Sunshine, BBQs, markets & Lululemon Sweatlife

Saturday 23rd June 2018

Saturday begun very chilled other than having to get up early to greet the Ocado man with our groceries. For the past 6 days we had been deliberating where we should go on the August bank holiday weekend especially since Lew planned to take an extra day as well. Initially we thought the Farroe Islands in Denmark but we decided we needed more time to explore it properly (plus it won’t exactly be warm there!). There are SO many options in Europe but we narrowed it down to Sicily, Greece or Spain which would have the best beach weather. Eventually Greece was the decided option but then of course we had to choose between all the islands in Greece! Santorini and Mykonos are the two more popular ones but we were heading there in peak tourist season and that’s not really what we wanted. After talking to some friends and doing our own research we confirmed that the island of Kefalonia was the one. Looking at the numerous flight, ferry and car options we booked a flight leaving Thursday at 4.30pm (I convinced Lew to work a little harder/longer during the rest of the week to make up for it) that flew straight into Kefalonias International airport for £40 ($78 nzd) each! The other flight options weren't as cheap or as nice as they flew overnight with a stop-over in Rome. The issue came coming home as they knew it was summer and a long weekend and charged more like £150-£250pp ($293-$488 nzd) going back to London. We thought we could possibly ferry to another island which had better flights and we also considered changing our destination all together. We ended up biting the bullet and paying a little more to fly home on Monday via Prague. Once we got this out of the way- a weight off our shoulders we had planned to meet up with Sam and Eden who where house sitting north of the river in an area called Chalk Farm. It took us 40 minutes on the northern line to get that north but it was a beautiful area to be staying in. The house was a friend of Sam's Mum who don’t spent much time in London due to work and the rest of the time they Airbnb it out. They had some gaps so offered it to them for a week. It was amazing and the back garden was like a little sanctuary to escape London life with a fish pond and water lillies etc. We certainly hadn’t been in a nice house for sometime now and they even had a gas bbq which is apparently posh according to our flat mates- unposh people use charcoal like we have at our place but a gas bbq doesn’t even cost that much here. After sitting in the sun watching the giant fish swim around the pond and catching up on everything that has happened in the last week since they moved out we left the house to explore Camden markets. They are literally 5 minutes away from here and this place is certainly a must do if your in London. There are huge amounts of small food places selling any food you could possibly want. We came here in wintertime so it was a lot busier today on a beautiful hot day than we had experienced then. There was this strange shop called Cyberdog that Sam and Eden encouraged us to come into and for some reason we had avoided this place last time. It is hands down the strangest shop I think I can say any of us have ever been into. First of all they are playing incredibly loud music, it is dark with UV lights only, they have dancers/strippers up above the shop floor and they sell all sorts of strange clothes that are fluoro and to top it off there is even a sex store level. We were all keen to get out of there ASAP as the strobe/uv lighting and music were rather unpleasant. We thought they would probably have a high turn over of staff with them having to work in that environment! The boys were keen for a snack so Sam brought himself a slushy and Lew a pizza (of course) as they were heading out for a run when we returned home. This morning Sam and Eden had explored this area a little more and discovered a look out point on Primrose Hill that looks across the city that we made our way up to. With it being a beautiful hot night every man and his dog were out on the grassy hill with a picnic and a cold beverage. We strolled back home admiring some pretty coloured buildings and art work on buildings popping into every supermarket to see whether anyone sold skewers - they don’t or more likely the young shop boys have no idea what these even are and don’t bother asking someone more senior. Back at the house it was bbq prepping time and whilst the boys went for a run at Hampstead Heath (Lew was SO excited to finally be able to run this!) us girls did all the prep work. Lew and I had brought sausages from the local butcher in Clapham Common that we love but Sam and Eden had provided everything else. We made chicken skewers (luckily there was some in the cupboard!), salad, roasted some potatoes, cut up some fresh bread and made some pims with fresh berries and cucumber. Still waiting for the boys we sat outside with some chips and dip enjoying the warm evening. Both Lew and Sam arrived home shortly after with news of their run and some of the sights they saw along the way. They took a phone so there’s some photos included. The boys sorted the bbq and we set a table outside, it reminded us of home with the smells of the bbq surrounding us. We were spoilt with Edens home made meringues, dairy free fudge & ice cream plus an assortment of fresh berries. The house even had patio heaters so we were able to stay out after dark when it usually cools down a bit in London. It was such a wonderful night that I wish we could have replicated it every night! We were all full to the brim with food and just before midnight Lew and I made our way back to the station for the 40 minute journey home. We had to walk through main Camden Town and there was a rediculous amount of drunks out with it being a Saturday night that we had to dodge getting there.

