A little bit of this and that

I was down to run the Great South Run on Sunday but I’ve decided not to anymore. I’m actually quite pleased about this considering how blooming windy it is at the moment! What is going on??

Ben’s obviously not running it either and we’ve been invited to a church ‘welcoming’ thing for our friend’s baby so we decided to give it a miss this year. And though my foot is feeling better I just don’t want to risk it. It’s such a faff of a race; so many people, difficult to park, crowded…and I didn’t enjoy it at all last year (I hurt my knee). Lots of people from my running club are doing it so it is a shame in that respect and it was £41 for entry!! And you can’t even transfer your bib to someone else or defer. *Grumble grumble*

Anyway, I thought I’d write a random post of bits and bobs that have been going on – a collection of titbits, if you like, that didn’t make the cut for a post of their own.

I often go for a walk every lunch time at work for about 20 minutes. Usually to the nearby  big Tesco or sometimes I mosey about a few charity shops. That might sound a bit sad but it’s a habit I’ve had since university when I was looking for cheap books or DVDs. But really any shop with this sign will pull me in regardless:

Charity shop selling cake Cake and charity, a match made in heaven 😀

Speaking of cake, Ben, our friend Nathan and I went to that lovely restaurant, Zippers, in Port Solent again. We went there a few weeks ago and I really wanted to go back because they had an amazing salad bar. Last time I went I just went for the salad bar as a starter which meant I could only visit it once (though I did pile it high to get my money’s worth). This time I decided to go for it as a main so I could keep going back as many times as I wanted (hello, I’m a salad machine).

Zippers meal There were chickpeas, feta, roasted vegetables and just a whole host of veggies. SO GOOD. I’m pretty sure they thought I was a bit strange having three monster plates of salad. But I love it! And the sweet potato fries on the side as well… and the chocolate fudge cake for pudding as it was so good last time. It’s a good job this restaurant is just that little bit too far to go back every week (unlike Nando’s).

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It really helped get me motivated for a cycle the next day as well (a thick slab of chocolate fudge cake with chocolate sauce and ice cream has a good way of doing that). And I got to wear my new cycling jacket (from Aldi!! Cheap as chips but the quality is awesome!)

IMG_8280I haven’t cycled in over 5 weeks and I optimistically thought I could keep up with the guys from the club but after about 6 miles I told them to go on as I just couldn’t keep up. They were lovely and told me to not be silly but I just felt they’d get a better ride without me and I didn’t want to feel pressured to keep up. So I pedalled off for a solo slog. I got in 23 miles in the end but bloody hell it was hard. It’s amazing how quickly you lose it when you don’t do it regularly. I was puffing and panting all the way round and going a lot slower than before. But regardless, it was a good workout. My legs afterwards felt pooped.

Annoyingly it was quite muddy and wet on the roads and having a white bike is just ridiculous.

IMG_8282 Normally I wouldn’t be precious about this sort of thing. It’s a bike, it’s going to get muddy. It’s hardly going to win awards for what it looks like. But we keep the bikes in the living room as we don’t have a garage (only a car port) so we don’t have a proper place to store them (let’s not talk about the Shed of Death), which means I do actually have to clean it. Well, it was lovely and shiny afterwards anyway.

And related to cycling (smooth segue…?) in one of my orders from Wiggle they forgot to send my Haribo with it (they always send a packet of sweets with your order) and I Tweeted about it saying I was sad I missed out. They generously said they’d send me some and a few weeks later I received a post office slip saying I needed to pay £1.20 for unpaid postage. I had no idea what was being posted but paid it anyway out of curiosity.

IMG_8264 Then the next day lo and behold I received an envelope with two packs of Haribo in from Wiggle. It was very nice of them to send it to me, but for £1.20!? They needn’t have bothered! The sweets are probably worth 10p! Oh Wiggle, what a shambles. But in fairness to them they have given me a £2 Wiggle voucher to make up for it. Well play, Wiggle. Well played.

Anyway I’ll leave it there with just one last photo…

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Alfie avidly watching the telly. He loves getting involved 😉 and as you can see, my very clean bike in the background 😀

Do you often buy things online? Are you fan of Wiggle?

Are you a fan of buffets or salad bars?

Do you look for bargains in places like charity shops or cheaper supermarkets, like Aldi or Lidl? I’m not a shopping snob, I love a bargain as long as the quality is decent.

21 Replies to “A little bit of this and that”

  1. Great read as always (I’ve missed a few as have got behind with blog reading!)..

    I love buffet / salad bars but they are just dangerous for racking up a far higher consumption!!!

