the end of an era....

Tonight I spend my first night at my new, albeit temporary, home.

It's a bit full circle really. When I first moved to London, this flat was my home away from home. I literally spent every free moment I had here, sleeping on the couch on the weekends, stopping by on my way home from work for dinner, and would only go back to my actual flat to sleep, change clothes and shower.

Still, it's strange not to be in my own bed, where I've slept for the past year. To not have the lights of the hotel across the street, streaming into my window. And even more strange, to not be able to call out and chat with my flatmate Suey in the next room.

After an extremely hectic day of moving, we had our last 'flattie' dinner at Pizza Express... and after feasting on pizza and antipasti, we walked out and were greeted by the most amazing sunset. Not a bad way to bid farewell to Flat 68...

PS. on an entirely separate note, I just found a bug on my pillow, scurrying around. not cool. I've done the obligatory search of the rest of my bed, but I still don't feel comfortable sleeping here... (whimper)

my fastest half marathon - the small triumphs in life

Untitled by irenepoon88 at Garmin Connect - Details

This morning I dragged my ass out of bed to run 14 miles.

I got up to 13 miles and hit that dreaded wall. Actually I hit that wall around 12.02 miles and pushed myself to finish at least half a marathon. It's a bit funny how your mind plays tricks on you when you're running. The other week, I was finishing a 12 mile run, and at 8 miles I was convinced that I only had 2 more miles to go.

Today I willed myself to finish the fastest half-marathon distance ever. I was a good 25 minutes faster than my last half marathon, and about 12 minutes faster than my best ever time.

So I'm taking that away with me today. Not the fact that I just couldn't get that last mile in, but that I beat my best time. Next week will bring another long run for me to accomplish.

my love for zara (uk)

When I lived in Toronto, I never bought anything at Zara. The clothes were always randomly thrown around the store in no real order, and the tailoring was so horribly cheap, you could tell from a mile away that the fit just wouldn't be right.

When I moved to London, however, Zara quickly became my favourite go-to shop to pick something up. No matter what, I always find something at Zara. In fact, I'd be willing to bet that at least 40% of my London wardrobe was picked up from wandering into Zara and walking out with a shopping bag in hand and a lighter bank account.

I've just had a peek at the Zara store online, and there's already a few items that I'm eyeing and will undoubtedly add to my wardrobe the next time I'm out shopping.

Fish are Fussy too (apparently)

I really do think that you learn something new every day.

Sometimes it's groundbreaking, life-changing bits of information. Like the realisatiion that you should never ever buy jeans that don't quite fit because they're on sale. Or maybe it's the fact that you've finally figured out which way the paper goes in the printer when you have to make labels.

Other days, it's really random stuff that is utterly and completely useless. Like Saturday, I went to Camden Stable Markets with Elke to try out the increasingly popular fish pedicure.

Imagine dipping your feet into a tank of teeny tiny fish (and as we discovered, a few bigger ones) and as you plunge your feet into the warm water, those fish instantly swarm towards your toes and all of the sudden, you feel the gentlest nibbling sensation.

it's rather unnerving, and unluckily for me, incredibly ticklish - especially when the little fishes decided to delve in between the toes. I spent most of my time giggling and having to lift my feet up every few minutes for a moment's reprieve.

Sitting across from us was a woman who had been sitting there for some time - but unlike the rest of us, her feet were completely free of mini-fish. In fact, Elke overheard her complaining that no fish were eating her feet - something you definitely don't hear everyday.

I always thought that fish were rather simple creatures with extremely short-term memories. But my revelation of the day was that these special piranha fishies, well they're actually rather fussy about what feet they'll nibble on.

The end result of the fishy pedicure? To be honest, I'm not entirely sure, my feet are pretty gross from all of the running I've been doing.

Would I do it again? Probably not. It was a fun, one-time experience. But if the fish decide to be fussy with my feet, I'm not sure me and my dry heels could take the rejection.



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Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the year of the Rabbit.

I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I'm sure that there are a variety of auspicious reasons to be getting married or having kids or changing jobs and your hairstyle.

Chinese New Year at home always meant one thing - food. My mother would spend days in the kitchen preparing the traditional dishes that go with the celebration, each dish representing something to bring in the new year. I would only ever remember that shrimp brought laughter and that noodles meant long life.

