Hello Eight!
As we all (probably) know, it's Valentine's Day tomorrow. I'll throw it out there, I'm not a fan. It's weird, because I'm SUCH a romantic, and a bit of a cheeseball, I love happy endings, and I cry at most films/soaps/montages/adverts (and what?). I've seen the episode of Friends a million times where Chandler proposes to Monica, and I still tear up. I love engagements, and I love Weddings. I already know pretty much how I want mine one day to be, I know what I want for my first dance and I occasionally worry that I'm gonna have too many bridesmaids even though I'm not engaged, nor am I expecting to be any time soon, and I did this before I was even in a relationship.
Anyway, put simply, I'm a sap. I don't know who to blame, because none of my friends are like this, nor is my Mum. And it's definitely NOT from my Dad. Maybe Disney? But, I am a sap who doesn't like Valentines day much. And I'm not just saying that, I don't like it. When I was younger, and single, it was fun, the anticipation of getting a card, or the should I/shouldn't I of sending one yourself, and one year, the mission impossible of helping my friend send one to a boy in my form without him knowing. Then, as I got a bit older, it just didn't really affect me, I was usually working, or my friends' boyfriends would be away, so it didn't matter. The only time I remember wishing I was part of a couple, was in work when one of the girls' boyfriends sent some flowers to the shop, and even then it was just 'Aww, that's nice, hopefully that'll happen to me one day', rather than 'I'm so LONELY!'
Although it never affected me so much, Valentine's day seems to suggest that everyone is supposed to be in love, and if you're not, then you don't get to celebrate, and I think that's wrong. The best Valentines I've ever had was when I was seventeen and went for a meal with three of my girlfriends', then went to some clubs afterwards, the first time my baby face had ever managed to get in anywhere. Around this time, clubs tend to put on Valentines' parties, or traffic lights parties, were everyone is encouraged to pull. Just a bit of fun, but also potential for a LOT of regrets the next morning, when you remember necking that sweaty, sleazy drunk on the dancefloor.
Valentines Day is JUST A DAY. The 14th February literally means nothing. I don't want to spend my (little) hard earned cash on cheap tat that doesn't mean anything, and I'd love to get flowers from my boyfriend, but I'd love to get flowers on the other 364 days of the year too. I'm in a couple, but I'm not going all out to get dolled up and have a meal at some resturaunt that's gonna be mad busy and full of PDA's. I am, spending tomorrow night with my boyfriend, but it'll be in my PJ's with a pizza and some chicken wings, in front of BBC3.
I'm a sap. But I like being sappy off my own back. I don't even mind cheap tat, but I like giving cheesy gifts when I feel like, rather than because that's when we're supposed to.
Wednesday, 13 February 2013
Tuesday, 12 February 2013
London BABY!
Hello Eight!
A bit of adventure going on in my world recently! For the past five years, I've been the biggest fan of the musical 'Wicked', I know all the songs, the plot, I watched Glee excitedly when I found out Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth would be starring, I LOVE Kristin Chenoweth. I wish I was Kristin Chenoweth. I sang 'The Wizard And I' in my final exam in Performing Arts when I was in Sixth Form, (and nailed it), and I've performed 'Defying Gravity' to my bedroom wall a million times. The only thing I hadn't done, was actually watch it. (Badly filmed snippets on Youtube don't count).
Enter boyfriend, and Christmas.
So, as my belated present, I jumped on the train to London, in 2hours8mins! (Sorry, but that is a tiny amount of time! It takes 2 hours to get to Leeds via coach, and that's not nearly as far).
So from Euston, we just walked, and walked, and walked, and ended up in some Bootle-esque area of London, that was not at all like what I'd imagined. Before we'd gone down, we decided that we'd avoid the tube, Andy worked in London a while back and hated it, and when I'd been down as a kid, I remember just feeling dead claustrophobic, nevertheless, we bit the bullet, it was cold, our bags were heavy and if we wanted to go to Bootle, we could've walked there. Cue us standing by the big map in the train station looking like we definitely weren't from round there, and trying to work out what all the little coloured lines were for about half an hour. But eight, we DID it, and by the end of the trip, we were Tube naturals. And it turns out, I'm a bit of a tube nerd. I find it fascinating how there's so much going on underneath the streets, and how many different tunnels there are. I found myself amazoning a book on the history of the tube today. I think a monster may have been created.
Anyway, we ended up round Oxford Street, which was a lot less like Bootle and a lot more pleasing. Andy showed me where he worked, in some big hotshot building, and we had a little look around the shops before heading to our hotel, which turned out to be the most confusing hotel in the history of the world. We were on the 'second' floor, and by that, I mean we took the lift to the second floor, before climbing a little set of stairs, crossing a hallway, going down another little set of stairs, around a corner, through a door, and up another set. The room was lovely, but the bed had a plastic sheet underneath the bottom sheet (incase of wee?) and was pretty annoying to sleep on as it was so noisy. We had a little nap and then headed to the cutest little Nando's (because who doesn't love a Nando's?), and were going to do the chicken wing challange but chicken winged out. If anyone's ever in the Earl's Court Area though, I'd reccomend it, I know it's just a Nando's, but it was so quick, and delicious, and the staff were lovely.
