Nottingham and Astronautalis

My best friend messaged me late last year saying that Astronautalis was playing up in Derby would we like to go and see him live and spend the weekend with her and her wife. I said YES any excuse to go and spend time with them both! I was really looking forward to it, but I caught an awful cold virus thing at the beginning of the week and was off work for a few days and then lovingly passed it onto Matt. Hurrah, sharing is caring.

This cold is still hanging around over a week after I got the first symptoms but I didn't let it stops us and we headed up to Nottingham on Friday morning/afternoon as I left much later than I have planned....

We got to her house around 4pm and hung out for a few hours, as we were all feeling a little delicate we headed to the venue for 8:30pm just to watch Astronautalis. I am really glad we went as he was as good as he was when we saw him a few years ago. I don't know all of his songs but I really enjoyed the show and his free style was amazing too!

I danced a little in-between coughing fits and then we headed home straight away afterwards because we are all super crazy 20 something year olds haha!

On Saturday we headed to town where we had Annie's Burgers for lunch. It was SO SO amazing. I tried the big breakfast this time round and was not disappointed in the slightest.

It had egg, mushroom, sausage and bacon in it, with a side for skinny chips. I am sad Annie's is so far away but also grateful as I don't think my waistline or purse would appreciate it.

We then went round the shops and I tell you it wiped us out. 3 sickly people, we were all quite sight haha! But I did get some Yaoi I haven't seen before and Bloody Cassidy POP! Funko which I haven't be able to find ANYWHERE! And he was like £12.99, bloody bargain I was so excited.

I really like the shopping in Nottingham, their Forbidden planet has so rare things I haven't seen in other store and Page 45 has a pretty awesome and unusual selection of yaoi!

Other than that I spent some quality time with Laura and Sammi which I really enjoyed, I always do as I never get to see them! I think the fact that we were all feeling pretty shitty calls for another trip up there when we are feeling better and maybe some cocktails and a good night out on the town! 

Laura spent the whole time giving me reasons why my life would be better if I moved up to Nottingham, and although it isn't something I would at the moment I do wish I lived closer to them both!

So I think it is a good excuse to go stay with them again asap once we are all feeling in tip top shape!

TeeFury junior sizing review 2XL

I thought I would write up a little review of my recent purchase with TeeFury. I usually just order an XL woman’s when I am ordering t-shirts as that is what I usually am. I am around a size UK 14 in tops and sometimes a UK 12, so I find the fact that woman’s sizing in t-shirts comes up so small. I mean why is it junior sizing? Should it not be designed for woman like men’s are designed to fit men rather than children? Heh that is a whole other rant I have pent up inside me.

So I have been looking redbubble and TeeFury recently and the reviews they have for sizing has put me off somewhat at times. TeeFury now do a woman’s size and a junior size, from what I read online the woman’s sizing came up bigger (but shorter) but was also fairly un-shapely much like men’s t-shirts. So I got out a t-shirt that fitted me nicely measured it and was surprised that according to the size guide I would be a 2XL in juniors. I have a long body so I wanted the extra length and I also have a little waist and bigger hips so I wanted it to be more fitted so I went with the junior sizing.

It took a while to arrive but not too long considering it came all the way from America to England. When I opened it I was quite pleased with the size of it, until I went to put it on. It is SUPER un-stretchy. Most my other t-shirts have a fair amount of stretch to them so they are usually really comfy and fit nicely. Considering this t-shirt is a size larger than what I usually order it was annoying it came up quite a bit smaller (mostly around my hips). However it did fit nicely and it is exceptionally long which is great.

Above is my XXL junior's TeeFury shirt compared to a XL men's Threadless shirt.

The quality is nice too and although it is pretty un-stretchy it is soft and comfortable. The print on it is a little rubbery, it isn’t as high quality compared to say Threadless or TeeTurtle t-shirts I own, but it does feel like it will last and I don’t think wash off easily or crack.

To the design itself it is beautiful. Yuri!!! On Ice is my favourite anime (and anything) at the moment and that last scene with them skating together was just perfect so I absolutely love having Yuuri and Victor pair skating on a t-shirt! The colours are vibrant and it is printed well, really crisp and bright.!

