I used to love thunderstorms. The sound of the rumbling and crashing and the flashes of lightening was always quite exciting. Alfie, however, does not like thunderstorms and as he sleeps in our room, we are fully aware of this. He starts barking at the thunder or running around the room in a panic. Or sitting on our pillows trying to get as close as possible to us. He’s frightened by it I think which is all very sweet. But seriously, Alfie, MAN UP. I need my sleep!!
This weekend, thunderstorms aside, was great. It started Friday night with a great run. I got my new Adidas Boosts delivered to work and was desperate to give them a little trial run (ha!)
I text Ben saying I might go for a run after work in Basingstoke and might be home a little later than usual. He was uber happy about this as he was planning a surprise for me and needed a bit more time. He had told me the night before he was going to put his Friday afternoon off to good use and do something special for me. Well, my curiosity was definitely spiked!
I wore my new Berlin marathon finisher t-shirt and obviously my new Boosts.
Unintentionally colour coordinated!
Having not run for 10 days I was thinking it might feel a bit sluggish. But actually I felt like I was flying. The Boosts felt amazing and my legs felt very fresh. The first mile was downhill but I was very surprised to see a 6.42min/mile! In the end I did 5k in 22.02 minutes. Not too shabby. I probably shouldn’t have gone so fast on my first run but I just felt good and went with it.
When I got home I was welcomed by a very pleased looking Ben and my surprise.
A three-layered red velvet cake – all made from scratch. *Swoons*
I was over the moon! What a guy, eh!? And let me tell you, it tastes AMAZING. Cream cheese frosting heaven! He was a bit miffed the sponge didn’t come out that red though, despite using food colouring gel rather than liquid. Bakers, is there a special way to do this?
Saturday morning we got up early to go to London. Ben needed a quick passport change as he’s going to China with work (oooh er!) so we decided to make a day of it.
We did a lot of walking around and saw the classic tourist bits, like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the London Eye, Houses of Parliament etc. I’ve seen them before but never actually done this with Ben so it was nice.
Also saw some of the roads I’ll be running along come April next year…how exciting! (Providing I’m not injured – I feel like I have to say this as you know how injury-prone I am)
After getting the passport sorted we went to find some lunch. I tried to tempt Ben into going to Wholefoods for their salad bar but that really didn’t go down well…but he did say we could go and have a look 😉
Before that, we found a lovely South African restaurant called Bbar which took our fancy. There were animal prints and animal pictures everywhere and the waiters were lovely. We went for a pitta and dip board to begin which was a little smaller than I had imagined but all very nice (taramasalata, hummus and baba ganoush dips). And for main I went crazy and had a salad. It’s funny because I didn’t even realise there was avocado in it before I went for a big chunk of what I thought was lettuce – it was so camouflaged! Ben went for an amazing burger which looked huge. There were so many burger options, even buffalo and boar.
After a relaxed lunch we walked to Wholefoods and checked out more sights along the way. We didn’t do much shopping or anything that exciting, it was just nice to walk around London together without any real aim.
Wholefoods was just full of young adults – possibly students and, I guess, people like me.
The cakes looked out of this world
It was just rammed. The salad bar looked good but I’m glad we hadn’t gone for it – the queues were huge and it felt a bit claustrophobic. I know Wholefoods is held on a pedestal for healthy and unusual ingredients but some of the things did make me laugh. A cupcake that was gluten free, diary free, egg free and low fat had the ingredients list that would make a Pop Tart tremble. Seriously, so many chemicals with long and scary names. Fairly ironic.
As we slowly ambled back to Waterlook, fairly pooped now, I kept seeing people with whole coconuts drinking out of them with straws. Then a few minutes later we got to Trafalgar Square and we passed a huge area of tents and festivities. It was called Africa on the Square – which fitted into our theme of the day perfectly 😉 We had a wander around (so many amazing smelling foods and cool music) and I found the coconut tent. For the fairly pricey £4.50 the guy chopped off the end of a coconut, popped some straws in and handed it to me.
It tasted divine. Fresh coconut water! Yum. It disappeared rather quickly! Then we decided to head back to the train before our legs fell off. We both fell asleep on the train we were that tired. And embarrassingly I woke up with my mouth open…classy girl right here 😉
Sunday was supposed to be fairly relaxed until we decided to clear out the Cupboard of Death (under stairs cupboard…*shudders*) and some kitchen cupboards to make space for Ben’s new plaything – a Kmix. He’s really getting into this baking lark and with having Friday afternoons off I think I’m going to be seeing a lot more cakes. Can’t be bad, right? 😀
What are your favourite things to do in London?
Have you ever had a real coconut before?
What trainers do you wear?
Fresh coconut is AMAZING!!!! If my husband ever had a cake ready for me when I got home I would probably faint! And red velvet no less!
Staci @ Hoosier Running Mom recently posted…In less than one week!
Honestly I almost did faint. Best Friday night. Ever. And apparently it’s going to be happening every two weeks!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Why you shouldn’t run a marathon without training
My favourite thing to do in London is probably go to Wholefoods haha. We don’t have one here in Manchester, no idea why, so I spend ages in them when I am in London. I stock up and spend a fortune.
Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy recently posted…Comment on Getting Fit on a Budget by Dannii
Yeah we don’t have one in Southampton either…devastating though probably best for the old bank balance!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Why you shouldn’t run a marathon without training
Wow what a cake Ben!!! That looks amazing! I’m all for the Friday afternoons off if this is the result. So many nice quirky places to eat in London, have been the Brixton village market the last few times, but there are always new places cropping up.
I have such a limited knowledge of London as I rarely go there if I can help it! I think I’d need to do some more proper research before going to find these places. But I really enjoyed where we went in the end so it worked out nicely 🙂
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Why you shouldn’t run a marathon without training
Wow that cake is amazing! I think just add more gel! When I did my battenberg it went more red than pink as I used a bit too much gel!
I love going for afternoon tea in London, or walking by the river. Or the museums. But only for a day, it makes me tired!
I know what you mean about Wholefoods- they do have good things in there but also loads of rubbish!
Maria @ runningcupcake recently posted…Naked coconut water giveaway
He said he added a whole gel thing?! Well, I just told him he’ll have to keep practicing until it’s perfect ;-P
London is so tiring. So busy and noisy as well. I like it for a limited period of time!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Why you shouldn’t run a marathon without training
That is so cute that Ben made you a cake! Sounds like you had a great day in London. I always think that with a lot of the gluten free foods etc, people automatically associate labels with being healthy, but like you say a lot of it is filled with crappy ingredients.
Lauren (@poweredbypb) recently posted…Vegan in Berlin
Yes it seems a lot of brands have jumped on the gluten-free label but really they’re either just as bad as they were before or worse with so many more added ingredients. It’s just lack of knowledge from the customer to think gluten-free is automatically associated with healthy food.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Why you shouldn’t run a marathon without training
Oh my goodness, you got to go to whole foods! I have been to london so many times but have never got the chance to go to whole foods! So envious!
lucie recently posted…Comforting Fennel, Thyme, Apple & Walnut Soup
It is such a great supermarket – every aisle full of wonders and gems. But very expensive sadly. But you pay for quality I guess! Though there was a lot of rubbish there too.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Why you shouldn’t run a marathon without training
Wow that cake is amazing Anna! Go Ben!
Claire @ Flake and Cake recently posted…Eats and Feats
He’s a baking star!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Why you shouldn’t run a marathon without training