A lovely spring weekend

Well I think it's safe to say spring kicked in with a vengeance this weekend. The sun was shining, birds were singing, the blossom was booming, and I had my new bike. This weekend has been the best in a long time. On Saturday I was able to look after my little nephew Jack which I couldn't have been more excited about (I woke up stupidly early with excitement). When Erica dropped him off he was a bit weary of his surroundings, he hasn't spent much time with James or Rich lately so he clung on like a koala for a while, obviously I loved every second of our cuddle time, but it didn't take long for him to relax and start playing with his new toys until he was ready for his nap. Nap time meant taking him for a nice long walk along the quay while he slept in his buggy, I think it was enough to put James off the idea of kids for a while ha. We met up with Erica and went for a coffee until Jack woke up, then strolled over to the tip for a look in the recycle centre. You can get some serious bargains, we picked up a see saw, wheel barrow and truck for £5,  you can't go wrong at that price so I guess one mans trash really is another mans treasure.

When it was time for Erica and Jack to head home Rich and I picked up our bikes and went for a lovely ride to the Double Locks, it was the perfect weather for it and so nice cycling along with all the other cyclists, walkers, runners out soaking up the sunshine and spring smell in the air. I just hope we get a lot more weather like this because I think I'll be out every evening making the most of the gorgeous (flat) scenery on my doorstep. I don't think I'll ever tire of cycling past a heron fishing in the river or the people gardening in their allotments, it's all so lovely.

Meet Claudia, the new love in my life.

 

I hope you all had a great weekend and were able to get out and enjoy the sunshine.

Sarah
xx

3 Gigs, 3 Cities, 5 Days: Gaslight Anthem/Manchester

The final part of our gig week was a trip to Manchester to see the Gaslight Anthem, which also happened to be on my birthday. Seeing as Manchester is about 250 miles away it was definitely too far to go up and back in a day so luckily we managed to get a bargain room at a Travelodge for £20 and only a stones throw away from the venue which couldn't have been more perfect. 

I somehow dragged my backside out of bed at 5am so we could hit the road at 6am and beat the rush hour traffic, I'm definitely not a morning person so this was a struggle for me but definitely worth it. The drive up was just lovely. We haven't had any proper snow in Exeter this winter but as soon as we hit the midlands it was like driving through a winter wonderland. Everywhere was covered in beautiful thick white snow, thankfully the driving conditions were fine with just a few light flutterings, it was touch and go whether we would have been able to go at all. We arrived at the hotel at about 11am, taking advantage of the free parking and then headed straight into the city center. As we'd been to Manchester briefly last year we'd sussed out where the good shopping areas are so went there first. If you like Camden Market you will love Afflecks in the Northern Quarter, it really is home to all things vintage, retro, punk, kitsch, and just plain awesome, needless to say I was in shopping heaven. The northern quarter is by far the best shopping area if you like quirky independent shops, which I definitely do, plus there were quite a few record shops so I was pretty happy to be mooching around.  

As I expected the Gaslight Anthem did not disappoint. Those guys seriously know how to put on a great show. Their gigs are always in more intimate venues so even if you're stood at the back you're still close enough to get a good view and soak up the atmosphere. The main thing was they played almost all of my favourite songs and ended with Teenage Wasteland by The Who, a bit random but a great cover. If you've not listened to them before I can't recommend them enough and you should check them out right now, go!

It was a long drive home, we hit the friday traffic big time but it was so worth it, even more so when I got home and found that Alice had made me some dinosaur birthday cupcakes, a total win!

Hope you've enjoyed this long post and not fallen asleep, I promise they won't all be this long from now on.

Sarah

3 Gigs, 3 Cities, 5 Days: No 2 Stereophonics

The second leg of our 'gig week' was a trip to Plymouth to see the Stereophonics. As their new album 'Graffiti on the train' is a bit different to their usual sound, so they put on a mini tour at a handful of smaller venues to road test the new music and see how it was received. We'd read a couple of reviews from the previous gigs, mostly good although it sounded like the crowd weren't too impressed at Cheltenham, but we went with an open mind (well I did, Rich loves them either way). 

It's fair to say they didn't disappoint. I hadn't listened to the new album much but it definitely worked live. The crowd seemed to enjoy it just as much as we did and I'm pretty sure most people had a sing song at some point during the gig. Indian Summer and Been Caught Cheating were definitely my favourite songs from the new album, I love the bluesy style of Been Caught Cheating. All in all it was a great gig, after a fairly average support guy they played for 2 hours which was awesome, the only down side was being stuck behind the tallest men in the world wherever we stood, being vertically challenged sucks at gigs!

Rich took a couple of photos of the band...

I'll be back with gig number 3 later this week.

Sarah
xx

3 Gigs, 3 Cities, 5 Days: No.1 Biffy Clyro

Here is a little story about how gig week began.. Rich and I are pretty big music fans and just before Christmas Biffy Clyro announced a UK tour. As they're one of my favourite bands I was straight on to Tickermaster booking our tickets, Rich could have his for his birthday in February as the gig wasn't until March, perfect! What made it even better was that the gig was in Cardiff, so we could meet up with some of my uni friends while we were there, talk about a brucey bonus! 

We headed up to Cardiff mid morning via a trip to Ikea, giving us plenty of time for a mooch around the shops and an amazing milkshake at Ed's Easy Diner before meeting my friends. It was great to catch up with them for a couple of hours over some good old TGI's food, I love that no matter how long it is between seeing each other it's like we've never been apart. Then we popped over the road to the venue and managed to catch the last few songs by City and Colour who were the support, annoyingly they came on earlier than usual so we missed most of their set. 

Biffy were amazing as always. I've seen them a couple of times now and it's fair to say they didn't disappoint. They sounded great, put on a great performance and had a pretty cool stage design. Rich took a couple of photos for me but we were so far back the quality isn't great on my little camera. Enjoy.. 

Juke box at Ed's Easy Diner

Biffy Clyro

I'll be back with part 2 soon.

Sarah
xx

Lately

Hooray spring is finally here, although it didn't feel like it was ever going to arrive for a while there, the longer days, sunshine and spring flowers are FINALLY upon us. Things have been fairly busy in my little world, I had another exam to study for, which I'm pleased to say I finally passed, sadly the next one is booked for the end of may sob. This coupled with the fact that Rich and I had an upcoming 'gig week' to save our pennies for meant staying a little closer to home for a couple of weeks and spending a bit of time exploring the lovely city we live in.

For a change I thought I'd share a couple of photos from what I've been up to lately, because it wouldn't be a real post without being photobombed. So here they are...

Watching: American Horror Story - not for the faint hearted

Lilly sure does love her monkey

Stepcote Hill, Exeter

Inside Exeter Book Cycle (trying to look intellectual)

'The House that moved'

Rich & Grafitti

Me & grafitti

It's a hard life being a cat - Percy

Percy trying to invade Arnie's space = a paw slap

Tulips & Daffs, I love spring

An owl from Amsterdam

Morning stare off

I  love a morning fur invasion

She loves to watch the doggies out of the window

I'm also hoping to devote a bit more time and attention to blogging, including attempting a new layout to try and jazz this baby up a bit (Rich thinks it's a bit dull compared to some of the fancy pants blogs I've shown him). I'd like to attempt so regular posts including things I do on a regular basis to give you more of an insight into my life. If anyone has any tips or can recommend any websites with tips on blog design etc I'd love to hear them.

This weekend Rich and I are at our country retreat aka cat and house sitting at my Dad's while he's away for a couple of days. I love sitting by the window watching the birds, it's so peaceful.

Thanks for reading.

Sarah

xx