Tag Archives: Achievements

The Food Challenge

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Completing a food challenge has been one of the things I have wanted to do for a while now. I didn’t want anything too huge but as with all food challenges there are of a certain size or that wouldn’t be challenges!

A few of us from work decided we would head to a Flaming Grill as they have some cheap challenges. There were four of us in total, I was preparing all day for this. I had the 32oz steak and chips and the other boys had a the 24oz burger with chicken, bacon, and chips.

When the plate arrived I lost all confidence in my ability to get through this thing alive. The steak was bigger than the damn plate!

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The boys faces when they got theirs was pretty much the same as mine! The size of their burger! Christ!

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As there was no time limit on the challenge we decided that we would take our time. We didn’t haven’t to be anywhere afterwards. I cut mine up into nice small pieces and worked my way through the steak. After about an hour I had finished the steak and half of the chips. I was reaching my limit.

Thirty minutes of chatter and I decided to pick at the remainder. I finished the chips – this left me with the onions, onion rings, tomato, mushrooms, and peas. The onion rings were easy. Down they went.

Next came the onions and damn they tasted disgusting. They had been sat under the steak the entire time cooking away on the hot plate that it was served on. They were burnt, gooey and tasted like ash and were mixed in with some of the mushrooms. I left those for a while and started on the peas, tomato, and other mushrooms.

I hate mushrooms – I don’t think they even lasted more than a second in my mouth. They were swallowed so quick. The same happened with the tomato. The peas were quite nice though. Everything is gone now except the onions and a few mushrooms.

At this point I look up at the boys and they had got through about half of their meal. Hardly touching their chips and other sides. It looks like I had to do this one on my own.

Each and every bite of the onions and mushrooms made me want to be sick. I was so full my stomach was hurting, and they tasted so gross. Finally after 2 hours and 30 odd minutes of the plates arriving I had finished. I had completed my challenge! I had been victorious. I was a champion! I even got my certificate to prove it!

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C.E.R.N.

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Visiting C.E.R.N has been one of the things I have been wanting to do for quite some time. I found out recently that they have tours of their facility and ordinary members of the public can request to join them.

After finding out they did tours I naturally got excited. It took me a couple of weeks to find a slot between seeing the kids, work and an availability in the tours. The next challenge was the price of the flight. I thought it was going to be expensive as hell to get a flight over to Geneva, Switzerland. Turns out it wasn’t! Using a website a friend from works introduced me to called Sky Scanner I was able to book a return flight for £42! It makes you wonder how it’s even possible!

I’ve never been on an aeroplane before, so the trip over to Geneva was going to be a completely new experience for me. I was so excited but so scared at the same time. I didn’t know what to expect.

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So this was the plane I was about to get on


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It’s hard!

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Two weeks! Thats right. It’s been over two weeks since my last cigarette. I’m bloody happy with that, and I intend to carry on.

I’m slowly reducing my nicotine intake with each purchase of the e-liquids. I started on 18mg and I’m currently down to 12mg. I will be buying some more e-liquids early next week, and again will be reducing down to 6mg in the triple menthol flavour I like.

Hopefully within the next couple of weeks I shall be completely off of the e-cigarette. What a bonus that will be!

Cheap ass crap!

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As you know I have been trying to give up smoking recently and I seem to be failing miserably. I bought a e-cigarette. It was going well for about a week, and then it decided to leak on me. I eventually had time to go and buy a replacement top that holds all the liquid and that one breaks apart too! I can’t believe it. It’s like the universe has something against me, and doesn’t want me to stop smoking.

I will keep trying though. I’m not going to give up giving up – I want to do this!

All I want to do is quit smoking :-(

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Smoking

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After trying to complete the Three Peaks Challenge and failing due to my lungs I have taken it upon my self to finally quit smoking – again!

At first I tried to go cold turkey and completely stop smoking. That didn’t last too long. By 4pm that day I was outside smoking again. Failure. So I decided to go down another route.

I have been speaking to people who are now smoking those e-cigarette things. Asking such questions as how do they compare to proper cigarettes / tobacco. Do they provide the same type of hit that normal fags do etc, and they sounded quite positive about the whole thing.

I wasn’t too convinced at first, but I thought fuck it. I really want to quit smoking and this seems like an option, and by this point I’m willing to try anything to quit, so I went and bought one. It cost me about the same as a pouch of tobacco, which is good.

The lady in the shop help me set it up and showed me how it worked as I have never tried one before. She understood that I was new at it and was very helpful.

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I am now three full days without smoking a single cigarette, and I’m feeling good for it. I still get the craving every now and then, but as long as I’m busy and I chug on this e-cigarette thing I’m generally ok.

They say after 28 days without smoking you’re a hell of a lot more likely to quit for good, and this is what I want. Lets hope that I can achieve it! Wish me luck.

Have you ever tried to quit smoking? Do you use one of the e-cigarettes – if you do how are you finding it compared to a proper one?

Three Peaks – What happened?

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As you know I was going to attempt the National UK three peak challenge with several of my colleagues from work. July 4th was the date picked for the challenge, but we decided to head up to Scotland on the 2nd to have some social time drinking and having a look around the local area.

We left from work at 6.30am, which was just after I finished my 12 hour shift. I was quite surprised by the lack of traffic on the journey. We hit the morning rush, but even that wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be.

