I did my usual trip down to pick up Ms Redhead and go to our local IGA and grab everything that we didn't know we needed. You know that shopping trip: When you don't need anything but suddenly you find yourself with a trolley full of stuff that was on special and quite

Irresistible 

That feeling when you just have to have it, no matter what. That naughty wicked slice of cake or ice cream in Redhead's case. Or mine, the anchovy paste or personal decadent slice of tomato. But what I have found over this year is not so much what I find irresistible, but more what our Governments have decided we cannot resist but they will resist on our behalf.

You see, we are creatures who love to stretch the limits. In my case, it is tomatoes. I love them. But, if I eat them, I get gout. I end up crippled and in  terrible pain. I wrote about it once and it was on my birthday that I got the agony that is gout.

I have lost my beloved tomato. My tomato soup. The wonder of a bloody good spag bog. My morning glass of tomato juice - oh how I loved  that. 

My chicken cooked in a tomato base with basil and garlic. Oh, how I miss that. 

But, unfortunately, I cannot eat tomatoes anymore.  And I weep.  That may sound melodramatic but a life without tomatoes is a life without one of my favourite chums. 

It seems to me that we are all living a life of deprivation. The removal of something we loved.  And it doesn't seem fair that people who do not get gout have to lose their tomatoes because I get gout . 

All those wondrous things we used to look forward to enjoy. Those exceptional moments when we swallowed that first sip of chilled  juice in the morning and went " ahh - that feels good. "

When was the last time you felt the joy of a moment in 2020 when you metaphorically swallowed down that first sip of or favourite juice and sighed with the pleasure of that taste and pleasure of feeling good?

It seems to me that while I suffer the regrettable withdrawl of tomatoes from my life, that misery of no more sauce or seasoning, that lonely non tomato tragic turmoil that is my life; I wonder: has the virus , like gout, deprived us of everything we love and enjoy?

I have made a free and open decision to remove tomatoes from  my life.

No Government told me to do so. 

When our Governments, for our health, legislate that we must do certain things for our own good, I have to wonder.

I know that tomatoes are bad for ME. 

Will they then ban YOU from eating them? 

After all, it is me that has a problem with tomatoes. 

Not you.