Enjoying a Jacob’s Join: tales from the dinning table

One of my life’s ambitions was to build my own library. I started collecting books in my early 20s. Living in rural Wales at the time, and not owning a television, I read voraciously. By the time I moved to Manchester, I had a couple of thousand books. However, for all kinds of reasons, I eventually gave up on the idea of creating a library and have over the years steadily downsized my book collection. Just recently, I went through my remaining bookshelves and donated a load of books used during my doctoral studies to our local charity shop.

One of things I most enjoyed about doing my PhD was visiting the university library and developing an idea by looking up information to be found in peer reviewed papers and book chapters. Fortunately, I had a brilliant PhD supervisor who opened my mind to so many different ways of viewing and making sense of the world. During my doctoral journey, there was nothing I liked better than sitting in the library reading.

Sadly, in my view, much of the information students and academics need for their studies today can be found online. Indeed, much of my reading these days is done on my iPad. J on the other hand loves nothing more than turning the pages of a real book. One of the things I find almost magical and certainly challenging (in an interesting and good way) when writing my blog is to make connections from things that I have read during the previous week, sometimes supplemented by something I might have read many years ago. The blog may only be 700-800 words, but I really enjoy pulling them together into a narrative each week.

This past week I have been drawn towards food stories; sparked I think, by reading about the great ‘Sandwich versus Steak’ debate between the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. Given all the catastrophic, challenging and horrific things going on in the UK and around the world, why on earth was there so much attention paid to what their lunchtime preferences might be? This was a lunch meal conversation, and the Leader of the Opposition, Kemi Badenoch, declared that ‘lunch was for wimps’, continuing to say that ‘sandwiches aren’t real food, they’re something you have for breakfast’.

I love sandwiches, peanut butter (with either tomato ketchup; marmite and cucumber; or banana) are my favourite. But I rarely have breakfast. Most days I’m awake before 4.30am and food is the last thing on my mind. Often, I don’t eat until the evening, although I do very occasionally have a sandwich at lunchtime.

According to a Spanish study published last week, missing breakfast may shorten my life or, at the very least, cause me to gain weight.  If I do eat breakfast, it tends to be when I’m staying in a hotel and then it is usually a Full English Breakfast, which apparently is worse for my health than not eating breakfast at all.

Cereal (such as muesli or bran flakes), wholemeal toast and fresh fruit, (but not more than 300 – 400 calories) are the best items for a health-promoting breakfast. Interestingly, a separate American study published a couple of years ago showed that if you can eat your breakfast between 6 and 7 am, you would reduce your risk of a premature death from heart disease or cancer by up to 12% compared to those who eat their breakfast later. Importantly, your breakfast drink should avoid tea or coffee. And I cannot believe that the most popular coffee drink in 2024 is an onion latte. Apparently, this drink, both drunk cold and hot, has racked up over 20 million views this year on TikTok. I don’t do breakfast and thankfully, I don’t do coffee. I like my onions in stews, and spring onions in salads.

Last Thursday, I enjoyed salads aplenty. The occasion was a Board meeting and Board development day. We all wore our Christmas jumpers, and our lunch was a ‘Jacob’s Join’. If you have never lived in Lancashire, you may not recognise the term – but think ‘potluck dinner’, ‘bring and share’, ‘bring a plate’, or if you’re Finnish, a ‘bundle feast’. It simply means that you invite folk to bring some food to a meal that they then share with others. One of our Non-Executive Directors was once a chef. Her salads were simply amazing. We enjoyed sandwiches, dips, meats, cheese, and scrumptious cakes. There were plates of traditional food from all over the world. 

However, whilst the food was a wonderful, it was also wonderful to take the opportunity to spend time with each other, and time that wasn’t focused on work. It is something we maybe should do more of during 2025.