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A Wonderful Wedding and The New Fantastic Beasts Film

By Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Love & RelationshipsNo Comments
Sue-and-Iain-Wedding-November-2018

Sue & Iain’s Wedding Was Wonderful.

 This weekend I attended a wonderful wedding. My Auntie Sue and Iain, her significant other for more than a decade, got married on Saturday (17/11/2018).

The ceremony took place in a lodge in a local park. The ceremony was lovely and emotionally touching. The groom and his best man had personalised cufflinks with images of deceased loved ones on. The bridal party had images of deceased love ones attached to their flowers.

Afterwards we went outside for photos. The day was bright, with clear skies and only a little cold. Then it was off to a venue to eat.

The venue had been decorated in a Beauty & The Beast theme with a high level of attention to detail.

After the meal there was an opportunity to talk, drink (the bar was open from our arrival), allow brief speeches and be entertained by a superb singer. Many took the opportunity to offer the happy couple their best wishes and blessings for the future.

The evening arrived as did some more guests. There was plenty of entertainment: face painting for the children, a Caricaturist doing quick portraits of Sue and Iain and many other of the wedding guests, a DJ, a soft-of sweet stand, a sort-of photo booth, the opportunity to write in the guestbook and the opportunity to write wedding wishes on wooden hearts that were posted into a frame.

Everyone at the wedding party was relaxed, enjoyed themselves and celebrated Sue and Iain’s commitment to one another. It was essentially a celebration of their love for one another. I felt fortunate, privileged and honored to be invited to share their special day.

On Sunday, mum and I went to the cinemas to see Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Gindlewald.

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Fantastic Beast: The Crimes of Grindelwald (cinema poster).

The film was awesome and well worth the wait. I’m taking part in the #ProtectTheSecrets, so I can’t write more about my thoughts. As doing so would lead to me giving away plot points.

Blog soon,

Antony

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Sunday 18 November 2018

Matilda at Manchester Palace Theatre

By Friends & Family, Gigs & Shows, Happiness & JoyNo Comments

At the weekend, my mum, Kelly, my mum’s friend and her daughter went to see Matilda at Manchester Palace Theatre. We arrived before the matinee performance and had lunch out.

In Matilda the cast, mostly made up of children, were fantastic. The set was superb. The storyline followed that of the film. I’m not sure how closely it follows the book, as I’ve never read it.

The songs were good, but the show lacked any defining and memorable songs. Usually in a musical there is at least one catchy and memorable song. For example in Wicked you have defying gravity. In The Rocky Horror Show you have Time Warp and Sweet Transvestite. In Sister Act you have Take Me To Heaven and Fabulous, Baby!

Overall Matilda was an enjoyable show for children and adults alike. Here are some photos:

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Matilda Poster.
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A Lego Matilda.
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Matilda Stage (1).
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Matilda Stage (2).

Blog soon,

Antony

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Monday 22 October 2018

The Spectacular Shania Twain Live at Manchester Arena

By Friends & Family, Gigs & Shows, Happiness & JoyNo Comments
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My mum, her friends and I went to see Shania Twain at Manchester Arena.

 My mum and some of her friends had planned to see Shania Twain at the Manchester Arena last weekend. I offered to drive them there, pick them up afterwards and drive them home. I just wanted to make sure they all got home safe.

Then someone dropped out and I was kindly offered their ticket. I felt very fortunate and lucky.

Shania was spectacular. Shania walked through the crowd to the stage like a megastar. The audience sounded rapturous, hands were outstretched to meet hers and flash of smartphones was constant in her face.

Shania’s voice was perfect, her outfits lovely and her charisma shone for all to see. The chorography was reasonable and performed without mistake by backing dancers. The stage light show was fantastic, but the stage set and props were sparse.

Throughout the show Shania appeared to want to get close and personal with the twenty one thousand strong audience. She did this by inviting audience members to the stages in between songs, chatting with them and by allowing them to take selfies with her.

Shania spoke warmly to the audience, as if we were close friends. Here are some more photos from the gig:

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The stage lighting was fantastic, although the set was very sparse.
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Another photo of the stage lighting.
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Shania (1) – Photo of video screen.
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Shania (2) – Photo of video screen.
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Shania (3) – Shania with a cowboy hat on. Photo of video screen.
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Shania (4) – Shania with a cowboy hat on. Photo of video screen.
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Shania (5) – I love this pose. Shania with a cowboy hat on. Photo of video screen.
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Shania (6) – Shania sat on a step. Photo of video screen.
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Shania (7) – Shania sat on a small stage at the back of the arena.
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As Shania sang You’re Still The One the audience lit up the arena with the torches on their phones.

