Jack Monroe #23 Life would be so much easier if everyone was a chronic optimist.

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I never understand when people put these heartfelt, pained farewell speeches on social media. I haven't posted anything for like 3 months and no one has questioned me šŸ¤£
It's purely attention seeking isn't it? Who gives a tit if you don't post for a few days, I mean commmmme onnnnn
Jack? Attention seeking? Surely not.
 
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This is great advice, why her 'team' aren't having discussions like this with her I don't know. There's some really simple prep she could be doing that would make things so much smoother and easier for her.

I hope she does go back to blogging for a bit. I think keeping her head down, having some quiet time, and writing - which she is far better at than all these other ventures - would be good for her. Especially if she has gone through a break up, the time out will be more beneficial than launching herself publicly from one "chaos" to another.
Sheā€™s so volatile and over-sensitive though - can you imagine the histrionics if her team even hinted that anything was less than perfect. I would imagine everyone has to pussyfoot around her and her colossal but fragile ego. Sheā€™s been overindulged, and so thinks the chaos thing is cute and quirky, rather than annoying and unprofessional.
 
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Come on @GrunkaLunka, you need to call in sick to work, forget any responsibilities and focus for the next day or so. You can do it!

Someone shared this on Facebook just now and the last line made me think of Jack (and certain other influencers!)

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Doesnā€™t cook from cookbooks but is working her way through the Leithā€™s book :unsure: is there a part in there about heating your oil first and cooking your onions?

Also cannot believe JM is bringing up race and her ā€œforeign-sounding nameā€ at a time like this and after all the tit that happened on Instagram this week. THIS IS NOT A TIME TO BRING UP YOUR OWN TALES OF WOE.
 
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Hello Jack / Jackā€™s friend / Jackā€™s lawyer,

I havenā€™t given up on you yet. I think with some prep you can vastly improve your next Hellmanā€™s show. It was not a good watch - your anxiety and flustered manner were distracting and uncomfortable. You wonā€™t like hearing that, however you wonā€™t improve unless you listen to constructive criticism.

Hereā€™s my advice for next weekā€™s show:

1. As soon as possible confirm with Hellmanā€™s the theme of the show, what recipes you will cook, the guest, and what Hellmanā€™s products you need to be promoting. Donā€™t invent a new recipe or go off piste. Pick something you know is popular and appealing.

2. Make a list of ingredients and equipment you need for the recipe. With a checklist. Include every single thing needed - even down to the last teaspoon. Check you have everything, do not assume. This needs to be completed by Sunday eve at the latest.

3. Monday. Set up a new private Instagram account to test your tech and get familiar with using the live function. Add some friends and Hellmanā€™s contacts. Get a good nightā€™s sleep.

4. Tuesday morning. Avoid your social media. You donā€™t need to be distracted by it all day. If you worked in an office you would not be allowed to tweet constantly. Fulfil any contractural obligations you have for promo before 9am. Then put phone away. Then call your contact at Hellmanā€™s. Check no details have changed and everything is ok at their end.

5. Do at least 2, preferably 3, dummy runs during the morning. Do the whole thing as though you are acting a play and speak it out loud. Mime the cooking so as not to waste ingredients. This should take you 2 to 3 hours and will be invaluable. Ensure you hit the points that Hellmanā€™s want you to make. Did you include their products and mention the benefits of them?

6. Lunchtime. Have a break. Get your outfit ready for the live.

7.check your tech. Using the test Instagram account you set up. Do a live and check you can go live with guests and know exactly which buttons to press. Iron out any issues. Set up tripod. Check camera angles are good. Take photos of set, is there anything in shot that shouldnā€™t be?

8. Lay out all equipment and ingredients. Use your written checklist. Put everything out in order it will be needed. Cook anything that requires pre-cooking.

9. Run through any parts again that you think need more work. Or do another full dummy run

10. Go for a walk with your kid / have a cuppa / snack / take some time out to relax.

11. Get changed into your outfit. Do a couple of breathing exercises / anything that helps calm your anxiety.

12. Go Live. Do not tell anyone how nervous you are. Smile big.

13. Debrief with team straight afterwards. Listen to feedback.


sorry for long post guys. I just get so frustrated watching and think with some better prep she could do much better. If sheā€™s being paid at least Ā£10k itā€™s not unreasonable to spend one full day prepping. Her other work needs to be scheduled on other days of the week and Tuesday devoted to Hellmanā€™s.
Her heart was never in it, as was evident from the sighing lethargy in the ā€˜skin like mayonnaiseā€™ video.

