They're taking over the service stations!

Right, I'm going to lay my cards on the table straight away. I'm feeling a little delicate this morning. Neil and I were at a wedding in Bromley, London, last night so I'm currently sat in the passenger seat as we start the four hour drive back to Chesterfield, typing this blog on my iPhone in an effort to distract myself from the niggling feeling that I might be sick.

So what does my hangover have to do with the supermarkets?

Well, nothing really, I'm just making conversation and mitigating for any spelling errors in this post! But our trip down the M1 has given me the chance to avoid the supermarkets in a slightly more unusual way - and forced me to eat at Burger King for the first time in years.

This is because several of the supermarkets now have branches in many of the service stations - most predominantly M&S Food and Waitrose.

We stopped about four times on the way down yesterday, largely because I have the world's smallest bladder, and saw supermarket branches at three of those four service stations.

And when it became time to grab a quick lunch I was faced with a choice between a BK veggie burger (yuk - not my cup of tea at all) or an M&S sandwich. Clearly the best option from a taste point of view would have been the sarnie, but sadly it wasn't to be. I know they're both huge corporate organisations but I felt I had to stick with the rules of this challenge, which of course allows BK but forbids M&S.

And now we're faced with another little inconvenience. We're about four hours from home so the chances of us making it back in time (or with the energy) to go to the farm shop are unlikely. But I'm not sure what food we've got in the house. Before starting this challenge we'd have probably grabbed a pizza or ready meal from M&S Food during one of our service station stops, purely for convenience, and had a night vegging out on the sofa. But now we're facing the prospect of getting home and figuring out something to cook.

Or beans on toast.

So we're back to the convenience issue again. I was chatting to a lady while digging into the wedding buffet last night and we got talking about my challenge.

In broad cockney she exclaimed: "Now why the 'ewl would youw wanna dow that?"

I reeled off my usual list of reasons: better food, knowing where it's coming from, supporting local shops and saving money.
She considered and agreed it was a good idea, even confiding that she had once worked at a fishmonger so understood the value of supporting local businesses and producers.

"But the supermarkets are just sow convenient," she said.

Well yes, unfortunately she's right, they are. I do actually know of one service station near Carlisle that is bucking the trend with a fantastic farm shop on sight, rather than a supermarket. But we're certainly not driving all the way up there today, so we'll have to make do with Burger King and beans on toast.