Top telly I love to watch

I used to be glued to the screen of an evening. I'd watch all the soaps, films and Saturday night telly there was, but i've gradually found myself busier and busier, either with work or with wanting to fill my time with other activities. There are some programmes though that I continue to watch and to find time for.

Emmerdale

As I said I used to watch every soap going but with less time, I only watch Emmerdale now. I just love the little village set in the Yorkshire countryside and although I moved to the county myself last year it's not exactly the same. It's crazy how in these soaps there can only be a handful of houses yet a busy thriving pub, village shop and so many scandalous story lines!

The Big Bang Theory

The Big Bang Theory is one of those to eat your tea with. You know when your dinners ready but there's nothing else on the telly at that time of the evening? You can pretty much guarantee this will be on and it doesn't even matter which episode or whether you're joining half-way through an episode. If you are as much of a fan as most people are then you will have seen every one before anyway. It's sort of the new Friends really isn't it? The number of series they have produced seems to indicate it's heading that way!

F1

I've loved Motorsport since 2010 and I try to watch every race I can and have even been to the British GP a couple of times. I find it exciting and even a teeny bit glamourous. Many say it's boring or that all the rules and new technologies are reducing the competitiveness and natural instinct in the sport. But for me there are so many little parts that make up the race that it is never dull. From the car itself, to the team, engineers, practice, qualifying and even the drivers personalities there is always something going on and news to absorb. It's my absolute dream one day to get a pit lane/paddock pass, i'd be in my absolute element!

Euro 2016

As a football fan it's only natural i'm going to be watching the Euro's this summer. The first game we watched at my Aunties house and as we were round for a BBQ their lounge was rather packed, there must have been over 20 of us trying to watch! Thankfully they have a pretty big TV so everyone got a good view. When I say big I mean over 60 inches, it certainly made out TV at home look small in comparison! There are some similar sized TV's by Panasonic here: 4K TV Panasonic and the quality in these is supposed to be almost like having your own cinema at home!

I didn't get to watch the second match live due to work but I caught up as soon as I got home. It was a strange one for me as we have a little Welsh heritage in my family and so a part of me was hoping for a draw between the two teams! I've enjoyed seeing the other teams playing too and creating a few surprises in the results and cheering on the smaller sides especially the Irish and Welsh teams.

I'm looking forward to the last group stage game tomorrow night, are you going to be watching?

If you're not into the football, which I know not everyone is, i'd love to know what your favourite programmes to watch right now are?

This is a sponsored post but all words and opinions are my own.

Life lately - Placement, Roxy Ballroom and all the fun of the fair

I've been really busy recently - for me anyway. In May I started my first full-time placement and whilst I am enjoying it, it is tiring. I'm out the house for nearly 12 hours each day as there is quite a bit of travelling and i've discovered a hatred of Yorkshire roads. Not only are they super hilly but the the potholes and grids are destroying my car!

Apart from that it's hard to fit anything else in. I've been struggling to fit in my fitbit steps each day. I make sure I do do them, but it really eats into my time when I get home in the evening. I've started staying on after work and walking around the town for an hour to get them in. The traffic is also a little less by doing this too so it's a win-win. I'm also still trying to keep up with my C25K running that I mentioned here, although I've switched from outside to the gym. It's much easier on the treadmill so I fear I shall struggle when I get back outside. That wasn't the reason though for the change, it was because I needed the gym for other things too. I've been without lights and hot water in my flat for nearly 2 weeks now which is incredibly frustrating. I think i'm a bit of a pushover but i'm determined to change this from now on!

Placement and exercising has basically been my life for the past month, although I have had a few little days/evenings out.

Last Saturday myself and a couple of course mates visited the fun fair in the town park. I've not been to one in years and I can't see myself going again anytime soon. It made me feel so sick!! I was so surprised because i'm mostly fine at theme parks but it was the waltzers that did me in, they spun round so fast! I did really enjoy the dodgems though, they were very fun!

