Keep on running…

There’s a scene in ‘Run Fatboy Run’ where our protagonist (played by Simon Pegg) is talking about the London Marathon.

 ”Oh that”, he says. “I watched it on the tele last year… well…the last hour anyway … I sleep in on Sundays”

I know how he feels.

Or at least, I used to. Now I actually struggle to remember what life was like pre-training.  Yes,  if you hadn’t heard (which is hard to believe since I’ve been bleating on about it for months) I am running the 2011 Virgin London Marathon.

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not what you’d call a ‘natural athlete’.  I do TRY to keep fit, but from the moment they had to send out a search party for me during cross-country class at school, I knew I didn’t have a career as a long-distance runner ahead of me.

And yet this evening I’ll be voluntarily setting off for a jog around the park. (Hylands Park in Chelmsford that is. Big enough for the V Festival and – from my house – a round-trip of 16 miles.)

You see, we are in what is known as ’Monster Month’ .  It’s the final push before the big race where runners aim to ’clock up’ the miles. In theory it means you won’t die quite so painfully on the big day. I have my fingers and (blistered) toes crossed that’s true.

It follows then that it would take something pretty special to make me do this.  Or more specifically someone. 

I’m running the marathon for my granddad. And my aunt. And for the thousands - nay millions - of others who like them are on dialysis and suffering from chronic kidney failure.

I never really knew what a cruel and debilitating disease this was until it struck my family. If you’re on dialysis the list of what you can’t eat is endless.  No salt, no bananas, no chocolate, no cola, no sausages, no nuts, no soup, no beer,  limited dairy, eggs, chicken, potatoes…. You’re only allowed 500 ml of liquid a day (the same amount in an average small bottle of coke) so you’re constantly thirsty.  And since your kidneys can’t clean your blood anymore,  you have to sit for hours at a time hooked up to a machine so IT can do it for you.  My aunt’s veins in her arm gave way under the pressure and so now has to have the needle put straight into her neck

It’s hideous.

And it’s often hereditary.

Which helps explain why I’m taking this running lark so seriously (must be serious since I can finally talk about Fartlek training without guffawing like a schoolgirl)

And it also means I’m not going to moan too much about the endless training aches and pains, the hideous protein shakes, the early alarm calls, the cold dark evenings or even the teetotal lifestyle  (ok – maybe I’ll moan a little bit about that).

I’m not looking for sympathy (it is after all my choice to put myself through this) 

But I am looking for cash. I know times are tight but if you have a pound or two spare feel free to send it my way.  You don’t have to display the amount you’re donating on the page and every single penny counts. http://www.kidneyresearchukevents.org/runsascharun

Thank you x

# God Bless Our Homeland Ghana #

Ghanaians know how to party.  It’s a fact I learned within 24 hours of arriving in Ghana on a teaching placement a few years back.  And they certainly know how to celebrate public holidays properly. 

Not the way we do our bank holidays; treating ourselves to a shandy in the pub before heading home for a special edition of Eastenders. No, in Ghana public holidays are done with passion. And none more so than March 6th – Independence day.

I was on a gap-year when I first experienced this, teaching in a small school on the outskirts of Accra.  And like anyone going to live abroad I’d swotted up about the country I was soon to call home.

Ghana was the first sub-Saharan nation to claim its independence from colonial power (in this case, Britain).  Dr Kwame Nkrumah was sworn in as its first president in March 1957. And to this day, the country he founded is one of the few in Africa to enjoy peaceful and democratic elections. In short it epitomizes much of the best of the continent.  (Fitting perhaps that America’s first black president chose Ghana as the destination of his first official visit to Africa.)

But history lesson aside, I wasn’t sure how relevent Independence Day was to the man on the street almost half a decade later.

The uncertainty vanished the moment I stepped outside my room that morning. All schools and businesses were closed for the day so the streets were teeming with people with nothing to do but have fun.

In the heat of the equatorial sun, every one of my senses was piqued.

The glorious red, green and gold of the national flag was painted onto faces, waved from windows and splashed across walls. The smell of sizzling plantain wafted from chop bars and street vendors.  And then there was the sound. A cacophony. Highlife blasted out of every speaker, car horns beeped. Some cheered, some sang the national Anthem,  some drummed along. 

And there was dancing. Lots of dancing. I’d been to carnivals but never to anything like this.  This was more than outpouring of patriotic fervour . This was everybody getting together, putting aside differences and simply having a good time.

And so today I was delighted to hear from some friends I met in Accra that they had once again seen Independence Day in in style.

I know I look back with rose-tinted glasses at that day – and know that like any country Ghana has its problems. But still it remains one of my favourite places in the world. 

And so to all my Ghanaian friends, I raise a bottle of Star beer and say  Ayekoo!  Happy 54th Birthday!

