Get Ready to....

So I've been convinced, or rather I convinced myself, to take a challenge. 

A challenge. Since when have I said yes in the face of a challenge? I'm usually the first to run away but no this time I am laughing in the face of 'danger'. I wouldn't say it was danger, more rather in the face of becoming quite fit and healthy and enjoying myself in the process - ah who could say no. I think it's the endorphins from Thursday run that prompted me to take up this challenge. 

Yep, it's a running challenge, and it's for Sports Relief. So, how could I say no?

Now I get to wear one of those awesome t-shirts that you see runners wearing when they've achieved something... yeah I am doing it for the T-shirt really.

Just kidding!!

So, what do I have to do I hear you ask.

Well, I have to walk/run/jog/ride 5km a day.

For 50 days. 5 x 50. At the end of it I will either fall flat on my face or I will be a running goddess ready to run forever! I'm thinking the latter will be more realistic! But we'll see. 

The team I am running with is Team Finch on this website:

http://5x50.co.uk/team/team-finch

It would be incredibly awesome if you could sponsor us. 50p - £1 or anything you can spare as it goes towards a great cause. So over the next month or so I am going to be looking up Sports Relief causes and where your money could possibly go if you sponsor our team!

Team Finch will do this! Yeah!

If you keep an eye out on the right hand side of my blog in the near future I will put up a picture link that you can click to go straight to our sponsor page. So if you want to sponsor us you can just click on that or message me for the link!

Run Gracie Run!!

Yes, a fob off of "Run Forrest Run"!!

I read an article the other day about another actor who was supposed to play Forrest Gump but now I can't find it and I can't remember who it was; so you'll just have to wait to know who it was... or google it.

Today, I went running. I did half an hour. I ran for 30 seconds and then walked for 2 minutes; which you're supposed to do 3 times a week. Then every week on a Thursday I believe the run time goes up by 15 seconds. So next week I will hopefully run 45 seconds and walk 2 minutes, but we shall see.


It is a Relief Society get together every Tuesday and Thursday (but I can't make Tuesday's) at 6pm at the Gateshead Chapel... in Gateshead, and anyone can go! Member of the church or not! You should ask me for the address.

We did some stretches, then jogged on. I was almost tempted to wear Adam's Danger Mouse tee that has 'Jog On' on the front of it, but I didn't. There were a group of 6 of us, all different ages and we were at all different stages which was good because we could just do our own thing whilst out on the jog.

Everyone was very supportive of everyone else and nobody got left behind, even when one girl hurt her knee! We managed to miss the rain as well which was brilliant!

After running we did a quick game of mini-netball with no rules, because there were only five of us; I think that tired me out more than the running!

I am going to keep a record of running every week when I go on a Thursday so I can tell how I have done. It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to run 30 minutes straight. At the end of my run today I ran 3 minutes 20 seconds straight which was really good! But, it has made me realise how unfit I am... crikey. I'll get there though.

But well done to all for tonight!!

Little Late! Happy Birthday Cake!

I want to say a little late birthday to my wonderful husband, Adam!

He was 27 yesterday! So now he is officially 4 years older than me. Well technically he is 3 and a half years older than me because my birthday is half a year and a day before his and half a year after his! Yesterday we had a lovely BBQ at his parent's house, as it was also Adam's twin brother's birthday too.

We kind of extended Adam's birthday to today as well by going to Wagamama for lunch! Who loves eating there? I know we do! We bought the usual katsu chicken curry. I really need to find the recipe for that!

As soon as we get paid on Wednesday I'm going to be buying the ingredients for Adam's birthday cake! I remember as a little girl we used to always bake cookies and cakes and buns and all sorts of fun things but the one recipe I remember came from a green covered book. I can't remember what the book was called but call I remember is the name of the cake and that was "Can't Go Wrong Cake".

It's simple. I think.

Weigh 2/3 eggs or even 4 if you really want to.
Then weigh the same out with flour (self raising), sugar, and butter. I usually like to add a little bit of honey just to make it that little bit more squidgy... add in anything else that you want like cherries or raisins etc.
Pop it in the oven until you see it browning (usually takes between 20-30 minutes) and I always put it on gas mark 5/6.

I'm going to make a butter cream sandwich cake. For the butter cream you usually use butter (a lot more than you think) and icing sugar.

You can either follow a recipe for this or you can guestimate. I usually put in about 200g of butter and then mix in icing sugar.

It tastes divine! I usually use it on butterfly buns too! (Also a major favourite of mine).

I'll let you know how it tastes on Wednesday!

Food is Fun... Apparently

Adam and I have decided to eat healthier. But what does that actually mean? Eating your greens? Getting in five fruit and veg a day? The latter I believe to be highly improbable. Drink more water?

I once heard someone say that the more you drink water in the beginning the more thirsty you get but after a while that thirst subsides and your body stops hoarding water. But, if I didn't set myself specific times in the day to drink water I don't think I'd ever have any. Recently I've been drinking squash/pop/dilutable (sp?) juice, however you want to call it, but at the end of the day it seems to give me a headache and I don't like my squash to be too strong so I wonder where the headache comes from...

