Visiting Fashion Magazines and Radio Stations in London

Wednesday started with another sleepless night and a wake-up call at 8am. One of the Magazines here held a contest and the winner, Louise, and her Aunt won a free night at the Jurys Inn Hotel with breakfast with the Naked Cowboy. I met up with them to be friendly and to take some photos to email to them.
Robert and I took a walk to the nearest tanning salon for a 7-min. maintenance tan before getting picked up at 12:30 by Kate, another P. R. person working with NY Bakery. We visited London School of Economics for a radio interview and then got to see where the Theatre district is. The area reminds me of Greenwich Village in NY.
Our next stop was at "Heat", a gossip magazine, then More Magazine, and finally Reveal Magazine, all to stop in and say "hi" and drop off some bagels to promote NY Bakery. We had a quick bite at Neil's Corner Sandwich Shop (Robert had chicken breast and I had grilled veggies). We walked up and down Carnaby street which has several blocks of awesome shops. I didn't stop into any, as we had to keep moving while Naked Cowboy was playing...
it was pretty cold out!
After some relaxation, baths, coffee, etc....we decided to go find a place to sit and eat, since we hadn't done that in the three days we were here. Being mostly vegan, I almost never get to open a menu and just order from it without it being a project, so when I saw TAI Vegan buffet....I HAD to go in there to eat! We did get some strange looks as Robert walked into an all vegan restaurant wearing a full length mink coat! He sat and had tea while I eat and then I went with him to Su Su Sushi and just drank tea while he ate....strange, but we were both happy.
We did get to bed probably by 10:30 or so and slept a little better, but not straight through and not without both of us waking up with night sweats (no clue what that was about!). By 8am we were back out the door with Kate again on our way to Gaydar Radio, a gay radio show in Twickenham that interviewed Naked Cowboy. On our way to visit the employees at Star Magazine we passed the House of Parliament and took some photos and continued on to Cosmopolitan Magazine for another guest appearance. The people seemed pretty excited to get their photos taken with him, especially since there was some articles in the local papers about his appearance at St. Pancras International Station.
We stopped at Carlton Coffee House on the way to the station, since we hadn't eaten all morning, and as usual, he got the chicken breast and I got the grilled veggies. It's a good thing we stopped because we spent several hours at the train station in front of the table with the New York Bakery Bagel samples. Naked Cowboy played the guitar and took photos with passersby and posed for some news cameras. I took many photos for people who didn't have a camera and told them to go to my Facebook profile which is linked to http://www.cindyfoxfitness.com/ so they can tag themselves in their photos. It was a great day followed by our own little photo op in the room with some wine and relaxation. I have to admit that I finally caved in to a night of snacking...rice crackers, a protein bar, and then instant oatmeal. I think it will really help me sleep better:)
We are set to be picked up by a car service at 11:30 and taken to the airport for a 4pm flight. This will give us some time in the morning to go running and chill out before departing. Cheers!

Second Day in London...Visiting the Sites

Luckily the hotel has "wake-up" calls since our cells are not in use and there is no clock in the room (seems odd to me). We were met in the Lobby at 8am by Jude, a P.R. person hired by NY Bakery to handle all of the arrangements of this trip and then to the "Coffee Bar" to meet the rest of the crew(Gemma, Iain, John, and Rosie). Our first "Tourist Attraction" of the day was Trafalgar Square, one of the most famous squares in the United Kingdom> At it's centre is Nelson's Column, guarded by four lion statues at its base.
Piccadilly Circus, a busy plaza in the heart of London at the Junction of Five major streets was next.We got some great photos right in the center of the circle during the vehicle's stop signal. What really caught my attention was the wire hanging high above one street connected to two poles. In New Jersey and New York I've seen shoes dangling with the laces tied together thrown over the phone wires, but here....a table and two chairs hung from the wires! You can see the photos by going to www.cindyfoxfitness.com and clicking on my Facebook link (there are more than one Cindy Fox on there).
We walked Regent Street which has a great shopping area, passed Oxford Circus, and made our way over the Millennium Bridge, which goes over the Thames River. By this time, we were all in need of recharging...Starbucks at South Bank...YAY!!!! I hadn't eaten a thing so far. We continued taking photos and got video footage of Naked Cowboy for New York Bakery's website in front of the London Eye, a famous, gigantic Ferris wheel. You can actually see Big Ben in the background behind it in the distance, although we did pass it to get some photos there as well.
Once we got to Jubilee Market, which was our final destination, I actually had a little time to stop and go into some shops and look for souvenirs for my kids. For any of my past followers from "Cindy's 7am Coffee Club" on Justin.tv...of course I bought a new COFFEE MUG! We finished for the day and returned to the hotel around
2PM. We both crashed on the bed for a while for some needed sleep. It was a great nap that left us ready for whatever came next. After a protein bar a 2 more coffees, we went out for a jog going in the opposite direction from the last jog. It was definitely more enjoyable without the rain.
After showering again for the 4th time, we went for a walk to find dinner. Instead we went into a super market looking for wine and snacks that we'd actually eat. Considering our first taxi driver told us there's a lot of vegetarians and healthy foods, I was shocked when I couldn't find ONE THING besides a bottle of wine that I'd actually eat that wasn't fattening or animal products...not even pretzels! Robert brought cans of tuna and protein bars and bought carrots and tomatoes that he ate.
So back to the room with a glass of wine to chill out. By 8pm I was on Facebook catching up with friends and family and then started my first day's blog. Robert was a sleep by 8:30. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep on an empty stomach so I made some instant oatmeal that I brought. For some reason he was up tossing and turning and finally asked me why the cell phone given to us by the company had 22:20 on it. I was thinking, "Don't tell me it's only 10:20"! I thought it was at least
3am.
He ate another protein bar and took another bath and no luck sleeping. Now I couldn't sleep and took a shot at the bath (which I'm not a big fan of usually). We finally fell asleep around 4am and woke to our 7am wake-up call. I told him to call them again and get another wake-up call for 8am. Good thing my biological clock woke me up exactly that time, because we never got the second call and we had to be in the lobby by 9am. Coffee!!!!!

