Keeping Busy!

After South Africa, I decided that I needed to "do" more with my days here. So two weeks ago now I finally joined a gym! It's called David Lloyd and it's about a 10 minute walk from the flat. I love it! I've been to pilates, yoga, body pump, body conditioning, and more. Yoga and pilates like to remind me of my horrible un-flexibleness, but I still really enjoy them! Pilates more so than yoga. Those have been my staples. I've also been doing a little training with a really neat guy, Johnny. He's an Aussie who just moved here with his girlfriend. He's a former professional soccer player and gymnast. He's super friendly and I've roped his lady, Corinne, into taking some classes with me! They are so so sweet and I've enjoyed hanging out with them!! 

So I've been working out with a fury for the last two weeks! My goal is at least 5 days a week. I've done that so far! I'm trying to get back to where I was before I came to London and sat on my bum for 4 months! And then I found this great app for my phone that has thousands of yummy recipes so I've been doing a lot of cooking! So far I've made shrimp ceviche, Spinach/feta/red pepper quiche, pulled pork bbq, and tonight I'm making shrimp with Old Bay and a Barley/tomato/red pepper/feta/rocket salad!! I have also made a banana mousse for dessert :) 


I'm getting better at doing things by myself! I went to the movies last week to see the new Twilight movie. I love love love the books. I can't say that enough, but the movies are absolutely terrible. This is the first movie that I could actually sit all the way through without getting too antsy. It was good. I think that everyone really stepped up their acting this time, well, everyone except Kristen Stewart. My goodness, she's horrible. I've added her to my list of WORST actors ever with Keanu Reeves, Brendan Fraiser, and Nicolas Cage. I find them all absolutely horrible. 


Andrew and I also went to the Natural History Museum a few weeks ago!! It was in the beautiful castle looking building. It was really nice, but my favorite part was the dinosaurs!! We had a lot of fun checking them out. 


And this past weekend was really busy! Saturday, our friend Valentina had a picnic by Tower Bridge to celebrate her birthday!! We got there around 1 and it lasted until 7pm!! Her parents are in town from Italy and together, she and her mom, made a fantastic spread! There were salads and frittatas and crumb cakes and cupcakes and yogurt cakes and zucchini and tuna sandwiches...it was insane!! And I ate the entire 7 hours... there went my working out for the week but it was well worth it! ha! I really enjoy hanging out with them, they're great! AND we found out that they will be in the Baltimore area the same time we are back for Greg and Ashley's wedding! So that will be pretty neat :) 


Andrew just got accepted into Cambridge for his Masters! To get him pumped, we took the train on Sunday to visit the area! Are good friends Bernie and Alison were in Cambridge for the weekend house shopping so we met up with them! We had a yummy lunch outside in the sun, then grabbed a bottle of prosecco and went on a punting tour. I had no idea what punting was, but it was these big wooden boats kind of like Gondalas and there was a guy on the back pushing us around the river, giving a tour about some of the colleges of Cambridge that you could see from the water.  I'm a nerd and really like that kind of stuff. It was interesting to learn that Cambridge wasn't really bombed much during the war because it was rumored Hilter wanted to use it as a residence when all was said and done. It was all just really great but the best part was, these punting companies allowed groups (or couples) to rent these boats for private hire where they pushed themselves from the back of the boat! It was a gorgeous day so the river was REALLY congested and there were several really close calls of people almost biting it. ha!! I wanted so bad to see someone fall in, but they didn't. To finish off our day, we went to this place called the Waffle Company where i had a giant yummy waffle with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce all over it! Clearly it was not a healthy eating weekend...


I'm really happy with myself for how busy I've been staying!! You might be thinking "why doesn't she just get a job??" Well! We've been doing so much traveling and still have quite a few little trips left so I'm trying to hold out until the end of summer :) It's honestly such a beautiful and perfect time to be in London!