Race day!

Here are some photos from this weekend's run...

Me, pre-race (and pre-sun)





All 405 of us at the start



After the first lap (with two more to go). The girl to the right in the picture was my a good competitor throughout the race. She would always pass me on the flat parts and then I'd manage to pass her on the hill. This happened every single lap... I'm sure she was getting tired of seeing me, and vice versa :)



A sprint to the finish... this is the guy that I tried to pass and then he turned on the turbo boosters. I'm not sure you can tell from this photo just how fast we're running. Flo Jo speeds at least...

Hampstead Midsummer 10K

After eating all day Saturday at Taste of London, I tried to work off some of the extra calories by running in the Hampstead 10K. It was quite the neighborhood event, with about 400 runners participating. Not the most organized run in the world, as evidenced by the 80 year old man trying to scream instructions to 400+ rowdy, antsy runners (without a megaphone of course), the water they were spraying on people that happened to be right on a tight corner, and the lack of signage to mark the finish, so that one guy ran past it and had to be stopped by Ric and told to turn around...

But it was fun. And luckily I wasn't there to try and win the thing, so these details didn't matter much. Finishing the 6.2 miles was my first goal (done!) and finishing in less than an hour was my second goal (also done! in 56 minutes!)... it's nice to have a race to force you to run a little farther and faster than you would otherwise. And I love race day! Especially the yummy watermelon at the end. Already looking for another one, but the busy travel schedule doesn't make it easy.

Pictures to come. One great one of my race-off at the very end with some guy who was running next to me. He started slowing down so I tried to wizz by him and finish in front. He wanted none of that, and turned up the speed too. We finished neck and neck, although the official results list him first :)

Big thanks to Ric for being a great spectator and fan!!

Favorite day of the year

It was Taste of London today... the best part of summer in London. It's a food festival with all of the best restaurants represented. They make little portions of their most well known dishes and you basically eat your way around Regent's Park. We loved almost everything we had, but some of our favorites were the beef on hot stones from Cocoon and the fish and chips from Tom's Place. We now have a whole new list of restaurants to visit!

All of the pictures are up on Flickr, but here are just a few:

Beetroot Gazpacho from The Dorchester

Canteen for spit roasted pork

Yum...

Ric enjoying a little ham and melon from York & Albany. The cool story here is that it's a new restaurant opening in the fall of this year and is being started by Angela Hartnett. She was Gordon Ramsay's number two and has left to do her own thing (still as part of Gordon's group). This was a sneak preview and we're definitely looking forward to the real thing!

Menu... you pay in "crowns," a special currency for the festival

Best fish and chips ever

Pig trotters to go...If you bring the empty jar to the restaurant next time you're there, they fill it up for you for free!

Braised beef and bone marrow

London for Londoners

Thanks to my dad for sending over a great article from the Washington Post about London neighborhoods that are typically off the beaten tourist path. The reporter does a good job capturing Hampstead and also mentions a few other places that I had never heard of (Stoke Newington Crouch End and Muswell Hill). This should help fill up a few weekends...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/13/AR2008061301430.html?sub=AR&sid=ST2008061302080

Weekend

Ric and I had a really nice weekend, so I thought I'd share some of the highlights. The sun was shining (contrary to most weather reports, which called for rain) and London was looking its best. On Saturday, after my early morning haircut, we ate at an amazing place called La Fromagerie in Marylebone. It's part cheese shop, part organic grocer, and part kitchen table, where they serve amazing food. A cheese plate, salad and glass of wine later, Ric and I started walking towards South Kensington. Before we reached our final destination, the V&A Museum, we wandered through Hyde Park and decided to take a little break in the deck chairs you can rent. One of the best deals in London... for three pounds you get two comfy deck chairs, overlooking the river, for four hours. We didn't stay quite that long, but after a little reading and some snoozing, we continued our journey. There are so many cool little streets in London that you always find a fun new area by taking a nice long walk. Once we finally reached South Ken we headed to the China Design Now exhibit at the V&A. It was an interesting overview of graphic design, fashion, and architecture in Shenzhen, Shanghai and Beijing.

Sunday was a little more low key, but I had a really nice morning just wandering around Hampstead (including a mani pedi at the California Nail Bar, very appropriately named). We've been gone so much lately that it was nice to just revisit our little shops and delis. Some of my favorite places include Andrew's Hardware (I'm constantly amazed at how much stuff they've fit into that tiny place), the Rosslyn Deli (where I discovered this weekend that they make a mean carrot cupcake), and the local produce stand that's currently overflowing with summer fruits and veggies.

In the afternoon we helped our friends move a couple blocks over into a beautiful new apartment. The best part of helping was the pub break we all took at White Bear. We then went to a yummy dinner at La Gaffe... an Italian restaurant attached to the little B&B that we hadn't been to before. It was delicious and has definitely been added to the permanent rotation. I then capped off the great weekend with a viewing of the Sex in the City movie at the Everyman Theater (no, Ric didn't have to go with me... I met Sayula there). It was amazing and was the perfect ending to a wonderful weekend.

