Lesley at work

Shopping in Sete

1 March. Now, after all the excitement and 'daring does' of the last few days, you'd think that we'd all be taking it easy. You know, not getting out of bed until 1pm, reading, swimming, doing a bit of yoga - hey, even going down to the pub. Wrong!

Well OK, some of us are doing a bit of that but - remember, we are Eco-Warriors and we are in fact busy trying to stop nasty log-ships and their disgustingly rich customers. So, if you, disgustingly rich customers, are reading this (and YOU know who you are), if I were you, I wouldn't try to get a ship loaded down with ancient forest wood anywhere near the Med.

In fact, I would take those logs back to where they came from, hand them over to the local people and say sorry, I'm very very sorry and I promise not to do it again - ever - in fact, here, have this cheque for US$15 billion and treat yourself to some good food, clean water, medication, education, housing, plumbing and a democratic government! Go on, have a good life, like what I have.

Anyway, as I am not preparing for anything to do with log ships, I'll tell you something about the shopping and cooking. Now, I personally just love going to countries and checking out what the locals stock in their markets and supermarkets. In Barcelona I discovered the best fresh food market in the world (so far). It was right on the Rambles, near the ship, and I made sure I visited it every day, just for the view, smells and colours and the discovery of things. God, I was so excited when I found loose glacé cherries that you could buy by the kilo, which I did. One cherry and lemon cake coming up.

Anyway, we are talking about shopping in Sete now, so I'll stick to that. Yesterday I did my first 'recky'. I found a supermarket called Mulinex (not really but it did sound like that). My job was to pick up 6 kilos of mushrooms. Now this is a bit tricky when you don't know the language. From previous experiences in Marseille's CarreFore (the largest market in France and god did I enjoy it), I knew that when a scruffy chick, dressed in a SouWester and wellies (with no makeup!) starts loading up huge amounts of food, you get stared at! So I calmly assessed the situation with the total professionalism that only comes from being an Assistant Cook on the Warrior for 3 weeks. Yes, they had mushrooms beautifully displayed in a wicker basket. But, I wasn't sure if there were 6 kilos in there. I found a shop assistant.

Here goes my French…'Allo, erm champions…ses kilos merci'. Of course she did a double take but nodded and started loading up the bags. She came back twice to check that I actually meant 'ses' kilo's, but was quite happy to help me out. The poor wicker basket was left empty bar one or two tiny little baby mushrooms. Mission completed, I looked around and just couldn't help myself from purchasing 2 bars of green marzipan (!), a bottle of green nail varnish (!!) and 4 bottles of Chardonnay wine (no exclamation marks needed for that).

At the time it seemed like a sensible bag of goodies. However, let me tell you that the harbour is huge and that it takes 20 minutes to walk from the harbour gates back to the Warrior. As I was walking back, the huge, reinforced plastic bag from Lebanon (that Marco had given me) was getting heavier and heavier.

I considered a) thumbing a lift from a stranger or b) drinking the wine. Neither seemed a suitable choice (as my mother would not have approved of either), so I staggered back. Obviously I am getting far too much exercise, which scares me.

I went back to Mulinex later in the day with Kristina - this time with a much longer shopping list. Unfortunately they didn't have everything we wanted, so, knowing about the long walk back, we decided to try and find a bigger and better supermarket, so we could get everything in the same place and get a taxi back. A CarreFore would be ace. We stopped people in the street and asked but unfortunately there wasn't one in Sete. We took it in turns to ask people where a big supermarket was and we kept getting stupidly lost. We walked for miles (ask my feet). Eventually we found it…100 meters away from the harbour entrance!

By this time, Kristina had to get back to go on watch, so I went ahead on my own. It was getting close to closing time and 'InterMarche' was quite busy.

I get my trolley.

Ha, 6 Chinese cabbage and they are on special offer, brilliant, I'll have them. Now onions, and this is where the fun started. I located big, 5 kilo bags of onions. Excellent, I throw one into my trolley. In goes another. I'm up to 10 bags before I can feel people staring at me. All eyes in the vegetable isle are on me as I reach my target of 20 bags of onions. I can't help but giggle to myself. What has this chick got with onions???

I move briskly on to the bread section. Hum, they have sliced brown bread but not much of it. I start grabbing them quickly before anyone else gets them. Look, I don't like to be rude or greedy, but the Warrior could be off again at any moment and this could be my last chance to go shopping. What's more, Captain Pete only eats brown bread and yes, I am a creep. So I pull 25 loaves off the shelves and into my trolley and I'm away before anyone can stop me.

I then clear 'InterMarche' out of soya milk completely (I think that was 40 liters). Now, of course by this time I am aware that many people in this big supermarket are interested in what I am going to do next. One 5 liter bucket of mayo? It's mine. Oh, go on then, stick a few more bottles of wine in, afterall, I'm going back in a taxi this time.

By the time I hit the checkout line, I've probably got the strangest pile of food in my trolley that anyone has ever seen.

I love it. I smile at the cashier and get my cash out to show that I'm serious. She calls me a taxi and me and my pile of food head back to the ship.

I'll talk about cooking on the Warrior another day. Mainly because that is what I have to go and do now - its my real job (not talking to you lot). Me and Marco are doing a massive prawn (and non-prawn) stir-fry, with rice and salad and jam sponge and custard.

Bye, Les

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