TELEVISION SEASON.

Autumn might just be my favourite season (how basic could I be?!).
It’s not because of pumpkin spiced lattes but rather the dark evenings and cold mornings. One of my favourite feelings is to walk out of the house in the morning, wrapped in a wooly jumper, big coat and boots, to a street filled with frozen cars, blue skies and fresh cool air.

Granted it isn’t so lovely and idyllic when the rain falls horizontally and your hood or hat flies off your head as a result of the blustering winds but let’s not think about those days!

Autumn is also the best time for plonking yourself down in front of the television.
As the nights draw closer, new television dramas pop up left, right and centre.
What could be better after a day in the office than turning the heating on, making some delicious dinner, changing into your warmest PJs before sitting down to watch some tv.

Like most people these days, I don’t get a chance to watch much television. I might watch an episode of something in the evening before getting myself ready for the next day and heading to bed. Despite this, I did get a chance to finish watching two gripping BBC dramas that have been on everybody’s Sky+ boxes over the last few weeks - The Bodyguard + Killing Eve. Both of these managed to do what very few dramas have been able to do since the rise of streaming sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime - they managed to unite a nation in one conversation. Almost everybody I have met over the last few weeks have asked if I have watched these dramas. There's something lovely about sharing a conversation like this, especially during a time of such fractures in our society. Don't get me wrong, I know that a BBC drama about a psycho assassin who wears really cool dresses isn't going to fix the mess that is Brexit but it's a bit of light relief. Other then sport, I'm not too sure what else can unite a nation in this way.

I don’t know about you but when I am tired (which, let’s face it is most of the time) I like to watch things that I know for certain that I’m going to enjoy and most of the time this means re-watching some of my favourite programmes.

So here are some of my most loved programmes - some of which I have rewatched more times than I would care to admit.

• The US Office (Amazon Prime)
• Gilmore Girls (Netflix)
• Parks and Recreation (Amazon Prime) 

These are the series that despite whatever else is happening in the world, I know will help me relax.
The warm familiarity of the characters and the already knowing what’s going to happen bring me ridiculous amounts of reassurance.

Michael Scott, Jim + Pam and Dwight of The US Office got me through my finals at university; Gilmore Girls is a series I return to again and again and again - from the first few years of secondary school to the present day, it’s a series I never tire of and hopefully never will; Parks and Recreation has some of the best characters in television and is guaranteed to make me laugh whatever. The tenacity of Leslie Knopp and Ron Swanson's attitude makes for comedy gold (another great comedy by Michael Schur).

Here are a few series that I am currently watching and loving -

• The Good Place (Netflix)
• Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (Netflix)
• Great News (Netflix)
• A Typical (Netflix)
• Louis Theroux: Altered States (BBC iPlayer) 
• No Activity (BBC iPlayer) 

As well as those listed above I spend a lot of time watching clips on youtube. Most of which are clips from American talk shows and Saturday Night Live. Since my late teens I have loved American late night talk shows and comedies. During university I would spend time watching interview after interview with these comedians, their show writers and producers just to try and begin to understand the process of writing and producing content that to me was so clever. I read books by B. J. Novak, Mindy Kaling, The Harvard Lampoon; I'd watch Will Ferrel and Steve Martin's highlights from their SNL sketches on DVD; and I spent a lot of my time during those dark dissertation writing days with The Daily Show With John Stewart and Jerry Seinfeld's Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee on in the background. During this tumultuous political time, Stephen Colbert is my go to. His monologues at the top of the show are filled with passion and concern but still manages to make his audience laugh. Colbert is one of my ultimate comedians. 

I’m looking forward to discovering more great television over the next few weeks as the evenings get darker and leaving the house after work becomes less appealing!

L x

Taste the Vibe.

A podcast, put simply, is an audio file. It's an hour-or-so of someone talking about a subject or a variety of subjects. Nothing more, nothing less.

Except it is.

Being someone who harbours many irrational fears, including being in a quiet house on my own (because guys, when the house is quiet you can hear all the ghosts and monsters walking about - am I right?!) I almost always have a podcast or some music on the go. First thing in the morning and last thing at night I open my podcast app and hit play. Despite subscribing to many podcasts I always listen to the same two or three. 

Like porridge and peanut butter or black jeans and a jumper - hearing Elis James and John Robins on their Radio X podcast is enormously comforting to me. Knowing that despite whatever else is going on in the world that I'm guaranteed to hear a game of Potato Potato, an anecdote about Wales/Miners/Communists/or being shot at on a bus from Elis and another Queen/Oxford fact from John makes me feel like I'm wrapped up in a small protective cocoon of badinage.

I first began listening to EJ + JR when I was graduating from University, starting a new job and moving to a new city. A lot was happening, but I knew every Saturday (or Sunday in the early days) that before it was time to get into bed there would be a new podcast to listen to.

John’s Partridge-esq turn of phrase and honesty about his ongoing dealings with ‘the darkness’ made him feel instantly familiar and warm. Rarely do you find someone who is so open and honest about their mental state – that includes both men and women. I think many of us have dealt with/are dealing with some form of ‘darkness’, not depression necessarily but rather just a feeling of ‘meh’. John’s blunt honesty when asked how he is feeling by Elis at the top of the show acted as, for me at least, permission to answer honestly when it comes to the way I was and am feeling. The fact that mental health chat is sandwiched between an Oasis and Foo Fighters track normalises it. Robins has even brought shame to the forefront of popular culture with the very funny and sometimes toe-curling feature ‘John’s Shame Well’.

