Our Last Night & Birmingham.

Last night me and Ellis hauled ass and went to Birmingham to see Our Last Night. They were incredible!!

Back in the day I was a hard core rock chic. Rock was my life, I was in a band, I was always at gigs. Yah!

I left this life behind in my teenage years but I was brought right back at this gig. I didn't realise how much I missed music, live music, rock music, playing an instrument till I went to see Our Last Night.

Ellis introduced me to Our Last Night in the last year or so and I've fallen in love! So when I saw they were touring and they were coming fairly close I asked Ellis if she wanted to go and she nearly blew my head off with excitement! 

There were two supports, New Volume, who were really good and the second support, can’t remember their name, weren't my cup of tea! Probably showing my age now but I was genuinely scared for them, they were head banding so much I was worried about bodily injury!

Then out came Our Last Night, and the glorious man that is Trevor Wentworth! *drools*

I can’t explain to you how good they were. We both had such a good time and it ended too soon.

Because I feel super fragile still after back surgery we hung around the back on some stairs and had a fab view! As Ellis said to me, it was nice just staying out of the crowds and soaking up the whole atmosphere, which is something I missed when I was younger.

It was so weird for me looking into the crowd and seeing people jumping, moshing, crowd surfing. I used to be that girl! Took me right back to those times!

Our last night: amazing. 

Birmingham: woah! 

I’ve been Birmingham before, not for quite a few years. First thing I noticed was how many homeless people and druggies there are on the streets! Every 5 mins we were being approached and asked for spare change. I’ve never been anywhere before and experienced this. Obviously there are homeless people and druggies everywhere but I've never seen so many in one place before. It was both heartbreaking that so many people were on the streets, and terrifying because I did feel quite unsafe. I probably had no reason to feel that way, most of the people were probably genuinely nice people in a horrendous situation, but I'm not used to being approached in this way and I feel uneasy with people I don't know so my anxiety was getting the better of me here and translated into fear. I think too seeing so many people suffering around me really made me feel uneasy.

I did however pop into lush, I've been meaning to try a shampoo and conditioner of theirs so we popped in to ask for a sample as I'm allergic to everything so didn't wanna buy and have to return and the girl in there was so lovely and went through the ingredients with me and hooked me up with a few samples to try! 

Then came dindins! Food is never far from my mind! We actually realised what a difficult pair we are together to eat out! Ellis is vegan, I'm allergic to nuts! But pizza express to the rescue! Had a yummy dinner then it was time to get to the gig!

Walking to the gig, I see some nice shoes on a guy, so look up to check him out, as you do, and it was only bloody Trevor!!! And the rest of the band!!!! And what did I do? Punch Ellis in the arm (sorry Ellis!), tell her who they were cause she’d missed them, probably in shock of the noises I made and the sudden arm beating! But we both chickened out and never shouted to say hi! We were both kicking ourselves all night, this is what I always do and then regret I after, because I'm so nervous meeting new people and don't have the confidence to introduce myself or start a conversation so I panicked and didn't! OMG I HATE MYSELF RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!

Back to Our Last Night, I made a video of the gig, wanted to keep it fairly short and failed so its almost 11 mins long! It was all sooooo good I just couldn't cut any more down!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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Ghosts aren't real, they cant be! Or can they? My paranormal experiences!

For halloween, and kind of stealing Ellis’s video idea , which you should totally go and watch right here, about her ghostly experiences I thought it would be fun and spooky to share with you some weird experiences I've had, some I could possibly explain, some I can’t and one still terrifies me to this day.

Most of my experiences happened where I used to work. I was an animal carer and it was a very large site with many different buildings used for all sorts of things. I heard voices there and saw many a shadow while alone on my unit. But one day I was with another carer on unit. I was walking from one side to the other and heard some footsteps, I turned around to talk to my colleague assuming it was her following me, but she was still sat on her chair, as I looked at her she said “Did you see that?”. She said just before I turned round she saw a black shadow pass by me. I can’t explain this, because it happened to the both of us, and two different things happened at the same time! 

One morning I was walking a dog early down a long corridor to one of the walking areas, and I heard footsteps behind me, nothing unusual, at that time in the morning people from the offices would use these corridors to get to another building on site. But the footsteps got closer and louder, until they sped up and sounded so close behind me. At this point the dog freaked out and lunged forward on her lead, scared shitless and I flung around fully expecting to tell the shit out of some idiot for scaring the dog and nothing! Not a soul! I have no explanation for this whatsoever. If it was someone messing with me they wouldn't have time to hide, I was right at the end of the corridor, plus all staff there know not to approach a dog and handler without asking, so nobody there would intentionally scare a dog, I still replay this in my head to this day to figure out an explanation and there isn't one.

