GP Paris (08/05/15 – 10/05/15)

This past weekend, Rob and I hopped across the Channel to play Magic. And whilst Rob loves flying, I have a massive phobia of it, so I was very happy that we would be travelling via Eurostar rather than plane, especially since my two previous trips to France were via ferry and coach.

We arrived at Gare du Nord just after 7pm, before taking the metro to Hoche, which was about thirty seconds from our hotel. Along the way we discovered that Snoop Dogg is called Snoop Chien in France – something that Rob has still not quite wrapped his head around.

After checking in we went to buy some food. We did discuss the possibility of eating out for once before we came, but we realised it just wasn’t going to be feasible given the time we were arriving, especially since we would still need to go and buy food for Saturday night. Unsurprisingly, I was getting very paranoid that all the shops would close at 8pm, but thankfully we found a Framprix (one of France’s supermarket chains) and set about our usual task of spending an unreasonable amount of time food shopping (forty minutes this time FYI).

Being in France, I thought I’d buy some of the classic chocolate curl cereal that – from what I recall – has been in every single European hotel I’ve ever stayed in, as well as something classically British in Weetabix. I also bought a couple of apples to go with the dates I’d brought from home, two tins of baked beans and some tortilla-like bread from another shop to have with them, as well as a beer which I thought would help me sleep a bit better. The length of time spent trying to find the latter made me very patriotic about the Great British corner shop.

Rob’s selection was a bit more interesting, with apples, bananas, houmous, jam, rice cakes (thankfully the word gluten seems to be a universal one) and tomatoes. It would have been nice to buy a baguette from a boulangerie, but given the time we got there I’m pretty sure they were all closed or starting to close for the day.

Whilst the cereal was nice – if a bit lacking in sweetness for my liking, as there were only a couple of sachets of sugar in our room – the baked beans were absolutely disgusting. I have no idea how someone could manage to ruin such a delicious foodstuff, but the best way I can describe it is tasting like salty water. All I can say is I hope the hotel staff like them, as I had to leave the second can there.

The next morning, after a few hours sleep and a fantastic power shower, I published my birthday changes blog post, which I hope you’ve all had a chance to read by now. It wasn’t ideal having this extra thing on my mind when I needed to focus on playing Magic, but at the same time it was quite fun blogging from another country, and I’d written most of it out before I came anyway.

Between not being able to initially find the tram stop, getting completely lost trying to find the venue once we got off the tram and not being able to find my name on the registered players list when we did find it, the rest of the morning was incredibly stressful.

I am very happy to report that – despite the stress – I made my first Grand Prix day 2, posting a 7-2 record after starting 1-1 (we’ve been joking recently that I seem to play my best when I’m stressed out, and I’m beginning to think that there may be something in it). Rob unfortunately wouldn’t be joining me, but he was happy that I had done well, and I was similarly happy that I had put him in a better mood. It was also extremely gratifying to put a lot of work in – much more than any previous tournament – and see it come to fruition.

By the time the first day finished it was about 9.30pm (as you can probably work out, it was quite poorly organised). On our way back to the hotel, Rob remembered that he had offered to buy me a Subway the first time I made day 2, and that he recalled there being one a few minutes away. If you’re wondering where this idea came from: I had never had a Subway before, and Rob knew I would never buy one for myself.

So celebratory Subway it was! I had jalapeños, lettuce, olives, peppers and tomatoes with barbecue sauce on toasted Italian bread, and it was absolutely delicious. Without wanting to sound like I’m being paid to advertise Subway: I can’t help but feel Western society would be a lot healthier if all fast food was like this rather than greasy burgers and chips.

Sunday morning was infinitely less stressful than Saturday, as I managed to get to the venue in plenty of time despite my horrendous geography skills. I thought I would be incredibly relaxed, but even though I felt like a big weight had been lifted from my shoulders having made day 2, I was still a bit nervous and desperate to win more.

After another 6 rounds I was 3-3, bringing my overall record to 10-5, finishing 120th out of 1426 people and missing out on cash on tiebreakers (for an event this size you need to finish in the top 100). Still, I am incredibly happy with my performance on the whole, and having worked so hard we are both now looking forward to a little break from Magic before the next tournament in July.

