I was shocked to hear on Danish TV that many Danes throw out food routinely and unceremoniously on a daily basis for the simple reason that “they can afford buying some other food tomorrow”. Words fail me.

I have always found food waste unethical and immoral, not to mention largely unnecessary.

Of course, it can happen that food becomes unsafe to eat, but with a bit of planning, it can and should be avoided most of the time.

One way is don’t buy more than you know, or think, you are going to eat. But as we all know, not all days go according to plan.

Here is another way:

A couple of days before going away for four days, I realised that I would not be eating at home any more till after my trip, and I had far too many vegetables still to use.

I love one-pot meals which can go in the freezer in portions. That way I can always pull a healthy, tasty dinner out on days where I know I will be too tired, or just too plain lazy to cook.

Here is what I did:

Two red onions and quite a lot of ginger – coarsely chopped and sizzled in some oil – practically all my one-pot meals start that way. (The garlic comes later, since it cooks very quickly).

Added two tblsp mustard seeds and two tblsp fenugreek seeds, stirred, then about a third of a tube of tomato paste, stirred, and a tub of goat yoghurt nearing its sell-by date, some water, and five bayleaves.

I then added a heaped tsp of turmeric (and don’t forget a healthy dose of freshly ground black pepper if you want the health benefits of turmeric) and the same amount of moringa powder, and a tblsp chili flakes.

Here, I added a handful of uncooked red split lentils (they will cook while simmering), some thyme sprigs from the balcony, and a glass (previously opened) of black olives about two-thirds full, and half a small glass of tahini, also previously opened, so that it would probably not keep for another week.

In went, in that order, sliced or diced: Five carrots, one sweet potato, one kohlrabi, one aubergine, two red bell peppers, and half an iceberg salad (the root end), one lemon in slices (organic like everything else, of course – never use the peel of a lemon for ANYTHING unless it is organic) and a whole head of garlic.

And finally, some leftover, cooked millet and some leftover “paleo” (mostly nuts and seeds) bread, diced. Simmered till everything is done. Stir frequently, and any hint of anything catching on the bottom, add some water. Or a tin of tomatoes. Or a tin of coconut cream. Or both. It will only get yummier.

I did not this time, but had I had a bit of peanut butter in need of being used up, I would have thrown that in as well.

Voilà, it would not win a beauty contest, but nevertheless several complete, tasty and very healthy dinners for the freezer.

For a while, Pergamon Museum – one of Berlin’s greatest assets – has been offering guided tours of five highlights and I took one with a couple of InterNations members.

Unfortunately, they have only been doing this on weekends. I can’t really stand museum on weekends, crammed full of hordes of people in picnic mode, with strollers with loudmouthed children that are sometimes let loose to run wild, and that was also the case here.

Nevertheless, the tour was interesting and the guide excellent, and of course the museum is very impressive.

Unfortunately, the museum has to close soon, one part for at least four years, for some general maintenance, and the main part – the one with e.g. the Ishtar Gate – for at least fourteen years (!) in order to fix a geological problem stemming back from the ice ages. Apparently, the whole building is resting on a giant “pocket” full of mud, and needs to be stabilised. To me that sounds like a hairraisingly daunting task, and it has to be performed by humans. What could possibly go wrong. (Seeing as it was also humans who had the bright idea of placing all those gigantic museum buildings on a tiny island surrounded by water and …. swamp in the first place).

Afterwards, in true Indian summer weather, I went to “Vegan Sundays”, this week in the new recreational area in Spreepark, “Zum Eierhäuschen”, for a little bit to eat and to play around with manual exposure and double exposure.

I have recommended her several times before, and will do it again: Gabi Fastner has for me been a life-saver several times over since the first lock-down in 2019.

I am happy to know that my bones are in great shape, but for reasons described in a separate post, for the last year, tobe on the safe side, I have had to be more mindful of them in terms of both nutrition and muscle strength (which, actually, we all should, regardless ..) I have recently started alternating with Mikala (bearing in mind that weight exercises should only be done every two days, and of course requires the availability of weights).

What I like about them both is the variety, not least in the length of the videos, so there really is no excuse not to squeeze in at least 20 minutes of one or the other, or – on days where I really do not feel like supplementing with a long walk or going anywhere at all – doing several of the longer ones by both of them.

Highly recommended – you will thank yourself for the subsequent feeling of wellbeing.

Organised by Secret Tours Berlin.

My walking route on MapMyWalk.

Read more about Teufelsberg here.

I have been taking hormone blockers (post-breast cancer) for a year now. They notoriously cause osteoporosis, so I had my bone density assessed just before starting a year ago, and then again this morning. I had been expecting to have to make a big(-ish) decision between osteoporosis on the one hand and an elevated risk of cancer recurrence on the other, but my bone density is exactly the same as it was a year ago.

That even cheered up the radiologist visibly. I guess they see a lot of misery in that profession.

Again, I feel lucky that (in addition to obviously having good bones 😊) I had made it to nearly 70 before diagnosis, and my heart goes out to the unfortunately increasing number of younger, and, tragically, very young, women diagnosed with breast cancer and who have to embark on a lifetime of what many call the evil, turbo-ageing pills with a hundred side effects, none of which – I’m sure – are part of anybody’s master plan but definitely not if you are between 20 and, say, 45 or 50.

While their surroundings consider them cured of cancer and expect them to proceed as if nothing ever happened, they have to take double the dosis that I do, of a medication which nobody talks about, presumably due to the stigma attached to being forced into menopause, and for many with symptoms a hundred times worse, much too early. Zum heulen, as they say.

The facts that nobody talks about 1) the increasing number of very young women diagnosed with breast cancer, nor 2) the hormone blockers they have to take and which in many cases destroy their overall health not to mention ruin their other plans for the future is probably going to be foremost on my mind with Breast Cancer Awareness Month coming up. Not that I have the slightest idea what else to do about it.

Before the gallery walk (described here), I had signed up for this guided tour (which, incidentally, lasted one hour, not two, as indicated).