Sutherland

Reflections in loch at dusk

This was the view from our cottage.

What an amazing place!

It was a wonderful weekend - great to be on a proper Cunningham family holiday, to enjoy fantastic Scottish food (especially that venison!), witness Sadie's mountaineering talents first-hand and just to be in such a remote, peaceful and beautiful place.

Training for Kinabalu

Me and Dad climbing up Mt Arkle

Properly started training for Mt Kinabalu now!

Spent three great days in the Scottish Highlands - the far north-west coast - which is absolutely stunning.

On the second day, Colin and I (and Sadie, our dog), went up Mt Arkle - a long, hard rocky ascent up to 787m.

The mountains in this region of Sutherland are quite unique. They are part of The Moine Thrust - not a painful warm-up exercise in the gym, but a geological feature left over from the formation of Scotland. These mountains are made from quartzite, 530 million year-old rock, resting on a slanted base of Lewisian gneiss. It's almost white, hard, sharp and definitely quite challenging to scramble over.

After setting off at 4pm, we managed the 18km round-trip in just over 4 hours. One of the joys of the far north in the summer is that it doesn't really get dark!

Turns out Sadie's quite a mountaineer too, with no fear and able to scale almost anything.

That was 787m. In November, Mt Kinabalu is 4100m. It's going to be tough.

The Go Game

It's important to play.

The concept or urban gaming is always something that's intrigued me: a group of people coming together in a city and turning it into their playground, interacting with their surroundings and with each other in a completely new way.

Technology is one thing that's making these kinds of games possible, but more than that I think it's our desire to be part of something, part of a community, connected to one another and our surroundings.

In a big city like London, everyone is in their own bubble. Sometimes, it's good to break out of that bubble and try something new!

When I approached The Go Game to see if they would be interested in collaborating on a London Urban Adventure to raise funds for Raleigh and The Princes Trust, I was overjoyed that they were just as excited by this concept as I was. And now, it's happening next weekend - the first London Go Game for Good:

London Go Game - Sat 30 May

This event's open to absolutely everyone, so if you're going to be in London next weekend, get a team together and sign up now at:

www.thegogame.co.uk/community

Hope you can join the game!

Bolognese Frustration and Mock Duck

Day 21 of 28

Feeling healthy rating: 6 out of 10
Feeling frustrated rating: 9 out of 10
Weight: 75kg (-1kg)

Definitely counting down the days now.

About a week ago, this moved from being a fun novelty, to just being a very frustrating experience.

As you might have seen if you were following my tweets, the absolute peak of frustration came earlier this week. After waking up late and missing breakfast at home, I had to make do with a cereal bar. Then at lunch Boots had run out of vegan sandwiches, leaving literally no option there.

But the saving grace throughout all of this was that I had already planned what to have for dinner. I was going to make a really delicious Shephard's Pie with quorn mince and sweet potato.

When I got home, Susie was cooking spaghetti bolognaise, so I decided to follow suit and make my own version with quorn.

So I ran out to Tesco, where - yes! - I got the last tin of chopped tomatoes, the only ingredient I needed.

So, after half an hour of conjuring up a delicious quorn bolognaise, with red onion and just the right mix of herbs, it was tasting pretty good.

I started to tidy up while it simmered away on the hob. As I picked up the empty quorn packet to toss into the bin, I saw this:

Possibly one of the most disappointing moments of my life

EGG WHITES?

Why the hell do they have to put egg whites in quorn??? And why did I have to look at the packet?

Seriously disappointing.

But, as Susie pointed out, this is what makes it a challenge. And I am committed to making it through the 28 days, so I didn't eat my bolognese.

Today, I had this interesting delicacy which Patrick found in Brixton Wholefoods (which has lots of vegan foods including vegan cheese):

Mock Duck

It kind of looked like duck. But it certainly didn't feel like it. I'm just quite happy that I managed to get through an entire portion.

So, 7 days until The Week of BBQ. I am seriously looking forward to so many good, real, proper cheesy, meaty and delicious foods.

I now at least partially understand how it must feel to have a real food allergy or sensitivity and have to cope with the constant frustration of having to explain it to everyone and be incredibly limited in your food choices. It is really hard. And I have a great deal of respect for everyone who can't just eat what they want.

The purpose of this endeavour is to raise money for Raleigh and The Princes Trust.

It's all about rethinking things. I'm rethinking what I eat for a week. The Princes Trust is about helping young people to rethink their lives, to see new possibilities and opportunities. Raleigh is about providing them with challenging experiences to help them see these possibilities.

Read more about Raleigh's Youth Agency Partnership programme.

Watch a video about what The Princes Trust does.

I'd like to ask you to rethink what you're doing to help society. Could you spare a few hours each month to volunteer? Could you make a regular or one-off donation to help us raise funds for these causes?

A huge thank you to Tariq, Niall, Declan, Patrick, Mum, Kate and Christina for your donations.

First week of veganism

Day 6 of 28

Feeling healthy rating: 8 out of 10
Feeling frustrated rating: 7 out of 10 (and rising with this BBQ going on beside me)
Weight: 76kg

Well, I'm still alive. No apparent weight loss or signs of malnutrition yet, and I'm feeling pretty good with all the healthy eating that seems to go side-by-side with a vegan diet. Plenty of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, pulses (mostly hummus) and good, fresh, organic stuff.

I don't think it's a bad thing at all to be forced to be so conscious of what you're eating, making sure you're filling that food pyramid.

