Friday 22 January 2016

Newnham Riverbank Club

Yesterday was Grandmother’s Day and my Name Day. I didn’t celebrate or anything as hardly anyone over here understands what a Name's Day is. Also, I slept most of the day in order to be more or less awake at work. I finished my shift after 7am and everything was frozen. It looked lovely so decided to visit one of my favourite swimming spot – Newnham Riverbank Club.
For those who know me it should not come as a surprise. I do like wild swimming and quite frankly there is not much around here but river Cam. The problem is the entry to the river. It is terrible in most places. Well… getting in the water is ok but getting out… that’s a completely different story. You are ok if you’re familiar with climbing and if you don’t mind being cover with mud. I was struggling for a long time until I’ve heard of Riverbank Club in Newnham. Apparently it is quite old, I don’t know. Anyway it’s a lovely place. Lot’s of grass to relax in summer and wooden steps/ladder into the water. Great!!! No more mud and climbing!
I’ve been a member for over two years now and I love it. Don’t quite remember how much is the yearly fee, something around £20, which gives you unlimited access to the club grounds. They recently changed the gate and it looks quite posh.

Yeah, I spent hours over there. Swimming, reading, eating, sleeping on the grass (in summer of course), watching full moon on few occasions, dragging my boyfriend to watch full moon with me etc.
So yesterday seemed like a good day to get there and swim a little. Actually I wouldn’t call it swimming; it was more like a longer dip. It was freezing but refreshing somehow. And it looked absolutely amazing.


Ok, I'm going to bed now, another night shift to come. Lullaby seems appropriate right now ;)
 

 

Thursday 21 January 2016

Day 2

It wasn't too bad I guess....

As I'm working nights for the next 4 nights I decided to have a proper sleep today. This means I didn't really get out of bed until afternoon. However I had (in bed) a healthy breakfast of oats soaked with milk with fruits and nuts. When I eventually got up and couldn't procrastinate any more I thought I'll give this running app a go. The whole idea is called Fartlek and more or less requires running slow and fast alternately. Well... can't be that bad I thought. I went for a default mode for beginners. It took about 17 min to complete the first workout but after about ten I was doing: "hard jog", "run" or "sprint" at pretty much similar speed. Never mind... at least I was running, well... it was more like gentle jog. I managed to get slightly lost and it took me another 20 min to get back so overall it was ok. Of course I stopped for coffee halfway through. My second favourite coffee roasting place in Bury - Frank and Ernest. I was really lucky to get coffee as they were closing but the lovely barista said he won't deny anyone to have coffee. What a great spirit!!!!

 
When it comes to food I made lovely Brussels sprouts soup and even better arroz doce vaguely following the recipe I've learnt in Portugal.
 
Who said that healthy food needs to look awful???
 

Despite the look it was quite nice. I remember I hated Brussels sprouts when I was a child but I grew to really like them. And it's the first time I actually used them to make soup.

Ok, now I'm getting hungry again ;)

Not sure what song to "play" for you... let's go for an old, lovely one, shall we?


Słowa napisał Jonasz Kofta (jakby kto pytał) ;)

Tuesday 19 January 2016

New Year... again...

Hi guys, long time not seen eh?

I really should change all my personal info over here as hardly anything is in date but I'll do it at some point in life.

Welcome... again!

Few weeks ago my boyfriend suggested I sign up for a 10k race. During the next 10 min my thoughts were fluctuating between: "Yeah, I can do it" through: "I need to sign up now or I will find an excuse for not doing it" to: "Jesus Christ!!!". But I did sign up and now it is the time to do something about it. Some training will definitely help as I can barely ran 5k but also loosing some weight would be beneficial. I'm not much of a person who counts every calorie, I'm a person who doesn't think at all about what she eats. I love food and can't help it!!! Unfortunately I made this awful realisation that my diet contains: caffeine (of course), carbs (mostly white bread) and sugar! YAY!!!

So this is to new year, new me thing... I really need to change something! I decided to share it with you lovely people as it might help me to stay motivated. We will see...
Of course I could post my progress on Facebook but it's more private over here and it's not obligatory to read it. Soooo....

DAY 1
After 14h shift I did a "healthy" shopping. Some fruits, veg, brown rice, natural yoghurt, nuts, oats etc. Also downloaded some running app on my phone.
Now... I'm finishing a bottle of wine and while munching on some nuts and chocolate. I don't want to have any temptation left :)

And I will be posting a song by the end of each entry because that's what I've always done and I like it. So... today "Chess" and lovely Kerry Ellis. Enjoy!