It's here. The cold weather is upon us, and it brings with it the season of needing to jump start my iPhone, because even this one still doesn't like being cold. It is however, my favourite time of year. Christmas unfortunately gets less and less exciting each year though, which comes with getting older and having no little kids to lie to. Although I like how with every year that passes, new trends emerge. Such as this year, theme park season ended in November, but gig season also started in November.
Back in May we visited Alton Towers, in a very specific range of dates when they were running something called the 'Big 6 Challenge'. Basically, ride their biggest 6 roller coasters, The Smiler, Th13teen, Rita, Nemesis, Air & Oblivion, scan the QR code on the way out of the ride on the app and show the completed challenge to guest services to claim your wristband that gave you free entry into the park on the 4th November, to 'Big 6 Day'. This competition only ran about 6 weeks because the Smiler crashed on the 2nd June, which saw the end of the Big 6 promotion. Around 2000 wristbands were claimed before 2nd June though, and they were still being honoured as free entry on the 4th November. So, with our cute little wristbands, off we went back to Alton Towers for the day! It was cold and foggy and relatively quiet in the park too, which was to be expected on a cold Wednesday during term time in November. We had a great time though, despite the Smiler still not being open. I really like going when there are no queues. It is of course, a little sad because it means they're losing money still, but it does mean we can ride whichever ride we want, as many times as we want. It's now only 4 months until it's open again, and I'm really hoping the Smiler is back up and running!
This picture of a hotdog has been at the very centre of a whole lot of hilarity over the last year, but I've forgotten to take a picture of it every time I've been. It's a Merlin-wide image, as I've also seen it at Thorpe park, but LOOK AT WHERE THAT KETCHUP IS!!!! How has someone approved this as being an acceptable image to plaster all over your parks?! It's fairly obvious that the ketchup stripe has been added retrospectively, but why is it hovering above the hotdog, and even the bread? I thought perhaps the raw, original image had been edited instead of a copy, resulting in the original being overwritten and flattened with this one. This seemed like a reasonable explanation, until I realised that there is actually a mustard version of this image too! The stripe is exactly the same, just yellow! It still hovers above the hotdog, and it's clearly not a flattened image. If anyone could shed some light on this hilarious hotdog, I'd be very grateful hahahahahaha. Makes me laugh every time.
I don't think my family realise Jaxon can be like this, since he's so skittish usually. He's scared of his own shadow and keeps himself to himself a lot of the time, either sleeping or hiding. But sometimes when I go home to see him he'll be like this when nobody else is around, and he'll do what he was doing in this picture, where he was on my bed and trying to lie as close to me and my face as he could, and then nuzzling my face to try and get comfy and for me to tickle him. I don't think anyone else gives him the chance to be like this, but he's such a little sweetheart when he's confident enough to be.
I ended up having to stay at work until 2am the other day. I would have had a much worse time if my mam hadn't suggested I get pizza whilst I was there haha.
What a nightmare. I appear to have gotten myself addicted to hot chocolates this year, and there is most definitely a hierarchy of hot chocolates, and there are definitely good ones and bad ones. Costa is usually a good one, but this one was from a garage and there was a distinct lack of 'chocolate' in this one. I got a pint of milk to drink too, and so I ended up drinking cold milk, and hot milk. The hot milk is not nice without chocolate. Very disappointed haha, but once I had poured it, I couldn't then unpour it. I don't think it's acceptable to dispense a drink, test it, and then decide you don't want it, so I still had to buy it :(
Despite the tragedy that happened in Paris last week, Imagine Dragons still continued with their tour. They came out to a French flag coloured by the lights and the entire night had a very sombre tone. One thing that did impress me though, was the respect and solidarity shown by the 10000 of us in the arena. Dan asked for a moment of silence for the victims in Paris and the screens went black and he stood back from the front of the stage. The entire arena was silent for the whole time, and it was very moving and a proud moment, considering it's pretty difficult to keep 10000 screaming geordie fans quiet in such a large space. Very humbling and nice that nobody shouted 'I love you Dan' in the middle of it all. I don't even want to know what would have happened to them should anyone have done that, mind.
