Single Fare which I may well need to start using!
• It can be lonely.  I often find myself at a lose end in the evenings (though typing out this blog takes quite a while).  Some nights I might want a hug or a conversation or just to have some other body present.  Most of the time it's ok, but sometimes it gets to me.

  All that said, I've learned a lot about myself living on my own and I wouldn't change my past because I'm mostly happy with my present.  Those things that I'm not happy with,
I'm working on changing.
  See you again tomorrow folks,
  Jess