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!

Mumford and Sons front row adventures

For my birthday my Ma and Pa got me Mumford and Son's tickets! My sister and I saw them back in April at a secret gig and I saw them almost three years to the day at the o2!

I regretted getting seated tickets the first time I saw them so I knew I wanted to stand! I took the day off work and my sister and I headed over to the o2 at about 11am.

I wanted to queue and try and get to the front, I was shocked though when we turned up at 1pm to see only 8-10 people in the queue. The 5 and a half hours actually went very quickly and before we knew it we were at the front barrier bang in the middle of the stage!

I got an amazing jumper (so did my sister) that I am currently wearing and it is just SOO comfy and I love it! I also have to thank Sarah for that as she is WAY too generous with me and paid for half of it! So THANK YOU to her!

I was a little gutted as 15-20 minutes into Mumford coming on Sarah had to go to the ladies room really badly and had to leave the front row! I was GUTTED for her and really torn of what to do! I decided to stay and although I am sad Sarah wasn't there to enjoy it with me I had an unbelievable time.

At one point Marcus jumped down and I missed him by only a few inches! They played loads of oldies which was amazing as I have to say I do much prefer those including Little Lion Man! Alas no Winter Winds again!

It was amazing though and I managed to get a set list at the end of the night! Sarah came and found me as I was still waiting for a encore (I didn't realise that had already happened haha!) I didn't want it to end. I sang so hard my voice felt like it was breaking and I was exhausted.

I loved it! AND I just want to go back again!

Set List 9th December 

---

Snake Eyes
I will wait
Below my feet
Broad-shouldered beast
Awake
Lover of the Light
Thistle
Tompkin Sq Park
Believe
Ghosts
Cave
Ditmas
Dust Bowl

---

Hot Gates

I'm on fire

Little Lion Man

The Wolf

I managed to stick my set list in my scrap book upside down so yay for that!

But it was amazing and being front row was completely surreal. Jack Garret was the support act and he was amazing too, I might have to have a look into seeing him live as his album comes out early next year!

I hope it isn't another 3 year wait for a new album and I can go and see Mumford sooner! I have to say they are my all time favourite band right now!

Oh weekends you go too quickly!

So last week was a really busy one for me. I had gym Monday as usual, then friends round Tuesday then I did my Pilates class and the gym on Wednesday (which kinda killed me a bit) and then I went out with Lisa on Thursday night to see an artist called Beans on Toast and then Matt and I had a great day out Saturday and a really chilled out Sunday.

I'll start with Saturday as I had such a good day! I woke up about 10:30am and we had a plan to go to Brighton (weather depending) and do some shopping, go to the pier, have dinner and see a film. Matt kindly got us a subway breakfast and I got ready and we headed off to Brighton. We go down there about 1ish I think and hit the shops…

I just wanted to have a good shop and day out as I haven’t been able to for months possibly even a year really… I picked up two things I fell a bit in love with!

The first was this Sugarhill boutique dress. It had little birds on it and the back was so pretty!

And the second was a more considered spend (£56 in the sale reduced from £75) this Collectif leather jacket… it is just so beautiful. I have a leather jacket but I have never gotten along with it. I always felt it was too harsh on me and I don’t think it fitted that well. But this one was just perfection. Also when I was paying they said, 'you've spent over £30 so you get to pick a free pair of sun glasses' so I was all over that! Win win!

I was hoping to get a few bits shopping, but ended up with just a dress and a jacket, but as the jacket was rather pricey that was ok!

I am still on the hunt for a summer skirt I really like, although summer seems like a wash out at the moment away so maybe I won’t need one haha!

We then headed down to the pier. Usually we spend a lot of time playing on grabbing machines, but as we threw out so many soft toys when we moved and I had to put loads back in my Dad’s loft we decided to give them a miss. The wind was pretty fierce but I have to say it was pretty warm and sunny all day and most importantly it stayed dry for us! I did flash my knickers completely when the wind got a hold of my skirt! Woops.!

I decided I would like to go down to the sea front for a bit so we went for a walk and there was a mini golf place, which was only £3 per person. I was pretty excited when Matt said he wanted to play as he usually doesn’t like things like that. I actually ended up having a fantastic time and I won wohoo! It may have only been by 1 point but I won!

We then went and sat on the beach for a little bit, but it was getting pretty nippy so we had a little cuddle took a few photos and headed to the car. 

After that, we headed to the Harvester and had a really lovely meal and went to see Ted 2 at Cineworld. I being a classy girl split BBQ sauce down my dress and in an attempt to get it off (I did succeed at that) made it looked like I had, had a HUGE accident all down the front my dress. Luckily being thin cotton it dried very quickly. 

Ted 2 was great as well. I may write a little review on that, I just wish the people behind us could of avoided kicking our chairs throughout the whole movie. Meh. Then we got home about 1-2am and crashed out in bed to wake up late Sunday and have an exceptionally chilled one!

Thursday before the weekend was another really good evening for me too! Beans on Toast was playing for the Ambition Festival that was held over the weekend just gone in Croydon, surprisingly for Croydon it all looked really good.

