Weds 3rd Dec.

Okay, life as a non-vegan has continued for a couple of days now. I’ve been having soya milk in tea and coffee still until today, when we ran out of it. There was enough for Sally’s cereal, but I had toast rather than have cereal with dairy milk. The coffee I had with dairy milk was good, but not significantly better than with soya. I think I’ll have mainly soya milk in coffee from now on apart from when I’m away from home. I’m not sure about tea. I think I’ll try to keep on having soya.

Oh yes, and I had egg mayonnaise for yesterday’s lunch. I wasn’t craving this as I’d thought I might be; it was just convenient as there wasn’t much else in the fridge.
What about cheese? Hmm. I did give Sally cheese in today’s sandwiches. I’m planning a cheese free meal tonight, but I’ll probably use Quorn, which isn’t vegan.

I did have horrible indigestion yesterday afternoon. I tend to get this quite often at around three o’ clock, but, looking back, I think it may have been absent whist I was vegan. There’s a thought.

Generally, I’ve felt healthy over the month, and I haven’t really felt too deprived of any particular foodstuff. It’s been easier than I thought, even from the point of view of eating out and having takeaways. However, I like the thought that life will now be even easier. It’s not so much the obvious stuff such as not having a cheese sandwich or omelette; it’s more having to avoid, say, sausages or biscuits or cereal bars which contain egg/milk/honey. These are the things I’m pleased I no longer have to think about.

On the whole I think a vegan diet is healthier, a better way to feed the world, kinder to animals, and better for the planet. I think I’ll be compromising though. I’m not going to go vegan, but I’m going to retain more of a vegan slant in my diet (and what I cook for the family). I’ll try to stick with soya milk in drinks unless I’m away from home. I’ll use less cheese. I’ll sometimes use vegan “cheese”, especially the garlic and herb soft one. I’ll continue to use vegan foods I’ve discovered or used more during the month. I’ll experiment with the egg replacement powder I bought and haven’t used so far.

So there we are. Did I lose my jelly belly? Nahh. But I’ll keep working on it!

One last thought occurs to me. Sally and I did this for a month, I suppose as a challenge, but I feel it’s important to remember that there are thousands of vegans out there, leading healthy lives in which their diet is simply a fact of life, not an issue and certainly not a challenge or gimmick. If you want any more information, I recommend the Vegan society website (www.vegansociety.com/home.php), the Vegetarian Society website (www.vegsoc.org/) or the Animal Aid website (www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/AA/HOME/).

Well, that’s it. It’s lunchtime now. Ooh, I don’t know what to have!

Mon 1st Dec.

Sally has decided to stick with soya milk on cereals, and I was already having it anyway before Vegan Month. So breakfast is the same as it has been for the last month.

We have coffee morning in a café today and I have soya milk in my coffee. However, it’s disgusting! I don’t know whether the coffee is too strong or what, but the result is not good. I won’t name the establishment!

Lunch is leftovers from yesterday, so that’s vegan.

Right, what about the evening meal? Nick and I have to go to Sittingbourne at 5.15 as Nick has a trial for the Kent Schools Football Association squad. So I need to make something we can have early and which can be left for the other two to heat up easily later. I toy with the idea of risotto, or maybe quinoa; then Nick asks if we can have pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese. And yes, this sounds quick, easy and appealing. So it is that I have my first cheese for over a month. Ooh, it does taste good! I leave the plate of cheese separate in case Sally decides not to have any.

On returning, feeling very cold, Nick and I have yet more pasta. It turns out Sally did go for the cheese option. One of her friends has bought her some chocolates, not just because she can now eat them, but to say that she’s proud of her for sticking to being vegan. Apparently another of her friends, a vegetarian who also “did” Vegan Month, is planning on remaining vegan.

I think we know that we won’t be remaining vegan, but let’s see how the next few days go.

Sun 30th Nov.

I have to get a few things from Tesco this morning. As I wander round, I do feel a sense of freedom, looking at things I’ll be able to eat again tomorrow. But at the same time, there’s hesitancy. Can I bring myself to eat dairy and eggs again so readily? Well, we’ll see, won’t we? When I mention these feelings to Sally, it turns out she’s experiencing the same reluctance mixed with anticipation.

Lunch once again is falafel eaten at the side of a football pitch in the cold and damp. Nick’s team draws 2-2, so we aren’t too downhearted. Sally has developed a taste for mushy peas recently, and has them with a baked potato for her lunch.

Nick and I arrive home to find Paul rummaging in the freezer for something to cook for tea. We’ve run a bit short of vegan-friendly ingredients, as I haven’t had a proper shopping session for a while. Time to try out the Realeat chicken style pieces then. Paul decides to mince them, shape them into balls and cook in a casserole with potatoes and other vegetables and lots of herbs. (He is fond of his herbs.) The balls collapse whilst cooking, but the resulting goo is very tasty anyway, and I have two helpings.

