ON STEAK AND BACON ON MY PLATE

I dooo noooot waaant it mmmmk?!

A few weeks ago I was paid (very well might I add) to go away to a purty little location and get some pics taken for a calendar. Lovely.

Now, before we went down to shoot these photos (bang!bang!) there was a lot of emailing between the organisers and myself. As a part of this ‘emailing’ I was sent 18 mock images; that is, images using different girls in the settings that I will be in once the calendar is out for the public to see.

Naturally, the first thing I do is a ‘vegan scan’ of these images. I.e. will they want me to hold a pie in my hand whilst wearing tight leather pants? Answer was, no. However, one thing I was not happy about was the black boots used in some of the shots which I suspected were leather. So, I (being a royal pain in the bottom) asked if I could bring my own boots …they said “yes, sure’.

At this point I made it clear that all the rest was fine in the images with regards to my vegan stance (which is…’go vegan or die’) and sent them a list of foods I eat as a part of my daily nom noms consumption because they had asked for this in the earlier ‘emailing’ for they (the organisers) were not familiar with this concept. (VEGAN??? Do you live on seeds and fruit?)

Anyway, to cut a long story somewhat less long, I get to the location and for breakfast they have some Soy milk for me! For lunch, I got bread, cucumber and hummus, while the meat eating girls had platters to choose from. Dinner; I get some roast vegetables and nothing else. This went on for three days. AMAZING; (now comes the rant)Why tell me you are providing all the food and then feed me some cucumber, lettuce and veg especially since I had given you a list with all the foods I do eat…cereal for breakfast was an example. Oooh oooh plus I said if there are any problems with providing my food to let me know in advance so I can come prepared. They said nothing apart from ‘all your food will be provided’.

I pretty much lived on the bread for three days for it was rather tasty, it had rock salt and garlic bits on top. Noooommmm! Nutrition…major fail.

Now we are back to the point of the story which is that I do not want steak or bacon on my plate.

Firstly, let me mention that EVERYONE at this shoot especially the organisers were clear on me being vegan and this impacting on what I was happy doing/wearing on the shoot.

To continue…on the last day of shooting, the organisers of the shoot had decided to do some ‘extra’ shots that I and none of the other girls there were shown as a part of the original 18 mock images. No one had an issue with this except for me (I just choose to be difficult at all times and think everything is about me, as was suggested later)

One of these extra shots involved us girls sitting around a table and eating…the food was prepared by the kitchen staff and placed in front of us. I got a burger with steak topped with bacon put in front of me.

At this point I stood up saying I am going to the kitchen to get some breads and olive oil as I do not want meat in front of me (offering an immediate solution to my discomfort which would have taken 5 minutes at most), one of the girls comes after me about a minute after I left and tells me that the person in charge of the calendar just wants to get on with it and I need to get back, I later found out he did no such thing, the girls just wanted to hurry up and finish the shoot as it was the last shot (NB: hold ups were never a problem when either one of them needed make up and hair touch ups). Anyhow, this girl pulls me by the arm and I get back to the table and just push the plate away from me saying I will have no plate rather than a meat filled plate.
The girl organising the shoot (not the man in charge) now gets involved and tells me that this is about the brand and not about me….I find this hilarious.

Even though I did actually think the whole shoot was about me, as I am lord, I pointed out I made my vegan stance clear from the word go and that this image was not sent to me as a part of the mock images. If it had been I would have said no to shooting.

In summary, I didn’t have to have the steak and bacon in front of me, but I was all ouchy for a solid week after this incident realising that grown ups could be so inconsiderate and quick to disrespect something so close to one’s heart without giving it a second thought.

I don’t make you live on a vegan diet, so don’t force death on my plate! Simple, no?

P.S. The little sis is in Greece at the moment so I made this all about me, I rather enjoy that, making EVERYTHING about me ;)


Joy to the world!