Author: Maria Runs

Hey peeps

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend- the weather seemed better than expected. The hen weekend was a good one (no fires which is always a bonus haha)- nice and relaxed in a massive farmhouse near Southwold.

We had games on Friday night, then a pub lunch on Saturday. In the afternoon some girls were having treatments at a spa, so some of us went into Southwold to have a look, and I am so glad I did- it was so pretty.

The beach huts were so pretty- but we saw one in the estate agents for £45,000, and another for £70,000! Mental!

We walked along the pier and it was so windy!

But so pretty too- no tacky rides or doughnut stalls here! The shop on the pier sold Emma Bridgewater stuff

There was a clock on the pier too- built out of metal and things, and it had water flowing through it, and when the bath was full the water tipped out and a gong went off.  You can see the wind blowing the water out sideways at the top.

One view from the pier.

And the other side. We wandered around the town, went for a cup of tea, and walked again by the sea.

Anyway, Saturday evening we headed back to the house, had some wine and cheese tasting (or grape eating for me haha!) food, and the best thing- a DVD of Mr and Mrs- the bridemaids had asked the groom questions and filmed his answers (and the bride-to-be has to guess his answers)- I have played it before but it has always been with answers written down. It was so sweet seeing him answer the questions.

Anyway, it was another late night, but luckily there was no rush to leave, and our drive back was not too bad. I think I am going to have a little run in a bit- I feel like the last 2 weeks I have lost my routine totally, and I need to get back on track.

Anyway- have you ever been to Southwold? I had not even heard of it but it seems like loads of people go there.

Hope you all had a good weekend. 🙂

Hey peeps

Hope everyone is well and not too soggy after this rain we have been having- we were lucky today and it was not too bad- I managed a run after work (only a short one, not quite 3 miles) before it rained here.

I did another Sweatshop run yesterday, and I must say I am loving them- we did the same route as the time I got totally drenched- nice to actually see it this time (and a rabbit- woo!). Although it was a bit strange because there was a girl who was a bit ahead of me, then I caught her up (and had to show her the way as she was not sure) and I eventually ended up about 20m ahead of her (not through trying, but I think she set off fast and slowed, whereas I started off slow and got faster)- anyway, at the end I stopped outside the shop to chat to another girl, and she cut the corner off, sprinted through the car park and into the shop, and sort of made out that she came in before me when I walked back into the shop! I found it weird because it is not timed, like a Parkrun. But it doesn’t bother me (and I finished with 4 people behind me! Unlike the last 2 times where I was totally last)- I don’t mind being at the back anyway.

Exercise has been a bit crammed at the moment- last week I did a run Friday after work, Saturday evening, then we were in Nice until late Thursday night. Then I had a short run Friday morning, before heading off to Brighton. I was going to have a run on Sunday when I got back, but I was so exhausted that I rested instead. This week I went out Monday on my own (about 3.4 miles), the Sweatshop run on Wednesday (and I jogged there and back too- the route is just over 3 miles, but in total it was probably 4.5 miles) and then a short one today. Tomorrow I am off for another hen weekend, so won’t be running until Sunday at least. But hopefully after that I will get back into a routine. Can you believe that the other week I went out running in cycling shorts (would still like some that are slightly longer) because it was so hot?

That was while our bathroom was still being done- explains all the mess in the background! 

Today I had goose pimples as the wind was so cold.

We had to go shopping this evening, and it was all worth it when I saw this in Sainsbury’s:

PB&Co- on offer (save 29p!!!)- they had smooth and crunchy, but I got two lots of smooth. Yum. I used to see it in Tescos, but have not seen it there for ages, so it was exciting. Plus some Rooibos Earl Grey to try.

We bought back some yummy chocolate from Nice- white and dark chocolate with coconut, chocolate with popped quinoa (how “blogger”!) and dark chocolate with earl grey tea, which is really yummy!