After Nando's, we headed to the Apollo Victoria for the main event. The bar was a bit pricey, but I expected that, however if I ever go again, I reckon I'd ask my good friend Danielle if I could borrow her bag with the secret vodka pocket in the lining. Our tickets said we were on row 'ZC', so I thought we were going to be at the very, very back, but we weren't, we had really good seats, right in the centre.
I loved it. It was definitely worth the wait, and the cast played their parts so well. Elphaba's always been my favourite, but I absolutely LOVED Galinda/Glinda, and Gina Beck played her perfectly, so, so funny. Now I've seen it, I couldn't imagine her played by anybody else. Louise Dearman who played Elphaba, played Glinda in a previous run (living the dream), but she sounded exactly how Elphaba should sound when singing her parts. Her voice completely reminded me of Idina Menzel's.
Andy said he liked it, though he wished he knew the songs, and it wasn't really his thing. (He didn't realise it was a musical until about two weeks ago), and he made me laugh right at the end, when Glinda said the line, 'I will be known as Glinda the Good', he thought she said 'Glinda the goat.' And that pretty much had me in hysterics through the whole of the finale. Then I picked up my coat upside down and dropped all the change from my pocket, (which seemed to be all of the change in the world). We got a taxi back to Earls Court and had a drink in a little pub before heading back to the hotel.
We'd decided to set our alarms for 8:30am so that we could spend the full day around London before catching our train home, but we're both snooze button fiends, and ended up rushing around packing everything half an hour before check out time at 11. We then put our bags in storage (£8 for a day, not too bad) in the station and headed straight for some lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. I got a (small) burger, and it was the nicest burger I've ever had (I didn't think it was so small though) and it wasn't as pricey as I expected, I'd definitely go again. We had a little look around their merch shop next door too.
We spent most of the day by the Thames apart from a quick trip to Covent Garden (couldn't find the actual market part), and had a go on the London Eye. I've been on before, about nine years ago on a school trip, but I couldn't remember much of it apart from mistaking a telephone pylon for the Eiffel Tower (the shame). I loved it this time though, I loved seeing where everything was and being up above the city. Plus the Pods are really big, so I didn't get claustrophobic.
We had a look in one of the souvenir shops along the front, and I had a pretty embarrassing moment when suggesting a gift, due to my general giddiness/excitement/stupidity I just started picking everything up, and going 'what about this?' Which probably wasn't too funny until I picked up a condom with 'London' written on it and loudly asked if it would be a good present, and holding it up for a good few seconds before realising what it was, and probably going the same colour as a Beefeater's coat.
Before heading home, we HAD to have a go in the arcade by the London Eye. Who can resist a good arcade? They're definitely one of the funnest activities no matter where you are. I challenged Andy to a dance mat contest but changed my mind cos I'd have to probably pick the easy songs, so we settled for a strange, valley shaped version of air hockey, GIANT CONNECT FOUR and multiplayer pacman. I was pink pacman. I was pacgirl. I didn't win :(.
Finally, we headed to the station, to get our sad little train home. I would've stayed for another night, if I could have afforded it, there was still so much to do, but alas, I have no money. Maybe one day eh? We met Andy's friend at Euston and had a hot chocolate with her before heading back, and it was nice to meet the person who put him up for the weeks he had his job down there.
Hopefully I can go back soon, this year at least.
I'll write soon!
See you later, eight :)
A bit of adventure going on in my world recently! For the past five years, I've been the biggest fan of the musical 'Wicked', I know all the songs, the plot, I watched Glee excitedly when I found out Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth would be starring, I LOVE Kristin Chenoweth. I wish I was Kristin Chenoweth. I sang 'The Wizard And I' in my final exam in Performing Arts when I was in Sixth Form, (and nailed it), and I've performed 'Defying Gravity' to my bedroom wall a million times. The only thing I hadn't done, was actually watch it. (Badly filmed snippets on Youtube don't count).
Enter boyfriend, and Christmas.
So, as my belated present, I jumped on the train to London, in 2hours8mins! (Sorry, but that is a tiny amount of time! It takes 2 hours to get to Leeds via coach, and that's not nearly as far).
