FST Academy

...and a few other bits and bobs!

We'll start with my session at FST Academy, I got talking to Danny who runs FST Academy after the Carat Blog Shop event (write up still in draft form.....). He offered to assess my running technique and give me some pointers on improving it. I jumped at the chance, I've always been interested in having this done. I went down to the gym on Friday and was really impressed with the set up. First off the gymnastic rings... We'd hardly been talking for 5 minutes and I was like a kid in a new park... Oooooh they look fun... Can I have a go! Well.... not sure fun would be the right way to describe them... but they are a new challenge... one I intend to master!! Well.... not sure I'll manage to master it but I'd like to be able to do one!

Anyway back to the running for now, incidentally, if you like the facebook page there are instructions on there how to get a free assessment, not limited to people in Manchester. Well worth it in my opinion. His advice was a lot to take in even though he did keep it simple... sometimes the simplest things are the hardest to get right.... It made a lot of sense though, I can just see it being hard to put into place as it's basically altering something which is very drilled in to me as I'm sure most of you will be able to relate to.... He showed on the slowed down video just how much my trainers compress when I heel strike and also explained cadence and showed how I could better angle my legs and where my feet should strike for more running efficiency. It was really interesting, hopefully I'll manage to put it into place.

We also had a really good general chat about goals and fitness, he gave me some advice on my clean and press..... not sure I can call it technique as I now realise watching him I've not been doing it right at all. I was really impressed with his knowledge and attitude and decided to join the gym to do twice weekly strength routines. I feel I need to add that is not why he offered me the running assessment I just felt really at home there and as the weights I used to use were Mike's I no longer have weights to use at home and chatting to Danny I felt like I could learn a lot from him and also that we had similar opinions regarding training and goal setting. I'm really looking forward to going on today fine tune my goals, get some measurements done and hopefully start seeing results. (ETA this post has been in draft for too long, I went first on fri, back yesterday for a chat and I'm starting today... Sorry for any timing miscrepancies, I've probably forgot to edit some!!)

Right back to my workouts for the week! I had a pretty good week! I went boxing Monday, Tuesday and Thursday... The hill sprints on Tuesday battered my shins a bit and I felt like it was a bit risky to run on them again so I didn't do any separate running... So I've not exactly stuck to my plan but I'm pretty happy with my activity lessons since the gym sessions were really full on sessions and I'm still easing myself back in a bit!

I had some rest over the weekend my shins were still feeling a bit battered and both wrists, especially my right one were really sore... not sure why, maybe it's my tendons just getting used to the boxing again.. I did end up having an unplanned drinking sesh on Saturday.... Thanks vodka for reminding me how much I hate you, and hangovers!!

As I feel my diet needs some work I started doing a food diary on Saturday, with my past history this is something I'm going to be really careful with. I can find food diaries triggering but I think at the moment the potential gains from doing them outweigh the negatives, if they become triggering I will stop them straightaway. I'll have to be careful to look at the whole picture with the food diaries, I was disappointed that I'd had a bad day on Sunday... too many calories including crisps and chocolate... I completely ignored the fact that most of my food on Sunday had been quite healthy, if a little calorific, and that I'd majorly under-eaten on the Saturday due to ending up drinking instead of eating... I had also super-compensated for my perceived bad day on Sunday by not really eating enough on Monday... it had started to slip in today too and my calories weren't quite enough so I've just had an extra protein shake!

I had a really proud moment yesterday too :-) While I was chatting to Danny about my goals so he can write my plan up he told me I was the only non-professional athlete he's worked with who didn't have weight loss as one of their top three goals! I'm really mega pleased with myself about this, especially since I am the heaviest I've been in a long while and really feeling quite uncomfortable about my weight... It just shows how far I've got in recovery. I care about my performance and I know my weight will end up in the right place for me to perform best once I'm back into a fitness regime!

