The best thing about dining alone, what it means to be a carer and the spread of light pollution have provoked some of the most interesting reader discussion around the Guardian today.
To get involved, you can click on the links in the comments below to expand the conversation and add your thoughts. We’ll continue to highlight more comments worth visiting as the day goes on.
What’s the best thing about dining on your own? The people-watching
In this month’s food column, Jay Rayner wrote that: “The pleasures of eating alone are obvious. You get to eat what you want, how you want. It is one of adulthood’s great indulgences. But who admits to its other profound pleasure, the licence it gives you to spy on people?” You responded with some of your own experiences.
‘I’ve met some interesting people that way’
‘Good eating for me is inextricably linked with good company’
I struggled to dine alone happily. Before marriage, it was an uncomfortable reminder of my loneliness. Besides which, good eating for me is inextricably linked with good company ;the sharing of food and taking pleasure in the sharing of food making up a good part of the joy of mealtimes. Even a take-a-way, seldom eaten in the company of strangers, felt wrong because it's doubly lazy not to cook for oneself. The exceptions to this could be found in a handful of restaurants that have the wisdom, by accident or design, to make spaces (and prices) that attract a host of single diners ; my favourite being the legendary Wong Kei's in London's China town. At any time of day, the ground floor is packed with people tucking in to a £5 plate, heaving with rice and meat. I would enter into conversation with people here on occasion but more often than not, I would share a table and a few pleasantries but little more. Stockpot, which closed two years ago, was my other solo dining haunt and here you could eat and people watch, guilt free and inexpensively ; it's place in theatreland and on London's foremost gay thoroughfare would guarantee a stage and cast for the imagined biographies Jay talks about about above. Don't enter the world of fine dining alone, unless you're very secure, however: there the emotional tumbleweed blows.
‘I take a good book and do some people-watching’
Dining alone? Yes, in-house or in a restaurant. In the latter, I take a good book and do some people-watching. At home when my husband's abroad, I can cook what I like, eat when I like and am often found with some dal and chapatis, tomatoes cooked in bacon fat on hot butteed toast, a white lamb stew, braised lambs' hearts, cassoulet, oxtail casserole, mussels in cider and crusty bread, tom yum soup and everything else he's a bit sniffy about. Heaven!
What being a carer taught me: the human spirit needs more than the basics
Community carer, Sarah Beauclerk wrote about her moving experiences as a carer which prompted readers to talk about what they learned looking after others.
‘This job taught me some things about our society that I strongly criticise and hate’
I've worked as a home help for several years, looking after old and lonely people as well as seriously ill ones. This job taught me some things about our society that I strongly criticise and hate. 1. How abandoned are may elders from their relatives. It seems that keeping a dad or mum with them instead of leaving them alone to their own fate won't match the deco in their living room. They're a nuisance that prevents them enjoying their lifestyle and that's why they keep them apart as though they were broken toys. They'll at the very best call on them at Christmas time, on Mother's or Father's Day, bringing them a bottle of levander, but also expecting a present from them.... I've seen people in nursing homes that could have been living with their relatives and in the same neighbourdhood they had always lived. Lack of Christian practice, I'd say!
‘Daily living aids and assistive technology can help people continue to live their lives with dignity’
Daily living aids and assistive technology can help people to continue to live their lives with dignity and stay independent for longer, in their home. It can also provide the carer with peace of mind (One in eight adults (around 6.5 million people) are carers. By 2037, it's anticipated that the number of carers will increase to 9 million.)
There are also products available that can help older people to continue to enjoy their hobbies - arts and crafts, magnifiers for reading, easi-grip add on handles for gardening equipment etc.
Why the nights are getting brighter - but not in a good way
Many of you who like to look up at the stars were concerned to hear satellite observations show light pollution is spreading and affecting the level of darkness across the world.
‘Some commenters are not paying attention to what the scientists are saying’
I really shouldn't be surprised, but...some commenters are not paying attention to what the scientists are saying, and inventing things that they are not actually saying.
They are not calling for women to be assaulted on unlit streets.
Nor for 3rd world countries to be deprived of a level of lighting that we would associate with a good quality of life.
Nor for the world to become as dark (and oppressed) as North Korea.
The call is for three sensible things:
1. And end to light directed upward to the sky - of zero benefit to anyone, and environmentally harmful.
2. The use of lower colour-temperature in LED lighting (i.e. less blue-light component) - mainly for its proven health impact, but also because blue light is scattered FAR more widely than longer wavelengths due to the nature of Rayleigh scattering. Warmer coloured LEDs can be just as effective for illuminating the things that need to be illuminated.
3. Better lighting pattern design: "dim, closely spaced lights tend to provide better visibility than bright lights that are more spread out".
The 1st and 3rd of these would have side benefits of being lower cost and less polluting in terms of their electricity demands.
‘A recent school assignment for one of the kids almost came to nought because we couldn’t see the moon’
As someone that likes to look at the stars and wonder what's out there it's certainly annoying. A recent school assignment for one of the kids almost came to nought. It was about the phases of the moon. Over a 20 day period I think we could only see it twice.
This article will be updated throughout the day with some of the most interesting ways readers have been participating across the site.
I love eating alone, with a good book in case the restaurant is empty. Sometimes I have been invited to join another table, or have fallen into conversation with someone at the next table. I've met some interesting people that way.