I am so chuffed. My flat is coming along so nicely!
My little home is very small, but it’s perfect for me. I thought that going from a house to a flat (apartment) would be really hard but actually it’s great. My previous house was a two bedroom end terrace so it was quite small anyway but just for me I didn’t need all that space. My new place is only one bedroom but it has enough space for all my things and storage room (which was always the worry for me if I went for somewhere smaller). I could have gone for a two bedroom but for my budget it probably wouldn’t have been in as good an area or would have been too far from my usual commute.
Anyway I had Friday off and got some bits and pieces sorted like getting my Internet hooked up and the delivery of my table and chairs. FINALLY I can eat at the table again after so long perching on my bean bag or my bed.
Friday evening was my friend’s Christmas party. It was planned for the week after but after a change of venue it was moved forward a week. Annoyingly this was the same evening as my running club’s awards evening and Christmas party 🙁But I had good fun with my friends anyway at a new Chinese restaurant. I’m not a huge Chinese fan but the food was good.
There was a sharing platter to start, this had chicken skewers, spring rolls, dumplings and salted squid. Normally sharing food gives me anxieties 😉 but there was an equal number of different items per person so this was fine. It’s when it’s like a free-for-all that I get worried. Fear of missing out on food!
Good friends
For main I had chicken teriyaki and rice, which was tasty but quite sweet. I was glad I didn’t have the duck as I tried some of my friend’s and it was ridiculously sweet. I like sweet stuff but this was a bit too much (for savoury anyway…). For pudding there was another sharing platter of brownies, doughnuts and ice cream things.
Tom, you’re famous! 😉
The next morning my alarm went off at 7am and for the first time in a long while I considered snoozing it. I rarely ever snooze alarms as once they go off I’m awake and that’s it. But I wanted to snuggle back down and sleep. I checked the weather and it didn’t look too bad at 11-12 degrees (centigrade). When I got to parkrun though it was tipping it down and I was glad for my wellies.I was happy to take the rain over gale force winds though! A few people were feeling rather delicate due to the awards the night before. Luckily I hadn’t been drinking at my do, but I was still tired.
My friend Chris tried to persuade me to run with him, but he was aiming for 22 minutes and I’m no where near that yet! I did give it my best though and was happy with 23:14!
It’s annoying because I can’t remember what my best time for this course is (as on the parkrun results it just says Netley Abbey – and there are like four different courses we can do through the year) so I’m not sure how well I can realistically aim to do as the weeks continue. The six hills really do drain you dry whereas the normal course only has three smaller hills.
Anyway, it was fairly muddy but thankfully the rain had stopped when we were running. The temperature wasn’t too cold either (thanks, global warming!).
The rest of the day was deja vu to last weekend where I went to IKEA again with my parents and then spent the rest of the afternoon constructing bits and pieces. I’m DONE with IKEA now. No more!! I have pretty much everything I need now (apart from my new bed being delivered this week).
I was really chuffed to find a sofa I liked and when I ordered it they told me it could be delivered later that day. Unfortunately I failed to realise it would be delivered in four pieces. When the delivery men turned up I asked them if they were going to construct it and they almost laughed in my face. Of course not. It’s IKEA after all. Anyway, it’s all sorted thanks to my dad and me who are now like IKEA pros.
Sunday I had a lovely 6.5 mile run which went far better than last weekend’s. It still felt hard but I didn’t feel like walking so there’s an improvement (though it wasn’t as windy). My endurance is s.l.o.w.l.y improving.
I’m starting to think I should be adding in some speed work but I think I’ll leave it with a tough parkrun each week for now. When I move to four runs a week then one of those might be a fartlek or intervals…*shudders*.
Sunday lunch was amazing. Literally amazing. I’ve found my new favourite restaurant. Coast To Coast in Whiteley. Dear God it was good. The menu was insane. I was torn between four different choices (burger with pulled pork, calzone, ribs or chicken wings). In the end I went for wings but instantly got food envy when I saw a woman get a HUGE rack of ribs.
