Celebration - AnnaTheApple

July 12, 2016January 5, 2017

Wedding recap and back to reality

I’m back! After an amazingly epic week away in Spain at the BTN Fitness Retreat I am home safe and sound. I got back Friday and then sadly was struck down with some awful illness for about three days. I couldn’t even make it into work on Monday and spent the entire day pretty much in bed sleeping. I feel a bit better now but still not hundred per cent. Hey ho!

I’ll do a full recap of the fitness retreat soon… it deserves a good coverage. It was a fantastic week and I learnt a lot about myself (both good and bad). Before going to Spain I had my friend’s wedding as well. I’m the genius that books to go on holiday the day after a wedding!

The wedding was so good. It was my close friend, Shell, who I know from university and her lovely partner Rob. The wedding was held in Dumbleton Hall near to Cheltenham. As I live in Southampton this is quite a drive so I stayed with my friends in Bristol, getting the train from work on the Friday. We went to a fantastic Lebanese restaurant, Lona Grillhouse, on the Friday night which rocked my world.

We shared a platter of different meat, including lamb cutlets, king prawns, lamb kuftas, shish taouk and lots more Lebanese-style meat. It came with couscous, chips, nan bread and salad. Very tasty! There was also free Turkish delight at the end when you paid your bill.

The next day we got up fairly early to go and do some running. Kate and Jamie have recently just gotten into running (they came down to do the parkrun the other week with me). Though we’d have loved to have done a parkrun, sadly the nearest one was about 30 minutes away now Little Stoke is no longer there. And we just didn’t have the time with the wedding being at 1pm.

They took me to their local park instead which was basically a 1000 metre track. It had 100m markers and went in a loop. It was exactly 1km.

We did that five times (not the most exciting of runs but very cool to have the markers) and then we got ready for the wedding.

The wedding venue was literally perfect. The weather was good – sunny but not too hot. All in all it was a fantastic day. Shell and Rob are such a lovely couple as well and we were all so happy to see them get married.

It was also nice to have another get together with my university friends and just laugh and chat like we always do. And so nice to put a dress on and be all fancy

There were lots of garden games as well to keep everyone entertained. And a hog roast sizzling away for the evening’s buffet… yessss!

Jamie and I were very pleased about this

Shell’s dress was beautiful as well. She looked amazing.

And of course the food and cake was amazing. Probably the best food at a wedding I’ve ever had. And I have a very good friend, Charlotte, who traded half her pudding with me so I could try both

I had soup to start, lamb (very tasty!) for main and then half an apple tart and half a chocolate mousse thing. The wedding had a Japanese theme as they both love Japan. The favours were these very pretty tea light holders as well as some homemade Welsh cakes (as Rob’s side of the family is Welsh). Lovely touches.

I’m not going to lie. I did drink a fair bit (for me). I wanted to let my hair down and relax. I rarely ever drink… unfortunately I didn’t really stick with a type of beverage and went from Pimms, to a Bud, to sparkling wine, to red wind to then gin and tonics. It tasted great at the time… The cake was delicious (obviously) with a carrot cake layer and chocolate layer.

We all had a good time boogying the night away as well. It was a great evening. My lovely parents came to pick me up at midnight and it was time to go home. I felt rough on the way home. A combination of all those different drinks and too much food (read: cake) meant I might have had to have stopped (*cough* twice) on the way home to be sick. Much to my parents great amusement. As I said, this isn’t something I normally would do! Oh the shame…

I had my alarm set for 6am and arrived home at 2.30am (ouch). And for whatever bizarre reason I woke up at 4:59am and got up! I was so convinced my alarm was going to go off at 5am. So I got showered and ready and then at 5.45am wondered where my taxi was… The penny then dropped that I was a full hour early. Needless to say I reset my alarm and went back to bed (fully dressed).

I have to say I have never felt so ill in my life from alcohol. On the plane I was freezing cold. I asked for a blanket but they didn’t offer them (well, it was FlyBe…). I felt unbelievably rough and it only reconfirmed to me why I don’t drink excessively. And sadly my first night in Spain, after meeting everyone at the retreat, was spent missing dinner and going to bed early. You know I’m not well when I miss a meal time!! Serves me right I know.

Do you enjoy getting dressed up?

Do you drink? When was your last hangover?

What’s your tipple of choice?

June 22, 2016June 22, 2016

Bouldering (Birthday weekend–part 2)

Having the birthday that I have (19th June) means it often falls on or is around Father’s Day. I was actually born on Father’s Day and my dad always says it was the nicest present to have gotten (ha, take that Big Sis ).

