What did you have for lunch?

I know this is probably old hat to you, and that I'm unfashionably late in discovering it, but out there in the real, i.e. book-buying, world there is a book on blogging called Nobody Cares What You Had for Lunch (see mightygirl.net) that aims to aid the hapless blogger who can find nothing much to write about to inject some vim and vigour into their posts, thus moving away from the dreary and dull minutiae of everyday life. It sounds like a fun book, and probably a wonderful asset if you are seeking added blog-vim and vigour, or if the best post-able thing that has happened to you this week is that salt sandwich you had for lunch yesterday.

But without having read the book, I can already take exception to its title. It's just not true that nobody cares! I care what you had for lunch! I like to see the photos! I particularly like the descriptions and photos of those less-than-successful lunches, the soups that look like thinned lumpy cement, the sandwiches that look like roadkill, or the ones where you inadvertently show how truly filthy your stove is. These are the heartening, comforting posts, the ones where you can see that real people often eat peculiar-looking messes and weird combinations - though my friend Annie's one-time favourite remains especially memorable for its prizewinning hideousness: mashed avocado on pumpernickel. Not pretty; shame it pre-dates blogging. It featured regularly in the decrepit ramshackle office we shared with a jolly team many years ago; so decrepit was it that we came in one morning and it took a while for us to notice that two large windows, in their frames, had been stolen in the night.

I could badger friends for a week to tell me/allow me to take photos of whatever they are having for lunch, and create a theme: One (Idiot) Person Cares What You Had For Lunch. I suspect, however, that they would start to show off and have rocket or coriander with everything, including the lumpy cement soup.

Note: Charlotte maintains that everything you eat these days has rocket in it, which she hates. I disagree, as I know that everything has coriander (cilantro to you American folks, but still nasty and soapy) in it. Me, I'd rather eat lumpy cement. I'm off to have strawberries and cream for lunch now; I have a fridge to clear out, and the other leftovers look less appetising. There will be a semi-liquid cucumber in there somewhere, I'm willing to bet.