Friday Favourites 24th June - 7th July 2017.

Another fortnight has flown by and suddenly we're in July and what even? This fortnight has been a weird one, I feel like I am weaning my way back into work and normal life after jury service finished, it's so strange to say that when it was only 2 weeks of my life but there we are.

The first week of this little review was when I was still on jury service so you'll have to excuse me for the ridiculous amount of TV on here, it was all I could do to come home, plonk myself on the sofa and watch something, I literally didn't have it in me to do anything else.

1. Crystal Maze.

Can we just talk about how amazing Richard Ayoade is as a host please? I generally love him anyway but taking the hand (being a model hand on an umbrella stick not actually holding people's hands) gets me every time. The celebs have actually been ace, Vicky Pattinson was an actual legend in the first episode and I hope they only ever do celeb specials. I mean, I always want to take part but yeah, more celebs plz. Catch up on 4 On Demand or All 4 or whatever the eff they're calling it these days here.

2. Rugby.

I mean this is a photo of Wales v England from February but you get the idea. I am just loooving the Summer tests at the moment and the Lions (and the friendlies). Even though I can't get them on TV cos fu Sky & BT but I have been watching the highlights on S4C and I am veryyyyy excited to see the final test tomorrow and see who wins. I also watched Gareth Thomas (ex Wales international & Lions captain) on his documentary about how to beat the All Blacks and it was full of old coaches and it made me all nostalgic and was a good watch. Recommended if you can find it on iPlayer/love rugby.

3. Glasto.

I, like many sad people didn't have tickets to Glastonbury this year so had to watch from the comfort of our sofas (with less sweat and more electricity) but that didn't stop me from loving it. I loved loads of it, Rag N Bone Man, Haim, Foo, Biffy, Royal Blood etc etc etc but it was our Ed that did it for me. I watched his set a few days after it was live cos jury service (did I mention it?) but it made me sob my lil heart out, he has got some balls to get up there alone in front of all those people. I'm baffled that he's had to come out and prove he sings live and uses a pedal loop but there we go, I thought it was an amazing closing set to the weekend and I still love him.

(Photo cred to Sarah, see her Glasto snaps here and read her blog post here)

4. Leopard Print Boots.

These guys. I bought these babies from Primark in Autumn/Winter 2016 but they've barely had their Instagram debut since. They're like fake suede and have a heel so are not rainy weather proof but also the heel means they have no grip so they're not icy weather appropriate either...... But in the last few weeks I wore them to town and I felt like such a boss strutting about in them, I think I need to be like a CEO in a company somewhere or summin.

5. Finishing Jury Service.

Oh hi did I tell you I did jury service? I enjoyed jury service in as much as I enjoyed learning about the system and the background to it but oh man it was draining. The commuting into Cardiff was something I haven't done in years, being out of the house for so many hours was taxing, the case itself was awful and the whole thing was massively draining. So to finish was not a bad thing, I finished a few days early too and was dismissed so knowing I was done was a good feeling. I feel like I'm just about back to normality now.

6. Hospital.

Another TV programme you might be thinking? Honestly I could've recommended loads this fortnight. Hospital though on the BBC is a new obsession. I love real life programmes and anything like 24 hours in A&E is my jam so I was sure to enjoy Hospital (which is basically the same). The series starts with the day of the Westminster terror attack back in March and deals with the hospital that took the victims, and the attacker in. I watched this on the day after MPs jeered and congratulated each other on voting down a raise in public services wages and honestly I bawled my fucking eyes out watching this. Watching the emergency services take in the man that attacked innocents, the way they intended to treat him before he died, the way they dealt with the victims, the things they saw, the pressure they faced, the way they coped, the way they helped...... I think every MP who voted no should have to watch this and see what they voted no against. Catch up on iPlayer here.

