The £10 Burger
A posh burger van, a venison burger I didn't finish, and the difference between stopping because I'm full and stopping because I just don't like it enough.
I’m not trying to write one of these every day, or even every week. Just as and when there’s something worth writing down.
This one connects back to last Wednesday.
I only go into the office on Mondays. Everyone does.
The office is in Milton Keynes — a 30 minute cycle and a 40 minute train each way, which works out at about £30 for every day I actually go in.
I’m contracted for three days a week in the office. Last year the company changed that for everyone, down to one day a week, all of us in together on Mondays. That was a big deal. It effectively gave me a pay rise of about £60 a week — £240 a month — just in commuting costs I no longer had to spend.
It’s a good company to work for, and they’re good at give and take. So when there’s a busy project, and they ask if I can help out on an extra day or two, sure, why not.
That’s how I ended up in the office last Wednesday, and again this Wednesday.
On Wednesdays, the facility has a food truck.
It varies week to week. Last week it was the BBQ truck — the halloumi wrap. This week it was a posh burger van, doing venison burgers.
I would have found it difficult to say no, and uncomfortable sitting in the office smelling everyone else eating it while I didn’t. So I gave in, told myself I’d go light on dinner to make up for it, and bought one.
The burger wasn’t that good.
I didn’t eat more than half of it. The rest, a handful of very crispy fries included, went in the bin.
That stung a bit. It was a £10 burger.
Previously, I’d have struggled on and eaten it all anyway. Good or not. Today it went in the bin instead.
That’s not me. Or it wasn’t.
If I’d actually enjoyed it, I’d have polished off every bit. But I didn’t, and it wasn’t because I was full, and it wasn’t because it was nasty.
I just didn’t enjoy it enough to keep eating it.
That’s a different decision to the ones I’ve written about before. Those were mostly about stopping because I was full. This one wasn’t about being full at all. It was just: this isn’t good enough to finish, so I’m not going to.
Maybe not every time. Maybe not regularly.
But I made that choice today.