There's nothing like a bug in your salad to put you off your lunch

It's true. There I was in a conference room with my client in Philadelphia yesterday – I never thought I’d say this, but I’ve travelled on business so often in the last 2weeks I had started to miss my cube – about to tuck in to a mixed green salad with ginger and garlic marinated tofu, the first thing I'd eaten all day, beyond the large coffee I’d grabbed at Penn Station, when I thought "eh up!! My lettuce is moving." And there it was; a half inch long green and red bug - blending in with the spinach and radicchio - loitering among the leaves. Ugh, it was disgusting. I've never seen a bug like it before. David Attenborough would have been transfixed.

I closed the lid and nonchalantly pushed my salad to one side.

"Not hungry?" asked my client

"Saving it for later" I smiled

Yuck!!!

Not wanting to offend my client in front of his colleagues by not eating the lunch he’d bought for me I seized my chance to surreptitiously dispose of it later in the afternoon when everyone but me stepped out for a conference call. I was off my food after my insect encounter and couldn’t bring myself to eat a thing until I got to 30th St Station to catch the 4.35pm train back to NYC when I grabbed a Balance Bar and a skim latte, I wasn’t taking my chances on any more salads.

I stopped by the office when I got back into New York to drop off my laptop only to find out that the client I visited in Florida last week had resigned that afternoon. She hadn't given any indication of the decision when I was down there. I was gobsmacked!!

Sigh!!!

Not good news for us. Not good news at all.

If there was ever a day I deserved a glass of wine it was yesterday so on the walk home I stopped by a liquor store a few blocks from my apartment to see what whites they had in the fridge - now that summer is coming I’m all about the white wines.

What did I see chilling in the fridges??? Only the 2006 Fume Blanc Grgich Hills Estate straight from the Napa Valley. The very same bottle we had carted all the way back to NYC.

'Oh we only sell this wine at the vineyard' they said. My arse they do.

Huff!!!

Napa pulled the wool over our eyes readers. We were had, they saw us coming. To add insult to injury the bottle was $35.98 - an odd price I'll grant you, but nevertheless it was still 2cents cheaper than it was at the vineyard and that's without having to lug it across country. Grrrrrr!!! Disgruntled I bought a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc instead ($12). Take that Napa!!

To be honest, at over $30 I'd have never bought the Grgich Hills wine if I hadn’t tasted it in Napa. As a rule I’m not the type of woman that pays $36 for a bottle of wine. I only bought it because I was swept up in the experience of the trip and as a result didn’t think too much about the prices; however the wine from Napa is on the pricey side. I don’t quite understand why. I'd be in a vineyard tasting a wine and they'd be describing it as ‘a chardonnay, in the burgundy style’, for $36 and it would occur to me later that I can buy a burgundy wine all over in New York that's travelled all the way from France for half the price they were charging in California.

The plus side of not eating as much as I usually would – I did of course have a good meal when I got home - was that I felt lovely and skinny all day. I know; that's terrible, I shouldn't even think such things when so many impressionable women have eating disorders, but believe you me not eating is not my problem. In fact I could stand to lose a few pounds. Not many, maybe five. Losing 5lbs would make me more swimming cossie confident for the upcoming summer months. Not that I’m much of a beach person, so chances of my having to pull on a swimsuit are remote, still, should the situation arise, it would be good to feel bikini ready. I was reading the advice of David Kirsch – personal trainer to the stars - in some magazine of Emma's on the way back from California who stated that two of the biggest problems for women trying to lose weight are alcohol and carbs.

I pondered this while raising a glass of Sauvignon Blanc to my lips.

Hmmm, Perhaps I'll give up bread for a bit I thought. Um...I’m sorry what was that you said, give up wine??? Ha ha ha!! Good one!! I would find that harder than giving up bread, and I love bread, although recently I have been putting ice cubes in my white wine to make it go further without packing on the alcohol calories, however I only do that in the comfort of my own home, never in public, so don’t let on okay? My French ancestors would turn in their graves if they knew ;-)