Next weekend we have the Taste of London festival, which we're really excited about. All the best restaurants in London set up tents in Regent's Park and sell mini sizes of their most famous dishes. We did this last year, right after moving, and had an amazing time. Even though there was a torrential downpour. Hoping the weather gods are kinder this year. And the Hampstead 10K is on Sunday. Going to try it, even though I haven't run that far in a while... Wish me luck!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Enchantress of Florence

As promised, wanted to give the Bremer Blog's dear readers an update on Salman Rushdie's new book now that I've finished reading. As with all of his books, it's an intricate (and complicated) story that unfolds vibrantly over many years and in this case, two key locations - Florence and India. The characters are very interesting and Rushdie's combination of Florence and India is an interesting one. We've been to Florence but have only read about India, but I could see how both share a sense of opulence and visual richness.

He plays around with names in this novel, with many people having multiple names and nicknames. It adds another layer to what was already a slightly hard to follow narrative. But you just have to go with it and eventually you start to understand who is who.

I have to say that it's not my favorite of Rushdie's books (liked Satanic Verses and Shalimar the Clown better), but he's a master storyteller that can't help but draw you in. One comment I read, which I thought was very interesting, is how he focuses in this book on the danger of storytelling. Very appropriate for someone who's life was threatened for 10 years based on something he wrote...

Next person to visit London gets to borrow my copy!! Reading Midnight's Children now, Rushdie's novel that won the Booker Prize and the Booker of Bookers (best Booker prize winner from the past 40 years). Should be good!

Tasty recipe

Made a yummy chicken tortilla thing this week that was really fast and fairly healthy. Wanted to share the recipe. Here's a link, with photo. And here's the text:

Ingredients
1 cup bottled salsa, divided 1 (8-ounce) carton low-fat sour cream 6 (10-inch) flour tortillas 1 1/2 cups chopped cooked chicken breast (about 3/4 pound) 1/3 cup chopped tomato 1/3 cup chopped green or red bell pepper 1/4 cup chopped onion Cooking spray 3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded reduced-fat cheddar cheese

Preparation
Preheat oven to 350°.
Combine 1/2 cup salsa and sour cream in a small bowl, and spread evenly over each tortilla. Divide chicken, tomato, bell pepper, and onion evenly down center of each tortilla, and roll up. Place rolls, seam sides down, in an 11 x 7-inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Top with 1/2 cup salsa. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese; bake an additional 5 minutes or until cheese melts.

Yield
6 servings (serving size: 1 roll)
writeNutrient();
Nutritional Information
CALORIES 379(26% from fat); FAT 10.8g (sat 4.1g,mono 3.7g,poly 2.5g); IRON 3mg; CHOLESTEROL 64mg; CALCIUM 284mg; CARBOHYDRATE 38.9g; SODIUM 623mg; PROTEIN 28.7g; FIBER 2.8g

Photos!

Ric and I are back in London, safe and sound. After a rough start to Monday (I had to go home sick), we finally feel adjusted and are really thankful to be back on a regular schedule after all the traveling. I think we did 5 or 6 trips over the past month, and they definitely took their toll. My body wasn't sure what time zone it was in. Feeling good now, even though it's cold, gray and rainy outside, and have re-committed to eating well and exercising to try and counteract the damage we did while on the road.

Dubai and Hong Kong were both amazing, and rather than trying to recap all the fun little details, I thought I would just list a few of our favorite things:

• Ayyam art gallery opening in Dubai that was "invite only" (not sure how we got in)
• Visiting the Chinese village on stilts called Tai-O... it smelled very fishy but was cool to see
• Dinners in Kowloon that looked back on the Hong Kong skyline (Hu Tong and Felix)
• Seaplane tour of Dubai - this is a must do for anyone visiting the city. There's simply no other way to really get the scope of Dubai and the insane amount of construction going on 24 hours a day
• Shopping in Hong Kong's Soho neighborhood - this could even be considered a cultural experience because most of the shops and designers were Chinese!
• Getting upgraded to a two bedroom suite at the Emirates Harbour hotel in Dubai even though it meant we had to stay on the 13th floor
• The escalator in Hong Kong, which was 2,600 feet long and takes 20 minutes to go from top to bottom. It was built to help commuters who lived at the top of the hill get to work without driving to the bottom of the hill. Super cool!

Here are a few pics, but if you want to see all 200+ of them, check out Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rachelbremer/sets/72157605409082794/

Hong Kong

Escalator (the covered green things on the right)

The world's biggest Buddha (and Ric)

Tai-O, a village on stilts, on an island close to Hong Kong

At the Ayyam art gallery opening in Dubai, with one of the artists!

Dubai Creek

Dubai marina (view from our hotel room)

World's tallest building

The famous Palm!

Dubai's most well-known hotel, the Burj Al Arab

"New" Dubai marina area

Dubai at night