Monday 23 October 2017

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

Happy Monday! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend! Mine consisted entirely of sleeping in and lazing around... after two days in Manchester, I was zonked! Today's post is all about these two days that my best friend & I spent in Manchester city. We had a fabulous time and I couldn't not blog all about it! As is usual on my blog, expect too many photos, haha! Enjoy reading guys :) 

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

If you follow me over on Twitter, you may have seen my excited tweet when I ordered tickets to see Joseph & The Amazing Tenchicolour Dreamcoat, the musical! Well on Thursday, it was finally time to go see it at the Palace Theatre in Manchester! Even though I'm not a Christian, I went to a Catholic primary school and high school, and so bible stories and hymns were a part of my childhood. I've always loved singing so I very much enjoyed hymns, and still remember the lyrics to so many of them. There's just something so awesome about people singing in unison, especially in a big echoey hall or in a Church. The bible stories they taught us as children were all lovely with a message about love, of truth or some other positive theme. So yeah, biblical based things will forever be nostalgic for me!

This is why 'Joseph' has always been one of my top ten musicals... the songs are AMAZING, the storyline is lovely and it's just a really fun take on the original bible story. I love Andrew Lloyd Webber's work so much! 


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

 The leading role in this musical was played by 2009 Xfactor winner Joe McElderry so it was interesting to see him so many years on and hear how he sounds performing musical theatre. I was certainly not disappointed! Joe and the rest of the cast did such an amazing job. I was miming along to every song throughout and even though I went along with a few nerves about how it would compare to the film version of the musical with Donny Osmond as Joseph (which I adore!), it surpassed my expectations and then some! 

I was a little sad that they'd changed up my favourite song from the musical 'Benjamin Calypso', but other than that... it was incredible to see the show live and omgosh Trina Hill as the narrator was absolutely brillant! The dude playing Reuben (one of Joseph's brothers) was pretty hot too ;)


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

We decided that despite the fact that our musical was in the afternoon, that were going to make a proper trip of it! So, we booked a hotel closeby. It was actually in such a great location, so close to the Palace Theatre, the Oxford Road train station and quite a few fast food establishments. Later in the evening after having a few hours to relax in our hotel room, we decided to go for a meal. For years and years we had passed 'The Printworks' on our days out in Manchester and never once gone inside. The Printworks, if you're unfamilar with Manchester city centre, is this huge old building that is home to lots of restaurants and a vue cinema. Most people I know who've been there, went to go to the Hard Rock Cafe, which sounded very tempting but wanting to save money, the Harvester was where we settled on. 

It took us almost an hour to get over to The Printworks from our hotel because apparently there were no taxis available, the city was very busy surprisingly for a weekday night and once we finally booked a cab, we had to wait soooo long for it to arrive >.< This just ended up making us even more hungry and so we would have happily eaten anywhere by this point. I'd only ever been to a Harvester restaurant once before and I loved it, so I was really looking forward to eating there again! As a fussy eater and with irritable bowel syndrome added into the equation, it means I tend to avoid so many types of food when I'm out. Therefore classic British pub-style meals are my favourite. There was a meal deal available that meant that even with a refill drink, our entire order with dessert included was under £20 each. Can't complain about that! It was so yummy, and I was impressed that the restaurant was empty! And by that, I mean LITERALLY empty!! We were the only two customers in there, shortly followed by two other women who finished up and left before we did as well! It was paradise for my social anxiety :) 

Anyhow, we both ordered a rump steak meal (steak, fries and some salady bits, oh and onion rings which I always give to my best friend). The Harvester offers a free salad bar which you can use with every main meal purchase, and although there wasn't a lot that I liked on it, I was very happy to have some fresh salad to nibble on with my meal. Our dessert was scrumptious, a 'Rocky Horror' sundae filled with chocolate brownie pieces, dairy ice-cream and whipped cream *nom nom*. How awesome is it that we went to see a musical and our dessert was named after one!

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

On Saturday, we of course went shopping! Manchester being a popular city has all of the stores that my hometown's shopping centre does not. PAPERCHASE, LUSH, THE DISNEY STORE, WATERSTONES, BUILD-A-BEAR- all of my favourite places to shop! There's also a place called Affleck's Palace which is a really cool old building filled with lots of quirky, alternative stores. I've been going there each time I'm in Manchester since I was 15 years old, and I blame it for the start of my need to buy all the kawaii things! It was the only place back then where I could find cute Japanese & Korean products. If you're ever in the city, I recommend that you check it out! 

I spent way too much money on our final day in Manchester, oops. The Primark there is massive and so I took advantage of the homeware section, picking up a few things in preparation for my new bedroom! (Have you seen my bedroom inspiration post? If you're interested, you can read it here). I regret now not getting any PJ's but there were so many that I loved so it was impossible for me to settle on just one set! One thing thought that I could have cried about is the severe lack of Ravenclaw merch in the Harry Potter section T_T  I'm used to there being a lot of Gryffindor and Slytherin things and nothing for the other houses... but not this time, Hufflepuff stuff was there, just no Ravenclaw. Why do you have to do us like that Primark!?  I wanted my house jumper so badly. Wahhh!


