Feeling suspiciously like summer

Wow hasn't the past week's weather been wonderful? I've been trying to spend as much time as possible outside to make the most of it. Sadly my days are still filled up with sitting behind a computer in an air conditioned office, but I'm lucky enough to have a park nearby where I can eat my lunch.

Here are some suitably summery pictures from the last few days.

Ahh what could be better than spending a Saturday afternoon on one of London's beer gardens with a nice cold Fruli and the boyfriend for company?

By the way, Android users rejoice! Instagram is apparently nearly on it's way! But in the mean time I've discovered a nice little photo app that doesn't have the social angle that Instagram does, but it has some great filters and features. It's called One Man With Camera (I know, they could have thought of a snappier name) and all of my above photos were taken on it. I have a feeling poor Magic Hour isn't going to get a look in not that I have a new photography toy to play with. 

My week in pictures

I feel like I have been a tad slack with my updates. The job hunt has been going well (well not THAT well or I'd be in a new job by now! But well enough...) so I've been a little distracted preparing for interviews. Also spending a lot of time with the boyfriend since he came home from his holiday last week so we've been like a couple of love birds over the weekend.

Anyway here are a few photos of my past weeks adventures.

A ridiculously foggy morning last Thursday.

Cocktails with the birthday boy on Thursday night

Mothers Day lunch and a rather novel way of displaying the desert menu

My USB stick has finally been returned to me after being kidnapped in January by my stick fingered colleague! 

My week in pictures

It's been a bit of an eventful week really. The biggest thing was running the Silverstone Half Marathon which got it's own blog entry below. The job search continues. I had a couple of interviews but haven't heard back yet :-( I'm hoping it's not bad news. I have another interview on Monday for the London Broncos rugby super league team. That could be quite interesting. I'm sure my friends wouldn't mind having access to some yummy rugby players! Anyway here are a few photos from my week.

My Saturday morning lie in wasn't nearly as nice without Niki.

A nice walk in the spring sunshine.

Juno having a cuddle with me while I was on my laptop the other night.

And all rounded off with a beautiful sunset.

My first half marathon

Yesterday I took part in my first half marathon at Silverstone Race Circuit in Towecester UK.
My race day started with an early morning and breakfast of three cereal bars and 3 bananas followed by vast quantities of Lucozade sport and Sport Beans.
The race began at midday and I was instructed that I really should try and finish as quickly as possible so we can find a pub and watch the rugby afterwards. No pressure then!
As we made our way to the start line I had a sudden realisation that I might not have put in enough training for this as a lot of other people seemed to be a lot more prepared than me. Not to mention a friend I was running with telling me I shouldn't feel too bad if she takes off and I don't see her until the finish since she's already run three half marathons before. *gulp* too late to back out now. It was time to go!

The first mile was pretty tough going. The temperature was an unseasonably warm 18c and there was very little breeze or shady parts. No matter I was still clocking up a fairly good ten minutes per mile.


Miles 2 to 6 went by fairly easily as I settled into a good stride and managed to maintain my time of about 10 minutes per mile.  From then on it got more and more difficult. Between 7 and 10 miles it was mainly just a blur or pain and heat.

As soon as I started getting in to the double digits things got marginally easier knowing that within forty minutes I would be finished.
When I hit mile 12 there was absolutely no stopping me. I quickly had a fiddle with my MP3 player and put on the most encouraging tracks I could find. By the time I saw the 13 mile marker I was almost giddy with excitement. I was almost done and only had the last 0.1 mile sprint to the finish line. That's it I decided I was making a dash for it. I picked up my speed and ran full pelt towards the finish line in a mixture of pure exhaustion and pure happiness.
Crossing over the finish line was easily the most amazing moment of my life so far. I'd done it and in a really good time as well. 2hrs and 16 minutes. I'm not ashamed to say that I cried a little bit when I ran over to hug my sister and her boyfriend that had some to support me.

I'll now be signing up for the London Run To The Beat in October and I actually have a time to beat!

Here are some photos of my day.

Me (in the pink) and my friend before the race started

Right after I crossed the finish line. I'm about to start welling up here!!

