First Ride of 2014

The first day of 2014 was not suitable for riding. I like to start the year with a lovely long ride, but it just wasn't possible on Wednesday - the rain was horizontal. It didn't put Ernest off grazing (nothing would) but I didn't fancy braving the roads miles from home when I could barely see.

Friday 3rd was much more suitable, so we set off with a Graze flapjack in my pocket and the wind whistling overhead. The first sign it was going to be eventful was when we attempted to pass a tower of straw bales covered in black tarpaulin - it was so loud, flapping in the wind, that Ernest nearly turned around and went home of his own accord! 

After a long trot uphill, we turned the corner and the wind immediately quietened down as we were sheltered by trees. A rather zealous black Labrador greeted us, but Ernest likes dogs so he wasn't upset. We reached the first big crossing, the B3400 to Overton, but someone kindly stopped for us to pass safely (thank you, considerate driver). 

I believe this area is Ashe. I've tried to Google Map my ride but there are few named lanes so it's quite difficult. Along this road, anyway, are the most picturesque cottages I've ever seen. They're called Glebe Cottages, and I always imagine them in the 16th century with witches living inside casting spells. They have dark beams showing through and are just beautiful. I always stop outside just to admire them!

Further up this road was a huge puddle. I thought we were going to have to swim it was so big. Thankfully Ernest isn't afraid of water, or we would have been in a pickle. After navigating past a tractor cutting the hedges, we had about 15 minutes of calm before the wind picked up again. Trees were creaking rather too loudly overhead for my liking! The rain also started and was horizontal when we left the shelter of the trees and had to cross the main road again. 

All of this was fine, the rain stopped, we had another 15 minutes of relative calm, and then about 30 minutes from home I saw the first flash of lightening. Oh, no. Then a big rumble of thunder. Oh, no. I don't really like thunder and lightening, and certainly didn't want to be riding in it, especially as the rain started again with much more force. Ernest, thankfully, just pricked his ears up at the lightening but didn't flinch. I was really proud of him for being such a good boy, when his rider was quite anxious by then. There was another flash and even longer rumble of thunder, and we had to trot all the way home, but he was completely relaxed about the tempestuous weather, which made me relax. 

We were SOAKED. Absolutely wet through! That said, it was actually quite a fun ride - about 8 miles of fighting a somewhat losing battle with the elements, but home safe. I think Ernest rather enjoyed himself too, as New Year he had to stay in all day due to the bad weather and I didn't ride on Thursday. 

A very memorable ride to start the year. I wanted to take photos but it just wasn't possible with everything going on! 

xxx

New Year, Better Me

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you had a good evening - if the poker chips from last night were real money, I'd be very rich by now. I had the luckiest hand all night, and won when we went all in on the last game. I love poker when I win.

Typically, most of the statuses on my Facebook have been detailing people's aspirations, resolutions and aims for 2014. I applaud this, as aiming for something is better than aiming for nothing, and if using the start of a new year urges people to get going, well good.

I used to be a big fan of resolutions, which from about the age of 13 always included 'swear less'. However, I don't think I'm that terrible as a person and I don't want to cut all my hair off, so I'm going on the 'New Year, Better Me' rather than 'New Year, New Me'. Here is a list of meaningful, and one trivial, things I would like to achieve this year:

Important:
get a 'career' job in the publishing industry - I'm aiming for editorial assistant but Men's Fitness really opened my eyes to a career in journalism. Either way, I would like to be in a stable, good job. Soon.

Not important:
don't dye my hair for a whole year. This is probably  definitely going to be harder than getting a career job.

Important:
compete in showjumping competitions again! I'd love to get back up to 3ft but I'd rather take our time and just enjoy getting back out there again.

Important:
run another half marathon - preferably Basingstoke so I can beat my time of 2 hours 7 minutes from 2012.

Important:
improve my French. Without living in France, it would be almost impossible to become fluent, and while I can speak at conversational level I would like to see a big improvement in fluency. 

Kind of important but dependent on #1:
visit a new country. I love travelling, and if I can afford to, in the latter half of the year I would love to go to Germany or Ireland. I visited Dresden for a day in 2004, but would love to explore more of Germany, and I've wanted to go to Ireland for a long time as apparently it's a beautiful place.

Important:
lower my body fat to 18% by February, and generally increase my weights. I'd love to be able to deadlift 50kg, but as I'm only on 20kg at the moment I think I'll need longer than a year... I will probably aim to lower my bf again, after an informed discussion with my personal trainer, as I'm so nearly there now and there is definitely room for healthy improvement. 

