Another Bank Holiday Weekend!

I love May, not only does the weather in the UK start to get a lot better and it starts to feel more like summer but May is also great for another reason, as there is a bank holiday at each end of the month! Fun times! :)

However, this bank holiday was not as action packed as the last, but I still managed to have a good time. We were originally meant to spend the weekend camping in the peak district but our friends cancelled at the last minute. So we arranged some activities with our Manchester friends to keep us occupied. 

Friday 22nd May

Friday night was kind of a lazy night, we just chilled out at home, as Rob was rather tired. In the afternoon after Rob finished work he took a two hour nap on the couch, so I just watched TV. I watched a program about sharks, (exciting!) and another show about the effects of alcohol on the human body, whilst Rob slept. And the evening pretty much carried on the same way, fairly standard and nothing out of the ordinary. Later Rob made us tea, which consisted of fake chicken burgers with sweet potato chips and peas! Yum! :)

Saturday 23rd May

This morning we drove home to Rob's parents house to collect some old home movies, as Rob had decided his next YouTube video was going to be a short movie about life. Rob's YouTube 

However, when we arrived at his parents house no one was home so we just collected the DVDs and left. Nice short trip. After eating sandwiches on our balcony in the sushine, Rob got to work on his video and I got bored. Luckily, my friend Dan was bored too as his girl friend Harri was spending the day revising for her upcoming exams. I met Dan at the town hall in Manchester where he was helping his brother James and his girlfriend Natalie take additional photos for their kickstarter campaign (Bryt Socks).

So after Dan had finished helping out his brother we wandered over to the Manchester Art Gallery for something to do. Dan hadn't been there before. I had been a couple of times before and I would highly recommend it. It's just something to do for an hour or so, it's a nice relaxing wander around. However, unfortunately the exhibitions they were featuring this time weren't as good as my last visit but I guess it depends on your personal taste. Manchester art gallery.

After the art gallery we found this nice little coffee house called Pot Kettle Black. I had actually already found this place on twitter but had not got round to visiting it yet. Therefore, it was nice to happen upon it and we popped in for a drink. :) We both purchased a long black coffee which is actually a filter coffee but it was quite nice considering I would usually chose an americano. Anyway the drink came with a funny little biscuit straw and a small glass of water. There is also free lime water available here which you can just help yourself to if you need refreshing. :) 

Coffee! Coffee! Coffee!

The cafe itself is a good size with a few large table with plenty of plug sockets, so Dan liked it as he is always looking for a good coffee house to do a little bit of work in. I think he may have found his favourite new spot. :) PotKettleBlack

A little later Dan received a phone call from Harri to say she had finished revision and was sitting in the beer garden at Lucha Libre having a drink with some friends, so Dan and I made our way over to enjoy some sunshine before the three of us had to head to Nandos to meet some friends for dinner. We had an early dinner as we didn't want to vomit at trampolining. Yes, we are going trampolining again. :(. I wasn't really ready to go again so soon but our friend Chris hadn't been before and wanted to give it a go. It was quite funny, Chris picked it up fairly easily but this time Lewis and Amy were trying to learn front flips and kept landing very awkwardly at the edge of the trampolines every time! I'm sure they will have bruised bottoms tomorrow. ;). I on the other hand just stuck to bouncing it's exciting enough for me. :) 

Right, back to Nandos I just wanted to make a point that Nandos is very good for vegan options, you just have to remember to ask for it with out mayo. Here is a nice little video by Tim Sheiff to help you out. Vegan Nandos.

After trampolining we went for a couple of drinks before heading home for bed, as standard we had a quick drink at the Dockyard. We then went to Brewdog for another. This was a massive mistake as the beer here is terrible! I've had it in the past and thought it was OK and the really strong ones I actually found enjoyable but this evening no one was impressed by the beer and we wont be going there again! :(

Considering I had only drank a pint of beer in total I actually felt quite tipsy on the way home. I don't think my body can tolerate alcohol anymore! Eeeek!

Sunday 24th May

This morning was a pretty lazy one just ate breakfast and watched TV, as Rob had spent most of the day yesterday working on his video he wanted to make sure he got it finished and published online today so he did a little bit of video editing before we went the gym. 

I just went the gym to go to the yoga class as did Harri but Rob, Dan and James did a quick CrossFit work out beforehand. The yoga class was good it's just a shame that it's right the the middle of the day so you have to arrange your plans around it if you want to attend the class. Oh well. This is exactly what we did today, as the plan was go climbing so we arranged it for after yoga. It wasn't really an issue as the people we were meeting there wanted to go in the afternoon anyway and you can only do so much climbing at a time. So a couple of hours is usually enough. 

Rob and I arrived on time at 3:30 pm which was good as our friend Dave had arrived a little early, so it was nice he didn't have to wait too long. The others were almost an hour late which has become pretty much standard now. 

I hadn't seen Dave for almost a year so it was great to catch up! We used to see each other perhaps two or three times a week in the past but with people moving away and jobs getting busy it's a bit hard to stay in touch. :( I left it as a surprise for everyone else so no one knew Dave was coming. Haha! It was a nice surprise for them as they hadn't seen him in over a year.

