SW19 - date with Murray and Nadal please

New balls please because Lottie is heading to SW19 All England Club on Friday with her cousin for a day on Centre Court - not too shabby. This has been a dream of mine since I started playing tennis aged 6 and to go to Wimbledon since I saw Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf play on the telly when I was little. I loved his ponytail and funny walk across the court.

I should hopefully get to see Murray play if a) the rain holds off and he gets to play his match today b) he wins the match and c) he gets put on Centre Court. Today he's on No 1 so I really really hope they put him on Centre. My next dilema is what to wear??? As I'm on Centre I won't need a full proof rain coat as the roof will come on when it rains. However I will need some kind of splash proof outfit as its looking like some kind of rainfall is inevitable.

I want to wear some kind of skirt or dress and a jacket - a summer layered preppy look. I had originally thought - yes, this is another reason to buy the gorgeous blue dress from Whistles. I have my eye on this for my boyfriends graduation and other miscellanous summer day time events. I can't seem to upload a picture of it - grrr. But its a cute bright blue dress with short sleeves and structured skirt. It has a cute matching belt with bow on it. So sweet and conservative. However I am going to resist.

I have instead opted for something out of my current wardrobe and gone for a white pleated knee length skirt, white t-shirt, caramel coloured cardigan, pale green scarf and burberry cropped trench jacket. Will be taking my ray bans with me too - just in case. Plus my gorgeous tan loafers which I love wearing at the moment.

My cousin is bringing fizz and pimms and i am in charge of food for our little sumptious picnic. I'm going to do some salads, little sandwiches and some cold pizza! Perfecto.

I'm so excited. Have a weekend at my parents this weekend but again still have work to do, so will be spending the majority of it working on my essays. What good fun! Maximum fun then has to be attained on Friday to make up for the otherwise fairly tedious weekend. Will be super lovely to see my sister and mummy and daddy though!

Mid week chaps, nearly there x

Moments in life

Does everyone know that scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere and Julia Roberts are lying in bed together and she opens up her heart about her troubled life into hooker-ville and Richard Gere simply replies with:

"I think you, are a bright, beautiful and very special person" and its just terribly romantic because all week he's been a closed book and no-one really understands why he's paid Julia Roberts to stay with him and its obvious he's falling in love with her?

Well I did not have a moment like that  last night. No, while I'm literally about to fall asleep my boyfriend turns to me and says "Charlotte...So shall we go with First Direct for the joint account?" Then when I only mumble something back has a go at me for not taking "an active interest in our finances". Oh dear.

I will be taking an active interest in our finances, I am going to try my hardest. However while I will be trying my best to take an interest in something that frankly I find about as interesting as watching paint dry. I fear that my boyfriend will not be taking an active interest in romantic situations for us to experience now we are going to be living together. While I understand our weeks will not be spent on private chartered planes taking us to the opera and polo matches, is it so wrong to want "date night"? Which I am reliably informed is an essential component of living with the other sex. My boyfriend isn't totally convinced but he is a work in progress.

Right I am off to research bank accounts. Maybe if I show an "active interest" in researching bank accounts I can guilt on that he needs to do something for me.

I might even find bank accounts interesting and then maybe thats what we'll do on date night - research investments together

Have a good Tuesday

What a difference some sleep, a run and a couple of swims makes

And I'm human again.

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe that one extremely drunken night and two weeks of busy commuting would turn me into the creature from the black lagoon. But it did. After leaving work early on friday evening only to get trapped on the central line for 15 minutes due to a "signal failure" and then missing my train, getting the next train and then getting off the train to cycle home in torrential rain - I tied my magazine and bag of superdrug goodies to the back of my bike and set off in the down pour. About 2 minutes into the cycle I got severely splashed by a van going past which in turn knocked my goodies and letters and magazine off the back of my bike. I decided to tackle this misfortune in the nature of the mature 27 year old I am. Yes I threw the bike on to the side of the road where I proceeded to scream and jump and shout like a petulant 2 year old in the rain until another car came by and I realised how stupid I looked and sheepishly gathered up my stuff and cycled on. I get home and realise I have left the shampoo I bought on the side of the road. Fantastic.

