my comfort zone

Week 43: Living 7 days on a £10 food/drink shop

~ Tom Rose ~ 1 Comment

This week really took me outside of my comfort zone. The £10 challenge. 7 days living off a £10 shop. That’s roughly £1.40 a day, and about 47p a meal. It’s worth taking into account my usual ‘meal deal’ lunch from tesco normally comes to £3 and I’m normally suspect to a Nando’s that I wouldn’t even be able to cover on my budget.

I always knew I would do this, but just how hard it would be, I wasn’t sure. I foolishly didn’t plan too well before heading to the supermarket to do my weekly shop. It became quickly apparent, fresh meat and veg was off the table. The tinned section was screaming out to me, 20p for a meal, was bang on. Accompanied with eggs, bread, porridge, milk and rice, I had everything I needed to get me through the week. In hindsight, spending 10p on a bag for life, wasn’t my finest moment – but it wouldn’t be one of my challenges if I wasn’t a cretin for part of it.

The list..
The list..

So what was on the menu? My days would consist of a banana and coffee in the morning, egg on toast and porridge for lunch, and whatever I could find in one of my tins and either rice or toast for dinner. Some of it wasn’t pleasant, meatballs in a tin being a real low for me. Some of it, however, was surprisingly edible. Chicken Curry from the tin was actually quite pleasant, believe it or not.

It was do-able and just goes to show, if times were tough, you can really cut back on food. Was it enjoyable? Not really. The lack of breakfast in the morning, really began to affect my mood and apparently my appearance. On the Friday morning, I was asked three times ‘are you okay?’ as I looked I apparently looked ill. Not ideal. One thing very noticeable, was my skin becoming horrendous over the week. Maybe it was the quality of food and lack of vitamins, maybe it was all just the placebo effect and my mind is just playing big tricks on my body, who knows!

What I do know, is that I love my food. I’m not a big eater but I’m fortunate enough to be able to eat mostly what I want and when I want. The say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach, well I can concur, you will not make me love you by starving me.

This challenge marks the end of the food challenges. Having thrown up from a hot curry and given up my beloved added sugar, I’m not sure I can put my stomach through it anymore.

The last supper...
The last supper…

I was inspired to do this challenge by a blog post by Christina, where I read that as well 6000 children in the UK are being brought up on £1 a day and over 1, 000, 000 adults and children have received three days’ emergency food and support from Trussell Trust foodbanks in the last 12 months, a 163 percent rise on numbers helped just two years ago. A few of my challenges, have given me an idea what it would be like to live without a home and without food, with this in mind, I’ve decided to dedicate the whole comfort challenge towards causes to help this. I will be hoping to raise money for The Seaview Project and Surviving Christmas, who both do great work with homeless people in East Sussex. Hopefully you’ll be be kind enough to donate.

Spag Bowl
Spag Bowl
Meatballs - HELL
Meatballs – HELL
Beans on toast..
Beans on toast..
Egg on toast
Egg on toast
Chicken Curry
Chicken Curry
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Week 42: Complete a Rubik’s Cube

~ Tom Rose ~ Leave a comment

A Rubik’s Cube – The 3D puzzle made up of a 8 sides of 3×3 cubes, all with different colours. The aim – Make all sides one solid colour.

A Rubik’s Cube was suggested, when coming up with challenges, as a way to test both my concentration and patience. You, like myself, have probably heard the stories of people picking up a Rubik’s Cube and completing it in 10 minutes. The success stories of making this cube look easy. I’m fairly good with logic and completing puzzles, I once completed ‘The River Test’, which I’m told only 10% of people on the planet complete. So in truth, I thought a Rubik’s cube wouldn’t be THAT hard. To give you a bit of background, Erno Rubik, the inventor of the cube a month to complete it. There are 42 quintillion different states the cube can be in, but only state that is correct. It took my nearly five minutes to realize this was going to be hard.

Concentration

My original aim was to complete the Rubik’s Cube in one weekend. In reality, I was so optimistic with this ambition. It took me lots of reading of tips and persistence getting used to the cube to work out how to do it. You must first start of by building through the levels, starting at the bottom. Remembering the each, middle piece on each side, represents the colour of that side. Starting with the white side you must complete the bottom of the cube, being sure to pay attention to the colour that the each other piece must match too. Repairing your mistakes is key, and often going over your tracks is the key with it. The common error I was going with was constantly moving the side facing me when trying to solve. I found it to be important to keep this side constant to remember each move and mistake you had to repair. You would then build up the levels making sure everything begins to match, before finally finishing on the top. It certainly got harder as you got closer to finishing as mistakes could prove costly and you could have to start again.

