How to get all those odd jobs done

I moved into my flat over 18 months ago. It's a one bed flat that came unfurnished and decorated very plainly. When I say unfurnished, it didn't even have a fridge or a washing machine. But I couldn't find much else available in my time-frame and budget and to be honest it's not that bad, it could be a lot worse. Although it is a 45 minute walk into town, with a massive long hill to deal with (I'm talking the type where you have to take several breaks at the bus stops along the way) it's actually pretty quiet. I don't get much noise, apart from the neighbour (and I can't figure if upstairs or downstairs) watching TV in the middle of the night. It's also right next to a little station and the bus stop too. So it could be worse.

My issue is that 18 months on it still looks like i've just moved in. Some of it is down to me. I'm very unorganised, I have no ability to style a room and I have very little storage so all my belongings are just out there making it look very messy. But there are a few little things I can't do myself.

5 gadgets I want for the kitchen to help me eat better

Cooking for one can sometimes be a tiresome process and I often find myself being lazy and sticking to the same foods that are quick and easy to prepare. I need to change this up a little. I also make no secret of my aim for a healthier lifestyle, although in recent months i've found it difficult to maintain all elements of one. But some new kitchen equipment will help me kick start eating better again, mix up my meals and help introduce new foods into my diet. These 5 gadgets i've long wanted, although if I got them all, i'm not exactly sure where they'd all sit on my worktop!

Juicer - The fruit I normally eat are bananas and occasionally apples. It's not that I don't like apples but I just never seem to touch them and they can be sat in my fruit bowl for 2 months and I still won't have finished the packet! If I had a juicer by Panasonic however I could literally just throw one in and drink the juice and be done with it. I also don't eat oranges unless it's in a juice form so this would come in useful here too.

The daily commute

We all know about the woes of public transport. Have you ever heard someone say 'yes I really love my commute'? Probably not. I've had a lot of jobs over the years with various journeys to work, some excellent and some a little tedious. The ideal one was when it was only a 20 minute walk away. That was the best as not only was it free, but it was quick and it was exercise. The worst are probably the ones where I had to get a bus, then a train, meaning I ended up leaving the house about 2 hours before I actually started work. I've put to together a little list of  the bad things about using public transport to get to and from work:

Watching, Reading and What i'm Excited for!

Watching 

American Ninja Warrior// Some of the courses in the US version are insane, they seem much tougher than the UK ones, not that I could complete in those either! I've been watching clips on YouTube, especially of Jessie Graff, she is amazing. Take a look here:Jessie Graff - American Ninja Warrior

Reasons to go on a cruise this summer

I've been on two cruises now and I want to go on another. I want to go all out and go on one of those huge massive ones with the shopping mall down the middle and slides, they look amazing! Here's the benefits and reasons why I think you should book a cruise this summer based on my past experience:

1. All you can eat

There are several places to eat on a cruise. You can go for the formal sit down meal with a choice of a couple of restaurants. Food and service is impeccable. Or you can opt to eat in the buffet, which is pretty much 24 hour. Very nearly. Food is offered not just for evening but most of the day too. Breakfast, lunch, afternoon snacks, burger and fries by the pool are all offered. Oh and you can also get room service. It depends which company you are with but on my one last year with P & O there was no charge for the majority of room service items. Sure, it's only a small section of food, but it's nothing to be sniffed at when you can't be bothered to get up and dress for breakfast or fancy a snack in your room after a hard day's exploring!

Upping the exercise game

One of my runs last summer - I can't wait for the days be longer again!

I started placement a couple of weeks ago and i'm slowly getting used to those 6am alarms. I decided that this would be the time (the week, not 6am itself!) to up my exercise game. See, I don't know about you, but I find the time I am busiest is the time I can achieve more.

Since November i'd been running approximately twice a week but I wanted to up the exercise to four times a week. So last week i'd planned:

- a home workout
- a fitness class at the gym
- a run
- parkrun

I only managed the first two though because I injured my knee during the Bodyvive class. I have a funny knee anyway but this class turned out not to be the friendliest for my knee. So the rest of the week and weekend I was resting it. But weirdly I missed running. Who even am I?

