I was once awarded the runner up ribbon in a creative writing competition as a child and everyone took great delight in telling me the thrill actually existed in the nomination.
I expect to hear that phrase a lot this year after discovering I have been nominated in the VegfestUK Awards.
You can check out my insurmountable competition in the Best Vegan Lifestyle Website category by clicking here. Not sure if I’ll enjoy losing to Viva!, Animal Aid or The Vegan Society morebut of course the real pleasure is in the nomination.
After 10 shows in 9 cities, my first ever Vegan Roadshow is all over.
I want to give a massive thank you to all the people who supported our Indiegogo campaign, helping us to cover some of the costs associated with taking a band, a blogger and an activist group on the road.
Lots of love and appreciation goes out to the venues that hosted our event. Thank you for taking a chance on our unique tour and I hope it was worthwhile for you. Your support was invaluable in helping us spread our message of compassion.
We wouldn’t have had a tour without the attendees. The people who came to the shows were full of enthusiasm and made all of us feel welcome in each city. Thank you for showing up and spending your money on merchandise. We are thankful.
Thank you to the bands and performers who helped us entertain people along the way including the wonderful Chrissy Barnacle and the irrepressible Colour Me Wednesday.
Superstar food providers kept us fed and happy during the tour. Thank you to the wonderful chefs and cooks who came out to each stop of Vegan Roadshow to impress us with their culinary skills.
HUGE appreciation goes to Connor Jackson who not only managed the Animal Equality merch stand at every stop of the tour, but also stepped up to perform at most of the gigs. Connor is an incredibly talented multi-instrumentalist who works hard to spread the vegan message. Thanks, Connor.
Josh Leuner is my partner and he certainly got more than he bargained for with Vegan Roadshow. Josh drove the van all on his own for the entire tour and performed an acoustic set at most of the stops. His unwavering support of my outlandish pursuits is the stuff that makes life bearable. I love you, Josh.
Final thanks to the Vegan Roadshow resident band, Love Like Hate. Sonja and Heather are two of the most passionate, authentic and compassionate people on the planet and I’m extremely fortunate to have shared this experience with them. Their unwavering love of music and doing the right thing pushed them into agreeing to fly all the way from Brisbane, Australia at great personal expense to help me bring Vegan Roadshow to life. I am forever humbled by their musical talent and kindness. Saying goodbye to them as they prepared to return to Australia filled me with a definite sadness. Thank you. Lots of love, always.
This is not a vegan meal you will be able to get your hands on, unless I can talk my mother-in-law into staging a supper club with me.
We recently celebrated both Josh and his sister Sophia completing their university degrees, so that meant a jumbo vegan meal with the family to mark the occasion.
Check out the glorious Middle Eastern inspired meal Sara prepared for our party. Don’t drool!
I’ve developed incredible skills when it comes to transporting chilled and frozen vegan food from one part of the planet to another.
You could be forgiven for thinking a flight from Los Angeles to London is too much time in the air for frozen food to make it back safely, not to mention the long periods at either end getting to and from airports.
But I’m FGV and nothing stands in my way when it comes to the food I love.
All of the goods you see below were frozen and wrapped in multiple plastic bags before being swaddled inside my favourite Harrington jacket and crammed into a suitcase.
Every single item made it back to my London home still frozen.
London Vegan Beer Fest 2015 is coming up quick and plans have me busy.
Breweries are booked. Bands are booked. DJ has been arranged. Merch stand is being fired up. Food menu is being planned. It is all systems go. (Plus I have a very special announcement coming up soon!)
If you haven’t had a chance to scoot on over to the ticket website and view the entry options, I’ve listed them all below for you:
Early buyer general admission – 1pm entry – £5.00 plus booking fee
General admission – 1pm entry – £10.00 plus booking fee
VIP early entry and balcony seating – 12pm entry – £20.00 plus booking fee (only 20 remain – only ticket to have guaranteed seating)
Click here to book your London Vegan Beer Fest tickets now!
A few days ago I put a call out to concerned vegans. A vegan food business took a knock (really) and I wanted to rally the troops and make a sizeable donation to help them back on their feet.
Guess what?
We reached the target set of £500 in just a few days. I have already transferred the funds over to Veg Instead, so hopefully the hungry vegans of Croydon will have their favourite street food back again soon.
The traders running vegan street food market Veg Instead had an extremely fortunate escape from serious injury today when a car crashed into their business.
Screen grab from London Evening Standard report
According to London Evening Standard:
An unmarked police car crashed into a south London market stall amid a police chase following an armed robbery this morning.
The black Citroen hit a stallholder and then smashed through a vegan food stand at Surrey Street Market in Croydon just after 9.10am.
As soon as I found out about this accident (thanks Oliver for the tip), I phoned stall owner Greg to check if everyone working this morning was OK. He assured me all was fine as far as physical wellbeing goes, however most of the Veg Instead equipment was destroyed.
This is where the vegan community comes in to help fix this situation.
I have set up a Just Giving page to raise the funds to replace the destroyed equipment. Greg estimates the damage at around £500.
We have the collective power to get Veg Insteadback on the road instantly. Insurance claims can take weeks and every day they wait to reopen, Veg Instead are losing income and Croydon is without a vegan food option on its streets.
All we need is 500 people to give £1 and I know more than 500 people will read this story. We can and should use our vegan might to sort this out.
I grew up in a city called Brisbane. Actually, I spent my younger years in a seaside town called Redcliffe just north of Brisbane and later moved to the Queensland capital as a teenager.
Where you grow up always holds a unique place in your memories, so it was exciting to hear I had been mentioned in my hometown newspaper in connection to my blogging and event planning in the UK.