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It eventually took me near on 2 months to complete the cube, just the 1440 hours more than I had anticipated. Within these hours was endless frustration at both myself messing it up and people thinking they would have a go (you know who you are). I was determined to complete it, and an evening dedicated to complete it, saw me celebrate finishing like I had just won the World Cup for England. My patience was certainly tested, but the reward was sweet.

COMPLETE

Week 41: No Added Sugar

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone
~ Tom Rose ~ 1 Comment

This week I would be giving up added sugar for 7 days.

What is counts as added sugar, I here you ask. Anything with unnatural sugars added to the food. So my usual diet of cereal in the morning with a cup of tea and two sugars followed by a Tesco Meal deal Chicken Salad sandwich, packet of walkers sensations, a pack of minstrels with a lucozade sport for lunch, and dinner caked with ketchup was off the table. This doesn’t include the regular chocolate, or sporadic doughnuts or cakes throughout the week.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone
Shopping for the week.

Inspired by my flat mate, Marc, who had done this challenge but for longer, I promised myself there would be no added sugar for 7 days.

I heard after three or four days, I would have a sugar crash and the first few days wouldn’t be that bad. Well, it must have been the placebo effect, as after one day I felt awful. My mind was telling me I was desperate for sugar and I was shattered. It may have been the lack of sugared tea or the 10 minute energy bursts from a chocolate bar, but I was exhausted. Though day one was just a small taste of what I was in for.

A typical meal
A typical meal

By the end of the week, I was exhausted of the challenge, not physically but mentally. I was craving things, physically I wasn’t too exhausted. I’d get by with bananas, pasta and coffee to make things not too tough physically. Mentally it became hard work, things become more annoying than ever before, planning what you eat is hard work, and the everything with added sugar became ten times more delectable. What I quickly learnt is giving up added sugar for any length of time more than a week, is just not practical or sociable, reducing your added sugar levels is easy. I have never had to worry about what I eat, putting on weight has never been a problem. It’s probably the first time in my life I consciously looked at the ingredients when doing my weekly shop. By doing this though, I quickly saw how much added sugars are in my everyday foods and just how easy it would be to reduce the amounts you have. A 15-year Harvard study, showed participants who took in 25% or more of their daily calories as sugar were more than twice as likely to die from heart disease as those whose diets included less than 10% added sugar. As a man of heart, I don’t want my heart to be diseased, and by taking a bit more time the chances can be easily reduced.

A typical snack
A typical snack

I think I could give up anything for a week, in reality it’s not ideal, but can be done. I wouldn’t recommend giving up added sugar for a prolongued period of time, in social elements no added sugar becomes very awkward, particularly when drinking alcohol. Vodka, soda water and fresh lime isn’t so refreshing after having two of them. The endless adverts for fizzy drinks, chocolates and fast food restaurants make it almost unbearable. What I would recommend is just taking a bit of time to reading how much added sugar you having, if you’re anything like me, you’d be quite surprised.

EDITORS NOTE: I did binge on a KFC the day after freedom, so I don’t have any moral high ground to preach.

Teased with cake...
Teased with cake…

Week 40: The WORST Horror Film – A Serbian Film

Video ~ ~ Tom Rose ~ 2 Comments

Being Halloween week, it my flat mates felt it would be appropriate for me to watch the WORST horror film going.

I hate horror films as it goes, I just don’t understand them. Why would you choose to watch something that scares the life out of you. Also, what sick maniacs think up this stuff?!

The film in question, well this is something else. I’ve seen a few horrors, but they all look like comedies compared to this. A Serbian Film. A simple title that doesn’t give much away, and believe me you don’t want to know.

The Independent describe A Serbian Film as the “nastiest film ever made” and I really struggle to disagree with it. It’s certainly the nastiest film I’ve ever seen, and imagine I will ever see.

This isn’t the place to discuss the plot… If you want to know what happens google it. Whatever you do, don’t make the same mistake that I did, and watch it. The film is banned in 9 countries across the world, and for good reason. It is sick. What I have seen, I cannot un-see. Take my word for it, and don’t watch it.

Below is a gogglebox style video of us watching A Serbian Film… worth watching to the end. Happy Halloween!

Week 39: Speed Dating

~ Tom Rose ~ Leave a comment

Week 39 took me into the cruel world of dating, once again. Having already taken part in a blind date, I haven’t really wanted to delve into the dating world for challenges. But alas, I’m running out of things to do from the list, and speed dating was the challenge.

