King Charles @ The Fleece, Bristol.

'You're the wax in my moustache...'
So, I was away in Bristol over the weekend - more on that later - the reason for the trip was initially to see King Charles play at The Fleece. Mainly we were going to see the music as we'd missed previous chances but it was also a great excuse to get away.

Let me begin by singing The Fleece's praises, it's a great venue, kind of dark with no barriers at the stage but with a totally laid back atmosphere (rather than feeling like someone's going to start a fight). It was a sold out gig so it was pretty full but there was plenty of room to browse the merch stand and have a dance - perfect for when Bam Bam! came on. Maybe a slight bummer was getting ID'd on the door because it was an over-16 gig, quite something considering I'm 24 this year. The very best thing about The Fleece though - which either shows my age or that I'm far older than my years - was that I could buy a bottle of water and keep the bottle with the lid (the bottle was even glass), AMAZING. I could also have beer in a bottle, far more elegant in a pint, and more tasty just because it was Desperados (my current favourite).

The first support act of the night was Giovanna, who I read in a review from KC's Portsmouth performance has a close relationship to the Man Himself (and is the sister of Mumford & Son's Country Winston!). I thought she started off quite well and gave off a bit of a Florence-y kind of vibe, then she turned kind of a weird corner. She got a little screechy and maybe it was just me but she ended up not really being my cup of tea - I'm sure with a bit of practice though she could follow through with the set she started with.



King Charles' second support were a band I had pretty high hopes for, Story Books. Sadly I was a bit disappointed again, I thought they were pretty similar to Bombay Bicycle Club, a band that I should like but just can't get on with, and that's kind of how I felt about these guys. I appreciated them for what they were but I thought they sounded much better on recordings I'd heard than they did live which was a bit of a minus point for me and their on-stage banter was a little odd, although if you have peek at their Twitter, it kind of makes a bit more sense. They didn't really get me pumped to see the act I'd actually come for and I wasn't sure what to expect next.



I definitely ended up forgetting about my initial hesitation though because boy oh boy does King Charles know how to put on a show. If you hadn't heard, this gig was 13th on his 30 Shows in 30 Days Tour but he had as much energy as if he was doing it from fresh rather than being halfway through.



What I love about seeing smaller acts is that they'll play all your favourite songs and he didn't let me down. From an amazing breakdown of 'Brightest Lights' to 'Ivory Road', he might have even made me like 'Polar Bear', I had such a fun night. He's a little heavier live than on his album, but I just think that added to the atmosphere and was a really pleasant surprise.



I'm now forever baffled by those sitting with their phones (round the wrong way) videoing the whole gig, a few snaps are fair enough, your Samsung Note is not. Are you even watching the real thing?

Finishing with a cover of Billy Joel's 'We Didn't Start the Fire' with his own lyrics, he really did just kill the whole thing and I'm really looking forward to future releases and to seeing him again.


Favourite songs of the night: 'Lady Percy' for the intro and 'Bam Bam' for the dancing.

Banana Split.

I guess I've been subconsciously easing myself into the novelty of having weekends off, although admittedly this did take slightly more planning than the luck of previous weekends. I spent a fair amount of this weekend relaxing. It was Moon's little brother's 21st birthday on Saturday so we went down to Portsmouth with Long to celebrate with him.

I do love a good change of scenery with my best buds, and it was nice to be back in Portsmouth for a little bit, especially as we went to one of my favourite places to eat, The Tenth Hole. I'm glad I've moved on from there and can separate it as where I spent my time at University but some parts of it are really nice and we did have a fantastic night out to round off our stay.



It's just the cutest, worst-kept secret in Portsmouth; there's a reason why it's always so busy.


I finished off my roll of film using Edward's girlfriend's La Sardina, I've just sent them off and I'm pretty excited to see the results.


This is the 'Lardon' salad, I would have taken a photo of mine, but it was taken away so more bacon could be added to it, and I was too hungry by the time it came back.


