Life lately....I have moved to paradise............

Hello from the beach

I am back after a few weeks of silence here on the blog. My husband and I have been busy moving house from Berkshire to North Devon. We initially were hoping to be moving back to Germany for a few years but my husband got posted to Devon instead. I was a bit miffed at first because a lot of our plans fell through but now we are here I could not be happier. It's one of the most beautiful areas in the UK I have been to and I still can not believe I get to live here for the next three years. 

I'm going to leave you with a few impressions of our first few outing here, exploring the local area.

Saunton sands, this is the closest beach to us and I love how endlessly long it is. 

We haven't filled up our car since we left Reading two weeks ago as you can cycle everywhere around here. I love it!

View of Appledore from Instow across the river Torridge. So pretty!

So soooooo happy!

The view of the cliffs in Lee

Have you ever been to Devon? If yes, what are your favourite places to visit/things to do and see? Please share as I don't want to miss out on anything while we are here. If you have never been, I highly recommend a visit. It's just so, so beautiful. 

Beach Boys at Number 10 Downing Street

well..............almost.

A little over a week ago one of my husbands colleagues asked us if we would fancy joining him for a day in London to the British Summer Time concert series in Hyde Park. It sounded like a good idea especially since the tickets were free to us from Ticket for Troops. 

On the way to Hyde park, we passed Downing Street and our friend Lewis suggested we see if we can get in for a picture. Perk number two, soldiers and police get through the gate to the front door. So we got our picture. Mr. Cameron was out watching Murray win Wimbledon. I guess that's OK on a Sunday ;-) especially considering the outcome.

After that we made our way to Hyde Park. I hadn't checked the line up as I was told the Saturdays and JLS were playing amongst others, which I am not at all interested in seeing ever but as I said, the tickets were free, the company was fun and we didn't have anything better to do. Once we got there I found out that the Beach Boys, or who's left of them, were playing, too. That of course got me interested and I made my way to the main stage to see some legends perform. They played all the classics and a few new songs. Amazing!

 I spend the rest of the time enjoying Pimms for the first time ever. It was love at first sip. It's a bit sad that it took me 6 years in the UK to finally try it.

Is there anything typically British I might have not tried yet? I would hate to miss out on something yummy.

Life lately....

I have been swamped with work last week (read: sewing for other people last week- no complaints!!!) and with my husband off work, moving house in about 2 weeks from now and the most glorious weather sewing for myself was abandoned for the last week or so. I have a few projects line up though. 

The free time I had was mainly spend outside topping of those Vitamin B deposits.

Last weekend:

wearing this dress

this weekend

Yes I wear hiking shoes with my dresses when walking. Not fancy but my feet are grateful for it at the end of the day, we usually cover quite some distances...

I hope you are all enjoying the sunshine!

Saturday fun

Lately I have been looking forward to the weekends even more than usual, mainly because it means outdoor fun with the husband preferably on a bicycle. We decided to cycle to Fleet today and go on a charity shop tour. There are loads of charity shops in Fleet and it's a somewhat decent cycling distance away. I took the Schwinn cruiser which meant I got to dress nicely.

dress is my garden party dress in sky blue, cardi is from New Look a few years back, ballerina pumps from Primark and the hair flowers are made by me

I came home with relatively few items. Only found a bag and two necklaces :-( but better than nothing. Plus we had a little Marks and Spencer's picnic and some amazing cake!!!

Bestestest pecan pie!! That's the kind of treat I pedal for. 

Happy weekend everyone!!!

Weekend cycling: lady cyclist vs road racer or two bikes, two outfits, two missions

My husband and I spend this weekend indulging in one of our favourite activities, cycling. We went on a 60 mile bike ride on Saturday and a lazy afternoon ice cream run and stroll through Wokingham on Sunday. I have always enjoyed cycling on my Schwinn beach cruiser, wearing cute outfits and getting from A to B but whenever I saw road cyclists out on their bikes I never understood what they like about road cycling. It always seemed boring to me. Obviously road cycling is a hug part of triathlon, so it was inevitable for me to start cycling on a performance bike. It took me a few rides to kind of get into it as it's not the most comfortable experience at first and you really need to "break in" your rear end. It also doesn't allow for cute outfits, it's padded tights or shorts and tech shirts plus helmet....not so pretty. But let me tell you, going down a hill at 32 miles/hour is an awesome experience and the ground you can cover on a bike like that is amazing. I admit I'm very torn between pretty cycling and badass cycling now. So this weekend we decided to dedicate a day to each kind. 

Thames in Windsor

Eton

the not-so-lady-cyclist-look aka day glow goodness - better safe than road jam right?

Eton, we did go past the college but didn't stop for pictures...

Our Saturday ride took us from Wokingham to Reading, Maidenhead,Windsor, Eton, Windsor Park Ascot, Bracknell and back home. 60 miles total, that's a lot of cake and cider for me. You've got to reward yourself for all that work, right?

I slept very well that night, I guess passed out until late morning is the correct term. After lunch we decided to cycle into Wokingham again for some ice cream. This time I took Betty Schwinn and got to dress a little nicer. The shorts are my own creation from 2 years ago, still going strong. 

