Work's Christmas do

Yesterday was our works team away day/ Christmas party. It was held at the Ice bar in London.

The day event was basically a lot of PowerPoint slides with a team building exercise in the middle. In the evening we had drinks, dinner and more drinks. We all got to go into the IceBar, which is basically a large freezer where everything is made out of ice, the walls, tables and glasses. You get given a cape and some gloves and they shuff you into the freezer for around 40 mins. By the end you just want to get out.

We were all given Fortnum & Mason champagne as a Christmas present which I think was a very fancy touch!

We then ended up in another bar called Strawberry Moon, where one of my colleagues and I were dancing up a drunken storm. I think I was trying to convince everyone to bodypop. Some were game, but the vast majority were *surprise, surprise* not!

Fortnum & Mason Champagne

Wearing my cape in the IceBar

Isabelle Road Christmas party

My friends held an early Christmas dinner party. It was really fun. We were supposed to come in our onesies but all I had was a Christmas jumper. Anyway, dinner and company was great!

The spread! YUMMY!!

Everyone in their onesies

Not quite mulled wine. Think it's made with rum, but still very nice and alcoholic!!

More selfie action!

Tour guide for the day

My best mate Netty's neighbour Annabel from Wellington, New Zealand is currently studying in London for a month so Net thought it would be nice if I could show her around. 

I invited Annabel to check out Shoreditch, East London. It was a rainy day so we just took it easy wandering around Spitalfield Market and Brick Lane. It was really busy as these markets are busy but Christmas exacerbates the situation. Anyway, Annabel had never been to markets like this before so it was nice to show her something new. 

After wandering around lots and lots, we ended up having an early dinner at East London's finest pizza establishment called Pizza's East. 

It was a very lovely day and evening and it was a pleasure to show her around....next time it'll hopefully be her showing me around Wellington!!! 

Annabel and I - obligatory selfie

mmm, pizza

random sausage photo

A lazy Sunday afternoon

Didn't really do much this weekend. Met up with some friends for my favourite kind of food - dim sum.

Stopped at the South African embassy to pay our respects to Nelson Mandela.

We were tired so ended up in a bar next to St. Pauls cathedral drinking wine and watching the sun set over the city. All in all a nice way to end the weekend!

Sunset over London

The sun sets over St. Paul's cathedral

Free manicure and Blue suede shoes

Today is December 1st. 25 more days till Christmas. I headed out amongst the mayhem to buy some pressies. My first stop was John Lewis. I was mooching around when the shop assistant asked me if I wanted a free manicure. Free?? Uh yeah.

So after my free manicure I decided to be a little indulgent and bought myself some new shoes. Aren't they pretty?...about the pressie shopping, errr..... there's still 25 days left!

wrinkly manicured hand...showing my age. 

very pretty

Sushi Samba

I have been trying to get into Sushi Samba for over a year. It's basically a fancy restaurant based on the 38/39th floor of Heron Tower. I finally got a reservation with a two month waiting time.

We got to the door where the door man checks if our names are on the list. We then got let through and take a glass lift straight up to the 38th floor. The lift is fast and you get an amazing view of the city. I practically had my nose pressed to the glass. The other occupants of the lift weren't so keen as they all tried to stay as far away from the glass as possible.

When we got up to the floor we had an hour to kill so we just ordered cocktails and drank them as we waited for our table to be prepared. The night was crystal clear so we had great views over looking London.

The cocktails were made perfectly and our meal was really good. We did, however order way too much food and struggled to eat everything.

All in all, a great experience, but not a place I would go on a regular basis.

Enjoying his Vesper Martini

The 30 min scarf

I just taught myself how to arm knit a scarf. Arm knit you say?? Yes, arm knit. I managed to make this scarf for a friend in 30 mins using just my arms. How cool is that?!

Roast Pumpkin

Hallowe'en is nearly upon us so I have decided to try making roast pumpkin.

A coating of butter, a little brown sugar and salt and bake for about 40 mins. Tastes so good!!! mmmm!

DoleLESS

So I have a new job at a company called WorldPay so no longer claiming benefits.

But I plan on updating this blog as and when I feel like it. Watch this space! 

Royal Parks Half Marathon

I've been training so hard for this race trying to get a personal best of around 1:52:00. Everything was going great up till the half way point. I was way ahead of my target time and I thought I would be able to slow down a bit in the second half. And slow down I did! Actually to a walk! By mile 12 I hit 'the wall' and just couldn't run anymore and ended up walking for a few minutes. In the end I only managed to come in 1:55:23. So I'm still a minute slower than my pb. I admit I'm a little disappointed but just happy it's over. Today was tough.

As you can see it was game over by mile 12 when I 'hit the wall'

1:55:23 - Happy it's over! 

Dippy

Last weekend I took £60 out from the cash machine. I took my card but then walked away without taking the money. I only realised this when I went to pay for my coffee and realised I had no money. How dippy am I?!

Anyway, its a good thing it was quite early on a Sunday morning when it's not busy. The cash machine luckily sucks the money back into the wall if it's not claimed within a certain time frame.

