A summer well spent

Summer has gone :( We had our traditionally beautiful weather for the first week of September, but now the forecasts are full of dropping temperatures, rainshowers and high winds.


It was a great summer - I managed to make the most of the nice weather and enjoyed a range of different activities. How did my summer ambitions go?

1) To get surfing again - achieved! On one of my favourite beaches in Hendaye.

2) Do 3 ballet classes in one week - achieved! And I'm now planning to make two classes a week my regular timetable - not easy to do around my other commitments.

3) Spend some quality time working on my Spanish - partly done. I did use every opportunity on holiday to use my Spanish, even when the locals spoke to me in English, only reverting when I was completely stuck. It didn't go completely smoothly (there was one dinner where I didn't exactly order food we enjoyed!), but I at least gave it a go. Still plenty of room for improvement though!

4) See some live music - partly done. With the exception of rigging fireworks behind the stage at Marvellous Festival, I didn't manage to organise this. I would love to see a band live, and did get as far as looking up gig lists, but that was it :(

5) Make sushi - still not got any further with this one (although I have eatten sushi on several occassions). Autumn/winter will have to be the time for sushi.

6) Make more pies - achieved! There was the chicken and ham cobbler, and the slightly disasterous but eventually recovered quiche. Almost pies :)

Additions to the list:
7) Get to work crocheting again - achieved! I have been rippling all over the place!

And now I enter autumn having visited more places, eaten more food and tried some more great activities...

Ripple-y progress

A quiet blog is a sign of one of two things: either I'm away on holiday or I'm stupidly busy. Last week it was the busy one. I definitely went back to work with a bang. Hopefully things will calm a bit now...

Within the chaos, I've still been taking time to crochet - it's like having enforced relax time. I find that I don't sleep well if I've been busy working late, so no matter how late it is I have to make sure I do a quiet, calming activity before heading to bed.

Crochet is brilliant at this. I've been doing it everywhere...

In the car...

On a train...

Sat in my living room...

On another train...

Sat in the sunshine...

Ballet Tweet-Up

Saturday was great - I travelled to a studio in London to meet up with a group of fellow ballet-obsessed tweeters!

It was all organised after an off-the-cuff tweet from someone suggesting that we should get together. A few months (and a whole load of organisation from Becca_Tweet) later, there we were...

We had an absolutely amazing class from Karis at EverybodyBallet - she had obviously put some time into choreographing exercises for us and was infectiously enthusiastic. The barre exercises were especially beautiful - very "dance-y" and performed to orchestral ballet scores. I was stretched, but in a good way, and only wish I could have done them to a higher standard...

balancing at the barre

Tonight's dinner

What makes my macaroni cheese healthy (compared with shop-bought/restaurant versions):

  -  It's completely homemade, so I know every ingredient and there isn't any odd additives/flavourings/preservatives.

  -  I control the quantities of cheese and butter (and try to put a smaller amount in).

  -  I can measure the portion size accurately.

  -  I can serve it with plenty of salad.

What makes my macaroni cheese unhealthy:

  -  It's still macaroni cheese...

The pastry games

Compared with the average human being, I probably make pastry quite frequently. And as a general rule it turns out alright. Not this time...

A friend was visiting for lunch and I decided that instead of going out, I'd cook for her. Out came the pie cookbooks and I settled on a quiche.

Hmmm... All I can say is never, ever rush pastry making. I was in a bit of a hurry and misread/ignored the "let it rest in the fridge for 30mins" instruction. I cannot for the life of me remember if this was a conscious decision or the result of rushing too much.

The result...

Oh dear.

Seeing as I was already running late, I definitely didn't have time to start again. What to do?!

We went out for lunch.


P.S. That evening I had a lot more time on my hands and remade the pastry case. It can out much better and the final quiche wasn't bad either :)

Why revisit a city?

When there are so many new places to explore, why return to a place you've been before?

I'm specifically thinking of Barcelona and Paris, both of which we spent time in on this holiday, having previously stayed there.

1) It's good to see some familiar landmarks
Especially when you're in a country that speaks a different language to your own, there is something to be said for that feeling of familiarity. In Paris for example, you get it the moment you glimpse the Eiffel Tower...

2) You can share places that others haven't visited
In Barcelona, I insisted that we visited Parc Guell - a place A hadn't been before. I knew he'd love it (as well as looking forward to seeing it again myself) and it was lovely to share it with him...

Technical help

I have been utterly rubbish at running recently. My heart is not in it in the same way as some of my other activities, but it is the sport that keeps me most healthy and in shape - ballet and swimming are fabulous but they don't have the same calorie burn!

Yesterday I headed out. I didn't want to run continuously because I knew I'd get tired and demoralised quickly (it's been a while...), so instead I decided to cover a longer distance with 4 minutes walking to 1 minute running. It went well, except for taking a wrong turning and cutting about a mile off the route, and has boosted my confidence to go out again.

What amused me was my technology usage on this walk/run:

• garmin - for recording the route and my pace (didn't bother with the heart rate monitor seeing as I wasn't running most of it)
• interval timer app on my phone - this is brilliant! Gone are the days of peering at my garmin repeatedly to work out if I've run the required distance/time. And it buzzes/bings over whichever music or podcast I'm listening to.
• samsung hope relay app - if you haven't already signed up, please do! Basically, for every mile you walk/run/cycle/skate/etc, Samsung donates £1 to charity. And as an added novelty, you get to make your own mini-runner character and every now and again a recording of a sportsperson wishing you well!
• podcasts - I love Marathon Talk podcasts and feel like a loser if I listen to them and haven't run in a while. Much better to listen whilst running.

my samsung hope relay character