Instead of an Easter Egg this year my boyfriend came home with an adorable Red Footed Tortoise. She’s a little rehome thing so I have no idea how old she is but I know she’s not always had the best care – her shell has begun to pyramid slightly and she was very weak when we first got her.
Fast forward a week or so and she is as curious as can be, she’s got the hang of having a water dish instead of massive amounts of cucumber *serious eye roll*. She has loads of energy and is busy exploring her huge ‘enclosure’ aka our patio and grass area.
Bothering the cat
Herbie loves eating, wondering and annoying the cat and we are so pleased to have her in our little family. Who knew tortoises needed so much care?!
Does anyone else have an unusual pets? It’s been so fun learning about caring for something a little bit different, although I feel like I’ve had a variety of pets over the years!
So April started with my Mother visiting which may have slightly affected my fitness regime, but that’s okay, that’s life, it gets twisted and changed around. From this month I’ve very much learnt just to make it work where and when you have time.
What is my fitness goal – please see my first Fitness post for more information on this.
What went well:
Beach rides
Riding lessons have probably saved the day this month, as a ‘new’ hobby I can tell it’s worked some parts of my body that haven’t been challenged in a while. This definitely includes my hip flexors and core, plus as its a sport I can see myself improve every week which is super enjoyable. An increase in swimming – both in the ocean and pool, mostly thanks to my Mum visiting and this being a novitality for her.
Getting my boyfriend back into the gym has also helped as we all know training with a friend is much more fun!
What could have gone better?
I struggled with getting into the gym or doing any ‘hard’ physical exercise at the start of the month, which was a little frustrating. I really do miss running but the climate here is just too hot for me!
Stats:
Get me to the gym!
Riding lessons: 7
Gym sessions: 6
Yoga sessions: 3
Swims: 5
Mays Goals:
In May I’m going to Paris and back to the UK for a few weeks. My fitness is probably going to be more walking around shops and cities. I have seven riding sessions booked in and hopefully I’ll be able to get to the gym a little!
As always if you want to follow along with my life day-to-day please follow my instagram (@harrietkristina)
Simple. I would guess that most children have had this conversation and as a result a lasting friendship. Someone to do random stuff with. Literally pick a human and go on adventures together. It’s not quite so simple as an adult.
Having moved around a fair amount (Dorset – London – Edinburgh – Dorset – Barbados) in the last five years, I’ve learnt that making new pals isn’t as easy, but it is definitely not impossible. So here are my top tips for making friends as a grown up person!
The best source of future friends are those with a common interest, so either work colleagues, people who have a common hobby or in a similar situation i.e. have children the same age. So make sure you talk to people at work in the lunch room and make sure you stay a little longer after classes or events.
Be friendly, obvious I know. Offer out that you’re new to the area and don’t know loads of people, or if you’re not new, offer out that you would like some friends with a similar interest e.g. ‘Oh it’s lovely to spend time with someone (who has also got 5 children, who loves riding, who is interesting in make up or who cares about health and food etc.) would you like to go get coffee sometime?’
Make note. Physically or mentally if you’re able. Remember people’s names, their kids names, their birthdays. Sounds a little much but people love to be remembered.
Say yes. ALWAYS SAY YES. People often take a ‘no, I can’t tonight’ as a ‘I don’t want to be your friend’, if you actually can’t offer up a time you can.
Don’t play games. Like all relationships the second you play games it becomes confusing. Just don’t. Be nice, be kind and treat others how you would like to be treated.
Be brave. Taking the first move is always scary, but you’ll either learn or gain.
Don’t take ‘rejection’ personally. If someone doesn’t have time to be your new friend, it may be because they are busy with their own life, or they are too caught up, it’s very unlikely to be personal. You’re better off just saying as aqantancies and trying with someone else.
Finally, friends can come in a form you may not expect. Do not exclude someone as they aren’t a carbon copy of yourself/your sister/your old bestie.
These are the things I try to remember every time I move. It has done me quite good stead and I can happily say I have always managed to make friends and some have even lasted distance and moving
One final and very important point is that you do not need an army of friends, all anyone needs is a few reliable people that you can confide in, plan a fun day with and trust to have your back. Great if you have a super large group of gal pals, but in my experience this is just more drama!