Have you ever been to Paris? And what did you think of this post? Let me know in the comments, on the spiced! Facebook page or on Twitter @spiceduk using the hashtag #vegannerddiaries

Testing For GP Kraków & GP Paris

I have been playing a lot of Magic for about the past six weeks.

It started with Rob deciding he was going to GP Kraków, which was held on the 18th – 19th April. I decided I just didn’t have the money to go, but I was more than happy to be Rob’s testing guinea pig as it were. And it wouldn’t hurt to get ahead on testing for Paris either.

As an aside: we are very lucky to have eachother to play with, because most people don’t have that luxury. I first played Magic from 2003 – 2009, and one of the main reasons I stopped playing is that Rob and most of my friends had given up a few years before, which meant I could only test online and was going to tournaments by myself. Even though Magic can be a very frustrating and expensive hobby, I think it’s good to remember how great it is that we’re playing again at all – two of those aforementioned friends included – and to recognise the amazing opportunities – like going to Paris for a weekend to play – that it provides.

This past weekend, we went to a tournament in London, primarily to test our decks and to get some more useful tournament experience. Rob unfortunately went 3-2-2 (3 wins, 2 losses, 2 draws) after starting 3-0, whilst I managed to go 5-1-1 and make the Top 8.

At this point it’s probably a good idea to explain how competitive Magic works. All tournaments have a Swiss portion – in this case 7 rounds, but a Grand Prix is 15 – before a cut to Top 8. The Top 8 is then paired based on the Swiss standings, with the 1st seed playing the 8th seed, the 2nd seed playing the 7th seed, and so on.

It’s also worth saying that, whilst Rob’s draws were from running out of time (each round is timed at 50 minutes, best 2 out of 3 games), you can also intentionally draw with your opponent, which is the norm in the final rounds of a tournament if it guarantees both of you a Top 8 spot. This is what happened to me in Round 7.

I won my Quarter-Final match 2-0, before losing 2-1 in the Semi-Final. I got to be on camera not only for the latter, but also for game 3 of round 3, as well as to talk about my deck after that win (if you’re interested in watching any of that, you can do so here at 02:13:20, 02:29:30 and 07:48:50: http://bit.ly/1KhBOOR). Being on camera was a very enjoyable experience, and it’s made me hungrier to be in the feature match area at the Grand Prix level.

Whilst I would obviously have loved to win the tournament, I’m very happy to have made my first Top 8 since returning to the game. This isn’t to brag or anything; Top 8s of this nature are a dime a dozen for good players. However, I do still feel like I’ve got a monkey off my back, and it has given me a confidence boost that I can play very well.

Looking ahead to Paris, this is the most prepared I’ve ever been for a tournament by far. As of writing this, I’ve played just under 200 games with my deck, which is about double the previous highest total, and it should be up to about 225 before we leave on Friday. My aim for the tournament is to play as well as I know I can do for the full 9 rounds on day 1, and if I can do that then I think I have a good shot to make it through to day 2, which requires a 7-2 record.

Did you enjoy this blog post? Would you like to see me write about Magic more or less often? Let me know in the comments, on the spiced! Facebook page or on Twitter @spiceduk

Intermittent Fasting & MTG

Today I’m going to a Magic tournament, and – believe it or not – I won’t be eating until well after it finishes. Why? Because I do intermittent fasting.

For those of you that don’t know: intermittent fasting is a lifestyle where you limit your eating period to a small number of hours each day whilst fasting the rest of the time, and I started doing it just over two years ago. Which means that I eat all my daily calories in about a three hour window, but anything up to about eight hours is still considered intermittent fasting (or IF for short).

There are a number of reasons I started doing this. The main one is that the traditional eating pattern of breakfast, lunch and dinner just doesn’t work for me. Eating makes me very hungry, and so I find it really hard to repeatedly eat a small amount and then stop for a few hours. I find it much easier to eat everything in one go, feel full, and then not eat until the same time the next day. And it becomes especially easy when you’ve been doing it for two years.

Not only that, but I don’t find eating regular small meals enjoyable either. When I eat, I want to eat a lot so that I actually feel full, rather than having numerous meals spread throughout the day, none of which fill me up. This led to me getting obese as a child, because I just couldn’t stop eating.

