Barclays Bikes of Death

I crossed another two items off my bucket list today.

1. Ride Thames Clipper

Result? B minus

Not quite the romantic vision I had of standing on the top deck, wind blowing through my hair watching the impressive skyline of London pass by. It was more like sitting inside because it was too cold to stand outside, and having screaming children run around. Also the windows were too dirty to make out any of the buildings.

2. Rent a Barclays Bike and ride around the city

Result? Massive fail.

First we couldn't get the bikes out of the docking station, even with me and Jess (aka the strongest girl I know) tugging on the bikes. Then the seat, even at the lowest setting, was too high for me. Clearly these were not made for Irene-sized people.

And then there was the issue of actually riding through the streets with the rest of London's traffic. Scary? More like life flashing before your eyes terrifying. Imagine trying to maneuver through cars, London cabbies, double decker buses, other bikers and pedestrians who walk as if they own the street. Now imagine them all on the wrong side of the road.

...yup I know... not fun.

Thankfully it wasn't a long journey and I made it home in one piece, albeit with shaking legs and newfound appreciation for anyone who attempts to travel through this city on two wheels.

Leaving London - Part 1

Most, if not all of you know that I am leaving my beloved London home in a scant few months.

One of my late discoveries of this gorgeous, noisy, hectic city is the simple pleasure of afternoon tea - a timeless English tradition that embraces a freshly brewed pot of tea, scrummy scones and a variety of cakes that look almost too good to eat.

The other day, I indulged and introduced my cousin Kim to afternoon "sweet tea" at one of the city's most popular cafes - Bea's of Bloomsbury, which is consistently rated one of the best places for cakes, cupcakes and well - anything sweet.

I used to be shy and slightly embarrassed about taking photos of my food in restaurants. Now it seems that everyone whips out their cameras at the dinner table and goes snap happy before taking their first bite. When did we all start documenting our eating habits? Maybe when the food started to look so damn good....

check out exhibit A -




...and then there's beautiful sight of freshly baked scones with a heap of clotted cream and strawberry jam on top

Yes, asian girls can drive

In your face Young Drivers of Canada - you may have failed me three times before granting me a license, but it's true - asian girls CAN drive.

...well snowmobiles at any rate...

Here's something I wasn't expecting about snowmobiling across a glacier

1. Even if you show up dressed in layers + snowboarding pants/jacket apparently it isn't warm enough. No, you need to don a full body suit, which unfortunately for me, didn't come in irene-sizes.

Basically I looked like the shorter, Asian version of the Michelin Man.



2. Snowmobiles are not made for people with small hands. I may have "the perfect hands for violin" as my violin teacher had proclaimed so many times, but they ain't built for handling a snowmobile

3. Snowmobiles are not made for sharp turns. If you try to make a sharp turn, you may find yourself heading straight into your tour guide instead.

4. If you want to go fast on a snowmobile, make sure you're at the back of the line of other snowmobiles, then sneakily slow down and get a good distance behind before speeding up. Try to avoid bumps.



At the end, happy that I had survived a white-knuckle, slightly terrifying experience snowmobiling, there was only one thing left to do....

A Tale of Unemployment

Yup it's official, I'm unemployed. No job, no paycheque, no desk job....

It was my own decision. With only 2 months left to legally work in the UK, I decided to be incredibly irresponsible and quit my job early in order to fit in more traveling before heading back to Canada.

So here I am, living the lap of luxury, except I'm not. See that's the thing about being unemployed - money doesn't grow on trees and unfortunately I don't have a sugar daddy to keep in my creature comforts.

I swing between getting excited and booking trips to freaking out about this self-imposed career break at 29 and think about just booking the next flight back home.

I wish my 40-something year old self would tell me to just relax and enjoy this time off that I have. Because in a few years, heck in a few months, I'm sure that I'll be stuck behind a desk at a job that I love with my standard 10-days (shudder) holiday....

No fermented shark for me please

This weekend I'm heading to Reykjavik, Iceland. And yes, I did just google Reykjavik to make sure I spelled it correctly.

Unlike some of my previous weekend trips, this one promises to be jam-packed full of activities.

I fly in Thursday night, then Friday morning, us five girls are heading over to the Blue Lagoon. Incidentally this isn't a remake of the famous Brooke Shields movie, but rather a natural hot spring/spa, which will be a welcome break after a long and stressful week at work.



Friday evening we have a Northern Lights tour booked. I'm already mentally planning how many layers I'm going to wear, because despite having spent most of my life in Canada, anything below 0 degrees is unbearably cold to me.

Saturday morning, Jess and I are getting picked up in the morning and whisked on a 'Golden Circle' tour of Iceland which involves...wait for it... one exhilarating hour of snowmobiling across the Langjökull glacier.

(cue jokes about Asian female drivers)



Saturday night will be spent enjoying the famous nightlife of Reykjavik and sampling the famous cuisine of Iceland.

Sunday I will be planning on going for a run as part of my marathon training. Still not 100% sure if that'll happen though. Then it's a hop skip and a jump back to London town for another few days at the office.

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.