I have seriously neglected this blog but life has been hectic.

Okay, so running wise I did a very poor job over Christmas and really had to start building myself up again but now I can just about comfortably run 10km in about 1:15:00 - not the best time but I'm working on that. I have also entered the Baker Hughes 10km race in Aberdeen and am raising money for Alzeheimer's Scotland, if you are interested in sponsoring me, just go here. I've also been convinced into doing the 10km in Newham (the Great Newham Run) in July and taking part in a Colour Me Rad event in Aberdeen in early June.

Also, finally got around to investing in a proper sports bra which is magnificent and got some cute new running gear.

On the hair side of things I can now stretch to 9 days without doing a wash (yes, still no-poo). Last wash I did was last Tuesday and my hair felt BEAUTIFUL, I'll be washing it tonight as I've just been out for a quick 5km run.

I cancelled My Little Box as I was disappointed with the January one and thought it was too expensive for something I only really half-like.

Will be making my second trip in three weeks to London next week for some follow up unterviews for post-uni life. Wish me luck!

I had read loads of wonderful things about My Little Box so I decided to give them a go and signed up at the start of November. The month rolled by and I still did not have my box. I contacted customer services twice and went on their Facebook page, turned out they had had a dud month and many people had not received their November box. 

After corresponding with them - the replies I got were so lovely and sweet - they offered to refund my November box and still send it, yay! 

My Cosy Box arrived yesterday and I love it (even though it is a few weeks late).

Contents:-

        -  cute little coffee mug
        -  a microwave pillow
        -  mini tote bag
        - make up: crayon eyeliner, mascara and nail polish

  

Everything tied up neatly with a bow

I received an email today telling me my December box is on its way and has been created in collaboration with Fleur DeForce - exciting!

It has been three weeks since I stopped using shampoo from a bottle and sixteen days since I started using bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar on my hair instead.

And I am certainly not disappointed with the results.

Day number 7 with no shampoo. Used bicarbonate of soda and apple cider vinegar to wash my hair this morning and damn it looks good. Suddenly looks so much blonder too.

Now this next one is probably the best selfie I have ever taken. Never will I take one as good.

                                      

Day 2 of new regime / Day 8 of no shampoo. Put my hair in a French braid last night (dry) and it came out like this. It also feels so soft!!

Apologies for the terrible lighting in this one. I think it makes my hair look a little greasy and I think by this stage it did need a little wash but overall it was still feeling super soft and light.

Day 4 new regime / Day 10 #noshampoo hair still not looking greasy and feels soft.

And finally, one I took this morning after a run. Lighting is completely different as I went for taking one by the window and profiting from that natural light.

                                     

So that photo is three weeks in and dayum it's still looking good. I need to get out of the habit of stroking my hair in disbelief, it's as soft as a puppy.


In future I'll take photos on my proper camera rather than on my phone. If you want real-time updates, follow me on instagram @annalouiseaway


One thing I've learned it that you really have to scrub that bicarb of soda into your scalp when you do it. I did a wash earlier this week where I didn't scrub it in properly and it looked cleaner but not as good as it had done on previous washes.


I convinced my housemate to try it for a while and she saw results too but has since reverted back to shampoo as she didn't really think it was for her. She's going to wash her hair with BS and ASV from time to time though.


As for me, I'm going to plough on, I love my hair.

Anna xx

I've always wondered how people have managed to lose their phones to toilets. About 40 hours ago, my Nexus 5 went on an unexpected diving expedition.

I was in the bathroom, undoing my belt when my Nexus flew out of my hoody pocket and into the clean toilet.


My first thought was:

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK!!

Then:

...That's £300 in the toilet

I immediately fished it out from its tragically watery situation and started to panic. I knew I had to turn it off and get it drying.

Problem was that the screen had gone blank, not immediately after I rescued it but not long after and stopped responding so I couldn't turn it off. Too chicken and lacking the tools to prise the battery out, I did what I could and got a plastic box, filled it with rice and placed my wiped down phone into its recovery chamber.

Rice the saviour and my phones rice rehab box.

I was terrified. The phone was still receiving emails/notifications, buzzing from within the box and flashing the LED light. Unable to do anything, distressed and tearful, I let the rice do its thing. 

The next morning the screen was responding and I turned it off. I'd read 24 hours was the minimum time to leave it so I didn't check it again until the evening. I managed to unlock it and check a few apps before the phone started freaking out, opening and closing and switching between apps. In a panic I turned it off again with the hope that the rice would keep working its magic.

This morning I checked it again and it seemed fine and back to its pre-water experience state. Not wanting to hump the gun I left it another 8 hours and...

IT'S ALIVE!!

All hail the rice.

There are thankfully no problems with sound, picture, camera, any other functions and it is behaving exactly as it did before it went in the toilet. I'd lost my iPod a few years ago to some light water damage and seriously thought it was the end for my barely a year old phone. But it had survived to live another day and I've learned a valuable lesson.

I've been trying to wean my scalp off shampoo and after several weeks I have now joined the 'no 'poo revolution'.


I've never been in the habit of daily hair washing, normally it was every other day by I had bought into the double shampoo and condition routine. Last year I decided to ditch the two shampoos thing and conditioner and had only been having a dab of shampoo each time. Over the last few months I have increased the time between washes to the point where I can go a week without washing my hair and it still looking acceptable and just a water rinse doing the trick mid-week.

