November 10, 2013

Crossfit Central London - My first cross fit experience!

While In London my Aunt convinced me to try Crossfit.  I've avoided cross fit so far because I think I will really like it and I didn't have enough time to add a new thing I like to my schedule!

We booked ourselves into a class, my Aunt had done cross fit loads so she had a poke around the gym, there were lots of cool looking structures and work-out tools

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I was soo excited to see a rope! I quicly had a climb, and for some reason fell semi-naturally into a russian climb instead of a typical rope climb, which meant a super strong cross fit girl asked me how I learned to climb!  I felt so cool!

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The WOD (or workout of the day) started with an "inchworm" which was a sort of straight legged push up to plank to downward facing dog and back again.  It was hard!

Then we did some squats.  And finanally the actual WOD started, and we did 21 weighted squats, then 21 ring dips.  Then 15/15, 7/7, 3/3 or something like that.  To be honest I got a bit distracted and just wanted to play on all the things!  I was pretty bad at squatting and the coach kept yelling at me to squeeze my knees out.  My dumb shoulder was playing up so eventually i dropped the bar and just did normal un-weighted squats

The dips were fun, I used  rubber band to make them easier

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At the end of it I did 10 Burpees, because apparently I was supposed to yell "TIME" when i finished, but I had gotten so lost in the counting that I couldn't really tell when I was done.  It was hard! so I did the Burpees instead.

Finally the told us to do 100 sit ups.  that was hard as well!  It seemed to take ages.

I really just wanted to be back on the rope

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All in all it was really fun and I'll hopefully be trying cross fit in Cardiff soon, and i'll also hopefully be re-joining circus ropes & silks classes at No Fit State soon too!

Crossfit Central London
http://www.crossfitcentrallondon.co.uk/

November 7, 2013

More Adventures in London (and the Best Breakfast in London!??)

On Sunday morning we woke up STUPIDLY early to go watch a the London to Brighton Vintage car parade.  I was only swayed out of bed because I knew after the parade I would get brunch, and brunch is the best thing ever.  Luckily the weather was so nice and it wasn't raining.

They were already crossing the westminster bridge when we arrived
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It was pretty cool to see the cars driving as most of the time I see them parked up in fields.  Some of the cars went quite quick.  Many of the cars were very slow.
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It was also cool to watch them going past Big ben! I had to take a tourist photo.
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Unfortunately not all the cars made it out of london, this poor guy broke down a mile after the start  On the plus side, if the RAC guy likes classic cars this would be the best day of his life
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After the cars we walked past buckingham Palace and I found a cafe called Pimlico Fresh.  It looked straight out of portland, with benches and a menu written on the wall.  Brewerhalf ordered cheese on toast, because he is soooo Welsh
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I ordered the spanish omlette, with choritzo and feta and veggies and tasty fresh bread
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So much eggs! So much delicious! I love breakfast, it is my favorite meal of the day for sure. I cannot wait to visit the home of amazing breakfast (Portland Oregon) but until then this tour-de-eggy-force will certainly suffice!

When in London brewer half and I love using Boris Bikes to get around. For £2 a day we can rent bikes for up to 30 minutes with no charge.  it's much cheaper than taking the Tube and you get to see lots of parts of London! It's always been hectic before because we didn't know exactly where we were going and one of us (usually the Brewer) had to be holding a phone to navigate, which wasn't so safe or easy.  But this is all over now because we have the Garmin! it's a GPS for the bikes, and got us around with no problems.  Amazing!
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On Sunday afternoon we spent some quality time at the British Museum and then at the Holborn Whippett - our new favorite pub in London.
It was truly an epic weekend in London!
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(note - that is not a Borris Bike)

November 5, 2013

Weekend in North Wales - Exploring Angelsey (and I saw a Seal)!

The other week I went to North Wales to visit Abi
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I have decided Abi is my fake little sister because when my mom saw pictures of Abi she thought it was me.  Also we own the same Jackets, so she is actually my fake twin jacket sister also.
We went for a driving adventure! It was raining in the beginning but we looked at some boats
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Then we found the coastal path!
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We saw Dolphins and Seals. I tried to take a photo
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There was a house built right on rocks.  I imagine the floor is all jagged inside and maybe even has tide pools!
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No, I clearly don' know what a tide pool is.  But I took some photos of grass or seaweeds or whatever this stuff is
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I always wish those plants tasted like jelly beans because the kind of look like jelly beans. I didn't taste it but I'm pretty sure I'm not supposed to eat it.

Also we saw this hotel that looked impressive
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Then I drove home and it took 4 hours.  North wales is awesome but it is soooo far away.  That is probably why it is so awesome.

Also awesome, Abi walking up stairs.  She had her knee bone chopped apart by a doctor and she couldn't bend her knee, but now she is a total bender all the time.  Bodies are gross! I have  a super gross collage of her surgeries knee but I will not post it right now because maybe you don't want to see it or are eating lunch or area already operating on someone else's knee and don't want to get confused.
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November 3, 2013

Weekend In London - Eating all the things then looking at all the other things

This weekend Brewer half and I headed to London for a weekend getaway.  We got in on Friday night and quickly ventured to Camden Brewery for their brewery bar evening.  They had a guest burgers from Motherflipper Burgers, which is the absolute best burger I have ever eaten in my life.  It was so good, I'll probably have to write about it separately.
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On Saturday morning we walked around london for ages looking at things.  One of the things we saw was the Ralpha Store.  Sometimes I wonder how I can spend more money on cycling and also look so much cooler for the money I'm spending, and Ralpha is the answer
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So many shiny things! I especially like the marino wool jumper.  That color would be so nice on me! and at only £130 it's a bargain to look so cool!