Dog-friendly places are always a plus.

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Appreciation for the slanket I got for him.


Showing my new love for all things Passoa ♥

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Getting a free lame hat with my weak-ass drink.


This was pretty gnarly.

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I was actually pretty surprised that it only took us 45 minutes to get back to Newbury, but it was quite good because we really seized the day and had a barbecue in the garden, so tasty. It was actually pretty perfect, we just sat there, enjoying food, listening to The Beatles and chatting. I can honestly say it's the most relaxed I've felt in forever and I hope it's a sign of things to come.

Naturally, we ended the weekend with the Olympic Closing Ceremony, I must admit to showing very little interest in the Olympics due to working and generally not enjoying sport anyway but for parts of it, I was kind of into it.





Our first tomato has come through ♥


Healthy Olympic snacks after our fatty weekend.

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I hope you had a great weekend, and that your Monday wasn't too bad, even with the Olympic-comedown and the drizzle.

Mayday Fundayz.

So, on Friday, our friend Richard brought down his girlfriend, Fran, to meet us and they stayed for a couple of nights, along with Long, and it was nice. The main thing I learnt from this weekend is that I really, really can't drink how I used to, after a heavy one at the great (but much better when late) Snooty Fox, we spent Saturday night in with The Voice, Britain's Got Talent and 21 Jump Street, being 22+ is pretty wild.

I'm a bit sad that today's weather has been so unpredictable, all I've done is go food shopping, although after all the excitement of the rest of the weekend, I think a day hanging out in the flat is just what Moon and I needed.
Things that were good about this weekend:

My culinary skillz.
After seeing 'Home Cooking Made Easy' last week, I thought I'd give ol' Lorraine Pascale a run for her money with my own version of her cheese and bacon straws, they're as incredible as they sound. I also kind of followed (but mainly winged) a Gizzy Erskine recipe for the sausage rolls. I'm super proud of myself, but shamefully, both were nearly all gone before Richard and Fran even arrived(!)


Tasty drinks and fun games.
I tried Chambord for the first time on Friday and it was much, much tastier than I thought it would be, so Long got us two pretty great house-warming gifts.




Getting 'out-out'.


On Saturday, after nursing our sore heads with a Wetherspoons breakfast, we went over to The Living Rainforest, which is just outside of Newbury. It was okay, but felt like a bit of a rip-of considering it's basically just a massive, sweltering greenhouse, but we bonded over it's short comings and there were some fun things to see, even if there weren't any butterflies. You also get return visits for the one entry price so it's not too bad. Maybe I also didn't care for it much because it was really difficult to take photographs, I don't like the idea of a mouldy camera, plus it's much more fun to take photographs than constantly be wiping steam away from your lens.



Oddly-shaped flowers.


The noise this bird made.


Collective disgruntlement.




Newbury Farmer's Market.




My tomato plants have started growing!
And they've grown a lot just this weekend too. I might have to seek some advice from my Gran as to what to do next, but I'm so happy, not bad for The 99p Store. Sadly, Moon's chilli plant has yet to make an appearance.


This little lady.
She was on her very best behaviour, and didn't wake anyone up with yowling once, although Long did get a pretty bum deal having to sleep in our doorless lounge.



The beef Richard bought us.
All the house-warming gifts our friends have bought us so far have been wicked, but this was the most delicious. Richard picked this up for us from the butchers he used to work at and he definitely knows what he's talking about. This is less than half of it too, but it made for a perfect Sunday evening tea.
This sure was a nice way to spend a bank holiday weekend, I sort of immersed myself back in job hunting a bit today but I'm in a good place, and there's a new episode of 'Girls' to catch up with tonight!
I hope you've enjoyed the first of this month's bank holiday offerings as much I have. It's such a shame we can't really have more people than we did over at a time, we're nearly always thinking about ways to get around it, plus I still love our tiny flat ♥.