I'm going today to get measurements done and a few other assessments and start my program. We had a chat about whether I wanted measurements done and my body fat percentage done and I decided it will be a good thing to monitor it. Danny said I might gain weight as my muscle increases with the program so I feel like it's going to be a good thing to have that backed up with hopefully seeing my BF decrease so I can think logically about any potential weight gain and justify it. Also, I can't see this happening right now, but if my BF becomes too low I'll be under strict orders to go eat some cake.... and that seems like a win/win situation to me!

After I left the gym I popped back to town to get a gumshield (lost my old one then bought an unsuitable one.. ooops) and ended up spending far too much time (and money) in SportsDirect... Went in for a gum shield, came out with a new sports bra, 2 new tops, new running shorts, some capris, some compression socks and a pack of cards?! I am hopeless keeping hold of my money... I just love shopping.... I also bought some heels, a skirt and 3 new tops in Republic, spent £40+ in Boots on various essentials such as hairdye and a sandwhich... and spent a small fortune in GNC! Somebody take my card off me!

So anyway, you can imagine, I ended up in an absolute mad rush to get to the boxing gym! I had a pretty good session, we worked on technique alongside some explosive 20-30 second all out sprints on the bag and some freestyle rounds... I felt tonight like I'd forgotten how to box, it wasn't coming together very well and I felt a bit clumsy but I think this often happens when you deconstruct something and concentrate more on it... kinda like with the running.... Hopefully it will all click back together soon... halfway through when I was suitably red and sweaty I had some pictures taken by a reporter and I've forgotten what for now but she's ringing me for an interview to accompany them so I'll know then haha... you get quite a lot of attention being a female boxer and I always try and promote it as I think it's a great thing for women and girls to do for fitness and confidence so I like the opportunity to show there are girls out there in the gyms and let people know they're friendly places.... Anyway, I've digressed (again)... We finished the session with a rather brutal circuit!

20s press-ups (done on knees as speed was the aim)
20s boxers squats
20s burpees
20s tuck jumps
20s squat thrusts
20s sit-ups

x 3 rounds

The coach timed us for 6 seconds after each round so we could take our pulse then times by 10 for an estimate of our bpm, mine came out at 200, 210, 200.... Yep, it felt like that too..... I did a quick plank before I left then walked home.... oooooh the nights are getting cold... must bring more layers!

*Disclaimer... I've given FST Academy and Danny a glowing report, he has not paid me, and I will be paying my own gym membership there. All the opinions stated above, and in further blog posts, are my own!

Also a quick note to say my blog is hungry and it's eating the comments so if I've missed a comment I'm sorry, I usually get an email then it doesn't show on my blog... I'm working to get this resolved, I'm using intensedebate atm, any suggestions?

Birthday Food

Ooops... this post has been a rather long time in the making... Even without a job at the moment I struggle to get everything I want to get done done! Where do the hours go? Anyway, here's a little recap of my birthday eats. I turned 28...... 28?! I've no idea how that happened, I guess those lost hours from the day must be turning into years at a rather alarming rate... Anyhooo here's the food! I must apologise for the dreadful pictures, my digital camera broke beyond repair so I'm stuck with the blackberry!

For lunch on my actual birthday I walked to town to Barburito to claim my free birthday burrito... hey you can take the girl outta Yorkshire... This girl does not turn down free food, well, unless it's meaty!

As far as fast food goes barburrito is my favourite! I almost always go for a burrito with rice, spicy beans, mushrooms, hot salsa, lettuce, guac, cheese, sour cream and jalopenos and sometimes I like a little extra chilli sauce... no other combinations in there have quite lived up to this combo for me....

Please give me some mummy......

Oh fine you b*tch

Even this wasp wanted in on the action!!

For tea my I went to Gourmet Burger Kitchen... this was my first birthday in all my 28 years I didn't see my parents but my auntie took me here for tea which was lovely.

Monkey nuts while we were waiting... I actually put most of these in my handbag to eat later..... I've just realised, they're still there!!!