The strange shop Cyberdog with all the fluoro

Sunday 24th June

Its Lululemon Sweat Life Festival time!! I was slightly concerned about the amount of exercise I have booked Lew and i in for today since I was barely have to straighten or move my arms/upper body after going to a weights class on Wednesday for the first time in a long time. I figured a bit of ibuprofen would sort it out for me and left ya booked into two yoga sessions and one circuit training session. The event was being held at the Tobacco Docklands in West London and in typical Lululemon style it was done extremely well. On arrival we received wrist bands before making our way to check out the venue. They had all sorts of fitness companies and gyms involved who were holding classes such as a trampoline class, Unit circuit training, barre and even a rowing class which has these incredible urgs that used water resistance which would be far more realistic. Our first event of the day was a talk by Steve Ingham which I had chosen for Lew as he is the ?? Mental coach of the UK national team and has coaches many Olympic medalists. He was a great speakers and whilst I have no Olympics goals myself I found him inspirational and he spoke about a few athletes he had coached such as ?? Who managed to excel themselves in the previous games held in London. Once the talk was over I had booked us into an air Mandela vinyasa class which was being taken by one of Lululemon ambassadors Helen Russell-Clark. She reminded me of my bendy Wendy doll I had when I was younger ans she’s was mesmerising just to watch as she demonstrated what we were supposed to be doing. Lew has really taken a liking to yoga and even said there were some very talented people in the room. We had a short break after the class to wander around and check out some of the other classes going on and of course the Lululemon store. There was a pair of gorgeous blue tights I had my eye on by decided to come back later. They had arranged a very cool outdoor area with deck chairs and beanbags so people could relax in the sun whilst they wait for their next class and we did just that. The day was getting hot and the aircon certainly wasn’t going to cut it in the room where our next class was. I had heard of Un1t London and had booked Us into their circuit class before lunch. We had also got in insight into what activities we were going to be doing as the talk we had this morning was next door. You could see the people half dying in the studio. The un1t team did a quick warm up with us and then made us get into a group of three. The idea was that one person did the exercise whilst the others had active recovery. The team with the most points won some prosecco so there was at least some motivation (still never actually tried prosecco!). It was your typical circuit training session with some of the activities being pulling a 30kg sack attached to a rope across the ground, burpes and 10 calorie row and assault bike. We were all pretty exhausted at the end and poor Lew was so hot as well he felt extremely nauseated. This mean he had to spend some time in the bathroom which left me unsupervised in the Lululemon shop! I brought those tights I had been eyeing up all morning as well as a purple sports bra. Once Lew has recovered we went to get some freebies from all the stalls that were here. Basically everything was vegan which was a dream for me so I could try anything! We hadn’t brought lunch so I was trying to snack here as much as possible haha. I did however find a stall selling dried and flavoured split peas which were fantastic and took some of those home with us. The last thing of the day was another yoga session run by one of the Covent Garden ambassadors Katie Silver. I think Saturday must have been the busiest day as there were rows and rows of mats that we really didn’t need. It was quite an energetic class unfortunately since all Lew and I wanted to do at that point was just lie flat on our backs and relax. It was however 45 minutes which went fast and once that was over we were all finished up for the day at 3.15pm. We made our way home on the train and had a cruisey afternoon watching Netflix and booking some accomodation for our trip to Greece. The weekend was over before we knew it and we both had big weeks before the weekend again. I had 4x 12 hour shifts Monday-Thursday to get through and Lew was probably going to work late most days knowing I wont be home anyways.

Clever rowing machines using water for resistance

You could even draw a yoga ambassador holding a pose

ShannenJune 24, 2018