My dad and me shared the BBQ platter to start (ribs, wings, chicken tenders with blue cheese, battered prawns and chorizo). It was so good. I traded him some prawns for chicken and chorizo for ribs so I think we were both satisfied 😉
My Kentucky wings and sweet potato fries for my main were awesome. I’ve never actually had wings as a main before and it rocked my world. It had some great dips as well – one of them was like a blue cheese thing which I could have swum in if I’m honest.
I’d already seen the pudding menu and had earmarked the mint chocolate chip Oreo sundae but I was stuffed. It wasn’t even a “oooh I could make room” kind of stuffed, it was a meat sweat kind of stuffed. Just too much protein. I needed a nap 😉
Pretty damn awesome. Needless to say dinner wasn’t necessary!
How was your weekend?
Do you snooze your alarm or get up straight away?
What’s your favourite dip?
Wow – what a weekend!! All of your food has me absolutely drooling. My family actually had Thansgiving dinner part 2 last night. My mom went out and bought a big turkey to cook, made stuffing, mashed taters, and green beans. She literally does this multiple times a year, but its always just as delicious as Thanksgiving day! Well, I only eat the turkey, but you know what I mean 😉
Kat recently posted…Iced Gingerbread Bars [Paleo,Vegan & Gluten-Free]
I’m beyond jealous of you guys having Thanksgiving…it always sounds and looks epic from what I see on blogs. And the puddings…omg.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Those buns were made for running…
I find it impossible to snooze my alarm. When it goes off, that’s it! I’m wide awake, annoyingly!
It seems like everybodys running club awards evenings were this weekend. Shame you had to miss yours, but yay for the Christmas do you did go on and that food looks pretty great! 🙂
I’ve put off the IKEA trip for the time being. I think it will end up being next Easter/Summer now when we finally buy a few more furniture bits for our house. I think weekends go by too quickly at the moment for us to find time for odd shelves and storage. Obviously your shopping trip was a bit more necessary than ours though!
Well done on your ever improving parkrun time too. Have you noted on the blog which route of the course you’ve run each time? I find looking back through my blog pages so helpful for things like that.
Mary recently posted…Poor planning
Yep I’m the same with alarms. Generally though I’ve been waking up before my alarm – like a minute or two which is really strange. Even before 5am!
That’s a great idea about looking through my blog – duh Anna! I tried on Strava to see matched runs but it just seems to give me that course and the other similar course (with three hills) all at once so there’s loads to look through.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Those buns were made for running…
Do you mark your runs on Strava? You can click on a route and view matched runs, so if you have done the same route a few times they come up= then I think you can click on each individual run and find out your time?
I am awake as soon as the alarm goes off, no snoozing for me!
Maria @ runningcupcake recently posted…More Christmas markets and a last minute race entry
It gave me a list of matched runs but so many of them were from the other course variation (which is very similar – three hills not six) so I had to go through loads of runs and kind of gave up 😉
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Those buns were made for running…
Oooooh. Dips. Wings. Yumm. *drools*
We anticipate our next Ikea run in mid-2016. We’ve just one more set of shelves to do from the last one. And putting up the mirror in the downstairs loo…
I am so fed up with cardboard boxes! And we had an epic snooze on Saturday. Usually we have to just get up and get on with it, but we were so tired!
Jane recently posted…Glad Tidings!
I know… I keep having dreams about them. I’m going to make my own at some point as they were SO good.
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Those buns were made for running…
That food looks amazing!!! Your new place sounds like the perfect fit 🙂
Lora @ Crazy Running Girl recently posted…So, about that marathon…
Thanks Lora 🙂
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Those buns were made for running…
Haha, I am glad that I am not the only one that feels anxious about sharing food. I just want to make sure I am going to get my full share.
That restaurant looks like a meat eaters dream!
I know, it’s like buffets as well. I get such anxieties!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Those buns were made for running…
Glad you’re settling in well to the new flat! I’m not usually a fan of sharing food either – I am such an only child that I want my own food, otherwise I worry that I won’t get enough or that I’ll panic and scoff it all really fast to make sure that I do! x
LilyLipstick recently posted…Three (Free) London Exhibitions To Visit This Winter
Haha, I’m not sure where my anxieties came from as we had more than enough food growing up and I wasn’t an only child!
AnnaTheApple recently posted…Those buns were made for running…