Over and out! As always please follow my instagram (@harrietkristina) for more 🙂
Visiting Barbados? Love a beach holiday but don’t want to spend your entire time on the beach? Perfect, I have an activity for you!
The Animal Flower Caves are on the North Point if Barbados, originally a blow hole used by smugglers. This blow hole has now been dug out to form stairs to allow tourists access to the caves.
View of the Atlantic Ocean
The tour around the caves is well worth the $25 (Bajan), if you wear swim stuffs and bring a towel then there is a point you can go for a dip in the cave. The water is crystal clear but surprisingly deep. It’s not a particularly long tour (around 20 min) but you can get some fantastic photos and the tour guides are always happy to help take some silhouette photos if you ask nicely. It’s also so different to what you expect from travelling to Barbados. The ‘Animal Flowers’ themselves are sea anemones, you will only get to see a couple, the tour is mostly for the caves.
Top tip: I’d recommend wearing trainers if you don’t have fantastic balance or some kind of secure sandal if you’re swimming. Flip flops are only okay if you have good balance and agility! If you’re going to swim it’s easiest to wear a beach cover up or dress in my option (boys are so lucky with the whole shorts and T-shirt thing)!
View of the waves crashing in
Even if you don’t go in the caves it’s amazing to see the Atlantic Ocean crashing into the island, the contrast to the West Coast is really something. The restaurant is so so, I wouldn’t overly recommend the food, but the homemade lemonade is pretty fab. It is a lovely spot to enjoy a drink.
Overall it’s a great afternoon out, and the tour is something you won’t have done a million times before.
I turned up to the stables on a Monday morning to have my usual private lesson, it went really well, practised my rising trot and even a little sitting trot (I’m like five lessons in). When washing off my beautiful horse my riding instructor asked if I’d like to help collect the horses after a trail ride that had gone out that morning, I’m a yes girl, so I said yes.
Trail views over Atlantic Ocean
We drove down and collected the family who had just had a wonderful stroll through the countryside to the beach on horseback. They were as happy as could be and couldn’t stop saying thank you. Then they were in awe as they watched two of the horses be let free and gallop back to the stables. They then got in there air conditioned taxi and headed back to their hotel.
At this point I was mounted and luckily in control of my horse so he didn’t follow those galloping into the distance. We set off walking back up hill with the odd trot, which I was super happy about (getting in that practise), then my riding instructor asked how I would feel cantering a little up the hills (darn me being a yes person). So off we went….
So beautiful
Bloody hell this is fast
My sunglasses are definitely going to fall
My bones might shake apart
I’m not falling off though
THIS IS AMAZING
It was scary but so amazing, I trusted my horse and as my instructor loves to say ‘went with the horse’. The hack back was insane, beautiful and incredible fun, we walked on long reins, trotted and cantered up hills. We made it back in about 45 min (it was a two hour walk down). It made my Monday!
The more time I spend around horses and in the saddle the more I want to be, its turning into quite an addiction. Anyone tried a trail ride while on holiday? What did you think?
As always please go follow @harrietkristina on Instagram for more 🙂
When did you last set an achievable goal? When did you last actually achieve one of these?
Because I JUST DID and I’m so happy.
I normally fear setting goals as when I don’t manage to hit them it makes goals become so uninfluential and easy to ignore. I am most definitely guilty of setting goals that are too big and too hard. Having recently started riding I decided that all I really wanted to be able to do was to be confidently walking, turning and trotting. Well in my riding lesson yesterday there I was trotting in a circle :D.
I am fully anticipating being awful at my next lesson, but for now I’m super happy!
My next ‘baby goal’ is to be confident with rising trot on three different horses.
More general update is that I’ve got a block of ten lessons booked in and a hack when I’m in the UK in May. My stables are already hinting at leasing me a beautiful Palomino #i’vegotthebugsobad called Candance.
As always please do follow or check out my instagram (@harrietkristina)
Health and fitness. Its one of the UK’s biggest industries, every January gyms get swamped with people trying to lose weight, tone up and get fit. Sadly these motivations often burn out as normally they are fueled by aesthetic reasons which is quickly forgotten on a cold, dark, drizzly Monday morning.
