I’m Not Religious But I Do Celebrate Easter Eggs

The title of this blog is a joke I’ve made a few times, in a few different forms.

I’ve joked about not celebrating Christmas while expressing my devotion to overeating on Christmas day. I don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but that doesn’t stop me from eating food associated with this problematic calendar date.

And just like the above festivities, Easter comes with it’s own delicacies that I love to consume while simultaneously rejecting the cultural and religious framework surrounding it.

Yes. I’m coming out of the closest as an atheist who is obsessed with Easter eggs!

My family wasn’t religious when I was growing up in Australia and I only attended church for weddings and funerals, but Easter was one of those celebrations that reached even the most non-observant of the population Down Under.

As a child, I would build a nest to which the Easter Bunny would deliver chocolate and candy eggs once a year (a tad confusing when I ponder this as an adult). This nest was more often than not simply a beach towel rolled into a spiral, placed in the living rom or at the foot of my bed. Sometimes I would shred newspaper to create a cosy, cushioning base to protect my expected egg delivery! I have no idea if this was a cultural practice outside of my family but we did it for most of my childhood years.

I suppose it was this custom that instilled in me a joy for Easter eggs that has lived long past my childhood and even long past retaining (most of) my family in my life!

This probably isn’t the right place to do a deep dive into my complex family history, however it is the perfect platform for sharing my current Easter faves with you here in the UK.

Check these out!

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Day trip to Brighton

I imagine a lot of people feel the way I feel about Brighton.

Brighton, UK is one of those places that we think of as being more exciting and alternative than perhaps it really is. The seaside town has always held a certain sense of excitement, mystery, and creative energy, long being a beacon for cultural outsiders.

Queer people, punk rockers, and hippies would converge on destinations such as Brighton to look for likeminded personalities in order to create meaningful community.

In 2025 it now appears impossible to escape capitalism and gentrification, as a visitor to the city finding a Brighton overflowing with expensive tourist trap businesses as the independents get increasingly pushed out. The outsiders who made Brighton an desirable and exciting place are now in turn being rejected by soaring rents and a landscape unfriendly to independent business owners and community groups.

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Happy birthday to my book

Seven years ago, a lifelong dream of mine came true. I published a book. Not just any book, rather a book that poured every ounce of my heart, values, and hope for a better world into its pages. Fat Gay Vegan: Eat, Drink and Live Like You Give a Sh!t wasn’t just about veganism—it was about compassionate consumerism, social justice, and the belief that the choices we make can ripple out to create real change.

I worked hard on this book. Every word, every anecdote, and every call to action. To see it in print was a true moment of pride, but to have people still connecting with it seven years later? That’s a gift beyond anything I could have imagined.

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Be my vegan Valentine

This is a call for anyone looking for an exclusive Scandinavian dining event on February 14, 2025 in central London.

It doesn’t matter if you attend with a partner/s, friends, or on your own. This meal is suitable for people in all types of romantic entanglements.

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Ferments and Pickles

Celebrate Veganuary’s Finale with Purpose and Flavour

Join me for an exclusive, one-night-only dining experience at E3 Vegan, a proudly independent and celebrated restaurant nestled on Roman Road, East London.

This special supper club is your chance to savour an inventive three-course plant-based menu created by Head Chef Marc Joseph, formerly of the iconic Vanilla Black, London’s first vegetarian and vegan fine dining destination.

Born out of a love for sustainability and a passion for exceptional cuisine, E3 Vegan’s hyper-local, seasonal approach has made it a standout on the culinary map.

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Vegan groceries in Kent

What do you do for vegan groceries when you live in Kent, England?

However you answered that question in your head, you can now add Wheat’s The Problem to your list of solutions.

1 - Shop Front

This grocery store is tucked away on an industrial estate in Sittingbourne, Kent and looks to be a vegan grocery oasis.

While not everything in the store is plant-based a huge chunk of what’s on offer is, with the shelves lined with Fry’s Family FoodsFollow Your HeartTofurky, Plamil and many, many more vegan brands. I would be here all day if I started listing them and you all know how lazy I am.

As you can tell from the store name, Wheat’s The Problem is also a specialty shopping destination for consumers looking for wheat free groceries with many items being suitable for coeliacs.

Get along to Wheat’s The Problem for vegan groceries and support independent business.

Click here to join the Facebook group for the shop. This is where you can keep track of all the fantastic new products being added each week. You can also click here to see where the shop is located.

south of france cruise

Chocolate in the box

Is there anything more appealing than a mystery box of vegan treats being delivered to your front door once a month? I didn’t think so!

As I raced around the recent (and huge) Vegfest UK London, one particular stall caught my eye. How could I resist a neatly-packed box filled to the brim with tasty, cruelty-free food? I couldn’t.

What's in the box
What’s in the box?

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Help me to help you

As you all are aware, the massive fundraiser party Bowl For Oceans is coming up on Sunday January 6, 2013 in Central London. This special event is taking place in order to raise money for Sea Shepherd UK and will be packed with fun activities such as bowling, karaoke and pool tables. There will even be DJs on hand to keep the day party rockin’.

Tickets for the party are available to buy online for the all-inclusive price of £11 plus booking fee. You can buy your tickets now!

Or….

How would you like a free ticket to the compassionate event of the Winter season?!

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That’s your bloomin’ lot

There used to be a store I frequented as a younger person called Popcorn Palace. This maize emporium was located in a shopping mall on Australia’s Gold Coast and with my hometown just an hour or so away by car, my friends and I would often find ourselves buying bags of the good stuff.

Popcorn Palace was one of those places that believed in the mantra ‘more is more’. I used to marvel at the vast array of flavoured popcorn lining the shelves and always ended up buying more jumbo tubs than I could handle of the irresistible snacks. I remember the watermelon variety extremely fondly.

Thus commenced my lifelong love affair with popped corn.

Flash forward to a few years (decades?) later and popcorn still rules my roost. Popcorn is probably second only to potato in my most-loved category. I might not have Popcorn Palace in my life these days, but the good people of Bloom’s are working hard to keep my maize malaise at bay.

Nutty & Sweet by Bloom’s

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Heather my dear, there’s a new flapjack in town

Isn’t the word ‘flapjack’ a bizarre thing? Where on Earth does it come from? I would love to know the etymology of the word flapjack. Answers on the back of a Morrissey postcard, please.

While I sit back and wait for the mountains of mail adorned with pictures of the Mancunian poet, I might as well inform you of a delicious vegan flapjack I discovered on a recent food expedition.

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