Month completed: August 2010

Firstly, apologies for the extreme lack of posts recently. My only excuse is that I have been working on two particularly big goals recently.

The first I can’t tell you about just yet, but it will be worth the wait and I am very excited about it.

The second I can tell you about, as I completed it on Sunday, after four months of training.

I just completed the London triathlon!

The race was an Olympic distance event, which means:

• 1,500 metre swim, then
• 40km bike ride, then
• 10km run

The run I thought I would be OK with, but it was the swim that frightened me the most, having struggled to swim 50m without wearing myself out.

So, back in April I started training. 4 or 5 mornings a week I was up at 5.30 to swim, bike or ride, or a combination of all three. Sleep-ins have been a rare treat recently, and much savoured whenever I have had the chance of one.

Me, a few nervous hours before the race

Me, straight after the race (not a pretty sight!)

I needed a bike too, as my folding bike was really suitable for the job. So I bought a mountain bike for £55 from Gumtree. When I arrived on the day to see everyone else in my class had fancy £1,000 road bikes, I admit I felt a little intimidated, but it is fun to be the underdog. My bike’s tyres are proper chunky tyres, so at least I was confident I wouldn’t get a puncture (which I didn’t, thank goodness).

The week leading up to the event was nerve-wracking, and particularly the night before. I woke up at 5.30 on Sunday and despite best efforts, could not fall back asleep. So I watched lots of TV, just to distract myself. Annoyingly, I was in the last group of the day, at 3.40pm, so I had all day for the nervous energy to build up. It felt worse than the feeling I got going up in the plane just before my first skydive.

After the swim leg, getting out of a wetsuit is tricky business

Just before the race started, when we were in the water waiting for the gun, two competitors near me were talking. One, who had obviously done triathlons before, and one who hadn’t. The more experienced competitor was saying ‘You are actually quite lucky that this is your first one, because you don’t yet know how painful it is.’ Not what I want to hear just before we kick off!

Once the race was underway, it was actually not too bad. Naturally, it was difficult, especially the run at the end, but I think the training paid off. I even had enough energy left to ride my bike the 15km home again afterwards (not that I had much choice – bikes weren’t allowed on the train), and play football on Monday night. I am starting to feel some aches now though, so that will be it for me.

Nearly there! A few laps to go

I raced for Macmillan Cancer Support, and have so far raised £430 £665 for them, which is great. If you feel like making a donation, click here.

Oh, and my time. I did the race in 3 hours flat (3 hours, 13 seconds to be exact). I actually shocked myself, as I thought I would be between four and five hours if I did really well.

Would I do another one? Probably, but not for a very, very long time!

My one tip for the triathlon, for anyone game enough to try (or should that be, tri) one – focus on the swim. If you can do the swim without using much energy your race is set up for you.

Month completed: June 2010

After a busy day at work, it is very easy to just pop something into the microwave for dinner, or even just order takeaway in (Indian and Thai are personal favourites).

While these are the quick, easy options, and are OK in moderation, it is important to have proper meals at least a few times a week.

So this year, Nat and I have been trying hard to do more home cooking. To help, my Grandma mailed me five pages of recipes to try out, which covered starters, mains and desserts.

And here are a few of the things I have made so far:

- Banana cake

- Porcupine meatballs (image below)

- Sweetcorn and pepper frittata

- Spinach and potato gratin

- Ratatouille

- Bobotie

- Zucchini Slice

Despite the extra effort involved (I guess around 45 minutes, rather than 10 minutes, preparation and cooking time), the result and the satisfaction is much better. In particular, the porcupine meatballs recipe is fantastic, and I genuinely look forward to coming home and cooking this because it is so tasty.

As well as eating better, and having more satisfaction with the meal, by cooking a proper meal there is also the chance to cook enough for leftovers the next day, so I can eat a great lunch instead of a dry, boring sandwich.

I will definitely continue to home cook as much as possible. I doubt whether or not it gets me out of dishes duty though!

For anyone inspired to give home cooking a try, give this a try. And if you want the recipe for any of the other dishes I mentioned above, leave me a comment and I am happy to email it to you.

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Grandma Tully’s recipe for porcupine meatballs (which I have amended slightly)

Ingredients

For the meatballs

• 500g of mince meat
• 1/2 cup uncooked rice (I use basmati)
• 1 finely chopped onion
• Salt and pepper
• Pinch of thyme (optional)

For the sauce

• 2 tins of tomato soup (about 800g)
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1.5 cups of water

1. Put the sauce ingredients in a big pot and bring to boil.

2. Mix the meatball ingredients together, press firmly into golf ball sized pieces with wet hands.

3. Put meatballs into boiling sauce, cover and simmer for about 1 hour.

4. Take out and enjoy (and add tomato sauce on top – I don’t do this, but Nat seems to like it)

Month completed: March 2010

I seem to be in card playing mode at the moment, so in this current frame of mind, I was taught how to build canasta by Andrew and Phillip, two of the guys I met at the bridge course I did recently.

I know what you are thinking. Canasta – that’s for old people, right?

Well, if that is right, then the old people have a good thing going. Canasta was great fun, and quite easy to pick up. We ended up playing for over six hours, and although I came dead last, I did get a few dirty canastas (not as dodgy as it sounds).

The game is sort of a combination of gin rummy, go fish and a game called Up to Ten, which no one outside of my family seems to have heard of. You play with two decks, including the jokers, with the aim to get canastas (eight of the same number) and then get rid of your cards. If you haven’t played it before, I would definitely recommend it.

Month completed: March 2010

Nat and I just got back from a 5 day adventure to Morocco (which we both highly recommend if you get the chance).

Among the fun of the holiday was the chance to venture through Djemma El Fna, which is the main square of the old part of Marrakech, and which contains (among other things) snake charmers.

