Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Hi, Anna. Has anyone ever actually (frequently or otherwise) asked you any of the following questions?

A:  No.

Q: Awesome. So! you're vegan. What's that about?

A: Well, firstly, it's not because I love puppies. Cause I hate puppies. The serious answer is, I felt uncomfortable eating meat and was most-of-the-way vegetarian for a few years (seafood being the exception, because seafood is delicious), and as I learned more about the dairy industry, I realised that the meat and dairy industries were basically interchangeable. And I didn't feel I could condemn one and not the other, in that situation, I felt that would have made me a hypocrite, and I don't wanna be a hypocrite. Do I think that one person not eating cheese is going to change the world; no, I don't. For me (and I don't at all speak for anyone else here), it's because I personally want to act on what I personally think is the right thing to do, and that personal responsibility is really important to me. I want to be the maximum awesome I can be! This is why!

Q: Okay, but sometimes you're not vegan. Explain?

A: I talk about this one here. In short: my principles have not changed, but my situation has. papillon stays vegan, and sometimes I skulk around backstage eating sushi and lowering the tone.

Q: But then why do you eat honey and wear animal products?

A: Addressed a little here. I get upset about cows and battery chickens; I don't get all that upset about bees. Regarding wearing animal products - I do try to avoid buying leather and so on most of the time. Do I stress about it? No I don't. Does this mean real hardcore vegans might hate me? Probably. You know what though, you don't have to be perfect. You truly don't. I'm not (obviously). If you believe in something, do it to the best of your ability, but don't let it run your life. Every single choice you make is an important choice. Every time I buy soy milk instead of cows' milk, I'm doing something, however small. Slipping up, or eating the occasional non-vegan slice of pizza, or having the seafood pasta in an amazing restaurant - that doesn't undo anything.

Q: I heard you're writing a book/books. Is this true? Will you tell us when the books get written?

A:Well, 'writing' implies an action. Thus far, I am thinking about books. I will tell you if the books get written.

Q: What did you study at uni? What's your job? What is your LIFE PLAN?

A: OH MY GOD I DON'T KNOW. I studied English in England. Now I teach English as a foreign language in Japan (as an assistant. I am but a child yet, I'm totally not qualified to be a Real Life Teacher, and whenever I'm left unattended I start teaching all the Japanese high school kids British swearwords). My life plan is to continue being awesome, probably in English. But not necessarily in England.

Q: Do you ever eat anything other than cake or breakfast food?

A: Sometimes I eat broccoli.

Q: No, really.

A: I do eat broccoli...

Q: You have a little rainbow on your Twitter icon. Are you one of Them Gays?

A: I am, in fact, one of those bisexuals! Yes, we exist!

Q: I heard you have a secret agenda. What's that about?

A:  Well, every night I do plan to take over the world. But in short, the things I am For are as follows: LGBT equality! Veganism and mindfulness! Liberal social politics! Feminism! Breakfast! - Things I am Against: Sexism! Racism! Homophobia! Transphobia! Ablism! Other-isms and -phobias and generally bigoted shit! Sweetcorn!

Q: Swearing isn't one of the things you're against, is it?

A: Nope.

Q: Why did you move to Japan?

A: Because Japan is awesome.

Q: Are the Harry Potter references you sneak into your posts deliberate?

A: Sometimes I have trouble understanding a new idea unless you put it into Harry Potter terms. I'm just sayin', if someone's bitching about you and you say to me, 'Oh my god, it's exactly like when the Daily Prophet was like, 'Harry just wants to be famous and Dumbledore's gone senile'; this bitch is such a Rita Skeeter!', I'm much more likely to get what you're talking about.

Q: Are you really that geeky?

A: Yes.

Q: What camera/s and lens/es do you use?

A: My digital camera is a Nikon D40, it's pretty old now but it serves me well. Mostly, I use a Nikon 50mm f1.8 lens with that; I also get a good amount of use from my Sigma 70-300mm f3.4 zoom lens, commonly referred to as my Creeper Lens. My film camera - ah, love of my life! - is a Nikon F90X, and I almost always use a Sigma 28-70mm f2.8 with that. That's actually my favourite lens; I use that on my digital camera no small amount, too. I also have my Nikon kit lens, the details of which I can't actually remember, but I left that in England and don't miss it; if you're buying a new SLR I would recommend just getting the body and spending the money you save on your crappy kit lens on an awesome one, like my 28-70mm f2.8.

Q: Do you photoshop your pictures?

A: I usually mess about with curves and colours in Gimp, which is like the free, internet-downloadable version of Photoshop and is totally good enough for me. I generally don't get too fancy; I shoot manual, so I try to get the picture I want in-camera, rather than relying on processing. With that said... I love playing around with post-processing. The exception is film photography, which is always straight out of camera.

 

Q: Okay, so most of the vegan food blogs on the interwebz are all about health and exercise and running and stuff. Do you ever do that, or do you just lounge around watching 'How I Met Your Mother' and wearing woolly, over-knee socks?

A: Let's make one thing clear. Yes, papillon is, for the sake of argument, a vegan recipe blog. It is not a lifestyle blog. I do not for a moment profess it to be a healthy lifestyle blog, and I don't detail every bike ride I go on because I have Twitter for that - um, because that's not so important to me. papillon is not a lifestyle blog, but it is a LIFE blog. It's about my life. It's about the food I eat, because I love to talk about the food I eat. It's about things that make me laugh, and sometimes about things that don't, and sometimes about things that don't make me laugh that I laugh about.

Q: Do you really hate puppies?

A: Oh my god I love puppies so much.