The other week I also went along to the opening of the new Roxy Ballroom in Huddersfield. There is one in Leeds and Liverpool and this was their newest venture. It had a really good vibe going on with great rock music playing. They have table tennis and pool tables for you to play on and I even spied a big game of beer pong going on as I left! Looking at the website, I see they have just opened mini-golf at their Leeds venue. Mini-golf at a bar is something I don't think you'll find anywhere else and can imagine playing that after a drink or two! Sampling some of the food the chicken burgers were delicious and the chips were really unique. You know the crisps McCoy's? They were exactly like them but in chip form, definitely worth a try! It was a very busy but lovely evening and all just around the corner from me!

Have you been to a Roxy Ball Room before? How do you cope when you're so busy with work? I'd love any tips you have with how to fit everything in!

Celebrating with a BBQ

A few weeks ago we hosted a big BBQ for family and friends to celebrate a couple of special birthdays in my family. It was the end of April when the weather was really up and down with sunshine one day and pouring rain the next. We got a mix of both on the day so we had to be prepared! I thought it would be interesting to write about the BBQ as I don't know about you but i'm always worried about things like . . . what music do we play? Have we got enough food?

Food

Aside from the usual burgers, sausages and salads we had a load of sweets dotted about the place. We'd picked up a tub of flumps from the wholesalers and my brother had given me a massive box of skittles (we're talking 2.5kg here!) and they went down really well with the kids as you can imagine. Although most of the flumps did end up on the floor as we spent most of the night trying to throw them into our mouths! By the way . . flumps are not easy to clean from the kitchen floor the next morning!

Drink

We'd bought a selection of beer, cider, wine, spirits and soft drinks and made up a couple of drinks dispensers with Pimms. Pimms has come back into fashion in recent years and is basically Pimms mixed with lemonade and lots of fruit. Another drink I love to make is the Hugo. I discovered this when I used to work in Italy and is made with another current trendy ingredient, Elderflower. It's quite a sweet drink but is very refreshing. I posted the recipe and pictures for the Hugo here if you wish to try this. Let me know if you do!

Music

We just stuck on a recent chart hits CD I'd bought recently. It's this one we've got which was fine for the day but to be honest i'd probably skip a lot the tracks if I was on my own! You can't really go wrong with chart music at a BBQ though, as there's bound to be some tracks that appeal to everyone.

At night when everyone was getting merry we had a Ministry of Sound 90's album and an 80's album that went down a storm. Let's just say some shapes were thrown on the kitchen floor! We played all this on the radio/CD player in the kitchen but some sort of wireless device would have been better so we could have had a bigger choice of music to play. The chart CD did get popped on repeat a few times so being able to play music via my phone or laptop would have been handy. Something like these Panasonic Multi Room Speakers would have worked well, one of them is even waterproof which would have been perfect for the weather we experienced!

Decoration

We're not decorative arty type of people but my Mum did make some bunting and I attempted to make the outside table look pretty, using flowers from the garden. That's about the extent of my creative talents though!

The Weather

We were fully prepared for the unpredictable weather and on the day we experienced sun, rain, warmth and cold. We'd put up a gazebo on the decking and had a chiminea going throughout the day and night. It was a coats on all day sort of weather!

Activities

This may sound a weird one but when there are kids in attendance and people are staying all day and evening sometimes they need entertaining. We had croquet on the grass for the children, although this turned out not to be so good as it got pretty dangerous when the kids were swinging the clubs around! We've got chickens down the bottom of the garden and the kids loved seeing them and feeding them. They were fascinated to see where eggs come from! Lastly we had archery. My Dad had bought it  a couple of years ago and it was perfect to bring out that day. People loved trying to beat each other, although the chickens did nearly get hit many a time!


We had a really good day, although hosting is hard work. When you know everyone in attendance it is hard to get round everyone and I know I lost my drink a million times!


Have you been to a BBQ recently? Or any tips or tricks to hosting one?

(This is a sponsored post)