Healthy eating and exercise

After a week hanging out in France in this big Château with lots of friends, in the Langedoc-Roussillon region of France. Consuming copious amounts of cheese, wine, pastries and butter. It's now time to get back to reality. See my diagram / pattern below to demonstrate!

the Château - table set for dinner before the big party

Lisbon antics!

We came back from Lisbon a few weeks ago and I haven't managed to record it down in my blog due to a mountain of work I came back too (not such a bad thing!)

Anyhow... we found it a great break away from London, very chilled for a city and a half hour train ride to beaches. You can could walk to pretty much all the tourist attactions and get lost in the narrow, quiet, steep streets long enough (we walked for miles!) to earn yourself a beer or two in front of one of the many incredible views the city has to offer.

There are are plenty of bars, we visited Clube Ferroviario which had a huge roof terrace where you can admire the river view whilst sitting on comfy old train seats. We also visited the club Lux, which seems to get all the big named DJ's play there.

Bairro Alto, the area we were staying in comes alive in the evening. The bars are all tiny, you can probably only fit about 30 in at a time so people hang out in the small lanes, sitting on the pavements drinking huge sugary Caprioskas.

There is not much in the way of fashion in Lisbon, we got some funny looks when we both wore bold print shirts one night! It was a refreshing change from London, where what you wear is kind of a big deal. Dreadlocks seemed to be a big look in Lisbon!

Food wise, you get a lot of simple grilled fish, with dull boiled potatoes, and they love their salt. It's worth doing your research before you go or getting a good guide book, because if you know where to look then great food can be found.

This is a great site if you want to do your research before you go. 

Japanese Love Hotels

I am a big fan of the author Haruki Murakami and have read most of his books. Often strange, and surreal stories set in Japan. Many of the books mention love hotels. In the hope of finding some amazingly kitsch images,  I did a bit of googling and was not let down! There are Hello Kitty themed rooms, doctors surgery style rooms, full on S&M dungeons, rooms with waterfalls, rooms made to look like the stationary cupboards, or perhaps a train carriage is more your thing?! My favourite are the old school 70s ones - lots of images of those on this site.

left source, right source

boat hotel, source, right source

source

pick your room, source

source

Fairy light tunnel

London needs to get a fairy light tunnel! maybe the annoying walk way that connects the Bank and Monument stations, then you wouldn't mind getting stuck in the human traffic. This tunnel is in Nabana no Sato, a botanical garden, Kuwana, Japan. More info and pictures on MyModernNet.