Practical Considerations

In order to be able to cook for at least two hours each week there are some obvious practical considerations that needed to be taken into account: money and resources.
I am rather lucky because as a condition of living at home rent-free, my sister and I help out with the cooking and housework, therefore I have everything I need at home, so these considerations were not such a big deal for me. However, last year, I was living in a flat with an awful kitchen so these considerations were constantly at the back of my mind, therefore I will use my experience from the flat last year as my focus for this post.
Like most student flats in Dunedin, our kitchen was tiny, our cupboards didn't close properly and there wasn't adequate storage space, not that we really needed though, as we had very few utensils to store. This lack of equipment was a huge hassle for me. Everytime I felt like doing a spot of cooking or baking I would have to compensate for lack of basic utensils (eg, a decent wooden spoon for mixing). This was a bit strange for me, as we have always had whatever I've needed at home. I suppose I could have gone out and bought these basic utensils for the flat, but lets face it, they would have ended up lost or broken so I didn't feel the need to waste my money. I was always stuck when looking for decent dishes or trays to cook things in/or, and if i did eventually find one, I would then have to spend the next 5 minutes cleaning the damn thing.
My other issue in the flat was my lack of funds to buy ingredients. As a flat, we all put in money and bought the basics together each week (bread, milk, chocolate - the necessities), however, anything we wanted other than this we bought ourselves. After a few weeks of the same bland noodles and pasta, I really felt like making something a bit more exciting. However, whenever I bought extra food with my own money, it would mysteriously disappear before I even got the chance to use it. As my frustration grew with others using food I had paid for on my own, I eventually gave up and went back to the boring old pasta and noodles I had been eating previously.
Throughout the course of that year, I grew to hate cooking meals. I avoided it as much as possible, opting for cheap fast dishes, or sneaking up to mum and dads for a roast. The thought of using that kitchen, and the resources inside it, always managed to get me mad or frustrated.
Moving home again, to a clean and tidy, well stocked kitchen was such a treat for me! I had thought that I wouldn't want to get back into being in the kitchen again, after such an awful year of food, yet once home, I found myself rearing to go. It made me realise how important the environment is when doing tasks, as it was the environment that had changed my love of being in the kitchen to dread of having to step foot in there.