It's Thursday. The only day of the week where you can wake up, brush your teeth with soap, wash your face with toothpaste and try to drink the olive oil sat next to your coffee and it seem like you're making progress.

Ah Thursday. My favourite day of the week. Well. It's pre-Friday and you know that you've almost made the week. Trouble is, this time is going awfully quickly!

So, what do I have to say for today? "nngghhhhshhh".

Yep.

That's what today is inspiring in me...

Wednesday this week was a beautiful day. I got home from work early (being slightly part time), made myself some food (yes, I actually made myself some food!) and then realized I had a large portion of time that was unassigned....the first time in a week or two.

Now some of you will know that the new WoW (World of Warcraft) expansion came out last Thursday - Warlords of Draenor. Between queue times (which were ridiculous), OFSTED (which is also ridiculous), a rather large craft order (from my shop on Etsy....go check me out :p) and my mother-in-law moving house I had NO time to play. If you mix into that the fact that my car broke down on the way to helping MiL move AND I had an....unfortunate....incident well. What can I say. No WoW time.

So, yesterday I was faced with a decision. Do I stick to the plan, go to the gym (after having my EXTREMELY good lunch meal) and be a "good" girl. Or do I blow it all off and level my main (guardian druid....she's beautiful and I love her....).

Well. Somehow I managed to turn away from the screen (having done my garrison quests....), change into my gym gear and actually LEAVE the house. I even have proof...

1.5 hours later, I'm finished with the gym and some yoga to stretch it all out...

And it's time for some WoW.

Not to get too geeky, but for those of you who are interested the new expansion is amazing - gorgeous tileset, the garrison idea is BRILLIANT and there are lots of things to do that don't involve stooping to the level of pugging. Ooops. Did I say that? I meant lots of fun, solo things to do :p

Anyway, geek zone over and today I have decided that I'm going to share my gorgeous lunch with you - it's a fave recipe for me now (and happened quite by accident).

As I often say, I'm a LAZY vegetarian, so I have a lot of trouble with getting enough protein into my diet. This meal was a beautifully balanced 36g carbs, 30g fat and 38g protein. Yum!

So, for a beautifully balanced meal:

You can find the link to the recipe on MFP here.

125g quinoa (I used the red and white pre-prepared quinoa from the Tesco whole food section)
3 x medium eggs (you can put in fewer eggs - I was REALLY hungry and I love eggs - this would change the macros though!)
30g cheddar cheese

1. Microwave the eggs (pop into a cup, beat them around and then microwave for 2-3 minutes depending on the microwave and number of eggs!) *remember to put a little olive oil in the cup to avoid the egg sticking...
2. Pop the quinoa onto a plate (preferably clean....!)
3. Tip the eggs out onto the quinoa
4. Grate some cheese over the top - add some raw onion/tomato if you fancy
5. VOILA

Yum :D

The usual updates - £2 made from clicking around this site. Following the links allows us to claim back money from Google Ad-Sense so don't be shy about investigating these advertisers :) It's totally free for you to do too - unless you see an amazing deal!

More eBay auctions up - Today it's Eddie the Gecko! He's £9.95 via our eBay store, he's hand made completely from scratch (I didn't use a template) and he turned from a blob of clay into something I'm really proud of!

He's on eBay at this link.

We also have a range of cute little owl bookmarks coming along, Brenda the bookmark will soon be joined by Alan, Jeff and Judy!! I'll upload finished pictures, at the moment they're still white and rough!

Tom's talking reptiles have also agreed to sponsor us here, you can find more information about them on this page. Kiddies parties (I'm sure a fair few adults would like their parties too) that actually dispel misconceptions and allow kids to get up close to reptiles!! Awesome :D Check out the link :)

So what was today's adventure I can hear you saying?

Well everybody, today I tried ballet! I never took ballet lessons as a child - they appeared to be reserved for the skinny, rich, popular girls that I didn't seem to fit in to at primary school. Mostly because I was an awkward lump. Ah, not much changes does it ;) Well, at least I'm not socially awkward anymore (shush you people that know me. Don't dispel my illusions....I'm happy with the silences....).

Evening.

This is going to be a short one. I know, I know, you'll miss me but I'll be right back tomorrow don't worry!

To update you on the Google Ad-Sense fundraising - we're now at £2.00 into the pot via your clicks!! Thank you!! <3 It all adds up! Remember it's completely FREE for you to fundraise this way (unless you find some awesome deal of course!) and you might actually find something you like :)

We have several eBay auctions up at the moment and we have lots of products in our store - so please check these out here (for our store) and here (for eBay).

To take part in our challenges you can sign up here on our Facebook event page - I'm even going to push the boat out and say for EVERY NEW COMBATANT WHO TAKES THE CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK, WE WILL DONATE £1 TO OXFAM.

Remember it's also not too late to submit yourself for the challenge this week and get your face and adventures in our blog!!