I went for The Billy, a panko coated slab of goats cheese served with relish and salad

We shared chips, onion rings and coleslaw... the chips and onion rings were great, I wasn't a huge fan of the coleslaw though, I was in the mood for a creamy coleslaw so although it was nice it didn't quite live up

Frankenstein Cheesecake
Birthdays must have dessert! Since I didn't have room after barburrito and correctly guessed I wouldn't have room after GBK I made myself some halloween themed cheesecakes... I didn't follow a recipe and my creation wasn't quite good enough to share the recipe but I will share the idea! I made a base with oreo cookies and the cheesecake itself had vanilla, matcha and lucuma in it. The flavours really went well and I loved the green colour! If I was more concerned with the aesthetics I would do a set cheesecake not a baked one as the green would be more vibrant but I fancied baked cheesecake!

ready for the oven

yum!

You could decorate these of course to make them more frankenstein-esque, I didn't prepare ahead so didn't have anything to decorate them with!

The weekend of my birthday week my mum and dad came to visit, they weren't going to arrive until around 2pm so when I woke up to a lovely note through my door from my neighbours I was really happy to be free for lunch! I must have mentioned I'd been having a bit of a rough time so the lovely American couple in my apartment block invited me round for lunch to cheer me up! It really did! How lovely and thoughtful. I truly appreciate it when someone does something they don't need to to brighten someone else's day! The lady's husband was out for lunch so it was just us two... While we were chatting she mentioned she had felt quite shy about inviting me round and I confessed I'd been quite shy about going round, but I'm so pleased I did, the food was lovely and we had a nice chat, about cooking, blogging, America... allsorts

Bean and rice burrito

Freshly roasted spiced pumpkin seeds, yummy!

And.......... The show stopper! My first ever taste of pumpkin pie!! I was most excited about this, I hope she didn't think I was strange for being so excited hehe It was worth the excitement, YUM!

After I'd been to lunch with my neighbours my mum and dad arrived in Manchester to see me and take me shopping and for some food... We had a quick snack in M&S before starting.... I had some cake! Despite not feeling too good about my body right now I'm also trying to continue to enjoy my food and hoping that once my fitness returns my figure will too.... Anyway enough of my body image woes... I know I'm not overweight but having struggled with an eating disorder that started 12 years ago and currently being the heaviest I've been in about 11 years I feel alien, it's very strange!

Tiramisu mocha

Chocolate orange cake

We did lots of wandering round the shops, I tried on some boots I liked in M&S... can't afford them, yet... Tried some beautiful Kurt Geiger stiletto platforms in Topshop... they were reduced, I had a gift card... They were 30 seconds away from being bought when my oh to sensible mum made me try the other foot on.... they only fit on my right foot.... GUTTED!! I did get a lovely jacket from Soul Cal though, a present off my mum, dad, gran and grandad, love it!

me and my mama

me and my papa

We wandered around for quite some time deciding on somewhere to eat for tea... It can be tricky, my mum is a very picky eater, nothing spicy, with garlic, doesn't really eat pasta, rice or noodles... and I'm veggie so it can be tricky to find somewhere we're both happy... especially since I love spicy garlicky food haha... aaaaaaaaanyway, we settled on Giraffe.

My dad and I shared the bruschetta to start...

tomato, cheese and pesto

tomato, cheese with a pepper and olive tapenade

Yummy!

Sweet potato fries with chipotle aioli.... WOW

and, tbh... rather terrible food blogger, I forgot what this was called but essentially it was a falafel salad on naan, the falafels were described like something else though so it wasn't what I expected....

Passion fruit cheesecake... I gave most of this to my dad... food defeated me!

All washed down with one of my favourite lagers, corona :)

Food Goals

• More wholefoods
• More veg
• Up the protein
• Maintain a healthy outlook on food
• I want to lose a bit of weight but carefully, through eating cleaner and exercise

How do you cope with weight gain? I hate feeling unhappy about my weight... the past few months I've felt huge every single day.. I'm so fed up of it but trying to sort it in a healthy way... it's hard isn't it!

Fitness, or Lack Thereof, and Some Goal Setting

Weekly Fitness Round Up!
Well, I'm jumping back in the deep end feet first... I think I've caught the fitness bug back... least I hope I've caught the fitness bug back!

