Friday Favourites May 27th - June 9th 2017.

FF09.06.2017

I want to start out by saying now that I wrote this last night whilst watching the election polls come in but as I write it I have no idea the election result. So hopefully it's gone the way you want and you're celebrating and if it hasn't and you're feeling dejected and sad and maybe scared I send you lots of hugs and tea. 

Now we've got that out the way let's move onto the Favourite's shall we? 

1. Mumma Daughter Day Out.

A fortnight ago my Mum and I went to Cardiff for what was supposed to be the morning and turned into all day. It was an absolute sorcher of a day and we were shopping for birthday stuff for my niece, some IKEA stuff, Summer clothes and outfits for a wedding we have in July. We spent a hideous amount of money but we had a lovely day. We don't actually like shopping all that much - we like walking in and buying what we need and leaving again. Something like trying to co ordinate a wedding outfit is not ideal but we pretty much found everything we needed. We had dinner, we mooched, it was sunny and it was just a glorious day out. 

2. Food & Drink Festival. 

On the May Bank Holiday weekend Cowbridge, my local market town held their annual Food & Drink Festival. It's a heeeeeuuuuuge event these days with thousands and thousands of people and it takes over the whole town for two days with events, this year Rhod Gilbert filmed his Work Experience there too. My boyfriend's family have a cider business run from the farm where we live and we were selling at the festival. I worked the Sunday and it was boiling hot and everyone and their dog turned out and we were insanely busy. I really enjoy working the festivals and shows but it's a long hard day butttt we sold loads so a good day all round. 

3. The Trial; A Murder In The Family. 

I didn't get to see this on the five consecutive days it aired on Channel 4 but Joss and I watched The Trial on catchup in 2 nights the other week. If you haven't seen it it's still on All 4 (Channel 4 catchup) it's a fake trial that was made up but set in a real court with real law professionals and a real jury of rule people. It was essentially an insight into the judicial system and the audience watching the TV didn't know the outcome until the very end of the show and it was gripping. Watch The Trail on Channel 4 here. 

4. Second Birthday. 

We no longer have a baby in our family we have a fully fledged toddler. On Bank Holiday Monday my niece turned a whole two years old and had two days to celebrate it. On her birthday we spent the day with her grandparents and great aunties and cousins and great grandparents and we had party hats and she had millions of presents and a My Little Pony birthday cake and it was delightful. The day after my brother and his fiancé brought The Toddler round my parents house and she had some more presents and lots of balloons which she requested and she said "I've had a good birthday" and she knows she's two and it's so nice that this is the first celebration she REALLY kinda gets. Except on Wednesday she saw a gnome in someone's garden and saw a reindeer toy in my Mum's and said "oh he lives with Santa (the gnome) in that garden" so maybe she took in more at Christmas than I realised. 

5. A Boyfriend Who Knows What You Need. 

Last week I was brought down by an unfortunate bout of what I thought was food poisoning but then I think might have been a virus my niece and her mumma gave to me (thanks guyz). I won't go into details but I chucked my guts up for a whole evening and it was awful and I thought I was dying and it was minging. And obvs it wasn't my fav thing of the fortnight but Joss was veryyyyy good at taking care of me. And by taking care of me I mean, he left me alone. I cannot STAND someone being with me when I'm honking my dinner up when I feel so awful so he got me water and a bucket and left me be. He apparently checked on me when I was asleep and then went and slept in the spare room so I could have the double bed all to myself and that my friends is someone who knows me. 

6. Crossrail. 

Anyone else absolutely obsessed with Crossrail? I mean probs not the people whose lives it's affecting in London but from the safety of Cardiff I am utterly utterly obsessed. I have watched every single documentary made on every channel about Crossrail (if you don't know, it's a new Tube line in London) and I literally just find it so fascinating. It's insane, the work they're doing under the streets of London, the logistics behind it. If you are also v obsessed with Crossrail the Beeb have done a series on it and then followed it up in the last few weeks with another part and you can still get it on catchup here. 