Overall I would say give TeeFury a go as they are really cheap for the t-shirt of the day and even their full priced t-shirts! I paid $13.36 including postage which is crazy reasonable. I would suggest following their sizing guide strictly on their website as they do run really small and if you are above a UK 14 I would advise avoiding the junior sizing!

I do absolutely love t-shirts and I have my eye on a Redbubble one at the moment!

To Tokyo we go!!

I have some super exciting news. I booked my first proper holiday with Matt this year and we are off to Tokyo in May. Our big Singapore trip had to be cancelled last year which was a real shame and our 11 year anniversary is fast approaching and we are yet to have a big blow out holiday abroad just the two of us.

We decided last year that we wanted to go to Tokyo and decided that in the New Year we were just going to take the plunge and book it. We are out there for 10 days in total and I am really hoping to be able to still see some of the cherry blossoms.

I am super excited, but at the moment it is laced with nervousness. This is the first time I will be going to country with such a different culture and language without the support of lectures or family members. I often hide away from the unknown, but this is something I want to do deep down so I am pushing myself to do it.

We have plans while we are there, which include the Studio Ghibli tour, Robot restaurant, shrine festival, lots of shopping and Tokyo tower. We have lots of other things I think we will be adding to our list but I can’t wait to go and experience it all. We are staying in an air bnb in Shibuya a 5 minute walk from the famous Shibuya crossing.

Now it is just the count down to sit through and some serious saving and planning! I seriously cannot wait for May to come around!

Placebo

If we rewind back to 2004 Laura and I embarked on our first ever gig adventure. I got tickets for my birthday to see Placebo MY ABSOLUTE ALL TIME LOVE OF MY LIFE FAVORITE BAND at the time. I still remember how excited I was and how I just couldn't believe I would be breathing the same air as them OH MY GOD! 

They did a one off 10 year anniversary gig at Wembley and Laura and I put on our fake glitter eye lashes, stockings and other odd combinations we used to wear and we went and had the time of our lives. 

I found these old Live Journal posts, unfortunately my old blog posts were rarely more than a few sentences so I don't have much of an account of it and it was long LONG before camera phones and digital cameras were pretty naff so I don't have any photos alas.

I'm not a fan of their newer music anything past Meds but when they announced they were doing a 20th Year anniversary tour with the following statement:

"...Let's just say there will be songs in the set that I've sworn never to play again. I think it's time that we purposefully acknowledged what a lot of Placebo fans really want to hear. They've been very patient with us since we rarely play our most commercially successful material.

A 20 year anniversary tour seems like the right time to do so. That's our intention. This tour is very much for the fans and a chance for us to revisit a lot of our early material.

So, if you want to see us play songs like 'Pure Morning’ and 'Nancy Boy’ which we haven't played in almost ten years and may not play again, then you'd better come along to these shows! We'll have some surprises in there too...."

As I went to my first ever gig to their 10th Year Anniversary I couldn't say no and miss the chance to hear the songs I ABSOLUTELY loved as a teenager, and to be honest still love to pieces. So Matt and I booked tickets to see them in Brighton. I would of LOVED to go with Laura again but she is up in Nottingham and i'm down south it just wouldn't work for either of us time and money wise alas.

Matt and I headed down to Brighton, had a good day out and went to a traditional ramen restaurant, then headed to the gig. I was suprised as I used to queue for hours and hours to get into gigs but there was very little people queuing and we got in super quickly. We were only a few rows from the front and I have to say it had a weird atmosphere. I am used to gigging in London venues and this felt like a school hall rather than a gig venue, but I didn't think much off it once the lights were down and the support act came on. I won't lie, I really didn't enjoy the support act they were pretty bad and I have no idea what their name were.

The evening speed by and before I knew it Placebo came out and I couldn't wait. The crowd were very different from what I am used to in London and not in a good way. I won't go into details as it really did ruin part of my night, but there were fights, groups of girls pushing and shoving (and SO VERY SMELLY!!!) and when my temper finally got the better of me and I attempted to pull a girls hair Matt snapped at me and we moved a few rows back.

