And everyone's buying bicycles

Leeds and the rest of Yorkshire is awash with yellow at the moment. The Tour de France is starting here tomorrow and heading around this beautiful County before heading down to London and over to France where the real action starts. I've been brought up watching the Tour as my Dad's a bit of a cycling fanatic but its always been one of those things that has mostly passed me by (my main memory of it whilst growing up was that the constant cycling on the telly throughout July getting in the way of me watching Saved By The Bell..). 

This year's a little different though. Seeing Leeds being given a bit of special treatment and having lots of cycling themed things popping up all around the city centre has made me far more excited about the whole thing than I would be when its just on the tv. I love big events that brings loads of visitors to your hometown... it makes you appreciate how awesome it is when you see the crowds of visitors enjoying themselves! 

Last night, there was a parade through the city centre ahead of the Opening Ceremony at the arena. We got let out of work ridiculously early to avoid the road closures (these really weren't going to affect me given that I walk home from work but who am I to pass up a 3pm finish?!) so I got there nice and early to save myself a space right at the barriers for when the teams headed past. The atmosphere was brilliant and it was great to see lots of the cyclists up close- they were clearly loving all the attention the Leeds locals were giving them!

It was a brilliant opportunity to take lots of snaps- I'm glad I thought ahead enough to take my camera to work with me that morning! I've been instructed by Papa T to take as many photos as I can over the weekend as my Mum 'accidentally' booked their holiday right over this weekend which meant he couldn't come over to see it all himself. I'm secretly trying my luck with a photo competition that Yorkshire Building Society are running as I think if I won the prize so my Dad could go and see the final moments of the Tour when it gets to Paris later this month it would make up for the fact that its his grumpy daughter, who would have much rather watched Nickelodeon than cycling, who's getting to take pictures of it all instead of him! 

Bicycles- The Maccabees

(This isn't a sponsored post, however I did get told about the competition and since I was planning on taking loads of photos this weekend anyway it seemed like the perfect thing to get involved with!)

I want someone to be, and someone to drive around town

Whew, this feels strange. I've been stuck in the dark ages for the last few weeks as my faithful old laptop decided to throw a paddy and corrupt the entire hard-drive. I finally had to give in and buy myself a shiny new laptop this week and so after hours in PC world discussing the pros and cons of different models with the salesman (which ended in me just saying "look, I want this one because its purple") I'm back in the 21st century and back in blogland. Hooray.

This weekend, I had a lovely visit from one of my favourites. She brought her car down to Leeds so that we could do something other than spend the day in Topshop (aforementioned new laptop has ruled out shopping from my life until payday rolls around). We ended up in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park since it was a lovely, warm day. I'd been there once before with Mama and Papa T and really enjoyed having something interesting to look at other than a view as we wandered around so thought it'd be the perfect place to head to for a picnic and a bit of fresh air. 

Here's a few snaps of some of our favourite sculptures, we had a lot of fun pretending to be trendy art students trying to make ourselves seem knowledgeable and artsy to the people walking past.

We followed our trip to the Sculpture Park with a night out in Leeds which accidentally turned into an evening of watching the England game as even the most unsporty bars had big screens up. It was surprisingly fun, mostly because none of us had our glasses on so we spent the first 20 minutes or so convinced that we were a goal up... whoops.

Around Town- The Kooks

(Anyone else feel really nostalgic about The Kooks having re-emerged? I feel like I'm 15 again!)

Wisdom's a gift but you'd trade it for youth

Mama and Papa T came to Leeds for a little visit this weekend in honour of my new found oldness. As per, we didn't actually spend much time in Leeds at all, instead using their trip as an excuse to get out and explore the beautiful places in Yorkshire that I don't normally get to visit due to my lack of a four wheeled vehicle to call my own.

This time, we took a trip over to the other side of West Yorkshire to Haworth. I've been to Haworth once before and thought it'd be the perfect parent friendly sort of place to visit. Lots of steam trains to keep my Dad amused, a lovely, quaint village feel to keep my Mum happy, and an abundance of cafes to keep us all happy (we do have a tendency to pick our days out based upon whether we'll be able to get a good slice of cake out of it...). 

Haworth gets a lot of visitors for two main reasons, firstly its where the Bronte sisters lived so there's lots of literary heritage to geek out on, and secondly the railway line has a lot of Railway Children links as the film was based around Haworth and Oakworth stations. My Dad tried to get me to recreate that scene from the film where the eldest daughter sees her father appear through the steam on the platform and shouts "MY DADDY" when a train arrived on the platform at Oakworth. Funnily enough I decided against it given that there were three carriages full of train enthusiasts sat poised with their cameras facing the platform we were stood on. 

Other than that little trip out of the city, I've mostly spent this weekend watching Breaking Bad. I signed up to Netflix the other day but must have missed the warning that I was signing my life away in the process. Its a good job my parents came over or else I probably wouldn't have moved away from my laptop screen all weekend!

Step- Vampire Weekend

Well I wish it could be Christmas everyday

After a busy day of Christmas shopping in York last Saturday, I wanted something a little calmer on Sunday. It was the first time my housemate and I had been around on a Sunday together and not been suffering from dramatic hangovers so we decided to take a little trip out of Leeds to Harrogate. One of the families I work with suggested a visit to Harrogate as last weekend was the Christmas Market, I'm so glad I listened to them as it was the perfect way to spend December 1st!

The market was huge and there was tonnes of food on offer (and oodles of cheese to sample... always a bonus as far as I'm concerned!). Plus, there were some reindeer outside Santa's grotto, you can't get more festive than that!

Although there were a lot of people around, it didn't feel hectic or busy like most places do around this time of year, and even better, the town centre itself was blissfully calm (I've never seen a Primark like it- there were only two tills open on the womenswear floor and there still wasn't a queue... I know where I'm heading for my Primark sprees from now on!). 

I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday- Wizzard

If you had your gun, would you shoot it at the sky?

My never ending mission to get to know Yorkshire better continued last weekend when my parents paid me a visit. My Dad's hatred of being dragged around shops by my Mum and I, coupled with the fact that their car opens up a lot more possibilities for adventures for me means that we always manage to find somewhere interesting to go where we can have a play with our DSLRs. Papa T is the person who got me interested in photography in the first place, so I always like to go on little photography outings with him so I can pick up a few hints and tips. Not sure my Mum enjoys this quite as much, she has to spend a lot of time standing around like a lemon whilst we snap away. At least there was plenty for her to look at while she waited for us last weekend as we took a trip to Fountains Abbey in Ripon and the place was flipping huge! Even on a freezing cold day there were tonnes of people around, it was a great place for a Sunday wander and we ended up spending almost all day there because there was so much to see!

I think the cold, wintery weather suited the atmosphere around the ruins of the Abbey- at least the perpetual winter we seem to be living in finally proved handy for something (but seriously weather, don't let that think its ok to stay like this forever... WE ALL WANT SPRING NOW THANKS). No photos of my face made it into this little lot today- the cold weather gives me a permanently grumpy expression as smiling doesn't really come at the top of my priority list when my ears falling off due to frostbite is starting to seem like a genuine possibility.

Laura Palmer- Bastille