But it's fine, a nice meal and a lie in on Saturday I wake up feeling headache free for the first time in 2 weeks and grab the hyperventilating dog and go for a run along the river and fields (they have a springer spaniel so it goes nuts for walks)

I return a new woman. Filled with positivity and hope for a new world.

After a few hours of chilling out I went to the hairdressers for my annual highlights appointment. Being a natural dark blonde every summer before I go away I get some highlights put in to give me blonder summery hair. Unfortunately it hasn't quite worked. How can I tell? Because I spent nearly £100 and not a single person has noticed I've done anything to my hair! The idea and brief I gave to the hairdresser was to look "significantly blonder" than I do at the moment. Brief has not been attained and I have to go back next week to have more put in - grrrr.

Sunday my boyfriend returns from a stag do a broken man. He can barely put a sentence together and open his eyes. He has been out every night since he finished his exams and is clearly a dead man walking. I loved that he was proud of his "pacing" and that he was walking around Norwich at 5:30 am on Sunday morning with his friend Simon - well done honey! So proud of you. Obviously what goes on tour stays on tour, but I happen to know that someone was sick all over the boat, several people fell off the boat, even more jumped off the boat and one person was having extreme paranoia meltdown yesterday.

I for one cannot judge as I spent all of last week in a mild case of paranoia. Helped only by boyfriend coming back last night and saying "Did you sing with the band at the wedding last weekend?" Oh good god. Note to self, really need to stop having such a close knit everyone-knows-everyone group of friends.

Sunday evening I also find out that MORE friends of ours have got engaged. They have been together only 2 years but hey who's comparing? (We've been together 6) After the total drunken bridget jones behaviour last weekend that has not managed to escape my boyfriends attention I fear I may be waiting a while longer. Woe be me. Everyone else is glamorous engaged gals or newly weds while I am destined to wander the planet as drunk singer girl at weddings.

Our friends that have got engaged are lovely and make a really lovely couple so I am very happy for them. Plus I just love weddings, they are literally the best things ever. I cannot wait to hear the engagement story and I have a sneaky suspicion this engagement will involve an enormous rock - sparkler to ooooh and aaaah over - I can't wait!

Yesterday I did 25 minutes of swimming and this morning I did 20 minutes of swimming too. I am slightly tired but feeling good and ready to brace the day. Plus this week my boyfriend is at home so I get to see his lovely face every evening. And he has a very gorgeous face. Plus its Wimbledon and I cannot wait to see what Sharapova is sporting this year - will she follow Kate's trend and add some lace to her tennis dress? Or stick to fool proof frills?

Come on Murray - you can do it!

Enjoy your Mondays x

MIA

To be honest I am been so wiped and down about commuting (which I now hate) I haven't had the energy to blog. Bad - yes.

Commuting sucks, getting up early sucks, sitting on a train which smells really bad for 40 minutes in the morning sucks, then getting on a tube which is really hot and rammed full sucks, getting back on the hot stuffed tube at the end of the day sucks and then getting on the smelly train for another 40 minutes SUCKS.

Why am I so down in the dumps? Because I am not doing nearly enough exercise. As my boyfriend said to me the other day "You will need to exercise every day, or the commute will drive you crazy". Well it already has so next week is officially - "I can cope with commuting and still do exercise" Week. I just don't get how these people get up sit on a train, sit a desk, sit on a train and then go home? No wonder everyone on that train looks so miserable.

Me? No no no. I need exercise. This week I played netball on Monday night and went for a run last evening but its not enough. Wednesday I woke up with a splitting headache which I haven't been able to shift all week. I swear its down to the lack of exercise.

So plan for next week (and if I write it down I have to stick to it):

Monday - run before work - 30 minutes
Tuesday - run from office to Liverpool Street - 50 minutes
Wednesday - run before work - 30 minutes
Thursday - run from office to Liverpool Street - 50 minutes
Friday - rest!

A lot but I am an all or nothing kinda girl and also its nothing compared to my marathon schedule earlier this year.

I will continue with mission bikini which has somewhat dissolved into getting-up-each-day-and-trying-to-survive-the-commute mission.