Oh, and thanks for the comments on the post yesterday- Good Hemp have asked me if there are any other bloggers who fancy trying their products, so if you do, then leave a comment and I will let them know.

Right, have a lovely weekend all- I need to finish packing!  🙂

A while ago I was sent some Good Hemp products to try out. I thought I would be sent a few sample packs, but I was sent a massive box- it has been keeping me going for a while!

Some hemp seed oil (Original, and Mild and Light), some shelled hemp seeds, some plain hemp protein, and two flavoured shake mixes (strawberry and chocolate).

I loved the sprinkles and have been adding them to salads and dinners to add some crunch. They are not as crunchy as seeds, and when I put them into some bread I could not really taste them, but when they are on their own they have a faint nutty taste.

I really liked the oils too- I have used them for roasting vegetables, and in general cooking in place of our usual olive/rapeseed oil. Sometimes when it burns it has a bit of an unusual taste, and so I am not sure I would use it in a sweet recipe (like a carrot cake) but for normal cooking it has been great.

I was not such a fan of the hemp proteins- I tried the chocolate one first, and I just found it had a funny after-taste. I was not sure if that was the sweetener used, or the hemp in it, but it did not taste much like chocolate to me. I also found it hard to mix, although I did see some reviews on the internet say to mix it and then leave it a few minutes for the hemp to dissolve a bit, and when I tried that it seemed to work a bit better.

I found the strawberry one similar- it had a strange aftertaste. I didn’t try the plain hemp protein on its own, but I used it in Laura’s wonderful cherry protein brownies, and it was lovely in those.

You could taste the hemp powder, and it tasted less sweet, but not bitter or anything like that. My favourite way to use it anyway.

I will be making them a lot I am sure.

Anyway, hemp protein has many benefits: it is 47% protein, contains all the essential amino acids, and is rich in omega 3, so it is a great addition to any diet. You can read more about it here. The website also has some lovely looking recipes (I like the look of the carrot cake) so I will be trying them out at some point too, I am sure.

I feel like I would rather get my protein from whole foods instead of powders, but I also know that I don’t always have protein heavy meals, and I do feel better (more full anyway, and more recovered after body pump) if I have had more protein, so powders are convenient. I think I prefer the plain hemp powder to the flavoured, as then at least I can add my own flavour to it.

But I liked using the oils and the sprinkles 🙂

Do you ever use protein powders? How do you incorporate them into your diet if you do use them? Any good recipes to try?

And thanks to Good Hemp for letting me try them 🙂

Hey peeps

I am still totally shattered from the weekend, so I am not sure that typing a lot will make much sense- I had a non-stop day at work today (eating lunch while typing- I can multi-task) and finally got home at 6.30.

So I am just going to show some photos from Nice- these were taken with my phone so they are tiny, compared to the ones Andy took with his camera (but he has not sorted them out yet).

The beautiful sea.

The beach was pebbles, so we did walk on it some times, but tended to stay on the path bit (promenade?).

A couple of evenings we walked right to the end, and it goes up a bit higher so you have the view of the whole cove (or whatever it is called)- the sun was shining still and I love how it reflects off the water, although the picture didn’t come out too well.

The final day- I could just look at the colour of the sea and sky all day.

There were people sun bathing all the time (plenty of brown and wrinkly leather skin), and we also got caught in a rain/hail/thunderstorm at one point (we had to go back to the hotel, we were soaked through, and as we each only had one pair of shoes with us, had to try to dry our shoes with my hairdryer).

Anyway, it was such a lovely place to visit- very Italian feeling (lots of gelato- yum)- we went to Monaco for the day on the train, and walked around the Grand Prix track (as it was the previous week the grandstands were being packed away still, and a lot of the signs were still up) and then a few other towns on the train on another day. The old town was lovely for a wander, and there was a lovely flower market too. We even went to a modern art museum (how cultured) but I was not really a fan of much of it at all, and a museum of the history of Nice, but it was all in French so I could not translate that much! Anyway, a lovely place to visit.

