Meeting Christina Perri

On Saturday 22nd November, I was lucky enough to attend a meet and greet to meet Christina Perri before her gig at the Ritz in Manchester.

I was so excited to meet her. I love her music, and even walked down the aisle to her song 'A Thousand Years'!

I got to the venue for about quarter to 5. We got early entry so that we could meet her and then head to the front of the gig, which was nice. We all queued up in a big room, and as we were waiting for her to arrive we could hear her doing sound check. She sounded so good, so that got me very excited for the actual gig!

She came in to the room and we all got a couple of minutes with her. We were limited to one photo each as there was a lot of people there to meet her.

She gave me the biggest hug as I walked up to her. She was so nice. Asked me my name, how I was, what I do etc. I of course told her about walking down the aisle to her song, and she was so chuffed, which was lovely. I had a picture with her, which she looks absolutely stunning in! (she makes me look.. blah. haha) She signed my ticket and the little reel of photos we got of her. We also got a little candle which says "till our lives are burning gold" on the front, which is a quote from one of her songs.

She was absolutely brilliant, her voice is amazing live. If you ever get the chance to see her, definitely go!

I vlogged the meet and greet and bits of the gig... so if you want to see what the meet and greet was like, or get an idea for what she is like live, head over to my YouTube channel. Watch the video here: http://youtu.be/wQxe-1r2DD8?list=UUtkHPCprLW67wcze0b_7kvw
I have done a couple of other videos so please check them out too, and subscribe if you like! I really enjoy making them and it takes a decent amount of time to film, edit and upload, so I hope people enjoy watching them and that I can build up a bit of a YouTube friend base :)

I am planning to do a November favourites video and blog soon. Hoping to get that filmed and written next weekend!

Sarah x

Manchester, Cocktails and a Catch Up

One of the best things about working in the city centre is most definitely the night life. I'm not one for going clubbing all night long. I would much rather find a nice bar to have drinks and actually be able to talk to my friends in. I am aware that makes me sound old... but what's the point in a catch up if you can't hear them!?

Last night I met one of my best friends, Emma. We both work all week long and don't get to see each other that often now, so when we do meet up it's always a lovely catch up!

We met after work and headed to the Deaf Institute for food and a couple of cocktails. Deaf Institute is one of the many gig venues in Manchester. It's one of the small ones, a cute intimate one. I have seen Gabrielle Aplin play there before which was fantastic. There is a bar downstairs that does food, and it's pretty decent! I love the décor in the bar too.

After we finished our BBQ pulled pork burgers (so good!) we headed to Revolution, which is a bar. We had a few cocktails there and they had a duo performing on an acoustic guitar covering a lot of oldies but goodies which was a lovely backing to our catch up and gossip!

I had such a lovely evening. I highly recommend both of these bars if you ever find yourself in Manchester, UK. But you can't really go wrong whatever your scene, whether that is nice bars, or if you prefer to go clubbing. There are lots and lots of brilliant places to go.

I would say Revolution is one of my favourites, because the cocktails there are really good. Another one of my favourites is called Dog Bowl. It is a bar/restaurant and also has 5 ten-pin bowling lanes, which is really fun when having a few drinks with friends!

Sarah x

Date Night

It sounds like the most obvious thing in the world, really. But making sure you actually spend time with your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife is SO important.

It is very easy to get into the habit of just being in the same house or doing the things you always do when in each other's company, and not really making the effort to talk to your partner. Away from all the distractions in the house like phones, computers, TV etc.

Relationships, from what I have seen and on a few occasions experienced, don't just keep going without actually working hard at them. We all change as we get older and move through different stages in our lives. To help a relationship keep working, I think it is very important to keep dating (the person you are with of course!!).

I have been with Bob for five years now, we have been married for two years and four months, and we still take a night out of each month to go out for a meal and have a really good catch up and talk about anything and everything.

I am going through changes at work as I am being promoted and it's getting a heck of a lot busier, and Bob is director of a company so he is always crazy busy too, so it's really nice for us to sit down and let each other know where we're up to. I think it helps us grow together as a couple.