The good news of this week has been:

a. The wedding was amazing! Bride and Groom left the church on a tractor and bales of hay, we all got little pots of jam made from fruit in the orchard from the farm, the sausages and hog roast for dinner were from pigs reared on the farm and Joanna (the Bride) looked incredible. Purely stunning and gorgeous in her beautiful (size 8) dress. They are now on honeymoon in South Africa and then Mauritius - amazing.

b. My boyfriend passed his medical degree and is now a Doctor - wooohooo. He is off on a stag do this weekend which is being held on a boat. I'm slightly scared he might fall in to the river during his insane excitement/drunkeness. My friend Soraya who I saw on Tuesday night simply stated "This makes you so much cooler than Kate Middleton now" Yes it does Soraya. I like it.

This weekend for me is being spent in the books. I have a lot of coursework to start and am going to get cracking this weekend. A mini-break will be had on Saturday to go to the hairdressers for my summer highlights annual appointment and then a further break on Sunday for a bike ride. My cycle leg for the Surveyors Triathlon is looming at the beginning of July and I plan to do a 20 km time trial type thing on Sunday to see how I'm shaping up. Probably quite badly.

Thank goodness it is Friday and thank goodness for weekends and turning off that stupid alarm clock

Have a lovely weekend

Beyond tiredness

What a week. Have been so ridiculously busy it has gone by in a whirlwind.

Commuting is fine, getting up at 6:30 is really not that bad and I could definitely manage a couple of even earlier mornings in order to squeeze in a run or workout. The only bad part of commuting this week has been the one evening being on the train only to be surrounded by a groupd of 15 year old German exhange students who took up the whole train cabin and the smell of BO was really quite something.

Living in the countryside is super lovely though, I love how quiet it is compared to my flat in Fulham and it is rather nice cycling to the station in the morning in the fresh air, even if it is only for a few minutes.

This week I have managed to achieve serveral mini-achievements:

1. I have found Ben and I a flat to rent in Southfields from August. Its a one bed in a nice modern development and although rather tired and in need of some TLC, its bright, spacious with lots of storage. Essential for moi.

2. I ran the City Square Mile race to raise money and awareness for the charity Crisis to help fight homelessness. I did the 4 mile race in 35 minutes (I wanted to do sub 35 mins but never mind!) It was also shockingly hard work. I have lost a lot of my running peak fitness since the marathon. But plenty of time to get that back, so not to worry

3. I have stuck to my healthy eating and feeling a lot slimmer, healthier and happier due to it. Result.

4. I have started my next batch of coursework for the Masters. Second to last piece of the year and its started.

I am now tired beyond tired. But its Friday and I am spending the weekend in Somerset at my darling friends Jo and Neil's wedding, which I am unbelievably excited about. They are getting married in Jo's local church and then the reception is in a marquee on Jo's parents farm. Think apple orchards, rolling hills, cider and hay. Its going to be wonderful. Jo and Neil are friends of mine from University. I met Jo on a night out and we bonded over the fact we had both broken up with our first time loves at similar times and a love of cheesy dance films and shopping. We lived together and she is one of my closest friends. I think I will need the tissues tomorrow. Especially as I count Neil a very good friend too. The outfit is ready - pink dress LK Bennett, flat cream pumps LK Bennett, cream jacket Phase Eight and pink fascinator Hats n Stuff. Mini pampering session this evening so I'm looking glowy and lovely tomorrow and an early night. As the drive from Herts to Somerset is going to take 3 and a half hours and my friends are meeting in the pub at 12:00 pm. Cheeky pimms before the service - has to be done.

Let's all pray there is no rain

I hope you all have lovely weekends

The move part 1 is complete

Thank goodness for that. Next time, I am officially hiring people to do the cleaning for me. What an absolute nightmare of trying to save £200. Well it was probably worth it looking back now but at half past midnight on Friday evening scrubbing the oven with all my might and then again at 10:30 on Saturday night seeing my poor boyfriend look beyond depseration as he tries to fit an armchair, a bike and three hat boxes into the boot of his VW Passat - wasn't quite worth it then.

But anyway, I have moved out of my little flat which is now in the hopefully very capable hands of a lovely set of Kiwis and I have moved in to the my boyfriends mum's house in the countryside (round the corner from the currently vacant Beckingham Palace) and am lodging up in my boyfriend's bedroom. Fun and games.
Yesterday I embarked on my first commute in and it was fine, I work in Marble Arch so I jump on the train which takes 40 minutes to get into Liverpool Street and then get one tube across to Marble Arch. Yesterday my boyfriends mum gave me a lift to the station but this morning I cycled in to the local station which only took about 5 minutes. Perfect.