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary


We headed next to Lush, to pick something up for Jess' mom, and also just to take photos in there #LivingThatBloggerLife! I told myself that I wasn't allowed to buy anything since I had Lushie goodies back home. Did I take my own advice? Nope I did not XD I really wanted to try one of the new Lush jellybombs and when I came across the lovely Snow Fairy one, scented like candy floss... it smells just like the Candy Mountain bubble bar from the Christmas range, I couldn't resist getting my wallet out. Now my designated bath drawer in my bedroom smells amazing! 


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary


As you will all know by now if you're a regular follower of mine, I love Pokemon! Build-A-Bear have just released another of my top five Pokemon, Vulpix this time! I love love love my new plushie! I named her 'Enya' which apparently in old Irish means little fire so it seemed perfect! The Build-A-Bear experience is so fun; I'll never get bored of it! You get to help in the process of putting together your new plushie: choose your plushies 'skin', choose a sound to put inside if you want, then head to the stuffing machine where a member of staff will help you to make your plushie as snuggly as you like, and finally choose any clothes and accessories you want before going to the certificate machine to name your new cuddly friend! Here are some photos to show the process to you all... 


Vulpix at Build A Bear
Vulpix Build A Bear

The other stop that was on my shopping list was the Disney store. I have have a mighty need to get my hands on some of the new Japanese plushies called Ufufy :) You may remember me including these on a previous wishlist... so I was over the moon when I discovered that they were finally coming to British stores! There was a special offer on them, £3.50 VS their standard price of a fiver for that week only, and I had a 20% off voucher too! I choose two Ufufy plush; keep scrolling to find out which ones as well as to see all of the other goodies I picked up...


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary

JUST LOOK AT MY VULPIX PLUSHIE GUYS!!? She's so bright and vibrant and oh my gosh, she's wearing a matching Pokeball onesie! I'm in love! 

I went into Primark with the idea that I was just going to buy homeware items, but as usual my obsession with cute, animal-themed things got the better of me. Just ask my best friend and she'll describe how when I turned every new corner of the aisles, I squealed and ran towards something else! I'm sure that I'm a very comical person to shop with, haha. I really wanted a fake plant of some sort after my sister came home from a recent shopping trip with some but all of the pots that the mini succulents in Primark came in were grey and that wouldn't go with the colour scheme I have in mind for my bedroom. I was delighted when I spotted this adorable fake plant in a cheerful little pot :) I couldn't walk past this gorgeous purrmaid bedding without picking it up so yeah that came home with me too. 

There was a 30% sale on the Hello Kitty range in Paperchase so I had to get something. I already have the Hello Kitty multi-section notebook and it's so nice. I have been after the smaller of the list pads for ages now, because I can never have too many of these as I write a ridiculous amount of lists! The other list pad is a giant desk pad which is absolutely awesome and so big. Inside on each page, there's a section for your to-do-list, with two other smaller sections for categorising urgent tasks and ones that can wait until another day.  The postcards available in Paperchase are so so pretty and I absolutely LOVE puns and play-on-word's, plus how awesome is that die-cut unicorn postcard!? These new additions are up on my art wall already! 

Last time when I was in Manchester with my best friend celebrating our birthdays, we came across a Cath Kidston stall in the middle of the Arndale and even though I was lusting over so many of the products, I didn't buy any and I regretted as soon as we were on the train home! This time if it was there again, I was determined to get something from the super adorable guinea pig collection (it's called the Party Pets range by the way!). After struggling for another ten minutes, I at last settled on this pretty case/pouch which since it's got a plastic covering, I'm probably going to use as some sort of wash bag. I also added the eraser to my basket since it's so sweet but I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to bring myself to use it! Finally, the two Ufufy that I got from the Disney store included Donald Duck (who I'd already decided ages ago was my favourite from the set) and Marie because she just looks so precious. I didn't know it beforehand but these plushies are apple blossom scented! I'm not usually a fan of apple scented or flavoured things but this fragrance is pretty nice! 


Two Days In Manchester | Photo Diary


As you can see, I went a little overboard haha, but with the crappy week I had, I was definitely in need of some serious retail therapy. I tried to stick to more practical items that I actually needed (yes, I absolutely need plushies!). I hope that you all enjoyed today's post. Have you had a spending spree lately? I'd love to hear all about what you bought in the comments. 

Thankyou for reading!

  ♥

Do you own a Build-A-Bear plushie? A pokemon one or another?
Also, what are your favourite stores? 

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4 comments

  1. So much cute stuff, the Manchester Primark is EPIC it's one of the things I miss about living there haha! Also it took you an hour to get to the Printworks from Oxford Road that's CRAZY!! You probably could have walked there quicker haha! I remember when I used to live there as soon at 5pm hits the traffic is crazy you can't get anywhere! Anyway I'm really missing Primark now those sheets are too cute and I kinda need some new ones to xoxo

    Cateaclysmic

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  3. It look like you had a fab day! Joseph is one of my favourite shows.
    Also, I can totally understand how sad you are that there was a severe lack of Ravenclaw stuff. :(

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  4. Aww sweetpea it looks and sounds like you had such an amazing day! I've known a few people who've gone to watch Joseph and to be honest it holds a soft spot deep down for me! I used to sing pieces from the musical all the time throughout my years in primary and secondary school! :D

    I also LOVE that you got your Vulpix, you're now a part of the gang! ;)

    https://theremightbecoffee.wordpress.com/

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