Whether you love traditional lemon and sugar or you want to have some fun with new ideas for the kids, here’s what we’ll be stocking up on this weekend in preparation for our favourite foodie holiday…

A squeeze of lemon or orange
Cut a lemon in half and squeeze it over your pancakes for a traditional Shrove Tuesday treat, or use orange if you fancy a change.

Blueberries, strawberries or bananas
Stay healthy with some fruit and a little bit of sugar on top. We’ll be trying this for breakfast on Tuesday!

Chocolate spread and nuts
The nuts in this recipe make it a really satisfying snack — one that might come in handy after a long day playing bingo, perhaps?

Honey, golden syrup or toffee sauce
If you’ve got a serious sweet tooth like us, you’ll love adding some syrup to your pancakes. Or why not try adding toffee sauce for something different? You could even add bananas to it to make banoffee pancakes!

Ice-cream, whipped cream or marshmallows
An extra-special treat for the kids. Serve your pancakes warm and the ice-cream will melt — yummy!

Mini Pancake Hotdogs
If your kids are sweet enough, or you’re looking for something completely different, here’s a quick recipe for savoury mini pancake hot dogs! We think it could work — let us know if you try this one!

Hope you all have a great Pancake Day – happy flipping!

Violet’s 328 party guests at Mecca Swansea were treated to a glass of bubbly at the Club’s entrance and when Violet came into the main auditorium she was greeted by a sing-song from all the Club’s team members.

Nicola Roberts, Mecca Swansea’s Operations Manager, said: “We decorated Violet’s  favourite table with balloons, bubbly, chocolates and banners. She was thrilled that we’d done all this just for her. Her daughter who came with her couldn’t believe the effort gone into her mum’s special day.”

“The atmosphere was brilliant as all the members love Violet, as do the team!”

Violet said: “I felt like the Queen! The club made my birthday so special, all the team are wonderful here!”

Happy Birthday Violet, from everybody at Meccabingo.com!

Between Friday 25th and Monday 28th May, we’re taking 10 Mecca lovelies (plus one guest each) to Weston-Super-Mare and we want YOU to be one of them!

The weekend will be full of fun, entertainment and of course, bingo! You and a friend will enjoy:

• Mecca Magic Night with pink bubbly reception and an evening full of fantastic entertainment
• Exclusive Sunday session at Mecca Taunton with last house paying out £1,000
• Coach transfers from your local Mecca Club to Sand Bay
• 3 nights half-board en-suite chalet accommodation at the adults-only Sand Bay Leisure Resort
• Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening meal
• Saturday, Sunday and Monday breakfast
• Daytime entertainment or optional day trips

To enter this fab competition, just come up with a caption to the picture below and write it in the comments before 1st March. Please note that all our comments have to be moderated, so your entry might take up to 48 hours to appear.

We’ll judge the best 10 entries on the 2nd March and let you know if you’ve won!

This cutie is enjoying a day at the beach. Can you come up with a caption to his photo? (Thanks to Beadmobile on Flickr for the use of this photo)

Good luck — we hope you can join us on our Mecca Magic Weekend!

Terms and Conditions:

This promotion is open to customers registered at Meccabingo.com, Meccagames.com and Bluesq.com only. To take part in this promotion, customers must post their entry in the comments section of this page by 23:59:59 on Thursday, 1st March 2012. Mecca reserves the right to  remove any submissions that are deemed inappropriate or offensive. All comments are moderated and will be screened before they appear on this page. Mecca reserves the right to pick the winner of the promotion. All entrants agree for their submissions and name to be used in publicity. We reserve the right to reclaim the prize awarded if customers are found to be tampering with or abusing any aspect of this promotion, as solely determined by Mecca Bingo. In such instances, Mecca Bingo will terminate the player’s eligibility to participate in the promotion. Mecca Bingo reserves the right to cancel, reclaim or refuse this promotion at its own discretion. This promotion is subject to our official terms and conditions, which shall be binding in all cases. Acceptance of a prize constitutes permission for Mecca Bingo to use winner’s name for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation unless prohibited by law. Over 18s only. The prize is as stated and no cash alternatives will be provided.

We can now announce that the lucky winner of £100 Mecca Gift Vouchers is Lucy Jacobs! Lucy wins £100 worth of Mecca Gift Vouchers, which can be used in any of our Clubs or online at Meccabingo.com, for winning us over with this romantic tale:

Where to start lol I dabbled a little in text dating 8 years ago and one profile kept catching my eye!!! Loving man wants to share his little flat with blue sofas and lovely fish tank!!! U must like music, good wine and chatting all night under candlelight!!! How could I resist? Postie Exeter was his catch name and one of my oldest and dearest mates is a Postie so yep he got me.