For tomorrow’s lunchboxes, I prepare Marmite sandwiches, partly because it’s for Monday, and partly because it just doesn’t seem right to get the cheese out straight away. I even stick with dairy free spread instead of butter.

And so to bed on the final day of Vegan Month.

Sat 29th Nov.

It’s a fairly early start as Paul has to get back for a hockey match, but at least we had a burglar alarm free night.

I have to say Brussels has been great where finding vegetarian food is concerned, and not as difficult as I was expecting on the vegan front either. There are more vegetarian eateries than you might think and you can find veggie food in some mainstream restaurants, sandwich shops and delicatessens much more easily than in any of the places I’ve been to in France or Spain. I suppose that’s because it’s a large cosmopolitan city. Anyway, it works for me! I do feel a bit deprived though, not being able to have waffles, pancakes and hot chocolate, those quintessential Belgian staples.

The journey back is fine, though by Northern France the cold clear weather has turned to miserable grey drizzle, which continues across the channel and greets us in England too.

Back home all is well. The kids and grandparents seem to have enjoyed each other’s company, and they’ve eaten well. We distribute presents, Paul goes to hockey, Sally goes to help with play auditions, I unpack, and Nick tries to persuade me to let his friends sleep over.

I have a light lunch of Bean Feast pate on toast as I’m going out later for a meal with a gang of school mums. We’re booked in at the Shangri la, an excellent Thai restaurant in Whitstable. It was I who chose it, as they do a choice of vegan-friendly dishes. Of course it was arranged before I knew I’d be going to Brussels and eating Thai, Chinese and rice most days. Oh well, I’ll cope.
At the Shangri la I am stunned by the revelation that they’ve run out of tofu! So I select Red Vegetable Curry instead of my usual tofu, cashew nuts and vegetables, with tempura vegetables as a starter. The starter is delicious, and so is the main course. A bit hotter (spice wise) than I really like, but the coconut milk sauce makes it all worthwhile.

We all walk back to our respective homes and I fall asleep with the thought, “Only one more day of being vegan.” running through my head.

Fri 28th Nov.

Today we take the train to Bruges. Bruges is lovely – clean, neat, with plenty of character, much of which comes from the distinctive Flemish architecture.

We’ve looked up veggie restaurants on Paul’s Blackberry on the journey. There are three possibilities and we head straight off for the nearest when we arrive. Phew, there’s one table free. It’s a set menu, consisting of several different things on one plate. You can choose what size plate to go for. We are restrained and opt for medium. When it arrives it looks like I can eat everything on it. Oh goody! There are courgettes in a tempura batter (gorgeous), a brown lentil casserole, brown rice (again!), seaweed marinated in soy sauce, a cold spaghetti and basil salad (slightly disconcerting but very nice all the same), green salad, red cabbage salad in a soya vinaigrette dressing, and I think that’s it. Oh yes, and sprouts – yes, Brussels sprouts. It’s really good and we wish we’d gone for large. This place too is busy, and it appears that quite a few of the diners know each other and stop to greet each other, adding to the generally lively atmosphere. The décor is simple but elegant, very clean, bright and inviting. Yes, I’d like to come here again!

I am a little out of my comfort zone language wise in Bruges as it is very definitely Flemish-speaking. In Brussels all signs, etc. are in both French and Flemish and people in shops, restaurants, etc tend to speak French. I suppose they’re all fluent in Flemish too but I don’t know. However, the people of Bruges are amazing: everywhere we go waiters, bank cashiers – everyone - just switches effortlessly to excellent English as soon as they realise we’re English.

The market square here is fantastic. It’s smaller than the one in Brussels and is surrounded by buildings in the Flemish style. The Christmas market is in full swing, and there’s a skating rink too. Paul has a go whilst I hold the coats. Then it’s into a bar overlooking the square to warm up as it gets dark. I’d love hot chocolate but have to settle for black coffee. It’s not the same.

Back outside, after buying a few presents at the stalls and having a cup of the obligatory Gluhwein, we head for the station, mostly at a running pace as we’ve underestimated how long it will take to get there.

The Grande Place back in Brussels is now lit up in splendour. There’s a Christmas tree with lights, some tubes with constantly changing coloured lights, projected lit patterns on the buildings and spotlights on the buildings. All this and music too. And now the Christmas Market is well and truly open. We go and eat in a Chinese restaurant. The menu offers vegetable dishes with a choice of egg noodles or non-egg noodles. Excellent. I have to say, it’s nice to not be eating rice again.

I think that after that we have yet more Gluhwein.

Thurs 27th Nov.