But when I checked my bank account I could see that it had debited, then credited, then debited my account. So after working with my bank I finally got it resolved today and got my £60 back.

Geesh, I'm so dippy! 

Fortnum & Mason

Fortnum and Mason is recognised internationally for its high quality goods and as an iconic British symbol.

I had never been here before so I decided to check out what all the hoo ha was about. The food section based in the basement sold exceptionally high quality goods. I was in food heaven. I spent most of the time trying different samples. In the end we ended up buying cheeses, meats, bread, chutney's and champagne. 

I then noticed that there was a champagne bar. I know it's quite extravagant to drink a bottle of champagne for lunch but my friend insisted.

Champagne for lunch? 

After we took our goods home and had a very nice picnic type meal with all the goods we had bought. All in all a very fun day! 

Eating on the floor because due to lack of furniture.  

Vesper Martini Cocktails

Vesper Martini Cocktails - Pretty much sums up my entire weekend!

The 30 min dress

I had some flowery material that I had no idea what to do with. Then I though, I might as well make a dress out of it. 

An old tank top and a meter of flowery material

I cut my tank in half

I sewed the flowery material into a balloon type skirt 

I added a ruffle at the top of the skirt by simply sewing at the top using the largest tension possible and then pulling the thread till it started to gather.

....pinned and sewed the tank to the balloon skirt

And there you go, a dress in 30 mins

Bike vs Car

I was hit by a car today while I was cycling home. The stupid man in his dumb car decided to turn left without looking and hit me. Thankfully he braked in time so only my leg got trapped but seriously I thought it was going to be bad.

Person on bike vs Car. We all know who is going to lose out in that fight!

I am okay and miraculously uninjured. Still a little in shock. 

Craft work

I know I have been away for a while But I'm back!

I'm still unemployed.

So anyway, I found a chair in the street the other day and took it home. The cover was really filthy and stained but I thought how hard can it be to reupholster a chair myself! So after watching a few YouTube videos and two days later - ta da!! I have a CLEAN blue chair! Not too shabby I must say!

Before - photo does not give it any justice as to how stained the cover was!

My new blue chair! 

More unemployed stuff

I am a stereotypical Guardian reader, which basically means I'm pretty left wing. So imagine my utter happiness when my unemployed friend and I decided to check out our local area today and found out that you can get The Guardian newspaper for free at The Guardian cafe at Boxpark! This is going to be my new daily task - coffee at the Guardian cafe for free newspaper and soduku!

Free Guardian paper at the Guardian cafe. Nothing pretentious about this at all! 

Blue soup

Have you ever watched Bridget Jones's Diary when she ends up making blue soup? Well I made some noodles and looking at the soup broth I thought is that blue? The answer is 'yes'!

Blue soup

Edinburgh Fringe

My amazing friends and I finally got to go to Scotland together. I say finally as my mates always go up to Scotland and ever since I've known them (which is a pretty long time, mind!) I've kept saying, 'please take me, please take me'!!

We decided to go to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in Scotland’s capital city. The festival caters to everyone including people on a budget. We decided to find free shows. I'm not here to write reviews but one of the memorable shows we saw was a short play acted by proper annoying Southern acting toffs called Prawn King. Hmm, what can I say about this show? Well some memorable songs include..(you have to sing this, mind) ' The Circle of Sea Life' (Lion King), 'I just can't wait to be Prawn King' (Jungle book) I think the absurdness of this play was it's only saving grace really.

Thankfully we saw the show for free!!

Just incase you didn't believe we were at the Fringe Festival!

3.5 mile race

It was my running groups turn to host some sort of competitive 3.5 mile race amongst a few other running groups, so I decided to participate. I've never really run competitively since my track and field days at school when I was about 10-11 years old (I was really rubbish by the way!!) I just thought I should show support to my group, plus I was curious as to how I would fair in a competitive environment amongst other ladies in my age group - check out the competition so to speak.

Anyway, I can't compare myself to some of the ladies. Some of them are seriously fast!! It's pretty amazing!

A day of culture

I have been finding it hard to run for the last few sessions. The last few runs I have hardly been able to hit 3miles. It sounds strange to non-runners but I basically hit a mental block. My body is fine but my mind doesn't want to play. So I am now testing running without music. So today, I went for a run (without ipod) and instead of my usual run around the park I decided to go off and explore. And my run was really good. I managed 10 miles and I quite enjoyed not having to fiddle with earphones as I run and actually listening to my breathing, to the klink klink of my keys in my pockets, to my surroundings. I can actually hear myself think. So I'll see how this running without music goes for a while, but so far so good.

My recently unemployed friend and I decided to spend the day doing cultural things today. We went to the British Library, which is just a giant library. It's a strange place. Basically loads of people sit around on their Macbooks. I'm not sure if they are working or just surfing the net, but every seat inside was taken by someone on their Mac! We couldn't actually get into any of the reading rooms as you need to get a card and we were too lazy to do that. However, I think I might do it another time as the library has a map room that I so want to check out.

Inside the British Library

Afterwards we headed over to the British Museum. It was packed and so hot inside! We got to visit ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome and Japan. There was also an exhibit on Eastern Propaganda which is just my thing. I just find the whole subject really interesting.