A meeting was arranged and a blind date followed. What started off as a potentially quick drink ended as a 4 hour heart to heart and only 2 drinks!!!! Then followed a whirlwind week which was amazing. I then went on a girls holiday to Tenerife…….. Booked before I met him…….. Where I pined and missed him dreadfully!!! A £800 mobile bill was to follow. Arggghhhhhh!!!!

When we about an hour from landing at Exeter airport on return there was an announcement over the tannoy for a mrs Anstead…….my name at the time…… To go into the main arrivals lounge after getting my luggage as an important message awaited me!! I actually got very anxious and worried as I thought something had happened to my children .

Anyway we landed, I got my luggage and off I ran with my friends running on my trail!!! In the arrivals we went and there looking amazing was my future hubby suited and booted, roses in hand, on one knee infront of the whole crowd and he proposed to me! !!!!! There was music and Exeter staff cheering us on and then followed the air crew and pilot with champagne and congratulations!!!! They all knew!!!! It was totally amazing like one of those t mobile ads!!!!!

Happy valentines day everyone!!! We have been together 7 years now and we still love airports lol x x x x

Congratulations Lucy,  and Happy Valentine’s Day to all our Mecca lovelies!

1. I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston
2. Hero by Enrique Iglesias
3. As Long As You Love Me by Backstreet Boys
4. Everything I Do (I Do It For You) by Brian Adams
5. Someone Like You by Adele
6. Stay Another Day by East 17
7. Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers
8. Can You Feel the Love Tonight? by Elton John
9. When A Man Loves A Woman by Percy Sledge
10. Always by Bon Jovi

Which love songs will you and your sweetheart be listening to this Valentine’s Day?

Lots of you have already got in touch with us to tell us what you’ve been winning, including Jessica who won an iPad 2! Here’s what she had to say about her win…

“When I’m not at my local bingo club you can usually find me online, gaming, working or of course playing bingo online!

“Online bingo is great – being able to sit in the comfort of your own house, with a cup of tea, glass of wine or whatever your choice of refreshment may be is just awesome. Not only that but you also get to be part of a fantastic community with some lovely people who are all waiting for the same thing…1TG!

“At the end of last month I received an email from Mecca informing me of their latest promotion. The promotion was called ‘Everyone’s A Winner’, it was simple, all I needed to do was play bingo (well I was already doing that), spend £1 in one day and then claim my free gift. The gifts ranged from 50p vouchers, Alton Tower tickets right up to an iPad 2!

“I claimed a free gift over 9 days and my prizes over those days included four 50p vouchers and five £1 vouchers. I thought these were great, you can’t complain at being giving free bonus funds no matter what the value.

“This leads me to day 10, the 7th February; I had around £10 left in my account and played a couple of games throughout the day, forgetting at lunch to check my free gift. It was only after my tea when my Mum reminded me to claim my free gift, I logged on and hit the ‘Claim My Gift’ button. I walked away letting it load and when I came back I had to do a double take, for there on my screen as clear as day it said the words ‘Congratulations you have won an Apple iPad 2 16GB’!

“I think about moments like this, about what I would do if I ever won something as large as this, I always thought I would keep calm and sneakily tell my family to see if they believed me or not. Unfortunately all those thoughts went out the window; I simply screamed and ran around the house doing a silly dance!

“I just want to say a big thank you to Mecca Bingo for running this promotion and good luck to everyone else! You might think you’re never going to win but keep at it as you’ll be surprised! ”

Thanks so much to Jessica for telling us all about her fantastic win! You can read her blog at http://falsecall.blogspot.com.

What have you claimed in Everyone’s A Winner? Let us know in the comments!

Have you got a romantic engagement story to tell? Did you get engaged in the most unlikely of places, or were you whisked off somewhere exotic? Was the date special for you both? Or did you take matters into your own hands and pop the question yourself?

Whatever your proposal story involves, we want to hear it – the more romantic the better!

Post your story in the comments section below by 13th February and we’ll award the most romantic one with £100 of Mecca Gift Vouchers! And don’t forget to include your username and email address so we can let you know if you win (don’t worry, your email address won’t appear on the site).

Adam King and Lucy Rogers

To get you in the mood for a bit of Valentine’s romance, here are a few of our favourites!

Adam King and Lucy Rogers

The future Mr and Mrs King became YouTube sensations in November after Adam hired a choir to break into a rendition of Lovely Day on a train from Euston to Watford. 90 seconds in, Adam got down on one knee and asked Lucy to marry him. To the relief of the choir, the other passengers and most of all Adam, she said yes!

Holly Valance and Nick Candy

Clearly not one for mincing his words, property tycoon Nick had ‘WILL YOU MARRY ME’ written in fire as he got down on one knee and proposed. Holly then announced her news to over 118,000 Twitter followers, tweeting, ‘And I said YES!!! <3 Happiest day of my life!!!!! Xxxx’.

