Monthly Archives: March 2013
Art and jazz
Very excited about the opening of The Atkinson in Southport.
The Arts Centre, art gallery and library have all been undergoing a major refurbishment the last couple of years and they are due to reopen under the name of The Atkinson in April 2013. Southport definitely needs this project. Hopefully it will be a major boost to the community, encourage tourism and offer a great place for people to meet and socialise whilst taking in some culture.
I’m looking forward to seeing what activities they will hold that my daughter can join in. She can be very dramatic, so hopefully something along those lines. I’m also looking forward to taking her to the new library, which opens on 2nd April. She is a total bookworm so hopefully it’ll be somewhere we can spend quite a bit of time in.
Sefton Arts states that “The Atkinson will deliver high quality arts and cultural entertainment from dance and drama to fine art and music, whilst supporting community art groups with their development and performances. The facilities will be open to the public from 10am to 10pm, offering constant activities and events to a range of audiences.”
You can read about the redevelopment here.
The Atkinson will be holding some of the Southport Jazz Festival gigs. The festival will take place from 10th to 12th May – it offers a range of different concerts to attend as well as free gigs throughout the town centre. A weekend ticket for The Atkinson concerts is £98, if you book before 30th April though you get £10 off. Full line up of what concerts are on is here.
My personal favourite is Perfectly Frank who is holding a free concert in Wayfarers Arcade on Sunday 12th May. If I found a genie to grant me wishes, one of them would be to go back in time and go to a Rat Pack concert. I just love their music and their stage presence. In the absence of finding aforementioned genie, Perfectly Frank is an amazing substitute. It actually freaked me out how much he was like Frank Sinatra when I first saw him. It still amazes me now. Well worth a trip to see him.
CAMRA will also be holding one of their beer festivals over the three day weekend. So for those of you who don’t have kids or can find a babysitter for part of the weekend, why not make a day/evening of it, relax, enjoy some beer, go to one of the restaurants hosting a live band for a meal and take in some jazz.
(Atkinson picture from: http://www.britishtheatreguide.info)
(Southport Jazz picture from: http://www.safeconcerts.com)
Please like. It’ll have links to interesting reads, places to visit, things to see etc xx
New website idea
So I’m thinking of starting a “things to do/go where I live” website.
I started blogging anonymously a couple of months ago about my pregnancy and the issues we’ve been facing. I have now started designing a website for this because the specific problems our baby has are quite rare and we’ve found it difficult to find others going through the same, hence why I decided to set up a website. It is still in the early stages of design, but hopefully it will help somebody one day as it will have a forum, links to reading material, online chat etc.
Anyway, I digress. Since starting my first blog I discovered I actually enjoy doing the writing and find it quite therapeutic. Only trouble is, it’s not the happiest subject in the world and I feel like when I write something about it every day I am being really depressing. So I started this blog. This blog is an attempt to try and separate the good stuff from the difficult stuff, give me something a bit happier to focus on and it’s also because I do genuinely go to places and see things I want to share with others.
My new website would be an extension of this. It would have recommendations for places to go, see, eat and do with kids in the area. A reference point for parents. I know there are a lot of websites out there that do the same sort of thing, so I need to do something to make mine stand out. I would also like to somehow link part of it with my other website eventually – recommendations of places to go, where the money you spend is going towards a good cause. For example, there is a café where I live called “A Great Little Place” – the food is delicious, they display art which you can buy, they have pieces of handmade jewellery for sale, second hand books for sale but, best of all, it is run by Autism Initiatives and eating at the café means your money is making a difference.
I’m excited about researching and starting up my new little venture. Hopefully it will take off and get some interest. If not, I will have had fun trying.
I don’t get this Pinterest malarkey but thought I’d give it a go because I liked all the pictures x
Climb into your paintings
I bought this Matthew Wood painting in January 2012 from Ffin y Parc Gallery on the CollectorPlan. I love looking at it especially when it’s freezing outside, it makes me want to climb into it.
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Hitch your wedding dress into your knickers
What bride wouldn’t want to hitch their wedding dress into their knickers, throw on some Hunter wellies and trudge through a muddy field to get married at this church?! Just me? Well picture it – it’s a beautiful little church, nothing else around, spectacular scenery, romantic, small and intimate. Marriage is a celebration of love, and what better way to celebrate than in a breath taking place that doesn’t require you spending a fortune on decorating it?! All its charm and uniqueness is within the building, the history and the surroundings themselves. That’s why it’d be special. You don’t have to pay to make it special, it already is.