I went into this challenge, with a sense of arrogance. You know the “I’m a bit better than this” type of feeling. My perception was always about a sense of desperation around speed dating. I guess both of these kind of changed over the night. Let me explain…

The night started with a couple of drinks in the pub next door to settle the nerves (have you worked out a theme for when I’m nervous yet?). Once we finally stumped up the balls, myself, my housemate, Marc, and my work colleague, Steve, all entered the speed dating room, where we were handed a sheet of paper, a pen, a name badge and a number.

The Form
The Form

The rules are simple. 4 minutes. Have a chat. Rate either Date, Mate or No. On to the next one.

The ‘women’ came from all parts of the world, Mexico, Germany, Australia, England. No one really took my fancy, but it’s hard not to try and impress in the scenario. The main issue I had, was that due to the ordering, both Marc and Steve had already told the females everything about me. “Are you Tom, that writes the blog?” I’d normally be greeted with.

There were some characters, when I put ‘women’ in inverted brackets, that’s because I’m almost certain one wasn’t a woman. Despite the fact she/he was insistent on telling me she was during my four minutes. Never thought I’d date a transexual in my life, I must admit.

The event was all done and dusted and it was time to rate everyone. This is where the evening took a real downfall personally after this. Having a drink at the bar, the three of us asked four of the girls from the speed dating to honestly tell us what they put for matching. Their answers were as followed:

Girl 1: Pointing at Steve – Date.. Pointing at Marc – Date… Pointing at Me… Mate
Girl 2: Pointing at Steve – Date.. Pointing at Marc – Date… Pointing at Me… Mate
Girl 3: Pointing at Steve – Date.. Pointing at Marc – Date… Pointing at Me… Mate
Girl 4: Pointing at Steve – Date.. Pointing at Marc – Date… Pointing at Me… Mate

Date, Date......
Date, Date……

This followed by a procession of “I’m Fine!” in Ross Gellar style by myself. I was gutted, and my arrogance from the beginning of the evening was quickly shot to pieces. The girls told me it was because “my heart wasn’t in it”… It probably wasn’t but still. OUCH.

All this aside… My review on speed dating. Not for me. I struggle to believe anyone in this world would find romance from speed dating. It’s such a forced, un-natural process, filled with no time to actually chat to people. There is a clear feeling that people are rating you from as soon as you walk into the room, something that is not enjoyable. It was a laugh with my mates, but I can’t imagine I’d see myself doing this again. Were people in the room desperate? Maybe not as I imagined… I don’t really think anyone saw themselves getting much out of it.. But maybe that’s because my heart was never in it (Yeah – still fuming).

........MATE
……..MATE

Week 37: Moving Out

~ Tom Rose ~ Leave a comment

At the age of 24, you could probably say this was weeks challenge (though probably more than a week) was way overdue.

This week, the time came to leave home and move out. Though I have moved out for the university years, moving out post university, is the real moving out for good. I finally found myself in a financial position to be able to pay some rent and move closer to work.

My move sees me move from Hastings to Brighton (Hove actually). The main reason for the change of location was to be closer to work. I swapped an hour and a half car journey to a two minute walk in the mornings. I mean it doesn’t get much better than what I’ve got now. I now live walking distance from work, in a city that has far much more going on than the Hastings.

That said, leaving Hastings is no easy task. Anyone outside of Hastings, will slate the place, but I will not let anyone but myself say a bad word on Hastings. 24 years of growing up in Hastings and loved the place. Okay, I’m only an hour away from Hastings if needed, but a part of me will really miss the place.

All ready to go...
All ready to go…

The move itself was a bit of a pain, mainly fitting all my clothes into my car. Who knew I had so much stuff? It’s taken a while to sort out my room how I like it, and not sure it’s there yet but time will tell. Living in the countryside and moving to the city, I will have to get used to shutting the curtains after getting out of the shower. Given a few surprises to a couple of pedestrians already!

The new room...
The new room…

The move is the start of the next chapter in my life I guess, having lived in Brighton two weeks at the time of writing this… I can safely say I’m going to enjoy it here. My liver might not, but my mind will.

Shout out to my parents for putting up with my for the last 24 years, no easy task. Shout out to Carl and Marc who will have the unfortunate task of having to live with me for the foreseeable future. I wish you all the luck in the world, you’ll need it.

The Boys
The Boys

Week 36: The Colour Run

~ Tom Rose ~ Leave a comment

Dubbed the happiest 5k in the world, my first day living in Brighton, involved being covered in paint and dancing until the sunset.