Let me know what you want to achieve this year!
xxx

Culture: The Making of Harry Potter

Some may contest me calling Harry Potter culture, but for my generation, it certainly was a hugely influential book series. I have not seen a book that has sparked the same reaction from children and adults alike since the inception of Harry P - Twilight and the 50 Shades books have die-hard fans, but there are just as many haters for these (rightfully so, in my opinion). It is hard to find someone who has not read or watched a Harry Potter book or film, and even harder to find someone who didn't like it.

For Christmas, Maxx and I were bought tickets for the Warner Brothers Studio Tour - The Making of Harry Potter (thanks Auntie S and Uncle D). We were super excited about this as Harry P fans, and set off eagerly on Sunday lunchtime ready to embrace the wizarding world.

In short, it was FASCINATING. The skill of making thousands of props and costumes and masks was astounding, and I was constantly thinking "Someone made this!?". There were some really interesting facts, such as Hagrid is not always Robbie Coltrane onscreen, but 6ft10 former rugby player Martin Bayfield wearing a mechanized mask. I also noticed some of the static paintings from Hogwarts looked remarkably like famous former monarchs - a portrait of a young Mary I, except in this one she's holding a wand, and also Henry VII.

There were over 4000 people who worked on these films, including makeup artists, sculptors, animal trainers, actors, set designers, directors, etc. It's hard to comprehend the magnitude of the effort that went into these films, but the Tour really showcased this. Unsurprisingly, as an animal nut, I loved the board detailing the animal actors - even better was that most of them were rescue animals, which they spent a few months with, getting to know them before they started training.

One of my favourite rooms was Dumbledore's office, as I love the scenes with the pensieve, as well as a miniature of the Leaky Cauldron which uses optical illusions to make you think it's 50ft long.

For us, travelling there was very easy, taking just over an hour. Prices can be found here. The first 20 minutes are spent with a guide getting everyone revved for the tour, and watching a short video with Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe, but after that you go round at your leisure. Apparently, people have been there just 45 minutes, to 10 hours - we were there for 3 hours. We did stop briefly for a butterbeer, which was delicious! It tasted like caramel and vanilla.

It was a fantastic day out and I would recommend it to people of all ages. Even if you aren't the biggest Harry P fan, you can't fail to appreciate the effort and skill that went into creating this magical world.

Have a fun, safe New Year's Eve everyone.

xxx

Christmas Eve Ride

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas with their friends and family! We had a very full house this year, as Maxx's family came over from France. I've been thoroughly spoilt as always, and was very lucky as my Christmas Day Ride around the village of North Waltham was in lovely weather. There were runners and riders everywhere, taking advantage of the pleasant morning. Ernest was in good spirits too, and was treated to some polos when I turned him out (he then stalked me out of the field trying to get the rest of the packet).

Now, to backtrack a little, Monday 23rd was horrendous, as I'm sure everyone can remember. However, Christmas Eve was beautiful! I went for a ride around the Steventon/Micheldever area, which I call the "Warren Farm ride" as I, surprise surprise, pass Warren Farm! Although Ernest didn't want to stand still after being in his stable all of the day before, I managed to get some beautiful photos, including a very dramatic one of Ernest's hair blowing in the wind.

I hope these pictures encourage you to get outside while the weather is nice!

xxx

Recipe: Chickpea Fritters

Hello everyone, I hope with only 6 days to go you're all nearly ready for Christmas. I have 3 presents left to buy and am feeling rather smug about it, actually.

But I'm not here to boast about my super-duper organisation.

About a month ago, I came home from the stables to find my mother in the kitchen 'experimenting' with something for my dinner. Now, when she's done this before it was a delicious chickpea and tomato stew, so I wasn't worried.

Here's what she made:

Chickpea Fritters

This recipe came from the BBC Good Food website, which I recommend as it has some tasty cake recipes. If you love pancakes (which everybody does) but are trying to cut down on carbs, these fritters are a great alternative - the chickpeas give you one of your 5-a-day and boost your protein intake. Unfortunately I can't tell you the nutritional info, as the website includes the side salad in the 'calories per serving', but if you follow the website's recipe including the salad it's still only 417 calories.

