Oooh I have a few ranty points today. Can’t beat some cathartic ranting, am I right?
Rant: I love parkrun, as you may well be aware (!), and I think people who are anti-parkrun are insane. Literally insane. But I can understand that people who don’t understand its magical properties (community spirit, getting outside, promoting volunteering, promoting health and well-being, inspiring people to do great things, etc. etc.) may not be as on board. On Saturday everyone who parked their car along a residential road next to Netley Country Park where the Netley parkrun takes place had their car keyed.
This is disgusting and there is NO REASON that this should happen. OK so a herd of cars appearing every Saturday and parking up your road could be annoying – I fully understand that. No one wants their road blocking up (by the way, the cars don’t block the road, they just park LEGALLY). But to do something as destructive as that? That’s awful. If the person responsible was so angry then surely they should have left a strongly worded note or come out of their hole house and spoken to the car owner’s – LIKE AN ADULT. Seriously what is wrong with people to think this is an acceptable way to deal with what they see as an issue?
(It was reported to parkrun and they’re investigating)
Rave: Onto more happier notes. You know I’m an idiot and booked my flight home from my recent Spanish holiday twice (read about that wonderful saga HERE)? Well, the lovely people from Expedia read my blog and sent me a very nice email. They offered to refund the ticket I booked by mistake! Happily they didn’t think I was an idiot (though who could blame them if they did?) and said they could relate to the mistake and wanted to give me a happy ending by refunding me the money. Ahh so nice of them! I hardly need to sing Expedia’s praises (most of my holidays are booked with them because, hello savings) but this has made me feel all warm and fuzzy about them
Rant: Having to take Alfie to the vets for a teeth clean. I say teeth clean but this involved him having to be anaesthetised…
He’s a sensitive soul and doesn’t like change. For example, being in the car causes him to shake (I have no idea why, he’s had no bad experiences in one!) so being at the vets is really not his cup of tea. It was quite heart-breaking to drop him off and say goodbye. The nurse told me to leave rather than her take Alfie away so it wasn’t quite as brutal (still felt it). Apart from Alfie’s displeasure of course, the two worst parts were a) the nurse calling him “borderline senior” at seven years old. WHAT? He’s going to live forever!! and b) it costing over £300. OUCH. But he’s worth it of course.
Rave: I have a bit of a resistance band addiction it appears. I now have no less than five. One is a long one I use for assisted pull-ups (as mentioned in a previous post), the other is a cheap one that I’ve tied together and use round my ankles for crab and monster walks and the other three are new purchases.
I got them from Amazon very cheaply. And they come with their own little bag which is handy. They come in three different strengths. They’re a lot shorter and don’t require tying so are perfect for using doing things like clamshells and leg lifts (all about that glute activation!). And they seem a bit more hardy.
Rant: I now dread part of my walk with Alfie in a morning. As I get closer to the pond I just hope the duck lady isn’t there (the one that yelled abuse at me). Some mornings she is and some she isn’t. When she is she glares at me. She honestly stands there looking at me with this horrible look on her face! It makes me feel so uncomfortable. I refuse to put Alfie on his lead as 9/10 he doesn’t go after the ducks, but I spend my time praying that Alfie keeps his interests away from the pond. I’ve seen other dogs chase the ducks so I don’t feel quite as awful as clearly Alfie is not the devil incarnate (or more likely, I’m not a terrible owner) but it still makes for an unpleasant experience. One funny morning was Alfie running over to her and eating all the bread she’d thrown. That made my morning.
Rave: New trainers! It’s funny because I was checking on Strava the other day and noticed that the trainers I’d been using after Boston were well over 300 miles. Now I realise that to some people (you lucky souls) that’s no issue but for my last few injuries it’s always occurred with trainers that are over 300 miles. Perhaps this is entirely coincidental but I do know that most of my injuries occur because of my fallen arches (as my physio keeps telling me and stressing me to do my exercises every day). Remember when I wore those old trainers for that fateful failed 18 miler in Wales? Well, anyway this called for new trainers to be bought immediately and something I will pay stricter attention to in future.
I kept to my trusty Mizuno’s Wave Paradoxes. I’ve used them pretty much since I started running. I’m a fan of Asics, Brookes and Adidas too but generally it’s Mizuno for the bulk of my mileage.
Rant: (at myself) For buying the wrong size *face palm*.
Rant: The real aggression there is out there for Pokémon Go (I promise I’ll stop bringing this game up in my blog). What is the issue for a bit of harmless fun? (Let’s ignore the few and far between stories of the idiots who take it to a different stupid level). My parkrun friends did have a good laugh at me though when I was playing while we were setting up on Saturday morning. They suggested a more useful game for me would be “Boyfriend Go” but the Pokémon thing was probably hindering that. Fair point.
Cinnamora Drink Review
I was contacted via Twitter by @CinnamoraDrink to try out their new cinnamon infused drink Cinnamora. I thought “why not?”. It sounded a bit weird but I was happy to give it a go.
