Oh My...I've got a home Gym!

So since moving out to Oxford and living with the boyfriend (yes I've grown up - more on that later) I had to leave the lovely Easy Gym in Slough, with it's £15.99 no contract membership and it's lovely orange walls. I now live in a city and work in a business park and the only nice gym that I have fairly easy access too is £80 a month, so it was either run the streets of Oxford (but it’s getting cold and dark) or build my own little home gym.

Our first purchase was the Cross Trainer – I’ve always been a BIG fan of the cross trainer – as it is the only machine that makes you run. I’ve been on it a couple of times and I can tell you we grabbed an absolute BARGAIN with it. It just like a cross trainer you would find at the gym but not bulky. However you cannot all go and buy this bargain because I got it off eBay, so it’s a one off. there are some great second hand gym equipment going on eBay, so I encourage anyone looking to get any type of gym equipment to have a look on there first before heading over to Argos etc.

The next purchase was a set of weights; I’ve got 2 dumbbells and a long bar and 25KG of weights to distribute between them, these were only purchased yesterday evening so I can start my training to becoming the next Jodie Marsh (though I think she used slightly more than 25KG).

In total my home Gym has costs me £100….which is one and quarter month’s membership for the fancy Gym opposite work and me and K can use it (though he’s still yet too!).

My Trip to New York

I’ve just spent a week in the big apple and the diet plan went out the window. However when I was there I did discover this phenomenon called walking in the great outdoors!! Its amazing! I’ve even brought it back to england with me…anyway we’ll get onto that later. First I want to share with you a few things I learnt about the big apple and all it has to offer.

So before I left, lots of people very kindly gave various different forms of advice about NYC from their experiences so here is mine:


Macy’s is tacky, its lures tourist in by giving them 10 per cent off- but this is done by other department stores in the city too. If you visit the much classier establishment of bloomingdales where the staff aren’t constantly in your face, you will receive a lovely atmosphere as well as 11 per cent off if your not a new yorker!

American fashion is either very preppy or just very last season european, I found this at the shops but the girls there seemed to dress normally. 5th ave is rubbish, unless you can afford the like of chanel and dior. Yes they do have the normal high street chains but see above to what I found in the shops.

The posh chain shops may be very expensive but if you visit the department stores they have some amazing bargain. We even found a dress that had gone from 88 dollars down to 15.

The staff everywhere are overly friendly!!! Now in a way this is good but when you come from a very british environment like mine we are definitely not use to this and find this “too in your face”. We expect staff to be lazy and have a “can’t be bothered attitude” so us brits have become quiet accumsted to this, and find the friendly attitude too much.

Everyone drinks venti sized coffee’s (that’s 20 oz of coffee for people that don’t frequent starbucks). No wonder everyone is overly friendly.

The portion sizes are huge e.g. One day I ordered parmeasean encrusted chicken with pasta in a tomato sauce. Now I would normally expect some pasta, chicken (one breast usually) and some side salad, but instead you receive two large chicken breast and a bowl full of pasta. This was enough to feed a small 3rd world nation. The chicken breast were huge and only 1/2 – 3/4 of one would be more than enough.

The drinks are strong. Like europe they don’t use measures to measure the amount of spirit per a drink (well not in the bars we went too) they just count, now don’t get me wrong this is not a complaint! I couldn’t ask for better! If your near time square, go to smith’s bar. Very big sports bar, cheap as chips. 2 drinks for 9 dollars!

The new york sky line, claims to be one of the best in the world. To be honest its just a whole load of different size blocks put together (I could do a better job with Duplo)- looks like a concrete jungle and when walking through the streets let’s very little natural light in.

A ride on the metro is a must (well it was for me). I’m a frequent user of the london underground and I love checking out other cities underground system, to compare! Their stations aren’t as nice as our interior wise, but what they lack in that they make up for with their carriages. They are roomy and air conditioned! Also if your lucky ( or some may say unlucky) a homeless man pops insides sing you a song and asks you for money. You don’t have to pay him, not many do but if he’s good you get to enjoy some live music in your journey. We have an exceptional homeless man do a very crowd pleasing rendition of a sam cooke number. I was very tempted to follow him into each carriage at each stop- but my instinct told me it wouldn’t be wise. Also each journey is $2.25, no matter if your going one stop of 70. As long as you don’t leave the station you only pay once, which I think is an amazing idea- one they should introduce to london (however knowing boris that solo cost would be 5 pounds).

Okay so I’ve complained an awful lot in this , but I did have an amazing time, and I wouldn’t change a day of it! NYC may have its faults but which city is perfect? It was very metropolitan and very welcoming but nothing compared to our city of dreams, as they say…you can take the girl out of london but you can never take london out of the girl!

PS. Hope you like the photos, I was extremely snappy happy while I was there, and there were 3 of us on holiday, myself, the boyfriend and merkovo (as seen in the photos).

Brolly Dolly

Not sure if you've noticed....but England has developed this thing called 'June Showers'and they definitely seem to be getting in the way of my summer, as the only time I'm outside is if I'm on my way to work or in a pub garden.

I got of the bus the other day and landed in a puddle, not dressed for the occasion either, wearing flats, leggings and a thin cardigan. Which I can assure you is not waterproof or appropriate Summer clothing. Anyway as I got off my bus, I did what every Londoner should do, reach for the handy umbrella, but I’m not too sure if this was the ingenious idea that I thought it would be as I made those first initial steps of the bus into wetland.


So you may ask why I am questioning the idea of the Umbrella in London. Well as I was rushing (because that’s what you do in London, even if your not running late, your still always rushing and if your not rushing your probably a tourist), I was avoiding the usual hustle and bustle of Oxford street, the tourist, the leaf let distrubutors etc. but trying to avoid all of these as well as umbrellas turned out to be more of a nightmare than I intended. I was dodging Umbrella’s left right and centre, crossing roads was hell, as it would be a sea of concentrated umbrellas. The larger Umbrella for the couples got in everyone way as they had no regard for us singleton umbrellas and we were completely pushed out the way. The people drying out their umbrella’s outside shops were spraying people as they walked past, but the most annoying thing was the people who didn’t have umbrella trying to keep dry under yours….GET YOUR OWN or use a newspaper. So I got to my destination, I was still completely soaked through; my ceramicaly straightened hair turned to frizz and my feet were drowning in my shoes. As I passed the extra trendy “oxford streeters” as I call them, who wear wonderful effortless clothes, look amazing 24/7, wear sunglasses no matter the time of year and are stared at with awe but me and the other fashion wannabes, they had no umbrella and perfect hair- why is life so unfair?


Seeing the sea of umbrella, sprung another light bulb in my head: Umbrella Fashion. Around 90% of the umbrellas on show were the plain small black umbrella, that folds in nicely and fits into ones handbag with ease, and as far as umbrella fashion (and any fashion for that matter) are boring. This is London, one of the worlds fashion capitals, with such diversity and wonderful taste surely us Londoners can resort to something more than the standard small black and plain, come on London, and Oxford Street I am ashamed of you especially. Add some style to your umbrella; after all it is the Essential British Accessory.