7. Adulting In It's Finest. 

I have v much succeeded in adulting in the last fortnight. The weather has been nice enough that I have managed to hang the washing on the line and is there a scene more grown up than fresh linen drying on an actual line in the garden? I also spent TWO hours ironing the other night, a feat I haven't performed in years. It was long and arduous but I made it. 

8. The Cutest Little Baby. 

I mean toddler. My niece has been on top form lately and she's been soooo loving lately. Last week she said "I love you, we're best friends'. She's told me she loves me about a million times lately, the other day she wrapped her arms round my neck and said "I love you Auntie Gwennan" and I melted. She's also learnt a load of new songs she likes to sing, one of which includes the Barney and when she sings "with a great big hug and a kiss from me to you" she gives my Mum the hug and me the kiss in the right places. On her birthday she was standing looking at something and I was sat on the floor and she just put one arm round my shoulder, it was so grown up and cute. I talk about her a lot but I like to document the things I might not remember 5 years down the line and these were some of the nicest. 

9. One Love Manchester. 

I mean wasn't it bloody amazing? I can't put into words how motivational and inspirational and rousing the concert for the Manchester bombing was, especially even more so in the wake of what happened in London. Don't Look Back In Anger has become such an anthem for the city since and some of the songs sung were just inspiring. I cried a lot during the concert as I know a lot of people did but One Last Time just finished me off. You can donate to the We Love Manchester Emergency Fund over here. 

10. Decorating. 

As if I hadn't had enough of decorating this millennium after doing up my entire house in the first few months of the year, this week my Mum asked me to help her do up the spare room (my old bedroom) at her house. As you can see Mildred was v helpful in it all and the room is looking beaut. I helped with the painting cos I am a dab hand and we drank lots of tea and listened to the radio and chatted all day and I designed a piece of furniture that's going to be built into the wall and now I am pretty sure I should be exploring a career as an interior designer. 

11. Painting (In A Different Form).

A much messier form. For my niece's birthday Joss and I bought her an easel from Hobbycraft as her main present. It has a magnetic whiteboard on one side and a blackboard on the other and you can paint on it too and it came with all the accessories AND it's adjustable height so she can use it for years and she bloody loved it. We spent Wednesday afternoon this week creating her first masterpieces and she did a picture for her Mum, Dad, Grandparents, Great Grandmother and her other Auntie and she chose who's was who's and we wrote all their names on. She took them all home in the evening and was SO pleased with herself and said "they'll be so proud of me" and I can see us partaking in many a craft based activity in the near future.

12. Fields Of Wheat. 

If you're on social media then you probably know what I'm talking about. In an interview during the election campaign the past few days for some unbeknown reason Theresa May decided to answer a question honestly for once and spawned a whole plethora of GIFs and memes. Basically she said the naughtiest thing she'd ever done was to run through fields of wheat as a kid and the internet took it on board and made it their own. The blogging baes Whatsapp group has basically just been memes of the wheat field saga and it's the funniest thing to come out of the campaign thus far. The internet can be a very witty place. 

13. Dogs At Polling Station.

I don't think I need to say anything else. Yet again the internet world took election day as a challenge to find the cutest dog at a polling station and the hashtag is still available for you to trawl through and look at ALL THE CUTE PUPPIES. Literally so sweet. Britain never fails me ya know? At my polling station there was a black cocker spaniel puppy who was bloody desperate to get into the poling station and practically pulled the little girl trying to restrain her off her feet. I would've snapped a quick photo but ya know, not my dog, not my kid kinda thing.  

14. Breakfast. 

Anddd finally it's not THIS breakfast I'm talking about but tomorrow morning I'm off into Cardiff to review a breakfast menu and I legit can't wait to eat. I can't decide if I'm thinking full English or pancakes or maybe there'll be something fruity and exotic on the menu but all I know is I am excited to stuff my face. Look out for that on Instagram tomorrow morning and the blog later next week!

And that my friends is me over and out for another fortnight.