3 concerts in 2 weeks!

Hello there,

If there's one thing I wish I could do more of in the world is go to concerts. I love them! I love the feeling I get when I'm there, how nothing in the world could bring me down, how I feel connected to everyone in the room just a little bit and how I know that I can have fun and if I make a fool out of myself (my dancing is terrible!) it's fine because I'm probably never going to see any of these people again!

Recently on the past two weeks I have made up for my lack of concerts in January, February and March and have been to three two within days of each other. 

The first concert I went to was 5 Seconds of Summer, who surprisingly no one that I work with have heard of. This concert was good, the boys were amazing and I even found a new artist that I quite like in the form of their support act Jessarae. However I had been having a lot of trouble with my IBS and my anxiety was on an all time high so I felt like poop. As much as I wanted to enjoy myself and dance around I felt like if I moved I would be sick and the vibrations from Ashton's drums that seemed to go straight through the floor and hit my stomach certainly didn't help. I will be honest and say o was relieved to be going home from that one even though 5SOS were incredible.

The same week as 5SOS I saw Mike Dignam. Now this concert was always going to be a good one as I absolutely love Mike and he is such a nice chap. I was quite disheartened for Mike though as he had only sold 60 tickets for this show (just last year he sold out the room) although it was heartbreaking that people seemed to not give a crap I mean £10 a ticket isn't exactly breaking the bank, Mike still gave it everything and sounded as amazing as ever. I honestly think it's the most content I have seen him play his music and the happiest he has been in his music. I especially love when he gets into the middle of the crowd and sings quite possibly my favourite song of his 'great escape' acoustically and everyone around him sings along it never fails to make me smile. And to top it all off Mike being the awesome guy he is came out to meet everyone, as he does at the end of all his gigs, so I got to meet him again briefly and have a picture before running off to get the train. The only thing that would have made this tour better was if I had my best friend with me as we both share a love for Mike. 

Finally the following week was The Vamps. Now I will be honest and say that I mainly booked the tickets in order to see one of their support acts perform live again, Hometown. It was an amazing show and I was astounded by the level of talent that each of The Vamps seemed to hold. From Brad flitting between guitars, pianos and drums to Tristan's rapping and epic drum solo it was incredible! There were a few things that I didn't particularly like such as The Vamps new singing 'New Hope Club' coming on and in my opinion ruining my favourite song 'cecila' to Hometowns meet up before that never seemed to happen. However I did get to do a first for me and met two of the supporting acts 'The Tide' and 'New Hope Club' before the show, I can't see me standing outside again in a hurry though. Two and a half hours in the cold and rain to not even see the band you want to not fun! And of course not forgetting Conor Maynard, he was absolutely fantastic. His voice everything was just so amazing, I have no words of how good he truly was.

That's been my two weeks of concerts for the year, as of yet I have no more booked but I can't see it staying that way!

Leigh x

Planning things...

Hello There,

Where do I start? In what I had planned to be the best year ever I start it feeling stressed and anxious over two things... The Easter Fundraising Fayre for Rainbows and Brownies and my 21st Birthday Party.

We'll start with the Easter fayre. I clearly haven't learnt from last time and thought it would be an amazing idea to basically end up planning and organising another fundraising event, I don't mind doing this it just sucks that I don't seem to get any help or support as I am doing it. One corner of my room is literally dedicated to things for the fayre and quite honestly I'm fed up of seeing it. I'm hopeful that this time around we will be successful and raise more money than last years summer flop but part of me can't help but think we are not going to achieve that. Without being big headed or bratty I feel that if the other leaders had listened to me and booked the room for later on in the day we might have more people show up, but hey I can't change that now can I? I mean the council are being kind enough to let us have the room for free. We'll have to see how it goes (fingers crossed).

And now onto my birthday party the most stressful one of the two. I have all these ideas and plans but I just don't have the budget or creativity to make them a reality, the cake I have fell in love with I have found out will cost me at least£160 (for cake whaat?) so the one thing I wanted is going to have to be modified to make it cheaper and more realistic. And then there's the decorations, I have quite possibly chosen the hardest colour scheme in the world! Gold and white. Like seriously Leigh if you can pull this off it'll be great but good luck finding things to make it work! Argh! I am so great ful that my birthday isn't until June so I have a good time to plan this thing, if it was next month I don't know what I'd do!

Any tips for making either of these a success?

Leigh x

Making 2016 the BEST year!!

Hello There,

For years I have just seemed to float through life not really making it exciting for myself or having plans.  This year I have decided to change that! This year will be the year I do more and make memories I'll want to remember and do things I've always wanted to do. So on the 17th January what do I have planned to make this year the best one?

1) I had my hair dyed yesterday, just the bottom, but I love it! I've been putting it off because I was scared that I would hate it but I am so happy and proud of myself for having it done.

