The Start Of A New London Life

By that I mean no holidays for a long time because I just bought a flat. Time to get serious about stepping onto the property ladder. And hope that it all works out! 

This is the biggest debt I've taken on in my life so I have to say goodbye to the days of gallivanting around Europe and save those pennies. 

So to bridge the void of no holidays, I'll be telling you about my London life and catch up on all the wonderful travels which I never got round to posting before. Luckily there are lots of travelling memories to regale you with.

This weekend was one to settle down after a solid week and a bit of Iceland and skiing in Cervinia. I'm knackered. It's really busy at work and I'm still going to Zumba five days a week. Plus I have to deal with flat buying stuff.

On Saturday I was given a grand tour by my ex-colleague friend around Bermondsey Street near London Bridge. Very hip and happening place. I discovered a cool Vietnamese eatery and oggled at some art in one of the galleries. This area will be a new haunt for me.

It was sunny and the spring blossoms are already out. I went to my girlfriend's birthday party in north London and got home at a reasonable hour to enjoy a chillaxed Sunday.

Sod's law, on the day I had nothing to do the sun was nowhere to be found. I did a bit of charity shopping. Grant and I went to a new cafe near us and had a coffee. We spent the rest of the day indoors. I was glued to my recliner and laptop.

Galileo thermometer for £3. With only five temperature tags, I doubt it will change much on our windowsill but the colourful balls are beautiful. 

Sunday roast or healthy macaroni cheese bake. With broccoli, mushroom, roasted butternut squash, onion and red pepper. Enough leftovers for 2 lunches and I'll add tinned salmon. Nommee! 

My Trick To Eating Less Meat At Home

If you're new to eating less meat, I accidentally found a trick to help resist temptation especially if your partner eats meat.

It happened when our old freezer started to ice within days after defrosting. I was tired of defrosting it every two weeks since our landlord was supposed to fix it.

One day I turned it off because ice formed over the switch inside and it would be difficult to turn it off for the next defrosting.

And I forgot about it for three weeks.

Grant rang me while I was out, asking if I defrosted the freezer while he was away on holidays. That's when I realized our frozen food had been rotting in our freezer for weeks! We had'nt opened it sooner because we hardly needed frozen food. The poor guy discovered a very stinky soggy mess. So much food was wasted :(

So we had to clean it out. There was no point of turning it back on. From then we could only buy food that would last in our refrigerator so no more stockpiling like we used to. We were forced to buy meat that was to be eaten within a few days. That means some meat for Grant and my seafood but only small quantities for our weekly grocery shop.

Since our freezer was turned off, I've not had any meals containing meat because we can't keep excess meat in the flat. Our fridge is well stocked with veggies and we save on electricity bills too.

And as for the freezer, it's now used to store our candy. Every time we open it there's a lingering pong of what had been inside and so we're conditioned now to eat less junk food!