I was out and about all morning running errands. About five minutes after I left the house, it started pouring with rain, and I hadn’t brought a brolly so I was a drowned rat by the time I got home a few hours later! Glad I don’t have to go out again for a couple of days now.
I’ve been doing day job work since then (and I’ve no idea how it’s managed to get so late as I’m sure I didn’t have that much to do!). Hoping to squeeze in a bit of work on my NaNo later this evening.
Not an OOTD: I’d never normally succumb to mince pies this early but it’s not been the best of days.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Duran Duran – ‘The Chauffeur’ Ed Sheeran, Camila Cabello and Cardi B – ‘South Of The Border’ Sam Feldt and Rani – ‘Post Malone’ Roxette – ‘It Must Have Been Love’ Lewis Capaldi – ‘Bruises’ Meduza and Goodboys – ‘Piece Of Your Heart’
Time to start logging the family phone box contributions from this year! Anne sent me a snap of this phone box that was shown on TV back in the spring.
Red phone box, B869, Clachtoll, on TV 12 June 2019.
The Google Street View image above, from 2011, shows the phone box in a state of disrepair with its door missing. It seems to have been replaced by the time of shooting the TV programme (at least, I hope the Google image predates the filming!). There’s also a picture online of the box in its spruced-up state.
The phone box is actually in Stoer rather than Clachtoll (Stoer is the next village up), so I’m guessing the Clachtoll residents had to go for a bit of a walk back in the day!
More admin and housework this morning, and then I got a bit of writing done in the afternoon (including a bit of work on my NaNo – which I’m just about keeping up with!).
A good ukulele class this evening, and I’m now back on the sofa catching up with Strictly.
Hoping for another productive day tomorrow – I’ve got work to do for a client, plus a bit more writing and housework to get on with.
OOTD: the second of my new ’80s jumpers! Jumper Sunset Highway (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2019), leggings Primark (2019), boots Clarks (2016).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Tiësto and Mabel – ‘God Is A Dancer’ Starship – ‘Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now’ Whitney Houston – ‘Saving All My Love For You’ Andy Taylor – ‘Love Or Liberation’ Georgia – ‘About Work The Dancefloor’ Bronski Beat – ‘Hit That Perfect Beat’ Traditional – ‘Bonnie Ship The Diamond’ Duran Duran – ‘Hungry Like The Wolf’ Keala Settle – ‘This Is Me’ Lauv and Troye Sivan – ‘I’m So Tired’
Both Geth and I have been getting into synthwave in a big way this year. It’s the perfect modern ’80s-aping genre for me, while Geth was starting to get fed up with what was happening in industrial and needed a new type of electronic music to listen to. As such, we’ve been listening to it lots and have a few new favourite bands!
The Midnight are my favourite synthwave band, so when we heard that they were playing a few dates in the UK, it was an absolute no-brainer that we were going to go see them. A few friends from Newcastle had the same idea, so it was a good crowd in Manchester last Thursday for the gig.
The support act, Violet Days, were already playing when we arrived at the venue and found seats (a really good space on the balcony right above the stage!). I wouldn’t say their music was particularly standout to me, but it provided a nice bit of background while Geth got the drinks in and bought a couple of t-shirts at the merch stand.
Loved this viewpoint over the stage! Not too crowded either, so if I’m ever back at the Albert Hall I’ll know where to go.
While I love going to see classic artists who have been going for forty years or so, the sheer depth of their back catalogues means that there’s always a good few songs I don’t know (even Duran Duran, who are my favourite band and whom I listen to every day, have a few deep cuts and side projects with which I’m less familiar). For newer bands like the Midnight with only one or two albums, this is not a problem! I’ve been listening to their stuff so much this year that I knew every single song played, and was able to sing along to most of it (I don’t usually hear lyrics when I’m listening to music due to being hard of hearing, so this was a big deal). I don’t think I’ve come across one of their songs that I don’t absolutely love, so it was a brilliant, energetic show. In fact, the band have done so many great songs that there were a couple of my favourites (‘Crystalline’ and ‘Kick Drums And Red Wine’) that didn’t get played – but I didn’t mind, because everything they did play was brilliant too!
It was nice to be close enough that even with my blurry photography, you can still tell who it is!
I just want to give a quick shout out to the Manchester Albert Hall, which is a brilliant venue. Hoping to attend a few more gigs there in the future! I will also be looking out for more synthwave gigs next year.
It’s only a couple of days per week at the moment because life is pretty busy, but during November, when it’s starting to get very cold and dark, I really appreciate having full days where I can stay in the house and get on with things!
After doing a bit of housework and admin this morning, I spent some time in the afternoon working on my NaNoWriMo. A couple more days and I should have caught up with where I’m supposed to be in terms of wordcount!
There’s only a couple of days left to rate my text adventure game for the Adventuron jam, so please give it a go if you like games! I’m already looking forward to making more of these.
I’ll be mainly sorting out the house tomorrow, as Geth and I have guests coming to stay at the weekend.
Not an OOTD: it’s so cosy having the fireplace on at this time of year!
