May seems to have been a quick month at times and a slow month at others. It has been a very weird feeling and quite confusing really. It’s also been a mixed month really, I’ve been busy quite a lot and have had a lot of fun but there has also been some stressful moments but from that has come good news. I started the month on holiday and have since had nights out, plenty of meals at great cafes and restaurants, time spent with friends and lovely days. A lot of this month has been perfect and now that we are rolling into summer, I’m even more excited for what these next few months will bring.
Listening To: Lots of The Cure, Friendly Fires and The Maccabees as my favourites never seem to leave my playlist. The new music from Hot Chip, Florence and The Machine, Passion Pit, Teleman, Gengahr and Chemical Brothers have been on repeat on my Spotify all month, only heightening by the amount of play they’ve had on 6Music recently too. Also, I’ve been rediscovering LCD Soundsystem this month which has been pretty damn great.
This Month, I have reviewed albums/EP’s by Hardactors with their debut EP ‘Bloom’, the follow up EP from Patrons entitled ‘The Momentary Effects of Sunlight’ and the stunning new album from Callaghan entitled ‘A History of Now’.
New music wise, the acts that have been featured include the brilliant Falcon Down, the great new single from Kadeem Tyrell entitled ‘Everything’, gorgeous tracks from Forced Random, some wonderful noise from Lincoln metallersBlood Youth, new music from psychedelic alt-rock Wigan trio Deep Shade and Worcester quartet Boy and Bicycle.
I attended the 6Music Celebrates show this month and you can read my review and round up of it here.
Also, here is all the latest from Tramlines 2015 and the final round up before last weekend’s SoundCity 2015.
You can also check out this month’s playlist over on my Spotify page.
Culture:
There has been some more culture related posts on the blog this month including my Hometown Haunt post in collaboration with Eventbrite that looks at the Kelham Island Quarter area of Sheffield.
I went to Peddler Market at the beginning of the month and I wrote a little round up of the evening and what is on offer which you can check out here. Also, I wrote a bit of a catch up post recently talking about what I’ve been up to over the last couple of months and talking about my recent countryside getaway, you can check that out here.
Reading:
I finished reading The King’s Curse this month and it really was a truly great read. One of my favourite novels that I have read in a while and for me it has seen Gregory’s writing back at its best in this White Queen series. I’ve written a full review of the book that you can check out here. I’ve also recently finished reading Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell so expect a review of that to go up on the blog pretty soon.
Currently Reading: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin
Food:
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Goats Cheese, Onion Marmalade & Spinach Quesadilla from Homemade by Thelma’s / Carrot & Coriander Falafel Burger with Feta and Red Onion from Thyme Cafe / Quinoa and Falafel Burger from Quinoa Caravan at Peddler Market
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Profiteroles at ASK / Timmermans Peach Beer [my new favourite]
Goats Cheese and Mediterrean Vegetable Tart with Chips and Salad at The Whitestonecliffe Inn
This month, I have reviewed Thyme Cafe in Sheffield and there has been some mini reviews of Carluccio’s and Chiquito’s in Sheffield.
Loving:
Dream Catcher Necklace from Etsy: I bought this necklace as a little Christmas present to myself back in December and put it straight in my jewellery box forgetting about just how beautiful it was. After rummaging through it last month I found it again still in its little bag and I instantly put it on and have worn it pretty much every single day since. The mix of a silver dream catcher with feathers and the little amethyst stones is just beautiful, all of my favourite things in one necklace. I can see myself wearing this necklace for many years to come.
Autobiographical Journal: My boyfriend bought me this for my birthday and it really is one of the nicest and most thoughtful gifts I have ever received. As a lover of writing and chronicalling my life, this really is a great gift. The A-Z part covers different topics from your life that you could write about, for example: D for dreams, J for first jobs, K for first kisses etc. I’m going to make a start on filling this in soon as I think it would be the perfect accompaniment to the scrapbooking I’m doing at the moment too. I think it may take me a while to complete and there will always be room for adding more to it which I love too.
Doing:
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As the month started it was already packed with things to do. On the first Friday of the month, me and my boyfriend headed to Peddler Market for a night of culture, art, music and good food. It is a great night market in the city which takes place every 2 months and will be somewhere that I visit again soon. On the Sunday, me and my mum went for a belated birthday meal for my birthday last month. We headed to Ask and totally indulged on a 3 course meal of bread, pasta and profiteroles.
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Bank Holiday Monday saw me and my boyfriend head to the cinema to watch Avengers: Age of Ultron again and I still love it as much as the first time. We headed into town for a Pizza Express tea before going off the The Leadmill for the 6Music Celebrates show where we saw Slow Club and Mystery Jets, all presented by Steve Lamacq and a DJ set from Reverend and The Makers’ John McClure. It was a great show and I had a great time seeing two bands I’ve never seen before whilst also celebrating Sheffield and The Leadmill.
On the Wednesday, it was time to head off to the countryside for a couple of days with my boyfriend for a little well needed getaway. We stayed in a cottage in North Yorkshire in a place called Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe just outside of Thirsk. It was a lovely couple of days spent in the local country pub, playing Scrabble, visiting Dalby Forest and walking for miles before a lovely riverside picnic. It was a great couple of days and I wish we could have stayed there for longer as the peace and quiet of the countryside is just what you need sometimes.
We got back on Friday afternoon and after a chilled out night, I was ready to get back to it in terms of tackling things to do on Saturday. I spent that day moving all the furniture in my room around and building some furniture in an attempt to refresh my room a little and finally sort out all the things I’ve neglected since we moved in over a year and a half ago. On Saturday night, I headed to my friends house for a night of gossip, food, drink and Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit. It was a lovely evening spent with some of my friends that I don’t see very often and it is nights like this that make me more appreciative of time I get to spend with my friends.
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Since then the last couple of weeks of the month have included shopping trips, a cinema trip to see Mad Max which was blooming brilliant by the way, plenty of food [more than necessary really] and Eurovision celebrating because quite frankly who doesn’t love Eurovision?! It’s been a great month, one of my favourites of the year so far with every week being busy and full of interesting and great things to do. May has been truly wonderful!
Some Great Finds From The Internet This Month
– A great piece on why Mad Max annoying misogynists with its “feminist propaganda” makes it a film all the more important to see. It is also a great film with no “feminist propaganda” just a badass and truly equal to the male characters in the film performance from Charlize Theron.
– A great article on Vice about Mumford and Sons transition from posh banjo players to absolute nothingness. A phenomenon I feel is very prominent in music right now and is the subject of a piece I’m currently working on for this blog.
– Finishing on a more light-hearted note, the cheeky nando’s confusing Americans on Tumblr article from Buzzfeed. You’ve probably all seen it or at least heard of this by now but it is honestly one of the funniest things I’ve read in a long, long time.
Mixtape Couture 