Monday: A sunny day in Epsom
Today I was working in the South East regional office in Epsom. I started work at 11 which gave me time to get my weekly shop done in the morning. It was a beautifully sunny day and I was there to discuss the shared London and South East Volunteers conference. After the meeting I stayed at the office for a bit before heading home. For dinner I had spaghetti bolognese.
Spent £280.56
Tuesday: Hello Alan Rickman
After work I got home and received a slightly surprising phonecall. It was Alan Rickman on the phone asking if my mum and dad wanted to stay in his villa in Tuscany. Before I go on I must make clear that Alan Rickmans partner and my dad were friends so it wasn't completely out of the blue, I'm pretty sure hes too busy to operate a one man call-centre. Thanks to him I got the chance to be an extra in Harry Potter 2 when I was younger. I also got a tour of the set with him at Leavesden film studios, including the actual chamber of secrets itself, which had been built and placed in the car park. I took a message and wondered whether I could live in Tuscany on 5 euros a day.
Spent £280.56
Wednesday: Bye bye bus pass
Today I had to prepare for my first cycle ride in to work. I therefore brought a towel, my work shoes and suit trousers into work to leave in my draw. Work went relatively quickly and at I was looking forward to meeting my friend Karen after work, who I had not seemed for a while. I therefore bought 17p sainsburys basics tomato soup for lunch and had brought in some vegetables and bread to dip. All in all it was pretty disgusting (not helped by the hot sauce Anna had told me to put in). I met my friend Karen who had had a slight falling out with some mutual friends and was planning what to do with her life next. She was working as a waitress/barmaid in a cocktail bar, when I first met her. I was an office volunteer within the research team and on my first day had found the tapas bar she was working at. For £3 I would have a slice of spanish omlette with tapwater every time I went in. I quickly made friends with her and the other waitresses and the barman Joao and before long I had developed the name Tortillia boy. Since my challenge I hadnt been for a while, and despite my nickname, was coping well without the regular intake of tortillia. Karen was half Portuguese and half English speaking both and Spanish fluently. She had decided that she was bored of the city and wanted to runaway to Cadiz in spain to start again. She felt she needed £3K to afford rent, driving lessons and a Tefl course so she could be an English teacher in Spain. Whilst talking it reminded me of all the things I wanted to do to, as I had saved up almost £3K I decided I might join her in learning how to drive and taking the Tefl (teaching English as a foreign language) course. I had always wanted to go to Brazil and my cleaner Rosa was soon to move back to setup a language school. She had promised me a job and if I had a tefl course it would fit nicely. Anyway, it was getting late and I wanted to get home before my first day of biking into work. However, as I was falling asleep on my last bus for a while I noticed something strange was happening in the window of the Levi's store on Regents Street.
The band the Magic Numbers were playing a free live set in the window, I had seen them before and really liked them, so I decided to get off the bus and listen to the set. I found a review a week later (http://planetmusicreviews.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/the-magic-numbers-levis-store-regent-street-18th-august-2010/). I then got the bus home before getting to bed.
Spent £280.73
Thursday: First day of biking
Now that my bus pass had run out it was finally time for me to bike to work. I woke up early, had my porridge and got ready to go. I was taking the route of my friend Huw at work, who had suggested I go past battersea park > Sloane square > Hyde Park > Marleybone > Regents park and then arrive at work in Camden. There was a few things I needed to make sure I had before I set off, helmet, lights, I also had to test my blood sugar level to make sure I was ok before going on the road. For people without diabetes you r blood sugar levels are controlled by a combination of the pancreas, liver and the food we eat. People with diabetes can't produce insulin as their pancreases have often stopped working efficiently or working at all.
Therefore, people with diabetes need to constantly test their blood sugar levels to make sure they are not at risk of a hypoglycaemic attack (too little sugar) or hyperglycaemia (too much sugar). Either states can cause the whole body to not work efficiently. People without diabetes usually have a sugar level in the blood between about 4-7mmol at all times (below 4 is hypoglycaemia and above 10 is hyperglycaemia). People with diabetes can sway up and down on this scale so before driving, exericising, eating etc it is very important to test to make sure you are fit to do the different tasks required. For someone with diabetes, you should test your sugar level and make sure it is above 5mmol (Americans and other parts of Europe use a different scale) before driving, so you don't have an accident whilst on the road, as I was cycling rather than sitting behind a wheel this seemed even more important. However, exercise makes sugar levels rise due to the influx of adrenaline realised. Anyway, I set off at about 6:40 thinking that it should take about 1.5 hours to get from Clapham to Camden (about 8 miles) on my little fold up, single speed bike. However, I was slightly wrong it only took 50 mins, so I arrived at work at approximately 7:30 in the morning. Despite, it being a bit silly being at work so early, the roads were quiet and the office was peaceful so I thought it was quite a good habit. Additionally, it meant I could finish slightly earlier and once again escape the rush hour traffic. It had also made me quite hungry so I made the first of a massive three portions of risotto.
Spent £281.73
Friday: First day of Michaela
My second day of biking into work seemed to go even quicker. Once again I came in early but I had learnt my lesson from the day before and got in at about 8am instead of 7:30. It also took me only 45 minutes to get into work, so I felt like I was improving. Then I got home by five because my cousin Michaela was staying with us for the weekend. We watched a film before my mum gave her a tour of London by night in the car. I finished off round two of the risotto and quickly fell asleep.
My Mum and Sister wanted to take Michaela shopping at Harrods and I said I would go and visit as I like seeing the Toy section. Additionally, I thought maybe I would run into the girl who I met on the bus a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, she didn't seem to be working there although I didn't have much time to search for employees as the female members of my family were moving from one shopping area to the next. Whilst in the toy section I saw a Lion worth £660, more than all the money I had for the 2 months of my challenge. Additionally, the 6 foot bears at the entrance were each worth about £1000. Next we moved to the shoe section where there was actually a seating area specifically for people trying on Jimmy Choo's, this was crazy and after feeling a bit tired after cycling to Harrods I was starting to lose patience.
£281.73
On Sunday I watched Newcastle play Aston Villa and much to surprise of myself and most people we managed to win 6-0. I said goodbye to Michaela before going off to do my weekly shop. I picked up bread for the week (47p) along with cucmber (29p), apples (£1), celery (25p), cabbage (10p) onions (£1) and milk (69p) pesto (1.66) and a travelcard for 25.80.
Whilst I was shopping my mum, dad and cousin were visiting the Brazilian festival on the Southbank. My mum bought me a programme, which sounded quite fascinating. There were: dancing, martial arts, singing, samba, football, music, art etc.... more can be found herehttp://festivalbrazil.southbankcentre.co.uk/events-archived.
For dinner I had some spring onions, cucumber with pesto and pasta before getting ready for my friend Tal who was arriving from Israel. I had taken Monday and Wednesday off to show her around and for that reason felt the 25.80 travelcard was a necessary.