Despite practically every song being dedicated to Paris, and Dan's teary mood, it was a very good gig. I bought the tickets in February, not fully understanding that despite the new album having just been released at the time of purchase, it would have been out 9 more months by the time of the gig. I hadn't bothered a lot with the new album, because the old one was so good, I had just expected it to be lots of the old songs. Wrong. They are a really good band though, and after seeing them at T in the Park, and knowing what some of their songs mean to me, it was really nice to see them at an arena show.
That was Saturday. On Sunday, it was The 1975!
Our little Matty. This is the 4th time I've seen The 1975 live. February 2014 at the O2 Academy Newcastle, June 2014 at T in the Park, and September 2014 at Manchester Apollo. The reason I've tried to go to so many gigs is because I feared when they first sprung to fame back in 2013/4, it was going to be very short lived and they were not going to last much longer together, and therefore not tour anymore. I still maintain that fear, although I don't have tickets for Manchester in March… at the minute.
This tour is different though, because it is in colour! Their new album (I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it) has a pastel colour palette instead of a black and white one, and it makes very interesting gigs, considering they've never really been a band in colour. This time, they have a huge LED wall behind them, and numerous LED pillars, depending on the size of the venue. Newcastle had two, but I've seen other dates that have had 3 or even 4 pillars. They have different designs on them for each song, the bottom one being for Medicine, which was a more interesting design, considering the rest of them were colour blends, static or shadow effects etc…
They had a gorgeous blue for a song, but I didn't take a photograph of it. I also don't think it photographed very well because I can't find any online. It was really pretty though.
I hadn't expected Matty to do new songs, that people didn't know. It doesn't seem like something he would do, but he did, and we heard 4 new songs from the forthcoming album (as well as Love Me, of course), including The Sound which is the next single. It does sound a little similar to She Way Out, but more mainstream, I feel.
I had hoped the new album to sound more like Love Me, but actually it sounds more like the old album. Or what I've heard so far, at least.
Nonetheless, it was a fantastic evening, as it is with all of their gigs, and for the first time whilst I've been there, during Chocolate and Girls, the crowd were actually louder than they could make Matty. You just couldn't hear him over the noise of the crowd singing it back. Amazing.
Check out Byron. They're a new hamburger restaurant that's actually in the old H&M on Grey Street in Newcastle. It's a little bit strange to be walking around what was a clothes shop, but is now full of people sitting at tables. The food is really nice though. I'd even say it was nicer than Fat Hippo, which is just down the street.
They do sweet potato fries though, which qualifies any restaurant as a quality food joint in my eyes.
And yesterday, we went to Cragside. I really love Cragside, especially in the autumn when all of the trees are orange. All previous visits haven't ventured too far outside of the house grounds, but yesterday we went up to the two lakes a few miles north of the house. They're so tranquil and picturesque, and despite the walk up to the lakes being super steep, it's worth it, especially on the colder days.
Over the last few weeks and months, after a whole load of ups and downs, and in the run up to Christmas and the final ascent to the end of university, so much has been put into perspective. I really don't mean to get too deep, because two days ago I could have written pages about the way I was feeling and how I wanted to progress and better my life, but I'm not focussed enough to do that now, and if I tried I'd write it all wrong haha. But it's true. So many people are so negative about everything in their lives. My job sucks, I hate my boss, I have no money, I'm tired… all of these negative things that get passed around conversations every single day that we think nothing off, but all these people are doing is spewing out all of the negative things they seem to enjoy complaining about. It's always interesting to gossip about nothing, and how someone is such a bitch, and how you hate your workmates / housemates / neighbours / exes… I hold my hands up and say I'm guilty of all of those things, but really, when you're dead and buried, are people really going to remember you for saying you found Jimmy irritating at work, or that you had a hatred for Johnny's new girlfriend? If you were looking back at your life, after you died, trying to collate the positive, memorable, happy and exciting things that happened, would you struggle to piece together something of value, of meaning? In the whole history and entire future of the world, and humanity upon it, our lifespan is a drop in the ocean. We have an incredibly limited amount of time, yet an infinite ability to change everything about ourselves and influence others. Are you content wasting the ever-decreasing time you have with the people you love on jealousy and just complaining? I'm not. Negativity is around every corner and every place you look. It's the test of your strength and determination to ignore these people unknowingly spreading this hate, and focus on bettering yourself and the ways in which you live and act.