3 flatmates
3 flatmates

There are only two rules for this event, dress in white and have fun. It’s pretty much impossible not to abide by these rules, as they atmosphere kind of takes over. Running with my new flatmates, we turned up in our white kit and ended up as multicoloured messes. In hindsight, I wish I wore running trainers instead of vans, but myself and my ankles managed to get through. In more hindsight, I wish I didn’t chuck my plain white tee in the wash with the paint covered t-shirt. Pink T-shirt anyone?

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The colour run is an event I hadn’t even heard of before doing it, but I must say, there is something about getting covered in paint that makes you lose all care in the world. Even if you can’t see or breath for the first few seconds after getting caked in paint. It’s not hard to see why they dub this the happiest 5k in the world.

The event was a timely reminder, however, of how unfit I am ,as I struggled through 5km in 29 minutes. It’s things like this though, that encourage participation from all walks and ages, that will get people active. Plus who doesn’t want a paint party to end?! I’d have probably been sitting on the sofa had I not being doing this.

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On the back of the colour run, and volunteering for the Brighton Marathon, I have entered myself into the 2016 Brighton Marathon. Ambitious I know after only just completing 5km. Oh well, wish me luck.

This video describes the event better than I could ever put into words…

 

Week 35: Sleeping Rough

~ Tom Rose ~ 3 Comments

This week I left the warmth of my four walls that I call a home, and swapped my double bed for a cardboard box for the night, as I attempted to sleep rough as a homeless person would.

My bed for the night
My bed for the night

I was originally given the idea from an old colleague of mine, James. At the time, I was really up for it, but speaking to my mother, she was concerned of my safety. Being the mummy’s boy I am, I didn’t want to frighten her. However, when told about The Seaview Project organising a big sleep out, I was all over the idea.

Homelessness is something that saddens me. I was once called on a night out a “run of the mill, middle class, white kid” by a nice gentleman. He probably wasn’t far off the mark. The truth is, I couldn’t even begin to imagine life without a home, warmth, friends, family and safety. I was hoping this sleep out with give me a tiny insight in the life of being homeless (In reality, it didn’t even touch the surface).

The sleep out took place in Hastings old town and would start at 10pm all the way through to 7.30am. I was fortunate enough to have 6 layers, gloves, a sleeping bag and an amazing hat, donated by my mate Jake… This is probably more than lots of homeless people would have.

Layered up!
Layered up!

The event was a brilliant event, a bit of live acoustic music before a bedtime story and taking on the cold for the evening. I took part in this event alone, but managed to make friends amongst the 70ish other people that took part. Anna, Katie and Laura were just along from me in our cardboard city, and made sure I didn’t feel alone for the night. We played the most random game of ‘Would you rather…’ up to about midnight… So random, I couldn’t give you a single example on here. (My mum reads these).

Bed time music
Bed time music

Once everything, settled down about midnight, I actually managed to get myself quite cosy and got a couple of hours sleep. However, once it got to about 2.30am… The temperature really dropped and the pins and needles kicked in. In fact, it was insufferably cold and uncomfortable all the way through to 7.30am. I didn’t get a wink of sleep through these hours. It’s well worth noting this was on a clear Septembers night without rain.

3am Selfie
3am Selfie

Whilst staring at the stars, I really did think just how hard this would be in reality. As I mentioned earlier, this event didn’t even touch the surface on what it would be like to homeless. Sleeping with 70 other people in a secure area couldn’t begin to represent what it’s like to be homeless. Just imagine not having a home to return too in the evening. Not knowing if you’re going to be safe at night. Not having a warm shower. Not even knowing where your next meal is coming from. Imagine people not even looking you in the eye because you’re homeless. It really got me thinking how lucky I am. I complain on a Monday morning because I have a working week ahead of me, I complain I can’t afford a holiday, I complain when there’s not enough milk in the fridge. I’m damn lucky and I this is a timely reminder of the fact. I’m told you’re only ever 4 things going wrong in your life away from becoming homeless and the in the UK there definitely is a problem. I don’t want this to become some self-righteous post about how we should treat homeless people, but I do feel more can be done and that begins with us as individuals.

Once I made it to the morning, I cleared up my cardboard home and got myself a bowl of porridge and walked to the beach. I did it and raised The Seaview Project £340 in the meantime. There was a real sense that everybody there that morning had achieved something and the event raising £21 000 for Seaview really confirmed this. I’ll read back on this post if I ever do need a reminder of how lucky I am, because for the few hours I was homeless, it was horrible.

