Parklife 2013

Day 2

Ill be honest, after the disaster of the first day, I wasn't too thrilled at the prospect of round two, but I forced myself to get ready, and got a lift with Mo into town to meet Ellie and the other guys I was going with. The weather was beaut again, so we headed to the park, but sat outside the gates for a while having a few drinks in the sunshine before heading in.

The first thing we did was go on the big wheel, which I wasn't too bothered about, but I'm so glad I did as the view was amazing! Toddla T Sound were on as we were on it, and the crowd were insane so we had fun watching from above and rocking out in our little pods to it! Afterwards we went to get some drinks and saw a bit of Iggy Azalea's set, which isn't my cup of tea, but she was really going for it on stage and had some brilliant dancers so it was a good show. The first act we properly saw was Joker, who got the day off to a good start with some awesome tunes that got us bouncing around. Then we went across to the Now Wave tent to see Liars, who I hadn't heard of before, but Africa and Phil who we were with rated them so we hopped along. They were an indie sort of band and were quite good, will be checking out some of their stuff.

I went with Jonny and Dom back to the first tent before Liars finished to catch the end of Benga, as I've always wanted to see him live. The tent was absolutely rammed, and the atmosphere was electric, really glad I bothered crushing through to see him perform. There was a bit of a gap music wise after that, so after a brief stint watching Jurassic 5, who were OK, I went back to the base where everyone was and got some nachos with sour cream and cheese, and sunbathed for a while. I bumped into Benn that I went to Benicassim last year with, so was good to catch up with him, and then I went back inside the Now Wave tent as Everything Everything were next to play.

This for me, was the reason I was looking forward to Sunday, as I love the band's new album,  Arc, and they were amazing at Xfm's Winter Wonderland. The lead singer had an incredible live voice, especially considering some of the songs are really high pitched and difficult to sing. Last time they only played five songs as it was a mini set, so it was great to see a full performance, and in particular when they did Kemosabe and Cough Cough, the crowd went wild.

The Horrors were next, who I have seen twice before so wasn't overly bothered about, but they did a good job nonetheless, and we just sat to one side and chilled out for a bit as the tiredness and alcohol were getting to us at that point!

The final act we saw was Julio Bashmore, and despite only knowing one track, everyone got really into it, and he cranked up the tempo until the final song when everyone went mental, which was a great feeling to finish off the festival on. We left quite quickly but then struggled to get a taxi, eventually paying £9 each (there were 7 of us) just to get back into town from Heaton Park! I was at work the next day so wanted to get a taxi straight home, and luckily everyone else was exhausted so did the same so it wasn't completely extortionate!

Parklife 2013

Day 1

Today I am pretty knackered after a heavy weekend at Parklife Festival in Heaton Park, Manchester. It is the first year I have been, and is also the first year it was held in the current venue, due to a big increase in performers/ attendees.

On the Saturday I went with Abi and her brother, and we were lucky enough to get a lift in, so escaped the crowds (and the hassle of a car crashing into the met causing them to be cancelled!) and we were in the venue for 1pm. It was quite busy, but to nowhere near the extent it was later on in the day!

The weather was gorgeous, so we spent the first couple of hours lounging around soaking up the rays, and I got a really tasty lamb pitta burger, which was fairly reasonable at £5.50, as it had stacks of proper roast lamb inside, as well as a mint yoghurt sauce. We could hear various performers on around us, but there wasn't a great deal of massively well-known acts on early on, so we decided to save our energy.

The first band we watched were Delphic, who were on the main stage. They came on at 3.15pm, so it was when everyone was starting to properly arrive and the atmosphere was really good. We missed the beginning, but I got to see them do 'Baiya', which is my favourite track off the new album, so I was happy. We had a bit of a dilemma afterwards, as we went to the bar and got split up from Abi's brother Joe, so ended up trying to find him for about an hour, before stationing ourselves near Nandos and hoping he received our text to meet there! The signal inside the park was atrocious, so most people couldn't contact anyone.

Whilst we were queueing for the bar, which we were at for nearly forty minutes due to the lack of people working on it, we heard The Temper Trap perform, and saw a little bit of Rudimental before we finally found Joe. We then went to the Hospitality tent, which was mainly for dance acts, where we saw High Contrast, which definitely cheered us all up and gave us some much needed energy. We went to get some Chinese chicken noodles for tea (they were so good!), and then headed over to the main stage to watch Maccabees.

I saw these guys at Benicassim last year, but didn't really know their stuff, so since getting more into them I was itching to watch them perform live again, and they didn't disappoint. They did a good mixture of older and new tracks, including a couple of my faves, and they always have an amazing crowd reaction, so even Abi and Joe commented that they enjoyed it, despite not knowing many songs.

By this point we were all getting a bit tired, and alcohol was wearing off, so we thought we'd counteract it in one of the dance tents. A French DJ called Madeon, who I was recently introduced to, was playing in the Drop the Mustard tent, and his set was electric! Abi and I got chatting to some guys, who put us on their shoulders too so we got some great views! Straight after him was Fake Blood, who I saw at Beni two years ago with my sister and all her friends, and strangely enough we bumped into them all in there, which was a coincidence. We were all dancing away and having fun and then he finished on his famous 'I Think I Like It', which sent everyone crazy!