I am glad we did as we still had a good spot and were surrounded by decent people (there were fights later on, but I was far enough away not to get involved). It was funny you could tell who were the long time fans when they played newer music. Younger people went crazy and other people (including myself) sort of stopped and just listened...... then when they played the classics that was our time to shine and loose our shit over songs that made up my teenage years!!

Other than the crowd (seriously why do people behave like that, they must realise they ruin other peoples nights, gah) the band were amazing and sounded great even after all this time. I would happily go and see them again if they played that many older songs in the future.

Matt manged to get some awesome photos too so please enjoy below

I was so happy with how many older songs they played and they even played the version of 36 degrees that they played for the first time at the 10 year anniversary gig which I absolutely ADORE!

Set List

• Pure Morning
• Loud Like Love
• Jesus' Son
• Soulmates
• Special Needs
• Lazarus
• Too Many Friends
• Twenty Years
• I Know
• Devil in the Details
• Space Monkey
• Exit Wounds
• Protect Me from What I Want
• Without You I'm Nothing
• 36 Degrees
• Lady of the Flowers
• For What It's Worth
• Slave to the Wage
• Special K
• Song to Say Goodbye
• The Bitter End

Encore:

• Teenage Angst
• Nancy Boy
• Infra-red

Encore 2:

• Running Up That Hill 

It was great to relive my teenage joy again and they defiantly still have it! I would like to see them again preferably in London as the crowd really did put a damper on that gig! But I think to see Stefan's hair in person was reason enough to go. Seriously look at that gravity defying beauty! 

Destination Star Trek

Back at the beginning of the year Showmasters announced Destination Star Trek which was scheduled to be on the weekend of my birthday. After much thought I decided to get tickets and go as it was all the way up in Birmingham.

On the Friday Matt and I headed up to a travel lodge where we stayed for a couple of nights before heading to spend the Sunday and Monday with Laura and Sammi over in Nottingham.

I woke up on Saturday and got ready and finally put on my Star Trek skant that I had made earlier in the year. You can see the making of that here. I was so pleased with how it turned out and I couldn’t wait to get there. We headed off super early on the Saturday morning to the arena and got in really quickly compared to London Film and Comic Con. I had a photoshoot with William Shatner on the bridge of the enterprise first thing, so I got that done and I was super happy with how that turned out.

After that we went to a talk called ‘For the Love of Spock’ where Leonard Nimoy’s son talked about his father and the documentary that he made. It was fascinating to listen to him speak about his father as much to my dismay I will never get to meet him, and was a lovely tribute to him.

Afterwards we decided to also go to the George Takei talk too, which was fantastic. He is a living legend and hearing him talk so passionately about LGBT issues and how he struggled for years was really inspiring. It was also great to hear stories from behind the scenes when they were making Star Trek. 

We did have a look around the stalls but to be honest, they were very disappointing. I was expecting something more like perhaps when we have been to smaller shows like Brighton Film and Comic Con (I excitedly took all my birthday money), but there was very little there. Luckily and also unluckily the queues for everything were SO bad that we didn’t have much sitting around time so at least we didn’t get bored. Well except for being in queues.

They did have an art exhibition and a ‘museum’ area where they had props displayed and that was cool to look at. Some of the artwork was absolutely stunning. Towards the end of the day I took part in breaking the world record of most people in star trek costumes in one room which we beat which was awesome and I ended the show by getting to meet the legend himself George Takei with a photo-shoot.

After the show shut we queued up to attend ‘Shatner World’ which was pretty much William Shatner just talking about himself for a solid two hours. It was pretty entertaining and funny and I just had to have the full William Shatner experience. I’m not 100% what I actually watched but it certainly was an experience. That man defiantly will never have any self-confidence issues in his life haha!

We then headed to Wagamas on the way home, had a little birthday dinner and went and chilled out in the hotel room.