It is Llanrhychwyn Church just outside Trefriw and on the way to Lake Geirionydd. It is said to be the oldest church in Wales and Prince Llywelyn is meant to have built it for his wife’s use.
My partner spotted it when he was out on a run one day and we stopped there when we went for a drive around last weekend.
The door was unlocked, merely held shut by a piece of stick. It was very quiet and I imagine that on a nice sunny day, it would be one of the most beautiful sights in the area. It was already beautiful in the miserable weather. Only problem is there’s nowhere really to leave cars – you’d either have to have a small wedding party or hike your way up there. But what’s wrong with doing that?!
We have already picked where we’d like to get married when we eventually do (it is another beautiful, quaint church), but I must admit I am starting to be drawn more to the wedding dress in knickers scenario. I’d feel like Elizabeth Bennet marching across the fields to go and visit her sister Jane at Pemberley.
We’ll just have to put on the wedding invitations “walking boots essential” xx
Pictures from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Llanrhychwyn_Church_-_geograph.org.uk_-_209644.jpg
Date night
Yay, date night coming up soon. I got a text from my yummy other half before to say he was taking me on a romantic date night. I love date night. I like getting ready to go out with him. I don’t really go out very often, I’m a bit of a hermit and prefer being with my family. Don’t get me wrong, I like seeing my friends, but I’m more of a “comfortable clothes and chilling out in the evening” kind of a girl. I think getting up for work so early and being preggers makes me a bit too tired for late nights. I’m so old!!
I really like Volare in Southport. It is run by Onofrio Maimone and Cinzia Lopalco – Onofrio is from Sicily and Cinzia is from Puglia. The food is very good value and absolutely delicious. It’s proper, hearty Italian food – not chain restaurant Italian food. I love it. My mouth is watering from thinking about it. It’s the kind of food that gets eaten when I picture in my head sitting outside a Tuscan villa with your family – a big farmhouse table that’s been weathered from all previous family dinners, flowers on the table and then all this delicious food down the middle that everyone tucks into and helps themselves to. You sit there in the sunshine and have a leisurely three hour dinner, drinking wine, eating good food and just having fun. That’s what I think of when I eat the food at Volare.
So future hubby, if you’re reading this, that’s where I want to go for our date night – my pretend Tuscan villa.
(picture taken from: http://www.lolmo.com/ – which, by the way, looks totally amazing)
Books wrapped in brown paper and string
I grabbed ‘Salmon Fishing in the Yemen’ to read at the weekend. I think I may be one of the last people to read it. I saw it at my parents’ place and stole it from their bookshelf. I love getting engrossed in a book. I barely have the time for it anymore though. We always seem to be so busy.
The last book I stayed up all night to read was when I was at uni and I started reading ‘Rebecca’ by Daphne du Maurier (again, I was late reading that). I stayed up until 4am because I couldn’t put it down – good job I had no lessons the next day.
Not enough people read in my opinion. I’m surprised by how many people I know who don’t like reading, or don’t like reading fiction at least. There are too many good books out there for people to not find at least one they enjoy. My daughter loves reading. We read together every night at bedtime, I really enjoy buying books for her too. When our baby comes along, I’m looking forward to when he’s a bit older and us all snuggling into my daughter’s bed at night and reading together. I read to my daughter from when she was born. Every night when I put her in her cot, I would read to her – even if it was just a little picture type book with one word per page.
I have a tradition of reading ‘The Night Before Christmas’ by Clement C Moore every Christmas eve. It is the version that is illustrated by Arthur Rackham. I can’t bring myself to read another version of it. My friend’s mum bought it for me in the 80’s, and I’ve read it every Christmas since then. When my daughter came along, I started reading it to her too every year. I hope she continues the tradition with her children when she is older. It’s such a beautiful book.
There is a bookshop that I love called Broadhurst’s. It’s like an old house that’s been converted into a shop. They sell antique books and new books. When I step foot in the place I feel a mixture of excitement, calm and warm – if that makes sense. The children’s room is magical. It has a fire, comfy chairs and some absolutely beautiful books. It is like stepping back in time or going to the bookshop in You’ve Got Mail. The staff are extremely friendly and helpful – they even wrap your books in brown paper and string. Everyone, at some point, should visit Broadhurst’s and buy a book that gets wrapped in brown paper and string – it’s romantic, magical and like something out of a movie.
(picture from: http://www.otsnews.co.uk/broadhursts-book-shop-join-ots-news-co-uk-business-directory/)
Seaside, hills and the family 
