Meat Free Week 2 and it's Eurovision!

The first meatless week was undeniably difficult, filled with moments of weakness, internal debates about justifiable excuses to resort to munching on meat and the odd outbreak of canine slobbering when I was faced with the hypnotic smells emerging from a slab of meat sizzling on a grill. But now, 14 days into the veggie challenge, I think I've cracked it: I no longer hanker for meat products in the same compulsive style that a lovesick individual would long for the object of their affections.

Don't get me wrong: I still get cravings for food things. Being irredeemably greedy, I probably always will. The difference is that I've started to hunger for good wholesome vegetable fare. I want to keep eating those excellent bean burgers over and over again. I keep my head buried in various sources of interesting - i.e. no boring grey mush or unappetising meat substitutes of strange origin on the premises - veggie recipes, hoping to luck upon the next massively tasty, pleasantly textured treat. I've finally got my stomach to appreciate that although it's Sunday, it's not necessarily a crime to serve up a plateful of vegetables. During the current heat wave, I've passed people barbecuing things that would usually make me salivate without a second glance. I even appeared to experience a bit of an odour hallucination. When I was out running on Tuesday, my nostrils clocked an unmistakable whiff of grilling despite their being no cooking utensils in sight. What exactly did I smell? Griddled asparagus. Maybe I could actually get used to this meat-free existence.

Wearing the flag for Finland...even though we
didn't make the final, gutted!

The only spot of hesitation took place last night at the annual Eurovision party held by our friends. The idea is simple: to counter the frankly terrifying music and hysterically OTT stage shows, which seem to whizz through the equivalent of the entire Europe's monthly electricity consumption during one 3.5 hour blast of bright lights and pyrotechnics worthy of a hair metal video, with good food and plenty of drink. This year's theme - fittingly enough - was food from different parts of Europe. Unlike the country's contribution to the evening's music, the Spanish representative to the otherwise overwhelmingly green buffet table proved hard to resist, chorizo being one of my very favourite meaty items. But thanks to my newly found steely willpower and dedication to a veggie diet, I passed the tempting bowl of chorizo with ease and grace. Although if I could eat with my eyes, there wouldn't have been a slice left for anyone else...