I feel a little Jackyl and Hyde sometimes when my love for sports and outdoorsy stuff collides with my love and passion for wearing pretty frocks.........oh well first world problem ey? 

Do you have any clashing hobbies and interests?

My first Triathlon...

Last Sunday was finally THE DAY, I would compete in my very first triathlon. This has been a dream of mine for a while now. 

I will do a post on how I went from just running to multi-sport soon to continue my how-I-got-into-running-posts. Here are part 1 and part 2 of that series.

I was so exited about race day that I already thought the Saturday the weekend before that it was the day of the event. Pretty silly but I guess it helped getting my nerves out of the way. I couldn't sleep and was quite nervous and worried the whole day so when I realised on Sunday morning it was all false alarm and the race wasn't until the following weekend, I was very relieved.

This past Sunday started at 4:00 am for me but this time I had gotten some sleep and I was all calm and exited to go. I had all my kit packed the night before and just had to eat, put on my tri-suit and drive to the lake. Registration opened at 5:45 but we didn't get there until 6 am. I registered, racked my bike in the transition area and set up my space:  helmet, cycling gloves, shoes, food (gels, water and sports drinks just in case) and a few different shirts in case I needed to wear something over my tri-suit when coming out of the water. As this was my first triathlon, I didn't have a clue whether I would be cold in my wet clothing after the swim.

nervous much?

After setting up I had plenty of time to put on my wetsuit and make my way to the start. All participants got a short race brief and then it was time to go. I like the way the swim was organised. The men younger than 40 went in first, 10 minutes later the 40+ veteran men and then all women at 7:25. The swim is still the part that worries me most and I have heard horror stories of people swimming over other people and it all being a big mess. So with swimming being my weakest discipline and me being afraid to be pushed under I decided to start at the back of the pack. I also had not been in a lake for about 2 weeks so I was a little worried I would have wet suit issues again. 

getting in the lake

So anyways, once the veterans had taken off for their race, the ladies could get in the water to get acclimatised. I wanted to go in as soon as possible as I had problems adjusting to the cold of the water against my face in previous lake swims. It kind off takes my breath away and makes swimming that much harder. To my surprise the water was a lot warmer than at my previous lake swims and I felt comfortable very quickly. At this point I finally relaxed, forgot about all my anxieties and looked forward to the race. 

The swim was so much better than I thought. It took me 20 minutes to swim the 750 m course and I didn't come out of the lake last. That was one of my goals for the day. 

the women's swim pack

approaching the end of the swim

the hardest part is done

The first transition took me just under 5 minutes. Try to get out of a wetsuit in a hurry, then dry yourself as much as you can and get on some socks and shoes....sounds easy but man, it's hard work.

Next onto the bike part, 20 km road cycle. The first thing that happened was that my chain had come off while my bike was racked in transition but a nice marshal guy popped it back on for me while I was getting ready for the cycling. I then took a wrong turn on the course but thankfully realised it after just 100 m or so and then my chain came off again on the course. I managed to get it fixed and finished the cycle after 52 minutes.

My second transition was super fast, just about 1 minute 40. I only had to rack my bike, take off my helmet and cycling jacket (I can't believe I wore a cycling jacket....what a newbie I am....it's like dragging a parachute behind) I'm currently not cycling with clip in shoes so I was already wearing my running shoes on the bike and didn't need to change them.

I took a sip of sports drink and off I went on the 5 km run. 

The run was a trail run, which I think I had read before but must have tried to ignore as a fact. It was a very wobbly run on the first kilometre. The uneven ground and my legs having just cycled 20 km as hard as I could, didn't really help but eventually I got into it and finished the run in 28 minutes.

My total time was 1:45:30 which was about 15 minutes faster that I expected. I was aiming for a sub 2 hour finish but that good??? Who would have thought. Needless to say, I am hooked now and can't wait to do it all over again. I think I lost my last fears of lake swimming that day. I could even imagine going in just a bathing suit now if the water is warm enough. Of course looking at the wonderful?!? English summer we are having here, I won't have to prove that any time soon.

I must say, the race was very well organised. Everyone I met on the day, organisers, helpers and athletes, were super friendly and encouraging. I wasn't the only newbie there which was nice. And there was no difference being made between the elite and the first timers.

The only bummer was, that there were no medals for the finishers. Just a T-shirt :-( I love my medals.

But then I can't find my medal from my first 5 km race either. So no firstie medals in my collection.

Do you collect your race medals? Do you do triathlon, running or think about giving any of it a go? If you do, go for it. You will never regret it! EVER!

An eventful weekend.......

I hope you have all enjoyed a wonderful weekend. I definitely did.

I did get some sewing done

Pictures of the finished dress coming soon.

I went for lunch and dog walkies with a friend wearing a new dress. It's basically my landgirl dress without the sleeves and in red polka dots.

I swam in a lake for the second time, which is a huge deal for me. More on that (first and second time) in tomorrow's post.

And I went on a long bike ride with my husband all day Sunday.

 

What have you been up to this weekend?