This week I had planned:

- a swim to ease my knee back in
- a run
- parkrun

I didn't do any of these, instead switching to other options. I went to a Clubbercise class. I rather enjoyed this one and it was more low-impact than Bodyvive, and so putting less stress on my knee. I also managed a 4k run/walk this morning followed by a low-impact HIIT workout. So a bit different from what I had planned but I had to go with what I felt able to do.

I've still been hitting my 10k steps a day, which is maybe why my knee never quite feels right. I'm finding it hard to rest completely though as i'm rather addicted to my fitbit and feel lazy and restless not doing any form of exercise. I guess this is another healthy habit i'm creating!

This coming week i'll try to do a couple of the HIIT sessions, Clubbercise and hopefully a run.

Check back soon to see how the next week goes and do let me know in the comments what exercise you enjoy.

Establishing healthy habits

My laptop keyboard has weirdly started working again, so let's take advantage of that and write this before it stops again.

I've been 'losing weight' for nearly ten years now. I've never been on any actual diet but always gone for the exercise and healthy eating approach. Whilst this works, i've never been disciplined enough to maintain, hence why my weight is up and down like a yo-yo and I do good only to go and wreck it the next month. I'm currently back on the weight loss attempt train but what I realised the other day is that I have finally developed some healthy habits. You know how they say it needs to be a lifestyle change and not just a quick-fix? I've realised that there are a few things I now do no matter what part of the yo-yo i'm on. These are:

1. Porridge
I started eating porridge about 5 years ago but only when I was trying to lose weight. In the last year though it's become my breakfast staple no matter what. It's cheap, nutritious and really does put the hunger at bay better than any other cereal. Once you get the hang of the milk/water to porridge ratio it's also incredibly cheap if you buy the big bags compared to other cereal.

2. Portions
More veg and less carbs. I'm now filling my plate with more and different types of veg and cutting down on the potatoes slightly. I'm always going to be a massive potato fiend, but i'm scaling back a little and having a few less roasts or wedges.

3. Protein
It took me so long to realise this but protein is so important. It helps us feel fuller for longer and helps muscles grow and repair themselves after exercise. This is a really important one for me because I get hungry a lot which leads to horrible migraines. I'm working on lunches at the moment, as it's the one I find hardest to put lots of protein in.

So there are my 3 P's. The three habits that are now changes for life for me, whether i'm binging on Christmas chocolate or back on the weight loss wagon. I hope I can report more healthy habits in the future but I reckon for now that's a good start! I'm really interested to know what habits anyone else has though or ideas for filling lunches to take to work?

The Emmerdale Studio Experience

It's no secret that I am a huge Emmerdale fan. I used to watch all the soaps going but with time more restricted and the realisation that I probably shouldn't spend all my evenings staring at a screen, Emmerdale is now the only one I watch. Therefore I was a very happy bunny when I got the chance to visit the new Emmerdale Studio Experience recently.

Situated in Leeds, the tour is based in the studios they used to film the programme in and is next door to the current studios. It is based in the city centre and really easy to get to by car (with the help of google maps, I wouldn't get anywhere with them!) and about a 15 minute walk from the train station.

After watching a short video about the history of the show we were shown costumes, make-up, props and how the show is produced. I loved seeing the production part as it amazes me how much time and effort has to go into each scene. Don't quote me but it takes something like six weeks to create one week of episodes!

Each scene has a storyboard created. The one above is when Robert sets fire to Andy and Katie's caravan.

Viewers will recognise this as the late Edna Birch's outfit, including the hat she wore everywhere!

Belonging to the make-up department this shows all the cast member they needed to make up on a particular day. The sheet next to it describes each scene and any particular details to their hair and make-up that is important to remember for the next scene.

We were showed many props from over the years but I loved this shelf for the number of memories it holds. We've got the late Shirley Stelfox/Edna Birch with Batley at the Soap Awards, The Valerie Pollard Foundation collection boxes, Dr Bailey and his wife and some lovely photo's of deceased and departed characters that were used in the show.

The tour also showed us various sets which you will definitely recognise! I really enjoyed learning how the lighting works for an indoor studio, there's a lot more too it than you think!

The Woolpack in the quarter size village replica.