So here I am, with a snake around my neck, and a cobra in the face (Nat wasn’t too keen on getting one close to her though).

To be completely honest, the snakes weren’t the scary bit. It was the five snake charmers who gathered around me about thirty seconds after the photos were taken, all demanding money.

Actually, the cobra was kind of scary too.

Month completed: February 2010

The common phrase about wine is that it gets better with age.

I think the same thinking applies to wine appreciation. Only with age have I started to appreciate wine properly. Growing up, it was all about beer or spirits (Bundy and coke was a popular combination), but I am starting to enjoy a bottle of wine instead when the occasion arises.

I am a fan of all varieties, but wanted to know a little more. So last weekend, Nat and I, and two of our friends (Mark and Christina) popped along to a free wine appreciation course run by Majestic Wines in London.

We tried a range of wines, mostly from France and Chile, learnt how to inspect the wine for quality, smell the wine properly, taste the wine properly, and tried the wines with a range of different foods to see which foods complement which wines.

We also had to guess the retail price of each wine we were drinking, which we all failed miserably.

All in all, it was a good session, with all of us leaving a little inebriated but a little more learned in the fine art of wine-tasting.

p.s. Pinot noir is my favourite, followed closely by a nice fruity riesling.

Month completed: February 2010

One of the accessories we sell at work is a microphone adaptor that works with the iPod touch.

Just plug one end into the iPod, and plug the other end into your iPod headphones, and hey presto, you now have an iPod touch with a microphone, which means you can start making calls (using our iPod calling application!). Read more about it here.

To help sell a few of these, I have just done a trial using eBay. Here’s a snippet of the listing.

In the past I have used eBay only to buy things (books mainly) so I was keen to see how it would go.

I was quite amazed by the results.

Within a few weeks all the adaptors I put up were sold, and people were still asking for more. All this with very little effort from me, apart from setting it up.

One thing that surprised me was the keenness of buyers to get feedback from me. Almost as soon as they had paid, many of the buyers contacted me wanting feedback. Which is fine, and given they were all good buyers I was happy to give them all positive feedback.

When I move back home from London in a few years, I will definitely use eBay to  sell (get rid of) my valuable household items (useless junk) that I have lovingly accumulated (hoarded for way too long)!.

Month completed: February 2010

One of the main reasons I started Project 183 was to try out a whole bunch of new activities and see if I discovered any that could become great hobbies for me to keep enjoying for many years.

So far, I have found a few that were OK, but that I have no real interest in continuing (such as ninjutsu).

Last weekend, I discovered one that I will definitely be continuing with – bridge.

I took a two day course over Saturday and Sunday called ‘Learn to play bridge in a weekend’. Seven hours both days, including a three hour tournament at the end of the second day, was enough for me to realise that bridge is something I want to keep going with.

It is a great thinking game with tactics galore and with a constant risk/reward tightrope to be walked. Plus, it is a really social game that can be enjoyed by all ages (our course had 21 people, who aged from 20 to 70, and everything in between).

I am now planning to join the Canary Wharf Bridge Club, which plays each Wednesday night. And I can’t wait to get started.

For any bridge player out there who is interested, I played a weak one no trumps. If you want to play a game with me and you are in London, let me know.

Month completed: November 2009

There is something quite nice, I find, about doing a jigsaw puzzle. I think it might be that in order to solve it most efficiently, you need to develop a process (i.e. start by finding the corner pieces, then the side pieces, then all the bits that are just sky and so on).

Being random in approach and having no process at all means the job will fail or take ten times as long.

A little like life perhaps.

The other thing I like about a jigsaw is seeing the finished product. Which is why for this goal, I decided to embark on a 540-piece 3D puzzle of the globe, because the finished product is a great piece to display.

And as I found, quite a challenge not just finding the right pieces, but also the act of putting them together.

Here’s some shots, of the start, the middle and the end of the puzzle.

Just getting started – wondering just where to start

This thing is starting to take some shape. If I stopped now it would make a cool, but very fragile, fruit bowl

I have conquered the world!

I really enjoyed this goal, and think I will buy another – in a toy store the other day I saw one called ‘Pooh Sticks‘ – I was tempted but held off. What a ridiculous name.

Month completed: November 2009

I saw this goal as a scientific experiment – to evaluate one of the many teeth whitening kits out on the market in London.

To get a one hour teeth whitening session in London you are looking at upwards of £150, so I instead opted for a ‘at-home’ solution from Boots for £28.

This kit involved a three step process, which included wearing a mouthpiece with whitening gel for 15 minutes each morning and each night for two weeks.

It was a bit annoying to use, but after the two weeks, here were the results.

BEFORE

AFTER

As you may be able to tell, there is quite a difference between the two. The product does work.

Will I give it another go? Probably not. At nearly £30 a kit, I can think of much better things to spend my money on.

p.s. if anyone call tell me what the brown spot on my tooth on the top right in both photos, I would be interested to know!

Month completed: October 2009

In an earlier post I mentioned that the new flat that Nat and I moved in to in June has no TV.

Now, in early November, it still doesn’t.

The only TV we now watch is Home and Away (how embarrassing, I know) and the occasional documentary, via the Internet on-demand channels.

I remember back in Melbourne, the latest episode of Survivor, or Australian Idol, or whatever the latest hit show is, was the number one topic of discussion every day in the office.

So missing out on the main TV shows there meant not being part of the discussion.

But one thing I have noticed is that TV is rarely discussed around the office water cooler in London. Activities that people are up to seem to take precedent, which is a welcome change.

After five months now with no TV, I am starting to miss it though. It is nice to plonk in front of the couch at the end of a hard day, and escape with some mindless program.

Maybe I will make it a joint Christmas present for the house