Tag: imperial spice tea

OK, here is the rain!

Well as predicted it rained loads on the way too and from the airport last night, not good as a lot of the journey is country roads. But all was fine, although I only managed about 5 hours sleep!

I popped into work this morning, and then went to Starbucks with some buddies- along with my usual chai tea (I love their chai tea, so spicy) I had a cinnamon roll. My, that was delicious.

After that I had to do a few jobs, and once I got home I decided to have my run before lunch. I was aiming for a shorter, faster run today, and was hoping that the cooler weather would help that.  So I headed out on the 3.7 mile course (this time with music for a change as I think I run faster to music). After 7 minutes it started raining, which was gentle at first, so cool and refreshing. I even passed a few other runners as the rain got heavier, and they were all very friendly and cheerful. I do think that when the weather is worse, runners are a more friendly bunch- we are all thinking “arent we crazy to be out in this?”.

By the end the rain was very heavy- the water was running in my eyes and I was regretting not wearing my tennis visor, plus I got a little worried that my top may start to go see-through (thankfully it hadn’t) and I am sure that helped me to speed up as I managed the route in 34 minutes. I am sure last time I did it, it was 37 minutes, and according to my Nike+ I did the first mile in 8.48 (wow), then 9.24 (still good and had a little stitch) and then 9.12. So a much faster pace than I am used to, but it is good for me to do this as I would like to speed up a little bit. I need to remember to take advantage of the cooler weather as I am much better in it.

Anyway, tomorrow I have friends over so guess what-

Yes folks, that means baking!

I made some carrot cakes (still yet to ice and may even take a pic tomorrow)- from the Hummingbird Bakery book. The recipe is for one big cake, so I did 1/3 of the recipe (as it was 300g this, 300ml that, 3 eggs etc), and made 8 cupcakes. Looking good so far.

Now one friend is a coeliac, so I have made some gluten free cornflake bites with G-F chocolate, plus some Nature’s Path flakes. I have baked for her in the past but it makes me so nervous in case there is a shred of flour left from previous baking, so making something like that was easier.

Anyone else worry about that? It would be similar I suppose to cooking for someone with a severe allergy, and although I do clean, put stuff through the dishwasher etc, the flour is so fine it gets anywhere. Anyway hopefully she will like them 🙂

I am off for some more spice imperial tea (black tea with vanilla, orange, cloves and cinnamon) – yum.

Thanks for all the comments too, I really appreciate them

🙂

Running vest dilemma

Well, I was supposed to be doing down to the south coast for the day, and then I was going to do a long run tomorrow. But in the end I didn’t go down, and tomorrow it is supposed to tip with rain, so went out today. I had some bircher museli for breakfast, and pottered about as per usual. I loaded up my mp3 player with the newest marathon talk podcast, and got ready. For some reason I had no running tops left (all in the wash whoops) so had to make do with an old “workout” vest that is actually made of cotton. Not good. (It was that or wear one out the dirty wash basket which I could not face- what would you do?).

Anyway my run was ok, it was very muggy again today, and after 40 minutes the sun came out and it was baking- I had to stop and walk in the shade for a minute to cool down. I ran around the lakes and then a double loop through the park (had to stop again and sort my sock out which was rubbing on my toe). In the end I did 8 miles which is my longest run since before holiday (and possibly since my half marathon, not sure). I think I was pretty consistent, although the Nike+ shows some slower miles (due to me stopping I think)- my fastest was 8.48, and my slowest was 11.28 (which was when I stopped for a bit), and altogether was bang on 80 minutes.

When I got home I had some chocolate nesquick (yum, had forgotten how good that is) and after my shower I realised it was lunch time! I had a slice of sunflower seed rye bread with goats cheese, and then cooked up some spinach and cherry tomatoes, and added some basil pesto. Delish. I was still hungry so went for blueberries, yoghurt, blob of plum compote and a sprinkle of fru-grains. Yum.

I sat here and did some work, and realised I was getting stiff, so decided to have a walk. I went about 2 miles, plus a little wander around the shops (I treated myself to some new tea- teabags and loose leaf tea “Imperial Spice” which is black tea with orange and spices). When I got home I had a cup of spice tea (verdict- delish as always well done Whitards), plus some banana bread with choc PB.

Since then I have done a little more work, plus updated the “about me” page, and added a list of the blogs I follow.

🙂