Something a bit phishy…

I’d like to think I’m pretty hard to con.

After all I’m a journalist. I’m paid to question everything and take nothing at face value.  Then there’s the small matter of being the daughter of a publican.  Trust me, 10 years behind a bar will teach you to spot every trick in the book.

So I was especially disappointed in myself when I almost fell for the latest scam on the block – a very official looking e-mail promising me a tax rebate.

Yes, on reflection, it sounds too good to be true.  But the timing was perfect. I’d only submitted my tax return couple of weeks beforehand so assumed the message related to that.  I opened it without a second thought.

The logo looked perfectly legit and the body of the e-mail detailed exactly how much I was owed (£178.27 – a nice odd number clearly sounds more plausible).  All I had to do to reclaim it was click on a link.

Delighted, I instantly started filling in the basic information it asked for (name, address, e-mail address etc).  But as I scrolled down,  alarm bells started to ring. Loudly.

Account number? (They say that’s where they’ll pay the money in).  Mother’s maiden name? (Oh that would be for security purposes). Card number? (Complete with CCV number on the back?) Um, hang on, why on earth would they need that if they were paying money IN?

And so I called HMRC to confirm what I now already knew. It was a phishing scam. And I’d almost fallen for it – hook, line and sinker.

But worse, I was not alone. In the last three months, HMRC has shut down 99 websites responsible for sending out these fake tax rebate emails.  Goodness knows how many people have actually lost money. Once these crooks have your details they’ll empty your account.  Then, to add insult to massive injury, they’ll sell your details onto other scammers who will then try to con you again.

So if you do find one of these e-mails in your inbox, it’s worth remembering the taxman will only ever rebate you via a cheque in the post.  He don’t ‘do’ bank transfers online.

Chris Hopson, Director of Customer Contact there says: “As a matter of policy, HMRC will only ever contact customers who are due a tax refund in writing, by post. If anyone receives an email offering a tax rebate claiming to be from HMRC, we recommend they send it to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk before deleting it permanently.”

If you’re still not sure if yours is fake –  take a look at the examples below http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/security/examples.htm

Before this week I’d always wondered who on earth falls for  phishing e-mails.  Surely everyone knows that banks won’t ever e-mail to confirm personal details… and that they really don’t have a long-lost relative who’s left them a fortune in Nigeria?

But scammers are getting smart. And they’re not going away.  I’m thankful I escaped scot-free but now realise how easy it is to be lured in. 

And if writing about it means one other person keeps their name off of that scammers’ list,  I’ll be happy.

Rattle those pots and pans…(a footnote)

If you’ve read the previous post about eating for ten pounds a head (Bet you a tenner I can) and had any doubts or questions then please read on!

Here I’ve jotted down what we actually ate last week (I know, I need to get out more…) . We photographed every meal and scanned in the receipt just to make sure we documented the whole process. 

 

DAY	BREAKFAST	LUNCH	DINNER
1	Wholemeal toast and butter	Grilled bacon sandwich on wholemeal bread. Yoghurt	Roast Turkey leg with roast potatoes and veg. Apple crumble (made with oats)
2	Porridge and banana	Onion soup and wholemeal bread.	Chilli con carne with rice & slice bread
3	Crumpets	Jacket potatoes with leftover chilli	Sausage & mash with veg
4	Scrambled egg and mushrooms on wholemeal toast	Sausage (cooked last night) and egg pitta. An apple	Pasta with tomatoes, mushrooms, pepper and onions.
5	Cooked breakfast(bacon, tomatoes, sausage, egg, beans and crumpet)	Tub of cold pasta with tomatoes, mushrooms pepper and onion	Shepherd’s pie and veg
6	Porridge and apple	Tuna & tomato rice salad	Meatballs in tomato sauce with pasta. Yoghurt
7	Porridge and yoghurt	Onion Soup and wholemeal pitta	Tuna fishcakes in breadcrumbs with veg

 

 

What we learned:

*Choose value brands where possible. Most of the basics do taste pretty much the same. (but you don’t have to compromise on everything, we still made room in the budget for our regular free-range eggs)

*Always plan ahead. Cook an extra portion and keep it in the fridge for lunch the next day, or freeze for later in the week

*Check portion sizes (rice, pasta, cereal etc). We were surprised by how much we’d been used to overeating…. and how satisfied we actually were with the recommended portions.

*Make the most of what you’ve got. We kept strictly to our £20 budget – but did use salt and pepper we already had.  In reality twenty pounds can be stretched much further by making full use of the condiments and cans already in your storecupboard.

*Never waste.  By the end of the week the leftover bread would not have made good sandwiches. But it did grate up nicely to make breadcrumbs to coat our fishcakes. Also the turkey bones were not thrown away but stewed up overnight to make a nice stock for soup.