Personally I’ve always been into my health, I notice a huge difference in my mood, my mental and physical health with a direct correlation to how much I move and what I eat. Probably not at all surprising considering that food is our fuel and our bodies are designed to move daily and a lot.
My Goals
Riding Motivation
I’m not here to be a fitness buff, I don’t want bulging muscles or to be able to run faster than everyone else. I do want to be able to not get out of breath on a jog, strong enough to snorkel for a long as my attention span, have a perky butt that I’m proud of in a bikini and have a strong enough core to master trotting #ridinglife. I want to be fit enough to live the life I love and find fun!
How am I going to achieve this?
Morning tennis!
My personal stance (and full disclaimer – I am not a trained PT in any way) is to do a wide variety of movement, exercise and sport as often as you can, ideally daily. For me this means yoga, riding, swimming, going to the gym and walking. When I spent most of my time in the UK I loved running, but it’s simply too hot out here for me (the melt is real). This really does vary for everyone, I’m sure some people hate the idea of going to the gym or spending an hour on a yoga mat!
Gym Selfie
When looking at your movement I would advise looking at incorporating different types of exercise to ensure you have something to work on your mobility (e.g. Yoga), your cardiovascular (e.g. swimming or running) and an exercise that is high in osteogenic capacity (builds bone) such as dance, resistance training or running. The most important thing is moving regularly so chose activities you enjoy – its okay to change things up and start something new.
How to keep accountable?
Happiness Planner
For me, I like to write things to down. I use my Happiness Planner (https://thehappinessplanner.com/) to keep track of my months goals and plan things out – aka my whole life. I literally go nowhere without my planner and my wonderful matching pen I found! I’m also going to start do a little fitness update each month on here to log what I did and what went well and what was a challenge.
What are your fitness goals? What do you love doing to get your body moving? Let me know in the comments 🙂
As always please follow my Instagram for more and to follow what I get up to day to day (@harrietkristina)
Horses have always been a love of mine, I was fortunate enough to have lessons and attend Pony Camps as a child, as a teenager I rode sporadically, normally borrowing a friends horse for a hack, but nothing structured or regular. So now that I’ve got some spare time and needed a hobby to fill this up with (I’m just not a Netflix binger), I’ve naturally migrated back to ponies.
Don’t worry, I’ve ordered boots and more suitable clothing!
I am a beginner, past remembering how to hold the reins, I seem to remember very little about riding, and this is oh so very humbling, its also the best fun! My love and enjoyment while riding has definitely not changed. I wake up excited the mornings before my class, enlightening a memory of me waking and getting dressed at 5 am thinking this would mean I would get to go riding sooner at the age of six.
Bijoux
I’m four lessons in and making some good progress with my posture and trot as well as tracking up and post lesson baths for the horse. I may have already booked in my next ten lessons and a few treks :).
If you’re think about starting something new, or revisiting a childhood hobby, all I can say is do! You wont regret it. Life is about experiences and memories, about enjoying and trying.
Recently at the stables I got roped into playing ‘3 things about you’ with the Easter Pony Camp. This in theory should be the easiest game ever because who knows more about you than you? Yet its strangely difficult to come up with a quick three things repeatedly that others maybe want to know about you.
So here goes –Â
I’m 25 and from Dorset, England, which is where I grew up. I am often am told I look to be 17-20. I was lucky enough to go to private school which I enjoyed immensely. I am the middle child, with a genius older brother and a beautiful little sister. My favourite things are animals, food, travel, fitness, a touch of fashion and mostly my wonderful boyfriend. I currently spend most of my time in Barbados, where I’m trying to get to grips with driving a huge truck but I have also lived in London and Edinburgh. I have the most gorgeous German Spitz (think big Pomeranian) called Bear at home.
This blog is mostly going to be reviews and a little window to my world. If you want to see more please follow my Instagram (@harrietkristina), and this blog! 🙂
Side note: Those under 13 years old preformed much better than I did at this game.
Blonde Traveller 