Blog soon,

Antony

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I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Thursday 27 September 2018

The Superb Blackpool Zoo – Get CLOSE to the Animals

By Friends & Family, Happiness & Joy, Nature3 Comments

Yesterday a good friend, her son, two of his friends and I went to Blackpool Zoo. It was raining heavily, but we didn’t let the rain dampen our spirits.

Blackpool Zoo is a superb Zoo, I can’t believe I’ve never visited it before. It is the perfect size, allowing you to see everything in a day at a stroll.

Blackpool Zoo has all the animals you’d expect in a Zoo (plus a few more) and you can get really close to them. The animals look happy and well looked after. Here are some photos from the day, along with my comments, click any photo to see the full size:

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The Elephants – Indoors sheltering themselves from the rain.
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The camels didn’t seem to mind the rain or the temperature that was significantly lower than their natural environment.
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Blackpool Zoo has Amazonia an exhibit where you can walk freely in an enclosure with monkeys and other wildlife from South America. It transports you into a rain forest like environment and is where we saw these cheeky little monkeys.
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I saw these gorgeous pink birds and just had to take a photo.
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A white wallaby. I’ve never seen a wallaby in real life, they’re so cute.
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The kangaroos were all taking shelter from the rain. The first time I’ve seen kangaroos. I don’t blame them for taking shelter from the rain, it was bucketing down at that point.
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Sea Lions. The photo was a lucky shot, as they were weaving around and in and out of each other quite quickly. As if they were doing some sort of intricate and improvised dance in the water.
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A giant in the Orangutan world – just look at the size of his face, never mind the rest of him.

I am particularly proud of this awesome photo:

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This photo of a penguin is most probably the best photo I’ve ever taken. The penguin was swimming at great speed, although you wouldn’t have guested. I looked at this photo when I got home and it looks like it was taken by a professional. A total fluke.

Here’s even more photos:

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Blackpool Zoo even has an exhibit of Farm Animals. These animals included two Shetland ponies, goats, donkeys, pigs and sheep (photo is of one of the sheep).
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A pair of attention seeking otters. Wonderfully fun, playful and liked to upstage one another. I love the spirit of these animals.
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Look how close we got to this tiger at Blackpool Zoo. In Chester Zoo I don’t think I’ve ever seen a tiger, let alone been able to get close enough to appreciate its stripy beauty.
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Another of the beautiful tiger. Blackpool Zoo have two tigers from what we saw. The tiger is more than slightly moist because of the rain.
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Lion: *yawn*
Me: I totally understand how you feel. I’ve walked around Blackpool Zoo all day.
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This is how close we got to a Lion. Able to look in its eye and see the intelligence, along with the hunter instinct. He appeared to be eyeing us up as a snack. Blackpool Zoo had two male Lions living in the enclosure together from what I saw. They seemed pretty well bonded and one went and groomed the other while we watched.
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Quickly becoming my favourite animal, the giraffes. What I love about giraffes is that every time I’ve politely called over to one (in different Zoos I might add), they come over. They look at me with their big black eyes and some times, if I’m really lucky, they let me take a photo before they walk off.
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Another photo of the giraffes. I had politely called out to the one in the foreground.

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Essential Info

  • Parking: There is an onsite car park, with overflow parking. It is charged reasonably at £2.50 for the day.
  • Opening Times: Vary throughout the year, click here to see opening times.
  • Admission Prices: Vary throughout the year, but are cheaper if you buy them online.
  • Facilities: Toilets, two gift shops, a cafe, a Starbucks Coffee at the entrance, a small train that takes passengers (for a charge) from one end of the Zoo to the other, an indoor children’s play area (separate to Zoo and doesn’t require Zoo entry), experience days.

Chester Zoo VS Blackpool Zoo
I couldn’t help but compare my many visits to Chester Zoo with my experience in Blackpool Zoo. Chester Zoo could learn a few lessons from Blackpool Zoo including:

  • Have more of the bigger and more popular animals. Chester Zoo’s selection of big and popular animals is pitiful when compared with Blackpool Zoo.
  • Ensure good viewing opportunities for visitors in enclosures. Blackpool Zoo have done this really well. It makes visitors feel that they can get really close to the animals. Chester Zoo hasn’t got this right.
  • Make it realistic to visit everywhere in the Zoo in one day. Currently to see everything in Chester Zoo you need about a day and a half of rushing around.

We had a brilliant time at Blackpool Zoo and I would highly recommend it to you all.

Blog soon,

Antony



I aim for posts on this blog to be informative, educational and entertaining. If you have found this post useful or enjoyable, please consider making a contribution by Paypal:


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Sunday 9 September 2018
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