My can’t miss podcast is…
At the moment, I’m on a bit of a true crime wave so my go to podcast is ‘Solved Murders’ and ‘Unsolved Murders’ on Spotify. I always quite listening to them on my daily walks, as sometimes they can be stranger than any fiction! When I’m trying to get away from murder stories for a change, I love listening to ‘Comfort Eating with Grace Dent’, where Grace interviews celebrities all about their comfort food favourites and their memories of food. Always leaves me hungry for more!
My foodie weakness is…
Maybe not strictly a ‘foodie weakness’, but I’m an absolute stickler when it comes to coffee. No instant coffee shall pass my door or my lips – and as a result I can’t stop buying bags of coffee beans or ground coffee when I go travelling. I find there is nothing better than sitting at home on a Sunday with a pot of coffee that takes you back to another country, especially coupled with biscuits bought with the coffee too. I always make coffee in a large red, stoneware cafetiere that I saved up to buy when I moved to my terraced house in Heckington and I haven’t looked back since.
My one stop coffee shop is…
My current one stop coffee shop is the Hub in Sleaford, which I try to patronise as much as possible. It’s an organisation that does art lessons, exhibitions, and sells local artists’ work – and the toasted sandwiches are something else too! I normally go for a halloumi and chorizo toasted sandwich on a Sunday with a large latte to make up form my early morning swim!
If I’m lucky enough to be in York (where I went to university), it has to be Gatehouse which is a café in one of the medieval gatehouses on the city’s wall. Their cinnamon rolls are to die for, their coffee foam art exemplary, and the paninis truly splendid – it’s no wonder I basically wrote both of my dissertations in this café!
On toast, I love to spead…
I’m a bit boring with toast as I love spreading toast with “lashings of butter” as I used to say when I was small – especially if it’s fancy, French salt butter, where the salt crystals are unapologetic and huge. Although on special occasions like Sunday morning, without sounding too much like Paddington Bear, it has to be marmalade!
The book I’m reading at the moment is…
Am just finishing off ‘Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister’ by Gregory Maguire – it’s a retelling of the Cinderella story told from the point of view of one of her stepsisters, and is set during sixteenth century Holland’s tulip craze. I love a bit of history and magic thrown together in a book!
The next film I need to watch is…
Probably ‘Elvis’ if I’m honest – Baz Luhrmann, Tom Hanks, and cracking music? Sounds like a blast! Still holding out hope the next Indiana Jones film can be released sooner, but this should keep me going until then!
The box set I rewatch again and again is…
‘Brooklyn 99’ – funny characters, great one liners, and incredibly bingeable. This may be toppled once ‘Our Flag Means Death’ finally makes it to the UK though – queer pirates trump everything after all!
How do you take your usual caffeine fix?
I have my tea strong, using Yorkshire Tea, with a dash of milk. I normally have my coffee black with a spoon of sugar, but can also be swayed to a latte.
My dream getaway location is…
Ooohh… Think it would have to be New Zealand for the beaches, the lovely people, and the coffee! (Also hoping they don’t have the spiders they have in Australia…)
My fool proof dinner party dish is…
Artichoke and bacon pasta with crème fraiche, panko breadcrumbs, and parmesan. I call this “Wedding Pasta” as it was something that I was introduced to on my best friend’s hen do, and it is so tasty and moreish. It’s also one of those recipes where you throw everything into a tray, put it in the oven, and forget about for twenty minutes which I am a huge fan of!
My guilty pleasure is…
As someone who is trying to eat healthy all the time and trying to see new things instead of rewatching things, my guilty pleasure is a takeaway pizza and cheesy garlic bread in front of a three hour long epic or a nostalgic film on a Friday or Saturday night. Dr Zhivago, Nicolas and Alexandra, the whole original Star Wars trilogy, Moulin Rouge, Indiana Jones, Django Unchained – just brings back a lot of nostalgia and a lot of comfort. I feel no guilt whatsoever about it though, life is too short!
The mantra I live by is…
“The world is cruel, therefore I won’t be.”
The song that always gets me on the dance floor is…
Anything by Queen or ABBA! Or ‘Rasputin’ if I’m a few drinks in…
And the most important question of all… PC or Mac?
I’m really going to clash with the other guys on this one, but I am a proud PC user! I did try to get on the Mac bandwagon but just found myself missing the old ways of working that I’ve had since I was first learning to use a computer. Call me a traditionalist – at least it’s not a typewriter (yet)!