Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do - Music - Live Music Lately.

Hi!!!

Good evening. I think I said in my last post that uploads would be back to normal but so far for July... I had one of the busiest and best weeks of my life last week and so I wasn't able to write and upload but I am excited to fill you in this week. I wanted to start at the beginning of the week, which was booked up with live music. Let's begin.

A note here: I had planned for this to go up today earlier this week. I'm editing it now because I simply couldn't publish a music post without taking a moment to reflect on Chester Bennington, the singer from Linkin Park, who has recently passed away. My thoughts are with the band, his friends and family.

Now onto the post.

On Sunday the 9th, I went to Godiva Festival with a certain Elf and one of our close friends. Godiva Festival is held in the War Memorial Park in Coventry, so it's definitely one for my fellow Midlanders.
 It's also free to enter, which is an absolute gift. They have a Rythmn Tent which you will adore if, like me, you are a big fan of ska and other similar genres. It's full of great bands. Then there's the 'main stage' where we caught the end of the Lucy Spraggan set and watched Kate Nash (yep, she's still going haha). The main reason we went was to see The Darkness and they did not let us down at all. If you aren't familiar with them, they are a hair metal/glam rock band who've been making music for at least fourteen years. They are easily one of my favourite acts that I have seen live - they put on such a good show, they have great banter and they care about their audience in a very genuine way. Their set was filled with everything from old to new songs and it was glorious. 

I also finally got to go and see Coldplay with my Uncle B last Tuesday. A few years ago, I was invited to tag along with him but couldn't because of school commitments, and this repeated through sixth form and life and such. Finally, this year I was free and so we went down to Cardiff to see them perform their Head Full of Dreams tour. I finally got one of the Xylobands (they light up automatically during the concert, at different speeds and in different colours) - let me tell you, seeing an entire stadium light up yellow is quite the sight to behold.

 The show is also full of confetti, pyrotechnics and giant balloons, so it is a lot of fun and certainly a memorable performance. We were also able to buy Pringles from the bar and got through several tubs during the gig, which is certainly not a bad thing. Thanks Uncle B for taking me!

As I said at the beginning of this post, I still have plenty of things from last week to fill you in on, and hopefully I'll be doing that over the next few days. I hope you enjoyed reading this.
Have you been to see any live music recently? Do you have any comments or suggestions for future posts? Let me know in the comments.
Thanks so much for reading.

I hope your day is wonderful!

GingerSnaps xxx 

So, To Sum It All Up - October in Photographs.

Hi!!!

In October, I got a new phone. Finally. It's only taken me a year of dealing with one that wasn't working properly to actually get myself to the Carphone Warehouse to upgrade it. I now have a very pretty rose-gold Samsung Galaxy S7. One of the reasons I chose it was its snazzy camera - it is so good! - and I've been playing around with taking photos on it all month. I thought I'd put some into a little autumnal photo essay to share with you all. Its also a bit of an October summary, which is nice.

One perk of getting the bus everyday (yes there are some...) is that I get to walk through some very pretty places to get to the bus stop.

 I love walking and I love being outside so the parks and tree lined roads are always a highlight of my day.

I've been spending quite a lot of time in the house as the nights draw in.

 My room has seen more blankets and books joining the crew, the fan in my bedroom being packed away (yay!) and the living room has been home to board games and even more cups of tea than normal.
 

I've made a little routine of reading on weekday mornings rather than getting dressed straight away which has been nice. I'm currently reading Atonement by Ian McEwan, and I'm about half way through - it is a great read - so points to me!

Oh also, I got glasses this month - I'm short sighted (recently diagnosed). I don't wear them while reading, but they make a nice addition to photos of books, so never mind, haha. Mine are from Vision Express, just in case you were wondering.

I went on a little trip out to Leamington Spa with the familia and  this month on one of my days off (massive YES to days off) and I took some pictures of the autumnal sights in my beloved Jephson Gardens (and made friends with a squirrel).

It is beautiful at all times of the year, but would definitely encourage you to take a trip out this autumn, especially if you're Midlands based like me, because its even more lovely.

I spent some time with my family a few weekends back. It was lovely to see everyone - I hadn't seen some of my cousins in a year which seriously needed to be fixed. I watched Spirited Away for the first time with the littlest ones, played Uno and Snap, ate lots of cake and did a bit of a makeup master class with one of my older younger cousins (did that make sense?). Anyway, it was loads of fun and thanks to my Auntie for having us and everyone else for carving out time to spend with us.

We popped into Hemel Hempstead and St Albans while we were visiting, as we always do, and I did some serious shopping in Hemel Hempstead at TKMaxx, as well as other places. And then in St Albans, we went to the cathedral, which we have done once or twice before - it is such a lovely place to walk around and take in, as are the grounds.

A trip to the Watford Palace theatre was also something we managed to fit into our weekend - we went to see Arms and the Man on Friday night. It was an excellent production (as many are at the Palace), the actors were great and I laughed a whole lot which is always good.

Then, we travelled back home because I had tickets to go and see Jake Bugg at the O2 Academy in Birmingham, which had been bought for me for my birthday (thanks Uncle B!). It was such an amazing gig, and I had such a great time. The set list was fantastic and all my favourites were played and Jake's performance was outstanding (vocals, guitar and personality wise). A major highlight of this year.

 

And then, as it does every October, Halloween happened. Look at the coffee table display for the living room - isn't it super cute?

 

 

 

We had a little family get together with some very nice food, a fire going in the fire pit and some fireworks. When we do fireworks in our family, the policy is 'go big or go home' so the grass is looking a little worse for wear but the neighbours got to see a great display (as did we!). Oh and the next day we all met up again for a huge Sunday lunch.

It was loads of fun - thanks everyone!

So, I hope you liked this post! It was quite different from anything I've done before but I really liked putting it together and looking back on what was a great month.

What did you get up to this October? Did you enjoy this post? Do you like photo based posts as much as me? Got any comments or suggestions for future posts? Let me know in the comments.

Thanks ever so much for reading. Oh and I hope you had a gloriously lovely and sparkly Bonfire Night last night!

I hope your day is spectacular!

GingerSnaps xxx