I was excited about going to the Bata Shoe Museum with Mum on Tuesday, because I’d been with Geth when we were last in Toronto two years ago. The main part of the museum, which is a history of footwear, doesn’t change much, but they always have really interesting exhibitions on. Two years ago, the exhibitions included a history of men in heels, so I got to see a pair of Elton John’s ’70s platforms and things like that. This year, they included the use of gold in shoes, footwear of the Arctic peoples, and a special exhibition on Manolo Blahnik, who is my favourite shoe designer.
I like the floral mural on the wall too.
It was the above poster that was the first sign we saw of the museum – it hangs on the east side, just before you turn the corner to the entrance if coming from the south.
Spikes were a big thing when these Giuseppe Zanottis were released (I approved), as were peep toe boots (I did not approve).
I remember drooling over the above Zanottis circa 2011/2012, when platforms were still a huge thing. I wouldn’t wear them nowadays, but they’re still very beautiful to look at.
The gold shoes are Bally – I can’t remember the brand of the red boots, but they’re very beautiful.
The above shoes are mid-century. I’d be more likely to wear ones like these than the Zanottis!
The pointed toe on these Manolo Blahniks is just perfect.
These Manolos are among the many that have been lent to the museum for the exhibition. I had to restrain myself from taking pictures of every pair there – we’d have been there for a while!
Instead, I bought the exhibition book, and a postcard. The gift shop guy was trying to get me to buy another Manolo book as well, which had things like the transcript of an interview between Manolo Blahnik and Mary Beard about his historical influences, but it was far too heavy to take back in my suitcase! I’ll get it online instead.
Overall, it was a really good museum trip, and I’ll definitely be back again next time I’m in Toronto. I wonder what exhibitions they’ll have for me then!
I woke up to my alarm at 8am this morning as normal on a Thursday, and had managed to sleep quite well, so I seem (touch wood!) to have nixed my jetlag straight away. We’ll see how I do over the next couple of days.
This morning’s main task was attending my Slimming World group to face the post-holiday music. I’ve put on six pounds during my holiday (ouch) and am out of target range. I know I can lose it again quickly though – just have to be really good this week.
After I got home, I got all my post-holiday laundry done, and then later in the afternoon Geth arrived home sans luggage. His flight turnaround at Heathrow was too tight for the bag to make the connection, so he settled down to wait for news about it and I headed off to Pilates.
It was great to get back to Pilates again – all the stretching was very welcome after a week on holiday. Sadly it was the last class of the course and we’re now on summer break until September – I’m going to have to practise lots at home instead!
After class, I nipped down to Sainsbury’s to pick up my souvenir Now! #100 CD and do my bit for getting it into the album charts tomorrow. Excitingly, Sainsbury’s have a deal on, where you can get Now! #100 for £3 cheaper if you also buy another Now! compilation – so I took the opportunity to grab a copy of Now! #1 as well, which has just had a re-release on CD:
Rod Stewart (just read his autobiography), Tracey Ullman (checking out her new BBC show at the moment) and Duran Duran (my current favourites) all in a row on an album cover? I call that a favourable omen. It is a cracking compilation, to be fair. As for Now! #100, I pretty much only bought it for the updated cute version of the Now! pig on the cover. (That was a lie. I also bought it to commemorate doing my Now! marathon, and to try and get it into the charts.)
I went home to make healthy food for the first time in a couple of weeks, and Geth had news of his bag – they won’t be delivering it till tomorrow. Hopefully it will arrive sooner rather than later.
OOTD: typical comfy Thursday outfit for running about to Slimming World and Pilates class. T-shirt H&M (2018, just bought in Toronto last Saturday!), belt H&M (2017), leggings Under Armour (2017).
Geth had left on the Saturday – he had a conference in Toronto that we had used to schedule a family trip – but I headed off for my holiday the Sunday before last, carrying two very heavy bags that turned out to be a bad idea when I had to lug them up and down a railway bridge near where I live in order to get to the Metro station. After a cumbersome Metro ride, train ride and taxi ride, I arrived at Mum and Dad’s in Edinburgh and managed to get a few hours’ sleep before a 4am wakeup call.
The flight from Edinburgh to Toronto was nice and straightforward – I read my Kindle the whole time – and after collecting our bags and meeting up with Malcolm at the airport, we got a taxi to the Holiday Inn, where Mum and Dad were staying, and I dropped my bag in their room before going to the St. Louis Diner, where Geth was meeting us after his morning conference session.
A couple of ciders later – logged here – I went with Geth to our hotel, the Grand Hotel, where I was really glad to get out of my comfy plane leggings and put on something lighter (Toronto was a bit muggier than Edinburgh had been that morning). The Grand is lovely, and they’d upgraded Geth to a suite, which had an awesome view:
Downtown Toronto, as seen from the Grand Hotel. You can see the very tippity top of the CN Tower, just behind the tallest buildings!
