5 days, 2 people, 20 euros (Part 2)

Mum and dad, just to reassure you that I haven't starved these last five days, here's a list of some things we ate. (Photo: Our most expensive meal- 8 ham and asparagus rolls, 2,10 euros)

Breakfast: peach and banana smoothie, small coffee
Lunch: pasta with eggplant sauce, tortilla, homemade wontons, mushroom omelette
Dinner: creamy spinach on toast with anchovies, vegetable stirfry, tuna salad
Snacks: melba toast, biscuits (79 cents for a pack of 124 biscuits, this saved us), homemade potato chips

OK, I was hungry sometimes. Very hungry. Sometimes I would keep looking at my watch and count down the minutes until the next meal. But mostly it was bearable. And I'm a person who eats a lot.

I've had to do without my dairy-alternative products (except soy milk) because they're so much more expensive. I don't know how gluten-intolerant people would get by. Or diabetics.

The most cost-efficient meals were the vegetable stirfries (1.12 euros for 1 kg of frozen veggies, 3 servings) although you get hungry very quickly after, and the tortilla (1 euro for a 6 egg tortilla) which is big enough that you have leftovers for later.

The can of anchovies was probably the least cost-efficient- 60 cents for 9 tiny anchovies that are more a garnish than anything else. If we were to repeat this, I'd add more potato dishes or pulses (Beza flatly refused to eat pulses this time round), and somehow make the salads more filling.

5 days, 2 people, 20 euros (Part 1)

A few of my friends signed up to do the Live Below The Line challenge and after hearing about their experiences, plus about a couple who lived a month on $1 a day in the USA, Beza and I decided to try for 5 days. Each person has a food budget of $2 (2 euros in our case) for the day. This has to include everything you put in your mouth- drinks, ingredients, oil, spices, salt, chewing gum.

Admittedly, we cheated a bit because if you take the exchange rate into account, the $2 AUD a day allowance should only be 1.35 euros. We did this because a) we wanted to see how it would be to live on so little a day and b) now that I'm not working, my bank account is going steadily towards zero.

I've learnt a few things:

If you planned in too little food for the day, you'll get hungry and hunger makes people cranky. Also, no matter how big a salad is, it gets digested within an hour.

We spend a lot of money out just on beers, the odd pincho and snacks without thinking. Spanish culture is so dependent on bars and meeting up with people in cafes and bars- on the 2 minute walk between the gym and our flat there are at least five different bars. Our social life was non-existent that week because you can't afford to spend the day's allowance on one beer.

We didn't budget beer into our food planning and this was a BIG mistake. (OK, this may sound flippant but there were times when I would have gladly exchanged something on the menu for a small can of cheap supermarket beer, 23 cents)

Still, I'm thinking about making this a permanent part of my meal planning. It really makes you think- we have so much but give it so little thought. We consume so unconsciously. One pincho and small wine or beer in Calle Laurel costs 2 euros- there goes your food budget for the day.

Oh, the things that amuse me

1. Anthropomorphising food
2. Watching children cry (not because I like to see them in pain but because they seem so devastated)
3. Sending my 4 year old students to the 'Corner of Boredom' (el rincón del aburrimiento) when they misbehave
4. Mullets
5. Owners that look like their dogs

Carnavales 2010

This year for Carnival, Beza and I dressed up as John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The best thing was I didn't have to buy anything for the costume. Luther went dressed as a white sheep.

It was pretty fun but at about 1.30 am, I took off my sunnies because I couldn't see very well and developed an allergic reaction to all the wigs I was surrounded by. There was John Lennon's wig, Ned Flanders wigs, Nadal wigs... My eyes started swelling and itching like mad and after about half an hour I decided I couldn't stand it any more and had to go home.

Before Carnival, we had a Chinese New Year dinner. I was under the impression that we were supposed to eat long noodles at Chinese New Year, but apparently they're traditionally eaten at birthdays. I even did a powerpoint presentation for my classes telling the kids that at Chinese New Year Chinese people always eat noodles and fish. My mum corrected me just after dinner, when we'd just finished eating, when she rang to wish me happy Chinese New Year.

We also ate fish and uncut spinach but I think I cheated because I bought pre-washed, packaged spinach that already had some of the stems cut off.

Had a nice Sunday- told Beza that according to Chinese tradition, you can't cook or clean on Chinese New Year, so we left a sinkful of dirty plates and ordered takeaway.

Kings Of Convenience and codeine

Two Saturdays ago, we went to a Kings Of Convenience concert in San Sebastian that was awesome. Afterwards we went for pintxos.

Started back at work again last week and after just one class (the other class was on an excursion) I started to feel sick. Luckily I didn't have to work on Tuesday so I rested, but after Wednesday, my cough came back and my head started hurting.

On Friday I invited a few friends over for sushi and teriyaki skewers and on Saturday, Beza and I went to watch Millan play ice hockey. We went to one the Sunday before as well and his team won both matches, yay! I always think the players look like animals in a pet shop window, when they're penalised and have to sit in their little boxes for two minutes. Kind of cold and depressed with messy hair.

Then on Sunday I woke up feeling like I felt when I first started getting sick ie. horrible. I measured my temperature and had a slight fever so I went back to the doctor and he gave me more codeine stuff.

I took the medication before going to work and about an hour later felt incredibly dizzy and sick in the stomach. They were like the flu symptoms I experienced two weeks ago, which I attributed to the virus but which I now suspect are from the codeine. Then I went home and threw up. Very unpleasant. Beza bought me these pills you can take which line your stomach and stop you from feeling queasy and they've sort of worked but I've been put off taking my medication.

I think I would rather have a permanent dry cough than feel like I'm about to vomit.

I've also had this constant headache that only goes away when I take panadol. (And then comes back about four hours later). On Sunday I woke up at about 3 am feeling like mini people were banging on my head with their mini hammers. I hardly ever get headaches and they never last long but this one's been bothering me for more than a week now. My dad said he's got the same thing, a constant headache, and he never gets headaches either.

I think it's a particularly malignant flu this year. I blame the children for giving it to me and their parents for sending their germy kids to school.