August in Photos

Urgh, major iPhone problems. Sorry this is so late! I'm off to Spain this afternoon so I'll be back in just over a week! I can't wait to have a week of reading, relaxing and (hopefully) distancing myself from the online world!

Anyway, here's what I got up to in August...

 1. Friday night is wine night

2. First ever parkrun!

I've written about this experience here, but it really was an amazing achievement for me!

3. Post-run bagel

I was really unnecessarily stingy with the smoked salmon. ALWAYS MORE SMOKED SALMON.

 4-5. 90s night and chinese food

My cousin came over a few weeks ago and we had a night of watching Saved by the Bell and Sabrina the Teenager Witch with chinese takeaway and sweets! I almost never get a takeaway, and I couldn't tell you the last I had chinese! It was a nice treat.

6. Mango and banana smoothie

FYI, frozen mango is amazing.

 7. Bored Sunday baking

My parents went on holiday at the start of the month and I was climbing the walls with boredom. So I baked cookies, of course.

8. A bit of rain won't stop us!
My best friend Eve and I had decided to go take advantage of a Pizza Express voucher I had, but my parents were away and I don't have a car so we had to walk. And it was hammering it down. So I grabbed my wellies, got Eve and pair of tights and we went out in waterproofs. I also jumped in a lot of puddles.

9. Pizza Express Dough Balls

Of course.

 10. Leggara Pizza

I am a sucker for anything with goat's cheese, roasted vegetables and salad. Especially if it's on a pizza.

11. Post-run coffee

After my 5.30am run, sitting down for a coffee and a relax before getting ready for work is one of my favourite moments of the day.

12. Another lunch salad

This time with prawns and homemade croutons.

 13. Offical Parkrun Card!

This makes me feel super special on a Saturday

14. Thai red vegetable curry

Recipe here.

15. Gorgeous sunset on my morning run

#nofilter

 16. Bad Day Ice Cream

Because I'm a grown up and therefore allowed to eat ice cream before dinner.

17. Friday night pool

Intern Joe absolutely massacred mine and Kris' valiant efforts!

18. Cheeky upgrade

Honest truth? I've had a lot of problems with it so far and don't feel it's been worth it. BUT, I had broken the lock button on my iPhone 4...

 19. Second Park Run result

Beating my time by 2 minutes 6 seconds!

20. Skincare bits

I had one of those consultations in Boots and love the Beautiful Skin range for oily skin. Also using night cream makes me feel like a grown up.

21. Travel minis!

Why are little things so exciting?!

 22-24. Eve's leaving shenanigans 

My BFF Eve has selfishly gone off travelling for three month. I KNOW, ABANDONMENT MUCH?! I miss her like crazy. (oh and I'm wearing the outfit from this post. A guy came up to me and just said "BREAKING BAD YEAH! DO YOU LOVE IT?!")

 25. I like salad

Cous cous, avocado, chickpeas and onions.

26. Breaking Badddddddddddd

How awesome is Season 5b? It really is the best programme on TV.

27. Banana chocolate chip muffins

Leftover bananas can only mean one thing. Also, adding peanut butter was amazing.

 28. Giant Pretzels!

This is my favourite photo from Berlin. Brandenburg gate, giant pretzel, favourite dress, stupid face. What more do you need?

29. Book readin'

I started this on audiobook while I was doing my 3 week road trip last year but I kept falling asleep while listening to it and forgetting where I was up to! After learning so much about German history in Berlin I bought this at the airport. I really enjoyed it.

30. First Graze box!

Joe at work had one of those free vouchers so I gave it a go. I really enjoyed it, but it's an expensive treat so I've been trying to steal their ideas for my own snacks!

 31. Kidney bean and carrot burgers

I've become obsessed with A Girl Called Jack over the last few weeks. If you've never read her blog, seriously, check it out. We had these yummy kidney bean and carrot burgers, which Jack estimates as costing 9p each!