I did enjoy the day and I treasure the photos and experiences that I had there, but I really don’t think the event itself was worth traveling all that way and also the price alone to get in was crazy expensive. I don’t think I would attend a Destination Star Trek again in the future, but I am glad I did it and hey not many people if any can say they meet William Shatner on the bridge of the enterprise on their birthday!! 

Christmas 2016 part 2

So this Christmas was always going to be a bit of a weird one. With my Grandpa passing away a few years ago Christmas has never been quite the same, and this year for the first time we had it at my Mum and Dad's house rather than my Grandma's.

My Sister and I wanted to go Ice Skating last year and this year and we kept just not going, so finally on Christmas eve after a nice peaceful day we chucked on our skates and went skating. I won't lie, I tried a teeny tiny Yuri!!! on Ice related move. Luckily I quickly realised this was not a good idea and carried on skating normally. I really enjoyed it though, I had a really nice evening and it was the perfect things for a Christmas really.

We had to stay over at Matt's Mum's house to look after the cat and she only lives a few minutes walk from my Mum's house. So I got home showered and watch Muppets Christmas Carol as you must on Christmas eve and then headed over to Matt's Mum's house around 11pm. 

AND then before you knew it, it was Christmas morning....... I was thoroughly spoilt as per usual and I was very happy with my gifts. I got lots of manga, a nendroid, books, necklaces, socks and my favourite biscuits. My best friend also got Placebo's new album signed for me and that is amazing! When we were younger we promised each other if she ever got Brian Molko's autograph she would give it to me and if I ever got Courtney Love's I would give it to her. She did in fact get Brain's and never gave it to me.... but this more than makes up for that! She even convinced them to sign my name. I was actually left speechless when I opened it and I absolutely love it!

I also got pun socks which keep making me laugh and Matt got me the Yuri!!! on Ice soundtrack which I haven't stopped listening to since Christmas.

Matt really wanted the Snow Miku nendroid back in October so I managed to find one and got that for him and he seemed really happy with it!

Christmas dinner was lovely with my family and super relaxed. My Mum can cook a bloody good Christmas dinner and it was all gluten free too! We just chilled out, napped and watched movies in the afternoon and Matt and I headed home for the evening. 

The rest of our time off was spent it pyjamas getting fat and being super lazy, which was exactly what I wanted to do. We did venture out to the sales one afternoon and I bought myself a lovely coffee machine which I absolutely adore.  

And now here we are in 2017 and I am sure before I know it, it will be Christmas time all over again! 

Christmas 2016 part 1

December was a generally busy month for me we held our Elektra awards at work again and then on the 8th we had our Christmas party. I wasn't going to mention this BUT not only did I have a fantastic night (I drank and danced way too much) but I won an award of 'Designer of the Year'. I was very happy to win that. It meant a lot to me as I have worked hard on a lot of projects this year and I was super excited and touched I won. 

It was great to have a fab night out with the people I work with, many of them I would consider friends too so that was a lot of fun. I also won a nice gift card with my award and treated myself to a coffee machine and a TV for our bedroom hurrah! 

Christmas as per usual came round super quickly and I packed up work on Wednesday 21st December so I had a lovely long break ahead of me. Thursday we cleaned the flat and had a friend round. Then on the Friday Matt and I had tickets to see Kiki's Delivery Service live in London. 

As travel cards to London aren't cheap for us now we live outside of London we made the day of it and went up to Winter Wonderland to get us into the full Christmas spirit. It was nice to look around and we had dinner afterwards and of course popped into Forbidden Planet for a little shopping spree. 3 for 2 on their manga who could say no huh? 

Kiki's Delivery Service was absolutely amazing. It was quite different from the film as it was just over an hour long, but that wasn't a bad thing at all. There was also only 6 actors but it was amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it! It was a really simple small space, but they were so creative with it and imaginative too. I loved all the imaginative ways they made it look like Kiki was flying! It was funny too, like really funny is some parts.

The acting was phenomenal and in all honesty I really wanted to watch it again, it is a same it had such a short run. If they do anything like that again in the future I will be straight up to London to see it!! That was a really lovely day out to start off the Christmas break and I throughly enjoyed it!