I do hope she now takes a proper break. There has been a chaotic event each day for way too long.
A lot of that sounds genuine. It's hard enough to get a job in a pub kitchen on potwash without being expected to do stupid arse hours and put up with all sorts of bollocks from the chefs - been there. They're twats. It wouldn't have been doable with a very small child unless the other parent or a family member was prepared to have the kid all night at varying times, every weekend, bank holiday, special Sunday, etc, etc. And the level of banging out twenty grand on a course immediately excludes the sort of people the existing writers, chefs, critics and suchlike don't want contaminating their nice, cozy bubbles - women, poor people, ethnic minorities. Even the person she's talking to is suggesting that she got the money from a redundancy payment. And could presumably afford to live at the same time, buy tools, knives, ingredients, home facilities, etc, which means she had access to in excess of thirty grand in the bank. I've only ever qualified for redundancy once. Three and a half grand, which went on paying the bills until the first salary went in from the next job - no enrolling on the course I'd always wanted to do whilst there were bills to be paid.

There are huge barriers to women and minorities entering catering if you're not looking for a dinner lady position or can set your own up. And like it or not, her birth name is foreign, which does make a difference to people - plus, it is a very pretty name, so that conjures up associations of a little blonde girl and therefore assumed to be unlikely to cope in difficult situations. So misogyny and racism is believable in terms of CVs. I have omitted my middle name because of classist assumptions about it, too.



I don't see it being an issue if she chose to use her birth name again. I think it would be a perfectly reasonable and understandable thing to do and might be (if she decides it is right for her) good for helping her make peace with her past. I don't think it would make a difference to have A Girl Named Jack by Mellissa Hadjicostas written on the cover, for example.

She's not comfortable in her own skin. She needs to be. Not looking for identity from the people at The Groucho, not looking for ways in which fundamentally exclusionary groups would then embrace her as belonging. Not looking for labels. That'll give her the inner calm that would allow her to get her tit together and perform.

Even now, I'm suspicious of what these new people are. PR types are all very able to come across as your Best Friend in the world Forever. It's literally their job to do so. They are turned out from the same mould which brought us David Cameron and many, many other politicians and SpAds. They're the people who sold the idea of fat, healthy, happy babies on formula in countries where there is no access to clean, safe water and the cost of formula meant women would water it down to make it go further. PR types sold the idea of disability being a failing in moral fibre. PR types sold the idea that Monsanto and GM/weedkillers/pesticides/etc were the answer to world hunger. It's a job where The Brand is more important than anything else. Including people who trusted them.
Afternoon fellow gutter hacks. Just catching up and I take comfort in knowing that anyone directed here through the grapevine would see the above posts and could plainly see we havenā€™t done anything wrong. Anyway, back in I go!
 
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So does she have an issue now with the surname change? Hence the dropping of it? Or is it another attention bid šŸ¤·
She actually changed her twitter name to her real/legal surname, maybe a year, 18 months ago? This was after she lost her old twitter handle because she kept changing it, itā€™s where bootstrap cook came from. She was really cross, shocker. It didnā€™t last long, bobā€™s your uncle, fannyā€™s your aunt and sheā€™s back verified and with the name her fave blue tickers know her as.

Sadly, no. Although him and his fists have not been practising social distancing. Self defence apparently.
Urgh. What a skid mark that man is. šŸ˜” Off topic, sorry mods.
 
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Jack wouldn't be able to hack a cooking course or a kitchen. She thinks she's far superior. Could you imagine her working a station? Just grilling salmon for a 16 hour shift.
She just needs to move her cooking and skills beyond washing bleeping beans.

I also find it disingenuous how she makes it out like she has done this all on her own. As mentioned up thread she moved in with someone very influential in the food and london scene. It is not an everyman/woman story. She is doing a major disservice to people experiencing poverty. There are people out there living the life she perpetrated and trying desperately to escape it. It is extremely difficult to go from Ā£1 a day to BBC presenter on your own. Most people struggle to get out of poverty on their own. I know I did.
No one would care about if she told the right narrative.
'Nice childhood, fell on hard times. This made me political & interested in food poverty. Wrote a few cook books, done some campaigning. Doing well now (7 books and a few TV shows, don't you know) but still fighting the good fight because I know how quick you can end up in a less that ideal situation.'

