As I log on, I'm reminded that I am supposed to be following the experience of a refused asylum seeker.  Makes me feel pretty sheepish.  All I'm doing is eating pasta and watching the pennies.  There's no way I can really share what my friends were telling me about last night.  Still, this week's experience has to be better than nothing and I'm learning lots.

Goodbyes at the Abbey are over, so I'm free to catch the 8am with my wife from King's Cross to Berwick-on-Tweed.  I know: I've got some explaining to do.  Our haven is a cottage south of Berwick.  My wife got a National Express freebe to go first class with a friend (me).  It costs me £1.50 on the underground, and nothing more.  Coffee feels like cheating, so I stick to tea (4 cups), two tangerines and two biscuits (kept for later).  I'm tired and I don't settle to anything.  We talk about food. 

On this journey I'm a kept man.  I hitch a lift with my wife to the cottage.  She hands me the money to pay the taxi-driver.  I've packed one packet of spaghetti, a third of a packet of bran flakes (still tasty), my tub of spread (in two plastic bags) and half a loaf of bread (better than none) - plus about fifteen books.  On arrival I buy a tin of baked beans from the cupboard for myself ('for you, sir, 20p'), save half and have the other half on toast.  No milk for tea, but fabulous water fresh from the village bore.  ('Just one minute of your time, sir, to go on and on and on about our fabulous free water ...'). 

I open Kipling's Kim, and fall asleep.

In the afternoon we go back to Berwick (wife will pay petrol) to stock up at the supermarket.  (Internal ethical policeman interrupts: 'the destitute don't run cars, and don't drive to supermarkets'.  'But, officer, there's rural poverty as well as urban.'  IEP: 'There's poverty and destitution.  I thought you were doing destitution.')  I reckon I've got about £2 to spend, and expect to land some bargains.  Aldi is a disapointment.  Everything is more pricey than Sainsbury's Basics.  We give up and go to Morrisons.  It takes a while to get my eye in but there are own-brand bargains, as good as Sainsbury's Basics. What's wrong is the packaging.  'Value' products look like Second World War leftovers and have 'poverty' written all over them.  'Bettabuy' look like luxury items from a 1980s Eastern Bloc Supermarket.  I'll find out what the food tastes like tomorrow.  High marks to Morrisons, though, for cheap fruit (7 oranges reduced to 49p) and cheap bread. 

I keep myself going with a free National Express biscuit and tea.

I re-blog after yesterday's blog-up; I take a glorious walk up to the lake behind the cottage and encounter a flock of sheep coming the other way - ready to be fleeced.  I blog till it's time to watch TV: highly recomended programme on the Qur'an.  Much of it is excellent - it brings out the variety of interpretation of the Qur'an and begins to ask text-critical questions.  For me, it marks a step-change in responsible (and interesting) reporting of Islam.  Big Brother follows.  Ethical destitution.

I eat spag late (10pm) and go to bed unhungry.

Spent on basic food so far: £3.96.  Other expenditure: £2.97