1st day in the new house

by | Jun 22, 2014 | Updates

I have to say that I’m delighted at the fact that I’ve moved to Farringdon. I walked around the area for 3 hours yesterday, which in total led to around 8 miles of walking. Luckily my new running shoes are really, really comfortable. I’m even wearing them to work now and even during work hours as well — instead of my smart shoes. Not that that would be an issue.

One of the nicest things that I’ve discovered is that I don’t actually need a drying rack anymore. The fucking washing machine is a tumble dryer as well as a washing machine. However, I’m too afraid to use the bloody thing in case my clothes shrink. I’m a poor sod at the moment having spent quite a bit of money moving into this place and I don’t want to ruin my clothes. I washed only my towels yesterday and the fact my towels came out DRY – in a washing machine – pretty much amazed me. I’ll eventually come up with the courage to wash my other clothes, but I’m likely going to do a bit of testing to see what works and doesn’t. Apparently, clothes that contain or that were made with cotton should explicitly not be washed in hot or warm water. I’m going to turn the nozzle down to 0 degrees or whatever it is and see what happens. I’m a little scared, but I’m hopeful at the same time.

Aside from my washing issues I’m looking to join a gym in the local vicinity. I was thinking about joining Easy Gym on Oxford Street, as it’s really cheap (around £20 per month) and you don’t have to sign up to any contracts. However, all the same it’s a little bit of a walk and I really only want to walk to gyms that are within 5 minutes of where I live now.  Unfortunately, they are all expensive with the average cost looking to be around £50 per month. I have indeed budgeted for this, but it would be nice to find a gym that isn’t so costly.

For example, here are a few of those gyms within 5-15 minutes walking distance of EC1V that cost around about £50 per month:

Fitness First – Angel:  £53 + 12 month contract

Virgin Active – Barbican: £66 + 12 month contract

LA Fitness – St Pauls: £45 + 12 month contract

On the face of it, LA Fitness looks to be the cheapest and I’m almost thinking of going with LA Fitness. Of course, with most of these gyms there is a joining fee. I’m too lazy to look up what they are at the moment, so it’ll get even more costlier.

However, if we look within 20-30 minutes walking distance from EV1V there are a few cheaper gyms:

Easy Gym – Oxford Street: £19.99 – No contract – £25 joining fee

YMCA – London: £45.50 + 12 month contract – with corporate membership

The gym I went to before only cost me £15.99 per month. It’s a big shock to the system and my bank account to be paying this much. 😮 I guess I’ll get used to it in the end. I’m thinking of taking advantage of these free 1 day trials and then by pay day I’ll join whichever gym suits me best.

January 2020 – Running & Fitness

January 2020 – Running & Fitness

Originally created on January 1st, 2020: Updated daily until the end of January. I've decided that I will be keeping a log this year of all the runs that I've done this year by day and have a blog page for each month of the year. This blog post specifically will be...

Saint Espresso & Kitchen, Kentish Town

Saint Espresso & Kitchen, Kentish Town

Hanging around or about in Kentish Town? Want to go somewhere nice for brunch? Why not stop by over at Saint Espresso kitchen, just a 1 minute walk from Kentish Town underground station. The cafe is usually quite busy on the weekends and at around lunch time, so...

Hot Wok Kitchen, Archway

Hot Wok Kitchen, Archway

If you are looking for a peng place to eat, and that's close to Archway or Upper Holloway, then look no further than the restaurant that is Hot Wok Kitchen.It is a Japanese restaurant that serves excellent food and in fact, I'd say they are the best Japanese...

London Marathon 2015 – Training & Thoughts – 42.1km

London Marathon 2015 – Training & Thoughts – 42.1km

This is more of a retrospective post, looking at how I managed to do the London Marathon on April 26th, 2015. The London Marathon was my first, and currently only marathon that I've ever done. It holds a special milestone in my life, given all the issues I had gone...

What weight is a good weight to get back to?

What weight is a good weight to get back to?

As part of my plan/goal for 2020, I want to lose weight and get jacked up. I've gone through quite a journey, historically speaking, and given my sort of bumpy road of losing weight, then gaining weight, and then being content, and then not being content with my...

Becoming a Taiwanese national through descent…

Becoming a Taiwanese national through descent…

Originally posted Sep 6, 2011. Updated: Jan 3, 2020. Once Taiwanese you will be required to serve 12 months as a conscript in the Taiwanese military. Anyways, this blog post is essentially just the process you'll go through to get all my documents verified by two...

First run of 2020 – 5.89km

First run of 2020 – 5.89km

I have not run properly in a good while so I found today's run quite tough actually. It was definitely not an easy run - given that Christmas and New Year's had me eat a lot of food and frankly, I've not been eating with health in mind - let's just say. So as part of...

Happy New Year #2020 from London

Happy New Year #2020 from London

It's now officially 13 minutes past, and we're well into 2020. For the past 3 years, I've been going to Hampstead Heath Park with Victoria Levine, to celebrate with the many hundreds that turn up to watch the London firework celebrations from afar: Here you can see a...