The Malicious Cup

Yesterday the Melbourne Cup was held in Australia, as part of the Spring Racing Carnival. During this time, women stick dead birds in their hair, calling it fashionable and attractive, and everyone sits on their lazy asses to watch horses get flogged around a race track. Sound pleasant? A little bit of light-hearted fun?

If you open your eyes and look beyond the fluff presented on your idiotbox, you’ll see that it’s far from a “bit of fun.” Having seen the trauma racing inflicts on horses first-hand when I was growing up, I know even the most well cared for horses suffer when they’re forced into racing… Never mind the drugging that goes on behind the scenes. When there’s money to be made off animals, exploitation and abuse isn’t far behind.

This article from Animals Australia covers a heck of a lot:

Horse racing – the glitz, the glamour, the grim reality.

The Melbourne Cup: a celebration? Think again. The only thing being celebrated is an ignorance of cruelty towards animals.

Vegan Wedding Reception!

This is the shiznit. I’m almost looking forward to my wedding now! Here’s our 5-star 3-course meal that we’re having at a veg-friendly restaurant on the river. It will be followed by a gluten-free vegan wedding cake as well, made by the nice cake making folks at the The Forest. These photos aren’t much good, but you can thank/abuse Nokia for putting crap cameras in their phones. You could also thank/abuse us for not remembering to take a decent camera with us to the food test-run, but you’re just not the sort of person who’d do that, right? We’re all friends here, right? Hugs for all! Anyway… The food was all very nice, moderately stodgy, simple, rather darn tasty 5-star fare, with a forktonne of that more-expensive-than-gold mushroomy truffle oil stuff poured over half of it. Yumbo!

Entrées

Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Stack with Roast Tomato Sauce and Red Onion Marmalade.

Grilled Field Mushrooms, Toasted Olive Bread Asparagus and Truffle Oil.

Mains

Ragout of French Lentils, Spinach, Kipfler Potatoes and Macadamia Gremolata.

Porcini Mushroom Risotto, Stemmed Asparagus and Truffle Oil.

Desserts

Glazed Mango, Sauternes Syrup, Strawberry Sorbet

Poached Yellow Peaches, Fresh Raspberries, White Peach Soup

Wow, tasty AND healthy? Ouch. Yes, veganism is awesome! All the animals get to benefit, including me. Everything except for the second entrée is gluten-free, but the vegan bit is the most important! Closely followed by the tasty bit! And there’s still a fancy gluten-free wedding cake to come. Don’t forget the cake. Who could forget cake? Not me, that’s for sure.

P.S. Happy Leap Day!