If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, right?
My boyfriend is a big fan of Formula 1 racing and when I first found out (probably about ten minutes after I met him) I was pleased in a way that he wasn’t into football – a sport that might see him go off to matches every Saturday during the season – I was a bit dismayed when I learnt that races stretch right from March through to November – much longer than most sports seasons! The races are not every weekend, but often enough that we’ve had to have a media blackout if we were out for the day, so my boyfriend wouldn’t accidentally hear on the radio or see online who had won.
Formula 1 is growing on me and I have enjoyed watching the odd race, with my boyfriend explaining to me why a driver has chosen to take a pit stop when he has, why the rivalry between certain teams – or even drivers of the same team – is important, and whether he thinks Lewis Hamilton is better off not going out with Nicole Scherzinger (apparently some F1 fans believe that his driving is better when he isn’t potentially distracted by affairs of the heart).
But F1 really isn’t my thing, and I prefer to take the time to indulge in some baking or blogging while my boyfriend is watching the race. It occurred to me that there could be lots of people out there in the same position and that there was a fun way we could actually feel involved and share our partners’ hobby – so a new blog challenge is born! Proper Formula 1 fans are strongly encouraged to take part too – it doesn’t just have to be those of us left on the sidelines!
Called Formula 1 Foods, the idea of this challenge is to cook or prepare something from the country hosting the F1 race each time. Whether you want to make a snack that can be eaten in front of the TV, or a meal you can eat for dinner afterwards, or a breakfast dish for the races that are on early in the morning due to the time difference, your recipe can be sweet or savoury, but preferably somehow inspired by the host nation.
For anyone who doesn’t already have a list of F1 fixtures in their diary (I always make a point of it so I’m not caught out when my boyfriend says he wants to get up at 6am to watch the race in Japan!), here are the fixtures. The Saturday is the qualifying round and the Sunday the race itself, so feel free to post anything in the week leading up to the main race, and the blog challenge will close at midnight on the Sunday night, with the round-up to follow some time after. I will post round-ups of each challenge as and when I can – sometimes races are quite close together and other times there are several weeks in between.
Here are the fixtures; the link-up for the challenge is below.
March 14/15 – Australia
March 28/29- Malaysia
April 11/12 – China
April 18/19- Bahrain
May 9/10 – Spain
May 23/24 – Monaco
June 6/7- Canada
June 20/21 – Austria
July 4/5 – UK
July 25/26- Hungary
August 22/23 – Belgium
September 5/6 – Italy
September 19/20 – Singapore
September 26/27 – Japan
October 10/11 – Russia
October 24/25 – USA
Oct 31/Nov 1- Mexico
Nov 15/15 – Brazil
Nov 28/29- Abu Dhabi
The rules are simple:
You can use old posts if you add the badge; please add your entries to the link-up; tweet them to @Caroline_Makes and I will retweet all the ones I see. The deadline for each mini-challenge will be roughly a week long, depending on the date of the race and when the next one is. And that's about it!
The first challenge: Australia
I love the idea of this challenge. I can imaging that some will be tougher than others, I've no idea what a traditional dish would be for Bahrain or Monaco.
ReplyDeleteI can't promise to enter every time, but I'll try to do some of them - and I won't just be picking out the easy ones!
ReplyDeleteOoh I like this! My fiance is a Formula 1 addict and he often has a few friends round for the races - sometimes I stick around and do them food and always try to match the theme! Will keep this in mind!
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