    My bike is white too and I had to hose it down after it’s first ride on Sunday…

    I hope you and Ben are back to injury free, full fitness soon!!
    Liz recently posted…A little role reversal..My Profile

    1. Ooooh hope the ride went well 🙂 it’s so cool that so many Hedgies are doing more cycling now. It’s just a shame it’s now getting into darker evenings and mornings to make it more tricky. It’s definitely my cross-training of choice though rather than being in a gym.
      AnnaTheApple recently posted…Cake not children any dayMy Profile

  2. That restaurant menu looks delicious, I’m going to go there and check it out! I don’t go very often as I mostly do online grocery shopping, but Aldi and Lidl are great value and some of their own brand products are far superior to other big brands. They have won lots of supermarket awards in blind taste tests. Glad your foot is on the mend!

    1. Yeah we do online shopping as well (sooo much less faff). But I do love moseying around a supermarket for the odd bits and pieces. I would definitely do more Aldi and Lidl shopping if there was one closer to me though. I loved it in university.

    1. Yes I agree – salad is far more than just lettuce leaves and cold pasta! Thankfully this one had lots of different bits and pieces like chickpeas, beans, feta cheese, fruit. It was amazing.

  3. I used to buy Clif and Larabars from Wiggle way back before they were mainstream items (and before I was really aware of how much sugar and strange ingredients they had in them!)…in 2009, I think? I’m not much of a cyclist at all, so I think I haven’t ordered anything for a while though.

    I’d definitely go to town on that salad bar! And I’d have no shame about refilling my plate multiple times, even though I know I’d have the biggest food baby ever afterwards (I love mountains of veggies, my annoying stomach does not. Doesn’t always stop me though).

    I’ve seen a lot of the running gear in Aldi and wondered what it’s like. I wasn’t sure what the quality would be, as the prices are so insanely low…it almost seems too good to be true, you know? But if you think their stuff is good and washes up well, I definitely need to give their running clothes a try. I have a strange fear of clothes from charity shops because I don’t know who owned them before. I know that’s weird, but it just creeps me out hugely not knowing who their previous owners were. I’m the same with antiques…perhaps I’ve watched one too many horror movies over the years :/

    I remember reading Maria’s recap of the GS Run last year and while it sounded like a nice course with great crowd support, the logistics sounded like an absolute nightmare. It would stress me out to the max, so I can absolutely understand why you’re giving it a miss. The ‘Great Run’ races are absolutely extortionate in price – I really don’t know how they justify it sometimes!

    xxx
    Jess recently posted…Hello?My Profile

    1. Wiggle does do good running gear, not just cycling. It tends to be my online shop of choice.
      I definitely recommend the Aldi gear. It is really good quality. My jacket was only £20 and it kept me lovely and warm and dry when I went for the cycle. Funnily enough one of the other girls from the cycling group had the exact same jacket on and she really liked it too.
      Yes I’m less inclined to buy clothes from charity shops because it does freak me out a little. Clothes spend a lot of time on a person and I find it a bit, for want of a better word, gross. But I can understand buying clothes for children there because they grow out of them so quickly it’s far more cost effective.

    1. I just don’t see the point in spending a fortune on books when you can get them cheaper elsewhere. I also tend to just give them back to charity shops once I’m done as well. But I used my Kindle a lot more now so don’t tend to have many real books about.

  4. I hate the haribo in the wiggle order! It annoys me so much- I don’t eat sweets like that (gelatin) and neither does Andy, so I end up throwing them in the bin, and I just think with every order if they are spending that much it will add up to loads overall!
    Once I didn’t get them and was really pleased, thinking they had stopped it, but when I got my parkrun t the other week the sweets were back!
    At least with your white bike you can see the dirt- if you had a darker bike you might not know?
    Good choice about the GSR too- I may be a bit biased but you don’t want to risk another injury at the moment.
    Maria @ runningcupcake recently posted…Cake and Bake Show 2014My Profile

    1. Oh I didn’t even think about vegetarians with the Haribo! There should be a tickbox to say “no thanks”. It’s a quirky idea but I can see how not everyone would be happy with it. To be honest, I give mine to Ben as I’m quite fussy with what sweets I like.
      That’s true about having a white bike and showing the dirt. Luckily my sofas are brown though 😉

    1. We’d keep the bikes in the shed but it’s down the bottom of the garden and a faff to get to. For people who aren’t as motivated to cycle as we are to run it’s enough to put us off using them! So having them in front of us all the time helps hehe.
      AnnaTheApple recently posted…Cake not children any dayMy Profile

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