Weekly Musings

2017 - Week Thirty Five

'It is a poet's curse to be able to write about love but not have it.'

(Jessica Katoff)

For those that read my previous post, you will know that this week started amidst the dregs of Leeds Festival, battered and sleep deprived. I drove the three of us home and then I hibernated on the sofa with Moj and a takeaway Chinese back at mine which was just what the doctor (and hangover) ordered. I was in work on Tuesday and the week passed relatively unremarkably - on Thursday Aum had a playdate so we went to play Paradise Island Crazy Golf at the Trafford Centre and ate lunch at Coast to Coast, I just had a couple of nibbly bits (pretzels and spicy calamari) as I was out for a meal that evening.

That night I met Moj and we went to Bundobust in the city centre, it does vegetarian Gujurat inspired street food and is up for the award of Best Overall Restaurant at the Manchester Food and Drink Festival 2017. It is in a basement in Piccadilly gardens, and is super relaxed, with a great menu and impressive array of drinks (I went for the prosecco ofc). With all the dishes being small, we got a load and shared them tapas style, sampling the okra fries, biryani bhaji balls, idli sambhar, paneer and mushroom tikka and massala dosa. SO. TASTY. I chased it up with a cocktail at Sugar Rays which is a cool underground drinking den on Newton Street.

On Friday I took Aum and his mate for lunch at Pizza Express, and then dropped Ferryn at my parents as I was going to Tetbury in the Cotswolds for my friend Hana's wedding. I got a lift down with Tasha and her boyfriend Tom to the big house that eleven of us had hired out, and we arrived at about 10.30pm in time to have a couple of glasses of fizz and watch Naked Attraction with everyone, classic!

Yesterday we all woke nice and early and had breakfast together before starting to get doled up. The weather was stunning and we headed to the venue (The Kingscote Barn) in dribs and drabs ready for the ceremony to start at 1.30pm. It was a beautiful day, filled with love and laughter, a really gorgeous celebration for two glorious humans. The food was the best I've ever had at a wedding (goats cheese bruschetta, pork belly with dauphinois potatoes and chocolate creme brulee) it was an open bar all night, and the groom's sister Beth sang Florence and the Machine's version of You Got The Love for the first dance (hence its inclusion as my track of the week above). I was the Master of Ceremonies with a guy called Robbie so we had various announcements throughout the day to make, including the entrance of the bride and groom, each course of dinner, the speeches, and the surprise fireworks which were magnificent!

Today I have been super hungover, but it was definitely worth it. We packed up and left quite early as it was a long drive back to Manchester, stopping on the way for some much needed hangover cure mac and cheese in a cute little place called The Bank Cafe in a village called Dursley. Early night to bed required!

Weekly Musings

2017 - Week Thirty Four

'Your vibes speak louder than your words'

(The Universe Has Your Back - Gabrielle Bernstein)

This week's post is a weird one, because for once I am sitting writing this on a Friday morning, as I am off to Leeds Festival later (woohoo!) so I will update the post with this weekend's antics when I return, very much worse for wear I imagine, on Monday afternoon. Track for this week is taken from the new Coasts album which is a cracker, check it out.

The week thus far has been glorious, as Aum has been at cricket camp, meaning I have had the day times to myself, very much needed in amidst the seemingly neverending summer holidays. I've been able to fit in some gym sessions, clean the flat, do a food shop, and all the other niggly jobs that get put on the back burner when working full time.

On Tuesday some of the fam were over at my parents' from Derby, so I went to Dunham Massey to meet them for a little picnic and dog walk before the monsoon style rain made its appearance, and then we had a corking spag bol and garlic bread for tea back at the house. On Wednesday I had S to my flat for tea, and showcased my culinary skills by making slow cooked beef bourguignon with dauphinoise potatoes, and serving a baked camembert for starter, which all went down well. As this was date number seven and after a month is still going swimmingly I will reveal his actual name is Moj; I use the initials for a degree of anonymity for the poor souls (or lucky sods) who don't last very long. It appears this one is sticking around for a while so privacy is out of the window. 

Yesterday evening (Thursday) I caught up with some of the girls for takeaway sushi from Osechi One at Ellie's house, and we got to ogle Abi's beaut engagement ring and hear all the details from her holiday in Croatia. Although I know I am super lucky to have been globetrotting all summer, I really miss my girlfriends when I am away, so I was grateful to get the chance to listen to their stories and fill them in on what I had been upto, and have a gossip of course!

This morning has been a mad dash to buy last minute festival supplies and pack my mammoth rucksack (thanks to my gal Natasha for lending me one!) and I am off straight from work to try and find my sister and Frankie in the fields of Bramham Park... wish me luck and check back for all the deets on Monday!

UPDATE: Leeds you have ruined me!! I arrived to Liam Gallagher's drawling on Friday eve after work, but as I was directed to the brown car park which seemed to be the furthest trek away from yellow where we were camping I arrived about forty minutes later, sweating my ass off, curls having dropped from my hair and in desperate need of a drink. Jasmine and Frankie had battled to the front of the main stage to see Muse, but I wasn't so bothered having seen them before so went to watch Haim. The girl trio were so enthusiastic and electric live, and Marshmello who I went to afterwards managed to get me dancing despite being alone. We rendevous'd back at the tent once the bands had finished and were knackered so we were totally rock and roll and were in our sleeping bags by 11.30pm!

Saturday started bright and early as is always the case at festivals; we ate food that we had brought with us and grabbed a coffee before starting to get ready with copious amounts of glitter and gems. I had a three litre bag of white wine with me, so made a start on that interspersed with the occasional shot of apple sours, keeping up with the majority of 17 year old other festival goers around me! 

The first act of the day was Oh Wonder, which set the perfect tone for lounging on the grass with some ciders in the sun, followed by a bit of old school in the form of Jimmy Eat World who attracted quite the crowd. 2 Door Cinema Club performed next, and it was so funny to see the development of their lead singer from an awkward gangly teenager on a tiny stage on opening night of Glastonbury 2010 when I last saw them, to the leopard print coat wearing cool-as-all-hell frontman with swagger by the bucketload that he is now.

Bastille followed and then the headliners, Kasabian took to the stage. Safe to say they absolutely smashed it, I am regretting not buying tickets to their arena tour in December now! I can totally appreciate the famous sex appeal of Serj since watching them as well, his charisma and presence is so quintessential rock star. After topping up our bags with booze back at the tent, we queued and went into the silent disco for the night - so much fun as everyone is pumped from a day of drinking and buzzing from all the amazing artists they have seen. I think it was around 4am when we got to sleep!

Yesterday the lack of sleep was starting to catch up with us, so we tried to have a bit more of a lie in and went in search of a caffeine kick at about 10am. The first act we wanted to go into the venue for was The Pretty Reckless at 3pm, so it was chilled getting ready and predrinking. After them it was my ultimate faves PVRIS, then Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes who I had never seen before but they rocked it, one of the highlights of the weekend for me. Then we met up with our friend Laura and her boyfriend Otis and went back to our mosher teen days with Korn (yes the lead singer still wears a kilt), and ended the night dancing along with Everything Everything, Major Lazer and Eminem. Eminem put on an admirable performance, including all his old classics and collaborations to really bring the whole weekend of music to a fantastic closure. After he exited the extent of our sleep deprivation hit and we were pooped, so retired to our tent to start packing up a few bits  to leave the next morning. (see next week's post for continuation!)