They also had a cafe in the store, and water bottles for £10, and cycling books to read.  I wish I was cool enough to be in there, but I felt like a proper punter so i got back on my Borris bike and cycled on.

We cycled to Regent Street, where there was a classic car show! Classic cars are kind of boring but Brewer Half loves them and I love old things so old cars kind of count.  I did my favorite thing of watching good photographers take photos and then standing exactly where they stood and taking the same photos.  Look!
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I liked this classic car with the very classic Cats eye bike light.  I turned the photo sepia so it would look much older; sepia is the oldest off all the photo-editing auto features!
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We also saw a penny farthing.  I love a penny farthing! Someday I hope I can ride one, but I don't know where one borrows a penny farthing to learn to ride it?
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Then we went to the Grant Museum of Zoology, which had loads of skeletons and things in jelly.  This elephant skull was massive!
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Actually at the museum I learned that elephants only have 4 teeth so this was not an elephant.  I don't know what it is.

There were skeletons watching me watch the skeletons.
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Skeleton party!
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All day I was obsessed with street food, to the point that I sounded like I was after some sort of drug.  "Is that Kimchi? Where is a burrito? I was Pho!" This was me, all day.  I couldn't figure out how to find street food but brewer half and I had tickets to Spamalot so we headed to the theatre and I hope that I could find something to eat near the theatre.

And find something I did!  I found the most amazing street food fayre! I can't remember the name of it, but it was amazing. We ate all the things
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That's a salt beef bagel, a kati roll, and churros.  Jewish Mexican Asian food.  Nom nom nom!

After dinner we saw Spamlot, which was very silly and very fun.
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It was an epic day in London! I forgot to mention the beers we enjoyed, we tried The Porterhouse and selections from Craft Beer Rising on Saturday, Camden and Brewdog on Friday. Beers are average £4 in London, eek! But sometimes (often times) it is Oh-So-Worth-It!

October 31, 2013

Brussles - Exploloring all the awesome.

Brussels is AWESOME.
We spent a lot of time walking around.  The streets all have cute little touristy restaurants that are nice to walk by but probably less nice to eat at
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We instead found a place (okay, it's super high on trip advisor and came up when i googled "What to eat in brussels") that serves fresh fishy things at standing tables.
I ordered the fish soup and the Croquettes.  I have no idea what a Croquette is but I ate one anyways and I still don't know what it is
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The fish soup was super tasty! I could have ordered a lot more but also wanted to save room for waffles and/or fries.  It was a hard life!
We saw the famous Manniken Pis.  It is a peeing boy statue.  This city is odd.
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One day we visited the Atomium  It was built for a worlds fair but now it is a tourist attraction.  Why don't they have worlds fairs anymore? they made such awesome stuff!
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I was exercising my right to bare arms. I pretended it was summer.  Actually it was very cold.
The inside of the atomium had a place that looked like space mountain
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But sadly there were no roller coasters.
View from inside the Atomium!
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Ooh the future is so cool! Also we explored Brussels at night.  How pretty is this!!!
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We saw this statue of a Lion too.  He looked very melancholy. Why so melancholy Mr. Lion? is it because you are made of bronze?
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I tried to take pictures of my lovely mom but she does not like photos.  So instead I have made a collage specially for her:
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Traveling with my mom is super fun.  Traveling in Belgium is super fun. I would recommend everyone get the chance to travel with my mom in Belgium.  Except you can't, because she's MY mom, and your mom is probably less cool but you're stuck with her. Sorry.
MMM Belgium Beer!
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October 30, 2013

Brussels to Bruges - a 1 day ADVENTURE!

Guess what Y'all! I'm in Belgium! Belgium is amazing because it s full of Old things and beer and chocolate and french fries (or Belgium fries!) and pretty buildings and medieval stuff. Belgium is my favourite European country if Wales doesn't count as European.
I'm here with my mom and we are being tourists.  On our first day we bought a Waffle and ate it all!
We ate the waffle in the shape of the dog, and then we took a picture of the dog-waffle with a dog.  Yum!

One day we took the train to Bruges.  We found an online fare for only £10 return, which was a mega bargain for the 1 hour train.
In Bruges we took a canal boat tour and did not get rained on.  It was a good use of 6 Euros!
We also went to a lace museum and saw how lace is made.  It is made from string, and made by old ladies, and probably mostly made by machines these days because this little hand made doylie is like 60 Euros.
We saw lots of old buildings and churches, and new buildings made to look like old buildings.  Brugge is awesome because it got all bombed in WWII and then they built it to look super old as if nothing happened.  I like being deceived by brickwork!
We went to the top of a hill to look at the town and also at a windmill.  Then I took photos of my mom doing Drake hands, but she was way more dramatic than Drake hands, because that is how she rolls!
Then we ate more waffles.  nom nom waffle.  This was actually the 4th best waffle that we ate so it was not very good, but it was very sugary.
This church was cool.  All the churches were cool.  One of the churches had the blood of Jesus Christ in a vial in the church.  That is a good church!
We passed this bike shop that used a bike chain to look the doors.
Unfortunately it was closed.  there were loads of pretty bikes and I think my N+1 bike will be a single speed commuter bike with fancy 2 toned wheels.  yes.

Tomorrow I'm headed back to the UK.  Bruges was fun and Brussels has been great and I will share more pictures of old buildings and yummy food soon! We were here for 4 days and ate 4 waffles so that is certainly a success!