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Christmas – Over Too Quickly

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Reading Time: 2 minutes
Christmas Presents Wrapped
The Presents for Others Wrapped
 Christmas snuck up on me this year. Like a cat stalking it’s prey it pounced on me, causing a mad panic to get everything ready in time.

For starters Christmas cards didn’t get written or sent due to a bout of illness. The fibre optic tree was a last minute purchase and while most of the presents were ordered online, I had to dash out to the shops for a few people I’d forgotten about.

I was still wrapping the presents on the week of Christmas. Food wise, I had to go shopping with Steve for our Christmas dinner and arrange what time I had to be at mums for their christmas dinner. The prep. felt completely chaotic and stressful this year.

But Christmas Day came and it was all worth it. It was a wonderful day, starting in the late morning at mum’s watching my two year old nephew open his presents with his dad (Neil – my brother). Seeing and spending precious time with my family is always my favourite part of the day.

Then it was home for my first Christmas dinner with Steve and an exchange of presents. A quick nap followed before heading back to my mums.

Back at my mums, I had my second Christmas dinner with mum and her partner (Ian). Mum and Ian had opened their presents off me earlier and seemed pleased. I opened my presents from them, before heading back home to spend the night reading. Time seemed to speed up and the day flew by; it was over far too quickly for me.

I got lots of great presents this year:

My Christmas Presents
Presents People Bought Me

The theme of my presents seemed to be: minions (yay!), chocolate (double-yay!), smellies (tripple-yay!) and stories in the form of books & DVD’s (quadruple-yay!).

Hope you had a great Christmas!

Antony

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Getting Into The Festive Spirit: Manchester Christmas Market

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Manchester Christmas Market Manchester Christmas Market Singing Tree

Manchester Christmas Market Bar It’s become a tradition that once a year, around this time, I go to the Manchester Christmas Market for a mooch around and a Bailey’s latte.

At the weekend, my friend and I completed this tradition together. Considering it was the end of November, it was relatively warm and the sun shone brightly – at times blinding our vision.

We arrived about midday and it wasn’t overly crowded (top left photo).
We started at the stalls straight outside of Manchester Victoria Train Station and began to make our way towards St. Ann’s Square and the City Hall Square. Along the way we saw a singing Christmas Tree (top right photo).

The stalls either sold food or gifts. The food choices were very varied from delicacies to more mainstream dishes. Generally most of the food stalls smelt devine.

The gift stalls had some lovely trinkets, some unique and original products (that would make perfect presents for Christmas), but also some over-priced tat.

Manchester Christmas Market Bailey's Coffee

Midway through the markets my friend and I managed to get seats at a coffee stall (above: left hand column), where we were able to enjoy our drinks. I had the Bailey’s latte as always (above: right hand column) while my friend had his Bailey’s white coffee. As we drank we talked, about many different things including: Christmas, our plans for 2014 and tablets (the Kindle & the iPad Air).

As the afternoon got later, going into early evening, the markets got busier and busier. I had expected that it would get quieter as it got later, but I was wrong. It felt like we were sardines (below: left & right). We had a great time, but maybe next year I’ll avoids the crowds by going midweek.

Manchester Christmas Market Giant Santa / Town Hall Manchester Christmas Market Crowds

Blog soon,

Antony

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Stephen Lynch in Manchester: A Night of Awesomeness, Laughter and Fun

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Reading Time: 4 minutes
Stephen Lynch Ticket On Thursday, my cousin Jenny and I went to see Stephen Lynch at Manchester Academy 2. We had tea out and then as we walked to the venue had several near death experiences.

Cyclists rang their bells and flashed the lights as they came towards us at a frighteningly fast pace. We jumped out of the way. Then we saw this on the floor:
Near Death Experience LOL!
Stephen Lynch Stage Yes, we were walking on the cycle lane. We hadn’t noticed as a few of the street lights were out.

We safely arrived at the venue, queued, bought drinks and then took our seats in the auditorium.

The gig started with a burlesque dancer as the warm up act. Much to the delight of the audience who showed their appreciation through wolf whistles, whooping and thunderous applause:
Stephen Lynch - Burlesque
Stephen Lynch - Burlesque

Next a woman came onto the stage and sang about a box of wine. Then three men came onto the stage and I thought it was another support act. But dressed in thick-framed glasses and a union jack jumper was the man himself, Steven (Photo Below: Left).