In the pub with my well earned pint. We did make it just after the rugby kick off!

Check out my bling! About to enjoy a Sunday roast!

Mmm cupcakes

Did I mention that I absolutely love baking cupcakes? All kinds of cakes actually. And I've somehow volunteered to bake my sisters wedding cake.
Last night my mum asked me last minute if I could bake a few cupcakes for her team at work. Here's the result of my very rushed work and a photo of my second practice of using roll out icing ahead of my sisters wedding cake.

My weekend -and-a-bit in pictures

what was supposed to be a quite relaxed weekend, turned out to being the very opposite. My first rule for the weekend was no alcohol! Well that was clean out the window by about 7pm on Friday evening. Never mind I thought. I'll just have a little bit so I'm still ok to go for a little run on Saturday morning. Nope. My run went out the window along with my weekend booze ban. Oh dear. Still I heard it's best not to go for too many runs in the week leading up to a half marathon, so I'm doing myself a favour really...aren't I?

Anyway here are a few photos from my weekend.

Nails Inc! My nails love Nails Inc. And my best friend always gives me polishes for Christmas and Birthdays so this keeps my nails happy.

My mood ring :-)

I would actually be lost without my kindle. I'm currently reading The Hunger Games in anticipation for the film later this month. Really enjoying it so far although I first read Battle Royale years and years ago which I found slightly better.

My favourite perfume. I literally cannot go through an airport without picking up a perfume and I bought this on our way to Egypt last October. It's nearly all gone already!. 

It's Friday!

And even better, I have the afternoon off yey! My original plan was to veg out on the sofa and watch last weeks Walking Dead but some evil person has deleted it from the sky box! Must think up a suitable punishment!

In the mean time here's my 365 for the day. I'm absolutely hooked on these Starbucks Frappuccino drinks. Can't start my day without one! And below that is what I wore to work today :-)

22/365

Today's post is a visual representation of what happens in my office when I tell me colleagues there's spare sandwiches going in the kitchen (produced my my sister and colleague). It's basically a case of put the trays down, shout "free sandwiches!!" and run!

Tonight I'm going to the cinema with the boyfriend to see Safe House. Has anybody seen it? Is it any good?
And tonight will be the last time I see the boyfriend for ten whole days! Tomorrow he's heading to Newcastle and then on holiday with his mum for a week. I'll miss him way too much :-(

19 & 21

I missed 20! But that's ok because it's a leap year right?

This is the wall above my bed. I adore photo walls with mismatched frames. I hope the boyfriend knows that when we live together, none of the picture frames will match! My mum is great at spotting nice photo frames at car boot sales. The little gold one set her back a whopping 20 pence!

And exciting news! The boyfriend and I are going away to Thailand at the end of May! Hence the beach photo as my work computers desktop. He asked me the other day "are you sure you definitely want to go to Thailand? Because we can go absolutely anywhere" I said the desktop has spoken! Before we went to Egypt last October I cemented our decision by changing my desktop to a beautiful Egyptian beach. I'm ridiculously excited! I haven't quite saved up all the money yet (although flight money is set aside already) but I've bought a bikini so I feel I'm well prepared!

Boyfriend and I in Egypt in October 2011

On the job hunt front, I had yet another meeting with a recruitment agent yesterday who said she had a very good feeling about me so keep your fingers crossed!! 

My weekend in pictures

Lovely weekend and the weather really cheered everyone up I think. My roses from Valentines day have started to wilt :-( so I'm having a go at pressing them. Hopefully they'll turn out nicely and I can put them in a nice frame.

We went to a new pub in my local area called Tapping the Admiral. Really lovely little North London pub which I really recommend. It's tucked away from the high street so it has a nice local feel about it. We spent the afternoon watching the England V Wales game there. The nice pub couldn't really make up for the result. That was a tense last few minutes of the game! I loved the signs posted around everywhere. The one pictures was my favourite. I think this should be a standard rule for all pubs :-)

And lastly my chill out outfit for today.

