Privet privations.

It is heating up here in San Antonio, Texas. This might give the impression that I am stating the bleeding obvious – and I am – but it is quite disconcerting to see that it is now warmer here than it is at home.

Mind you, we have had several very cool nights this week. In that regard it’s a lot like Spring at home…complete with the Privet blossoms.

I had been told that the hay fever I was suffering from was San Antonio’s infamous Oak pollen fever. Then I realised that the hotel complex I am living in is surrounded by a hedge of bloody, blooming privet. I hate the stuff. It makes my life a misery.

There used to be a very tall Privet bush/tree at my front gate. Once I figured out that it was the culprit behind my newly discovered allergy, I set about trying to kill it.

I’m still trying to kill it 5 years later. There’s a reason it’s considered a noxious weed in Oz. It fruits profusely and suckers prodigiously.

(How was that for an example of a really bad sentence?)

I decapitated this bush. I cut off all the suckers it put out. I used Zero weedkiller on the cut surfaces. I completely disoriented my friends who used it as a landmark when looking for my home…

It now tries to come up in the footpath beside the garden bed it used to preside over. I dread to think what I’m going to find upon my return. Hopefully, the bottlebrush I planted there not long before I departed will be flourishing. Hopefully.

At this particular point on the globe, I am still exploring the savings to be found in shopping coupons. I’m only buying things I need, but applying a coupon to each item purchased. Amazing the amount that can be saved that way!

I’ve also noticed that every night the local television news has an item about Jesus or the Virgin Mary being spotted on a taco/tree/table-top wood grain/somewhere really odd. I’m not sure if this is a new thing or that sightings have increased in the days leading up to Semana Santa or Holy Week.

It occurred to me today, that I should make an effort on Good Friday or Easter Sunday and actually attend a church service. After all, I am in the Bible Belt. I put aside thoughts that the edifices themselves may actually fall on my non-believing head and searched my mind for the closest consecrated facility. Heaven knows there are many of them around (did you see what I did there?) There are even churches in stores in shopping centres here – it’s mind-boggling really.

I thought a more traditional church might be the ticket though, and racked my mind for one close by. Where Oh Where? Then it registered that the church behind the hotel was ringing its bells as it always does at midday…

I know. I’m an idiot.

We’ll see what the weather is like on the days in question. There are rumours that we may have rain and even hail on Sunday, so Friday may be my only option. That is, if I can be bothered.

I am going to sign off and tuck into an Oscar Mayer Steakhouse Cheddar, Hot Sandwich melt that I bought with one of the aforementioned coupons today. It has to go soon as it is 59% sodium and I want to get rid of the evidence…

I don’t usually buy prepared food, but it’s Holy Week and I thought I might be able to find a holy icon pictured in it somewhere.

ttfn,

s.

Salt of the earth.

I am on a low-sodium kick. My ever-expanding middle section is a sign that I am now a human sponge and retaining far more fluid than I really should be.

Salt is the culprit. At home, my nutritionist (yes, I have one of those in my stable of specialists) was concerned that my intake was too low. That was before I came to America.

Everything here is laden with salt – even the sweet stuff. Remarkably, I had to read an article about the amount of salt in the American diet before I realised just how much my intake had increased.

I have subscribed to Meatless Monday’s Eater’s Digest for many, many years now. I never get around to reading all the articles, but there are some that I do (and I always check out the recipes!). Anyway, there was one about the amount of sodium in the food here. Wow. The light bulb really went on.

So, today in the supermarket I checked out the levels of said substance in the foods I was thinking of purchasing. Gulp.

In Oz, the nutrition panel on packaging will give you the volumetrics of a particular ingredient. They tell you that there is a certain amount of something in a food. So there might be X grams of saturated fat, for example.

They do that here too, but they also give you the proportion of the food that is made up of that component. The saturated fat may comprise 10% of the item, say.

Today, I would pick up an item, look at the panel, gasp in shock and put it back down again.

Not one item I picked up, in the first instance, had less than 20% sodium.

I kid you not.

These were of course processed foods, like bread and cheese, tinned tomatoes, breakfast cereals, chocolate, ice cream and so on and so forth. Things that probably have exactly the same amount of sodium as their Australian equivalents.

And they were at the cheaper end of the spectrum too, (I am trying to live on AUD in a USD economy) which usually means a greater salt content as a matter of course. It was just the bluntness of the figures.

It is such a good way of setting out the information that I might have to get in a few politicians’ ears when I return…

In the meantime, just to reassure anyone who may still be reading, I made sure not to leave the store with anything that contained more than 10% sodium. I make no claims for the fresh vegetables – they had no panels on them!

ttfn,

S.