Since I did most of my celebrating the day before and my dad and me had done a dual celebration a few weeks ago (Nando’s and cinema – two of our loves), we hadn’t planned anything concrete for the actual Sunday. My dad and me had a nice walk down the beach with the dogs while we waited for my mum to finish at church (my dad and me aren’t religious). Then, with my mum, we went for a little mosey round the shops and they treated to me to a Starbucks. They also got me a brand new travel coffee cup as well as I broke my last one (I’m notoriously clumsy and dropped it).

It’s cool that Starbucks sell smoothie drinks now with ACTUAL fruit in them. You just take a plastic cup of the fruit to the till and they blend it up.

My dad had one of those while I had my usual Americano. My parents each had a slice of cake but I resisted the temptation, which actually wasn’t that hard as I was still recovering from the mammoth meal the day before…

Then I went on my merry little way to my bouldering induction. After my booking fail of last weekend I was really keen to make this one! Though not actual rock climbing (with harnesses) it was the next best thing I could do within a short notice (I’ve got rock climbing this weekend).

It was based at a place called Red Spider in Fareham. I paid £15 for a one-on-one introduction to bouldering session (lasting an hour). The instructor who took it, a lovely guy named Chris, was really good. Very friendly and thorough, especially with safety which is obvious paramount as you don’t have a harness and you are climbing fairly high!

Yes there is a cushioned mat underneath the wall but that minimises the impact rather than acts as a safety net. You’ll still get injured or cause yourself damage by falling or dropping incorrectly from the wall.

Special climbing shoes

Anyway he got me to warm up by following him through the kid’s climbing area which was highly amusing. We were going up and down these twisty passages (which were actually quite narrow!) and then up slides and things like that. Seemed random but I understood the logic – bouldering uses pretty much your entire body and scampering up and down the kid’s play area was working all our muscles dynamically but safely. Then we started on a wall that was standing height so I could get used to the grips and foot placing. I seemed to do alright and he said my technique and strength was good so we moved quickly on.

After the session on my own

The climbing wall has lots of different ‘problems’ (routes to climb the wall) and each problem is categorised between V0-V5, V5 being the hardest and they’re indicated by colours. You then follow (or attempt to follow) the colour of the holds (the things you grab onto and/or put your feet onto). You can only use the colour holds that are for that problem. So obviously we started on the V0s to get used to climbing up and down. I found this quite easy (not to beat my own drum!) and we moved on to harder ones.

It obviously helps that I have a fitness background – being a runner means I have strong legs and a high endurance for effort and all my gym work has improved my strength, especially in my arms and core. I also like to think that since my grandad was a proficient climber (he’s written two books about it and is in Wikipedia!) that something may have trickled down into my genes

I still found it tough though and on the tricky ones he would explain or demonstrate how to do certain routes, which gave me a range of skills that I could learn and work on. Though obviously I know rock climbing and bouldering has a lot of skill involved, it was fascinating to realise it was a lot more than just having a strong grip and strong arms! There was so much core strength and mental ability required to work out the best way to navigate up. Using your hips as a centre of gravity and twisting your body to get the right balance to get to the next grip. A lot of balance and stability was required.

Anyway I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I got a super pump from it and I was buzzing. It was amazing how quickly it became a tough workout as well when you went from the easy problems to the harder ones. And the genuine fear of falling was always there. After we finished the session I carried on by myself for about half an hour doing the ones we’d gone through.

What I also loved about it was how social it was. There were lots of other people there climbing and everyone was so nice. When I got stuck trying to get past a problem, someone was always there to help me out and explain the best way to do it.

I left buzzing and wanting to go back as soon as possible. I’m going to try rock climbing as well but bouldering seems a bit more accessible as I don’t need to worry about having someone to help with a belay. But I’ll see what the rock climbing is like. This is something I really hope to continue. Don’t get me wrong, I obviously still love running but for my sanity I need something else I can enjoy when I can’t run. I like going to the gym but it’s not exactly something you can go and do for fun per se. Bouldering is definitely something I can go off and do on my own and enjoy myself on afternoon.

Have you ever done rock climbing or bouldering before?

What are your hobbies?

What’s your favourite coffee shop? I know it’s so commercial, but I do love Starbucks.

June 20, 2016

Birthday weekend–part 1

And just like that I’m another year older… I turned 28 yesterday. I’d like to think that I’m wiser and have it all figured out but I absolutely don’t. But I’m happy and enjoying life so I’ll take that!