Another benefit is that you can have days where you eat whatever you want – so-called ‘cheat days.’ I currently have one once a week on a Sunday, and I can honestly say they’ve completely changed my life. As much as I love eating healthily, I equally love to stuff my face as much – if not more – than the next person every so often. I still don’t have desserts very regularly, mind (it normally has to be some sort of occasion for me to bake something, and there hasn’t been one for a while), but I do eat a lot of cereal and peanut butter toast. With a traditional eating routine, I am confident I wouldn’t be able to do this without getting fat. There are numerous other health benefits of IF, but these are the two primary ones for me, and if you’re interested in the others, there is plenty of information out there on the internet. Science is not my strong suit, so I’m sure other people will be able to explain it a lot better than me.

But what has Magic got to do with all of this? Well, IF conveniently lends itself very well to being out all day. Like at a Magic tournament, for example. Unlike everyone else, I don’t need to worry about when I’m going to have lunch, and I don’t get sugary highs and lows throughout the day (I can still get tired, but it’s mental rather than physical tiredness). I also feel clean rather than weighed down with food, and I feel that this allows me to play better.

There are, of course, some negative aspects of IF as well. Personally, the biggest problem is a lack of flexibility. When do you have your dinner if you’re going out for the evening? Do you eat lunch at your friend’s BBQ or do you wait to cook for yourself? What do you do if you feel ravenously hungry but aren’t supposed to eat for another four hours? I feel I have vastly improved at managing this over the past six months – I used to only have a cheat day every three to four weeks, and I’m open to having a drink outside of my normal eating hours where I wouldn’t before – but on the whole it can be a fairly rigid lifestyle choice.

Have you ever heard of intermittent fasting before? If so, have you ever tried it? Let me know in the comments, on the spiced! Facebook page or on Twitter @spiceduk

GP Liverpool (05/03/15 – 08/03/15)

This past weekend, Rob and I were in sunny… Liverpool?! Yep – it’s suddenly feeling very much like Spring in the UK.

We got into the station at about 4pm on Thursday. It was still bright, and according to Google Maps it was only two-and-a-half miles to the hotel, so we decided it would be a good idea to walk and save the bus money.

Nearly an hour and a much longer than 2.5 mile walk later, we arrived at the hotel. Apart from being a bit tired, we were very worried that we would have to trek back out again into the city centre to get food, but thankfully when we checked the map again there was a supermarket only a couple of minutes away.

For dinner that night (and Friday and Saturday night as well) I had some cereal with soya milk and the trusty portable sweetener that is The Groovy Food Company’s agave nectar. As an aside: if you’re a vegan looking for a substitute for honey, then I would definitely recommend it.

I also had a pack of Braeburn apples (I used to only like Granny Smith, but I’ve become partial to a Braeburn as of late) and some dates (seriously, how does the date count as a fruit?! It basically tastes like toffee, and I defy anyone who says they don’t like fruit to not like them). Speaking of dates: I also had a couple of Nakd Cocoa Delight bars. If you’ve never had them before, they’re a raw fruit and nut bar available in a plethora of flavours, and I will be sure to feature them on Food Tom Loves at some point.

We don’t normally eat breakfast, but given that we had to get up early anyway and the tournament proper didn’t start until Saturday, we decided we would on Friday. I, of course, had some more cereal, as well as that old accidentally vegan staple – beans on toast. I was initially just going to have the beans cold (yes, I am one of those people that loves cold beans), but then I noticed that there was a microwave I could heat them up in. So hot beans on toast it was!

Rob was limited to just having bananas, but seeing as he’s been trying an 80-10-10 diet recently and absolutely loves bananas, he was more than happy with that.

I also had breakfast on Sunday as I unfortunately didn’t make day 2 of the main tournament, although in hindsight I should’ve entered the Sunday tournament that Rob did, as the day was spent largely killing time until our train home. Over breakfast I got chatting to a couple from Blackburn who were visiting for a football match (or more accurately: they got chatting to me). It’s always interesting seeing peoples’ reaction when you tell them you travel around Europe playing a card game, but in this instance they didn’t seem to think it was that strange.

The worst part of the weekend (and something I will probably include in all Vegan Nerd Diaries from now on) was the complete lack of recycling or compost facilities at the hotel. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised – my mum is constantly telling me about how the hospital where she works has none either – but still, I just can’t fathom how people can put everything in the bin with a clear conscience. I’m sure Liverpool has a recycling collection service, and it would not be difficult or expensive to buy some separate bins for recycling.