You will need:

• 400g can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 large eggs
• 3 tbsp milk (I use soya because of a dairy allergy, which I conveniently ignore whenever I eat cheese or chocolate)
• 4 tbsp plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder

• Blitz half the chickpeas in a food processor until smooth.
• With the motor still running, add the eggs and milk.
• Sift in the flour and baking powder without the motor running, or you'll look like you've been snowed on.
• Blitz again until smooth.
• Fold in the other chickpeas.
• Cook like pancakes! I recommend using 1, maybe 2, tbsps of batter so they're easier to flip.

These are also nice cold, and became my morning train journey snack on the way to my Men's Fitness work experience.

Enjoy!

xxx

Body Fat update

First of all, I'd like to apologise for all the weirdness happening regarding backgrounds, fonts, colours etc - I'm trying (and so far failing) to revamp my blog and make it look a bit more savvy and professional. Even though graduation granted me wizard status, I apparently don't know how to do this very well. EURGH.

But, on a good note, I've lost more body fat! I was 21.39% in October, and now I'm 19.64%. My goal is still 18%, but I'm really chuffed to be so close now. As an added bonus, I've also lost a kilo (2.2lbs).

The next body fat test is February...

xxx

Culture: National Portrait Gallery

Last Tuesday, Maxx and I went on a date day to the National Portrait Gallery. I've never been there before, even though my favourite painting is housed just next door in The National Gallery (if you wanted to know, it's The Execution of Lady Jane Grey).

I am obsessed with the Tudor period, so I was super excited to see that there was a special exhibition called 'Elizabeth I & Her People'. The tickets were £13.50 because we 'Gift Aided' them, and they were definitely worth it! Information about prices can be found here. 

As well as seeing some iconic portraits of Elizabeth I and the key courtiers from her reign, there were artefacts from the period, including a sword, pistol, sweetmeats case and jewellery. It amazes me the condition of these items, and I wonder whether they were discovered or handed down through generations. 

We also learnt that, as Elizabeth I didn't like having her likeness painted, a stencil was made and passed around for various artists to use. This explains the almost identical face in many of her portraits. 

Attributed to George Gower, c. 1588.

After the exhibition, there were thousands of other pictures to see. Literally, 195,000. Luckily neither of us are particularly interested in contemporary art, so we had more time to spend looking at paintings from the Tudor, Stuart, Regency and Victoria periods; aside from two breaks, touring the aforementioned exhibition and these areas took five hours, so I'm glad we didn't want to see the newer portraits! 

One of my favourite portraits is of Anne Boleyn, the classic image you think of when casually ponder Henry VIII's second queen and her dreadful fate. I remember painting her when I was in primary school, aged 10, meticulously copying every pearl on her headdress. It was really astounding to see that famous picture, those dark eyes looking out with an unreadable expression. Although I assumed it was Holbein, who was a popular painter at the time, the artist is actually unknown. Just as with Delaroche's painting of Lady Jane Grey, I found myself transfixed. Both their fates were gruesome and fearful, but Anne Boleyn's vilification resounds to me like an ambitious woman cruelly betrayed by Cromwell and her own husband.  

Unknown artist, late 16th century.
I think you can really see the likeness between Elizabeth I and her mother, particularly in the shape of the nose.

 Although I’m a fervent fan of literature from Regency period, I didn’t know a lot about it, so enjoyed reading the placards next to each picture of the important politicians and royals from this time. There were also the portraits of the key Romantic poets and writers, first and second generation, which meant I got to babble away to Maxx about who wrote what and why it was important. We lingered over Mary Shelley in particular, as I reminisced about all I had learnt about Frankenstein while writing my dissertation!

I will admit to being a little disappointed with the lack of portraits of Queen Victoria in the museum, although there were plenty of other influential figures to gaze upon, including Winston Churchill’s father. 

Aside from this, the facilities at the Gallery were excellent, and I didn’t find the food overly expensive. We had a drink and snack upon arrival, which was delicious: Maxx, being French, had a coffee and a croissant, while I had tea and an apple crumble slice. Yum YUM. The gift shops had an excellent array of postcards, so you can take your favourite picture home with you. Maxx treated me to a new book: The Anne Boleyn Papers by Elizabeth Norton, a collection of her personal dispatches and those of the people most involved in her short reign (1533 - 1536). 

This was a lovely, relaxing day out. We ambled at our own pace, viewing some masterpieces and stopping when we felt like it. I'd recommend it for anyone looking to have a civilised, quiet day out, away from the bustle of the capital.

The 'Elizabeth I & Her People' exhibition closes on January 5^th, so get there soon!

 xxx