So anyway back to eating healthier AND cheaper... because let's face it... who doesn't like to eat cheaper. Adam and I sat down and said "Right what do you want to eat?" and once you think about that question, the more you tend to think about 'real' meals... and I'm not talking 'large big mac meals' or 'large chicken burger meals'. What I'm talking about is good old bangers and mash with onion gravy and sausage casserole with the odd jacket potato and salad to boot.

Once we realised that we could pretty much eat what we wanted, we found that all we really wanted was good old fashioned home grown food and not the slightly unhealthier stuff you can buy in a restaurant; and restaurants are our downfall... food always looks and tastes nicer when you've not made it yourself.

We decided on buying food every week and not buying in bulk because more often than not you eat half of the bulk and throw out the rest; and we're not in the habit of throwing out food. We also decided on using what we have, so for example if Adam and I want chicken salad for lunch one day; we buy a pack of chicken, half it, use some for the salad and then use some the day after for chicken tikka (I know not home grown food but we wanted it anyway).

Because we have our list a full week before we are going to buy the food we can research online for the cheapest supermarket to buy it from thus reducing our food bills and making us both happy.

Adam and I got a smoothie to go maker from one of my Bridesmaids for a wedding gift and we're really excited to start using it and I know, I know, it's been 2 months since we got married so we should have used it by now. But, nobody is perfect.

Film Review: The Five Year Engagement

Okay so yeah I'm not a professional critic, I get that. But, I am a human being. I'd say normal but what exactly is normal. I love films. I love going to see films, so getting the Cineworld pass for Adam and I was just perfect because we can see films all the time.

Yesterday, we went to see The Five-Year Engagement. It has Emily Blunt and Jason Segel in it (Jason Segel actually did a lot of the production on this one too. You'd find Emily Blunt in films such as: The Young Victoria (2009), Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (2011) and one of my personal favourites The Devil Wears Prada (2006) - She actually plays Emily in that too. Jason Segel has been in films such as: Bad Teacher (2011) and Knocked-Up (2007) but most famously known for the TV series How I Met Your Mother.

This film is so adorable! The acting was superb, throughout most of the film it seemed like they were really in love. You know, those looks you give someone when you just know, well in this film you could tell that they just knew. It was really beautiful. I told Adam that even though he reinforces the fact that I know I chose the right person to marry by what he does everyday, films like this one reinforce it even more. If you don't come away from the film feeling loved-up or extremely happy there is something seriously going wrong.

Emily Blunt plays Violet, a young British student who is dying for her break in the world of psychology. She is happy, laid-back and has a nice sarcastic wit which isn't lost on her partner Tom (Jason Segel). When Violet finally gets her educational break in Michigan it is miles away from her home with Tom and after discussing the move, very briefly, Tom decides to go along with her giving up his brilliant position in a top restaurant. The fact of which isn't lost on him further along the film.

But after planning and failing to go through with their wedding a total of four times, you really start to wonder whether they are ever going to make it down the isle.

A great main cast supported by other brilliant actors and actresses. The Five-Year Engagement is funny, and even hilarious in parts (made funnier by the girl in the cinema laughing like a hyena) with a big splash of romance and even tears.

4/5 Not one to be missed. You laugh, you cry  and then you laugh some more.

For a really good professional review of The Five-Year Engagement click here: The Guardian.co.uk - The Five-Year Engagement Review

<<Edited to add - the above review gives a lot of spoilers away>>

Welcome to my (our) New Home!

So I made another new blog; because the other one didn't really feel like 'me'. I thought it did. But hey, I guess these are really things that shouldn't be rushed into, so here we are!! I hope you like it!

I haven't posted in forever! Entirely my fault, obviously. I blame it on the post-wedding high, but I seem to be blaming a lot on my post wedding high (including a little podge I seemed to have developed - not good), but in fact I think I've just been a little too lazy.

Adam and I got two kittens like we wanted; which we are super ecstatic about... some of us more than others; but I think the 'other' of us is really warming up to them now. The kittens are called Millie and Milo. They're so adorable but I'm going to dedicate another part of this blog to them instead of overloading this part of my blog with beautiful pics... so I'm sorry in advance if you're not a cat lover.

Us in a nutshell. Adam works; I'm 'trying to get on the dole (urgh); I'm a bit of a bum; Adam works, and I am mentally decorating our house but haven't actually started on some of it properly yet. I'm looking for work in administration, support work and/or anything in a restaurant - so if anyone knows of anything coming up (preferably somewhere near where I live Sunderland/Newcastle) let me know. I am going to be volunteering for a school in September so I can get my Science GCSE and then from there I'm going to either go straight into a PGCE or I'll become a teaching assistant - we'll see.

This blog will mainly be full of my day to day ramblings but every so often you may find something very awesome and really interesting... or something. I'm going to blog about:

Films
Books
Health re: food
Health re: cooking
Discovering my surroundings

This last one will be the most intriguing for me because I'm not from here so who knows what I will find. I'm looking for nooks/crannies/places people wouldn't usually go if they weren't from here and the best part of it is, because I live in Washington which is between Sunderland and Newcastle I get to discover both cities!!

Sorry for the big space at the end of this post. I've been having serious technical difficulties with trying to post this for the last hour so if I don't post now I may end up breaking Adam's laptop with frustration.  :D