Kathy Tayler's probably best known for her years as reporter on the BBC Holiday programme and TVam. What you might not know is that she began her career as an international sports star - she was the modern pentathlon world champion at just 19! These days Kathy has returned to what she loves best - TV presenting.

Read more about Kathy

Supporting team GB!

Hello again.

I've had another fantastic weekend!

On the Saturday of Bank Holiday weekend, the five of us (Olley, Bex, Charlie, Billy and me) plus Charlie's lovely girlfriend Hannah headed to the Olympic stadium. The British University Athletics Championships were being staged at the Olympic venue as a 'London Prepares' test event, to make sure that all the relevant wheels have been oiled and are running smoothly.  We managed to get some tickets for the real thing in August, but not for any athletics, so this was a chance to get a feel of what the summer will bring.

Hello again

Hello again,

You'll be thinking that all I ever do is gallivant off to various parts of the country for lovely walks and to eat, drink and be merry. In fact, you'd not be far wrong, as Olley and I have just spent the weekend in the Lake District staying with my brother Pete to help celebrate his 50th birthday. (Yes, it even comes to little brothers, eventually. He's the third of the four of us to get there.)

Happy Easter!

Hello All.

I hope you had a good Easter, and managed to do at least a little of what makes you happy. I took three days off work just before Easter, and enjoyed a few days in Cornwall with Olley and our lovely dog Barney.

It was the first time in years that we'd had so long away together on our own, and was planned around Billy going skiing for a week with the family of a school friend. I decided that as I would worry about him wherever I was, I may as well go somewhere nice to take my mind off the dangers of what he was doing without me.

Sharing the love!

When I was asked to write a blog sharing the secrets of my favourite things from QVC, I thought I’d have it wrapped up in minutes. But when it came to selecting which items, I found that there are so many it would take all week to write!

It’s been a real effort to whittle the list down to a manageable number, and I keep changing my mind as to what to leave out. Like most if not all the presenters, there is something from QVC in every room in my home, often many things – I’m sure lots of you could say the same.  But to give you an idea of some of my favourite things, here goes:

Hello, apres ski!

Hello everyone.

I hope you are all well and enjoying our progress towards longer, lighter days and warmer temperatures.

The winter can seem long and never-ending at this time of year, and I think it's because we have so many dull, dreary days.

I was lucky enough to enjoy a skiing holiday a couple of weeks ago and although it's obviously a cold holiday, if you are lucky with the weather and see blue skies and sunshine, there is no environment more uplifting and invigorating.

Hello all!

Hello again!

Before I start this blog properly, let me just tell everyone who bought the slow cooker today's special value a couple of weeks ago, and is interested in the recipe for the chocolate pudding that Simon made for us, it's in my last blog.

Also, some of you have asked for the rice pudding and porridge recipes which I have now posted as a comment  on that blog. Happy slow cooking!!

Simon's slow cooker chocolate fudge pudding

 

Hi Guys! 

As promised on this morning's Morning Show with Simon Brown and our amazing Today's Special Value slow cooker, here I am with his recipe for the delicious Chocolate Fudge Pudding that he delighted us with.

The savoury recipes are generally a simple case of brown the meat, add the other ingredients and let the slow cooker work its magic.

For this one though, it's worth having a recipe to follow, so here it is...

 

A new year, a new blog

I'm starting this blog on the last day of January, in an attempt to kid myself that I haven't completely failed to keep one of my New Year's resolutions. That was the one that read ‘I will blog’. So here I am, just not quite as early in January as I had hoped!

In fact, I don’t really do New Year resolutions, as they just seem to be another reason to beat myself up when things don’t go to plan. But I do have various strategies that I try to incorporate into my life to help everything tick along smoothly.

Christmas at the Olleys!

Hello all!

I hope you have enjoyed a wonderful Christmas, filled with peace and love, family and friends and, no doubt, rather too much food. If you have young children around you, you'll have enjoyed their excitement – I remember the noise levels when mine were little, Christmas through the eyes of youngsters is a wondrous but deafening thing!

With the youngest of the 14 people I fed on Christmas Day being Billy, at 16, the pace of the day was a little more sedate than a few years ago. I woke around 8am (several hours later than the alarm call of 'Santa's been!!! Can I open my presents?' used to be), took the turkey out of the fridge and took a cup of tea back to bed for an hour. Bliss!

Christmas: the time of giving!

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all managing to get organised for Christmas, and not succumbing to too much stress. I've taken a few of days off work recently to give myself shorter weeks, and have so far managed to avoid what seems to be an annual chest infection, which is usually complicated by my having asthma.  

Not waking to an alarm in the darkness quite so often has been a pleasure! And it's given me a chance to think a little about Christmas.