S Club 7!

Never had a dream come true...

Until yesterday, when the day finally arrived for me to see my favourite childhood band. Brandon had bought me tickets for Christmas and I was so excited to see them, ever since the last show I saw at Docklands! But before I tell you all about the gig, I'll let you know what I did before the performance in London.

Brandon and I travelled into Liverpool Street earlier in the day to have a walk around as the weather was so lovely. From the station we walked to my ever favourite cake shop: Hummingbird Bakery to pick up two cupcakes, one for me and one for my mother. I got a #RHSChelsea themed cupcake as I am taking her to the Chelsea Flower show on Wednesday, which I bought for her as a Christmas present! 

We then walked towards Spitalfields Market and, once inside, we were asked whether we wanted to make a Mojito. Of course we said yes and got in line to make our mouth-watering Mojito. We had to do everything ourselves and even got to keep the cup!

Brandon's tasted better than mine... unfortunately :(

We then walked further towards Brick Lane. I found some AMAZING bargains in a pop up shop with the brand called Oh My Love London. The prices were slashed and I purchased some beautiful clothes for summer. On the way back to the station, Brandon wanted to try coffee from this place called Department of Coffee and Social Affairs. I had a Latte and it was truly amazing. Brandon ordered a Flat White and we sipped these on the overground as we made our way to the O2.

The two cute cups of coffee!

Once arriving at the O2, we had a bite to eat and then went to Sky Backstage to get a drink before heading into the arena!

We felt as though we were on the red carpet.

The performance was phenomenal, S Club performed all the songs I expected them too and each of the artists in the band were given 5-10 minutes to show the audience their worth within the band. I found that Jo O'Meara was the lead singer and held the band together throughout the show. I was disappointed at first to hear that Paul Cattermole would be singing the acoustic version of 'Reach', until rest assured, the gang sang the 'true' song at the end of their gig, along with 'Never Had a Dream Come True' and 'Don't Stop Movin'. The seats were brilliant and I was able to take some brilliant photos and videos!

The band popping up at the start of the gig.

Rachel Stevens even performed her solo songs which was very exciting and brought back lots of memories! Unfortunately, Tina Barrett didn't do it for me, and I believe that she performed very poorly. Despite this, it did not drag down the quality of the show, as they quickly pushed back into the hits they shared in the 2000's!

Dance, Dance, Dance.

Here's a video I took of one of my most favourite songs:

Overall, I had a lovely day and an even better evening. I'm so sorry to Brandon who was sitting next to me to hear the ordeal of me singing along to every song. 

However, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who was and is a fan to go and see them, they sing so well and entertained me the whole hour and forty five they were on stage! As ever with all trips to the O2, it was a very easy train ride home, which makes the gig a lot more accessible to get to!

Kirsty

xxx

Day in London with Lucy

On Saturday my sister and I headed into the city for the day. With our parents currently away and the freedom to make our own plans, we decided to go into town early before seeing McBusted later that evening.

We got the C2C into West Ham and headed towards EC1 (Brick Lane, Hoxton, Spitalfields) and arrived within good time to look around. The first place we went to was the Beigel Bar on Brick Lane. This brings back so many fond memories as a child. Our parents always used to take us here to get a smoked salmon bagel or hot salt beef. We also got two doughnuts, filled always with lots of jam!

The Bagel bar

Once stopping by here to buy a dozen bagels to take home, we carried along the high street. We found alcoves of thrift shops and cubby holes of warehouses FULL of unique clothing lines and international foods. We then went to look for the Hummingbird Bakery to get cupcakes for our dessert later that evening!

The entrance in Shoreditch

One of the lovely cakes inside.

Before entering the arena, Lucy and I went to Pizza Express, where we devoured a pizza!

How beautiful does it look!

We had a cocktail at All Bar One, then made our way to our seats in the arena. We did not have to wait too long for the band to come on as we did not see the supports. They played some of their new songs but their old songs were best!

This was their set:

And this was at the end of the night:

It was a great day and I will definitely be going back to Brick Lane when I have money to spend!

Have you had a day out recently?

Kirsty

xxx

Valentines Weekend

My workload has been so busy recently with essays to be completed and a busy seminar season, there has been a lack of sharing on my blog. I will try to update you with what I have been up to over the last few weeks!

On 12th February, Brandon and I flew to Amsterdam for a weekend away exploring in another city. We departed from London Southend which was so much quicker travel wise, as I usually go to Stansted to get my flight back to Glasgow.

Taxiing to the runway.

Above the clouds!

We arrived early Thursday evening and checked in to our hotel, ready to explore the next day.

On the Friday we wandered around all that felt like the whole of Amsterdam the amount of walking we did! We stayed just off Dam Square and so we walked through here everyday to get to the different places. 

Dam Square with the Royal Palace in the background.

We visited numerous shops, many where I longed to buy all the clothes in the shop. The only thing stopping me was the number on the price tag! We also found a lovely teashop that sold the most amazing cakes and had a view where we could just watch the world go by.

The cupcakes were so lovely!

On Saturday evening, we went into Dam Square and got the tram to this restaurant Brandon had booked. It was lovely and we were spoilt by a four course meal and entertainment, consisting of poetry and acoustic music.

The starter was my favourite, usually I don't do salads!

The singer entertaining us for the evening.

On Saturday before dinner, we also went for a canal ride. It was so pretty, and lovely to see the city in the dark. 

The canals were so lovely with the lights around the bridge!

On Sunday afternoon we found a gap and we had been told that if we get a chance we should go to the Sex Museum, soooo... we found it on google maps and made our way to the tiny museum!

yeah.. me, a penis and bran

It really was one of the most obscure things I think I have ever been to! As hilarious as it was, I can't believe how popular this place was!

However, in the evening, we made our way to the Ice Bar! It was so fun, but very, very cold and I didn't manage to make it the full 20 minutes inside! We first had cocktails though as we arrived early. I had a Sex on the Beach and Brandon had a Mojito!

Our cocktails before heading inside the Ice Bar!

It was a lovely weekend and it ended really nicely by going to the Zoo on Monday, something which I love! We managed to see the elephants, giraffes and lions, amongst other mammals and sea creatures. We also went to a planetarium.. although this was in Dutch, it didn't stop us seeing some of the most amazing views by staring above!

I did not want to leave, but unfortunately we had to go back to reality.

Until next time!

Did you get up to anything nice over the Valentines weekend?

Kirsty

xxx