We headed out at 11pm once all the music had finished, and Abi's dad kindly picked us up, which saved us lots of drama trying to get home. I was tucked up in bed at 1am, yet my sister got home at 3am and had to ask someone's mum to pick them up!

Weekly Update!

Picnics, Sunbathing & Tequila!

I thought I'd write this today as I'm about to go to Parklife Festival, so will do two separate posts about that early next week. This week so far has been pretty fun as the weather has been actually amazing (I have a tan and everything!) and Aum's been off school so we've had fun going to various places to keep us entertained.

On Monday he had a friend round so we went to Pizza Express for lunch, where I had a Bosca salad, which is garlic mushrooms, baby mozzarella, avocado, roasted tomatoes, spinach and rocket with a balsamic syrup. It also comes with four warm dough sticks with a honey and mustard dressing that are so delicious! Afterwards we went to Stamford Park, and the boys had a kickaround while I soaked up the rays.

On Tuesday we tried another park - Wythenshawe, which was much better than I expected! Not only does it have a massive play area, but a farm, pitch and putt, duck pond, botanical gardens and lovely hall that you can look around. We took a picnic and ate that and then Aum played for a while before we had to go to the country club for his swimming lesson. Afterwards we sat outside to eat tea, which was lovely, I had udon noodles with king prawns, which was heavy enough to be filling, yet quite light for the warm weather, and the soup left at the bottom of the bowl was really flavoursome.

On Wednesday Aum had a tennis lesson so I did a double whammy of a spin class followed by Body Pump, was completely exhausted afterwards! Luckily the afternoon was spent at Anchors Away indoor play area in Wythenshawe with one of Aum's school friends and his nanny which was fun, always nice to have a bit of company! That evening I stayed at Mo's as he got back from a work trip to London.

On Thursday Aum was on a playdate all day so I went to the gym and got my nails done a really nice magenta purpley colour with blue glitter in, as I fancied something a little jazzy for the festival. In the early evening I drove Aum to his grandparents in Oldham and then Mo came to mine for the evening.

Friday was the best day weather wise, so I sunbathed while Aum had his tennis lesson, and then we got some lunch by the pool. I had crayfish bruschetta, which is probably the best dish I have had there so far. There was a mountain of crayfish on each mini bruschetta, which was then drizzled with a pesto style dressing, and there was a basil mayonnaise dipping sauce in the middle. It was also finished with rocket and cress, absolutely amazing. My dad happened to be there so he tried some, and he loved it even though he doesn't usually rate seafood. That evening once I had finished work, I put on a nice summery dress and went for some drinks in Hogans in Hale. Despite driving in and intending sticking to the one glass of prosecco, I ended up leaving my car in favour of many glasses of wine and some tequila shots!

Weekly Update!

Dubstep Spinning, Holiday Booking & A Cheeky Northampton Trip!

This will be short and sweet as I've already written a post on my trip to Hull that took me to Tuesday night. On Wednesday after I had unpacked I took my car for a service and then went to a Body Pump class. As it was my day off I chilled out in the bar afterwards with a protein shake and wrote my journal until my car was ready for collection.

Once I'd picked it up I went home and read for a bit (finally finished my book!) and worked on an article on Disclosure's new album (see previous post). In the evening I did an awesome spin class that had some really good dubstep tunes in it - much more motivational. 

Thursday was back to work, but it's the holidays so not too bad really. In the morning we just chilled out and played on the Wii as they only got back from their holidays quite late on Wednesday so Aum was pretty tired. I wrote my article, then in the afternoon I quickly went for a gym session whilst Aum had a golfing lesson. Once I'd got home I typed up my article and sent it off and then Mo came to stay.

Friday was a gorgeous day, so I took Aum and his friend Max to Stamford Park, and then once he'd gone home we went to the Country Club and he swam outside whilst I had a sunbathe. He was supposed to have a lesson but it was cancelled last minute, which was a shame as I'd have had a swim if I'd have known! We drove home and I finished quite early so went home and sat in the garden until the sun disappeared. Mo came round at 7pm and we ordered a Chinese and booked flights to go on a trip to Majorca, excited!

Saturday I packed quickly for a trip to Northampton to see Geoff and Matt. I got the train at 13.11pm so arrived just after 4pm to enjoy the last of the sunshine in the park. Timna had been there for the Friday so I got to see her briefly before she went back home. We had pizza for tea and went out with some of Geoff's mates to a cocktail bar that did fabulous cucumber gin mohitos, and then went onto a club that had a rock night on - the tunes were incredible!

Sunday I was pretty hungover but perked up after a sleep on the train home. Mo collected me from Stockport and we went for a wander around Lyme Park before going back to mine for a roast dinner and to book the hotel for Majorca. Sun makes everything nicer!