Archive for April, 2007

The Diet

Sunday, April 15th, 2007

I am starting back on my diet tomorrow. I wanna fit into my bikini this summer! My aim is to lose 3 kgs by the end of May. This is about 500g per week, so should be achievable I hope.

To lose this weight I need to burn an extra 500 calories per day or reduce my calorie intake by this amount.  I am always better at sticking to exercise than eating less so will focus more on exercise.

I burn about 500 cals by doing each of the following according to my polar heart rate monitor.

  • 2 hour walk
  • 1 hour gym
  • 1.5 hours cycling

Lets see how long it lasts this time.

You know you live in London when …

Thursday, April 12th, 2007

I found this on the internet and thought it was pretty funny/accurate. 

1 . You say “the City” and expect everyone to know which one.

2. You have never been to The Tower of London or Madame Tussauds but love Brighton

3. You can get into a four-hour argument about how to get from Shepherds Bush to Elephant & Castle at 3:30 on the Friday before a long weekend, but can’t find Dorset on a map.

4. Hookers and the homeless are invisible.

5. You step over people who collapse on the Tube.

6. You believe that being able to swear at people in their own language makes you multilingual.

7. You’ve considered stabbing someone.

8. Your door has more than three locks.

9. You consider eye contact an act of overt aggression.

10. You call an 8′ x 10′ plot of patchy grass a garden.

11. You consider Essex the “countryside”.

12. You think Hyde Park is “nature”.

13. You’re paying £1,200 a month for a studio the size of a walk-in wardrobe and you think it’s a “bargain”.

14. Shopping in suburban supermarkets and shopping malls gives you a severe attack of agoraphobia.

15. You pay more each month to park your car than most people in the UK pay in rent.

16. You pay £3 without blinking for a beer that cost the bar 28p.

17. You actually take fashion seriously.

18. You have 27 different take-away menus next to your telephone.

19. The UK west of Heathrow is still theoretical to you.

20. You’re suspicious of strangers who are actually nice to you.

21. Your idea of personal space is no one actually physically standing on you.

22. £50 worth of groceries fit in one plastic bag.

23. You have a minimum of five “worst cab ride ever” stories.

24. You don’t hear sirens anymore.

25. You’ve mentally blocked out all thoughts of the city’s air/water quality and what it’s doing to your insides.

26. You live in a building with a larger population than most towns.

27. Your cleaner is Portuguese, your grocer is Somali, your butcher is Halal, your deli man is Israeli, your landlord is Italian, your laundry guy is Philippino, your bartender is Australian, your favourite diner owner is Greek, the watch seller on your corner is Senegalese, your last cabbie was African, your newsagent is Indian and your local English chippie owner is Turkish.

28. You wouldn’t want to live anywhere else until you get married.

29. You roll your eyes and say ‘tsk’ at the news that someone has thrown themselves under a tube train.

30. Your day is ruined if you don’t get a copy of Metro on the way to work.

Kite Land Boarding

Wednesday, April 11th, 2007

I’ve booked a kite land boarding lesson for next wednesday evening. It looks like a lot of fun and there is a great spot for it just around the corner from here. Its basically flying a parachute type kite while riding a skate board type thing. If I find I can handle it ok, I may even try kite surfing on the water.

Anyway I will get Mike to come down too and snap some photos of me. 

Wish me luck!

 

The Office

Tuesday, April 10th, 2007

Today I had to go into the office. This meant getting up before the sparrowfart at the ungodly hour of 5.30am. It’s a bit of a novelty going to the office these days. Everyone gives that shock/horror look wondering why I made the effort of a 3 hour commute when there are no drinks planned for the evening.
 
Then there was the drama with my bottom drawer in my desk.  I made the mistake of leaving some cereal in my draw the last time I was in the office about a month ago, and a mouse/rat had got into it.  There is muesli and mouse droppings all over the place. It stinks! I’ll get someone from premises to deal with that tomorrow when I am not there.
 