Once my brothers moved away and the house got quieter, she would still insist on making the 10 course meal - even when it was just a handful of us gathered around the dinner table to get through that mound of food. I would invite friends who had never experienced Chinese meals outside of the realm of sweet and sour pork, and watch in amusement when they were encountered with whole steamed fish with heads still attached and that funny black fungus that looks like a clump of hair.

Last year I rang in Chinese New Year with my friend Jess on the slopes of Chamonix. To be honest, I kind of forgot about the holiday completely. This year though, I'm going back to my roots and will be having dinner with some friends at a Chinese restaurant in London. Only a handful of us are actually of Chinese descent, the rest are a random assortment of backgrounds - such is my life in London. One thing's for sure though, there will be food - lots of it. Because nothing says Chinese New Year more than a marathon dinner of endless courses and food comas.

Gung Hai Fat Choy

My Shakespeare Country run by irenepoon88 at Garmin Connect - Details

This past weekend I visited the land of Shakespeare with three good friends - Jess, Mal and Dutchie. It was meant to be a total road trip where we wouldn't make any plans other than drive up to Stratford for the weekend. No hotel bookings, no tours, nothing other than us, a car and a few google maps.

Two days before the trip, I crumbled and went through a frenzy of google searching and trip advisor research and booked us into a self-catering cottage called Weston Sands. They laughed, but my control freak nature wouldn't let me just show up with no plans. And besides, it turned out to be an amazing place for a great deal. Three bedrooms, all modern mod-cons, comfy couch and a big flat screen tv. Plus we were in the middle of the country... it was gorgeous.

Anyway, I debated on whether or not to bring my running gear, but in the end, the thought of having to run 10 miles on Sunday night, or even worse, Monday morning was too dreadful and I made room in my bag. It turned out be the best decision as I managed to find a trail cutting through the rolling fields straight into Stratford Upon Avon. Below is my run... you'll notice a bit of back and forth near the end, that's because I got back to my starting point and still had another 1.5 miles to run.

While I'll always be a city girl at heart and the thought of living in the countryside strikes fear in my heart, I have to say that running in the countryside definitely outweighs running in the city. For one thing - no stop lights... also, people are so nice when you run by. I've never smiled and waved at so many people while running. And when I passed by a couple who I had ran past earlier, they actually made eye contact and gave me a thumbs up.

You'll be happy to hear that despite my history of (ahem) navigational mishaps, I managed to stay on one path and not run around aimlessly in Shakespeare's country.

My Shakespeare Country run by irenepoon88 at Garmin Connect - Details

hoping for a hat trick

Last year over Christmas, my flight coming back to London was threatened by the greed of striking BA staff. Thankfully, the crisis was averted and I was able to return back to work on my scheduled flight. To be fair, I really wasn't all that worried about being stuck at home for a bit longer, but I also didn't want to waste any precious vacation days on staying in Canada.

In April, I was due to fly to Vancouver for my brother's wedding when a volcano I dubbed 'Iggy' decided to erupt and spew ash all over the hemisphere causing cancellations galore.

Working in the travel industry at the time, I couldn't escape the possibility that I might actually have to partake in my brother's wedding via Skype. My stress levels and disappointment were so severe that I was whisked out the night before my flight was due to leave to drown my sorrows in 2 for 1 cocktails.

But the miracle swept in, and they opened the airports that very morning and I walked down the aisle after all.

Now a measly five inches of snow and more forecasted bad weather is threatening to leave me stranded and alone in London for Christmas. After I busted my ass to get all of my Christmas shopping done in time and braved the streets of Oxford Circus...

So I'm crossing my fingers and hoping like mad to score a hat-trick. Because despite my flatmate offering to wrap up random items in our house for me to open up on Christmas Day (Thanks Suey) - I really want to go home this year.


A photo of the very empty Heathrow Express train carriage the morning the airports opened after the ash cloud crisis. I showed up 4 hours early expecting a mad mob - this is what I was greeted with


My ride to my brother's wedding - I'd never been so happy to board a plane.... I'll be even happier when/if I board a plane this Friday afternoon