As I said, it's a feeling rather than a political stance.  A feeling that started many years ago.  I grew up in an animal-eating family (note use of arguably emotive terminology there…).  The first vegetarian feeling that I remember was when, at a family lunch when I was very small, my grandmother served up a meat 'n' 2 (or possibly more than 2) veg plateful.  'What meat is this?' I think I asked.  'Rabbit', came the answer…

…Although by the time the answer filtered through my ears and into my young brain it had become 'cute fluffy bunny with long ears, pom-pom tail and big brown eyes; cute fluffy bunny that goes lollop-lollop, hop-hop, nibbles on a carrot - little nose twitching - and looks up at you with those big sad brown fluffy bunny eyes'.  And now I was meant to eat it?  Somehow by that time I didn't much fancy doing that.

 And so, over the years, the feeling grew.  I didn't much want to eat (moo) cows, (woolly baa) lambs, or (chick-chick-chick-chick) chickens.  I never much liked eating the meat from piggies with curly tails, or even straight ones, so they got off lightly right from the start. This perhaps explains the fact that I've never, as all vegetarians are meant to, craved a bacon sandwich.

But it wasn't until I went to university that I fully made the leap to categorically not eating animals.  I was at last a 'vegetarian'.  Woo!  And I've never looked back.

Back to politics for a moment.  The one thing bound to invoke my ire is when I from time to time get asked, 'But do you eat fish?'
'No, I'm a vegetarian'
'But some vegetarians eat fish'

This is the point at which I start foaming at the mouth (despite hopefully being rabies-free).  It's the only time I get remotely political about the whole thing.  No vegetarians eat fish.  I don't care what these people eat but they are not vegetarians all the time they are eating fishes. or crustaceans.  Or even birds of any description….

I could spout out statistics about how many hectares of land it takes to feed someone grain, compared to how many it takes to feed a cow, to feed that someone roast beef.  But animal-eaters I'm sure have a similar selection of handy facts to support their culinary predilections.  As no doubt do vegans.  I think veganism is very admirable.  Part of me wishes I went that far.  But the bigger part doesn't as yet.  Perhaps one day in the future.  But certainly not all the time Ben & Jerry's is 2 for £5 in Sainsburys…

I do leather shoes (again it's a feeling - I can just about live with it although it's not ideal), but nothing else with animal skins.  Often have I been seen in a shop sniffing handbags, belts etc to make doubly sure they are not animal-ful.  Foreign travel does bring culinary risks, and I have on occasion pushed the flesh to the side of my plate and eaten the non-animal bits rather than reject the whole dish.  Although afterwards I have tended to feel the souls of the fluffy things tutting in my belly, 'call yourself a vegetarian….?'.

Finally, on to yoga.  For me I admit it is more by happy coincidence than philosophical conclusion that being veggie fits in with yogic thinking, so I'm not going to get smug about that.  Not in public anyway.

So that's about it.  I would go on, but there are some bunnies out there that need hugging quite urgently….