Running

Steady jog with Roxie I liked this run as I got that feeling afterwards that reminded me why I train! No stats unfortunately as I am without garmin :'( gutted! I need to buy a new one but losing my job makes that a little hard!

Boxing

I attended my first session at Moss Side Fire Station Boxing Club, my first impressions are I like the place and it's within walking distance from my apartment, or cycling distance! I can't remember exactly how the training went, I didn't have my blogging head on, more my oh my goodness it's been so long since I've been in a gym and this really hurts why do I do it head on... It was something like this...
Structured bag rounds interspersed with core rounds and sprints with squat jumps.... just as painful as you're imagining.....

Swimming
I went to the Manchester Aquatics Centre on Thursday before I attended the brilliant Carat Blog Shop event (more on that to come), I wasn't really sure how much I would be able to achieve I aimed for ten lengths and did it.... Slightly disappointed absolutely gutted the waterslides were closed... that was gonna be my reward for completing ten lengths.... Yes, I am a 28 year old child.....

Fitness Goals
Running - go twice a week and gradually increase my distance again... I'd like to be back up to around 6 miles by the end of November
Push-ups - Just tested my max... I bashed out 8 that's a far cry from where I used to be but I should expect that I suppose.... I want to be doing 25 in a row by the end of November... I think that's a big increase but I'm hoping to have some good muscle memory.... don't let me down muscles!
Gym attendance - go boxing at least twice a week
Swimming - go once a week, be doing 20 lengths a session by the end of November - also consider signing up for diving lessons if I can afford it and if it will fit in to my training.. may have to reconsider length goal once I know.

And tonight I've just been doing a few push-ups and plyometric holds whilst organising my wardrobe and watching Taken... What a sensible Friday night!

Helllllooooooooooooo

Is there anyone still out there.....?

My word, it's been almost exactly a year since my last post!

I've missed blogging.... I've had a whirlwind of a year... Had some huge mental health problems, struggled with breaking up with Mike (we didn't get back together), partied far too hard and ditched my healthy lifestyle trying to get over said break up, got an amazing job opportunity, lost amazing job opportunity through mental health problems and partying too hard to mask those and found myself turning 28 wondering who the hell I was..... I remembered being happy training and enjoying healthy food and I realised, it's up to me and only me to get that back! So here I am.... trying to find the me I lost somewhere along the way.... Can't wait to catch up with you all and hoping some of you are still out there....

xoxoxox

WIAW Birthday Edition

And where the hell have I been?? Longest blogging break EVER!

But first... Welcome to  WIAW birthday edition!

I kicked off my day with my usual ginormous mug of coffee and a bowl of wheatabix made with 2 wheatabix, boiling water, honey, xylitol and loads of cinnamon, don't knock it til you've tried it haha sounds gross but is really quite nice!

I wasn't planning on doing much for my birthday as I was feeling a bit depressed about being 27.... 27??? How did that happen? Anyway I got a text from Mike who said he was gonna take me out for lunch and stop me moping about! We went to cafe green ginger a veggie cafe in town, it's pretty cool in there you choose a main and three salads to go with it... sorry the pictures are quite bad Mike was very eager to tuck in... we each had half of each plate...

Aubergine curry with couscous, greek salad and a spinach salad with some sort of cheese...not sure what it was but I wasn't keen on it tbh... it might have been a smoked one.. I should have asked the woman there really!

We also shared a cheddar and spinach quiche with bean salad, potato salad and coleslaw, the coleslaw was loooovely!

I had a little snack before my tea, some yummy conscious raw chocolate from the prize I won on Rachel's blog... I'm not usually a fan of chilli chocolate but this one was perfectly spiced and the chilli was a nice background flavour..

Now, I managed to be the worlds worst food blogger when I went out for tea.... I forgot to photograph starter and desert.. doh!!!! I started off with bruschetta capra which was toasted ciabatta with tomatoes, goats cheese and olive tapenade

I then had the pizza Caprina which was kind of the same as my bruschetta... hey! I like goats cheese and olives! This usually comes with rocket but I had mine without, I don't really like rocket...