First Day in London with Naked Cowboy and New York Bakery

Naked Cowboy has been hired by New York Bakery to come to London to promote their NY style bagels. Apparently the bagels here in London need to be toasted, where as our NY bagels (my personal favorites have been from Bagel Buffet in Secaucus, NJ)are totally yummy plain and untoasted. This will explain why some of the photos I've posted on my facebook page (search "Cindy Fox" or "Cindy Fox Fitness")have several photos of Naked Cowboy holding bagels, and even wearing them on his "bling" of a chain.
Yesterday(Monday)morning we walked out the door at 5:20am, in what felt like 15 degrees (farenheight), to find the 2-year old Escalade had a dead battery. Actually, I found out as I opened the front door of my condo to bring out my suitcase and heard him screaming something about (it's dead!)loud enought for the whole complex to hear. Of Couse I'm partly frightened and partly wondering who the hell he's screaming to at 5:20am. Luckily, one of our neighbors whom we've never met before (Matt)was passing to get to his car to get to work and actually stopped to help us jumpstart the truck, even though neither of them had cable and I did, but he was the one who knew how to do it.
Fast foward....we checked in on time and had an awesome flight! Being that I barely have time (or the attention span) to sit and read more than 3 pages per week when I'm home, sitting on a plane for 7 hours gave me plenty of time to get absorbed in a great book (The 7 Signs of Synchronicity). Of course being "almost vegan" I brought some protein bars and rice cakes with me. The plane offered me a vegetarian pasta, which I ate even though I KNOW there was dairy in that sauce, which at home I wouldn't have eaten, hence the description of "almost vegan". My food consumption for the day consisted of a Cliff Bar, small vegetarian past, a few rice cakes, a Luna bar, and then 1/2 of another Cliff Bar before we went jogging at 11:35 pm in the cold rain. The first 10 minutes wasn't bad, but I hated the last 20 and was cursing him out under my breathe for convincing me to go...so much pressure!!
We tried to fall asleep at 1am knowing we had to meet in the lobby to start our day at 8am. I Think we might've dosed off periodically, although tossed and turned most of the night. Suprisingly, we were wide awake and ready to start the day touring London and taking a LOT of photos.

NAKED COWBOY'S GIRL: CINDY FOX AND NAKED COWBOY

New Year's Day in Times Square 2011

May day started at 6:50am this morning to the alarm that would make sure I was on time for work. No, I was not going to Times Square as the Naked Cowgirl at 7am, I was heading to Hackensack University Medical Center where I am a part-time x-ray tech. Like New York City, hospitals NEVER SLEEP! Luckily, I only had to work 4 hours for the holiday which gave me enough time to rush home, change from my scrubs into my bikini, and get into the ICON parking garage on 44th and Broadway by 1:30pm.
Considering it was less than a week ago I was out there during the big blizzard in 22 degree temperatures, 48 degrees felt pretty good. I've never had the desire to be in the heart of Times Square to watch the ball drop. Believe it or not, I hate being cold and don't participate in many outdoor activities. Never mind the fact that your shoulder-to-shoulder with people for MANY HOURS if you plan on seeing the ball drop.
Today was perfect! It was super busy, a bit warmer, still confetti on the ground, and there was NO TRAFFIC coming from New Jersey through the Lincoln Tunnel. A few days ago, I actually got off the bus in Union City, NJ at the last stop BEFORE the tunnel because the traffic was SOOO BAD that I wouldn't have made it back on time to train my clients that evening. Did I mention I'm also a Personal Trainer? You can go to www.cindyfoxfitness.com to see more.
I lasted 1 hour and 25 minutes before my thighs tensed up so much from shivering. It was incredibly busy and very nice to take hundreds of photos with all the tourists from all over the world that were here to experience the tradition that Dick Clark started years ago in Times Square, New York. Happy New Year to all of you who read this. Feel free to leave a comment and also visit my other website www.nakedcowgirlfox.com