Bet you a tenner I can….

It started in a high street coffee shop.  My boyfriend and I were both sat with a large choca-mocha-whatsit, a toasted panini… and not much change from £20. His shriek of “How much?!” was followed by the line that was to change everything,  “Blimey, we could eat for a week on that”.

Naturally I baulked at the idea.  Like many young childless couples, we never plan our meals. We buy what we fancy from the supermarket and enjoy eating out. We are by no means extravagant but we do easily spend 50 pounds a week on food. And that’s before the fiver a day each that goes on lunchtime trips to the sandwich bar or the habitual latte en route to the office. The combined bill for the whole seven days therefore regularly tops £100 So of course there was no chance we could feed ourselves on one fifth of that.

But then I gave thought to our bank balance. After all, it is the end of January and we’re all starting to struggle a bit.  For many of us it’s been more than 5 weeks since that early December payday, we’re still counting the cost of Christmas and to top it off we’ve been hit with the VAT increase. So if we COULD save £80 in a week there was no question it would help. I still didn’t think it was possible but I conceded it was worth a try.

That night we made a shopping list (the key to cheap eating it transpires is in the planning) and trotted off to Asda with only one crisp £20 note in our pockets.  This usually simple task was suddenly a big challenge. We took ages trying to work out if we really needed that extra can of beans, and longer still totting up which two-for-one offers were the most economical.

The first day of our cheap eating was less of a chore. Breakfast was what we’d normally eat, the sandwiches we packed for lunch were similar to those we’d usually buy, and making a roast dinner for less than £2 certainly gave us food for thought.

Halfway through week there was a little ‘wobble’. On a particularly cold, dark morning I resented getting out of bed 15 minutes early just to make our sandwiches. But by day 5 I was in full swing.  Packing lunch had become as much of the morning ritual as showering and making a cup of tea. And once I’d broken my routine of buying a coffee on the walk to work, I found I didn’t actually miss it.

I’ll admit my heart did sink on the final day when, rather like Old Mother Hubbard, I found the cupboard looked pretty bare. But appearances can be deceptive…and clearing away the dinner plates later that night I realised we’d done it.

Granted, the meals were hardly Cordon Bleu. But they were warming and filling. We added fruit and veg to as many dishes as possible and although we ate what we had rather than what we fancied, there was more variety than I’d expected. And there was an added bonus - giving up the treats while sticking to recommended food portions turned out to be good for our waistlines as well as our wallets.

If I’m being honest an extra fiver would have made a big difference… adding some salad, orange juice or perhaps some different meats. But at the end of the day we proved it is possible. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for two people (yes – that’s 42 meals) for £20. A tenner a head.

So I have to admit I was wrong. But also that I’m quite glad to be - it’s certainly made me think twice about what I put in my shopping basket. Will I do this every week? Probably not. But even once a month would save a staggering £960 a year.

We won’t be living a completely frugal lifestyle in the future and we will still have that choco-mocha-whatsit every now and then. But I guarantee that next time we’re sat in that high-street coffee shop, we’ll be a lot happier knowing we’ve saved for it. 

PS – for the non-believers (if you’re still reading!) the next post includes menus & photos!

(Tell me why) I don’t like Mondays

Today is apparently ‘Blue Monday’.  I know this, not because I’m feeling particularly depressed, but because three different TV presenters on three different channels told me so this morning. 

They quoted the formula that psychologists have devised to prove it.  It goes something like this:

Christmas debts + rubbish weather + broken new year’s resolutions = feeling a bit down in the mouth on the third Monday in January.

To be honest I wasn’t feeling at all down when I woke up today - but by the time I’d heard the third report in an hour telling me how bad things were out there - I was more gloomy than Eeyore.

So how best to turn that frown upside-down?!

Well, for every survey there is a counter-survery… and I rather like the one from charity ActionAid.  It claims that the best way to overcome this abject misery is not (as I suspected) to win the lottery, but to help someone in need.

Whether it’s giving a hand to that harried mum with the double pram struggling up the stairs on the tube, reaching the tins off the top shelf for the old lady in the supermarket or simply giving a compliment to the work colleague you’ve never really spoken to, it seems a random act of kindness can really cheer you up.

I don’t know whether it’ll work,  but I’ll definitely be giving it a shot. That’s not to say I won’t still be keeping my fingers crossed for that winning lottery ticket… I’ll just make sure I smile even more broadly and say an even more genuine ‘thank you’ to the person selling it to me over the counter.

And so it begins…

Along with the healthy eating and exercise (and the vow to save money)… it seems that blogging made its way onto my list of New Year’s resolutions…

Am just finding my way round this site so please bear with me.  But within a day or two I should be ready to unleash my random ramblings onto the unsuspecting web community.

Hope you can join me for the journey…

Sascha x