Yellowcard @ the O2 Ritz | Manchester

Concert season has rolled around again for me, finally! Last Wednesday (14/12/16) my boyfriend and I saw Yellowcard in their final tour at the O2 Ritz in Manchester. The Ritz is by far my favourite concert venue in Manchester as it has two tiers, so on the days where I just feel like relaxing I can stand on the balcony and observe all of the action from afar.

The first support act was a band called the Kenneths who weren't really my cup of tea but I found the frontman to be very energetic and engaging and  he was very good at getting the crowd warmed up. The second support was a band called Normandie who are a Swedish rock band, I really enjoyed their music as it reminded me a lot of Bring Me the Horizon. Both bands were really great which is always nice as it really sets the tone for the whole night.

Before Yellowcard came on stage an announcement was made reminding you to not watch the show through your phone and rather enjoy the moment with your own eyes, because of this I didn't get many photos. They played an exceptionally long setlist of 23 songs, unfortunately this didn't include my favourite song but I still really enjoyed the setlist,

The atmosphere for the whole night was amazing, everyone was singing along and having a great time and it was just really nice to see. It reminded me of why I listen to the kind of music I do, although the crowds get a little rowdy if someone is in a position where they could get hurt everyone stops what they're doing to help them out, and I just find that really humbling. Everyone was singing along to the encore and it was just breathtaking. I just really wish I could go back.

(video courtesy of my boyfriend)

I hope you enjoyed this different kind of post. I have a lot planned for 2017 so keep an eye out for more of these posts, if you like them of course. As always thank you for reading and a follow would be greatly appreciated!

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | 

The Christmas Tag | 2016

I have seen a lot of bloggers doing this tag and I have really enjoyed reading about other people's Christmases so I thought I would have a go myself. I know I said I would try to avoid tag posts but I figured I could make an exeption for this one!

1. What is your favorite Christmas film?
I haven't really sat and watched a proper Christmas film for a long time, we tend to just have Christmas 24 on constantly in my house and my favourite Christmas 24 film is definitely A Christmas Wish. But my favourite Christmas films growing up were The Santa Clause and The Santa Clause 2.

2. Have you ever had a White Christmas?
I remeber having at least one White Christmas in my life as there are pictures of me building a snowman with my uncle outside of my Grandmas old house from one Christmas. Other than that I can't remember having any snow on Christmas.

3. Where do you usually spend your holiday?
I either spend Christmas at home or at my Grandma's house depending on how many people we have to squeeze around a table. This year we are having Christmas at my house as there will only be 5 of us.

4. What is your favorite Christmas song?
I would happily listen to any Christmas song, I couldn't possibly pick a favourite. The song that I associate with Christmas the most is probably Do They Know It's Christmas? by Band Aid, more specifically Band Aid 20 as that is more my generation and I have memories of watching the video on TV with my mum.

5. Do you open any presents on Christmas Eve?
Never!

6. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer?
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, ......., Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, Rudolph. I'm pretty proud of myself for remembering that many but I can't for the life of me remember the 4th.

7. What holiday traditions are you looking forward to most this year?
Definitely staying up watching the Norad Santa Tracker which I do every year. Also watching Christmas films with my family and then Christmas morning breakfast made by my Grandma. 

8. Is your Christmas tree real or fake?
We had a real Christmas tree once but my mum didn't appreciate all of the pines being left on the floor so now we stick to fake trees, in fact we've had the same 7ft one for about 5 years now.

9. What is your all-time favorite holiday food/sweet treat?
We always have one of the big biscuit selection boxes on Christmas Eve, although that's not really Christmassy. I also really enjoy the limited edition Lindt chocolates and Terry's Chocolate Orange. This year I've really grown a liking to Pret's Gingerbread Melting Snowman. It's just so cute! 

10. Be honest: do you like giving gifts or receiving gifts better?
Although I absolutely hate the stress of Christmas shopping, I do enjoy giving people the 'perfect' present and making them smile. I also enjoy delivering presents to family and friends that I don't see on Christmas Day, but of course I also enjoy receving gifts too because it's nice to know people have gone through effort for me.

11. What is the best Christmas gift you’ve ever received?
When I was younger my favourite gift was probably my little play kitchen that I think everyone will have played with at one point in their lives, they're a classic! 

12. What would be your dream place to visit for the holiday season?
I really enjoy our tradition of staying at home for Christmas but I've had a dream of spending Christmas in a log cabin for many years, prefereably somewhere in Canada because it snows there also I've always wanted to visit Canada.