We managed to climb for about two hours before getting tired and the climbing wall was due to close anyway so we made our way out. Before leaving we checked out Dave new LandRover, although it was new to him it was actually 24 years old and need quite a bit of working doing on it. Especially seeing as he wants to use to tour Europe for six months! He does have some time to fix it up though before then as he will be leaving his job in a couple of months and will be able to spend the summer working on it. I wish the best of luck to him! :S

There was a bit of confusing about the rest of the evening as Dan was under the impression we were meeting him at the cinema at 9 pm but no one had actually agreed to that as the rest of us spent the evening eating pizza at James and Natalie's house. Awkward! 

Monday 25th May

Today we had planned to spend the day at Windermere canoeing on the lake. We hadn't really organised anything, even the time we were due to leave. But we were all suppose to leave at the same time. However, James and Natalie were a bit slow to get ready and as we were travelling with them our party was a little delayed which resulted in us arriving nearly and hour after Lewis, Amy and Dan. In the end it didn't actually matter too much as James and Elizabeth only arrived 5 minutes before us.

Once we arrived at Low Wood Watersports we chose to rent three canoes and James and James would go on their own paddle boards. The price was fairly decent in which a two person canoe could be rented for £21 for two hours. The girls were taking ages to get ready and I have no idea what Dan and Lewis were doing, so Rob and I just got in our canoe and paddled round the corner to see if James and James were in the water, which they were. By the time we had paddled back the others were getting in there boats and I think they had made a mistake. The three girls were in one canoe and the boys were in the other. This subsequently lead to them swapping over at a small beach around the corner, Lewis went with Amy and Natalie and Dan went with Elizabeth so both the boats could paddle a bit faster. Paddling is so hard though, I have no idea how to control the boat. That's why I was glad to have Rob help me and even then I struggled to learn anything! :(

We stopped for lunch on a small beach on the other side of the lake when the sun came out, as it had been fairly cloudy up until then. I think the sunshine made us stay a little too long and we only had 20 minutes to make it back to the other shore in time to return the boats. I was puffed out at the end of it and my poor shoulders ached but we made it. We were actually quite tempted to rent them for another hour but decided against it and went across the road to the cafe at The Low Wood Hotel for coffee and cake. Yum! 

Once we arrived back in Manchester we went to Revs for dinner (50% off on Mondays, woop!). I got a veggie burrito as I wasn't too hungry, which was a good job as the burrito was a bit on the small side. After food we headed back to Dan and Harri's to watch Game of Thrones but before that we played cards against humanity. In which, you have to create funny answers or sentences in relation to a card that is read out before that round. It was really funny, I don't usually like games but this game required no skill at all! The games however could be considered a bit offensive but that depends on your sense of humour! :)

Take care and hope you had a great bank holiday weekend too! :)

Samx

Bank holiday Weekend

This weekend was the early May bank holiday weekend or May day if you prefer. Woop! Three day weekend! And we made it as action packed as we could! It's good to be busy all the time. So here is what we did......

Friday 1st May

This evening a few friends and I had booked a session at Jump Nation, Manchester's new trampoline park. There are 139 trampolines all joined together, awesome! Unfortunately, you are not allowed to take cameras on to the trampolines so this is the only photo I took. :( Rob managed to sneak his mini camera on though and captured a few videos. Our friend Lewis however was not as stealthy and got told off for taking photographs on the trampoline. Oh well. Anyway, we booked the last session of the day at 9 pm thinking there may be less children around at that time, but no it was still super busy! The staff later informed us that Fridays are usually the busiest days. We had fun though, I hadn't been on a trampoline, well a proper trampoline in about 20 years. It was crazy! The 1 hour session is not too expensive at £8.95 and you can buy an additional hour for £5 with the prices being slightly reduced for children. However, the first time you go you must buy special trampoline socks for £1.50 but you keep them and use them again so it's not really a waste of money. If you want to check it out then this is the website http://www.jumpnation.com/ and I would highly recommend it. They also run fitness classes! Bouncy bouncy! :) 

Jump Nation Manchester! 139 trampolines all joined together.

After the trampoline session we re-hydrated ourselves at new bar called the dockyard near our friends apartment in the city center. And believe me you do work up a sweat with all that bouncing! Just make sure you wear the appropriate clothing, which is not jeans and a jumper. So I was definitely looking forward to a well deserved drink.

The dockyard is actually quite a nice pub it is minimally decorated with a sort of warehouse style finish but offers plenty of seating and a wide selection of beers at reasonable prices, with the house ale being the cheapest at £2.95 a pint. We arrived at the pub shortly before last orders so it was fairly quiet and we easily found a seat to enjoy our drinks and a quick chat before heading home to bed.

The Dockyard, beer time!