For the Saturday I had a few of my university friends down. Kate and Jamie (I went on holiday last year with them to Orlando) came down earlier so they could join me at parkrun. Now this is a BIG DEAL. This is the couple who laughed at me for going to parkrun when we were on holiday together. They were the least likely out of all my non-running friends to want to do parkrun. But, major kudos to them, they’ve started running and eating better in order to lose a bit of weight and get a bit more healthy. Jamie has lost FIVE STONE and Kate has lost (I think) over two stone. They’ve both also been doing the Couch to 5K programme and Kate had timed it perfectly as to use parkrun for my birthday weekend as her target.

They got to mine just before 8am and we headed down to Lee-On-Solent parkrun. Ordinarily I do Netley but Kate wanted a nice flat course and my dad was going to do Lee as well as my friend, Mat, who was down from Cheltenham for the week so it made sense.

Kate, Jamie, me and Mat

It was a beautifully sunny day. I was a bit worried about my hamstring but I’d done a quick tester run when I walked Alfie in the morning and it held up OK. Not perfect but alright.

I’d planned to take the run nice and slowly and stop if at any point it became bad.

My dad rocking the England shirt

It was quite amusing to see Jamie and Kate’s reaction to parkrun. They tend to run very early in the morning and never with other people. They genuinely thought they’d be about 12 people at parkrun. Jamie said he was shocked that one minute there were a couple of people and then the next there were hundreds. They were literally taken aback by the amount of lycra and colour about.

The start was a little bit hectic I must admit. There was over 300 people and we were all bunched together. It involved a lot of negotiating around people and trying not to trip over anyone else or be tripped up. But eventually it evened out and there was enough space.

I found a nice easy rhythm. I wasn’t pushing it or feeling out of breath and the hamstring felt OK. I was surprised to see I was running around 8 minute miles.

Photo credit: Eileen Bartlett

Lee’s a good course as you can see runners ahead and behind so I could cheer people on and spot people I knew.

Photo credit: Eileen Bartlett

I’d say the hamstring felt 80% OK. It niggled slightly towards the end but there was no pain, just felt uncomfortable. It just annoys me though as it doesn’t make for a great run as I’m constantly thinking about it and not wanting to push myself to go fast because I don’t want to annoy it. But least it was better than it has been! I finished in 24:15 which felt nice and comfortable.

Mat had already finished in a great time of 20:50 so we walked together to walk my dad in. He was power walking the course and desperate to beat his last time of 51:12. He was finding it tough but the tail runner was apparently really good at keeping him going.

Photo credit: Eileen Bartlett

Towards the end, he picked up speed, overtook another guy and sprinted to the finish. Everyone cheered him in and it was lovely.

Photo credit: Eileen Bartlett

And he completed it in 50:16 so almost a minute off his time! He was made up Kate squeaked under her goal of sub-35 by getting 34:57 and Jamie got 33:58. The absolute best part was hearing how much they loved it. Kate and Jamie are now full-on parkrun converts. On the way home they were already planning their next one (depressingly their local one was Little Stoke so now their nearest one is about 20 minutes away). Jamie was already commenting how he felt he could run further when he finished as well. YES!!! Converting my non-running friends one person at a time

We got back to mine, showered and then my friend Shell and her fiancé, Rob, showed up to join the fun. Again, hearing them tell Rob and Shell how good parkrun was just made my day. A year ago there was nothing I could say that would persuade them that running could be enjoyable. People have to find out for themselves.

I had booked my latest favourite restaurant for lunch and we were all pretty excited. After catching up and walking Alfie and Kate’s pug, Doug, we headed to Sadlers in Southampton.

As I’ve mentioned before, Sadlers is THE restaurant for meat (though they also have a strong vegetarian section of the menu too). The last time I went was INCREDIBLE. My friends love BBQ food too so it made sense to go here. I decided to go for the ribs rather than the platter this time as, though the platter is amazing, I was really craving ribs. And they did not disappoint.

HUGE chunks of meaty ribs on top of chips, salad, coleslaw and cornbread. I didn’t even touch the chips. There was just too much meat (which, by the way, is not an issue).

So tasty. Shell and Rob also went with the ribs and Jamie and Kate shared the platter.

Ridiculously (and foolishly) Shell, Rob and I ordered sides as well. Shell and Rob went for some pulled pork and I went for some chicken wings and we ordered the bourbon BBQ sauce to go alongside. (Greed took over sanity here as you can probably tell…).

Yeah I didn’t even touch those wings. There was just far too much going on my plate. And, amazingly for me, I couldn’t finish the ribs. I was beaten! Everyone was. Happily Kate and Jamie said I could take their leftovers home so I took a swan of shame back with me.