My problem with her 'I'm so poor' schtick, if the same as her BLM video. She has no idea. By her using her own voice she becomes a malign influence. She is taking the focus away from people who are experience the problem first hand and their voices are the ones that need to be listened to. I'm sure JM has money issues, we all do. But she has a nice home and has had a lot of work recently. She has experience and could get a 9-5 job if freelance dries up.
I'm sure she has faced prejudice and discrimination but she isn't black. That was not her story to tell, and it didn't even articulate how to be an ally properly.

She obviously has some talent and skill, she wouldn't have got here on her own. But she didn't drag herself up to where she is now. And to make people believe that is keeping them down. We all need help, and there is no weakness in admitting it.

I'm just sick to death of hearing of all the issues and injustice in the world from a white middle class person (of which I'm probably one, as much as I'd loath to admit it. Working class for life!!).
Food is political but she just seems to have a finger in too many pies. Jack of all trades and master of none. Just do one thing and do it well, then add in. She's just a bleeping gobshite. Screams about all these issues on twitter and thinks it's enough.
GOSBHITE GOBSHITE GOBSHITE






AND BREATH
 
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Yel

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Whatā€™s confusing me about this leftover larder thing is that it doesnā€™t seem to have any point, Hellmanns donā€™t seem to be plugging it, Chetna didnā€™t seem to say anything about it (I see though that she has done some stories about cauli leftovers tonight), it just seems to be bizarre for them to spend money on nothing much really.
Hellmanns were spending thousands on showing adverts to anyone in facebook or Instagram that has interacted with Jack. They wouldn't risk their brand by making someone like Jack a spokesperson or face associated with the fancy mayo, but promote to her own audience. If that makes sense?

They've stopped all ads now though.
 
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Regarding her recent post about the newly appointed director general of the BBC... I'm really surprised she shared that, given how recently she worked with the BBC. And said she'd like to again in the future šŸ˜¬ I think this Twitter break is for the best.
 
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On the subject of name changers, I see that attention seeking lying bleep and serial criminal Stephen Yaxley Lennon is back in the news.
Honestly did not know who that was, so had to Google. When did that soppy prick change his name? šŸ˜‚
 
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Soo...I got sucked into a vortex of articles of when Jack and Allegra were together. Their kids went to the same school and really were siblings for that time together. It makes me so sad for the wee boy. My god, the wealth and contacts and social life she would have had when she was with Allegra. A different world from where she is now. Maybe thatā€™s part of her vulnerability?
I find it bizarre that she calls her original surname ā€˜foreign soundingā€™. To whom exactly does it sound it that? Herself?
I think sheā€™s taken too much on and evidently sheā€™s not functioning. I hope she gets help but she really needs to get off the bloody internet. I also feel for the son as soon no room will be safe and sheā€™ll be cooking on a camp stove at the bottom of his bed with a headlamp on.
Hope everyone is having an alright Friday. I managed to go for a walk with a friend and my toddler daughter. Still very nauseous from my pregnancy and a friend is wonderfully bringing me a homemade curry as Iā€™m finding it hard to cook. Iā€™m so excited.
 
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Honestly did not know who that was, so had to Google. When did that soppy prick change his name? šŸ˜‚
Think it was 10 or 11 years ago. I remember reading it was partly to make him appeal more to working class folk and also to hide his criminal past when he founded the EDL. Prick.

Jackā€™s reasoning for changing her name is a million miles more understandable, as name discrimination really is an issue. Sad if she does now regret it - I wonder if sheā€™ll revert back to Hadjicostas at all.
 
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Think it was 10 or 11 years ago. I remember reading it was partly to make him appeal more to working class folk and also to hide his criminal past when he founded the EDL. Prick.

Jackā€™s reasoning for changing her name is a million miles more understandable, as name discrimination really is an issue. Sad if she does now regret it - I wonder if sheā€™ll revert back to Hadjicostas at all.
Oh I'm sure I've only ever known him as Robinson!

It does seem that she struggles immensely with her identity doesn't it. šŸ˜•
 
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Oh I'm sure I've only ever known him as Robinson!

It does seem that she struggles immensely with her identity doesn't it. šŸ˜•
His real name is Stephen Yaxley Lennon he changed it to Tommy Robinson around a decade ago I think.

Edited to add : sorry I realise now thatā€™s what the previous poster said too!
 
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