Sorry Teacher, the dog ate your chocolates!

The dog ate my homework is certainly an over-used excuse, but what about the dog ate your chocolates? Today is my daughter's last day at school before the holidays and she wanted to give her teacher Mr O'Connor a thank-you present. I suggested chocolates but she was a little reluctant. Chocolates are for girl teachers apparently. But I managed to convince her that the Merci chocolates were definitely unisex. So the box was purchased and carefully placed in daughter's bedroom. Just not carefully enough. The ever-intrepid Ollie, our faithful Jack Russell, sniffed them out, tore open the box and was in the process of demolishing them when he was caught out. One very upset daughter. Thankfully, a replacement box was found after trekking half-way across Limerick City and daughter was cheered up. However, I now have a half-eaten box of Merci looking up at me in the hallway. The chocolates are wrapped so there's no danger the dog has licked them. They look yummy. It's just not fair that the dog is getting more chocolate than I am.

Yum Yums

Have you ever tasted a Marks and Spencer Yum Yum? If not, you haven't lived. (Cue Marks and Spencer food ad music). These aren't just ordinary treats. These are lightly whipped bars of batter, loving shaped, tenderly coated in gooey Canadian icing sugar, then deliciously deep-fried -melt in your mouth treats. They are quite simply, heaven. I'm told they go lovely with a cup of tea but I think they're great with coffee. Heck, Yum Yums would go great with a glass of prune juice. Never have I come across a more aptly named food. Alas, I have 90 odd days to go before I taste a Yum Yum again. Mark Whelan brought some to work this morning and left them in the kitchen - cruel. I'll have to satisfy myself with smelling the wrapper later. I promise not to lick it.

Launch Day!

So now I've gone completely public with this I suppose there is no going back. Today I launched the challenge on Live 95FM. It's a bit scary now because potentially thousands of people will know if I fail. Hopefully it will mean that there'll be a few more bob for the charities. The link for donating is on the top right-hand corner under the heading. Hint, hint!
Today's suffering started very early when Liam Aherne arrived back from holidays, sun-kissed and smiley, with a box of Toffifees in his hand. If you've never heard of Toffifees they are a hazelnut in caramel sweet with creamy nougat and chocolate. My colleagues inform me they are the nicest chocolate sweets they have ever tasted. They certainly smell pretty good. And the box rattles every time they stick their fists into the box. The sound alone is driving me crazy. I also had to clear an empty Domino pizza box and a half-empty can of coke out of one of the working areas and throw them in the bin. Who doesn't finish a can of coke? It's sacrilege.

Official Launch and name-change tomorrow!

Ok, so I've decided I'm going mega-public on this. It's the only way to make me stick to it properly. So I've decided to do an official launch on Live95FM tomorrow - the thing is, if I'm getting the radio involved and getting them to support me on this, it makes sense to change the name for 'marketing' purposes. So my 100-day challenge is going to become a 95-day challenge - geddit? Live95FM? It's not cheating - in fact, in the end I will actually have done more than 100 days - but the 95 days has more of catchy ring about it for the radio.
I had that 'brainwave' on Friday - but I decided not to stop and start again because I was afraid if I stopped I'd just give up altogether. So the suffering has been continuing. The picture is of the sausage rolls Denise brought to work and offered around on Friday. It led to a debate about whether sausage rolls were junk food. The vote concluded that they are. Big, fat, greasy sausage rolls that smelled divine. The pleasure that my work colleagues got out of eating them in front of me was a worrying indicator of what I've got ahead of me.
There is some very good news though -I'm almost at 100 euro. A big, big thanks to the latest donations from Elaine Wilson, Suzanne O'Brien and Nessa Murnaghan.

Is Diet 7up considered Junk Food?

Just to prove how seriously I'm taking all this - let me tell you about the sacrifice I made this afternoon. Grace 'Mad' Dowling took me on a run halfway to Ennis this afternoon (I only did half the run and waited to meet her coming back) and it nearly killed me. It was pretty hot this afternoon and when I got into the car after the run I was dying with the thirst. I was in a rush to make my son's graduation ceremony (primary school before anyone makes a cheeky remark) and so no time to stop for a drink. Then I remembered - I had a bottle of diet 7up in a drawer under my car seat for thirst emergencies. But then I stopped. Is diet 7up junk food? Of course Coke, Fanta and all that stuff comes under the junk food label - I'm not that big a cheat that I'd argue they are drinks not food. But diet 7up?? I mean, real 7up is practically a health food - it's what they always recommend you drink with a dicky tummy - of course, without the bubbles. Medicinal properties notwithstanding, I'm prepared to accept that the full sugar version of 7up does indeed constitute junk food. But I wrestled with the debate on the diet version for a few minutes. After all, the label says: Sugar Free, Calorie Free, Colouring Free and Caffeine Free. However, the label also says it includes things like malic acid, acidity regulater, aspartame, aceulfame K, and sodium benzoate. So, I ultimately concluded that I couldn't take the risk. It's rubbish in a bottle really. Just a load of chemicals in liquid form made to taste nice with zero nutritional value. I suppose that's enough for it to qualify. That's why being on a diet would be so much easier - I could drink diet 7up and eat low fat chocolate brownies.
I stayed parched. I attended the graduation ceremony looking like a dehydrated sweaty tomato. How's that for dedication?

98 Days to Go!

This morning I thought up a sneaky way of being able to get out of all this. You see, I'm really not doing this for me - I've tried to do this sort of thing for myself tonnes of times and failed miserably. I really am doing it for Limerick Kidz. So if people don't support this challenge, I may as well give up. There'll be no point. My target is 500 euro (minimum) or five euro a day which I reckon is pretty achievable. Most people can spare a fiver - or if they can't, then they have something they could sell for a fiver which they could then use to sponsor me! So people are going to have to pay me to stay on this. If, for example, I don't reach my minimum target for that day - like for the 5th day it would be 25 euro - then I'm going to break out and go to McDonalds. I'll send out a warning first - and if by teatime no one has put their hand in their pocket then my suffering will end with a Big Mac and chips followed by a Moody Cow Milkshake. And if I do break out I'm under no obligation to return sponsorship as each fiver only buys you that particular day of suffering - if you want me to suffer for longer then you'll just have to pay more.
The photo shows the remains of the little snack 'him indoors' had with his cup of tea last night. In front of me! So much for moral support.
Thanks to Eric, Fiona and Mike for their donations today. Looks like I'll be on this for a few more days yet.

Day 99

So I confessed all to my colleagues at work. I had little choice when they presented me with a yummy birthday cake which I regretfully resisted. The upside is that I raised my first 10 euro for Living in a Window for Limerick Kidz. Thanks Denis! Five minutes later I got an email inviting me to eat for free at McDonalds. How freaky is that? Thankfully the invitation was not attached to the email or I might have had to give Denis back his tenner. So - just 99 and a half days to go.

Day 100

I'm going to count backwards to Day One rather than upwards to Day 100 - I think it'll be easier to cope with that way mentally. Only x number of days to go - and that number getting smaller all the time.
So now - just 99 days to go! YEAH!
It wasn't too bad today - a trip to hospital in Dublin meant little opportunity. Although mother did produce Fox's Chocolate rings with my coffee when we went to visit afterwards but I found it easy enough to resist.
Less easy tonight with my cup of tea, but I managed.
I see half choccie bar I've hidden that I will have to throw out as it's dark chocolate which no one else likes and it will easily be stale in 100 days. Maybe the fact I haven't thrown it out proves I've little faith in myself.
We'll see.