TVL Moments That Connect Us - Coming Together And Sharing Family Memories #AD

**This post is a collaboration with TV Licensing (a trademark of the BBC), but all thoughts and experiences are my own.**

Most families sit down to watch TV together, and ours is no exception. Popping on the TV to watch a movie snuggled up on a weekend, teamed with snacks and drinks to hand, is one of our favourite weekend evening activities. While we have favourite movies and shows we enjoy, there are times when we enjoy coming together to watch live sport on TV.

BBC TV Licensing has asked me to share some of our family’s favourite memories of live TV as part of their “TVL Moments That Connect Us Campaign”, showing how friends and families can connect either through a love of football, rooting for the winner in a reality TV show or hosting a Eurovision song contest party while all viewing together, the list is endless, and in my opinion, anything which brings friends and family together is a great thing – well, until your football team loses that is!

2012 Olympics

Living where I do, I can’t fail to mention the 2012 Olympics as a key moment, as that saw the opening of the Lee Valley White Water Centre, only a 15-minute walk away from our house. While the children are too young to remember much of the Olympics, Emmy was fixated on watching the Canoeing events on the TV with me. After that, we visited the centre to walk around and watch from the sidelines, which cemented a love of canoeing, paddle boarding, and rafting for both Emmy and Harry.

They have tried Paddle Boarding and Kayaking at the centre and we enjoy heading over to watch others taking part in this sport. It’s a lovely way to spend an afternoon as you can walk around the course, or even sit up on the viewing platform enjoying a drink or food.

Taking this love of water sports further they often have events with their scouts troop where they participate in lots of water activities, such as building their rafts and sailing them, kayaking, paddle boarding and even jumping into the canal trying to jump onto boards. They have the best time in the water and it all stemmed from having this centre on our doorstep.

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A post shared by Clare Nicholas – UK Blogger (@clarenicholasuk_)

ICF Canoe World Championships

It is the children’s scout troop that brings me to our next memory, one that involves me being a super proud Mum and one that the children will remember and treasure for a very long time, because it isn’t every single day that you can take part as flag bearers for the opening ceremony of the ICF Canoe World Championships is it?

That is just what they both did on the 17th of September 2023. These championships were held at the white rafting centre and our town held the opening ceremony to welcome the athletes from all over the world. As part of the scouts, Emmy and Harry had the great honour of escorting the athletes in a parade through the town, chatting with them and celebrating with them in a big event.

They led the teams through the parade with the streets lined with spectators, then took over the flags in The Abbey Gardens where everyone was introduced and a big party followed.

After being part of the opening ceremony, we watched the actual championships together as a family, which were live-streamed over YouTube. Emmy cheered on the Italy team, and Harry rooted for those from the Cook Islands, as he escorted them through the parade. Of course, I had to root for our Great British team.

We have become invested in their progress ever since and followed all the Canoe events in the Paris Olympics, and the 2024 ICF Canoe Slalom World Cup has just taken place.

1998 FIFA World Cup Quarter Finals

Reading this post, you would think all we watch is water sporting events, but that is far from the truth. I was only recently retelling the children a story of when I was in my late teens and had been in a very busy pub with all my friends watching the 1998 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals, where England played against Argentina.

I told them of David Beckham being sent off during the game and about the penalty shootouts, and of how when my Dad called to ask when I would be home, I told him “Soon, I’m just dancing in the Old Pond”, he assumed I meant I was dancing in The Old Pond in Cheshunt, as in on the street, however, as he later found out I actually meant I was at that location BUT inside the pond itself dancing and partying. The children found this hilarious and now can’t walk past that spot without crying with laughter.

I’m just grateful it was before the times of smartphones – yes, I am that old where my first mobile phone could only make calls and send texts, older than Google itself, which baffles Emmy and Harry, and back when the internet had to be plugged into the home phone when TV’s had the basic channels and programmes couldn’t be rewound or paused.

Your TV Licence lets you enjoy a huge range of live TV. It covers you for:

All TV channels, like BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Dave and international channels – but you don’t need a licence if you only watch non-BBC channels on-demand

Pay TV services, like Sky, Virgin Media, and BT – but these are platforms that could have both live and on-demand services
Live TV on streaming services, like YouTube and Amazon Prime Video