Occasionally stepping back and re-thinking a big aspect of your life (such as what you eat) is quite a challenge, but a rewarding one.

Definitely avoiding dairy is the hardest part. Sandwiches, pizza, pasta are all a bit lacking without cheese, and so many baked products and snacks are out of the window without milk. So that's quite difficult and frustrating.

Meals of varying success so far:

Day 1 - came home to a DIY pizza workshop that Charlie had set up, at which I made myself a colourful veg-fest of a pizza topped with onion, pepper, olives and spring onions. It was a bit sad not to have any mozzarella, but a worthy meal nonetheless:

Day 1, dinner: Vegan pizza

To my horror, most beer isn't vegan. It's settled in vats which use animal derivatives such as isinglass (fishy) or gelatin (meaty) as fining agents. Luckily, Meantime ale (one of my favourites) is suitable for vegans, as are all these.

Day 2 - got home late from work, and made the mistake of trying to get something quick from the worst Tesco Express in the world. As they didn't have baking potatoes I ended up having Baked Beans with Gnocchi. Not really recommended:

Day 2, dinner: The shop had run out of baking potatoes :-(

Day 3, lunch - asked the confused waitress in Miso Noodle Bar about ten different questions about whether the vegetarian ho-fun stir fry contained any egg (no), milk (no), was made with rice or egg noodles(rice), or was cooked in butter (definitely not, that actually got a laugh from her!) then when it arrived felt compelled to confirm again whether this was tofu or omelette. Ahh, vegan paranoia!


Day 3, dinner - time to get serious. found a whole bunch of great vegan recipes on BBC Food. I made Spinach, Aubergine and Chickpea curry, with plenty of freshly ground coriander and cumin seeds. Very successful and went down quite well with everyone:

Day 3, dinner: Spinach, Aubergine and Chickpea Curry

Day 4, dinner - discovered to my great delight that Wardour St is really kitted up well for vegans. I had an absolutely delicious and extremely mega-healthy-tasting hearty meal from Vita Organic. Got a scoop each of mashed pumpkin curry, spicy noodles, chickpea stew and apple and beetroot salad. It's all vegan and wholefood, and even cooked at under 46 degrees Celsius to preserve all the vitamins. Extremely satisfying, fully recommended, and proof that vegan food can be extremely good:

Vitaorganic (photo by Andrew Hunter)

Day 5, dinner - another late night at work, which meant that dinner was a falafel sandwich in the train station on the way to the pub, where I drank some organic cider as none of the beer was certified vegan.

Day 6, BBQ - right now I'm sitting writing this with the smell of smoky BBQ meats enticing me from the garden. I've managed to resist some awesome-looking Colombian Chorizo and the next challenge is lamb koftas. Going to get some caramelised taro on the go soon!

If you want to see me keep this up for a full 28 days, please please please give what you can on my sponsorship page - http://www.justgiving.com/borneoforthis

All donations are going to Raleigh, who are working with The Princes Trust to provide underprivileged kids in the UK with personal development opportunities that inspire them to see that there is a way out of whatever difficult situation they may be tackling.

A huge thank you to Murray, Susie and Flor for your donations so far. And to Connie for volunteering to ship some home-made hummus over the Atlantic!

The Kinabalu Challenge

Extreme Ironing on Mount Kinabalu

Well, I might not take an ironing board but I am going up Mt Kinabalu.

This November (rainy season in the Malaysian Borneo), me and three of my colleagues are going to spend nine days hiking, cycling, kayaking and rafting through the jungle to the 4100m summit of Mt Kinabalu.

It's going to rain hard, the leeches are going to bite hard and we're going to have to spend the next six months training hard and preparing for this tough challenge.

But we're not just doing this for the adventure, we are doing it to raise money for two great charities - Raleigh and The Princes Trust.

Around one in five young people in the UK are not in work, education or training. Youth unemployment costs the UK economy £10 million a day in lost productivity, while youth crime costs £1 billion every year.

The Princes Trust gives practical and financial support to the young people who need it most, helping develop key skills, confidence and motivation, enabling young people to move into work, education or training.

Raleigh runs expeditions and challenges to inspire people from all walks of life to make a difference to their communities and reach their full potential as global citizens.

We aim to raise £10,000 to support young people nominated by The Princes Trust to go on Raleigh expedition, and to experience something that will change their worldview forever and turn their life around.

Read more about what we're doing on our fundraising page:

http://www.justgiving.com/borneoforthis

We have a massive target to reach, we are determined to reach it, but this relies also on your support. So please, visit the link above and give what you can and help us to support Raleigh and The Princes Trust to turn young people's lives around.

Growing veg, stage 2 - community, chillies, beets, science and seaweed

Beetroots planted!

Feeling like part of the local community after joining and buying seeds from the Brockwell Park Community Greenhouses Seed & Produce Growing Club last weekend. We even got some advice from a fellow urban food grower!

Chillies, coriander and beetroots hopefully on their way...

I've been checking up on our 5 varieties of chillies (probably too regularly), but no sign of germination yet. Based on the best chilli-growing advice available, we're moving them to the bathroom cupboard where they should get the optimum conditions - warm (should be 25 degrees celsius+) and humid. I really hope they work.

Beets planted out in the garden yesterday, along with Miracle Gro slow-release plant food. We're using science!

Hopefully going to buy tomato plantlings and scatter some seaweed on the patch today, which according to science contains plant nutrients and hormones that boost plant growth in only the most awesome ways.

Pancake Day, 24 Feb 2009

24 Feb 2009

Probably my favourite holiday.