Inside the British Museum

Some examples of Eastern Propaganda posters

Lets forget job hunting for a while

I am bored of job hunting. I am bored of watching my phone for phone calls that are not going to come. So after speaking to some friends of mine I have decided to go away for a short while. You'll find out where in a few days time. 

Sebastião Salgado: Genesis and Free Ride

I ventured out to West London to go see the Sebastião Salgado: Genesis exhibit at the Natural History Museum. It was pretty amazing and I recommend it if you get the chance to see it.

Today was a great day to be out if you like to cycle but are too scared in Central London. Lots of roads in Central London were closed off to cars so people could cycle the major sites. It was nice to see so many families out, free from worry about getting run over. I cycled part of the route, seeing if I could get any freebies but realised I wasn't going to get anything free so went home.

When I got home my neighbour came out to see me. We both park our bikes in the communal hallway, always unlocked. It turns out his bike got stolen a few nights ago. In all fairness his bike was much nicer than mine, but I would be terribly upset if my bike got stolen.

Cycling along the traffic free Mall.

Urgh, another interview!

Ended up going to Winchester for quite possibly the weirdest, dullest job interview. Winchester is about an hour away from Waterloo Train station and I was reluctant to go to this interview (the job is London based, not Winchester!) But I was told I could wear whatever I wanted and should make the most of Winchester and go sightseeing beforehand - I should check out the local sights. So I went to the cathedral (where Jane Austin is buried) and went shopping.

I then turned up for my interview, with camera round my neck (really!!) and ended up getting grilled for 1.5 hours!!! 1.5 hours talking about Project Management is a very long time! It just went on and on and on. I had to try so hard to NOT do the Jen face. Anyone who knows me well enough knows exactly what the Jen face is. After the 1.5 hours all I wanted to do was run back to London.

No idea how the interview went. I lost all interest after about 45 mins. On and on and on......

Winchester Cathedral. Jane Austin is buried here.

Throwing on the Wheel

Today I learnt how to throw clay onto the wheel a la Ghost. Demi Moore however, made it look far easier than it really is. Let's just say I'm not naturally gifted but it's so much fun to use your hands to mould and shape something. I liked the messiness of it.
In the end I managed to make some sort of bowl, though brief was to make a tall cylinder.

Throwing on the wheel and this is the outcome

IN the evening the Wildlife Trust had an end of year party for all the participants at their Kings Cross site. They fired up the clay oven and made home made pizzas. Yummy. We also managed to find a really cool beetle. Not sure what type it is but it's cool!

Pizza baking in the clay oven

Beetle

End of the Growing Out Project

 Today was the last day of the Growing Out Project. We picked most of the vegetables in the vegetable patch and made a really fresh salad. It was quite sad to say bye to the participants.

I managed to find a tiny little frog, which was nice.

Pulling out carrots - yummy! 

Little frog

Freddy the Gnome

Meet Freddy. I've neglected to paint him for quite a while so he's been a little miffed with me, but he and I are now friends again.

Tea and biscuits

I went to the Job Centre today. I am officially signing on the dole. The last time I was at the dole office was when I graduated from Uni many, many years ago. It's like re-living my youth!

I gave blood today. Actually let me re-phrase that; I Donated blood today. I saw my friend afterwards and she asked me if I had now resorted to selling my body to scientific research. I'm sure she was joking but I just thought I'd let people know I'm not at that point yet.

Everyone should give blood if they can. It is such an easy process and can/does save lives. There really is no excuses. Do something amazing. Also, you get free tea and biscuits afterwards. It's like a nice day out!

Deep in the heart of Surrey

I am currently training for a marathon, but training in East London isn't actually the best place to train as it is super flat. There are no hills to practice on. So after speaking to my Ironman/Triathlete friend he invited me out to Guildford this weekend to go hill running through the countryside. Actually the original plan was for us to go cycling and then running but thankfully it was predicted rain so I managed to get out of the cycle ride portion!! 

IN all honesty it was a good thing the cycle ride got cancelled as I would have ended up pushing my bike most of the way - Surrey is seriously hilly!!! Last years' Olympic Cycling Road race route took in parts of the Guildford surrounding area due to it's challenging hills!! 

So although it was a painful run, the scenery was spectacular. No pain, no gain in every sense! 

Surrey Countryside NOT taken during my run, but AFTER the pub :)

Little Yap Yap goes to Panama and Costa Rica

A cop out post.....I finally got round to putting together some video clips of my trip to Panama and Costa Rica. It's a little longer than I would like, but regardless, feel free to watch snippets of my trip.

P.S Sorry about sounding like a Californian Cheerleader throughout. I guess all the American tourists rubbed off on me.

Dalston House

I went to Dalston House, an art installation that gives the impression that you are standing on, suspended from or scaling the building vertically. I had to queue for almost 2 hours to get 5 minutes of 'play time'. I guess when you have as much time on your hands as I do, 2 hours is do-able, but I wouldn't really recommend waiting that long unless you have kids, or a lot of time on your hands! 

defying gravity