Today I finally took it that one step further and have decided to go ahead and give up that 'poo and use what Katherine Martinko suggested for long hair in her post on treehugger:

Measure 2 tbsp baking soda into a 500 mL/1 pint glass jar. Wet hair. Fill jar with water and stir to dissolve baking soda. Pour over head and scrub into hair. Rinse. Measure 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar into same jar. Add water, pour over head, and rinse almost immediately.

So I went out yesterday and bought bicarbonate of soda (I was assured that it's the same thing as baking soda) and some cider vinegar as Morrisons calls it.


I followed her very easy method with a pint glass and measuring spoon in the bathroom and I could instantly feel my hair getting cleaner. And Katherine is right, the vinegar smell disappears almost instantly, your hair will NOT smell like salad.

Right now it feels the same as when I wash with shampoo, definitely cleaner. My housemate has said that if I have success she'll follow suit, she's also down to about once a week washing hair. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Anna xx

 

I have to say the first week of November has got off to a pretty good start. Last Saturday I was persuaded to join a bunch of people in the park to let off fireworks despite my initial hesitations, I've heard so many fireworks horror stories, I didn't want to become one. I was constantly on edge and ready to leg it if it all went wrong. But everything was fine apart from the drizzly weather, my soaking wet jacket and that one firework that scared the crap out of me when it fell over. 

It was my housemate's birthday on Wednesday so I spent a good few hours on Tuesday evening lovingly making her a deliciously chocolatey birthday cake. It was meant to be a surprise but it's a bit difficult to bake in secret when you share a house with someone. It went down an absolute treat though.

And I think it looked pretty damn good if I do say so myself, I made everything myself (apart from the smarties and chocolate letters of course). I had to wing the chocolate fudge icing as the mixture didn't do what I expected it to do when I was trying to make it, got there in the end though.

The sudden drop in temperature has meant that it's time to break out those hats and gloves, except one of my favourite gloves went walk about so on Wednesday I went on a mission to replace them in preparation for the Guy Fawkes festivities later on.

I eventually found a pair of gloves and matching hat without beads and sequins (a surprisingly difficult challenge) in Accesorize. I decided to splash out since I had a gift card and cashed in on the student discount too. I love my new winter woollies.

We watched the fireworks from a hillside near the beach, and the view was good apart from that one annoying lamppost which is in all of my photos.

I posted one of the finale fireworks on instagram and it was promptly reposted by another girl... Anyway! We went for drinks and tapas at a new-ish place called Bos'n. The venue was snazzy, seating and tables made from upcycled wooden crates and a range of yummy drinks. I asked the bartender to suggest a sweet drink and he recommended the Brazilian Passion so I went for that and some lamb quesadillas. 

My drink and quesadilla

The portion size of the quesadilla was bigger than expected, I guess I have the tapas size from living in Spain in my head still. Not complaining though! Meant I didn't need to make myself any dinner when we got back and chowed down on some birthday cake instead.

And to finish off quite a busy week, I went to the theatre last night to see Rock of Ages with my housemate. We were way up in the balcony and annoyingly sat next to two people who would not shut up so I passively aggressively hushed them while staring straight ahead so they didn't know it was me. They definitely heard me though and decided that they'd just talk more. I wouldn't have minded had they just been getting really into the songs, but when they were loudly talking over the dialogue it really started to wind me up.

         

So we moved seats during the interval in the hope of hearing the rest of the story and so did everyone else sitting within a couple of seats of them. By the time the show started back, there was a massive void of where people had been sitting previously. Surprisingly the pair didn't show up again after the interval, I was on the lookout/hiding my face. We reckon they were either chucked out or missed the cue to go back in. Can they not let you back in if you miss the warning bell?

Anyway, the second half was much more enjoyable and I managed to get a few photos of the theatre before we left.

                           

Not done any running this week because of the weather, hopefully that doesn't impact on my parkrun time too much. I guess we'll see tomorrow.

Anna xx

 

This week I ran my 4th parkrun in Aberdeen, 6th in total. If you don't know, parkrun is a free 5km weekly timed run which takes place in towns and cities in several countries every Saturday morning, normally starting between 9 and 9:30am. It's completely run by volunteers and is a fun, free way of getting that bit of exercise in.


It was my housemate who first persuaded me to go. I had taken up running over the summer and she convinced me that it didn't matter how slow I was as some people walk it, I would have nothing to worry about. And I didn't. I couldn't quite believe that I wasn't right at the back of the pack that first week.


Since then, I've convinced both my boyfriend and brother to run it with me in different towns. I love it, I love the feeling of finishing it, getting my results sent to me and racking up those runs. I'll get that 50 runs shirt one day!!


I've been consistently hitting the around a half an hour mark but haven't been able to beat my personal best of 29:31. I did, however, manage to run 10km earlier in the week so this weeks result of 29:51 didn't dampen my spirits too much.

Also, my barcode tags arrived this morning. This means I won't have to try and remember my paper barcode each week as it will be attached to my keys. They look great with the parkrun logo and ICE number printed on them.


If you want to find out more about parkrun or where there's one near you, just click here.