My week on Instagram #2

It's been a while since Instagram has become a day to day tool to document my  whereabouts and keeping up with my intention of documenting our lives like a Mormon, here you have the last two weeks in Instagram snapshots (yes, the last two weeks because being here and there prevented me to do it last week). For more photos, follow me: @letifretes

Pearl Jam... finally, after a 22 years waiting I will be able to cross this entry in my bucket list: seeing Pearl Jam in concert. Happiness. Pure and simple.-

Bilbo: before and after his Spring haircut. He doesn't seem to like it that much... but Thanks Paqui for the styling!

Babysitter for an afternoon: beautiful photos taken at sunset in the countryside behind my house with a friend's daughter as a model.

During and after: at the hairdresser getting ready to go to London,

London: finally in my DH arms. I've missed him so much!

Piccadilly Circus and Tesla Motors showroom at Westfield, enjoying myself like a child!

Sunday at Richmond Park

 

Last day in London... and back to Alhaurín...

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Weight Loss Wednesday Week 4

Weight Loss Wednesday Report

How far along? 4 weeks

Weight up or down? I don’t know... been 5 days in London and had no scale no check.

Total weight loss: 2.7 Kg – when I get hold of a scale I’ll update this.

BMI: 27

Clothes: clothes are still feeling lose and comfortable even though we've been kind of feasting lately!    

Sleep: way better these days specially since I've been sleeping with my DH again.

Skin: nice and clear and getting tanned with all the walking I've been doing!

Exercise:

Cardio: no spinning this week. Only walks and more walks.

General circuit training: only 2 times this week

Walks: every day. You walk a lot in London, and I mean A LOT. My DH has bought for me a pair of very “discreet” trainers to help me get used to the “urban walking”. On Sunday we did 16 Km non stop at Richmond Park... not bad! And on average we are walking about 8Km a day.

Food

Food plan: no food plan today. We are doing it the “tourist” but we try to maximize our protein intake.

Food journal: logged my food journal every day in MyFitnesspal.com.

Food cravings:  none really.

Any sin? Some...  especially on Tuesday night. We went for dinner at Big Easy in Covent Garden, my DH, Rachel (his cousin) and me, and did we feast! Lobster, Smoked Texan BBQ and All you can eat Shrimp plus Margaritas and Pina Coladas! We’ll need to walk the whole of Richmond Park like twice to burn those calories!

High protein breakfast - "light" pizza for lunch and a cup of tea

 Happy or moody most of the time?  Happy – happy. Being with my DH roaming the streets of London has been the best! J

Best moment this week: to have walked 16Km at Richmond Park on Sunday and haven´t die after it.

Worst moment this week: not looking forward to all the training we’ll need to burn all the “Big Easy” calories... (now I understand why it is called Big Easy.... it is easy to get big with that kind of food!)

Miss anything?  Bilbo!!!!!!

Looking forward to: begin the next stage of this diet plan and see some kilos been shed away.

Feast at Big Easy - Covent Garden

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Flat hunting in West London

When the whole London Project begun my DH was pretty confident we would find a flat soon enough but I wasn't so sure. DH moved to London a month ago planning to spend a week or at the most two in flat hunting and moving over to the new flat but that hasn't happened yet. He is still living in a hotel and we are still looking for a flat.

Our house in Spain is spacious and full of light with a beautiful garden and backyard. We knew that moving to London, at least for the first year or so would mean compromising to a different space and way of life. I'm so used to live in big houses that the actual thought of living in a flat not to mentions small flat hasn't been on my wish list for like ever. But life changes and now we are moving to exactly that: a small flat.

Views from our house in Spain

My DH workplace is located in West London near River Thames, to be more precise in Chiswick, and is in this area that we are looking to rent a flat. One thing that I learn in this quest is that any property located inside "The Ring" formed by the M25 is not cheap. At all.

Took the idea of the Venn Diagram from this blog about Flat hunting in Singapore .
You should definitely check it out!

In the beginning my DH was thinking about living in the outskirts of London in places like Windsor or Langley or Reading where properties could be more affordable than inside "The Ring" but that option would force us to buy a car immediately for me to use as the good houses are not precisely close by public transport and not so convenient for everyday life. Add to that the fact that all in all the sum of what you would spend in a year to travel back and forth to London is really high (a friend of ours that lives in Windsor spends roughly £4500/year in train and tube!).

After long conversations we reach the conclusion that we need to be living nearby my DH office in Chiswick for the following reason:

1. It is conveniently close to his work.
2. It is a beautiful and safe neighbourhood to live in.
3. It is close to parks and recreations (Gunnersbury Park, Richmond Park, Chiswick Park and Kew Gardens just to mention a few).
4. It is very well connected (public transportation wise) and provides an easy access to Central London.

Views from Richmond near the Main gates of Richmond Park

For those of us who know me well, I'm not a public transport type of person. I love driving my car and being able to go wherever I want whenever I want to BUT sometimes you can't have what you want and either way driving a car (on the wrong side of the road) and parking a car in the centre of London is not a easy and cheap feat. It’s been almost 12 years since the last time I actually used public transport as a mean to get to and from home in an everyday way and that’s one of my DH major concerns, but thanks to the Flying Spaghetti Monster there are some useful apps that can help you get from A to B in London in a fast and easy way. Apps like “London Transport” can help you plan a Journey or check the buses and  tube times from anywhere in London.

Screenshots of London Transport App for Android 

We began our search online but soon realised that all the interesting flat were gone before my DH had a chance to view them. My DH contacted several real estate agencies and booked some flats to see. Results so far are appalling.

Webpages like PrimeLocation, Zoopla and RightMove search estate agent listings (usually the same ones) and offer lots of pictures. Problem is, the agents themselves might not respond quickly enough to email requests, so it’s best to give them a call and make viewing appointments immediately. Places like Gumtree need to be approach with care as there are some scams and iffy people around.

To give you an idea a studio flat around this area could easily be around £900 to £1200. Anything below £1000 means you would be living in small room with your bed, your kitchen and sometimes even the shower occupying the same room! And I'm not joking. Try searching a rental for about that price in any area in West London and let me know what you find.

London Rents displays the average rent in London by postcode.

London Rental Map Postal Code W4

I'll keep you posted on our search for "El Dorado". Hasta la vista, baby!

Leti.-

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