Kate Middleton and Prince William

William asked Kate to be his wife (and his future Queen) during a break in Kenya. William kept the £250,000 18-carat ring, which belonged to his late mother Diana, in his backpack for 3 weeks before he finally proposed.

After announcing the news to the waiting press, the Prince joked: ‘everywhere I went I was keeping hold of it because I knew this thing, if it disappeared I would be in a lot of trouble’. And as we all know, luckily everything went to plan!

Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman

To make sure his future wife knew just how much he wanted to marry her, Jordan filled a hotel room with rose petals and gift boxes for Christina to open, each with a present and poem inside. When Christina opened the last box, she found an engagement ring and Jordan got down on one knee. And how could she refuse him?

Think your own engagement beats our stories above? Let us know in the comments below for the chance to win £100 in Mecca Gift Vouchers!

Terms and Conditions:

This promotion is open to customers registered at Meccabingo.com, Meccagames.com and Bluesq.com only. To take part in this promotion, customers must post their entry in the comments section of this page by 23:59:59 on Monday, 13th February 2012. Mecca reserves the right to  remove any submissions that are deemed inappropriate or offensive. All comments are moderated and will be screened before they appear on this page. Mecca reserves the right to pick the winner of the promotion. All entrants agree for their submissions and name to be used in publicity. We reserve the right to reclaim the prize awarded if customers are found to be tampering with or abusing any aspect of this promotion, as solely determined by Mecca Bingo. In such instances, Mecca Bingo will terminate the player’s eligibility to participate in the promotion. Mecca Bingo reserves the right to cancel, reclaim or refuse this promotion at its own discretion. This promotion is subject to our official terms and conditions, which shall be binding in all cases. Acceptance of a prize constitutes permission for Mecca Bingo to use winner’s name for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation unless prohibited by law. Over 18s only. The prize is as stated and no cash alternatives will be provided.

Auditions are Monday 6th, Tuesday 7th and Wednesday 8th February 2012.

We have 20 pairs of tickets to give away and all you have to do is email us at community@meccabingo.com , with your Full Name, Mecca Username or Membership Number, contact number by 23:59:59 2nd February 2012 to enter the prize draw to win a pair of tickets.

Terms and Conditions

The prize draw will take place on 3rd February 2012  where 10 winners will be picked at random.

The prize draw will take place on 3rd February 2012  at 8:30 where 10 winners will be picked at random. Winners will be called on the number provided. If the winner cannot be contacted within 1 hour a new winner will be chosen at random.

The prize is a pair tickets for the London Britain’s Got Talent Auditions on either 6th, 7th or 8th February 2012 We may not be able to offer a choice of times and/or dates

The prize is non-transferable and no cash alternative is available.

If the winner cannot be contacted a new winner will be chosen at random.

All guests at the Britain’s Got Talent Auditions must be over 16.

Third party T&Cs/ Ticket disclaimer may apply.

ID may be required.

The promoter of this draw is Mecca Bingo. Registered address: Rank Interactive, 89-95 St Paul’s Road, Highbury, N1 2NA.

No travel expenses are included.

When arriving in the town centre I was taken aback at just how many people there were, the queues to get in were enormous, it was raining and I hadn’t yet picked up my ticket (not a great start). After finding one of BGT’s staff I was given my tickets along with my wristband – it looked like I wasn’t going to have to join the general public queue after all as we were considered ‘sponsorship guests’!

We got taken into the theatre, making our way through the centre of the crowd with everyone looking at us. I totally felt like a VIP then! The seats we had were brilliant as we were sat in the stalls and had a brilliant view of the stage and judges desk. The show finally began with Ant & Dec coming on to the stage to introduce the judges and to our surprise they came down our aisle meaning we were within inches of David Walliams, Alesha Dixon and Simon Cowell.

Overall the auditions were fab, from pole dancers and singers right through to dodgy magicians and poetry reading! It’s a night I won’t forget and was very interested to see what goes on during the breaks between each act. When you watch it on TV you don’t realise how long it can take between acts or just how long the judges can ramble on for – it’s all very clever editing!

I laughed, cheered, danced and cringed. What more could you ask for?! A big thanks again to Mecca Bingo for running the competition!

On the re-launch night the club also held its very first Rock and Roll Bingo session which went down a treat. The party music had everyone dancing with their dabbers while marking off song clips.

General Manager Barry Lyons said: “What a great night! It was by far the best Saturday evening we have had in Romford for years and in my 11 years with the company, I have never seen my team and customers as happy as they were on that night!”

Mecca Bingo Romford has recently been given a make-over which includes new lighting, revamped toilets and a fresh look for the main auditorium. There’s also a new menu, with everything from marvellous mains to decadent desserts and a range of light meals.

You can view bingo game times, prices and directions for Mecca Romford here.