Stephen Lynch LIVE Stephen Lynch LIVE

The audience went wild with applause when they realised it was him and I think I even heard a few over-excited women scream. He had some humorous banter with the audience and fellow performers, before he got on with the show.

Stephen stripped off his jumper, undid the buttons on his black shirt to the sound of the audience whooping, whistling and applauding. He revealed red nipple tassels. I only managed to get a decent photo of him buttoning his shirt back up (Photo Above: Right). Stephen can unbutton his shirt anytime, as he’s #sexy.

Stephen Lynch LIVE One of his first songs was Queer Tattoo. Afterwards he said that he meant the old meaning of the word queer and said to his audience: “Don’t use it bad.” Which earned him a massive whoop from me.

A few songs into the show, a member of the audience was being far too rowdy and was constantly heckling Stephen. They were being blatantly disrespectful. They were annoying Stephen as well as the rest of the audience.

Stephen responded brilliantly threatening to kick them out and added: “You’re ruining it for everyone. You’ve all paid £20 to enjoy the show.” The audience was with him and showed their support with an applause. Thankfully whoever it was shut the hell up after that.

Stephen Lynch LIVE Stephen talked about his new album Lion. He explained that there’s lots of duets on it as he loves the sound of the mixed male and female vocals. He played some tracks off this album along with some classics including:

  • Craig
  • Dear Diary – Anne Frank (he also added two new: Rihanna & Steve Irwin)
  • Vanilla Ice Cream
  • Priest
Stephen made the audience laugh frequently. In-between laughing, I smiled throughout the show. I don’t think I’ve ever smiled throughout an entire show before. He has a truly wicked sense of humour.

It was great to hear the audience sing along in the second half, not just the classics – but some of his new songs as well.

Stephen departed the stage at the the end of the show and the audience repeatedly banged their feet, signalling their desire for an encore. The booming feet felt like an earth quake and the volume was deafening. Stephen came back for his encore and played a few of his classics such as Ugly Baby.

Stephen Lynch LIVE
Stephen Lynch LIVE The show was quite tame compared with what I had expected. There was little mention of drugs and sex. I think it was a deliberate choice.

Perhaps he was worried about the uptight british audience (we were anything but!)? Or perhaps it was about him maturing now that he has a wife and child? Who knows? But it didn’t matter as it was still a show filled to the rim with awesomeness.

If you’re a fan of Stephen Lynch or his songs, you must go and see him. He is superb live: funny, entertaining and has a fantastic voice.

Thank you Stephen and come back soon.

Blog soon,

Antony



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Film Review: Percy Jackson – Sea of Monsters

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Reading Time: 2 minutes
percy-jackson-sea-of-monsters-poster Earlier this week mum & I went to watch Percy Jackson – Sea of Monsters at the cinemas. It’s the second film in the Percy Jackson series. It starts by telling the story of Thalia, daughter of Zeus, who was attacked by a Cyclops while heading to the half-blood camp (a place for sons and daughters of the Olympian Gods & Goddesses). Rather than die she became a tree that generates a magical barrier, offering vital protection to the camp.

Percy (Logan Lerman) son of Water God Poseidon, is worried about being a one-hit wonder until tree Thalia is poisoned. The only way to save Thalia – and the camp is to get the Golden Fleece. So Percy sets out with Annabeth (Alexandra Daddario), Grover (Brandon T. Jackson) and his new Cyclops half-brother Tyson (Douglas Smith) on their quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece.

But Luke (Jake Abel) Percy’s enemy is back. Luke wants to revive Kronos to take revenge on the Olympian Gods and Goddesses who he feels have abandoned him and the rest of the half-bloods. Luke needs the Golden Fleece to revive Kronos. So Percy and Co must retrieve the Golden Fleece from a mean Cyclops, stop Luke from reviving Kronos and save Thalia. And that’s exactly what they do.

Percy’s character felt one dimensional and was overshadowed by the depth of some of the other minor characters. I couldn’t tell whether this was because of the acting or storyline. The storyline didn’t have enough tension and there was no sense of any real peril.

I watched the trailer beforehand (see below) and expected a number of water/under water scenes. There were some, but not as many as I had expected.

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The CGI effects were amazing. Mum and I watched it in 2D, in 3D the effects would have been incredible – especially in the final scenes.

The film was OK and an easy watch. It entertained me and kept my attention. With more work on the basics (storyline, character depth, character interaction and directing) it could have been phenomenal. Overall it just wasn’t as fantastic as I hoped it would be.

Review soon,

Antony

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