Enjoying a drink in the Woolpack!

Lastly we enjoyed a visit to the Woolpack and a photo opportunity you can't really miss. You'll have to excuse the quality of this one, it's a photo of a photo!

Throughout the tour our guide continued to feed us with information and showed us via video's and small scale replicas how various disasters over the years were filmed. I really loved learning the behind-the-scenes details about Emmerdale as i'm such a nosy parker. I think i'll be watching the programme in a lot more detail from now on!

If you want to visit here yourself you can find all the information you need at www.emmerdalestudioexperience.co.uk/ If you go, do let me know what you think!

Anyone else a big Emmerdale fan around here?

The Bloggers Blog Awards 2016

The Bloggers Blog Awards was so successful last year that it came back this weekend for it's second year. It was even bigger and better and included a lot more categories to help celebrate the best in blogging.

Hayley had secured the gorgeous Canal Mills, an old industrial warehouse for this year and it was perfect. There were many quirky little objects to photograph! There was pic and mix and popcorn to nibble on and CarrieAnne had made the most exquisite cakes for us all. I'm told they were delicious but I didn't get to try one unfortunately. But just look in the photo's at the thought and effort she put into each individual one!

The winners of each category were well supported and cheered by everyone and were each so surprised and grateful that they won. I'm sure Hayley will be publishing a list of winners so keep an eye out for that so you can discover some new and old favourites.

Then the raffle. Well wasn't that just suburb. I don't even wear much lipstick but even I wanted that Urban Decay Vault! I managed to win a Tastecard for a year, so i'm looking forward to using that, after all I do count eating as one of my listed hobbies!

It looked like everyone was having a great time meeting old and new friends. I put myself on raffle ticket duty but realised later I never actually introduced myself to many people, I was so focused on taking everyone's money! There were a few people I definitely wanted to speak to but I find it hard speaking up in groups and find one-to-one interaction much easier. But I did meet a few people so baby steps and all that.

It was a great day, though very long for me as I had been out in the morning too at a coffee morning. My feet were very happy to see the bath when I eventually got home that night!

Thank you Hayley for all the hard work you put it for this!

Did you attend the awards, or fancy going next year?

29 reasons I feel old at 29.

Here's a confession. This post was originally titled '28 reasons that show i'm 28' because I started it nearly a year ago. But as it's took me all this time to actually finish and press publish i'm now a lovely year older. Yay. Although I did get to add 1 more reason to the list so there is that.

Blowing out my candles on my 27 + 2 birthday cake. 

So onto the list . . anyone identify with any?


1. You know exactly how much the petrol is in every station in town, in fact it's a talking point when it goes up or down.

2. You're wary about the new layout in Wilko's.

3. When having to shop in a new town you pine to be in your old Asda, it's comfy, familiar and you know where everything is

4. You wonder where the rest of the clothes are on that girl that just walked past you. Short shorts and a crop top barely covering her bra? ERRR?

5. Escape to the Country and Location, Location, Location? GIMMIE, GIMMIE.

6. You're rather good at guessing the house price on said programs.

7. This weeks special deal leaflet from Aldi and the Argos homeware sale catalogue is perfectly acceptable bath time reading.

8. Secretly enjoying Prima and Good Housekeeping.

9. Not caring if people think you're boring, i'm so past trying to change myself

10. Realising you don't have long to complete that epic 30 before 30 list. None of which you have started on.

11. You hate on the youngsters who cry at turning 22. Are you freaking kidding me? You're practically a baby.

12. Sleep - never enough sleep, wanting an early night always and never getting it and having a guilty feeling you never used to get when lying in.

13. Hankering onto the dial-up days

14. Being old enough to remember the time when your entire existence didn't revolve around the computer, mobile and unlimited TV and secretly wishing we could go back to that.

15. You feel there's something wrong with you because you're not married or have a baby.

16. You actually drink that pint of water you're supposed to drink after a night out. The effects the next day are totally worth it by the way.

17. Though said nights out are far and few between.

18. When on your first night out in several x 10 months you actually go out two nights in a row and your body rewards you with a stinking cold. In summer.

19. To be honest though, it's mostly about the food these days. When, what, how much, when, what? You get the picture. Food = yum.

