5 tips if you're running the Electric Run

A few weekends ago I took part in the Electric Run for my sister Beth's birthday, a fun 5km run in London where you're encouraged to run and rave at the same time - my kind of exercise!

I loved it and it was so much fun, so if you're planning on taking part in an Electric Run, here are some tips to help you get the very most out of it:

1. Pick up your pack EARLY
For some reason, the fee you pay to join in the run doesn't include postage of the pack which includes a wristband, LED glasses and a t-shirt - fun! The downside? You have to queue for two hours before the run to pick up your pack unless you go to one of the pick up points a few days before the run. Again, the queues are massive there but at least you then get to go straight into the run when you arrive. So if you can, pick up your pack in advance!

2. The t-shirts come up small. Like, REALLY SMALL 
I pre-ordered a ladies t-shirt in large (on account of the boobs...) and when I went to put it on I got scared I was going to be suffocated. There is NO WAY that was a large. Luckily we did a little swapsies between us and I ended up in a men's medium t-shirt. I've never felt sexier.

3. Dress up
You might think you've got the fancy dress nailed down, you might have a wig, face paints and crazy socks but you haven't seen anything yet. Everyone really put their all into it and went crazy for anything neon, UV and I don't think there was a single tutu left in the London area by the looks of things. Go for it, you won't feel stupid - if anything you'll look stupid if you dress like you're taking it seriously.

4. Bring drinks
Because we queued for tow hours to collect our packs, we ended up getting straight in the queue and we were one of the last groups over the start line. No one checks your bag for anything so we could have got anything through. We had our own water which was fine and there's one water stop on the course so you should be fine but if you're after a little naughty water (vodka) then get it packed :)

5. Think about your footwear
The run is mostly on a road or pavement, so if you're planning on running the whole way then definitely consider decent footwear to avoid a stress fracture (do I sound like I know what I'm talking about or what?)

Look how much fun it was!

Walking from Saltaire to Ilkley...

... Or at least walking to Ilkley WAS the plan until it absolutely lobbed it down with rain and hail on Saturday...stupid England.

It doesn't matter though, I've done it before in the sunshine so I would have been super cranky if I'd been caught in the downpour on an exposed moor. Grrrrrr.

Here's some pictures from the sunshiney walk from Saltaire to Ilkley:

*Sigh* England, and Yorkshire in particular, really can be spectacular when it puts its mind to it... but then the rain and wind comes and it's time to stay indoors...

Create Cafe, Ilkley - A Review

Last weekend five of us got the train over to the town of Ilkley for the day to celebrate my bezzie friend Lucy's 30th birthday to get down to some seriously raucous behaviour and debauchary to end her twenties.

Or not.

We headed over to Create Cafe to get messy with paints and put our creative skills to the test by painting pottery. It possibly didn't help that we'd already been drinking on the train on the way there, so we were a little rowdy, but upon entering the (fairly quiet) cafe and being greeted by a birthday party for a young teen party quietened us down quite quickly.

We were skeptical about how the afternoon would pan out, to say the least. We don't realise how much bad language we tend to use as a group until you're being frowned at by a mum of the birthday girl.

So what happens at the Create Cafe, you ask?

Upon entering, you are asked to select a piece of pottery you'd like to paint. I was completely guided by price and wanted to choose something that wasn't overly expensive but that I would use in my home. I picked up a teapot (what? I'd use that!) and put it down VERY quickly when I saw the price tag of £18. I'll just buy one from Ikea...

I selected a ceramic tile for the reasonable sum of £7. I justified it by saying I'd put a hot saucepan on it, but in reality after spending so long painting the bloody thing I'll just display it somewhere.

So, you have your piece of pottery and all the paints are waiting for you on the table, so all that is left for you to do is think of a design and get painting.

This is harder than you think. Being stared at by a blank piece of pottery when you're a little tipsy surrounded by children's birthday parties is quite stressful. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO BLOODY PAINT!" I cried several times.

Of course I got started and buggered it up straight away by forgetting to use the white paint first as a base coat. BLOODY HELL.

I wasn't happy with mine from the start but I refused to stop, despite wanting to run away to the nearest pub and cradle a glass of red wine.

On I went, painting and ignoring my more talented friends. There was a period of about seventeen minutes where no one talked, such was our level of concentration.

Two hours quickly went by and I got my tile to a stage where I wasn't cringing with embarrassment, and actually started to really enjoy myself and relax. Ta daaaaaaa maybe I should be a painter?

Here's a shot of our finished products - take a look at our skills!

On the whole, for a two hour activity, it's really reasonably priced when you consider it cost £9 which included a slice of cake. Of course that depends on what you choose to paint, the big bowl in the picture above was the most expensive at £30. It was fun to try something new as a group, and much more productive than drinking all afternoon...