I also just want to be as cool as Matty Healy.
In sadder news, I was going to see Walk the Moon in Manchester on Wednesday but because of Paris they've cancelled their European tour, amalgamating it with their European tour in February instead. We literally found out by chance looking at where to park, inadvertently finding out that the gig was cancelled. I still don't officially know, from the ticketing company I bought the tickets from. It would have been worse turning up down there at the venue to find nobody else there haha. I bet a few people will still do that though, unfortunately.
Bye until I do more exciting stuff
Jordanavia :)
Back in May we visited Alton Towers, in a very specific range of dates when they were running something called the 'Big 6 Challenge'. Basically, ride their biggest 6 roller coasters, The Smiler, Th13teen, Rita, Nemesis, Air & Oblivion, scan the QR code on the way out of the ride on the app and show the completed challenge to guest services to claim your wristband that gave you free entry into the park on the 4th November, to 'Big 6 Day'. This competition only ran about 6 weeks because the Smiler crashed on the 2nd June, which saw the end of the Big 6 promotion. Around 2000 wristbands were claimed before 2nd June though, and they were still being honoured as free entry on the 4th November. So, with our cute little wristbands, off we went back to Alton Towers for the day! It was cold and foggy and relatively quiet in the park too, which was to be expected on a cold Wednesday during term time in November. We had a great time though, despite the Smiler still not being open. I really like going when there are no queues. It is of course, a little sad because it means they're losing money still, but it does mean we can ride whichever ride we want, as many times as we want. It's now only 4 months until it's open again, and I'm really hoping the Smiler is back up and running!
 |
| Still wearing it! |
This picture of a hotdog has been at the very centre of a whole lot of hilarity over the last year, but I've forgotten to take a picture of it every time I've been. It's a Merlin-wide image, as I've also seen it at Thorpe park, but LOOK AT WHERE THAT KETCHUP IS!!!! How has someone approved this as being an acceptable image to plaster all over your parks?! It's fairly obvious that the ketchup stripe has been added retrospectively, but why is it hovering above the hotdog, and even the bread? I thought perhaps the raw, original image had been edited instead of a copy, resulting in the original being overwritten and flattened with this one. This seemed like a reasonable explanation, until I realised that there is actually a mustard version of this image too! The stripe is exactly the same, just yellow! It still hovers above the hotdog, and it's clearly not a flattened image. If anyone could shed some light on this hilarious hotdog, I'd be very grateful hahahahahaha. Makes me laugh every time.
 |
| We had a sleepover and he was such a sweetie taking these pictures hahahaha |
 |
| Contradictory to the first sentence of this post… |
 |
| Panorama from the window. |
 |
| Fireworks on 5th November. They weren't amazing… Especially after watching Disney's… |
I ended up having to stay at work until 2am the other day. I would have had a much worse time if my mam hadn't suggested I get pizza whilst I was there haha.
 |
| Tragic. |
 |
| The end product was fabulous though! |
What a nightmare. I appear to have gotten myself addicted to hot chocolates this year, and there is most definitely a hierarchy of hot chocolates, and there are definitely good ones and bad ones. Costa is usually a good one, but this one was from a garage and there was a distinct lack of 'chocolate' in this one. I got a pint of milk to drink too, and so I ended up drinking cold milk, and hot milk. The hot milk is not nice without chocolate. Very disappointed haha, but once I had poured it, I couldn't then unpour it. I don't think it's acceptable to dispense a drink, test it, and then decide you don't want it, so I still had to buy it :(
Despite the tragedy that happened in Paris last week, Imagine Dragons still continued with their tour. They came out to a French flag coloured by the lights and the entire night had a very sombre tone. One thing that did impress me though, was the respect and solidarity shown by the 10000 of us in the arena. Dan asked for a moment of silence for the victims in Paris and the screens went black and he stood back from the front of the stage. The entire arena was silent for the whole time, and it was very moving and a proud moment, considering it's pretty difficult to keep 10000 screaming geordie fans quiet in such a large space. Very humbling and nice that nobody shouted 'I love you Dan' in the middle of it all. I don't even want to know what would have happened to them should anyone have done that, mind.