Basically it’s a still soft drink that, well, tastes of cinnamon. It’s almost zero in calories, contains no fat, no added sugars and made from ceylon cinnamon. The ingredients are cinnamomum zeylanicum extract, citric acid, sucralose, and water. Apparently cinnamon is widely used in ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine for conditions such as diabetes, high cholesterol and indigestion.
My thoughts? I won’t lie, I really didn’t like it. The flavour just didn’t sit well with me. To be honest I think that’s because of the cinnamon associations I have. For me cinnamon means Christmas, hot drinks, gingerbread and Christmas cake. To drink it as a cold beverage just messed with my brain a bit. It’s not an unpleasant taste or disgusting, it’s sweet and refreshing – it’s just personally for me it didn’t work. I gave a few cans to some friends to see their thoughts and they were a lot more positive than me, but they still thought it was a bit odd.
I think that this drink would probably work better in the States as they have such a huge cinnamon love over there, whereas in the UK, cinnamon really only comes out in baking and Christmas time. I could be very wrong though!
What’s getting you riled up lately?
What are your thoughts on cinnamon?
When do you buy new trainers?
**Full Disclosure: I was sent the Cinnamora drinks for free in exchange for my honest review.**
That’s absolutely awful about everyone getting their car keyed! Such a disgusting way to behave!
I adore cinnamon and love it all year round long. I really like sprinkling it on porridge in the mornings.
Jemma @ Celery and Cupcakes recently posted…Lentil Bolognese With Peas & Aubergine
Maybe you’ll enjoy the drink then? For me it was just a bit odd!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Pomphrey parkrun take two and BBQ fun
Firstly, boarderline senior? Could you imagine if a 50 year old went to the doctor and they were called that. Poor Alfie, it might hurt his feelings.
That is so awesome of expedia – great customer service.
As for the car keying, I believe in karma. What a twat!
Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy recently posted…Comment on Lemon, Garlic and Herb Roasted Mini Potatoes by Nicola
Haha I know!! She did not warm herself to Alfie at all with that statement 😉
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Pomphrey parkrun take two and BBQ fun
That is so awful about the cars being keyed – I hope the police were contacted too. We have a few messages on our page about parking properly, as a few people double park (which is wrong), but most of the parkrunners respect the roads around the parks and park properly. No need to resort to vandalism though.
Also, if that lady cared about the ducks she should not be feeding them bread. A quick google will inform her pretty easily. So she can climb off her high horse as although dogs obviously can scare ducks (and really harm them) she is probably harming them more regularly by feeding them bread each day/ several times a week. But how can you get her to know this without being all passive aggressive? Some sort of guerrilla poster campaign perhaps?
I love cinnamon, and have it all through the year, although usually on warm things (although I do have it in my overnight oats sometimes as it goes well with those)- I once had a cinnamon sweet in the US and it burned my mouth, so I am not sure I would choose a drink in case it was really spicy. You get ginger beer I suppose, so maybe it’s similar?
Hooray for new shoes too! (and we shall ignore the size!)
Maria @ runningcupcake recently posted…Holiday baking!
I reckon parkrun will likely take the investigation further to the police too.
Exactly! And the amount of people that feed the ducks bread (parents taking their children down there with big loaves every weekend) it does make me feel for these poor ducks. But I don’t want to engage contact with her again if I’m honest!
Yes my friends who tried the drink said that it reminded them of that and the ones that enjoyed ginger beer were more likely to say they liked the taste.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Pomphrey parkrun take two and BBQ fun
WHAT?! That’s awful about the cars getting keyed! I hope somebody saw something and they find the person that did it. What a horrible and senseless thing to do.
To the other extreme, how lovely that Expedia refunded your second flight! There are nice people in the world!
I love that Alfie went and ate all of the duck ladies bread as well! I was at parkrun one week and somebody had obviously dropped a loaf of bread on the ground which had emptied out completely. This large dalmatian bounded over despite calls from it’s owner and was desperately wolfing down huge slices of bread as quick as it could before getting put back on the lead! Funniest thing I saw all day!
I would be so poor if I had to buy new trainers every 300 miles! You must go through lots of pairs of trainers! I keep track of my shoes on Strava as well. Once my road shoes reach 500 miles I relegate them to Summer trail running or gym work, but I don’t run road in my road shoes once they hit 500 miles. I’m sure some of my previous injuries have been brought on by shoes with too many miles in them and it’s just not worth the risk.
Mary recently posted…The pre-Welly 5 BBQ run
Haha yes I imagine the dalmatian went right for it. If there’s ever food where I walk Alfie, Alfie really tries as quickly as possible to wolf it down because he knows he’s not allowed. Dogs are very quick!
Well I am very injury prone remember and have flat feet so I’m quite sensitive to these things! It might be a placebo thing or purely coincidental with the mileage and my injuries but I’m not going to risk it. You’re like the least injury prone person in the world so could probably wear high heels and run absolutely fine ;-p
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Pomphrey parkrun take two and BBQ fun
I absolutely love cinnamon, I use it daily on everything! I have been playing pokemon too, even on my runs sometimes 😛
Lauren (@poweredbypb) recently posted…Super Sporty Smoothie