I am also sitting with a fitness halo above my head because I managed to get up at 5:30 am this morning and went for a 30 min run before I headed out. It was glorious. I ran along the river and took the springer spaniel Tess with me. The early morning sunshine and quietness was so lovely compared to the smog of Chelsea Embankment, where I normally go out trotting. Loved it!

Not sure how many 5:30 am starts I can manage in a week. I have a 4 mile race after work on Thursday, so for this week I think it may be one only. If I can manage a run at the weekend too, the bikini mission will continue with full force.

So far its been salads ahoy, limited treats and not much red meat. I have to say after reading the american book "Skinny Bitch" last summer, my eating habits did change quite a lot and have stayed that way as the book really did make me look at some foods differently. I highliy doubt I will ever be a vegan but I have since seriously cut back on red meat and dairy products. I try and only eat fish and chicken and then maybe have red meat once or twice a month. If I have say red meat two days in a row it really does make me feel quite horrid. I would recommend the book as its true in some aspects and does give you quite a graphic detail on the effects of dairy and red meat on our systems.

So salad for lunch today and then I am off to see my darling friend Gareth this evening in Bermondsey. He is a man's man so I reckon red meat may be on the menu. But that's ok - its all about everything in moderation!

Here's a thought for Tuesday - A smile confuses an approaching frown

Pastures new

I officially hate moving. Even when nothing goes wrong and the whole thing doesn’t even fall into the “stressful move” category, it’s still a bore and a chore.

But tomorrow will be the last day of packing, until I move from the countryside to Wimbledon in July/August. I feel like all I have done this week is exercise, work, go home and pack/watch Britain’s Got Talent. Oh no wait, that is all I have done. Apart from playing in a hockey game on Wednesday evening, which resulted in a 2-2 draw.

The other day I had one of those awful shopping moments I hate. I was in Topshop and decided to try on some shorts – I will try a size 10 but no doubt these will be too small. I will then try on the size 12 or see if slimming down into the size 10 is feasible considering the current bikini mission I am still on. So I grab the size 10 and saunter off into the changing room. Feeling confident I slip on the shorts only to find they are huge! They are actually too big – oh my goodness, this has never happened before, I must have lost loads on bootcamp and trying to be good. Am I sure these are a 10? Oh no wait, the stupid shorts are a UK size 14 and a US size 10. For goodness sake, this is ridiculous and how annoying? To top things off they didn’t even have the blessed shorts in a 10 or a 12!

I would really like a smart pair of short shorts, to wear in England and potentially on holiday. My quest continues. This lunchtime I tried on a pair of size 12s cute coral shorts in Zara but they were too big. Soooo is bikini mission working? Yes it is, but slowly. I need to kick it up a gear. However this means, cutting out all bad/naughty things. If I’m going to be completely honest I could still improve my diet. My portions at dinner are far too big and they could easily be cut down. I also am still indulging my sweet tooth in the afternoon and evening. I need to stop. So to combat the afternoon sweet tooth – low fat biscuits, such as light digestives, light rich teas and oatcakes. Evening sweet tooth – I need to just stop. Having a yogurt should be my sweet thing and maybe a herbal tea but no more little bits of chocolate.

There is only 5 weeks left of the bikini mission but if I could lose 7 pounds in those 5 weeks that would be good. The past two weeks have felt like a good start but I could have done better. So running once a week before work and then again at the weekend. Swimming maybe twice a week in the evenings. That should be enough to get me ready and raring to go.

The big move happens tomorrow, I will be leaving London temporarily for a temporary countryside home. As its 25 degrees at the moment, it’s quite good timing. Although I am very sad to be leaving my first London flat and even sadder to be leaving my flatmate of 3 years. She is hoping to buy somewhere with her fiancé as they are getting married in August. Very strange to think that as we moved in together my boyfriend was only just beginning his medical degree and I was still a mere rabbit in the headlights to London living. She was a party-mad London girl born and bred who is now heading down the aisle for married life before me! We’ve had laughs, tears and great moments together and supporting each other over the past few years. I will keep the lovely memories and take them on with me forever

Happy Friday