After this I amazingly had room for desert! My dad and I shared honeycomb cheesecake and chocolate nemesis... both absolutely delish! The chocolate nemesis was a molten chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream and you could see all the little vanilla beans in the ice cream, yummy! Glad I had room for them!


Anyway, where the hell have I been? I've been doing lots of boxing, and lots of working, and my fair share of partying! All that equals one very tired Laura! I don't know why, maybe it's the too much partying but I hadn't really felt like blogging for once? Maybe I just needed a break or maybe I feel like a bit of a fraudulent healthy living blogger with all the drinking I've been doing lately....


Anyway, this definitely reminded me how awesome blogging is! I won one of Rachel's fantastic prizes! Look at all these goodies!! So far I've eated the luna bar (amazing) some of the truffles (also amazing) and the chilli chocolate (also amazing... you see the theme goin on here!!) Thanks for such a wonderful giveaway Rachel!

The Day my Clumsiness Finally Landed me in A&E....

Those of you who follow me on twitter probably already know about my run in with Roxie's water bowl... For those of you who don't I'll fill you in! On Wednesday I was making my pre boxing food... Actually this is where I could blame Sarah 'cause she voted for Jacket tater and beans over pizzert and pizzert wouldn't have involved a knife hehe just kidding Sarah! Anyways... I managed to somehow knock the knife off the worktop and sent it flying towards my foot.. I deftly leapt out of the way... and landed on Roxie's water bowl which broke and cut my foot open...  Cue much hopping around trying to find the first aid kit dripping blood everywhere and realising what a huge wimp I am at the sight of my own blood! Eventually found it and put a dressing on.. Stubbornly I decided I was still going to the gym if the blood didn't soak through the dressing before I was setting off...It didn't so off I hobbled to boxing (on my bike)... I struggled through the session feeling more and more pain, did a few rounds of sparring(!) some bags, some footwork (owwwwwwwww) some core (thank goodness) and a cool down!

When I went to get weighed at the end I realised there was blood on my sock I showed it to my coach and he suggested I went to get it glued up to help it heal faster... So off I rode to A&E! Gladly two of my friends came with me, bought me some chocolate and kept me company during the wait. (I actually typed weight then ughh can you tell what's on my mind!!) Luckily I was seen after about two hours, the nurse was able to glue me up and send me on my way... She opened the cut up to check there was no remainder of dog bowl in there... that was so, so painful, I thought I was going to be sick! Then she glued it up for me... She thought I was mental for going to the gym first and I am inclined to agree! I didn't really think it was too bad at first, yesterday I couldn't walk on it, today it's a little better.. I can bike though, and biked home from casualty haha it wasn't as hardcore as it sounds though, the cut is on the front of my foot so I could just pedal with my heel, in fact, biking is less painful than walking at the moment!

Well I can't remember the full gym workout anymore but I did do some sparring last Wednesday... sorry forgot to recap this one and now I can't remember it too well.. I did 3 x 3 minute rounds, I had a throat infection and felt really slow and sluggish.. I was still flinching which is really annoying me!I felt like this sparring went really badly but my coach and one of the younger lads dads who were watching both said it was good... I don't know if sometimes I'm too hard on myself, it just didn't go quite as I'd hoped


Sparring this Wednesday, done on bad foot oops! Was good sparring though, There were a few of us ready round the ring to spar, I was in first and did a round with a different opponent every 30s ish! This is really good because you're going against someone fresh when you're tired so it really forces you to work hard. I really enjoyed this sparring, I went against two southpaws which was hard.. I'm still getting used to changing up my shots to be more effective against southpaws.. I also went against an infighter which I really enjoyed, I'm more than happy to go toe to toe with someone and it gave me a chance to attempt some uppercuts and get off some good body shots. I kind of forgot about my foot hurting until I landed badly on it right at the end of my final round in there.. was kind of embarassing as I cried out in pain! Oh well! I'm looking forward to more sparring like this! I've got a lot to work on and I don't necessarily notice it on the bags!