2) I am going to see 5SOS.  I've wanted to see these on their own tour for 2 years so why not just go?

3) I'm going to see The Vamps.  I'll be honest I have seen these already and I absolutely love them live but I really want to see one of their support acts and that's the main reason I booked the tickets.

4) I'm 21 this year! And I have promised myself that I will make it the best birthday yet surrounded by friends and family.

5) I am finally after about 5 years going to meet Ameerah, one of my best friends.  I can not wait to meet her and I know I'll probably get all emotional!

6) London!! I'm finally going to explore London and do all the things I've wanted to do.  Exciting times.

So far I think that's all that I have planned but who knows where this year can take us? I'm hoping that at the beginning of 2017 I can look back on this year and think yeah that was a great year.

Leigh x

Looking back on 2015

Hello There,

As someone who cherishes memories and tries to capture them constantly, through pictures, a diary even Facebook posts or tweets I have a lot of memories and sometimes for me they all get jumbled and I can’t remember what year this pictures from or what year this happened.  So I thought that why not review 2015? I have tons of photos and memories of the year so why don’t I just put all of them into a blog post to look back to in years to come? A lot happened in 2015 so these are not in any way going to be in order.

First of all my oldest cousin had his first little boy! I have plenty of pictures of little Oscar but just don’t feel right sharing pictures of him.  I am no longer the official baby of the family! It’s only taken 20 years!

My sister got her puppy! It feels like he’s been around for ages when in actual fact it hasn’t even been a year yet! So here’s Bailey, my new four legged friend.

 

It was both my Nan and Grandads 80^th birthdays this year and we had loads of fun at each! I turned party planner for my Grandads and organised the whole party, including a book so everyone could write him a message (something he can keep forever) I also used this book to stick in photos so that my Grandad can see the faces that wrote the messages.  For me it was so important to keep as many memories as possible from this as my Grandad has Alzheimer’s and often struggles with remembering the more recent things in life.  My Nans birthday was a lot less stressful for me as I didn’t have to turn party planner my Auntie did that and she did a great job my nan really enjoyed going out for a meal with all the people closest too her and really loved the photo album that I made of pictures from the night.

On the subject of special birthdays it was also my Aunties 50^th birthday in 2015. There wasn’t so much as a party more a gathering at her house.  It was great fun and we all stuffed ourselves with Chinese until it was no longer possible to carry on eating.

Concerts:

I had 7 concerts this year a slight downsize to the 12 in 2014 but what a great 7 concerts they were.

First was The scripts no sound without silence tour, to say I got off to a rocky start that day would be an understatement my anxiety was all over the place and I felt absolutely terrible, I apparently looked it too because my mum thought we would have to come home.  I persevered though and once we got into the arena and into our seats I was fine and absolutely enjoyed the show. It was my first time seeing the script and I would without a shadow of a doubt go and see them again.

 

Next up was Olly Murs’s never been better tour.  Again the first time seeing Olly and the first time going to a concert with my cousin.  It was brilliant I always knew Olly was a proper showman and seeing him live just made that even more evident I would quite happily go and see him again tomorrow.

Next is the vamps world tour, I wrote a blog post on this one so won’t go on for ages.  It was an amazing show and I fell in love with the support act Hometown.  It was also my first time going to Scarborough open air theatre and it was beautiful.

 

Hallam FM summer live is next and what a concert that one was.  I’d been the previous year and absolutely loved it and 2015 didn’t disappoint there were so many great artists on the bill and almost all of them were great (sorry Dappy you were rubbish.) I especially enjoyed watching Nathan Sykes and even teared up during his performance (I loved The Wanted ok?)

Then came the concert that part of me had been dreading, One Directions on the road again tour.  I love one directions music and knew once I was there that I’d have a good time but I could help but fret over where we were sat what doors we were going in, if my cousin had got the tickets.  I am a complete control freak on these things so not being the one to book the tickets really did get my anxiety peaking.  It turns out the seats were amazing! So I had worried for nothing! The concert was brilliant and I really enjoyed myself, I did however have my first panic attack in the arena something I don’t want to be doing again in a hurry!

For me this was a concert but of a smaller scale.  It was a charity night in memory of a much loved man who died in 2014 there was two acts on a local band and a local guy. They were both amazing and the atmosphere was great I literally knew about 90% of the people in that room.

 

And last but not least completing my concerts if 2015 is Diversity’s up close and personal tour.  I wrote a post on that so I won’t put much here all I will say is that it was bloody amazing.

Holidays!

I was very lucky this year and managed to have 3 holidays! 2 weekends away and then a week in Devon.  I did blog about two of those trips so will just summarise the week away.  It was amazing! I absolutely love the place that we went and have done since I was a kid.  Saying this it was rather boring the places we went to when I was younger talk half a day rather than a full day and nothing seemed as magical and exciting as it once had.  We still had a great time though but have decided that we won’t be going there again.

