KATIE BULMER-COOKE: My family keeps me down to earth

Up until last Monday morning I thought it was only going to be shown on Made in Tyne and Wear, but then I got an email saying it was going to be shown across the Made TV network, meaning Leeds, Cardiff, and Bristol! So, it’s fair to say my nerves doubled.

I started watching it with Simon and for the first five minutes I kept saying, ‘turn it off, turn it off’. I can’t stand watching myself. I was cringing for England.

But then I started to get tweets, messages and Facebook comments that were so lovely and it made me relax a lot more.

After the show I rang my dad to find out what he thought of the show. He said ‘yes it was good, you are good at presenting it, but I only watched the first half’.

So I was like, ‘ah, ok Dad, so why didn’t you watch it all? Did you not like it?’.

He said ‘well I’m not into all this talking about weddings carry on, so I just watched something else’.

So for anyone that might think that any of the events of the last year, like The Apprentice or the other shows I’ve done may have gone to my head, I can assure you that, as this conversation with my dad demonstrates, I have my feet firmly kept on the ground by my nearest and dearest.

Oh, and he followed that with ‘I only watched The Apprentice because you were on it. I wasn’t really a fan of that show’. Hilarious. I love my dad and his honesty.

And it wasn’t only my dad who didn’t stroke my ego either, my mam watched it four hours later on catch up and my little girl Heidi chose to watch the Disney channel instead, even though I told her she could stay up an extra hour if she wanted to watch it. So it’s fair to say I’ll never get above my station!

This week I’ve been working in Jersey, consulting for a health club, and wow, it was a health club and a half.

It had the most amazing facilities, so high-end and top service. I was working with its staff and personal trainers and on the first night I delivered a talk to its members on motivation and lifestyle.

The members were so lovely and it turns out they love the Mackem accent too.

I sometimes get a bit self conscious when I work away from home and I’m the only person that sounds like me in a room full of voices that sound the same as each other, but it turns out I had nothing to worry about. Perhaps I should have taken my Mackem dictionary too.

I loved Jersey. It’s a beautiful place and I wish I could have stayed longer and had a chance to look around more.

I did, however, get to see some of the sights in the drive to and from the airport and on the way to do an interview at BBC Jersey.

The seafront there is gorgeous but I still don’t think you can beat good old Roker, Seaburn and Whitburn. I’m Sunderland through and through.