13. Are you a pro-present wrapper, or do you fail miserably?
I'm not by any means a pro as I can only really wrap presents that come in boxes, I tend to either put gifts in gift bags or ask my mum to wrap the difficult presents for me because she is amazing at wrapping.

14. Most memorable Holiday moment?
My most memorable Holiday moment would definitely be the year we went to Lapland. Although I was only young I remember pretty much the entire trip; visiting Santa's Grotto (the real Santa), Reindeer and Husky rides, the ice slides and the massive snowman. I would love to go back one year!

15. What made you realize the truth about Santa?
I honestly have no idea, but my mum told me that the year I stopped believing I pretended to still believe until after Christmas because I didn't want to upset her.

16. Do you make New Years resolutions? Do you stick to them?
For the past couple of years I have made New Years resolutions and not really stuck to them because they are usually quite unattainable. This year I am however planning to make some more realistic New Years resolutions so look out for that blog post! I'm hoping that I will be more inspired to stick to them if they're on the internet. 

17. What makes the holidays special for you?
This is probably a cliche but I really enjoy getting to see pretty much every member of my family. I have a very large family which means that I don't get to see them very often. I like that I get to see everyone at least once around Christmas time. 

I hope you enjoyed this post! I have really been enjoying reading other bloggers' Blogmas posts so next year I will hopefully take part in Blogmas myself. I am however trying to keep December's posts Christmas themed this year so I hope that this will suffice. As always, a follow would be greatly appreciated! 

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram | 

Manchester Christmas Markets 2016

On Wednesday my mum, my grandma and I went shopping at the Manchester Christmas Markets, I had a really lovely day so I thought I would share it with you.

The day began with a browse around Primark because you can't go shopping without nipping into Primark. We all picked up a few bits, I will show you one of them later on in the post.
After we had finished in Primark we went for our first hot chocolate of the day in Costa. I had a Black Forest Hot Chocolate with a Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffin. My mum and my grandma had normal hot chocolates with marshmallows, a yule log muffin and a slice of carrot cake.

We then ventured into the Christmas Markets for our first shopping burst. We stuck to the main strip of market stalls at first. I bought a couple of things that I will show you at the end of the post. We also popped into the Arndale Centre and looked at all off the cute Christmas presents in the shops. We spent hours hunting around the markets and other shops to find a nutcracker for my grandma, sadly we were unsuccessful so I had to order one for her from Amazon instead.
When we got tired of walking around we decided to go for some lunch. We went to Frankie and Benny's in the Printworks (which is a really cool building, check it out if you ever get the chance). We had garlic bread, chicken strips and stuffed potato skins to start, I then had a carbonara with chips which was a little strange but very yummy.

Finally we headed back to the Christmas Markets to sample the hot drinks that they had there. I had an Amaretto Hot Chocolate which I had been excited for the whole day, amaretto is my favourite drink. My grandma had an Irish Cream Hot Chocolate and my mum had a plain hot chocolate as she was driving. I also had some of the mini Dutch pancakes with nutella on which were amazing!

I picked up quite a few things from the day so I thought I would show you them now.

The Christmas tree in the box is not actually from a market stall but as it is Christmas related I felt like I should include it. The tree is from Primark and was bought for me by my mum, the tree cost £5 and can be found in the home section.
The big white reindeer? teddy was bought by my grandma, she bought us each a present (my mum got a snowman). These cost £10 and were bought from the large stall on Albert Square.
The small Santa teddy was given to me for free at the same stall by one of the staff, presumably because we spent £30 but he didn't say anything he just put it in my hand.
The bottle of  Grumpy Git Amber Ale cost £4.50 and is a Christmas present for my step dad so hopefully he doesn't read this and spoil it.
The dream catcher cost £7 and I bought this because I don't have one in my room at the moment and I have been having a lot of bad dreams recently. I hope that having the dream catcher will help me out but also I just find them to be quite pretty. They had smaller sizes of these also.
Finally, I took the cup that I got my hot chocolate in home with me. I'm not 100% sure if you're supposed to take them but I really wanted a souvenir to remember the day and no one stopped me from walking out with it so I guess that it's alright?
I hope you enjoyed this post. I really enjoy writing these types of posts because not only do they allow me to share bits of my life with you but also they act as a little memory box for me,
As always if you enjoyed a follow would be greatly appreciated!

-Chloe

| Bloglovin' | Twitter | Instagram |