It might be one of my favourite European places to visit- I love Barcelona, and that has the sea and also loads of parks, but then it also had more of the street hassle. Have you ever been? What is your favourite place in Europe to visit?

Hey all

I hope everyone enjoyed the Jubilee celebrations- they seem a long time ago now. We had a lovely time in Nice- I had not been before and it was lovely- a place I would recommend for sure. We got home at about 1am Thursday night (or Friday morning) and I was off for the hen weekend Friday lunch time, so it was a speedy turn around. I even managed a quick run on Friday morning before breakfast, before unpacking and packing.

I convinced my friends to go to the naked tea and coffee for some lunch, and of course some tea! I love the teapots.

We did a spot of shopping:

Lovely Zest pesto, teabags, and some coffee truffles for Andy.

Plus a case for my sunglasses- they are quite big and I have never found a case to fit them, so normally have to pack them in a tuppaware tub!

We went for a walk by the sea (and even had some ice cream) but it was so windy and the waves were huge! They must have been easily 6ft high!

Then headed to the house where we had a lovely evening (caterers in, games after).

Then events got rather dramatic- we all went to bed, and my friend (who was in a bunk bed above me) got up to go to the toilet at about 3.30- I heard her get up, and then I heard her say “Oh my God there is a fire”- I thought I had drifted off and so I shouted “Are you awake?” as I was a bit panicked, but also wondered if she was dreaming. I got up, and saw the orange glow coming from the garden. By then a few other girls had woken up, and we realised that the wooden surround for the swimming pool was on fire- it looked like a garden bench at first. She called the fire brigade (there was a fire blanket and an extinguisher, but we wondered whether it was electrical as it was in lines on the surround), and then we decided to wait outside in the road (we did stop to get coats and shoes on over our PJ’s even though we know with a fire you should not stop- we figured as it was not in the house we had a minute). My friend even called the fire service again as they seemed to take an age (the two calls were only ten minutes apart, but when there is a big fire, that seems a long time)- there were huge ashes and sparks and smoke pouring over the roof as it was really windy.

Finally they turned up, and as soon as they saw it they were getting axes to chop off the wood- the swimming pool was about a metre from the house and surrounded by wooden decking.

We did make the classic hen party jokes about strippers, and my friend even got her photo taken!

By the time they left it was about 5am (we had to call the land lady too), and so of course we all took photos of the aftermath.

All the wood they chopped off.

Some of the burnt bits.

And more.

The decking had burnt right through in places. Anyway, we eventually went to bed for a couple of hours, but no-one really slept, as an electrician had to come out (it was an electrical fire as some water had got to the plug under the pool), and someone had to come and re-fit and test the smoke alarms. We had taxis booked for the next day so we could not just lay in.

Anyway, everyone was rather shell shocked, and so relieved that my friend had woken up in the night and smelt the smoke (she thought someone was burning joss sticks and went to check it out) as who knows what would have happened otherwise.

Anyway, after some dozing we got ready and went for a walk on the pier before afternoon tea for lunch at this place. The decor is just hilarious, and I cannot do it justice, so check it out! We tried to have an afternoon nap, but I think the adrenaline was still going.

Then we got all dolled up and went to the Brighton Ballroom for an evening of dinner, burlesque and dancing.

It was fun, and we were going to stay til 2am, but by midnight we were all flagging (but trying to keep it up for the hen) so we decided to go back. Seeing as some people had only had about an hour of sleep on Friday night, I think we did pretty well!

Anyway, I think the tiredness hit me today- we had a good journey back but then I have been trying to do work this afternoon and my brain is just rather foggy! Ah well, it was a memorable one anyway.

I might post some Nice photos later this week, when I have caught up!

Anyway, please can you all go and check your smoke alarms right now. And what did I miss this week?