Britain - AnnaTheApple

January 20, 2013

Snow day

So I didn’t get to North Wales. Snow hit Southampton (and pretty much every place we would have driven through to get to North Wales) which just made it impossible to go. It was a real shame as we were looking forward to heading up there and celebrating my granddad’s 80th birthday with him. But the weather was just ridiculous.

Ben was able to quickly change his holiday into a day working from home but I wasn’t so lucky. Well, it depends on your perspective. I got to chill and do what I wanted all day whereas Ben had to be on his laptop working. It also means that I’m not off tomorrow either. Ho hum!

But back to the snow. It started snowing a little bit as I left work on Thursday night.

And then by the time we woke up in the morning on Friday there was a beautiful blanket of snow covering everything.

This was the view from our bedroom window. It became clear quite quickly we wouldn’t get to Wales

I took Alfie out for a walk first thing and had my running gear on as I foolishly thought I could go for a run afterwards.

Alfie absolutely loved the snow. Bounding through it like a happy puppy. I quickly came to realise I wouldn’t be going running. It was just too risky to fall over and break my ankle or something similar.

I felt so annoyed. Not only could we not go to Wales anymore but I couldn’t do my planned run either. I was really frustrated. I know it’s silly but I hate it when my plans are ruined. It also meant I didn’t know what to do with myself at home. I couldn’t run, couldn’t chill out with Ben as he was working…So what does any normal person do? Watch TV. What does Anna do? Start a big clean of course!

I cleaned the fridge completely.

Not much in there as we didn’t expect to need much as we were away for the weekend. Perfect timing considering the snow and not being able to get to the supermarket.

I cleaned all our cupboards out and rearranged them. OK it doesn’t look that organised but it’s better than it was. Don’t you just hate it when herbs and spices just cover the cupboard in herby/spicy dust?? (Just me?)

After my mad cleaning dash, I had a really delicious lunch of a turkey omelette with cranberry sauce on the side. So good! That’s officially all the turkey from the freezer gone no. Sad times.

At the moment with food Ben and I are having to be quite creative and thoughtful about our meals as we don’t actually have that much in! We walked to the mini Tesco’s down the road but obviously everyone else had the same plans and we couldn’t get a huge amount. Just fresh vegetables and fruit really. So we’re eating out our freezer!

Though I missed my run on Friday, I’ve been loving listening to the Marathon Talk podcast and basically immersing myself into all things running-related, like websites and magazines. I read a great post by this lovely lady that really struck a cord with me.

I’ve been dreading the longer runs that I have coming up. Not dreading, maybe just feeling quite anxious as I don’t usually run 6+ miles on a regular basis. But this post and the article Ashley mentions really honed into my head that I should make my pace a lot slower for longer runs. I think I’ve just been so concerned with maintaining a certain pace that it’s been so tough. OK I know I haven’t done any ‘proper’ long runs yet but it’s all relative I suppose as to what you call a long run. It didn’t made me feel a lot less anxious about it. I really need to stop over-thinking things and getting myself all worked up. So what if I don’t get an amazing time at the half-marathon! I need to set a stake in the ground for this one to then beat next time around anyway

Despite the snow, Alfie still got his run in though. He ran around the garden like a crazy dog! I videoed just a segment of it. Apologies for my clearly inept videoing skills!!

Alfie in the snow

And then after his mad dash around in the snow…

Alfie was quarantined to the kitchen as he was soaked. Those big old puppy eyes no longer work on me anymore!

Right, I’m off for some lunch and maybe a cheeky episode of Keeping Up With The Kardashians!

Have you been affected by the snow?

Do you enjoy long runs? Any tips?

November 18, 2012November 20, 2012

Oxford day-trip

Happy weekend all! Hope you’re all having a nice chilled weekend

So far this weekend has been brilliant. Yesterday I caught the train to Oxford to meet up with my friends from university. Usually we go to London or Reading as it’s a nice half-way point for us all as we’re all scattered over the country, but we decided to meet up in Oxford this time for a change. I’m so relieved we didn’t decide to go to Reading because that’s where I’ve been working for the past three weeks and if I’m quite honest I’m sick of it.

I think I’ve been to Oxford once before when I was looking around at universities (in the end the whole interview process and academic snobbery put me off – no offence to anyone who went there but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. Plus I’m not sure I would have gotten in! It’s a whole different league of smartness).

Anyway, so I got the train (oh how I loathe trains) and met up with my four lovely girlfriends. Obviously the first thing we did was go to Starbucks for a coffee. Well of course, right?

Americano with a splash of hazelnut syrup thank you very much.

And we nattered on for a good hour I’d say. You know what girls are like…

Then we moseyed about for a while looking around the shops. We went into the Covered Market where there were all these little boutquey-style shops.

And we found a cake making shop where I bought some decorations for our Christmas cake (which is still to be made…).