Needless to say my freezer is now joyfully stocked with some smoked turkey, gammon, wings, hot link sausages and pulled pork. Happy days!

As we sat there afterwards chatting and basically recovering from the meal, the waitress appeared with a cake with lit candles and they all started singing happy birthday to me. It was such a surprise and so lovely!

Action shot

To be honest, I think the last thing we all wanted was a slice of chocolate cake. But you gotta take one for the team right??

The chocolate cupcakes on top were filled with delicious buttercream. We were literally DONE after having a slice.

We spent a long time at my flat just laying around chatting and digesting. We probably could have napped! It was such a great day. And to top it off they got me some super cool Superdry workout gear.

Because what else would you buy me?? So, an absolutely perfect Saturday.

What is your perfect way to spend your birthday?

Have you converted any non-runners to runners?

What’s your perfect birthday gift?

June 13, 2016

A mixed bag

So this weekend’s weather wasn’t exactly great, was it? Well not for us on the South Coast – or I suppose many places in the UK.

Saturday morning I was up and ready to volunteer down at Netley parkrun. Though I wasn’t running I still wanted to go. I like seeing the usual faces and catching up with people and it’s always fun cheering people on. I was hoping to take Alfie with me but it was a bit too wet.

I helped set the course up and then stood to marshal at the bottom of the hill that you go up three times. It’s a tricky area because you go up the hill and into the bluebell woods and then come back down the hill. When people go up the hill they sometimes forget the people coming down and it can be a bit of a car crash if people don’t keep right. So it’s a handy spot to marshal to remind people to keep to the side.

It was lovely because while I cheered and clapped, a lot of runners thanked me and said well done to me. Always nice to hear! I always try and thank marshals when I run because I know how much I like it when I volunteer. But it does hurt your hands all this clapping business

My view from afar just after the parkrun had begun you can see the tiny runners in the distance

After clearing away and a quick drink in the cafe, I headed home to shower before heading to my parent’s house. My birthday is on the 19th June and this always falls really close to Father’s Day so most years my dad and me try and combine our celebrations because it just makes sense. This year we decided to go to Nando’s and then the cinema to see the new X-Men film. Though my mum was more than welcome to join she was fine to let us have our dad-daughter time as she a) hates Nando’s and b) wouldn’t want to see the film c) was busy anyway.

I had my standard Nando’s: whole chicken with a side salad. And my dad had the more traditional half a chicken and chips.

What always happens when I go out with my dad to Nando’s is they think my meal if for him…it’s always funny to see the server’s face when I say “the whole chicken’s for me”.

There was a slight issue as we headed to pick up our tickets that I’d booked on the Thursday. My booking reference wasn’t working and when I inspecting the email closer I realised I’d bought tickets for Thursday and not Saturday. What an idiot. I spoke to an usher and they said if I ring customer service (joy) they’d refund my mistake tickets but I’d still need to buy new ones today. *Sighs*. But the film was good nonetheless. I’m not a comic book/superhero fan but I have a soft spot for X-Men. I like the characters and actors. A good watch if you like X-Men!

I spent the evening at my parent’s and enjoyed their facilities while we waited for the football to begin.

This helicopter chair thing is AMAZING. It just hangs there swaying gently. So comfortable. And Alfie quite enjoyed it too

We watched the match and though I’m not a big football fan, felt a big disappointment for England. What a shame as we seemed to play so well!

The next day I was booked in to go rock climbing in the afternoon. A bit random but my friend, Tom, put the idea into my mind last week. I love stuff like that and thought it would be a fun thing to do as I’m not running at the moment. Plus my granddad used to be an amazing rock climber (he’s written two books about it!) so I feel I need to uphold the family tradition. Just before heading to bed I checked my emails to make sure I had the right time…and found it was for Saturday not Sunday.

Honestly, why am I such an idiot? Why am I incapable of making online bookings? Do I not own a calendar??? I was actually really disappointed and angry with myself. I had no other plans for the next day and I’d been looking forward to it so much. It really sucked. I’ll now have to wait two weeks before I can go to the next taster session. My own fault but really annoying.

So instead I went to the gym, did some shopping and got some really exciting chores done (ha ha). It was a nice relaxing day and I went on a few walks with Alfie. Unfortunately one of those walks was cut super short as it literally tipped it down just as we got out the front door.

So we quickly headed back inside and tried again 30 minutes later.

Annoyingly I had hoped to have a great rock climbing adventure to recount but sadly not. In a few weeks I hopefully will. Then I can put to test all my upper body strength gains I’ve hopefully been making!! So it was a mixed bag of a weekend really.