7. Sausage & Bean Hotpot.

Soooo I don't have a picture of this because I am a shit blogger and uhm, scoffed my face first. Basically this is my current fav meal when you want something hearty and hot (maybs a better autumn choice ngl) and it's insanely easy to make. You part boil potatoes for about 5 minutes or so and whilst you're doing that you chop sausages into chunky circle slices and fry them until they're nice a golden in hot oil. Whilst the potatoes are finishing off you take the sausages out and then fry half an onion in the fat from the sausages. When they're done you pop the sausages back in and pour in a tin of baked beans (Heinz have the best flavour we've found) and drain the water on the potatoes. Warm the onions/sausages/beans up and season with salt and pepper to taste and then pour into a big ol casserole dish. You then slice the potatoes into thin circles and layer out over the mixture, overlapping so it's pretty much all covered. Dab a bit of butter on the top (and we layer cheese here cos we're mavericks like that) and then cover with foil and pop in the oven at about 190. Cook for 10 mins with the foil on and then take it off and cook for another 10 or until the side of the taters are going brown. Take out and serve! It's literally the easiest yummiest thing and is extra good with a coupla slices of fresh crusty bread to mop up the beans. I'm basically drooling thinking about it.

8. Biebs.

Yasssss guess who went to see Justin Bieber in Cardiff last week??? I got a text from a school pal on the Wednesday saying she had free tickets to Bieber on the Friday and uhm, I am not one to turn down free tickets to anyone. I went with two of my oldest chums and then about 213982748267 of their family and friends (I think we took up a whole row) and it was such a laff. I am not the world's biggest Bieber fan but I like a few songs and we danced and sang and Baby went down a bloody storm and fair play, it wasn't a half bad gig. We also went for food in town and a drink afterward and had time to catch up because we live all over the country and it was such a lovely way to spend a Friday evening.

(Photo cred Nia and her amazing phone camera that makes my skin look the best it's ever been)

9. Squirrel vs Chipmunk.

I mean I don't even know where to start. Last week the squad and I had a very heated conversation on Whatsapp about squirrels vs chipmunks and it spilled onto Twitter and it was all my fault and holy hell I laughed my self to weeping. You know one of those things that's only funny to you but you full on belly laugh until you ache? It was that. I love the bones off these girls and I am counting down until I can see them again. Oh and FYI it's a chipmunk.

10. Barry Island.

This week was another hot one so on Wednesday me and Mum took my niece to Barry to the beach and it was glorious. I chose a really bad day to wear jeans (hot) and sandals (had to carry a 2 year old over rocks) but we had such a cute morning. We saw ducklings, we went to the waves, we saw a jellyfish, we had an ice cream and her Daddy came down to see us on his lunch break which she loved. See my snaps on Instagram here!

11. #OURTWENTYSOMETHINGSUMMER

Oh you guys and your snaps. If you haven't seen my Instagram challenge for this summer you can read the blog post over here but definitely check out the hashtag here. It's basically a checklist of lots of things to photograph this summer and some gals are having an absolute stormer with it. Andddd everyone's been so nice and are sharing it everywhere and drumming up support and telling everyone to get involved and it's just all good fun.

12. Takeaways.

I've had three chippys in the past fortnight and I have no regrets. Just looking at this is making me hungry. I had one with my parents when we just cba with tea, one to celebrate a family birthday and then one just cos I fancied it (not knowing about the birthday one). The nicest of all was this, the spontaneous one because I just couldn't get chips out of my head so Joss and I just upped and went to town to get it and then came home and had a movie night and we haven't had one in ages and it was tip top and now I want another chippy cos this photo is making me v hungry.

13. Cheeky Nandos.

I deliberately didn't write this post until I came home this evening because I knew this would make the Favs list. I spent the early evening today with the friends I met on my Foundation course, I always mention them on the blog, I always say how pleased I am we're still mates when we only spent 9 months in education together. Today we met up (we think we've managed 3 meet ups this year, we're doing good) and had a cheeky Nando's and a little shop and a big catch up in Cardiff and were home by 8pm cos we're mad like that. Genuinely love seeing these guys, they make me laugh so much and I live for the holiday we had in Venice together in 2011.