I Hate Waste!

Those readers who know me, will know just how much I hate wasting anything. But sometimes despite our efforts it happens.  I still can't believe this just happened though!

Yesterday I gave a presentation at a conference in Paris. I travelled out the night before on the Eurostar and stayed overnight near the Gare du Nord. Rather than eating alone in a restaurant which I hate, I decided to buy something at Marks and Spencer in St Pancras station to eat on the train.  I like Marks and Spencer because their sandwich packaging is compostable. I have a weakness for their egg sandwiches and so along with some salad that's what I bought. BUT to my horror just as I was about to open it my sixth sense kicked in and my eye was drawn to the words 'single cream' in the ingredients. I'm horribly allergic to cream.

The fact that I was travelling to Paris to be a guest speaker at a conference pushed away my initial thoughts of 'oh well, it is probably only a little bit.' So then I wondered what I would be able to do with my uneaten sandwich. I decided I would offer it to someone sleeping rough.

This in mind as I walked the half a kilometre to my hotel, the offer was on the tip of my tongue when the first two people I passed who appeared to be sleeping rough suddenly jumped up from their sleeping bag beds spread on a low wall outside the post office and started assembling a tripod with some fairly nifty looking camera equipment.

So, I arrived at my hotel sandwich still in my possession.

Next morning I kept the sandwich to hand hoping to provide someone with a nice breakfast as I set off back to the metro to cross Paris for my conference. Just as I approached the platform there was a man sitting on a stretched out sleeping bag but I felt a little embarrassed surrounded by people and the train was just arriving. However, determined to execute my plan I stayed on the platform when the train pulled out.  With no one else around to judge my behaviour as weird, I went back to the man and asked him if he would like a sandwich.

"No thank you just now, but maybe next time" he replied politely nodding his head.

'Hmm,' I thought. Maybe third time lucky?

Presentation done and on my way home I did see a few more suspects, but on the opposite platform while I was still on the metro.  I retraced my journey back to the Gare du Nord and boarded the Eurostar back to St Pancras.  Maybe in London I could find a grateful recipient for my M&S Sandwich? Alas no! Between St. Pancras and Paddington and then onto my local station no hungry mouths were spotted. So this morning the sandwich sits in my fridge having been to Paris and back and awaits the moment when I cut it up and feed it to the birds. I hope they are hungry!