 

I did the race for life this year! For me this was something that I have always wanted to do but never had the guts to do it and finally I did it! Ok I only raised £50 and my group were the last walking people back (we did have a 2 year old with us) but it was amazing.  The atmosphere was great and I got my medal to say that I did it!

In the snow in January I made a pretty awesome snowman! I’ll be completely honest and I had forgotten it even snowed in January!

We went to a very interesting night do for a wedding where we were literally in what was like a field on the back of a pub sat on hay bales.  It was very strange but an awesome night.

 

CHRISTMAS!!

Christmas was great this year! It was the first time I had ever been to a works Christmas do and absolutely loved it! It was great to socialise with all my colleagues without being at work.  It was a fun night and I even managed to stay until the time that we were being picked up (go me!)

 

Christmas day itself was brilliant we had my Nan and grandad and my sister, her boyfriend and dog around and found out some great news my sister was engaged! I got all the presents I’d asked for and more and everyone seemed to like the presents that I had given (few) Christmas dinner was brilliant and we had a really nice time.

Looking at 2015 like this is amazing! It’s quite possibly been one of the best years of my 20 years existence.  Here’s to 2016 being even better!

Leigh x

 

 

A new year

Hello There,

First of all Happy New Year! 2016 already time just flies by!

As with a new year you get the people going new year new me and then they never change and it was a complete waste of time. I myself have never been one to do the whole new me thing choosing more realistic resolutions like last years read more (and still I don't succeed as much as I would like) but this year I've decided that yes in a way it will be new me. Here are my 5 resolutions that I hope I can follow to make 2016 the best year yet!

1) Do more of what makes me happy- for years I have always worried about everyone else and just followed if you will, seeing the films I don't want to see because I was too afraid to say no, constantly trying to reconnect with 'friends' who couldn't care less because I didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings. But 2016 is the year I'm going to put myself first and think about my own feelings.

2) Drink more- self explanatory I never drink enough water in a day and always seem to have a headache because of it so I need to drink more.

3) Get fitter- this is one I have every year and fail on. I'm extremely unfit and really want to change that this year, fingers crossed I can keep to it!

4) Pass my driving test- not really a resolution more of a goal but I am determined that by the end of this year I will have passed!

5) Enjoy life- I've always been the person to shy away from social outings always too afraid to go, this comes from having anxiety but I don't want to let it rule me anymore. I need to start saying yes!

So that's my 5 who knows by the end of the year I might be writing a blog post on how well all of these have gone and then again I could be writing on on how bad they've gone. What are your New Years resolutions?

Leigh x

Girl Online On Tour: A review

Hello there,

So as the title to this blog post suggests I've just read girl online. Not only did I read the book I read it all in a day. As I write this I have literally just put the book down after refusing to do so for a fair few hours of my day. For me that shows me that a book is good. If I am that into the book for me not to put it down it must be great!

There's something about Zoe's books that do this to me, I read Girl online in one day last year and absolutely loved it. I don't quite know what it is about these books but they must have some magical powers because it's been a very long time since I've been this into a book series. I just want more!

I think it's the story lines how a ordinary girl like 'penny' can be completely in love with rockstar 'Noah' and for him to feel the exact same. It's what we dream of. I think as well for me the books help, in a way. At the end of last year I was told that I had IBS triggered by anxiety and I thought it was total rubbish. This year however I have come to the realisation that actuall the anxiety isn't rubbish and yes I may feel completely sick to my stomach I can't let it stop me from living my life. And well Zoe's books (and well her general person) proves that you can keep going and you can achieve your dreams, ones you might not have even realised was possible.

I think I'll leave it there or this blog post will be stupidly long and I'll start rambling.

Leigh x

Up Close and Personal Tour (Diversity)

Hello there,

Diversity what can I say? A bunch of amazingly talented inspirational people who leave me stuck for words each time I see them.

Having seen them for twice before tonight I thought I'd seen everything and that nothing could surprise me. But man was I wrong. Not only was this years show personal and told us the boys stories it made me think about my own life. How a bit like Perri I was the shy, quiet kid at school who was bullied and who has finally started to find her voice because of the job she does and loves.

I was surprised at myself when I teared up and even cried at a couple of the dances the boys did, I never thought in my wildest dreams that watching someone dance could move me so much. But then again I never thought that dance could tell a story and the Limitless tour proved that one wrong.

The whole show was entertaining and powerful. You could really tell how much work has been put into making the show a reality and it was amazing! That's the only word I have to describe it because even now writing this two hours later I'm still stuck for words on how I could possibly describe what they do. It's simply stunning.

So now I'm going to sleep with a smile on my face knowing that I've seen the people who make me aspire to be better and to achieve my dreams. Because as their motto says 'Dream, Believe, Achieve' and I can't wait to book tickets for the 2017 tour!

Night Leigh x