For some reason, the sheer reality that cows here are eating plastic bags and other rubbish has only just begun to hit me where it hurts.

Maybe your first few weeks here are spent riding such a whirlygig of sensory overload that the rubbish-cow nexus doesn't really sink in.

It may sound like nothing, but I assure you it's not. There's something profoundly, terribly awful about standing by and watching another living creature munch its way through a plastic shopping bag while it watches you with sad, liquid eyes.