Matt's birthday, A silent voice and Nottingham

Honestly this blog isn’t abandoned! I just haven’t had much to blog about recently, unless people want to read about me slobbing about in my pyjamas every weekend! It has been quiet recently, but I suppose this time of the year always is. Plus there is just over 7 weeks until my japan trip so I have mostly just been saving my pennies for that.

This last week though I have been out and had some fun. Last weekend I booked the Monday and Tuesday off of work to spend some time with Matt for this birthday. We really didn’t do very much other than the cinema and a trip to Wing Yip. I bought a LOT of panda biscuits for cheap cheap prices. (10 for £8.50 bargain) and yes I have eaten them all. Then Tuesday was his actual birthday and our 11 year anniversary. We went out with his Mum in the evening for dinner, but other than that it was super chilled and relaxed.

Forcing Matt to participate in selfies with me

Then on Friday I headed up to Nottingham again. I have been DESPERATELY trying to find places that were playing ‘A silent voice’ and they were playing it in Nottingham over the weekend so we decided to go and spend the weekend with Laura and Sam again.

I’ll start with the film because BY JINGO it was good. If you don’t know what it is then here is a little synopsis I have stolen from myanimelist.com

‘Ishida Shouya bullies a deaf girl, Nishimiya Shouko, to the point that she transfers to another school. As a result, he is ostracized and bullied himself with no friends to speak of and no plans for the future. This is the story of his path to redemption.’

It was a lot deeper and darker than I had originally thought which wasn’t a bad thing. It is really uncomfortable watching these children pick on this poor deaf girl (Nishimiya) and then to see how quickly the ring leader (Ishida) friends’ (who were also bullying Nishimiya) turned on him. He ended up becoming the victim of bullying for his original behaviour and we flash forward to a boy planning on ending his own life who has been ostracised and spends his time alone to avoid being picked on himself.

We watch Ishida try and make peace with Nishmiya and also slowly make new friends even though there are quite a few bumps along the way. Everything kind of seems to be going well between the two but then we realise how much years of bullying has affected Nishmiya and Ishida ends up getting critically hurt in an attempt to save her.

It was a really beautiful film and some points really hit home especially if you have ever dealt with bullying or social anxiety. There are some really funny bits in it too and the progression of character development throughout the film feels really natural and right. The art was gorgeous and as was the music. It pulls at the heart strings all the way through the film and although has an open ending it leaves you feeling warm and content.

I would really love to see it again but alas I am having trouble finding somewhere that is showing it that I can get to easily. However if I can I will defiantly see it!  

Forcing Laura to also take selfies with me....... no one seems to like having their picture taken!

So we saw that on Saturday afternoon and started the morning off with a trip to a farmers market for brownies and then Primark (according to Laura to get it out of the way lol). Then after the film we did plenty more shopping. There is a book shop called Page 45 that sells some really unusual yaoi manga which I ended up picking up 3 books from. Oops…… and also we picked up far too much manga in forbidden planet because the one in Nottingham has an epic manga section.

Other than the tones of manga I ended up buying, I also got a new shirt and some birthday gifts for Laura. We then headed to Annie’s as we always do for burgers and I got a big breakfast one again and it tasted amazing. Laura had big plans for us to go for drinks after but we were so tired we headed home and watched weird documentaries all night, and I feel a sleep half way through as I was so exhausted.

Sunday was pretty lazy with a really late breakfast (I made some pastry things I made for Matt’s birthday breakfast which involves bacon, cheese and scrambled egg in puff pastry) and I then drove back into Nottingham for Matt to pick up a coat he has seen after all the shops had shut. The afternoon was spent watching TV and doing Laura’s hair and having a good chat and eating doughnuts! I had such a lovely weekend and was gutted when we had to come home.

But I am home now and back to work. The next big thing to look forward to will be Japan now! Hopefully as the weather improves I will get out a bit more too, I hope so I feel like I really need some sunshine! 

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!

Fun in Nottingham

Back near the beginning of the year Laura and I arranged for myself and Matt to go up to Nottingham again and spend a weekend with her and Sammi. Originally we were looking at August but I saw that EM Con was on at the end of April over the May bank holiday, so we decided to take advantage of that. 

We booked Friday off so we could head up nice and early and get an extra day together. That didn't quite go to plan. 

We did get up nice and early and had a Toby Carvy buffet breakfast and was ready almost bang on 11am like I had planned. What I didn't think about was that everyone would be using the M1 and M25 to travel on the bank holiday. What should of been just under a 3 hour drive turned into 5 hours. FIVE whole hours, it was rather long and frustrating. We did make it though and got to spend the afternoon with Laura and Sammi and all evening. 

We ordered pizza and Laura unwrapped her birthday gifts and we spent the evening catching up. Matt and I needed to be at the arena fairly early on Saturday so we went to bed earlyish ready for the weekend ahead!

Saturday was awesome and you can read about that here!

Then Sunday we had a lay in did a bit of shopping around Nottingham and as always when we are in Nottingham we headed over to Annie's Burger Shack! I had the Delta burger which I believe I have had before. It was pretty spicy but delicious.

Matt and I at Annie's

We then headed home and spent the evening eating desserts, chatting and drinking wine which was really lovely. 

Sammi hasn't been that well so we headed over for another breakfast buffet on Monday and she went home while myself, Laura and Matt went to have a look around Wollaton Hall and Park. Unfortunately the weather was pretty naff, it was bitterly cold and threatening to rain. We did however have a look around the house and the park and snapped a few photos! (warning heavy image post below!)

We only stayed a while because of the weather, which is so annoying as we are having a beautiful heat wave at the moment, less than a week after we went! BOO! I really enjoyed looking around and the place was really beautiful! I really want to go back there when the weather is nicer!

Then we popped to Derby to do a bit more shopping as there wasn't much to do with the weather which started to tip in down with rain moments after we left the hall. After the shopping we headed back to Laura's spent a while chatting and then early evening we headed home.

I really didn't want to leave, I have NO IDEA where the weekend went but I had an absolutely fabulous time. Whenever we spend time with Laura and Sammi, I  remember how much I miss her and I wish we lived closer. What I wouldn't give to just call her and say 'HEY LOR I'M COMING OVER WITH A BOTTLE OF WINE AND A MOVIE SEE YOU IN 5!' 

But alas she lives over 100 miles away so I will just have to treasure the moments I get to spend with her and Sammi.

My bank holiday weekend was great though and I can't wait for the next one (lets hope for some sunshine!)