I went to Newcastle restaurant Pizza Punks for the first time last week, but it will definitely not be the last time! Both the pizza and the music were great and I will be finding excuses to go back again.
Pizza Punks DIY.
The pizza wasn’t actually this strange red/pink colour – that’s just an effect of the neon strip lighting used in the restaurant.
It was a really good pizza – it had a lovely textured base and the best tasting sauce! I had a DIY/create-your-own with tomatoes, onions, olives and potato. If you’ve not tried potato on a pizza, I really recommend it if you can find it in a good restaurant – it’s a bit difficult to get it right at home.
Back to normal-ish today following the Easter holiday. My right eye has been really bothering me since Friday morning – I think it’s had a bad reaction to the contacts I was wearing on Thursday night, which is odd because I’ve not had that kind of reaction before – and so I didn’t do my treadmill run this morning. I’ve got one left on Thursday, and then I might possibly do a slow shakeout parkrun on Saturday to remind my legs how to run on roads before the big race on Sunday. Hopefully the eye will settle down – ibuprofen seems to be helping for now.
Geth has headed off to Glasgow for an overnight work thing, so the house is quiet at the moment. I’ve had a really good day of writing with 3,000 words done for my Camp NaNo project, my book pitch sent to another agent, and some poems prepared for reading at tomorrow’s poetry night.
Hoping for another productive day tomorrow.
OOTD: back to comfy clothes (and sunglasses to shield my poorly eye!) for a day writing on the sofa. Sunglasses Jasper Conran (2018), t-shirt H&M (2018), belt H&M (2017), leggings Primark (2018), shoes 1st Position (2018).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Ava Max – Sweet But Psycho Duran Duran – New Religion T.Rex – Hot Love Duran Duran – Late Bar Duran Duran – Save A Prayer Duran Duran – The Edge Of America The Midnight – Days Of Thunder FM-84 and Ollie Wride – Running In The Night Duran Duran – Come Undone The Housemartins – Think For A Minute The Midnight – Gloria
(There’s a fair bit of synthwave creeping into my brain alongside the constant Duran Duran at the moment. This is probably due to the fact that Geth has been playing a lot of synthwave YouTube playlists recently!)
It’s the last of the Franklin & Sons varieties I found in Inverness. I do have a related update, though – I managed to find Franklin & Sons ginger beer in Brewdog in Newcastle last week, so at least I know for definite that the brand can be found outside Inverness!
Franklin & Sons Sicilian Lemonade & English Elderflower.
I couldn’t really taste the elderflower in this one, but it’s a lovely classic lemonade – very refreshing.
After all the excitement of Easter weekend, I’ve had a nice quiet day in the house writing and listening to music, which was much needed.
Back to work tomorrow!
OOTD: it was still warm today so I went with this smart dress, which is my all-time favourite vintage fair find. Dress Nina Ricci (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2017), shoes Office (2018).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Arcadia – The Flame David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things Feeder – Just The Way I’m Feeling Duran Duran – Come Undone Duran Duran – New Religion
To my great surprise I found myself sunbathing at the beach this weekend (in the north-east of England! in April!), hence this week’s music videos are all beach-themed as I dream of the summer ahead and the summers from thirty-odd years ago.
10. Belinda Carlisle – Circle In The Sand
A nice near-literal video for this pretty 1988 track – there’s a lot of sand but not a lot of circles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS2Fs2nGOl0
9. Don Henley – The Boys Of Summer
It was perhaps inevitable that the ultimate ’80s summer anthem would have a beach scene in the video. The black and white film makes it a bit gloomy, but that’s consistent with the pessimistic feel of the song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWT90HzLF3U
8. Boy Meets Girl – Waiting For A Star To Fall
The video for this late ’80s cheesefest starts off with a suitably cheesy beach running scene. Love that epic sax solo!
7. Fleetwood Mac – Big Love
This is a more familiar sight for a British beach! Fleetwood Mac huddle in coats and scarves on a night-time beach in one of the many sequences of this brilliant video.
6. Blondie – Call Me
Bit of a seasonally-confused video here, as the beach shots of Debbie Harry are interspersed with her in a coat looking cold in New York City. Maybe she goes on holiday somewhere for the beach scenes.
5. Erasure – Ship Of Fools
The beach in this video is all made up of rocks and shells and therefore not at all suitable for sunbathing, although Andy Bell gives it a good go.
4. Wham! – Club Tropicana
Most of this ultimate summer holiday video is poolside, but George Michael does take a brief trip to the beach halfway through. It looks a bit overcast, though, so I don’t blame him for heading back to the pool.
3. The Bangles – Eternal Flame
A nice sunset beach scene here among the floaty images of Susanna Hoffs and co singing along to the song.
2. Duran Duran – Rio
Duran Duran made pretty much all of their videos on beaches during the jetsetting Rio era, but this one for the album’s title track is the most colourful and fun. The yacht scenes are the most iconic, but the beach scenes are blue-skied and beautiful and make me want to book a holiday.
