It was about this time last year when Sam, our head flatmate, sat us down to chat about the finances in our flat bank account. It wasn’t pretty, $50 a head per week for food and by Thursday we’d hit single digits. This wasn’t surprising given we were eating two loaves of bread, the majority of a block of cheese, a dozen eggs, a box of Weetbix and drinking three litres of milk a day. We needed a solution.
Let me introduce you to what is potentially the most athletic flat in Christchurch. Home to six young fellas who mostly all study engineering, spend way too much time on Strava and like to push the boundaries of maximising time in the hills without failing uni. The back shed houses roughly 15 bikes, about 25 pairs of running shoes, a dozen packs, a tonne of gels, our body weight in protein powder and a few pieces of race bling to top it off.
The flat includes Dougal, Sam, Dan, Matt, Yonni and Cam. With Soul briefly showing his face in 2020 and Isaac filling Cam’s place while he races in Europe.
But back to the story. Dougal had a solution, sponsorship. Between a few of us, we each had a few gear sponsors, but nothing that could feed a flat. So, we got to the drawing board and fired off some emails. Most laughed, a few replied, but the team at Diamond took us on board and have kept us fed for over a year now. Prior to coming to uni, Dougal always joked to his running buddies that it’d be unreal to have a flat sponsored by a pasta company, however, he never thought it would ever actually happen. The boys have been treated to a range of different types and now consider themselves some of the finest pasta connoisseurs. Favourites include the wholemeal spaghetti, couscous and the instant ‘Mac n Cheese’ (perfect for some late-night calories).
So, we had food and felt like kings. We were known worldwide (in Riccarton) as the flat that got sponsored by a pasta company. We were pasta influencers.
We could cook the basics, but who wants to eat pasta bake and couscous salad every night? Not Dougal, it turns out. So, out came phase two. International meal week, to be cooked with a Diamond product – and boy were we in for a treat!
We sampled the delights from various countries, including the UAE, Gambia and Columbia. Of course, with Diamond always included and an array of colours depending on the specials at the local veggies shop. That week was by far a highlight of the year for the lads on the crescent.
The other highlight had to be the night where we took a bit of a risk with the weekly flat budget. Cam was headed for Europe the next day, so after a meal and a few drinks, the boys took showers, suited up and made our first and probably last visit to the Casino. Small fish in a big ocean, we spent a few hours watching punters lose hard-earned cash. Towards the end of the night, with our pockets slightly fuller than we came in with (don’t know how we managed that), we took our $300 weekly food budget and went all or nothing on the Roulette. It was feast or famine for the next week. We walked out with $600. How does Waygu Steak and Couscous salad sound?
With winter over the meals are getting fresher, the days are longer, less study and more time out in the hills. Cam has returned from a successful three months of racing in Europe where he made a lot of new friends and had some promising results to build on for next year. The boys are tramping the 130km section from St Arnaud to Boyle Village in a few weeks. Dougal has the Luxmore Grunt in a month and following a small injury, Yonni is working towards the Old Ghost Ultra in February next year.
All is well in the flat and the boys are looking forward to another year of pasta-fuelled fun. We’re happy, well-fed and studying hard. Life’s better with Diamond on board, thanks, team!
Yonni Kepes 