If you wish to donate.. you still can HERE

Breakfast with a view
Breakfast with a view

Week 33: Festivals

~ Tom Rose ~ Leave a comment

This week I delved into the world of music festivals by visiting the Isle of Wight for Bestival.

4 nights, camping, middle of September. Good fun, no doubt.

A common theme of the weekend is fitting things into small spaces. (No sexual innuendo there). Clothes, tent, chair, blow up bed, pillow, endless amount of toiletries, crates of alcohol, food and all my fancy dress outfits into one manageable amount proved tough. Especially with me being as vain as I am, and deciding to take my whole wardrobe. Then fitting this into a car with three other people is the next challenge. Then fitting this car onto a ferry at 6am on a Thursday morning, with 80 000 other festival goers wanting to go. Then fitting 80 000 festival goers onto the small island of the Isle of Wight. You see where I’m going with this?

The journey was pretty smooth, however, it was only once you arrive at Bestival and you have to take the treck will all your stuff on your back to your camping location that things get hard. My bag, 90L big, was just killing my back. I’m not made out for lugging things from one place to another, especially in wellies.

Bestival 1

Picking a pop up tent, was one of my finest ideas. Chuck it out the bag an it’s up. Honestly, I don’t know why everyone doesn’t have these things?

So camp is set up, camping chair in place, sun is kind of out, first beer is opened. All is needed is to dress up as a hippie, in line with the Summer of Love theme, and you’re in the Bestival fantasy land.

Camp
Camp

I have to say, I was quite disappointed of the lineup this year… With rumours of Muse pre-event never coming true, I was left with Chemical Brothers and Mark Ronson as the only acts I wanted to see. What it did mean though, was there was time to see things/try things I’ve never done before. Here’s a quick list of what I managed to fit in at this music festival.

– Touched a bird of prey
– Hugged a Llama
– Had an oil massage
– Sat in a ‘front room’ of 6 people listening to acts I’ve never heard of play.
– Explored an ambient forest
– Found a ‘Secret party’
– Played Mini Golf
– Saw three blokes get married in an inflatable church
– Bought endless amounts of terrible fancy dress

Activities
Activities

It must be said for the four days, I did not have a care in the world. The atmosphere is about as friendly as I have ever been part of. There was not even a hint of any animosity during the weekend, it was the summer of love after all.

Mainstage
Mainstage

Despite my complaints of the lineup also, I had a belter of a time to the acts I saw, ‘The Cuban Brothers’, not Chemical, was a hell of a laugh that stands out in my mind. The Jacksons making you boogie, what’s not to love about that. Singing a long to a man playing piano in a secret party in a forest, what’s not to love about that. More pyrotechnics and lights than you can imagine at The Port, what’s not to love about that. A sofa where a guy just plays acoustic music, what’s not to love about that.

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Okay, the toilets can be pretty rank at times; The rain on the final night was borderline unbearable; Not being able to stand up in my tent drove me mad. Showering with cold water in front of thousands of other campers was painful; Never having phone signal was irritating. But as I walked past the 8ft Love robot and world’s largest disco ball, to treck up the now muddy hill back to the car, I could only think how I didn’t want to return to normality. Maybe the hippie life is for me. (On edit: Having re-intergrated to the real world and office lifestyle, you’ll be pleased to know I haven’t grown my hair and taking the hippie lifestyle).

Week 32: Cooking live lobster

~ Tom Rose ~ Leave a comment

Quite a simple task this week, I was approached by our catering manager at work to come into the kitchen and try something for my blog.

I walked into the kitchen and could smell the fish from outside the door. I hate fish the little slimy buggers, so was thinking the worst. Once I opened the door, it was worse, a box full of live lobsters, in ice. The challenge was simply pick up a live lobster and help the chef cook it. Picking the lobster up was the worst thing, I was told they are aggressive things, and fortunately their pincers were taped up. Just the way the little monster wriggled around in the box was off putting enough for me.

I did however have to pick it up, it was using it’s legs to push me away like mad, but I held on all the same. I didn’t enjoy holding it all. The smell and the wriggling made the whole experience very unpleasant.

Live Lobster

Cooking lobsters alive is the way to cook lobsters apparently.. It reduces the chances of food poisoning I’m told. I couldn’t physically cook it myself, the thought of cooking the little monster alive, was too much for me. I’d happily eat a lobster I haven’t seen cooked, but I think there would be blood on my hands if I had to kill the creature myself. Note to self, you have no career as a chef.