42. Day Out Saving the World / 50. Calendar

42.  Day Out Saving the World / 50.  Calendar

Choosing a theme for a calendar is a difficult prospect and it's taken slightly longer than anticipated to agree on a theme so the 2015 calendar is now a 2016 calendar...  In the end we found the answer hidden on our own to-do list - a superhero day out!

The plan was simple: dress up as superheroes and run around London finding things to save and climb and stuff, taking photos for the calendar as we went.

Having acquired costumes (from the Party Store in Clapham Junction - definitely recommend trying before you buy as the pre-made costumes seem to only fit the lady on the front of the packet and no other humans), borrowed a decent camera from Paula from the gym and bribed Alex into being the photographer, everything was ready to go until my hangover from Louise and Lori's Christmas party threatened to ruin everything.  It was a hangover worse than even the one I had from my work Christmas party; I could barely open my eyes and the idea of climbing anywhere past the sofa seemed completely unachievable.

But suddenly...

Anett uttered the immortal words guaranteed to force me to man up in any given situation:

"This is our last chance to do this"

So I made an epic Spanish tortilla and two rounds of very strong coffee and we started face painting and pulled on our tights.  Despite the availability of a photographer and a decent camera, we still had to spend a couple of minutes taking super-selfies before we left the flat.

Ready to save London

We'd made a list in advance of a few different photo ideas and locations but we started close to home at the ping pong table around the corner.  It has to be said that some ideas translated better into photos than others; the 'super-slamming rubbish into a bin' concept did not execute quite as well as anticipated!

As we mounted the bins, Anett wished her costume came with gloves too.

It's fair to say that our antics (not just the far from impressive bin climbing stunt) drew some attention and there are probably a few confused tourists out there still wondering what it was all about.  At the cinema, people found it hard to believe that we were just there to see a film...  The truth of the matter is that we just hadn't had time to go home and get changed!  Fortunately Victoria didn't mind having some slightly unconventional film/dinner buddies and even took a couple more photos for us.

Uh oh!  Looks like a chick flick!

Superhero day out / calendar list trumps!

Originality: 5/5 - safe to say we were the only people out doing this
Cost: 4/5 - just the outfits and a travelcard
Fun factor: 5/5 - hilarious AND helped clear the hangover

Anett's busily editing the photos so the finished calendar will be ready for 2016 - let us know (and give us money) if you want a copy!

40. Eating Competition

40.  Eating Competition

with guest challenger Scott and leftover clearer Lotti

The discussion about which eating challenge to do was an incredibly long and sometimes heated one.  I tried long and hard to get Anett to agree to a two foot sausage roll but she was having none of it!

Anett: Can't we just go out and buy a bucket of chicken each and time how long it takes to eat it?
Phil:  No because I don't like meat on the bone and there is no free t-shirt at stake.

In the end we settled on the Infamous Beast Burger Challenge at the Clapham North, mainly because it was near us and we didn't have to sign any waivers.  We'd not seen the burger in question but knew it would contain a chicken breast and pulled pork as well as a regular beef burger, and 'its own weight in hand cut chips'.  Oh and it had to be eaten within a time limit of 12 minutes.  How hard could that be?

We adopted fairly different preparation strategies: Anett ate a decent breakfast and an early lunch and then fasted; Scott only ate apples for most of the day; I had a pub lunch and a fair few biscuits over the course of the afternoon.  All of us were united in one thing though: by dinner time, we were all starving!

HUNGRY!

As the food came down in the lift, we all craned our necks to see whether the waitress would manage to carry all three burgers in.  She could not carry all three burgers.  Uh oh!

The Infamous Beasts

The waitress told us that only one girl had ever attempted the challenge before and she had failed miserably.  All of the serving staff seemed to remember the one guy who had completed the challenge.  If we cleared our plates in the 12 minutes (they weren't too fussed about the salad garnish) we would join that guy on the wall of fame and earn ourselves a free drink.  High stakes!  

Man vs Food

We were told that the best tactic was to get through the chips first and then attack the burger, but when the timer started none of us could resist the urge to go straight for the meat.  Scott recoiled in horror when he realised that there was not only a tomato, but also a mushroom in the burger!  There was also a bonus slice of bacon and melted cheese in there.

The Beast close up

The pulled pork was succulent, the beef cooked perfectly.  The chicken breast nearly killed me and turned out to be hiding a gherkin, aargh!

At 6 minutes gone, it was clear that Anett was never getting through her mammoth pile of chips.  Scott and I were still in it but he was starting to struggle.

At 9 minutes Scott looked tired.  I was our only hope and still going strong.

The 11th minute crept up on me much faster than expected and I was frantically shoving as much of the bun as I could in my mouth when the time was over.  Gutted.

Time over!  Our finished plates (clockwise from top left: Phil, Anett, Scott)

The waitress declared me the winner and while I didn't make the hall of fame, she did get me a free drink which helped to soothe my wounded pride.  I'd made a promise to myself to finish even if it took longer than the time so took my time on the remaining 5 chips.  Lotti swept up Anett's leftovers and still couldn't get anywhere close to the finish.  Scott continued to stare at the mushroom.

Victory drink (sort of)

GIN!

Leftovers proving too much for Lotti

The closest we came to a clear plate

Eating competition list trumps!

Cost: 4/5 (£20 for literally all you can eat is pretty good value)

Originality: 3/5 (people do this all the time but not many of them are size 8 women)

Fun factor: 3/5 (entertaining, delicious for about 5 minutes, painful for the remaining 7 and some serious food baby repercussions were suffered by all)