becbec.uk West Midlands Lifestyle Blog

I have reviewed a number of podcasts on my blog before (they make the time go by so quickly) and today I am back with four more that I have recently been listening to. Eye of the storm This podcast by BBC 5live is presented by Emma Barnett and each week she interviews a person who found themselves at the centre of a news story and how their life has changed. The episodes are about half an hour in length and I have listened to a few now and I have to say the interviewers (I have listened to…

My experience with being diagnosed with a 25cm + ovarian cyst

View weeks 1,2,3,4,5,6,8, 9 and 10. Well my blog writing has been all over the place recently in regards to the Bournemouth Marathon. To be honest I have so much going on recently and running is taking up so much of my free time. I can see the end is in sight so I am just holding on now! This week I have been on my holibobs in Gran Canaria. It is my first time on the island but not my first time in the Canary Isles as I went to Lanzarote nine years ago! As expected it was hot so although I…

A little while ago now I borrowed a book from my friend called The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. I loved it so much that I went out and brought Tuesday’s with Morrie and devoured that book in about two days, so I thought it made sense to review them both. The five people you meet in heaven The five people in heaven tells the story of fairground maintenance man Eddie. Eddie has just been killed saving a girl after a ride at the ground broke down. Eddie suddenly finds himself…

I listen to a lot of podcasts as highlighted in my Four must listen to podcasts and Four podcasts to listen to blog posts. Especially now since my commute is longer and I am starting to listen to podcasts on my run. I have am back with four more podcasts. What I Wish I Had Known I follow Jo (Lobella Loves) a mental health advocate on Instagram and when she wrote a post about a podcast episode she had recorded with Jonny Benjamin MBE (a mental health campaigner who launched a twitter campaign…

I am a big believer in Parkrun. For those of you that may not have heard of Parkrun it is a run that happens in parks all over the world every Saturday at 9am. People from all walks of life and all levels of fitness come together and run 5k, you have a bar code which you have to get scanned at the end, this is to record your run but you also get a plastic barcode which is also scanned to record the position you finished with. It isn’t a race, I mean someone has to come first (and last) but…

Say whattt, a vlog?! To be honest I will probably never do a vlog again, however I thought to gradually improve my video editing skills I need to edit more videos and after writing a lot of race recaps recently why not talk about the Birmingham 10k instead! In my vlog I cover my thoughts before and after the race and what was in my race pack. Although I forgot to include that my race pack also included a coupon for Compeed blister pads and a free swim in the Aston Uni swimming pool!

Recently I ran the Hackney Half, in London. The run was organised by Virgin Sport. I decided to run this race because my friend asked me (well she gave me the options of the Hackney Half or Manchester Half and as I had already ran the Manchester 10k a couple of years back. I decided to run Hackney as something different and it was the only race in London I would probably ever do). I was given my race pack about a couple of weeks before the day. It contained the usual number, letter with…

Year of publish – 2018Publisher – Tinder PressNumber of pages- 404 The Immortalists follows the journey of the Gold family; siblings Daniel, Simon, Varya and Klara who live in New York in the hot summer of 1969. The siblings visit a fortune teller that tells them each when they are going to die and if they are going to have a good life or not. The information that each sibling receives starts a chain of events where the reader is taken on a journey through each family member’s life. As a…

My first two weeks of April as well as being my birthday (yay!) started with two races. My first was the Lincoln 10k. I had my eyes on the Lincoln 10k for a while. I am from Lincolnshire and a proud yellowbelly, and having missed the race last year it was on my list for this year. The race route was flat and the weather conditions were really good, I was aiming for a PB in the 10k (under an hour). The route started from North Lincoln, it was essentially a run around the Ermine Estate and was…

Race deets:Date: Sunday 17th MarchLocation: Stafford, Staffordshire, EnglandMy time: 2hr 15 minutesOrganiser: Freeform Leisure and Stafford Borough Council This time last year I had sold my Stafford Half bib. After running the 10k in 2017 I really wanted to ‘complete the Stafford series’ and get the half medal. But after snow moved the date and me being plagued with a chest infection for a lot of last year, I wasn’t fit enough to run it. This year I was determined to run the half and even…

My reading material recently seems to be full of borrowed crime novels (my latest book reviews of The Darkness, and HeadHunters) and this is another! This is how it ends was really popular around the summer of last year and was The Times Crime Book of the month and Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month and had rave reviews. I saw it in Tesco, quite a few times but didn’t get round to purchasing the book. So when my friend recommended the book, I added it to the pile. The story starts with a…

Me and my friend have a constant book swap going on and one book that landed in my lap was Headhunters by Jo Nesbo. In fact it wasn’t the first time I had come across Jo Nesbo. My Mum gave me a load of his books and I have heard that he is really good before but I stupidly gave them back to her without reading one! Headhunters is about the story of Roger, the self proclaimed best Headhunter in Norway. We learn he is successful due to him employing FBI interrogation techniques on the people…

World War Two literature (both fiction and non-fiction) I really enjoy reading. I got Home Front Girls from the free bookshelf at the local gym so was really excited to get stuck in. Home Front Girls tells the story of three women, all who have lived completely different lives meet after taking roles at OwenOwen a department store in Coventry. Dotty, a woman who has spent all of her life living in an orphanage and at the age of 18 has moved into a flat on her own and is standing on her own…

“Thespending money was gifted by Hotels.com, but all views are my own.” On Saturday, I jumped at the chance to see what Britain’s second city has to offer. Getting off the train at New Street, I wanted some breakfast so wandered over to Boston Tea Party, situated on Corporation Street. Boston Tea Party recently introduced no single use cups in their cafe and use ethically sourced ingredients where ever possible. I was eating in and decided on the Sweetcorn hash, a vegetarian breakfast meal…