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

Just gone for a cruise!

So recently I haven't been too punctual in keeping my aim of posting at least every two weeks. Excuse my lack of posting but I actually managed to get an AMAZING deal with Thomson to go on a cruise last minute. It was the 'Ancient Affair' itinerary. It departed Cyprus and then made its way to Marmaris and Alanya in Turkey, then onto Santorini in Greece and then to Ashdod in Israel. The cruise was exceptional and I chose it because it stopped off at Santorini and more importantly, Ashdod. This was the gateway to Jerusalem, the Dead Sea and Bethlehem. All of which I visited. 

I'm going to break my blogging posts up as the post will be too long but I shall start with the first leg, consisting with the ports of Turkey.

After boarding the Thomson Spirit, Brandon and I made our way to our room and unpacked.

Brandon standing by our enormous ship.

The first port of call was Alanya and we didn't plan anything with the ship to do anything so we got off and had a walk around. 

It was really a picturesque place and a lovely day.

Once walking round the town, we made our way through the bazaars full of clothing, bags and shoes! It was really very very tempting. Brandon and I then walked towards the castle. We realised there were two ways of getting up to it, and naturally, Brandon chose the complex way up!

The stairs up to the castle.

The view from the top!

I would definitely recommend doing this in Alanya and to not do the tour with the ship. We had a great day, and the weather was perfect so it wasn't too hot to climb!

The viewing point at the top.

That evening we joined in with the ship's entertainment and played bingo. Despite not winning we still had a laugh. We set sail for the next port which was to be Marmaris.

We got to Marmaris around 8am, and we chose to get off the ship at around 11am as we weren't leaving until 7pm that evening. 

The ship stops on the opposite side to where the Old Town is. There is a lovely walk round from the terminal through the Marmaris Marina. I loved this as the walk was interesting looking at all the yachts that were tied up there! The walk was around 15-20 minutes.

Lots of yachts all from the USA to New Zealand! 

It was a beautiful day, but we decided that we would try to go to a Turkish Bath. We managed to find a ticket booth, and there we got an amazing bargain for £10, which included the transfer from the ticket booth to the hotel and back. I would definitely recommend this to anyone, it was a relaxing place, which included the sauna, hamman, and then an oil massage. 

With lots of time to spare after the Turkish Bath, we continued to walk along the promenade and again went through the parade of shops, there we both picked up a bargain or two. Haggling and paying in sterling, which the shopkeepers seemed to prefer!

A photo to finish the end of the day in Marmaris.

We decided not to go to Marmaris Castle because we had visited Alanya fort the day before, but I would recommend stopping by the Castle as at dinner, a few people mentioned the lovely views from the top.

I would definitely return to Turkey. In some ways, I preferred Alanya to Marmaris because I felt the latter had a more rivera and european style to it. Whereas, Alanya still felt very Turkish. However, I would also go back to Marmaris!

Have you visited either places? What did you do there?

Kirsty 

xxx