Check out this amazing cake that was in the window:

Wow, right??

After the market, we meandered around the streets and admired all the colleges and old buildings, which were just beautiful.

It was such a perfect day to wander around. It thankfully didn’t rain! We decided to look around the Deer Park. But when we arrived at the entrance the man told us it would cost us a £5 each. I mean seriously?? To walk around a park! We obviously looked a bit devastated so he said we could have a quick look. So we had a quick look and then moved to leave. The man then said “Oh alright, you don’t have to pay, just go in”. How nice is that? Thank you Mr Deer Park Man!

So we had a lovely walk in the park and saw some deer (albeit from a distance).

And then we started to get hungry and went to find some lunch. One of my friends suggested a pub, The White Horse, that she’d been to before which was 50% vegetarian. I’m not a vegetarian but one of my friends is and none of us are really your steak and kidney pie kinda girls so it made sense.

It was quite small and busy but it was just nice to be in the warm as the day was starting to get very nippy. I decided to go for the hummus and olive salad.

Very yummy. Can’t go wrong with hummus in my books! After we’d finished eating and we’re digesting we noticed the pub suddenly became even more packed. Ah ha, the rugby was starting. So we scampered quickly.

So we looked round more of Oxford.

It was just lovely. It felt like Harry Potter (yes, go ahead and laugh at me) with all the cloisters and old buildings. I took so many photos! (Hence my collage explosion in this post, apologies).

And finally we visited the Oxford Castle, which is basically just a mound of earth now. The Oxford Castle is also the site of the old prison as well so we had a bit of fun with the props at hand…

And then after another coffee we parted ways. It was such a lovely day-trip. I love our meet-ups. We just slot back into place like we’ve never left uni. I wish I could see them more often but it’s so tricky with us living so far apart. But it was a great day regardless!

Then Ben picked me up from the station and he dashed off for the evening to see his friend. So obviously I watched Pretty Woman on my own with a couple of my other friends.

Perfect day!

What have you been getting up?

Have you been to Oxford before?

August 8, 2012August 8, 2012

WIAW #3

How depressing that the nights are now drawing in and summer seems to be ending (had it ever begun?) I’ll miss walking Alfie early in the morning when it’s still light, and then I’ll miss running in the morning light. I’m definitely not looking forward to running along in darkness hoping to either a) not run into carefully concealed street paraphernalia, b) run through cold, muddy puddles that I hadn’t spotted, and c) step on slugs – possibly the most disgusting running-related incident. Or a snail…that horrible crunch. *shudders*

But summer is surely not over yet. I’ve had strong words with it over a certain specific date in September where I need a reasonably warm temperate and sunny blue skies (though not too sunny)…specific requirements for good wedding weather! We’re still in negotiations…

So, on the theme of summer: WIAW! Thank you, Jenn

Now prepare yourselves for something a bit crazy (or at least mildly different):

Yes, that is a plate of banana pancakes that I made on Saturday morning. Not my usual green porridge! I made them using Katie’s recipe. They look a little bit well-done…but they tasted great! A dollop of yogurt and they were good to go. Trying to keep it varied. Baby steps…

So, lunch time over the weekend Ben and I had another salad (we’re going crazy for them at the moment; so easy to prepare and so many possible varieties):

We had chicken fried with garlic over a bed of salad (cucumber, bell pepper, tomatoes, beetroot, & leaves) with a massive dollop of roasted red pepper hummus. So simple but very nice. And! on the side (as I had soo many courgettes to use up) I whipped up a tzaziki side dip, but using Jenn’s amazing recipe.

Fantastically refreshing. Ben didn’t even realise it was using his least favourite vegetable rather than cucumber (which he has a better relationship with). So a nice summery salad to fit in with the Summer Staples style!

And dinner last night:

This was chicken curry. I followed this recipe from BBC Good Food website.

I subbed actual peanut butter with PB2. It wasn’t as creamy as I thought it was going to be, which was a bit disappointing and it didn’t taste overly nutty. So maybe next time I’ll use ‘proper’ peanut butter and that might make a difference. It was tasty though. On the side I made some kale chips and had some steamed veggies. I loved the kale chips. I think it was purely for the satisfying crunch you got when eating them. But Ben didn’t like them at all (no surprises) but a win-win situation for me. Mountains of kale chips! Apparently it sounded like I was burrowing around in a pile of leaves when I was eating. Well, no one said being healthy was a quiet occupation!

Snack-wise I’m loving my green smoothies (I mix it up a bit and have some kale instead of spinach and Alpro hazelnut milk instead of almond – a review of Alpro products to come very soon!) and I’m loving this dark chocolate:

74% dark chocolate with cocoa nibs in it. It’s soo rich and the small nibs in it are add a lovely texture. I’ve got into the habit of having a square in the evening to savour after dinner. It just hits the spot, you know? When you fancy that something sweet but don’t want to push the boat out too much.

