high heels and sandwiches

last sunday did not see one of my lazy days; lying in bed till midday, eating a huge roast and chilling on the sofa watching sex and the city... nope, last sunday i climbed Snowdon! i know.. wth?! i spent all day with my dad, my dog, a rucksack of tuna sandwiches and soup and a humongous mountain. actually found it extremely exhilarating and despite my red, wind-torn skin and unbelievably painful legs for the next 3 days it put me in a really good, happy mood and increased my confidence about my fitness levels. couldn't believe how many little children and little dogs we met half-way up, put me to shame!

after a short gym sesh on tuesday (legs still sore, couldn't move very much) i trammed it, or at least tried to as i got on the wrong one, to meet my family. after rapid pizza express munching, we watched stomp at the theatre, which was wonderfully funny and entertaining. don't think i found it as wildly funny as one woman sitting near me however, who let out high-pitched squeals and giggles at quiet sections of the show. my amusement slowly degenerated to annoyance and finally to amazement about how anyone could repeatedly and knowingly make such weird embarrassing noises in public.

got home tonight and immediately got changed into my comfy trousers to settle on the sofa for a lovely night in, after yet another gym workout yesterday. my tired, achy body is craving comfy trousers as much as i craved chocolate after work.

a week since my last post has seen much of the usual; more training, more restaurants and more lovely drinks. kept to my promise and climbed up a small hill with the father and dog, keeping snug in my cute grey baker boy hat i got for christmas and one of my sister's "band hoodies". decided i defo needed new walking boots as staying warm round the fire whilst camping last year has caused the rubber to melt and fall apart... hence wet feet. so monday saw me on a cheap walking boot hunt around manchester. cheap walking boots however, not a cheap hunt as i had to stop for yummy cappaccinos while i finished my book and hid from the windy horrendous rain which succeeded in breaking my umbrella before i reached my last spanish lesson of my course. tuesday... massive gym workout, did all the usual cardio, then decided i had time to kill and went to an 'urban funk' dance class. on my way to a celebratory meal with my spanish classmates at a brazilian restaurant, had a spare half hour so thought i would grab a lil glass of wine. easier said than done as i battled against the weather, certain that my black eye makeup was currently running down my face, and that my curls which i had carefully created, were now a windswept mess of tangles. arrived in a bar to get my wine, red in the face, and asked the nearest person if my face was covered in black. obviously didn't decide on my person of choice carefully enough, as this was answered with "of course not..you have the face of an angel" by some drunken, sleazy old man...dear lord..why me?! with a fleeting grimace, whilst the bar staff were glancing at me pityingly, i slunk off to my sad little corner with my sad little glass of white wine, in the knowledge that i was never going to find a hot young guy and that only sleazy old men are interested in me!!

wednesday night, well and wednesday day, and i literally could not move, stupid lovely gym guys who convinced me that dance class after full workout would be a good idea. was lay on the sofa watching sex and the city with my head, and collar bone and arm and back and every other inconceivable place making me wince with pain whenever i moved. so after all this gyming and my best friend coming home from university for the weekend, on thursday we headed out, with my sister, to a traditional little greek restaurant to gorge ourselves on a mountainous banquet of meze. i being nominated as the designated driver (well i nominated myself after too much alcohol at the brazilian affair on tuesday) sat back with a tiny, winy, miniscule glass of red, whilst my sister and my best friend managed to polish off two bottles of house red between them?! no more said...

friday and well it was friday = five o clock, two for one bellinis at my favourite after work bar, followed by a bit of naughty shopping. got home to gorgeous three course meal with the rents with a bottle of white italian wine we brought back from venice in october. finished my week in the best possible way.. best friend, bottle of red and dvd box set of sex and the city.

went shopping with mum today, supposedly for the ingredients for my lemon pud im cooking tonight. however... as we neared our favourite boutique (actually the only single place that offers nice clothes in a twenty mile radius of our home) we slowed down, our eyes lingering, hypnotized on the huge 50% (AND MORE!!) sale sign in the window. now i have never ever known anywhere as nice as this shop that does as amazing sales as here... today (yes we eventually surrendered to our cravings) i bought a pair of wonderfully stretchy black skinny jeans (size 9?! hurrah) that were armani reduced from £175 to £40!!!!!!!!!!! i mean come on......

so on leaving with new ted baker shorts and the skinny jeans i realised my recent problems caused by my chocolate gorging addiction and resulting tight trousers has been due to my will power in another department...SHOPPING! for the past 6 months i have battled one of my worst addictions and feel good pick me ups, in order to save money for my travels. although my bank liked this, my waistline has not and instead of that pair of heels after work (or what used to be college) to cheer me up has turned into a few choccies from thortons. so walking the streets swinging my sale bag of lovely new clothes (hee hee i know how cheesy) i felt soooo happy and now need to not binge even one tiny bit if i want to still fit in my new skinnies.

decided to take the father and the dog for a very very long walk up some kind of hill tomorrow as i have the entire weekend off work (woop!) whether this foul weather is present or not, in "training" for future mountains on my travels. problems in my upped training however is my thighs + skinny jeans. yesterday got on the treadmill after work and managed to pound my way through 40 minutes and 6 1/2 km again... feeling really good afterwards and healthy and fit. however, as my thighs are gaining muscle and consequently struggling to fit into what used to be lovely snug trousers (so it's not just the chocolate). i wish there was some way to have strong muscles but small; quality not quantity lol. my thoughts are however, that at least they are firm and don't wibble like fat flabby thighs and plus, nothing will beat the view from the top of a huge Andes mountain will it?

