iguana | August 2013: Yoga, Pizza, and Doctor Who

This month Emily and I took up Ashtanga Yoga after finding an offer for a set of ten sessions on Amazon Local. While the class has had a bit of a mix of instructors - due to the summer holidays, we hope - we've generally been getting a lot out of it and on Friday evening it's a lovely way to end the week; I usually come out of the session feeling much better than when I went in. I'm hoping to be able to be able to touch my toes soon (I blame sitting at a computer through my teens for my inability to do this).

Thanks to some advice from

bz2 I've managed to install my own dishwasher and washing machine, since organising the kitchen refit is taking longer than I'd expected. I feel rather proud of myself, and now I don't have to do washing by hand! I've had another couple of fitters visit this week who will hopefully give me quotes after a number of other no-shows and no-quotes.

On the 3rd August, the day before the new Doctor was announced (I think Capaldi could work out really well, but Matt Smith's tenure has really felt like a golden era) I went to The Who Shop in Upton Park, which has a museum in the back that I'd read about on IanVisits earlier this year. The staff were very friendly and when I asked to view the museum I was given the key to the TARDIS in the corner of the shop, which I unlocked and stepped into the museum. Very corny, but I thought it was great.

As you all know, I recently finished watching through the classic Doctor Who DVDs (Zygons on pre-order right now) so it was fun to spot how much I recognised out of all the memorabilia there. There were also a few things from the new series, such as Vincent van Gogh's outfit from Vincent and the Doctor. Some of the items, such as the Yeti costume, were reproductions (the originals long decayed), but most were originals.

The staff were very friendly and knowledgeable - the chap I spoke to had been a fan since the very first episode, and was an extra in the Day of the Daleks special edition - and even provided a modified Star Wars gun prop for the shoot.

A couple of weekends later, I invited my family over to show off my freshly painted walls and to have a barbecue in the back garden - something I've wanted to do since moving in and actually having a garden in which to do that.

We cooked halloumi, mushroom and red pepper kebabs, as well as sauauges, and made a really tasty sundried tomato and potato salad to accompany it. It was a really nice afternoon!

Continuing the trend of cooking outdoors, Emily, Tim and I were at Emily's mum's for a couple of weekends to finish off the pizza oven under construction there. It's a really big project; the plinth for it was built last year, and on top of that there's three individual layers of oven (clay and sand mix on the inner and outer layer; mushy clay and wood chippings for insulation in the middle layer), plus the brick arch and chimney.

We got it finished on the long weekend and fired it up to cook pizza!

On the first evening we underestimated the amount of wood we'd need to get it up to temperature, but the next evening we had a fire roaring at 350°C, and after it had gone to embers we found we could indeed cook a pizza within about three minutes.

We all got our perfect pizza toppings from the supermarkets, and I made the pizza dough. We took everything outside and made up our pizzas next to the oven, and took turns at cooking them. They were tasty!

Making the most of the weather last weekend, Emily and I went to Kew Gardens again, which was as lovely as ever. Emily got a great photo of the pagoda there, and in the Bamboo Garden we happened to bump into her aunt and uncle, who by chance were visiting London that weekend. It was good to finally meet them, and they generously bought us an ice cream.