This injury and being unable to go to the gym last night did trigger off an episode of purging. I'm mentioning it on the blog as I actually ended up vomiting blood. In ten years of disordered eating this is the first time it's happened and it scared me. I hope that fright is going to be a good thing and hopefully help me stop the purging at least. It really drives home how much damage it does to your body. I rung NHS direct and googled about to see what I should do. It seems this time I got lucky and probably just had a minor esophageal tear but it could have been worse.. Just because I've been lucky enough to not have severe problems from electrolyte imbalances yet does not make me immune... I'm going to take this as a wake up call and I'm sharing it because I hope anyone else reading and struggling can take a positive change from this too!

WIAW plus lots of cute animal pictures

Welcome to my third WIAW post!

10.00Coffee (pic from last week...)

11.30 Pizzert (pic stolen from last week again... it was prettier!)

13.00 2 cups of teapigs winter spiced red tea

18.20 Gigantic salad, 1 nectarine, 2 plums, 2 graze boxes

It's too long between food here but I struggle on work days to eat right... I probably need to work on this a bit...

Anyway my rather yummy salad...

I used this for my base

Ahhh colourful already!

added roast peppers...

sundried tomato, olive and garlic tub

added lots of the olive mix

crumbled on lots of organic feta

added some roast chickpeas

 The chickpeas were coated in a veg stock, garlic, chilli, ketchup and nutritional yeast coating before roasting and adding to the salad

I also added some roast new potatoes and butternut squash... there is salad under there, honest!

Add to that a questionable nectarine and two diddy plums...

yummy graze box number 1

yummy graze box number 2

This kept me going to the end of my shift! And so it should, what a volume of food... I was so hungry 'cause it had been a long time since breakfast I guess...

22.20 Hugh Jass Salad again
When I got in I had another bowl of salad, I had a bit of hummous with it this time, just 'cause...

23.00 Cereal
I was craving something sweet after so I had a small bowl of cereal... fruit n fibre with some musli and berries and cherries mix with soy milk and a little xylitol

This to me seems like a rather huge amount of food... I don't know... I'm liking doing WIAW as it's making me be a bit more conscious over my food... don't want to eat too little and put out a negative message you know, and also want to keep it healthy and interesting (apart from my pizzert addiction... not saying it isn't healthy but it's perhaps a little repetitive!)

Maria at Running Cupcake tagged me with this fun butterfly award

Favourite colour;
All time favourite is lilac or purple...but it depends on my mood really...

Favourite song;
So many, I could not pick just one! I like so many genres of music... At the moment I'm liking Swedish House Mafia One as it reminds me of Ibiza... yeah that surprised me actually haha I always thought I didn't like that kind of music but have been enjoying it lately! I love classical music too, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto number one, especially the first movement is a favourite... I've also recently had a liking for Taking Back Sunday... makes me feel about 17 again!! And I always love to listen to musicals... It really depends what mood I'm in!

Favourite dessert;
Again! How can I pick?? There are so many yummy deserts! I do love Tirimasu though... if that is on the menu I usually choose it... mind you there is also cheesecake.... cheesecake is so good too.... ohhhhhhhhh how to choose? Maybe I need to invent a cheesecake tirimasu... now theres an idea... even better could I create a healthy cheesecake tirimasu... watch this space!

What really annoys you;
Oh far too much actually... I can really be a grump sometimes! People cutting corners at work, being overlooked at work for people to favour people who cut corners/frequently make silly mistakes....Being underestimated... just because I haven't been doing the job as long as some people does not mean I am any less capable.. in fact, being the arrogant person I am I often feel like I am more capable! Gosh I have a bee in my bonnet sometimes haha

When you are upset you:
I go quiet and try not to cry (usually fail) I'm not good at hiding my emotions, if you've upset me or annoyed me you will usually know about it even if I don't tell you!