The suite was great – it had a separate bedroom and loads of space for sitting around. After I’d got unpacked, we headed back to the Holiday Inn for a meal to celebrate Mum and Dad’s wedding anniversary:
You’ve already seen this picture in the Now! #100 review, but it’s worth posting again!
The cider they serve at the Holiday Inn is Strongbow, but the bottle looks different in Canada, so I took a picture of it anyway.
Canadian Strongbow bottle.
After some amazing pizza (the pizza at the Holiday Inn is of the perfect texture, and the sauce is insanely yummy), a couple more Strongbows, some cheesecake (see my cheesecake roundup) and a bit of a wait while a heavy thunderstorm was in progress, Geth and I headed back to our hotel, where it turned out the view by night was pretty awesome too:
I love skyscrapers.
Then I got some much-needed sleep. Part two tomorrow!
This first one is pretty dilapidated, but I think it’s weathered beautifully. Not sure if that lacy material is being hung up to dry or is just some rubbish that has caught in the broken window in a very aesthetically pleasing way!
Back in Newcastle this evening after over a week spent in Canada visiting my brother and sister-in-law. I had a wonderful time! I will be updating lots over the next few days with lots of pictures etc. – just have to get over the jetlag first!
Somehow, despite saying after last summer – which involved a busy work period and four weekends on the bounce in August where we were travelling away somewhere or hosting guests – that I wanted to have a much more chilled summer this year, it’s ended up being similarly hectic.
Fortunately/unfortunately work has been quiet during June and July (so I’ve been able to get on with other things, but I’m also a bit broke now). Fortunately/unfortunately this will not be the case during August as I have two huge projects lined up (more money – yay! More stuff to do – argh). However, the house stuff is still ongoing, the now-finished Now! marathon ended up taking up more time towards the end than I thought it would, and Geth and I ended up booking a lot more trips away than we expected. As such, I find myself doing the whole ‘argh! can’t wait till autumn when I can relax a bit!’ thing yet again – and I shouldn’t wish the summer away, especially when the weather has been so nice this year.
Today is yet another hectic day – I’ll update more fully later this week – so I’ll leave it there.
Oh, and I went swimming again this morning. Eight lengths this time, although I think I’m actually getting worse!
I went swimming this morning. In an actual swimming pool.
The reason this is notable is because the last time I swam at all was about five seconds of halfhearted bobbing up and down in the Mediterranean Sea in July 2015. The last time I swam in a pool (or rather, managed to flounder about for about half a length of a ten-metre pool before my chest felt like it was going to explode) was January 2013, when Geth and I were in the Bahamas for our honeymoon.
I did manage a bit more than five metres today. I managed six lengths of what we estimate is a twenty-metre pool, with breaks in between lengths, so a hundred and twenty metres in total. It was still much harder than I expected it to be, given how much fitter I am these days with all the running.
I probably just need a bit more practice (I’ve never been that good at swimming). Not that I’m going to get it any time soon – I barely have time for my running at the moment, let alone swimming as well! I will try and make more use of pools when I’m in hotels though, so that I don’t end up leaving it for another five years.
Having a lovely lazy Saturday not listening to a Now! compilation! Did some parkrun tourism this morning that I will post about more fully later this week, and then Geth and I did some shopping and went for a quick pub visit.
So. Three and a half months, ten and a half solid days of music listening, and 4,020 tracks later, here we are at Day 100, the final day of this Now! compilation marathon. Day 100 means that we have finally reached Now! #100, which has just been released today, 20th July 2018.
Finally, this is the way the world – and my family – looks now, in July 2018. We’re all a bit older, and music is definitely not what it was when the Now! compilations began, but we’re all still here, all together again this week, and all talking about building our collections of houseplants once again.
Here they are, then – the very last summer hits.
(Let’s take a minute to appreciate this awesome celebratory cover. On the top left, we have the pig that featured on the covers of Now! #3 to Now! #5 – well, it’s actually a much cuter version! On the top right, we have an airship with the logo that was used on the covers of Now! #3 to Now! #16. Love the fireworks too! Perfect cover for this special occasion.)
Track 1: Calvin Harris and Dua Lipa – One Kiss
This was number one for quite a few weeks, but it’s not my thing. I find the tune really irritating and a bit repetitive.
Track 2: George Ezra – Shotgun
I like the rhythm on this one.
Track 3: Clean Bandit and Demi Lovato – Solo
Good bit of pop – I quite like the tune. There’s some annoying vocal stuff going on in the chorus though.
Track 4: Ariana Grande – No Tears Left To Cry
Absolutely gorgeous pop tune – I really like this one.