Today’s earworm playlist:
Sheena Easton – For Your Eyes Only Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber – I Don’t Care U2 – Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of Lewis Capaldi – Bruises Technotronic – Pump Up The Jam
My absolute go-to ginger beer is the Sainsbury’s Fiery Ginger Beer (which is sugar-free and therefore also calorie-free/syn-free), so I was really interested to try the Tesco equivalent when Mum and Dad got some in over the summer.
Tesco No Added Sugar Ginger Beer.
It’s not as sweet as the Sainsbury’s version, but it’s really nice and spicy! I look forward to having a few more of these when I’m visiting home for Christmas.
I’ve had a nice quiet day getting on with writing, housework and admin – and managed to squeeze in a bit of work on my NaNoWriMo project as well, which was nice! Geth has been out all day, so I’ve had the Christmas cookery shows on again. The only problem is that coupled with the cold weather, they’re making me hungry all the time.
Another full day to get on with writing tomorrow, I hope!
OOTD: back posting an outfit of the day for once! Geth requested this one ’cause he really likes my new jumper. Jumper Cabin Creek (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2019), leggings Primark (2019), boots Carefree (2017).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Michael Land – LeChuck’s Theme Lewis Capaldi – Bruises Ace Of Base – All That She Wants Sister Sledge – Frankie
Geth and I had both been looking forward to A-ha for months. We’d booked the tickets back in February, just after our previous visit to Leeds First Direct Arena to see Tears For Fears, and even then it was tricky to get tickets as they were selling out so quickly! I’m so glad we got to go.
There was no support act, as A-ha were scheduled to be playing for a good two and a half hours – but this did mean that the doors opened a whole two hours before the band were due on stage, and so even though we hadn’t rushed to the venue, we were still stuck in our seats for an hour before the band came on! It would have been nice if the times had been made clearer beforehand.
When the band did come on, they were accompanied by some brilliant visuals in the style of the ‘Take On Me’ video.
The tour was aimed to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Hunting High And Low album (or the nearly-an-anniversary at any rate – the album came out a few months after I was born and I’m not quite thirty-five yet!) As such, one of the t-shirts they were selling made no reference to the band whatsoever – it was just a black and white striped t-shirt with ‘1985’ emblazoned across it in red. Did I get it? You bet I did. Birth year represent!
A new favourite t-shirt 🙂
The bulk of the show was constituted by the Hunting High And Low album being played in its entirety, so for the most part the audience knew what to expect next. Having seen the band perform on a BBC ’80s nostalgia show a couple of years ago, I’d assumed Morten Harket was finding it difficult to hit the high notes on ‘Take On Me’ these days, as he’d taken it down an octave for the BBC show. At the gig, however, he managed the original arrangement admirably, which was much appreciated!
After they’d done the album tracks, there was an interval, and the band then launched into a few bonus favourites. I was a little disappointed by the lack of ‘Touchy!’, as it’s a beautifully silly song and thus appeals to me hugely – but to be honest I wasn’t really expecting them to play it, nice as it would have been! They did finish with a wonderfully crowd-pleasing ‘The Living Daylights’, which I think may be the first Bond theme I’ve ever seen performed live by the original artists (note to self: must not start new bucket list).
On the whole, it was a fantastic show and well worth the wait. I expect it’ll be a few years before A-ha come back to the UK, but I’d love to see them again sometime!
I’ve not had a lot of time for running over the last couple of weeks, but for the last few days, I’ve certainly been getting my daily step goal met! I doubled it between yesterday’s parkrun and dancing to Adam Ant last night, and tonight Geth and I were back at the Sage Gateshead to see Shakespear’s Sister – a slightly more sedate gig but still a very enjoyable one! I also managed to fit in a vintage fair trip today, which was fairly successful.
I had originally planned to go to Manchester tomorrow to see a talk at the Central Library, but given that I’ve had zero time for NaNoWriMo the last few days, it’s sadly looking unlikely. I think I’ll be having a quiet day with my project (and my text adventure updates) instead!
Not an OOTD: it’s a bit faded now, but I do like the hand stamp you get at Judy’s Vintage Fairs.
Today’s earworm playlist:
The Midnight – Shadows In The City Adam & The Ants – Antmusic Kygo and Whitney Houston – Higher Love The Knack – My Sharona Shakespear’s Sister – Stay
For various reasons I haven’t been able to get to a vintage fair for a couple of months, but today I finally had the opportunity again! Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair was on at the Boiler Room in Newcastle, so I headed down to see if I could find a few things on my list.
L-R: jumper, jacket, jumper. Nicely set up for the winter!
I found the denim jacket I’d been looking for – I’m looking forward to customising it with my badge collection when I have some time (so 2021 maybe? 2022?) – plus a couple more cosy ’80s jumpers for the winter (only £10 each!). My work-from-home uniform at the moment tends to be leggings plus oversized vintage jumper, so I wanted to grab a few more. I’ve also been having a think about selling some of the clothes I never wear (both to make some space in my wardrobe and to make a bit of extra cash), so I’m going to be investigating sites like Etsy to see if setting up a small online shop would be worthwhile.
There’s a lot more vintage fairs on over the next couple of months, so maybe I’ll be able to squeeze in one or two more before the end of 2019!