32. Sick day food

After one day back in work after holiday, I was poorly on Wednesday night and reluctantly took the day off work. My mum was at a meeting nearby and called me asking if I wanted anything and I asked for my usual ill foods- Heinz tomato soup, crusty bread and a Cadbury's Wispa. 

33. Breaking Bad Alchemy

To make me feel less grumpy about being ill I downloaded the Breaking Bad Alchemy iBook for iPad. It's very cool.

 34. Jacket potato cheese and beanssssss

I always, always take my own food to work (that's why you see so many photos of salad on here!), but I felt so rubbish going back into work on Friday that I didn't want to take anything for lunch. I was feeling better later on so I had an amazing jacket potato, cheese and beans from the little cafe near work. Nom.

35. A client brought donoughts!
Truthfully, I'm not a big doughnut fan, but I do enjoy the occasional Krispy Kreme if offered! The only downside was after a day being off ill, a doughnut might not have been the answer!

36. A perfect Saturday afternoon

We'd talked about going to the cinema on the Saturday night of the bank holiday weekend but after running errands with my Mum in the morning, I started to feel pretty rough and wanted an early night. So my Dad suggested an afternoon cinema trip! We went to see Alan Patridge: Alpha Papa, which if you haven't seen, you have to go and see, and then my Dad treated us to a lovely early dinner at Alberts. I had the most amazing chestnut and aubergine tagine.

 37. Thai fishcakes

We went to my Auntie and Uncle's for dinner on bank holiday Sunday and my Auntie made these gorgeous fish cakes. Fish cake are pretty much my favourite food. Especially Thai ones!

38. Best cheesecake everrrrrr

And my Auntie made cheesecake. Not just any cheesecake, but white chocolate and raspberry chesecake. And it was THE BEST CHEESECAKE EVER. I seriously haven't stopped talking about it!

39. Sunday night Wii Sports

And after dinner, in an attempt to burn off that cheesecake (haha), we had a night of fun on the Wii. Turns out I'm pretty good at Wii golf and Wii basketball. Less good at bowling and fencing though!

 40. Banana ice cream, peanut butter and chocolate chips

I had loads of frozen bananas to use up, so I made banana ice cream (if you've never made one ingredient banana ice cream, you really need to try it!). I added chocolate chips and peanut butter. Om nom.

41. Garden reading

42. And then watching the film

I loved Mysterious Skin and read it in a couple of days. The film was also amazing (I am a huge Joseph Gordon Levitt fan!) although I think I traumatised my Mum by asking her to watch it with me!

 43. Friday night pub tea

Disappointing falafel burger (if it's in a pitta, it's not a burger!) but great company with Shaunagh.

44. New winter boots

Yeah so I've totally started working on my winter wardrobe already. I'm planning to make these my main winter boots this year.

45. Saturday Brunch

Saturday brunch is kinda mine and my Mum's thing. I do Parkrun at 9am and get back about 10am, jump in the shower and then make us something yummy, usually with eggs! This week I made goat's cheese, sundried tomato and sweet potato frittata. And it was every bit as good as it sounds.

 46. Cheese and ketchup toasties are da bomb.

I insisted on buying a toastie maker a few months ago and we were really into toasties for like... a month. Then it went back in the cupboard with the ice cream maker and brownie maker (don't ask). But on Saturday I was like OH MY GOD I WANT A TOASTIE. So good.

47-48. Saturday night makeup

This is a look from the UD Smoked Palette, which I really recommend.

49. Unexpected PB!

I took over a week off from running with being on holiday and then I was ill, and I hadn't done Park Run for three weeks. I'd done a couple of 5Ks the week before my Saturday race but I didn't have my fitness right back up. So a PB, shaving 45 seconds off my time, was an amazing surprise!

50-51. Saturday night party time

It was my cousin's wife's (cousin in law's?!) 30th birthday on Saturday night. I wore my red Jones and Jones dress (of course!), leapard booties and a leather jacket and danced the night away to the 5ive Megamix!