Track 5: Anne-Marie – 2002
Hmm. I do like the clever interpolation on the chorus of a single line – ‘oops, I got 99 problems singing “bye, bye, bye”/hold up, if you wanna go and take a ride wit me/better hit me, baby, one more time‘ – that mixes up the hooks from Britney Spears’ …Baby One More Time, Jay-Z’s 99 Problems, NSYNC’s Bye Bye Bye, Dr Dre’s The Next Episode, Nelly’s Ride Wit Me and Britney Spears’ Oops!… I Did It Again. If you remember the turn of the millennium, it’s very evocative.
I can’t stand the theme, though – and the tune on the verses really annoys me!
Track 6: Jess Glynne – I’ll Be There
Extremely irritating, cloying tune. I don’t know why I always find Jess Glynne’s stuff so grating, but I do.
Track 7: Years & Years – If You’re Over Me
Great bouncy rhythm – this one’s quite fun.
Track 8: David Guetta and Sia – Flames
Annoying tune on the vocals – not keen.
Track 9: Post Malone – Better Now
Another irritating tune.
Track 10: Jonas Blue and Jack & Jack – Rise
I get this one stuck in my head a lot at the moment. I’m not sure why, ’cause the tune’s very uninspired.
Track 11: Liam Payne and J Balvin – Familiar
I really like this one – it’s got a great Latin feel to it.
Track 12: Banx & Ranx, Ella Eyre and Yxng Bane – Answerphone
Good solid pop tune – I love that singalong chorus.
Track 13: MO, Lotto Boyzz and Mr Eazi – Bad Vibe
Nice summery song – quite like this one.
Track 14: Tiësto, Dzeko, Preme and Post Malone – Jackie Chan
Repeated artist alert! We’ve already had Post Malone on track 9.
Ridiculous lyrics, annoying tune on the chorus. It’s got a good beat, though.
Track 15: M-22 and Medina – First Time
Another annoying tune, and the EDM backing track is painfully generic.
Track 16: 5 Seconds of Summer – Youngblood
Great epic rock track – the chorus is awesome. Really like this one.
Track 17: Bebe Rexha and Florida-Georgia Line – Meant To Be
Too country-tinged for me, and I really hate that chorus.
Track 18: Zedd, Maren Morris and Grey – The Middle
Yet another very irritating tune.
Track 19: Khalid and Normani – Love Lies
Beautiful tune – lovely and melancholy.
Track 20: Jax Jones, Mabel and Rich The Kid – Ring Ring
Great atmosphere – quite like this tune.
Track 21: Cheat Codes and Little Mix – Only You
Bit of a dull tune – not a fan of this one.
Track 22: Shawn Mendes – In My Blood
Again, I find the tune really annoying, and I don’t like the theme either.
Track 23: MU4 – You Can’t Hurry Love
Now, this is an interesting way to end the first disc! MU4 won a competition on Good Morning Britain to appear on this Now! compilation. The competition winners were asked to cover the Phil Collins classic, which was the very first song on a Now! compilation – track 1 on Now! #1 back in 1983.
I do like the harmonies on this cover, and the retro feel remains intact, which is great. Obviously I’ll always prefer the original, but this version is not bad.
Track 24: UB40 – Red Red Wine
Okay.
Disc two of this special Now! compilation is not full of new hits, like it usually would be. Instead, it features favourite pop songs that have appeared on Now! compilations throughout the years. As you know if you’re one of the intrepid souls who have been following my Now! marathon right from the start, I don’t usually like it when songs are included that have already been featured on previous entries in the series. However, seeing as this is a special celebration album, I’ll let it slide today!
Red Red Wine first appeared as track 3 on Now! #1 in November 1983. See the link for my review.
Incidentally, seeing as both track 1 and track 3 of Now! #1 have been honoured on this compilation, I wouldn’t have minded a wee shout-out to track 2! The second half of my Now! marathon has not had any Duran Duran for me to love.
Track 25: Phil Collins – Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)
Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now) first appeared as track 8 on Now! #3 in July 1984. See the link for my review.
Phil Collins is getting a good look-in on this celebratory Now! entry!
Track 26: Bon Jovi – Livin’ On A Prayer
Livin’ On A Prayer first appeared as track 25 on Now! #9 in March 1987. See the link for my review.
I’m not sure how I feel about the ’80s being represented on this disc by a reggae track, a ballad and a hairmetal song. Just one synthpop or New Romantic track would have made me a very happy girl.
Track 27: Wet Wet Wet – Love Is All Around
Love Is All Around first appeared as track 1 on Now! #28 in August 1994. See the link for my review.
Interesting to see this one again after recent discussion of Drake equalling the second-place number one longevity record!