1. Elton John – I’m Still Standing
I love everything about this ridiculous Cannes romp, from the ostentatious outdoor piano to Elton’s comedy glasses to the pre-Strictly Bruno Tonioli dancing his way through Cannes in a succession of ’80s leotards. The best bit, though, is when Elton lines up the dancers on the beach and pushes them over in a chain of human dominoes.
It’s starting to grey over here in Newcastle, so I suspect I won’t be taking any more trips to the beach for a couple of months now. I’ll have to make do with ’80s videos in the meantime!
Hope everyone’s having a great weekend. I’ve had a really busy (but fun) Easter Sunday – Geth and I headed out to South Shields this morning, which involved a trip on the Shields ferry because part of the Metro track is currently down. I sunbathed on the beach for a while, which is not something I often do in April.
We then had lunch in one of the pubs along the beach, but their Sunday menu was a bit limited and something I ate made me ill, unfortunately, so we won’t be going back there for food again. An ice-cream on the way back to the ferry settled my stomach though!
We headed out again this evening to see Back To The Future: In Concert at the Sage Gateshead – they had a symphony orchestra playing along with the film, and it was a really good show.
A slightly quieter day tomorrow.
OOTD: it feels like summer all of a sudden! Blouse Lucky Winner (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), jeans Miss Selfridge (2018), shoes 1st Position (2018).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Eddy Grant – I Don’t Wanna Dance Duran Duran – New Religion Martika – Toy Soldiers Lindisfarne – Fog On The Tyne Queen – Killer Queen Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy – Kiss Me Jax Jones, Mabel and Rich The Kid – Ring Ring Duran Duran – Night Boat
And a few bonus tracks that Geth was humming earlier:
FM-84 and Ollie Wride – Running In The Night Blondie – Maria Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee – Despacito
It’s been glorious weather today (and it looks like it’s set to continue for the rest of Easter weekend, so Geth and I are planning to make the most of it!).
I was up fairly early to do my last ‘long’ run of the marathon training programme – race next weekend, eek! – and then headed into town to order some prescription sunglasses to replace the ones that snappeda few weeks ago. A bit of window shopping later, I was back home enjoying the sunshine in the garden (looking very neat now that Geth has mown the lawn for the first time this year).
Settling in for an evening of writing, and looking forward to more time in the sun tomorrow.
OOTD: a good day for a summer dress! Sunglasses Jasper Conran (2018), dress unknown brand (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), shoes BHS (2016).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Meduza – Piece Of Your Heart Duran Duran – Friends Of Mine Lil’ Nas X – Old Town Road David Bowie – Oh! You Pretty Things Duran Duran – The Chauffeur Lil’ Dicky, Chris Brown, Ed Sheeran, DJ Khaled and Kendall Jenner – Freaky Friday Chaka Khan – Ain’t Nobody Whitesnake – Is This Love?
And a couple of bonus tracks that Geth was humming earlier:
O-Zone – Dragostea Din Tei FM-84 and Ollie Wride – Running In The Night
Geth and I were late last night because we were out at a synthwave night for a birthday party, so we had a slow morning to start the Easter weekend. We had hot cross buns for breakfast and then went to Asda to choose our Easter eggs. Other than that it’s been a fairly quiet day, and I’m just getting on with a couple of bits and pieces of writing this evening.
A run and a bit of shopping in town tomorrow, but mainly it’ll be me and my sofa again!
Thursday OOTD: nice to get dressed up for a night out! Dress unknown brand (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), belt H&M (2017), tights Primark (2017), shoes Office (2018).
Friday OOTD: no such thing as too dressed up for Asda! Sunglasses Jasper Conran (2018), blouse Richard Shops (vintage 1980s, bought at vintage fair 2018), jacket Primark (2018), bag CXL by Christian Lacroix (2018), skirt Chicwish (2018), shoes Office (2018).
Today’s earworm playlist:
Hothouse Flowers – Don’t Go The Undertones – My Perfect Cousin Ludwig van Beethoven – Symphony No. 5 Ta Mara & The Seen – Affection FM-84 and Ollie Wride – Running In The Night Ariana Grande – God Is A Woman Lil’ Nas X – Old Town Road Duran Duran – Sound Of Thunder
After a whirlwind morning of extra clients showing up with emergency day job work, my usual treadmill run, getting away with only half a pound gain at Slimming World (I have not been good at staying on plan this week so I’m okay with that!), finishing the day job work I’d actually planned to get done today, and getting a small chunk done on my writing project, it is officially Easter holidays and I am off out for a Maundy Thursday night out tonight! Will update properly tomorrow.
Today’s earworm playlist:
Stephen ‘Tin Tin’ Duffy – Kiss Me Mabel – Don’t Call Me Up Spandau Ballet – Gold Queen – I Want It All Little Mix – Move Ariana Grande – Break Up With Your Girlfriend, I’m Bored Westlife – Hello My Love The Beatles – Drive My Car Cast of Chicago – Cell Block Tango
New Galloway is one of those places where the Google Street View cars don’t visit very often, so the linked image is from 2009, when the box was still red. It’s clearly being very well cared for now!