So from Euston, we just walked, and walked, and walked, and ended up in some Bootle-esque area of London, that was not at all like what I'd imagined. Before we'd gone down, we decided that we'd avoid the tube, Andy worked in London a while back and hated it, and when I'd been down as a kid, I remember just feeling dead claustrophobic, nevertheless, we bit the bullet, it was cold, our bags were heavy and if we wanted to go to Bootle, we could've walked there. Cue us standing by the big map in the train station looking like we definitely weren't from round there, and trying to work out what all the little coloured lines were for about half an hour. But eight, we DID it, and by the end of the trip, we were Tube naturals. And it turns out, I'm a bit of a tube nerd. I find it fascinating how there's so much going on underneath the streets, and how many different tunnels there are. I found myself amazoning a book on the history of the tube today. I think a monster may have been created.
Anyway, we ended up round Oxford Street, which was a lot less like Bootle and a lot more pleasing. Andy showed me where he worked, in some big hotshot building, and we had a little look around the shops before heading to our hotel, which turned out to be the most confusing hotel in the history of the world. We were on the 'second' floor, and by that, I mean we took the lift to the second floor, before climbing a little set of stairs, crossing a hallway, going down another little set of stairs, around a corner, through a door, and up another set. The room was lovely, but the bed had a plastic sheet underneath the bottom sheet (incase of wee?) and was pretty annoying to sleep on as it was so noisy. We had a little nap and then headed to the cutest little Nando's (because who doesn't love a Nando's?), and were going to do the chicken wing challange but chicken winged out. If anyone's ever in the Earl's Court Area though, I'd reccomend it, I know it's just a Nando's, but it was so quick, and delicious, and the staff were lovely.
After Nando's, we headed to the Apollo Victoria for the main event. The bar was a bit pricey, but I expected that, however if I ever go again, I reckon I'd ask my good friend Danielle if I could borrow her bag with the secret vodka pocket in the lining. Our tickets said we were on row 'ZC', so I thought we were going to be at the very, very back, but we weren't, we had really good seats, right in the centre.
I loved it. It was definitely worth the wait, and the cast played their parts so well. Elphaba's always been my favourite, but I absolutely LOVED Galinda/Glinda, and Gina Beck played her perfectly, so, so funny. Now I've seen it, I couldn't imagine her played by anybody else. Louise Dearman who played Elphaba, played Glinda in a previous run (living the dream), but she sounded exactly how Elphaba should sound when singing her parts. Her voice completely reminded me of Idina Menzel's.
Andy said he liked it, though he wished he knew the songs, and it wasn't really his thing. (He didn't realise it was a musical until about two weeks ago), and he made me laugh right at the end, when Glinda said the line, 'I will be known as Glinda the Good', he thought she said 'Glinda the goat.' And that pretty much had me in hysterics through the whole of the finale. Then I picked up my coat upside down and dropped all the change from my pocket, (which seemed to be all of the change in the world). We got a taxi back to Earls Court and had a drink in a little pub before heading back to the hotel.
We'd decided to set our alarms for 8:30am so that we could spend the full day around London before catching our train home, but we're both snooze button fiends, and ended up rushing around packing everything half an hour before check out time at 11. We then put our bags in storage (£8 for a day, not too bad) in the station and headed straight for some lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. I got a (small) burger, and it was the nicest burger I've ever had (I didn't think it was so small though) and it wasn't as pricey as I expected, I'd definitely go again. We had a little look around their merch shop next door too.
We spent most of the day by the Thames apart from a quick trip to Covent Garden (couldn't find the actual market part), and had a go on the London Eye. I've been on before, about nine years ago on a school trip, but I couldn't remember much of it apart from mistaking a telephone pylon for the Eiffel Tower (the shame). I loved it this time though, I loved seeing where everything was and being up above the city. Plus the Pods are really big, so I didn't get claustrophobic.
We had a look in one of the souvenir shops along the front, and I had a pretty embarrassing moment when suggesting a gift, due to my general giddiness/excitement/stupidity I just started picking everything up, and going 'what about this?' Which probably wasn't too funny until I picked up a condom with 'London' written on it and loudly asked if it would be a good present, and holding it up for a good few seconds before realising what it was, and probably going the same colour as a Beefeater's coat.
Before heading home, we HAD to have a go in the arcade by the London Eye. Who can resist a good arcade? They're definitely one of the funnest activities no matter where you are. I challenged Andy to a dance mat contest but changed my mind cos I'd have to probably pick the easy songs, so we settled for a strange, valley shaped version of air hockey, GIANT CONNECT FOUR and multiplayer pacman. I was pink pacman. I was pacgirl. I didn't win :(.
Finally, we headed to the station, to get our sad little train home. I would've stayed for another night, if I could have afforded it, there was still so much to do, but alas, I have no money. Maybe one day eh? We met Andy's friend at Euston and had a hot chocolate with her before heading back, and it was nice to meet the person who put him up for the weeks he had his job down there.
Hopefully I can go back soon, this year at least.
I'll write soon!
See you later, eight :)
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