Despite broadcasting on commercial indie radio with the likes of Chris Moyles and Johnny Vaughan, Elis and John do not hold back on discussing topics that they are genuinely interested in/ obsessed with. I can’t think of any other programme or station where a Liam Gallagher song is followed by a discussion on communism, Queen, bushcraft, Welsh football and an anecdote about eating a bag of Space Raiders while sat on a toilet. This I love.

Elis’ use of the Welsh language on the podcast in features such as ‘Welsh Word of the Week’ is more than just a funny 3 minutes of radio. I am a first language Welsh speaker and am, like most, exhausted by articles and opinion pieces written more often than not by non-Welsh speakers about how terrible/irrelevant/silly our language is. Seeing Elis use his first language in a way that shows how it is popularly used by many people in Wales, including young people, is doing so much for the language’s image. Rather than male voice choirs and Eisteddfodites, Elis promotes the language through his love for Gorky Zygotic Mynci and Super Furry Animals. He shows that it’s a language that can discuss cool music, football, politics and a language that has a ridiculous amount of words and phrases for rain and a word for something that is ‘un-chip like’.

My brother and I have been to see both Elis and John’s individual stand-up shows many times although I only managed to see ‘The Darkness of Robins’ while it was a work in progress in Machynlleth Comedy Festival (my brother and many of our friends have said that it is the best stand up show they have ever seen). We’ve also seen a few shows with both Elis and John together and they are always great, 

Last week the pair released their first book, the fantastically named ‘The Holy Vible’. Currently, at time of writing, I am over 60% through the audio book and I’ve got to say it is superb. From chapters on Ronnie O’Sullivan, Carmarthen, How to be Normal and Queen, the book highlights the genuine love and friendship shared between both comedians as well as being very funny.

Having been to their book tour show on Wednesday night at the Glee Club in Cardiff with someone who has never listened to the podcast before I can safely say that the book is accessible to those who have yet to taste the podcast vibe. So there is nothing stoping anyone from jumping on the vibe train (except maybe for the guy who thought Elis' voice was gross and the other guy who thought their radio show was narcissistic as they spoke about themseslves between songs. Maybe they won't want to join the vibe). 

L x  

The Sunday Lunch.

It’s something many of us in Britain have grown up accustomed to. Every Sunday, usually around 3pm in our house, we’d sit down at the dining table and munch our way through some sort of meat, and all the veg and stuffing you could dream of.

Since my brother and I moved away from home this doesn’t really happen anymore. I am ashamed to say that I have yet to cook myself a Sunday roast despite loving hosting friends for dinner. I would much rather cook a Musaka or any other big one pot meal.  To me, having watched my parents (ok, let’s be honest, my mum) cook Sunday Lunch for years, it all seems like a lot of pots and pans and gravy spillages and after all that you’re left with a kitchen full of washing up – which is the last thing you want to be doing with a belly full of potatoes.

Although, please don’t take this as me dissing the Sunday lunch. I am certainly a fan. It’s just, well, it’s just a little bit intimidating isn’t it.

On the two occasions that I’ve bought a chicken to roast myself I have been so scared that I haven’t cooked the bird thoroughly that it stays in the fridge before migrating to the bin without coming near a plate or a set of knives and forks (I hate food waste – this very rarely happens in my house). So, on the sound advice of my mother, I tend to stick to the already-cooked rotisserie chicken from Morrisons these days.

I like to think that I’m a pretty decent time keeper. I wake up early, like to be early for work, meetings, social occasions and I tend to go to bed at the same time every night. However, the thought of keeping tabs on the timings of a hob full of saucepans each with different veg cooking away at varying speeds stresses me out.

One of these days I will pluck up the courage and, maybe even more essential, the patience to cook my very own Sunday roast but until then whenever I get the urge for a comforting plate of Sunday lunch you’ll find me at Bully’s restaurant in Canton, Cardiff.

Before I tell you about the most delicious roasts I have ever eaten I want to talk about the décor of this restaurant. 

Over the last year or so I have become obsessed with maximalist interiors and often spend an evening pinning images of colourful rooms to my ever expanding Pinterest boards. So, to my delight, Bully’s is a maximalist’s dream. Blue walls are covered with mirrors, photos, prints and all types of lovely nick nacks. Tables are accompanied by mix and match chairs of different textures and colours.

Anyway – back to the food.

I can’t tell you how many disappointing roasts I’ve had out over the years. I think because the Sunday roast is something many of us make at home, when it comes to paying a premium at a restaurant we want it to me something outstanding, something that would be very difficult to replicate at home.

The Bully’s Beef dinner with Yorkshire pudding, greens, roast potatoes and red wine gravy is certainly a meal that I don’t think in a million years I could replicate in my little kitchen. The meat was cooked beautifully – pink but not too pink. The potatoes were just right and the Yorkshire was a fluffy batter ball of dreams. The piece de resistance however was the red wine gravy - a deep red river of flavour. 

Oh, gosh it was tasty. 

Love, 

Lisa 

Intro.

Hi,

Let me introduce myself. My name is Lisa and I’m a 24-year-old Junior Assistant Producer living in Cardiff and working in sports broadcasting. Most weekends you can find me sat in a truck outside a rugby stadium somewhere or, admittedly less often, eating delicious food and drinking lush coffee/wine around Cardiff.  Or, actually, you might find me in HomeSense, Ikea or Asda trying to find cheap – but cool – stuff for my house.

This blog will indulge my love of reading, eating, cooking and interior decorating. I’ll take you to some of my favorite places in Cardiff to eat and drink and share my thoughts on some of the great and not so great books I’ve been reading as a way of hopefully starting a conversation as well as showing you a way of decorating on the cheap! 

I'm using this blog as a way of further exploring my interests and as a personal creative outlet seperate to my day to day work. I hope you find something of interest on here! Enjoy and thanks!

Love,
Lisa