Casa Italia

Spent the day basically eating out in town today. Went to the gym this morning and trained arms then went into to town to have lunch with my mum and dad.

Mei Mei

Went to Mei Mei on Berry Street next to Tokyo. It's been there for years but we've never been there. We got a selection of dim sums then got ho fun and udon noodles. Food was alright nothing special like.

After I met up with Sarah, Jo, Rich, their son Jacob and Rich's little nephew Oscar. We went to the Odeon to watch Rampage in the IMAX 3D. I had no idea what the film was about just knew the rock was in it. The kids wanted to see it. It was alright like did get rubbish towards the end but I wouldn't say go watch it. There's nothing really good out at the moment though. They did want to go see Truth or Dare but it was 15 so the kids were too young to see it and it looks scary so I didn't want to see it!

We dropped the kids off home then went back into town for dinner.

Casa Italia

We went to Casa Italia which is down the side street opposite the Met Quarter. It's a little Italian and always has a queue of people waiting to go there. I've never been the others have and said it was good and it's cheap.

  

Calamari

Garlic mushrooms

I got the Salmone -  Salmon & prawns in a cream and dill sauce. Got penne - changed it from tagliatelle, less messy!

Me and Rich got the Quattro Stagioni - Ham, salmon, mushrooms & prawns with strips of peppers to share but told them to put the seafood on half the pizza but the ham and mushroom all over but instead they separated it into 4 separate segments and used a pepper to split them! 

Rich got Lumaconi Pollo al Forno - Sliced chicken, baked with béchamel & mozzarella

  

Jo got carbonara

Sarah got the bolognese

Good job I got the small pasta the large would've been too much with or without having the pizza. It was a struggle to eat both pasta and pizza. I don't know why I agreed to sharing that with Rich cos I am stuffed and need to go on a run tomorrow but I can't! The food is nice in there I'd go again and the service was really quick! 

Proper fat day today can't wait to have some home cooked food tomorrow as I've been filming the past 2 days so haven't even been eating at home. 

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Shoryu Ramen

Went to Shoryu Ramen in Piccadilly Gardens in Manchester last week before we went to see Bastille on the their ReOrchestrated Tour. I've heard good things about it and when it first opened I remember there being queues to go there. It's been opened for a while now so I don't think it's that popular anymore!

Me and Holly got the same Shoryu Ganso Tonkotsu - the signature ramen with added shallots. Tonkotsu - rich 12 hour pork broth ramen with char siu barbecue pork belly, nitamago egg, kikurage mushrooms, spring onion, sesame, ginger and nori seaweed.

Me and Holly shared a Shoryu Bun - char siu barbecue pork belly.

It had hoi sin sauce in it but a weird spicy mayo. 

Kelly got the Kotteri Hakata Tonkotsu - a richer, thickerm meatier tonkotsu broth, double nitamago egg.

The food was nice but I didn't think it was filling or that you got that much at all I was still hungry after it! I got Matcha and sesame ice cream as well. I think my appetite might have gone bigger with this marathon training but I still think the portions are quite small and the bowl is defo bigger than the actual food!

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Bastille ReOrchestrated

BASTILLE - ReOrchestrated Tour - O2 Apollo Manchester

Tuesday 10th April 2018

Last Tuesday night I went to see Bastille on their ReOrchestrated tour at the O2 Apollo in Manchester with Holly and Kelly. I drove there straight from work. I was stressing about getting there as we got to Manchester at 5pm needed to find somewhere to park then needed to get food but couldn't decide where to go! We ended up going to Shoryu in Piccadilly Gardens. 

It was an all seated gig which was really strange because I've never sat at a gig before! But it made sense as it was a full orchestra set. Our seats were better than I thought they were - we were in stalls so on the ground and a couple of rows back from the sound desk. Obviously I wished were front row or at least in front of the sound desk but these were the best seats I could get. We were sat in the centre and got end seats.

Charlie Barnes

Doors opened at 7pm and Charlie was on at 7:30pm - there was no way that was enough time to get everyone in as it really annoyed me that Charlie was singing and people were still coming in finding their seat and we had to move to let people in!

We got in just in time for Charlie Barnes to start. Charlie's the touring member of the band for the Wild, Wild World Tour they did. He's so good and plays so many different instruments I really didn't want to miss him! 

I love Charlie! You should definitely listen to him and I hope he does do well on his own!

To Kill A King

The lead singer of To Kill a King - Ralph is one of Dan's best mates. I've been listening to them since I heard of Bastille as Dan and him have loads of videos on YouTube of them together before he started Bastille. Some of Bastille's songs were originally sang by them two! Dan joined them for a song as well. These are definitely worth a listen too!

Bastille

It was the first night of the tour so I didn't know what to expect and what songs they were going to do. Didn't know the whole etiquette of the sat down gig either like were we all going to jump up once they come on stage... Turns out you don't! 

They started with Pompeii which really threw me and I wasn't ready for! Dan sang the song acapella with the choir completely stripped back. Then went into Send Them Off! They did a 22 song sent with an encore and did songs they don't really play live that often like The Anchor, Laughter Lines - My favourite song!! I went to record it but cos my memory card ran out of space it crashed my phone and didn't record which I'm so sad about! 

They brought Ralph from To Kill a King out to do Cut Her Down as Dan and Ralph have their own little side project band called Annie Oakley Hanging. (True Bastille fans will know about it). No Angels which is No Scrubs which both Holly and Kelly didn't believe me until Dan started singing the words! They finished the set with Good Grief then a 3 song encore with Get Home, World Gone Mad and Weight of Living Pt. 1. It was such a good set which you can see the list here.

It was such a good gig! Bastille are definitely better live which I said the last time when I went to see them on the Wild, Wild World Tour. The fact they can do a completely stripped back full orchestra set as well shows they are true musicians and I don't care what anyone says. 

They played Edinburgh's User Hall the night after but the set list was so much better they played bad_news, These Streets and Bad Blood - on the pip organ as the first encore song! I wanted to hear bad_news and These Streets! I've not heard either of them live and are also 2 of my other favourite songs! This is only a small tour with 8 dates - 5 UK and 3 in Europe. So if you manged to get tickets to see them you're lucky!
I'm so happy I managed to get tickets as it's sold out! I can't wait for album 3. Hurry up we need new music and I need another tour!!

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All photos were taken with my Samsung Galaxy S7 phone.