Track 28: Spice Girls – Wannabe
Wannabe first appeared as track 1 on Now! #34 in August 1996. See the link for my review.
I think eleven-year-old me would have been thrilled to find out the Spice Girls would be featuring on Now! #100, so thirty-three-year-old me will try not to roll her eyes too much!
Track 29: Oasis – Wonderwall
Wonderwall first appeared as track 24 on Now! #34 in August 1996. See the link for my review.
That’s two tracks for Now! #34, which is interesting! Really, though, Wonderwall should have appeared on a Now! compilation earlier, as it had been released about a year before it made its appearance.
Track 30: Robbie Williams – Angels
Angels first appeared as track 7 on Now! #39 in April 1998. See the link for my review.
Another favourite childhood artist that I would thoroughly have wanted to receive this honour back in the day!
Track 31: Cher – Believe
Believe first appeared as track 3 on Now! #42 in March 1999. See the link for my review.
Good to see Cher on here, though I’ll always prefer her ’80s stuff. (Yes, I know that’s the case with most decade-spanning artists.)
Track 32: Britney Spears – …Baby One More Time
…Baby One More Time first appeared as track 1 on Now! #44 in November 1999. See the link for my review.
Well, it would have been wrong if we hadn’t had at least one of the songs featured in Anne-Marie’s 2002 interpolation on track 5!
In my opinion, the ’90s selection on this disc has been a little more representative than the ’80s selection (it helps that twice as many were included), but it’s a shame that there was absolutely nothing from the early ’90s – a bit of classic dance like 2 Unlimited or Snap! wouldn’t have gone amiss.
Track 33: S Club 7 – Reach
Reach first appeared as track 2 on Now! #46 in July 2000. See the link for my review.
Track 34: Destiny’s Child – Survivor
Survivor first appeared as track 13 on Now! #49 in July 2001. See the link for my review.
Track 35: Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head
Can’t Get You Out Of My Head first appeared as track 1 on Now! #50 in November 2001. See the link for my review.
Track 36: Justin Timberlake – Cry Me A River
Cry Me A River first appeared as track 3 on Now! #55 in July 2003. See the link for my review.
Track 37: James Blunt – You’re Beautiful
You’re Beautiful first appeared as track 1 on Now! #61 in July 2005. See the link for my review.
Track 38: Shakira and Wyclef Jean – Hips Don’t Lie
Hips Don’t Lie first appeared as track 2 on Now! #65 in November 2006. See the link for my review.
Rule The World first appeared as track 2 on Now! #68 in November 2007. See the link for my review.
Track 40: Coldplay – Viva La Vida
Viva La Vida first appeared as track 24 on Now! #71 in November 2008. See the link for my review.
Track 41: Katy Perry – I Kissed A Girl
I Kissed A Girl first appeared as track 2 on Now! #71 in November 2008. See the link for my review.
Now! #71 getting a double look-in as well!
Very representative selection from the ’00s overall – songs from every part of the decade and lots of different genres.
Track 42: Ed Sheeran – Sing
Sing first appeared as track 2 on Now! #88 in July 2014. See the link for my review.
Mind the six-year jump there, Now! compilers! Could have done with fewer ’00s tracks to make room for some more from the ’10s!
Track 43: Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars – Uptown Funk
Uptown Funk first appeared as track 1 on Now! #90 in March 2015. See the link for my review.
My favourite track on this celebratory disc – absolutely deserves to be on here.
Track 44: Justin Bieber – Love Yourself
Love Yourself first appeared as track 2 on Now! #93 in March 2016. See the link for my review.
I’m not sure how I feel about a celebration of thirty-five years and a hundred compilation albums worth of pop music being ended on a Justin Bieber track. They could at least have gone with Sorry, his one good track, which was released around the same time.
Short and sweet from the ’10s, but at least it was more representative than the ’80s selection.
Final note: So, that’s it from me and my Now! marathon, then – well, until Now! #101 comes out in the autumn. I’ll post some stats from the whole thing at some point over the weekend as well, ’cause I love my stats – but other than that, I’m looking forward to having my music listening time back to myself again!
It’s been an interesting few months, and as a pop music geek, it’s really consolidated for me what I already felt about the way chart music has evolved during the course of my lifetime. I’ll always prefer the ’80s stuff, I’ll always cringe when the ’90s stuff reminds me of my childhood, I’ll always think most of the ’00s stuff is really tacky, and I’ll always wish most of the ’10s stuff weren’t such poor quality and so generic.
On many days – especially days when the music was especially terrible and boring – it’s the daily picture feature that has been the most fun. It’s been fascinating and terrifying at the same time to watch my life flash by, season by season.
Finally, surprisingly, after all that, I appreciate the institution of Now! That’s What I Call Music more than ever. I’m actually already looking forward to the next one.