I was really looking forward to it as I haven’t had a night out in well too long and he was performing a few minute walk away from our offices. We headed to the pub after work and had some noodles and cider and then headed to another pub for some more cider and then headed to Mathew’s Yard where they were performing. I really enjoyed the support acts, especially the second one who was Glenn Hodge Banned, I’ve been listening to him on apple music the last few days!  

(Glenn Hodge Banned)

Beans on Toast came on about 9-9:30 I think and he was fantastic. He was really funny and witty and his music is great! I really really enjoyed the evening! I eventually got home about 11:30pm where I grabbed a naughty burger on my way back.  

 

(Beans on Toast)

Considering I don’t really drink I felt pretty alright on Friday (even though EVERYTHING hurt from my class and gym on Thursday)

I am pretty gutted as Lisa is leaving at the end of this week to go on to new adventures. I do hope we keep in touch, but work will not be the same without her!

I will end this entry with a few pretty pictures. 

While having a chilled Sunday and tidying up, I sorted my dresses out and I am surprised at the amount of beautiful patterns and dresses I have collected. They bring me mucho joy and happiness and they are just ALL SO PRETTY! I just wish I had more places to wear them!

I hope the week is good, and the weather improves!

(although I am happy to wear my jacket this morning ha)

Thank god it's Friday..... UGH

So this was the week that I had been counting down the days until. AND NOW ITS OVER *weep*

It’s been a weird week, and I don’t deal with change and weirdness very well at all. Booo. It makes me feel very uncomfortable. So the plan was as follows, leave early Tuesday and see Mumford and Sons. Then wake up around 10am and gets Matts haircut and see the Doctor and generally potter around and then Thursday chill out and go to the hotel for around 2:30-3pm and get ready slowly and go the work Christmas party.

That did not really go to plan. So on Tuesday I got an e-mail from Kaplan international college about a job interview. Some of it involved designing books for children’s educational books which I was like ahhh I want to do that. So they rearranged the interview for the Thursday from the Friday and I had to be there at 10am. To be honest I really didn’t fancy going and I wasn’t sure about it at all but I thought, I REALLY have to give this a go otherwise I might regret it! I have to admit it wasn’t what I thought it would be like at all! It was really REALLY fancy like a proper high-class London job. Although I thought it was going to be a bit weird and dull it’s actually turned out to seem very exciting and manic it doesn’t overly appeal to me at the moment. It seems too fast paced and too manic and traveling to central London everyday just gives me a headache thinking about it. So I’m waiting to hear from them but I don’t think it is something I would want to do. But I think it was better to go and see than sit there forever thinking, ‘what if I had gone’. Then on the way home I had a voice mail about a job closer to home that pay up £25,000 a year :O WHOA! And they found me I didn't even apply! I really hope I can arrange an interview for there, it sounds good, although I am torn as I do like my job here and I really love the people! But I do like the sound of the one closer to home and it could be up to £7,000 more a year which could get me a flat! So I am hoping to hear from them!

So yeah that meant I was up at 7am and on a train into London at 8am UGH! No lay in for me. and I was still tired from the day before after seeing Mumford and Sons. Alas…. So anyway we then went around London a bit after the interview, headed home and grabbed some lunch and headed down to Horsham. By the time we got there and I popped to get some bits for the night I had like an hour to get ready. It was a lovely night though even though I wanted a peaceful and relaxing time I did have fun! And obviously it was really lovely to spend time with Matt.

I am now back at work today. As I was already in Horsham me and Matt got Breakfast and I was in the office by 8:30am! Most people didn't come in till 9-10am but it means I can go home at 5pm today rather than like 5:30 so that should be really nice!

HOWEVER I haven't even spoken about Mumford and Sons yet!

My friend managed to get this awesome picture of me 'rocking out' with my banjo. I bought 4 inflatable ones for the gig! LOVE IT! They played amazingly and they got the whole arena going and singing and dancing. I enjoyed every single song and Marcus is just exceptionally cute! 

The place went CRAZY when they did Lion Man and I was so happy they played Winter Winds as that is my favorite song!

Outside however the temperature had dropped to -4 and this thick fog had spread everywhere. It hurt to breathe in as it was SO SO ICY COLD! Although  I like that as it makes me feel all christmassy!

I found some pretty cool videos from the night on YouTube so they aren't mine but they are really good and have the cute bit where Marcus's button on his shirts keeps coming undone.

Speaking of Christmas too I can't wait to paint my nails glitter red (I paint them this colour all through December but I wore a pink dress last night so I had to take it off) tonight BECAUSE I GOT NAIL STICKERS!! Christmas ones! On eBay they were £1.40 and they have reindeers and snowflakes. They came yesterday and I have been DYING to try them! I am super excited!

I attempted candy cane nails last week! I love doing christmasy things!

I was pretty pleased with them. Last year I tried to do all my nails like that, but it got kinda messy so I just did the one! I am so happy it is Friday and I have two days off because I feel like death at the moment! I hope the afternoon goes really quickly because I don't have very much/nothing to do all afternoon. BOOOOO. So PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE LET 5o'clock come as quickly as possible so I may SLEEP!