If there’s one man who knows how to get his hands, quite literally, on a lunch it is Ray Mears. Arctic chard, monitor lizards, bison, witchetty grubs: the TV survivalist expert has tracked, trapped, skinned, picked and eaten a glutton’s list of wild foods using the tools and methods of indigenous tribespeople across the world.
In a throwback to the old-fashioned public lectures given by explorers, Ray visited Derby recently. And in the hope of getting a few tips for my own lunchtime forays, I headed over there to hear what he had to say. There were many interesting and amusing anecdotes about his times in the wilderness but one thread stood out for me.
Wild hunting and food gathering is incredibly slow and deliberate. It utilises an enormous amount of inherited local knowledge and the use of appropriate tools—what we would call technologies. As an example of this, Ray described how it takes 14 hours to prepare ice holes and a net in order to catch an Arctic chard (a type of fish).
Sadly, Ray made it clear that in his twenty-year career he could already see many examples of how these skills were being lost, largely because of how the modern world is rapidly encroaching on the last of the truly wild areas.
In essence we are ‘forgetting’ how to get our lunch. Puts a different complexion on popping out to the shop for a sandwich, doesn’t it?
Tech Lunch 
Lunch on the line
November 27, 2007Lunch last Wednesday was courtesy of British Rail (as was). Nothing too exciting, just a cheese and pickle sandwich, but it was enlivened by the free cabaret courtesy of the staff. As we approached St Pancras, the guard went round collecting rubbish, asking for “any old rubbish, newspapers, magazines, weapons of mass destruction, secret and confidential documents about Nick Clegg.”
This kind of humour by public service staff was reflected in the story, yesterday, about the London Underground announcer who has been posting “spoof” announcements to her website. It’s not the spoofs that have got her into trouble, of course, but it looks likely that she will lose her voice-over contract for allegedly telling a Sunday newspaper that she thinks the tube is “dreadful”.
I think London Underground should extend her contract and include some of her spoofs in their normal schedule of announcements. These kinds of moments enliven the otherwise dreary experience of travelling.
As far as the railways are concerned—let’s hope the guard continues to brighten things up on the London run. He could probably now add CD-ROMs from the Inland Revenue to his list.
Tags:London Underground
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