I am at the height of laziness this morning, guiltily watching christina aguilarila (what the hell?!) in bed with my computer perched on my lap... verrrry cosy. this however is exactly where i have wanted to be all week, as I braved the cold weather and early mornings, greatly helped along with my new, extremely warm sheepskin mittens, which totally cause me to be able to do absolutely nothing. very good workout yesterday after work, defo getting fitter, vitally important for those mountains i'm going attempt when i go traveling. its true to know when they say it releases those hormones like chocolate, i really did feel very happy and content afterwards. content enough to head out for many a cosmopolitan and scrummy sweet shooters, which always cause no end of hilariousity whilst trying to avoid spilling baileys on my favourite pink pashmina.

arrived at my fridge door around midnight after luckily not falling asleep on the last train home again (see rather unlucky events in previous blogs). was greeted with yummy salad my mum had thoughtfully saved for me, which i quickly devoured having not eaten anything all day but happily put away a days calorie intake of cocktails. then i found that lemon cake from the other day mmmmmmm...............

very happy twenty four hours, possibly due to early finishes at work, which enabled me to chill for hours with my book in a quirky hippy cafe, munching cheap vegan food. so yesterday, with a full (but healthy...) stomach, i made my way to spanish where Hurrah! hot guy was back. hid from the rain under my new fluffy grey hat as i trudged through the manchester shops, finally spending my christmas voucher on a new bag, kinda beachy and summery but i like it and who knows it may attempt to cheer up the weather as well as me.

continued the healthy theme today with two meals consisting of soup?! and vegetarian soup! i know?! actually come to think of it, the majority of my nutrition intake today consisted of liquidised substances, not just soup but yummy yummy blueberry smoothies at work. the latter was mainly to calm my nerves against crazy ladies in strange hats. so after all my healthiness, i indulged in the most gorgeous lemon cake my mum made, so fresh it was still warm and gooey. so after my luscious lemoniness and my jab against nasty diseases at the doctors, im snuggled in front of the sofa with good old hollyoaks. xx

i brought back from venice and finally cooked the most magical, fantastical, multicoloured pasta I've ever seen in my life yesterday evening for best mate and parents (all of whom provide much loved relaxed entertainment around the dinnertable) back to the pasta.... which was described with no stretch of the imagination - picture thick, stripy, zig-zaggy edged, orange, yellow, green and orange and black pasta... i no.. WOW!! never mind the taste, i managed to stun the folks as they sat gazing at this mound of unbelievably, weirdly stylish food lying on their plate. and yeah... the taste was ok.. i pride myself in finding outrageously coloured food rather than the cooking of it though hee hee.

I've not written in ages, particularly over christmas.. really missed it actually.. and you've all missed out on my wonderful christmas festivities. not really felt up to writing actually.. probably due to a total overindulgence in vodka/cranberries (my winter concoction) On the same theme, many a cosmopolitan followed, as well as the usual; red wine, mulled wine etc etc. to attempt to restore my brain to any kind of functioning form, i gorged myself on chocolate in the days in between the nights out, which seemed to be every other day. so as you can see.. got into a kind of pattern; terribly drunken but wonderful nights out involving lots of cranberry juice and (cough cough) more vodka, school girl costumes and gay bars with gay friends (not so much moi being in this camp), followed by lazy day recovering the following 24 hours, with the sofa, my new sex and the city box set and the mountainous boxes of christmas chocolates that have seemed to taken up residence in our house.

no idea how i attempted to go to work in any days over christmas, although i did seem to occupy the building at certain times.. quite sure my brain was definitely elsewhere. what else... very funny incident involving a family boxing day dinner with lots of the family, including a cousin who I last (embarrassingly) saw in a club in London (see woo hoo cocktail induced blog). more embarrassing family moments included turning up to a gorgeous sushi restaurant, where my sister is holding her 18th party, (very hehe) slightly tipsy from drinking straight after work on an empty stomach, wearing my good old trilbry, blue shoe boots and flirting with an extremely tall, cute waiter. decided post work vodka, plus wine to wash down the sushi wasn't enough and proceeded into town to dance to old tunes with my friend and very very cute guy.

decided not to partake in new year's resolutions this year.. in the full knowledge that i definitely definitely should! thought about what I should give up; alcohol, coffee, chocolate, late nights etc. decided that i quite like (well more than quite) all the latter and that in no way did i want to deprive myself of these necessities... so im not doing Happy New Year! xx