Rob and I did our best to keep all our banana skins and other fruit trimmings in the hope of finding somewhere to compost them, but in the end we had no choice but to put them in the bin. I also kept all the cereal boxes, soya milk cartons and bean tins (washed out, of course) to take to the recycling facility on Sunday that I had spotted earlier in the weekend. However, when I got there I found that they didn’t recycle cans or plastic, meaning I had to leave said bean tins (plus a couple of bits of plastic) in the hope that some caring local would know where they could be recycled and take them there.

So that was my weekend in Liverpool. The next instalment will probably be at the start of May for Grand Prix Paris, although I’m very tempted to go to Krakow in April as well.

Did you enjoy this post? Would you like me to talk a bit more about the tournament itself, or should I just be sticking to the food? Let me know in the comments, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter @spiceduk using the hashtag #vegannerddiaries

Magic: The Recycling

Wizards Of The Coast – the creators of my beloved Magic: The Gathering – yesterday announced that they will be piloting 100% recyclable cardboard packaging for a new set coming out in May (http://bit.ly/1JIuIXH), which means that booster packs will now look like this:

This is incredibly exciting news. Magic is a hugely popular world-wide game that only gets bigger every year, and that means tonnes and tonnes of disposable plastic packaging going to landfill.

Not anymore.

Wizards Of The Coast is a massive company, so assuming that this test run goes well, this could be a fantastic catalyst for other big companies to re-evaluate their current packaging. If you’ll allow me to dream for a moment: how amazing would it be if we lived in a world where absolutely every packaged item you bought could be recycled? Yes, it might cost us a bit more as consumers to offset the increased packaging costs, but personally that is a cost that is well worth paying.

Do you know of any companies that have recently introduced recyclable packaging? Would you be happy to pay more as a consumer or do you not think it’s worth it? Let me know in the comments, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter @spiceduk

GP Milan (10/12/14 – 14/12/14)

Confession: I play Magic: The Gathering. Yes, that game that all the nerdy kids at school play at lunchtime, huddled away in the corner to avoid the judgemental stares and laughs of classmates. That was me.

Believe it or not, there are some people who love the game so much that they travel the world playing it. Some people like my brother Rob (a vegan with a gluten intolerance) and I (a vegan), who recently went to Milan to play in a tournament with a friend.

While we were there, we stayed in a Holiday Inn close to the tournament venue. If you’ve ever stayed in a Holiday Inn before, you’ll know that they offer a complimentary breakfast, so on the first morning of our stay we came down to the dining area eagerly anticipating beans, hash browns, peanut butter and other vegan, gluten-free goodies.

Unfortunately, there were none of these items to be seen. Rob ended up eating just fruit for breakfast. I couldn’t eat any of the bacon, egg, pastries or cakes either, but by contrast I felt rather lucky with my bowl(s) of cereal with water (replaced with soya milk purchased from a shop in central Milan the next day) and plain bread rolls. Thankfully the aforementioned shop also had cereal, while Rob bought some fruit, nuts, soya milk and gluten-free oat cakes, so that we could have a dinner of sorts at the hotel in the evening – something that is fast becoming our own little tradition.

Now this isn’t a post trying to criticise Holiday Inn. On the contrary, given that the room was only 30 euros per night, we both thought that the food offered was admirable. Rather, it serves as a reflection on wider society that being vegan and/or having a gluten intolerance is still seen as something completely out of the ordinary, and is thus not catered for on a widespread level.

Of course, there are exceptions. Pizza Express, for example, offer a gluten-free vegan base for their pizzas (a revelation for my brother, and a commendable effort on Pizza Express’ part given that other gluten-free bases contain egg). But I still feel we’re a way away from options like this being as commonplace as vegetarianism now is. All I can say is that I feel extremely lucky that I’m not in the same dietary situation as my brother, as I’m honestly not sure I would be able to cope.

What do you think? Should vegans and those with a gluten intolerance be more widely catered for in public places? Or should we accept that we’re in the minority and be grateful for whatever we can get? Leave your thoughts in the comments, on our Facebook page, or on Twitter @spiceduk using the hashtag #vegannerddiaries