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We hit the border of Scotland at 4.20pm after a couple of stops to change drivers / breakfast and fag breaks, and arrived at our chalet shortly after 7pm.

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Our first port of call after checking into the chalet was to find out where the local shop was, and to grab some drinks for the nights entertainment.

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After dinner the drinking games began. I ended up drinking close to three quarters of a litre of vodka, half a bottle of Mikey Finns, and a glass of Disaronno and God only knows what the others drank!

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Needless to say it got very messy. None of us got any sleep until around 6.30pm the next day.
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CSCS Certificate

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It’s now the 7th of May and at 11am this morning I had my CSCS test, and as I had hoped I passed my test. This is great news for me as it opens up so many doors for me within the company.

Now that I have my CSCS certificate I will be arranging with my supervisor’s permission and assistance days out with the crews and inspectors, at least that’s the goal any way.

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Within the next 18 – 24 months I would like to start moving my career towards becoming an inspector on the roads, so learning how the MRT’s and the inspectors do their jobs will be very handy when a position does become available, but as we are nearing the end of the contract with Highways England I don’t know how this will turn out. Either way, the experience I have currently should allow me to get a job somewhere else if all goes to pot for the rebid next month.

The bucket list – Is there any point?

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Is there any point in a bucket list these days? Of course there is! We’re not all immortal gods and have unlimited wealth, so some of us mere mortals have to plan for the future and do things to make us feel good before we die.

I have compiled my bucket list below in no particular order. For now there shall only be a few things, but over time the list shall grow and accomplishments shall be ticked off. I hope to do all of them before I die.

bucket list

  1. Reach the peak of a mountain – Mount Snowdon – 05/07/2015
  2. Go sky diving
  3. Fly in an aeroplane – I flew to Switzerland on the 11/11/2015 – Take off – Landing
  4. Fly in a helicopter
  5. Travel to Scotland – Attempted the National Three Peak Challenge – 02/07/2015
  6. Travel to Italy
  7. Visit the Colosseum
  8. Visit the Leaning Tower of Pisa
  9. Visit Vatican City
  10. Travel to France
  11. Travel to Iceland
  12. Visit the Blue Lagoon
  13. Travel to Switzerland – I travelled to Geneva to visit C.E.R.N. 11/11/2015
  14. Visit C.E.R.N. – I visited C.E.R.N. on 11/11/2015
  15. Travel to The Netherlands
  16. Get stoned legally
  17. Travel to Norway
  18. Get my motorcycle licence – Passed my tests on 29/07/2022
  19. Own a motorcycle – Bought Lucy on 14/07/2022 – She arrived 19/12/2022
  20. Drive a super car
  21. Own a house – Bought a 2 bed flat in July 2017
  22. Walk my daughter down the aisle
  23. Hold my grandchild
  24. See the human race reach Mars
  25. Go to Disney World / Land
  26. Weigh 90 Kg or less
  27. Quit smoking – I quit smoking March 2020 – I quit vaping November 2022
  28. Learn an instrument
  29. Go scuba diving
  30. See the Great Pyramids in Egypt
  31. Do something for charity – Raised £500 for Charity for the National Three Peak Challenge – 02/07/2015
  32. Visit the Eiffel Tower
  33. Visit the Louvre
  34. Travel to the USA
  35. Visit the Smithsonian
  36. Visit the Lincoln Memorial
  37. Visit the Statue of Liberty
  38. Visit and or tour the White House
  39. Celebrate New Year in Time Square
  40. Own a real meteorite
  41. See an active volcano in person
  42. Witness the aurora borealis
  43. Witness the aurora australis
  44. Go water rafting
  45. Eat sushi– Took my Mum for lunch on 28th September 2016
  46. Try LSD
  47. Go to a concert at the O2
  48. Travel to Peru
  49. Visit Machu Picchu
  50. Hike the Valley of the Incas
  51. Travel to Australia
  52. Visit the Great Barrier Reef
  53. Swim with turtles
  54. See an orchestral performance in the Sydney Opera House
  55. Live near my children so I can see them daily
  56. Go to Alton Towers – I went there for the weekend with Ryan – 25/03/2016
  57. Own my car outright – Paid the final payment on 10th September 2015
  58. Go bungee jumping
  59. Get tattoo sleeves
  60. Go on a ride in a hot air balloon
  61. Learn to use chopsticks
  62. Eat an entire meal with chopsticks
  63. Complete a food challenge – Completed the 32oz Steak Challenge at Flaming Grill – 08/02/2016
  64. Get my tongue pierced again – 14th May 2022 – 4th time!
  65. Summit Ben Nevis
  66. Summit Scafell Pike – Summited Scafell Pike 4th June 2021 with my sister, Christina
  67. Learn how to dance the Tango
  68. Tour the ancient ruins in Greece
  69. Go Zorbing
  70. Take my son camping in the Highlands
  71. Blow glass
  72. Work on a pottery wheel
  73. Read a whole novel
  74. Visit Madame Tussauds
  75. See Swan Lake
  76. Visit a castle
  77. Sleep in a castle
  78. Write a recipe book
  79. Learn the alphabet in sign language
  80. Go rock climbing
  81. Take an archery lesson

Last updated 19/01/2023