Have you ever been rock climbing?

What did you do this weekend?

What’s your Nando’s meal if you go?

May 31, 2016

A Marvel-lous wedding and a long weekend

Nothing says the start of summer better than a wedding, cider and a long weekend. In the UK we had a Bank holiday weekend which meant many of us had the Monday off. I also had the Friday as holiday because it was my friend, Ashley’s, wedding.

Very badly timed for me was a team building paintballing the night before…

Luckily I didn’t get hit significantly to create any hideous bruises on me. Though I was on a team with a real suicide squad that just went into the cross-fire like crazy men so I pretty much stayed hidden except for the occasional bursts of bravery.

Anyway, the wedding. Ashley is a good friend from school and there were a group of us who all knew each other so it was going to be good fun. I’d planned to go with my friend Louise to the ceremony but she was late, but not through her own fault. She had made the wedding cake and had to set it up in the morning at the venue but the board was delivered late which knocked on to her getting ready. As a pregnant lady, this was not good stress for her! I really felt for her but luckily she made it in time.

The ceremony was beautiful. Ashley’s dress was gorgeous and really suited her style. The wedding also had a Marvel-theme to it.

The groom, Paul, is a big comic book fan. It was very quirky and individual. Luckily the weather was lovely and warm as well so after the ceremony we spilled outside to sip some champagne and mingle.

My dress is from French Connection

As I stood chatting away to my friends I noticed the photographer. He looked familiar… Yep, he was the same one I had at my wedding. Ahh bit awkward (to any new readers: my husband and me are separated). I thought “nahh he’ll never recognise me so it’ll be fine”. Only he did and he came up to me and chatted away. Apparently a few of my wedding photos go to every wedding fair he does so of course he recognises me! Luckily though he didn’t ask where Ben was.

Pregnant Louise, Jake and me

There were space hoppers, giant Jenga and Nerf balls all about the place to keep us big kids entertained

And then it was time for lunch. It was mushroom soup for starters, chicken with cabbage and bacon and then a chocolate tart for pudding.

Very tasty! And instead of wine there was apple and pear cider on the table. I’m not a wine drinker at all (apart from Prosecco and champagne) but I do quite enjoy cider from time to time (probably because a) it’s apple and b) it’s very sweet). We also cheekily managed to swap a few of our non-alcoholic fruit drinks with another table’s cider – they were more than happy as they weren’t drinking which was a win-win scenario.

The rest of the celebrations were good fun. There was a HUGE bouncy castle which we all went on (post food and drink probably not the best of ideas…and in a reasonably short dress). But it was a good laugh. And obviously the best part…

Louise’s amazing cake. It was chocolate Bailey’s and vanilla Victoria sponge. Very tasty indeed.

And then of course lots of dancing after Ashley and Paul’s first dance…which went to the tune of Star Wars until Paul jokingly got the DJ to turn it to their proper song (Hero by Nickelback of course).

The groom wore proper trousers for the ceremony!

A lovely evening. Congratulations Ashley and Paul!

I’ll recap parkrun in a separate post as it was a special one (my dad’s first ever!). The rest of the weekend was all very relaxed. I enjoyed a lovely BBQ with my family on the Saturday.

Of course this involved lots of meat. I had chicken skewers, pork skewers and kangaroo burgers. But I did balance it out with lots of salad and roasted vegetables (which you can see part of skewered in the photo – my perfect meat:veg ratio ).

I also managed to get a great selfie with Alfie.

He was enjoying the sunshine too (and managed to get a sneaky sausage as well! Jammy dog that he is).

We had a lovely walk along the beach as well in the evening. The temperature was perfect! I love the summer

I’d decided against the Cakeathon. I just wasn’t up for it: the long journey there, it being such an early start on the Monday (we’d need to leave before 6am) and then not sure how many laps I’d do to make it worth it and even if I’d enjoy it. So I set it to rest and enjoyed the rest of the weekend now far more relaxed. It is a huge shame and I was gutted not to go but I didn’t want to go and regret it. It was the right decision.

Instead on the Monday I went on a little daytrip to Stockbridge with my parents and we had a lovely walk and a delicious lunch out.

The restaurant was called Woodfire and it was fantastic. I had a feta, butternut squash and nut pesto salad. Delicious!

It was a very relaxed weekend…bit of shopping, chilling in the garden, lots of walks with Alfie and my family. I shan’t waffle on any longer, this post ifs far too long now!

How was your weekend?

What’s your favourite salad?

Have you been to any themed weddings before?