In terms of fitness, the week didn’t start off well. I ran on Tuesday and it was tough. My legs felt heavy, I felt tired…it just wasn’t amazing. I got through it but honestly the fun factor wasn’t there (OK I use the word ‘fun’ loosely here).

But hey ho, such is life! I haven’t been sleeping amazingly recently. Lots on my mind with the wedding and up-and-coming hen do. I always have problems sleeping when I’ve got too much to think about. This is usually when my friend G&T comes and gives me a hand (to qualify that sentence, as it does sound like I’m slightly alcoholic, I don’t drink every night!! And only a small measure when I do hehe).

On an Olympics side-note, I’m so proud of Britain! We’re doing spectacularly. I can’t believe we’re third! I’ve been watching as much as I can. I’ve found myself screaming at the T.V (scaring Alfie in the process). And the 100m men finals…wow they were stupidly quick, weren’t they? And they all had a certain swagger. Well, I guess you would if you could run that fast!

And Ben has even been influenced by the Olympics…to the extent that we have bought a rowing machine! He is now rowing in the evening. Crazy. I really miss rowing as I used to do it in the gym quite a lot but now I just run so this should be good for me vary things up a bit. However, we don’t really have the space in our tiny little house for a rowing machine!! Ben didn’t quite think about this when he ordered it *sighs* oh well. Our lovely little spare room has been taken over. But with healthy intentions.

Happy WIAW! And happy eating!

July 28, 2012

Proud To Be British

Woohoo it’s the weekend! Off to a good start: Friday night TV was great (crazy party animal that I am). Ben and me watched the Olympics opening ceremony. Now, originally I wasn’t fussed about the Olympics. It’s been soo over-hyped and you can’t go a day without hearing something about it. However, I thought we best watch the opening ceremony because, well, let’s face it. The Olympics only happen every four years and it’s highly unlikely that I’ll ever see Britain hosting the games again.

So we watched it. Well, not all of it – it went on until midnight! And I have to admit, it was pretty good. Off the wall, yes. But quite a show. Best part? Mr Bean playing the keyboard sketch. That was hilarious. I loved that the Queen got on board with some funniness as well. Danny Boyle did good and made me proud to be British

Source: arthouse.com via Anna on Pinterest

Alfie also enjoyed it too, though he did fall asleep after about ten minutes:

Dinner was very late on Friday night as I attempted a cauliflower pizza. Not a pizza covered in cauliflower as my dad thought, but a cauliflower based pizza – i.e. the base is made out of grated cauliflower. I mentioned to Ben that that’s what we were having for tea and he looked at me as if I’d told him we were eating Alfie. He was horrified. But I managed to persuade him by assuring him there would also be mozzarella in the base and it would be very cheesy. He looked slightly less scared. I’m really trying to get Ben to eat more healthily and lose a little bit of weight before the wedding. He’s not fat by any means. But, and he would agree, he has a little excess he’d like to get rid of. So hence the cauliflower pizza.

Has anyone grated an entire head of cauliflower? It takes flipping ages! I vaguely this recipe tweaking some of the quantities and toppings.

Anyway, so two bowls of cauliflower later and some grated mozzarella and we’re almost good to go.

Mix together with egg and herbs.

Then I separated it into cake tins as that seemed like the perfect utensil. Then cooked in the oven for 15 minutes. Then add some amazing toppings and put back in for about 5 mins until everything is lovely and cooked. Nom nom nom.

Mine’s on the left. I had beetroot, red bell pepper and diced quorn chunks and some grated Babel Bell cheese. Ben had the same but without beetroot and a lot more cheese.

These were amazing. OK they didn’t really taste like pizza (or look like pizza really). But they tasted like something else just as tasty. And they were so filling. But a lot of effort! I think we’ll be having these occasionally as they took so damn long. And Ben’s opinion? He really enjoyed them. He said they wouldn’t replace pizza (what can) but he’d have it again. That, my friends, is a top 8/10 on the Benjamin Scale.

I did my weights in the morning. I’m really struggling with finding new moves to do. I like to mix it up every week to work different muscles but I’m finding it hard to find stuff. I only have dumbbells so my equipment is fairly limited. Here’s what I did:

5 sets of 12 lunges on each leg with 5kg

3 sets of 12 bent over rows

3 sets if 12 lateral raises with 2.5kg per arm

3 sets of 12 sit-ups with 2.5kg weight

3 sets of 12 triceps presses

3 sets of 10 press-ups

1min45sec plank

60 sit-ups

I think I just need to hunt through the Internet to find some inspiration. I never really know what to do with my legs other than lunges and squats.

Anywho, hope you’re all having a lovely weekend. I’m off to choose my bouquet for my wedding. Oh and as a side note, I’m glad to inform you that I managed to drink my smoothie at work yesterday without any spillage issues. Happy days.