Paul has a business meeting today, so I head off on my own. My aims are to look at a couple of possible restaurants for tea, go to the Museum of Modern Art, see the Grande Place, and check out a potential lunch eatery. Oh yes, and to find a bank machine, as I have no money! And so I wander. Lovely areas of cobbled streets, interesting shops, NO BANKS. And so I keep on wandering. I find one of the restaurants from my list, which describes it as not 100% vegetarian. It looks interesting, but the veggie food isn’t vegan, so that won’t do this time. I reach the Grande Place, which is a stunning square surrounded by extremely grand old buildings. Still no banks! Going off into the side roads, I eventually find a bank machine. This unobligingly spews out 50€ notes, so I then have to go to the counter to change them. Even as I approach the counter, I can’t remember the French for “note”, but – phew – it comes to me just in time. Right, now I can relax a bit more.

I arrive at a veggie lunch bar just in time for lunch – handily. The now-familiar discussion ensues about what I can and can’t eat. There’s an amusing misunderstanding where the woman serving food thinks I don’t want to eat eggs or garlic (milk=du lait; garlic= de l’ail. But is my pronunciation really that bad?). We finally establish, however, that I can eat the Thai tofu and vegetables with rice. (More rice!) And jolly tasty it is too. Again, what do they do to the tofu to make it so good? This place fills up very rapidly, as did last night’s restaurant. There’s obviously a demand for vegetarian food in Brussels.

Refreshed, I carry on and go and look at a fully vegan (according to the list) restaurant and the health food shop beneath it. At the shop I buy cereal bars (without honey) and seitan sausages. Seitan is a meat substitute made from wheat gluten. It’s used particularly in Asian cuisine for “mock duck, pork, beef” etc.

The restaurant upstairs doesn’t appear to have a menu on show, so I give up and head back to the Art Museum. I’ve been here before, about twenty-five years ago, and remember thinking then that the huge modern art paintings were wonderful. It turns out that the ones I remember are no longer there, but I still like lots of the exhibits. Half of the museum is for Ancient Art, and I’m surprised by how much of this I like too. I’ve never been too inspired by old religious paintings before, but some of these are wonderful; the colours are gorgeous. Maybe it’s partly due to the setting. The building is huge and grand, though not over ornate, so I suppose the pictures are given the space and background to stand out as they should. One of the things I like about these older paintings is their depiction of well-proportioned women. Even the Virgin Mary has a good pair of sturdy hips on her!

Anyway, I’m there for about three hours and then Paul and I meet up and he shows me the bars of Brussels and introduces me to strawberry beer, which slips down frighteningly easily. We can’t be bothered to walk to the vegan restaurant over the health food shop, as it’s a bit of a trek, so we settle for a nearby kebab shop, where I have falafel, chips and salad and Paul has something carnivorous, chips and salad. He would have had the “Houmous Platter” but they’d run out of houmous. Replenished, we return to one of the bars. Paul does seem to know his way round the bars of Brussels rather well. Walking home, we pass through the Grande Place, where the Christmas Market stalls are set up but not yet open. Luckily, however, just a short distance away the Rotary Club are running a cheap Gluhwein stall. All along this street are huge candles in shallow pots on the ground. They look great, and really add to the atmosphere, but, come on, how do they get away with it on Health and Safety grounds?! And this is Brussels, the heart of EU Health and Safety regulations. You have to admire them.

This time the burglar alarm doesn’t go off until six o’ clock in the morning.

Weds 26th Nov.

Off we go to Brussels.

Lunch is a Beanfeast pate sandwich whilst waiting to go onto the Euro Tunnel Shuttle.

It’s very exciting driving into Brussels in the dark, with the bright city lights enticing us to walk around and see what’s on offer.

Once settled into the hotel (definitely posher than a Travel Lodge), that’s precisely what we do. Paul looks at a map for about two seconds, knows exactly where to go, and we set off to look for vegetarian restaurants. The first one on my list is supposed to be open until 9.30. We find it and read on the door that it closes at 8.30. No problem; it’s only 7.45. We step in eagerly, only to be told that they stop serving food at 7.30. We step out again, with me muttering darkly about vegetarian restaurants not doing themselves any favours! After another brisk walk in the increasingly cold evening, we find the next vegetarian restaurant on the list. It’s a dream of a veggie restaurant! Sumptuous Moroccan-type décor, warm and cosy, yet fairly sophisticated. It’s a set-price buffet, with lots of delicious dishes. As a vegetarian, I would be swooping upon it and filling my plate with everything in sight. Of course, as a vegan, I have to interrogate the waiters to find out what I can eat. (So it’s just like my usual experiences of eating veggie in a non-veggie restaurant.) Anyway, the food is lovely – rice, vegetable korma, salads, braised endive (surprisingly tasty!), and other stuff I’ve forgotten. I have to confess, I am envious of some of the things Paul’s having. I am able to have dessert (included in the price, so I’m determined to have it) by eating the top part of my (non-dairy) chocolate and chestnut tart, and making Paul eat the pastry base so that it doesn’t go to waste.

A good night’s sleep is interrupted by a burglar alarm going off at about four o’ clock the next morning, followed by an extremely noisy bin lorry.