Your favourite pet;
I could not pick a favourite, I've had so many, I always had rabbits growing up, a gerbil and hamsters when I first moved out of my mum and dad's house (I would still have them but when we were still together Mike banned me from getting any more cause I just got so upset when they died and really they didn't last long enough...) So since having my own houses I've had Oscar the gerbil, Natalie, Scarlet and Winnie the Russian hamsters, Missy the Siberian hamster who have sadly all moved on, I still have Gracie and Trudie the guinea pigs, Scooby the rabbit, Tia the diva cat and Roxie the dog.. I couldn't find any pictures of Missy.... I'm sad about that :-( I didn't have her long, she died really suddenly and I was heartbroken... I think most of my pictures of her must still be on my old phone I have the cutest video of her trying very hard to shove a whole broccoli floret into her cheeks... she almost managed it too!

Anyway I hope you like animal pics, if not you have a bit of scrolling down to do!

Oscar the gerbil, he was a grumpy boy! He wasn't much of a cuddle fan but he loved his treats, I wish I'd researched a bit more and bought two gerbils, they like play mates apparently...I'd actually gone out to buy a hamster but I fell in love with him in the petshop so he wasn't a very planned out purchase!

All the Russian hammies... they started off all living together but they fought, which led to one sleepless night where I had to supervise them all in their own cardboard boxes until a petshop opened in the morning haha! These girls were awesome, they all had such different personalities, Scarlet, the runt was so feisty, she would spend all night doing monkey bars... she was so buff haha but really tiny compared to the others! Winnie was a bit lazy and loved to eat and snuggle in my hand and Natalie was really shy and enjoyed cuddles but had to be coaxed slowly out of her house!

The piggies! I'm sure you will recognise these girls... Grace is the long haired and Trudy is the short haired... Trudy is definitely the boss piggy and Gracie follows her around all the time, but Trudy is actually a big wimp.. she'd never admit it though! Mike and I inherited the pigs in our first year of uni together from one of his family friends whose daughter was not taking care of them... funny/horrible story... when her mum asked her after we had them if she had fed them she said she had been doing... she never noticed they were gone!!

Happy Christmas piggies!

Scooby the bunny aka houdini... he was always getting out of his run! In fact he is currently running wild in the garden having escaped a few months ago... luckily he has stayed in the garden and seems happy enough... I am going on a huge effort to catch him for winter as I want him in the house where it's warm and safe! We inherited Scooby from Mike's half brother and sister when they got a cat.. Fun fact, Scooby and Tia are good friends.. they always play together... I'm pretty sure Scooby is the boss...

Tia diva kitty! I always wanted a cuddly lap cat... Tia is not a cuddly lap cat... I love her to bits but she does not like the cuddles and sometimes randomly attacks me... that being said when I spent 32 hours in bed asleep with a bad sickness bug I caught at work she only left my side once to go to the toilet so she must love me really...

 

 

Last but not least my crazy doggy!  She is the most excitable and loving girl, we think she is half german shepherd and half springer spaniel but she could be anything really! She's essentially a very excitable 30kg lapdog!

Black or White;
Ummm either... I'm not too fussed really!

Biggest fear:
'Spiders, for sure. I am terrified of them. It is one reason that puts me off Australia.' <---- what Maria said... yeah me too... I've even had such vivid nightmares I've actually woken up hallucinating them and had to jump out of the bed screaming to put the light on to see there was nothing there... yeah Mike used to love that haha.. actually hasn't happened for ages it only seemed to happen when I was in the very early stages of recovery... something to do with the weight gain maybe? Very weird though I would be so frightened!

Best Feature;
I quite like my legs I suppose sometimes... and my eyes...

What is perfection?
A figment of our imagination...

Guilty pleasure:
Same as Maria, reality tv! Love it! ANTM, Biggest Loser, Come Dine With Me (just finished watching one my friends mum was on hehe)

Well I think most of the blogs I read have been tagged to do this, but if you haven't I'm tagging you... yeah I know that's kind of a lame tag but it's 12.42 and I'm up at 5.30am... I gotta get to bed pronto!

Happy Wednesday!