Saturday 2nd May

Today started off as a fairly last day, we lay in and just chilled out until around lunch time. Rob had allowed himself one lazy day this weekend and then decided that was a waste of time. So we thought it might be fun to head over and visit my family and play with dogs, maybe strap a go pro to them and see what they get up when they are off the lead or just see the world through their eyes. Unfortunately, it wasn't as successful as we had hoped because as soon as we arrived in Skem at my family home it started to rain and the sun disappeared behind the clouds. So we thought we'd wait it out and wait for the rain to ease. During that time we enjoyed a cup of coffee with a few biscuits and just played with the dogs inside the house. This kept us entertain for a while but once the rain had stopped we strapped the go pro to Max, my parents labrador and headed out for a walk. Max got to wear the go pro rather than Miya (my family's pug) as he is a little more adventurous and doesn't just follow you around, as for the majority of the walk Miya was hanging around either mine or my brother Jamie's feet. Ridiculous! 

So of the camera footage we got from the dog was pretty funny, as we hadn't realised he had actually gone in the river until we played it back. But for the most part, the video we got from the dog camera was quite bumpy due to the camera bouncing around too much on the dogs back. So we couldn't really use any of the footage. Max didn't seem to mine wearing the camera so if we bought him an actual dog harness I bet we could get some decent movies from him! Yay! Then maybe Max could start his own YouTube channel, as everyone seems to be doing that these days. I, myself now have one video on YouTube. Go Me! :).

So after we had dried the dogs down and fed them their tea we fed ourselves some pizza before heading back to Manchester to play some crazy golf. I'd invited my brother and sister along but I don't think they had the motivation to come all the way to Manchester for an evening. It's not actually that far but oh well. 

Dan and Harri gave us a lift to Paradise Island (mini golf) where we met Amy and Lewis for some golf time! I was useless, I don't know why I am so rubbish at golf I think it's because I have no patience, that is my problem. I did get two hole in ones though! Woop! (probably just luck!). Anyway, I broke my camera this evening, it started having some issues with the lens were it wouldn't retract properly after zooming in. My poor little camera! Oh well, It wouldn't have made too much difference this evening anyway as the mini golf place was far too dark to get any decent pictures. Meh!

Sunday 3rd May

Today started off with a quick trip to John Lewis in the Trafford Centre in an attempt to either get a new camera or get it repaired. Although they agreed with me there was an issue with my lens it would have to be sent off for repair as they don't do it in store. Gutted! I was told it usually takes about 12 days to get fixed. Hopefully, it won't take that long I need my camera! Oh well, I guess I still have my phone anyway. That will have to do for now. :)

A couple of my friends were visiting Manchester this weekend so I met them at the pub for a few beers whilst Rob went to the Skateboarding park, Beast Ramps. I think he just went there to take photographs and videos of the more professional skaters to add to his newly acquired YouTube channel and he is currently making a video on how to have a productive weekend. Silly Boy. It keeps him entertained anyway. I on the other hand sat in the sun catching up with Jon, Steph, Andy and Sarah who I hadn't seen in months maybe not even at all this year! Crazy, time goes so fast! I really need to make sure I stay in touch with people. I have no idea where the time goes, it just seems to be accelerating each year at an even faster pace.

My friends had other plans and had pre-booked to go bowling so after two small beers I headed back home to meet Rob. However, Rob had not returned and was not answering his phone. When he did finally get back in touch with me it was to inform me that his car had been locked in the climbing wall's car park as that had closed two hours before the skate park and he was now going to have to walk home. He had parked in the climbing wall's car park as it appeared safer than parking on the street, which I guess is sensible as its not the best area of Manchester around there. Hopefully, this will teach him next time check the closing times of places but I doubt it.

Rob being late home actually worked in my favour this evening as it meant by the time he got home he was starving so we didn't have to cook and we went across the road to Wasabi for Sushi! I was sooooo full after 6 plates of veggie sushi! So full! :)

Sushi Time!

Monday 4th May

All weekend we had been meaning to go mountain biking at Llandegla forest in North Wales. Today was meant to be the best day of the weekend for it, weather wise anyway. And I am glad we waited as today was perfect. It was the sunniest day of the weekend with not a rain cloudy insight. I hadn't been mountain biking in almost two years and Rob hadn't been in about 18 months, so Rob promised we would take it easier. He actually kept that promise this time as we stuck to the blue route. So I was happy, as the blue is not as challenging or as long as the red but it is still loads of fun. It was a nice way to get back into it after so long. It probably took us around an hour to complete the route, which was much quicker than we had expected so Rob played on the dirt jumps afterwards! Fun times! :) 

Crazy!!!

Before heading back to Manchester to head out for pizza at Crazy Pedros for our friend Natalie's birthday, we popped in to see Rob's parents and clean our mountain bikes as we have nowhere to clean our bikes in our apartment building. Sad times. Well, Rob did the cleaning while I just chilled out. Nice and easy. 

Crazy Pedros is a new pizza parlour in Manchester and has happy hour everyday from 5-9 pm in which you can get a whole 14"pizza for £7.50, which is awesome. Another perk is if you don't finish it you can get it to go, which is useful if you want pizza for lunch the next day too. The pizzas are really tasty and you can adapt their menu to your dietary requirements, as they were able to make me a cheeseless pizza! Delish! :)

Hope you had a great weekend! :)

Samx