20. Bridget Jones. You are her.

21. Trying to find the perfect candle/plug-in/scent that smells of apple/spice/cinnamon/mulled wine is the aim of every shopping trip.

22. Staying at your sisters and not understand how it's nearly 12am and her housemates STILL haven't gone out yet.

23. You get angry and frustrated because younger people don't know who Adam Rickitt is.

24. You own anti-aging eye cream.

25. The only reason you are excited for your birthday next year ie. the 'big' one is so that you can throw a 90's party.

26. You realise you are of that awkward age of knowing something about computers, as in how to turn them on, type a few words and that chrome is better than IE but nothing about photoshop/hmtl or basically any of the IT than younger people seem to know about now and that would be pretty useful to know.

27. Leaving school and starting uni was 10 years ago . . actually make that 11 by the time I publish this.

28. Watching the England game last night and remembering Euro 96 and THAT moment and the footy songs that followed

29. You feel in a sort of limbo. Am I in my 20s? Yes but I don't feel connected to other twenty-somethings. Am I old? Not really, but all the talk of the approaching significant birthday makes me feel it.

So there you go. 29 reasons that show my age and how I feel.

I have however just found this link telling me all the reasons i'm not old and that this age is actually fantastic. So go have a read of this if you're feeling like me.

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)

Fitness and Healthy Eating Update

Sat here writing with a glass of fizzy drink and a chocolate bar you'd be mistaken for thinking my fitness and healthy eating journey is non-existant. But that's not true, i'm getting there, slowly.

Last Year

Since being on a mission to complete my 10k steps a day a year ago i've done very well on the whole with that. There was a couple of months end of last year where I gave up but I was going through some unsettlement and wasn't really in the mood to do anything. But on the whole I really enjoy getting my steps in and completing with other fitbitters, it's certainly gets competitive!

Out on a walk

Body Shop Evening and the new Piñita Colada range

This weekend I attended an evening at the newly re-fitted Body Shop in Huddersfield to trial some of their new products including the Piñita Colada range. I've used Body Shop products for many years, although my current skincare regime is rather lacking so I was looking forward to trying some of the products I was unfamilar with like the Oils for Life and the Vitamin C range.

10 Thoughts I had today

Oh my days, i'm about to collapse! (upon completing my first run in four years)

Wow I feel great, bring on the day.

Why don't I have a ski holiday booked so I can warrant buying this beauty?

It's SUCH a nice day, a perfect day even.

I just bought a screwdriver set. Eugh. Old.

Why are there so many types of suncream?

Ow my filling hurts. That's just great.

Oo The Chase is on, wahoo!

I want to get back to the blogging world.

I'm stuck, I don't know what to blog or to tweet or even what blogs to read.

10 habits

Look at the photo. See? I'm holding my hands up. I know i've got faults and here are a few annoying things I do.

1. Being a thinker not a do-er.

I have all these fabulous ideas of things to do, routines that will change my life but I never do them. I think, read and absorb all the tips and advice on the internet but never put it into action or if I do it's only half-heartedly. Part of the problem is never writing these things down or if I do it's on a scrappy bit of paper or my notebook that I always forget about.

A trip to Skipton and the 'Bronte' town of Haworth

Back in February my sister came up to visit and stay with me. She goes to uni in Northampton, so it was a fair old trek to come up here on the train. We decided upon visiting Skipton for the day and calling in on Haworth on the way back.

Skipton we discovered was a pretty castle market town full of team rooms and cafes - you'd need to spend a month there to visit them all I swear! We had lunch at the Pie Shop which I thoroughly recommend. Pie, chips and gravy all for around £7. The rest of our visit was spent aimlessly meandering up and down the streets and discovering a very cute shopping centre.

I'm in Grazia!

A couple of weeks ago I got to do something a little bit special. A little out of the ordinary for plain old me, something that gave me a peek into a completely different world. I went down to London for a photo-shoot with Grazia!

EEEK!

You know you're addicted to your Fitbit when . .

Fitbit addiction is real. It sounds stupid to non-Fitbit owners. How can it make you walk more, because surely it is just like a pedometer? Once you own one for youself though, you'll never look back . . .