All the materials are included, but you then have to go back and collect your item once it has been blasted in the kiln, so consider that if you don't live in the area. We had a fun afternoon, more fun that we originally expected and the only advice I'd give if you're a little creatively challenged like me, is to look around on Pinterest for some inspiration before you get started. There is no EDIT>UNDO button on pottery :)

Autumn...

Oh November, you do make it hard for me to like you.

I much preferred October. October had it going onnnnnnn. Crisp Autumn afternoons, bright sunshine but frosty temperatures, scarves, hats, falling leaves and plenty of rainbows. No pots of gold though, sadly.

November in comparison can kick my ass. A rainy fireworks night, dark evenings from 5pm onwards and my best friend moving to New York. Boo.

I found some Autumnal photos on Pinterest to cheer me up...











All photos are from this page on Pinterest...

3 things to do in one weekend in Cologne

Cologne is an amazing city, perfect to explore in one weekend and lots to see and do without spending a lot of money.

So what should you do if you only have one weekend in Cologne?

1. Visit the Cologne Cathedral

I fell in love with the Cathedral as soon as I saw it. It's a pretty special building and quite overwhelming from the outside. Cologne was bombed during the Second World War, but the bombs somehow managed to miss the Cathedral, I'm not sure how because it's massive and the centre of Cologne, but we won't dwell on that...

What I liked most about the Cathedral is that it's free to enter and wander around inside, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was hugely expensive, so the free entry here was a great surprise. If you want to climb the spire shown here, you have to pay the princely sum of 3Euro, but you should be able to stretch to that, and you'll definitely stretch your legs with the 500 step spiral staircase to the top!

View from the top of the Cathedral

2. Eat and drink as much as you can

The food in Cologne is amazing, so whatever your budget, whatever your taste and whether you're looking to eat on the move or have a sit down meal, you'll find plenty to keep you full up.

My personal favourite was the hot roast pork rolls with friend onions that are sold through windows on the street. I had three in the space of one weekend. Oops.

We also had great breakfasts, weiners, sandwiches, schnitzels... you name a traditional food and we tried it. In one weekend. Gulp. Hic. Burp.

3. Visit the padlock bridge

Love makes the world go round (apparently, I think it might be something else) and you can feel the love around you on padlock bridge. Once upon a time someone must have been wandering over the bridge with their significant other and happened to be holding a padlock. Something must have compelled them to clamp the padlock onto the bridge railing, thus securing their love forever. 

Where this couple lead, others followed and now the bridge looks a little like this:

What to do in a weekend in Cologne

Guten tag!

I've been to Germany for the weekend and I loved it! Not only because I felt so bloody smug walking into the office on Monday morning and being able to say something interesting when asked what I'd done that weekend. It sure was a lot more interesting than saying I'd been sitting on my sofa watching old episodes of Airline and trying on old clothes I promised to donate to charity months ago but keep holding on to...

Where was I?

Oh yes. So if you're not familiar with the Skyscanner app here's one thing about it, it's bloody dangerous for your bank balance. You basically put in the airport nearest to you and ask it to find you the cheapest flights to ANYWHERE.

Turns out the cheapest flights from Leeds Bradford airport are to Dusseldorf in Germany. The Boy has never been so we booked those flights before the airline could change their mind with the prices (how annoying is it when that happens?)

Cue slight panic when we realised that there was a huge trade fair taking place in Dusseldorf which meant that we couldn't find a hotel room for less than £300 per night. Uh oh.

So we decided to take the train to Cologne and find an apartment there on Airbnb, my favourite website in the whole world. We found a great apartment right in the centre of town for around £45 per night I think. Bargain. Crisis averted.

 Hello Cologne!

More details will follow from the trip, but here's a few photos to show you around - come on!

So much fun and so much better than sitting on my sofa watching Airline all weekend...

Sunday photo album: Amsterdam

I'm the first to admit that I wasn't at the top of my photography game on this trip to Amsterdam back in 2011. I've been using the same Canon camera I got in Tenerife around five years ago (we took advantage of the tax free situation on a holiday there) and I'm starting to think it's time to invest in an SLR camera.

Any suggestions?

Anyway, you don't care about my camera. We flew to Amsterdam for a weekend break from Leeds Bradford and took the train from Schipol Airport (one of my favourite airports - it has a casino! And sofas! Airports never have sofas!) into the centre of Amsterdam to begin our city break.

I've been to Holland plenty of times before but mainly to visit family friends on the outskirts of Amsterdam and in other cities like Rotterdam. I love Holland.

We had a fun weekend walking around the city and finding our way around streets called Himmerlaanderstraat and the like. Sadly the weather wasn't the best and the rain thwarted most of our plans which meant we had to dodge the rain in and out of bars *sigh*

Here's a few snapshots from our trip:

Have you been to Amsterdam? Did you smoke a doobie? I think we might be the only person to go there and not do THAT. We did the other thing, but not that :) You know what I'm talking about!