I really enjoy date nights. They are very special.

I hope everyone else does the same and takes the time to keep getting to know their loved one. Its so, so important :)

Sarah x

Accentuate The Positive. Eliminate The Negative.

This is my new favourite saying. Definitely something to try and live by.

Life deals out some real shit sometimes. And you can either let it get you down, or you can take a moment to process it, and then move forward... try to eliminate the negative.

I want to spread some positive today. So there you go. Accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.

When you are hit with a negative, remember you can overcome anything. And there are people around you to help pick you back up when you are feeling down.


In other news...

I started a vlog! Which is slightly terrifying! My friend Katey uploaded her first vlog, and it really gave me the little push I needed to really want to just get on with it :)
Please go and check out my first vlog. It's just a little introduction. I filmed it on my iPhone, and did it in one take so I didn't have to tackle editing just yet... so I hope the quality isn't too bad! I plan on making nice happy videos. I just hope that people will enjoy watching me and subscribe to me. We'll see ey. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtkHPCprLW67wcze0b_7kvw

I have downloaded an editing programme, so hopefully the next one will be a little more professional!

Sarah x

Scream Park UK - Event City, Manchester

Last night I went to the Scream Park at Event City in Manchester.

We went in quite a big group as it was an outing for Bob's work. I had never been to one of these scare parks before. It was very well put together and was a really fun night.

I know it isn't really supposed to be 'fun', but at the end of the day they are people and there is no way you would ever actually get hurt. Although the pitch black parts of the mazes were pretty scary just because a sudden scream made me jump a mile as I didn't expect it! Haha.

All the people working there looked really cool, the makeup was really effective. I bet it's really fun to work at those types of events. Several people in our group were having a good look at all of the costumes and makeup to get ideas for next Halloween :)

I took some pictures but the quality isn't great because it was really dark in the room, sorry!

It was such a good night. I was thinking about filming it and maybe starting a vlogging channel. But I don't think I'm quite ready to try that yet!

Sarah x

Happy Halloween!

I love Halloween.

I have no idea why really. I never used to go trick-or-treating or have parties when I was younger.

I have a little tradition every year, that on Halloween, I snuggle up and watch Tim Burton's A Nightmare Before Christmas. I love Tim Burton, and Nightmare Before Christmas is definitely my favourite! Followed closely by Corpse Bride, which I also watch every Halloween.

For the past three years our friends have hired out a room at a cricket club in Bolton. They decorate the whole room which always looks absolutely brilliant. After the first year (when we didn't really make a huge amount of effort on our costumes, having never really done Halloween parties) we realised we had to up our game. So the second year we went, we really did up our game. There is a theme emerging here if you hadn't noticed...

Jack and Sally! I loved dressing as Sally :) Will be keeping that one safe for another year! My sister dressed as The Crow, her makeup looked really cool. And she helped us with ours too.

Last year I went as a corpse bride, but for some reason we don't have any pictures!

There was no party this year, as our friends who usually organise it all have just had a baby. So we just had a chilled one this time, and hopefully the party will be back next year!

This year just consisted of a little decoration and the films mentioned above.

One of our clients from work invited us to join in with their pumpkin carving competition. No one was really bothered, but we figured we had to at least show willing. So I said I would have a go, even though I had never carved a pumpkin before. I was really pleased with how it turned out, especially with it being the first one I'd ever done.

Again, definite theme..

When asked to do a pumpkin for Halloween, there was only ever going to be one character I was going to do now, wasn't there? And Jack won a prize. Woo! There were a few different categories they were judging for. He won the 'loveliest pumpkin'. Now, he definitely wasn't supposed to look lovely... But I'm not complaining. Glad they liked him, and the hour and a half it took to carve him didn't go to waste! We have won a kilo of Thornton's chocolate, which I will be sharing with the office on Monday.

I look forward to next Halloween, and hopefully some new cool costumes to show you!

Happy Halloween (better a day late than never!).

Sarah x