Despite practically every song being dedicated to Paris, and Dan's teary mood, it was a very good gig. I bought the tickets in February, not fully understanding that despite the new album having just been released at the time of purchase, it would have been out 9 more months by the time of the gig. I hadn't bothered a lot with the new album, because the old one was so good, I had just expected it to be lots of the old songs. Wrong. They are a really good band though, and after seeing them at T in the Park, and knowing what some of their songs mean to me, it was really nice to see them at an arena show.
That was Saturday. On Sunday, it was The 1975!
Our little Matty. This is the 4th time I've seen The 1975 live. February 2014 at the O2 Academy Newcastle, June 2014 at T in the Park, and September 2014 at Manchester Apollo. The reason I've tried to go to so many gigs is because I feared when they first sprung to fame back in 2013/4, it was going to be very short lived and they were not going to last much longer together, and therefore not tour anymore. I still maintain that fear, although I don't have tickets for Manchester in March… at the minute.
This tour is different though, because it is in colour! Their new album (I like it when you sleep for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it) has a pastel colour palette instead of a black and white one, and it makes very interesting gigs, considering they've never really been a band in colour. This time, they have a huge LED wall behind them, and numerous LED pillars, depending on the size of the venue. Newcastle had two, but I've seen other dates that have had 3 or even 4 pillars. They have different designs on them for each song, the bottom one being for Medicine, which was a more interesting design, considering the rest of them were colour blends, static or shadow effects etc…
They had a gorgeous blue for a song, but I didn't take a photograph of it. I also don't think it photographed very well because I can't find any online. It was really pretty though.
I hadn't expected Matty to do new songs, that people didn't know. It doesn't seem like something he would do, but he did, and we heard 4 new songs from the forthcoming album (as well as Love Me, of course), including The Sound which is the next single. It does sound a little similar to She Way Out, but more mainstream, I feel.
I had hoped the new album to sound more like Love Me, but actually it sounds more like the old album. Or what I've heard so far, at least.
Nonetheless, it was a fantastic evening, as it is with all of their gigs, and for the first time whilst I've been there, during Chocolate and Girls, the crowd were actually louder than they could make Matty. You just couldn't hear him over the noise of the crowd singing it back. Amazing.
Check out Byron. They're a new hamburger restaurant that's actually in the old H&M on Grey Street in Newcastle. It's a little bit strange to be walking around what was a clothes shop, but is now full of people sitting at tables. The food is really nice though. I'd even say it was nicer than Fat Hippo, which is just down the street.
They do sweet potato fries though, which qualifies any restaurant as a quality food joint in my eyes.
And yesterday, we went to Cragside. I really love Cragside, especially in the autumn when all of the trees are orange. All previous visits haven't ventured too far outside of the house grounds, but yesterday we went up to the two lakes a few miles north of the house. They're so tranquil and picturesque, and despite the walk up to the lakes being super steep, it's worth it, especially on the colder days.
 |
| Click on this to fill your screen with absolute beauty |
And here are some pictures I took with my DSLR. If you click on any of them to make them full screen it makes them a lot better.
But because of this trip, I now have a National Trust membership! I didn't particularly want or need one, but I feel I was upsold one upon entry.
The house unfortunately isn't open during the winter but the beauty of the gardens makes up for it. I would genuinely come here every weekend if I could. I do now have a whole book of National Trust properties though so I guess there is some exploring to be done…
I also just want to be as cool as Matty Healy.
In sadder news, I was going to see Walk the Moon in Manchester on Wednesday but because of Paris they've cancelled their European tour, amalgamating it with their European tour in February instead. We literally found out by chance looking at where to park, inadvertently finding out that the gig was cancelled. I still don't officially know, from the ticketing company I bought the tickets from. It would have been worse turning up down there at the venue to find nobody else there haha. I bet a few people will still do that though, unfortunately.
Bye until I do more exciting stuff
Jordanavia :)
No comments :
Post a Comment