Then the trains lived up to their reputation by being affected by major engineering work. What is normally a 2 hour train journey now turned into a 3 hour journey. I could get to goddamned Paris quicker! The problem with these long train journeys is they have a bar onboard. Normally I get plastered on the 2 hour journey, so I thought it best to catch the train to mikes work and get a lift home with him. This was a good move as we also got home in time for Home and Away and bike night down the quay.

I am sooo looking forward to a sleep in tomorrow morning.

 

 

Eggcellent Day

Monday, April 9th, 2007

The Easter bunny came. I kicked Mike out of bed to make a cup of tea and he found easter eggs in the tea bags and sugar. We will need to throw it all out now and get the exterminators in. Gawd knows where that dirty bunny has been.

It was the most glorious sunny day and Matt joined us for a less optimistic bike ride today. We rode only 15 miles (about 26kms). We cycled down the ferry at Sandbanks and crossed over to Studland. Studland has an amazing sandy beach, very unusual for England. There is no promenade, houses, shops or anything touristy. Its about a 2km uninterrupted stretch of sand and dunes, very similar to NZ beaches.

Here comes the ferry to fetch us.

dsc02321.JPG

Its a chain ferry. I’m always paranoid the chains will snap and we will drift out of control out to sea.

dsc02326.JPG

Mike and Matt and Ollie enjoying the brief crossing

dsc02324.JPGdsc02323.JPG

A beachy shot

dsc02329.JPG

Then we continued on the road a bit to a pub called the Banks Arms. .

dsc02332.JPG

The pub had a large outdoor area with sea view but I didnt think to get a photo of it. We had some lunch there. Matt had the ploughmans lunch and Mike had a brie and cranberry baguette. I ate my healthy lunch I had packed.

We finished off the day with a few beers down the quay, then a lovely meal at Oriel. Their garlic prawns are really large, really garlicky, and really yummy.

Where is the New Forest

Saturday, April 7th, 2007

I think the ride to the New Forest was a bit optimistic. We cycled for 30 miles (50kms) and couldnt even find the New Forest and got kinda lost. after about 20 miles we were both in extreme agony. Sore bums, legs etc. I thought I might’ve been a bit fitter, having been riding regularly for the last few months, but only on short trips of about 1 hours duration.

The ride started out well, with some nice harbour scenery:

dsc02302.JPG

Then a gentle forest trail:

dsc02304.JPG

We stopped and laughed at all the people in the traffic jam on their way into Poole:

dsc02305.JPG

This is an old train line we are riding on. Its been covered up and turned into a cycle track. Isn’t Mikes bum cute?

dsc02306.JPG

An old train station. Pity we cant catch the train from here, my bum is so sore.

dsc02308.JPG

After another 3 hours riding we found working train station and took the easy way home:

dsc02312.JPG

Easter Highs

Thursday, April 5th, 2007

Apparently we are going to have highs of 17 degrees over all of the easter days. I wonder if the weather website is just saying that to make us feel good or whether it will really happen.

I really do hope so as we have some awesome bike rides lined up for the weekend. This is the plan if the weather stays good:

Good Friday: Cycle to the new forest and forage for some caches

Saturday: Cycle to lulworth cove and durdle dor

Sunday: Cycle to Swangage and catch the ferry back

We should have some amazing photos after the weekend so stay tuned!

Look at all the Crayfish

Thursday, April 5th, 2007

Well apparently they are lobsters. not sure what the difference is. These guys were bringing up loads of crates of lobsters and all different types of crabs down the Quay. We considered buying one but neither of us really knew what do to with it.

 

Bike Night

Wednesday, April 4th, 2007

Last night was bike night down the quay. Every Tuesday night in Summer, Poole is invaded by up to 1000 motorbikes of all shapes and sizes.

It was quite a dark evening so alot of my photos didnt come out very well. I will try get some better ones next week. These were about the best of them:

 

 

Welcome

Tuesday, April 3rd, 2007

Welcome to my new blog. I will update my travels and other everyday stuff.