Why is tonight's blog so short? Well, Eddie the gecko is finished!! Whoop :D He's up and ready to go to a good home, along with Brenda and Ollie the owls :)

You can find more details and prices here. These little guys are super cute though! And at £2 for Brenda the bookmark owl they'd make someone a nice little (handmade and lovingly crafted) gift!

Anyway, you're here for the dirt on today's challenge right?

Today I did the 30 day ab challenge.

So lets start today with our general updates:

£1.84 has been raised so far through Google Ad-Sense. Thanks to everyone who has been investigating the advert links - please keep doing it!! It's completely free for you (unless ofc you buy something) but we generate revenue from it which ALL goes to Oxfam.

We have several eBay auctions up at the moment and we have lots of products in our store - so please check these out here (for our store) and here (for eBay).

I'm just in the process of painting Eddie the candle-holder and I'll get some pictures up of my other clay projects!

To take part in our challenges you can sign up here on our Facebook event page - I'm even going to push the boat out and say for EVERY NEW COMBATANT WHO TAKES THE CHALLENGE FOR THE WEEK, WE WILL DONATE £1 TO OXFAM.

What did we try today?
Today we decided that rock climbing was going to be our goal as something new. I feel it's about time to confess that I'm actually a little jittery around heights. I don't think that's an irrational fear - it's adaptive, cmon, surely some caution around high things is common sense...

As it turns out, so is Tash. I got a call this morning saying that she'd lost the money she was going to use to pay for the session....ooops, I paid on booking sis - no backing out now *laugh*

Amber has done rock climbing before, so when she left Crawley earlier she was still brain storming what she could do for her challenge...we'll have to see what she came up with ;)

So, anyway, rock climbing. I've wanted to go rock climbing for quite a while now but have never had the guts to book a session. This challenge gave me a perfect excuse to do so!

After doing some research I can see that there are some great health benefits to rock climbing! Check out this site, or this one and definitely this one if you need more information on what rock climbing can do for your workout routine!!

So we booked through High Sports at K2 Crawley yesterday and turned up at around 12:30pm and prepped for our session - the harnesses were a little alarming, but James (our instructor for the session) patiently explained how they fitted on and where to put everything (there are so many holes.....!!).

After a few minutes and doing the signature of certain death (you know the one - when they hand you the piece of paper it was time to become acquainted with the walls....

James took us through the safety (don't walk under other people's lines - see I remember!) and then explained that we were attached to him and he'd help us down. At this point I looked him up and down and wondered whether I'd actually lift him off of the floor when I was coming down....he didn't look like he weighed more than me! I could just picture the see-saw motion of me and James stuck in an eternal struggle to reach the floor....

Turns out he was fine. Apparently though he does have to plug himself into the floor when slightly heavier people come climbing - is it bad that at that point I was just glad he hadn't attached himself to the floor?!!

Getting to the middle of the walls was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. The last wall I even touched the top xD That's progress for you. Although, at the top I made the mistake of looking down. Ooops. That's the moment when the "oh crap, what am I doing? I'M GOING TO DIE" kicks in - how am I going to get down? That's so far. Um. Drop and roll? NO NO DROP AND ROLL. Never. Look. Down.

We tackled 4 walls in total and O...M...G, my forearms (and my butt muscle that was pulled in the multiple handstand incidences). What a workout. If you're looking for a workout that combines endurance and resistance and fun you NEED to try rock climbing!! I am officially hooked and planning on going again next week!

Our instructor James was upbeat and really, really supportive of both me and Tash when it came to declaring that we were scared of heights. He even complimented us a lot on progressing and made a big deal of the steps we took - spot on!! As you can see in the video he allowed us to try out going up and abseiling down and made no comment on what must have looked really silly!

I'm so glad I finally found the courage to book this - it's something everyone should try at least once in my opinion.

After the rock climbing we went for a short walk around the gorgeous Tilgate Lake, which was beautifully sunny (the weather, not the lake...) and then into town for some shopping and a coffee courtesy of Amber. Great training session. We definitely need more coffee though... xD

After all the excitement I came home and logged into WoW. Yes, I play World of Warcraft. Yes, I raid. Yes, I know. A few weeks ago I cancelled raiding to go and see the new Captain America movie. That is when I realised (and one of my lovely friends pointed out) that I had hit ultimate geek status.

In fact, it was when I'd got to fat to bend down and face-tank that I decided it was time to lose weight....thanks WoW ;) Sweating profusely when you're playing should be reserved for those tricky "YES WE'RE GOING TO DOWN THE BOSS" moments and not just when you're walking about the nearest town....

Anyway, I was talking to one of my friends (who dropped a couple of comments about my hand-standing abilities....git) when I got the comment "well, handstands can't be that hard can they". Well. I've told him to go away and film himself trying. I'll post up the footage if I get any ;)

So, look forward to that moment peoples!

That's me done for tonight. Over and out!