10. 10. 2011
Make it cheap - make it fresh Are you looking for a fresh start to the year or are you just keen to avoid freshers’ flu?
Well we’ve got a secret ingredient we’d like to share that’ll save you some cash and bring great food to the table. Being students, we have learnt how important it is to budget, especially in the food department. We’ve figured out that if you can locally source your fruit and vegetables there are pounds to be saved. There’s also the added bonus of a boosted immune system, more money for nights out and delicious food reaching your tummies. The soaring prices of supermarket produce challenges the notion that they provide the best value for money and any form of service to the community. Who says Sainsbury’s Basics is the only option out there? In the current recession, we are aware that many small businesses are depleting rapidly, but it’s usually these small businesses that simplify bargain-hunting. Gloucester Road is home to a host of humble farmers’ markets and fresh fruit and vegetable businesses such as Gardeners Patch or Biggsy’s Feel’n Fruity. It is family green grocers like these that aim to stock locally sourced fresh fruit and veg that sell at a far cheaper price than your local supermarkets. For example, an avocado in Sainsbury’s costs you around a £1 whereas you can expect to pick up three for the same price on Gloucester Road. When we spoke to Jackie Gardener from Gardeners Patch she mentioned how ‘we stock the same things as big supermarkets but without all the packaging. Plus our produce is locally sourced from farmers around Bristol.’ Not only are these stores far cheaper than our local supermarkets, but their produce must be stacked full of good nutrition.
“Who says Sainsbury’s Basics is the only option out there?” We propose that you take a step out of your usual supermarket routine and make a trip to Gloucester Road. We’re sure you will relish the experience. We nipped down the other day with a recipe for chicken and butternut squash stew and experienced great service as the shop assistant rushed around plucking out the chillies and garlic from the wicker baskets. Now whilst we can’t promise this service, what we can promise is great value for money. So get down to Gloucester Road to sample the fresh fruit and vegetables and to beat the ever rising prices of the supermarkets. It’s also a crafty way to keep that fresher’s flu at bay! Alice Straker and Victoria Foot
A fab alternative to the Kebab Beans on toast
you will need: beans, toast Flickr: (West Digital)
SOCIETY SLUT S
ociety Slut struggles in the summer time. It is long and arduous and there is a distinct lack of organised fun. In a moment of desperation I ended up at the local gym stepping in time to Now 64 with a group of middle aged women in uncomfortably tight swimming costumes. This was not ideal. Which is why, upon it’s eagerly anticipated return to the Bristol Society Scene, I was determined to kick-start the year with something fierce, something that would make me seem tough to strangers, something martial-arts-esque but without the pyjamas. Lush, I thought, that’ll make me sound pretty fierce and intimidating when I tell people in the pub. And indeed, it does, even if the vision I had of Kickboxing prior to my experience differed vastly to what actually unfolded. Misconception Number One: it will be full of angst-y men channelling their testosterone fuelled aggression into bouts of violence. WRONG: the male-female ratio was 3:1 and they appeared to be irritatingly friendly. Misconception Two: an angry coach with a voice like a steam train will grunt ‘you wanna be the best doncha?!’ and make you run up stairs, punch through pieces of wood at close range and catch flies with chop sticks. The session took place
1) Make toast 2) Heat beans (optional) 3) Combine serving suggestion
at Power Sports Gym - quality name - on Hampton lane. This meant there was a distinct lack of stairs to run up and while the man leading the session did look professionally beefy, he did not chew a cigar or shout incomprehensibly, which was quite encouraging really. Misconception Three: there is Kickboxing involved. Ok I exaggerate but over half the session is spent doing circuits to warm up- skipping, jogging, side-steps, sit-ups, crunches, stretches, touch your toes, touch the floor, do the ‘shrimp across the floor (???). I felt the ‘POWER’ the gym’s name suggested. I wasn’t surprised at the general lack of composure and excessive perspiration as the warm-up on its own beat a gym session. Actual Kickboxing begins in the second half of the session and this did meet my expectations as it involved a certain amount of kicking. And boxing. Ah, that’s why there is all that stretching…so you can kick your opponent in the FACE with your now extra-flexible energy legs. Practicing the technique even beat Aquasize as at the end we got to attempt to beat the crap out of each other. Ok, it was called ‘sparring’ and most people took it at their own pace but seeing as it was my first society and I wanted to impress all my new friends and twitter followers, I went Rambo on this twiglet of a girl. It was going pretty well on my part - I managed to block a few and knock a few myself - until I misjudged a kick and got her in the crotch. While this may not be the end of the
world for a lady, it’s still a tad awkward if you’ve only just met. I wasn’t there to make friends anyway so I don’t know why she got so bothered. Some people are just so self-involved. Kickboxing is a pretty funky way of keeping fit, especially if you are a natural. For others, they may as well head to Knitting Soc if they’re going to cry about a slip of the elbow in their face. email Captain Jenny Whinny for more jw9011@bris.ac.uk
Pull F Persp actor : 9 / iratio n : 12 10 / Dign ity : 2 10 / 10