16

Introducing one of my cats Astro. He's a lazy bum and likes to lie around the house like this all day. He's the only cat I know that likes to have his belly rubbed as well. Tomorrow I'll take a photo of the other cat Juno for number 17 :-)

14 & 15

Two outfit posts in a row. The second outfit post is actually a very exciting outfit post because it's the outfit I've bought for meeting recruiters :-) I'm so happy I had a massive tidy up of my CV, got it down to 2 pages (it used to be 4 *ahem*) and within a few hours of applying I got call backs from not 1, but 2 recruitment agencies wanting to meet with me eeek! The first is today at 2pm and the job is an office manager in a swanky west end office, and the second for next Monday is a PA role in a nice little estate agents office in Primrose Hill. Wish me luck!! 

And the first outfit, well I couldn't very well go shopping without buying something fun for the weekend could I?!?

 Date night with the boyfriend. Something to take my mind off horrible job hunting. Here's what I'm wearing out.

Skinny Jeans - Eiffel Tower t-shirt, grey cardigan, blue scarf, floral tennis shoes.

Pancakes! And what I wore.

Can you believe Shrove Tuesday came around so quickly?? This year is already running away and it's barely even the end of February! I think it's just one of those things, when you get older years seem to rush by at a rapidly increasing rate. Before you know it, you blink and a whole year has rushed by!

The job hunt is still ongoing. It is a bit disheartening when you send out something like 20 CV's and covering letters in one day and don't hear a whisper back, but I'll persevere. Now I know why people say that looking for a full time job IS a full time job! 

13/365

About 9 months ago, in a moment of... delirium?...Insanity?....Drunkness??....I seem to have signed up to run the Adidas Silverstone Half Marathon. My race pack arrived today. This s**t just got real....

09 and 12

Eek I've been a bit lazy over the weekend. I did have all sorts of nice plans to have a wander around the Southbank with the boyfriend on Saturday but rain (and him having a monstrous hangover) sort of scuppered those plans. Instead we had a lazy morning around the house and had lunch out. Both of which I forgot to take 365 photos for. Yesterday I went bowling with my sister and boyfriend. I don't know what happened but I used to be quite good at bowling. I was absolutely horrendous! But at least we had fun :-)

My recent 365 photos display my favour t-shirt from GAP and a dodgy pound coin I was slipped over the weekend. Something tells me it might be a fake....

The job hunt is also still on going but exciting news! The boyfriend and I went for a walk yesterday around some new build sites in North London. He hinted (rather blatantly I might add) that as soon as I'm able to afford to move out of my mum's (which depends entirely on someone else hiring me so pleeeaase somebody hire me!!) we'll more than likely start looking into buying a place of our own. So beware employment agencies out there, you're about to be inundated with copies of my CV! 

8/365

What I wore to work today. Speaking of work, I'm desperately searching for a new job! I had my appraisal last week and was completely deflated when the penny dropped that absolutely nothing about my role will be changing over the coming year. Not even my pay! :-( So it's out with the old (job) and in with the new..hopefully. Keeping my fingers and toes crossed that one of my many job applications comes back successful.

7/365

Aww my wonderful boyfriend had some roses delivered to my office yesterday for Valentines day.
After work he took me out where  I was wined and dined with some amazing food and live jazz music at The Foundry in Camden Town. Such an amazing evening and I couldn't have asked for a better person to spend it with.
Last night on a whim we decided that we should go to Thailand for our next holiday. Cue saving money like a maniac and scouring websites for good flight deals! We haven't even booked anything yet and I'm already excited!!

6/365

New shoes!! There's something special about having a pair of shiny new shoes. Especially when they have funky tassels on them.

And today is Valentines Day! What better day to wear my pretty new shoes out?

The boyfriend has booked us into a secret restaurant tonight. He won't tell me where though. I do love surprises!

The more observant people will notice that I've jumped the gun with this blog and gone straight to number 6 in my 365 project. You'll actually find the rest here http://www.flickr.com/photos/61742341@N04/ But I've fancied starting a new blog for a while now (one that I might actually keep up with!) and what better excuse to  upload photos and drawl on with my random thoughts. 

Enjoy!