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

The negatives of being cheap

A few days ago I popped into a local hairdressers and asked how much it would cost to get my fringe trimmed. £5! I repeat FIVE POUNDS! That is ridiculous money for a trim! So today, armed with a pair of blunt scissors and a comb I set to work on my fringe.

So um, hair grows out, right??!!

I'm turning into my parents!

I did my volunteering today at the Community Garden. I took on the task of sorting out the vegetable patch and I have to say I took it pretty seriously. I was in 'the zone', untangling bindweed (a plant I find fascinating, yet annoying at the same time), tidying, de-weeding and watering. It then dawned on me that this is what my parents do, ACTUALLY not just my parents but almost all of my friends parents does (is this sentence even grammatically correct?? moving on...)

I'm turning into my parents and..... I LIKE IT!!

That is a well looked after vegetable box! 

The sunflowers in the garden have finally bloomed! 

SupER laZy

I am a mess. Staying up for 35+ hours has finally caught up with me. I have spent the entire day sleeping, eating & watching TV. That's all.

Oh and blah blah Royal baby blah. Yawn fest!!

Achy breaky

By the time I got to bed last night I had been up for going on 36 hours so as soon as my head hit the pillow I was out like a light!

After my epic cycle ride I woke up aching all over, however I'm happy to say I'm not walking like a cowgirl! As I said, thank god for padded shorts!!

Not much going on today. I had a job interview...but I don't want to talk about that, so swiftly moving on....

I met up with my lovely friend for a quick drink before heading home to eat Chinese food! Yum!!

On another note, The Duchess has been taken to hospital and the world is waiting for the arrival of the Royal baby. I however am most definitely not!!

Drinks with my lovely friend :) 

Spinning class is for wusses

Dunwich Dynamo - 120 miles over 14 hours.

What can I say? Thank goodness for lycra padded cycling shorts!!!!

I really need my bed!

Cyclists gathering before the start of the Dynamo. Check out all the lycra! 

Our bikes at the end of the ride in Dunwich. 

Pimp my Ride

For the past few day I have been busy 'pimping my ride' for the Dunwich Dynamo which starts tonight. To save money I have been doing all the maintenance by myself and with no tools it has been a little challenging, but I'm pretty resilient. Anyway, I just finished pimping her and she and I are very happy! 

What is the Dunwich Dynamo?
Simple. A turn-up-and-go unsupported challenging free-entry overnight 120 mile bicycle ride , on-tarmac from London Fields in Hackney to the lovely, lonely Suffolk beach at Dunwich.

More:
I can go on and on about it but you can just read about it if you are remotely interested via the link: 
Dunwich Dynamo

Why am I doing it? 
Because I'm stupid and I have far too much time on my hands! 

Now off to carb load! 

Pimp my Ride

Lets love at LOVEBOX

This evening I went to Lovebox, a music event in Victoria Park, right next to where I live. I have to admit that I had no idea who any of the performing artists were. Is this a sign of old age? The most obvious reason is I'm just not with it these days. I'm so out of touch. Maybe with all this free time on my hands I should brush up on current culture...or maybe not!

Dancing with my festival gal pals! 

World Vision

A few weeks ago in my bored, unemployed, watching day time television in my PJ's state I heard a knock on the door. Remembering that my flatmate had recently paid for our TV licence I felt confident that it wasn't someone coming round to hand us a £1000 fine so I opened the door.

It was a lady from World Vision. Now normally I tell these people to 'do one' but I guess due to boredom and kind of feeling guilty I hadn't actually left the house that day I asked her to 'come in, take a seat'. (Heavens forbid if a Jehovahs Witness comes to the door!)

So I am now a very proud sponsor of Tirunesh, details of whom I received today. She is from Ethiopia and she likes football. That's all I know about her, but I look forward to writing to her on occasion.

So this has put a smile on my face today.

Meet Tirunesh

Not too much

18 July 2013

I woke up late today and ended up doing my usual run probably too late in the day (10am) and nearly died doing my 3 mile run.

I haven't done too much today. I just went to London Fields and sat in the shade eating my salad and reading my book.

I've also been getting calls from recruitment agents. Urgh, recruitment agents!!! They all want to get me a job working within the Financial Services! Why??!! Why do you think I quit my job in the first place. I'll stop whinging. 

Pretty much sums up my day!

Volunteering and tea towel printing

17 July 2013

I have been volunteering with London Wildlife Trust for the past month. I've been helping out at the East Reservoir Community Garden around Stanford Hill, London working with people with mild learning disabilities. The participants are learning basic horticulture activities and us volunteers are around to help assist them. It is really relaxed and I could not think of anything better to do, especially in weather as glorious as we are experiencing right now. (to those people who are complaining about the heat...get over it! It wont last)

Today we took the participants to Geffrey Museum. Geffrey Museum is a museum of the home. (Check it out if you have the chance. It's small but the Reading room is very beautiful!!) It also has an amazing garden out the back that has quite possibly the most amazing herb garden I have ever seen. Have you ever smelt a Pineapple Sage? Delicious!

Afterwards we all went to St. Mary's Secret Garden. It is another community garden that supports people with learning disabilities learn horticultural skills.

After my time with the group I then went to Boxpark in Shoreditch to learn how to block print. I ended up block printing a tea towel. My wonderful print shall be handed over to my dear mother when I see her in August. Isn't she lucky to have a daughter like me???