While driving one morning, on a country lane, I could see something in the road ahead, it was shaped like a person but see through, like fog. Weird! People shaped fog! But as I got closer it sort of passed through my car, like inside it! And my warm and toasty car turned freezing cold. I sound fucking insane writing this! Now this was early in the morning and yes, it could have been fog, but I can’t figure out why it made my car cold and seemed to pass inside it. Maybe a trick on the eyes? I’m not sure, but freaky none the less.

A weird story that happened to my Uncle, was that he knew my Nana had passed away before he was told the news. My Grandad passed just over a year before this, and my Nana had taken ill this past christmas and was in hospital on end of life care, no body, including her doctors expected her to go as soon as she did, we were discussing hospice care the day before she passed as they expected her to have months. Anyway, my Uncle was very ill with cancer at the time and he was at home and he saw two orbs visit him and fly away together. He fully believed it was my Grandad meeting my Nana and visiting him to tell him they had found each other. 5 minutes later he got the phone call from my Dad that she had passed away. My uncle didn't bull shit and if he said this happened, it happened. Sadly my Uncle passed away too this year and I can only hope they are all together now watching over us.

My most terrifying experience happened a few years ago, and I still get frightened by it. I think it will always scare me. It is the most terrified I've ever been, and I nearly lost my life so thats saying something! I was staying round a friends house, and I know that her grandma died in the house, I’ve seen and experienced feelings of being watched or that I’m not alone here but they've always been warm, kind of comforting. Welcoming I guess like being welcomed into someones home. But that night was horrible. It was about 3am and I was awake and on my phone, I never sleep very well so this isn't unusual. But I rolled over and stood next to my bed was a man. It was so vivid I remember him wearing blue jeans, and a royal blue and green striped jumper, and he had black floppy, curly hair. I could probably go as far as to describe facial features too. He was looking at me, smiling. And I couldn't do anything. I was paralysed. I couldn't shout for help. Nothing. But in a blink, he was gone. Gone, but not far. He was now the other side of my bed. Still paralysed with fear I realised it might not be human. How did he get from one side of the bed to the other in the blink of an eye? He said nothing, just staring at me with such a sinister smile. I was trying to call for help, shout, scream, bang on the wall, anything to get someone to help. I felt like evil was next to me. I felt trapped to that bed and I thought I was going to die. Eventually he knelt down beside the bed and disappeared and I could move my arms, I felt in control of my body again and I realised I still wasn't alone. An old lady was now in the room, stood in the corner smiling at me with love and care. She made the man go away. She turned out to be my friends Grandma. I never knew her when she was alive, nor seen a picture, but I asked to see one the next day and it was her. I never told my friend what happened. Still to this day she doesn't know. I don't want them to worry if something bad is in their home. I’m literally sat here shaking remembering this and it happened years ago. I’m still haunted now. I know some people who read this will think it was a night terror, a really vivid and horrendous nightmare, and I’d probably believe that if I wasn’t already awake. I’d been on my phone and I’ve never drifted off to sleep before, I had a back injury so I was used to having around 1-3 hours sleep a night with pain keeping me awake. I was not delirious with lack of sleep or pain as I’d been this way a long time. Its the only time its ever happened and I’ve spent my entire adult life sleep deprived through chronic pain. I can’t explain it. I’ve tried to think of every way possible to explain it, because for me if I find an explanation, I can get rid of the fear I still feel from this night. But I have no explanation. It was a ghost, evil spirit, demon. Whatever you want to call it it was evil and horrid.

I’m sat here now, wondering why the heck I decided writing this post before bed time was a good idea! Well done Vik, no sleep for me! I’m already on edge! 

Anyhoo, does anyone have any ghost stories of their own? Anything you can’t explain? Anything you can think of that could explain my ghostly experiences?! I’d love to hear them!

Happy Halloween!

Vikky

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My favourite Strictly couple EVER!

I felt compelled to write this post because I've never wanted to support a couple on Strictly Come Dancing as much as this. Susan and Kevin have won my heart. 

And here's why.

I have a soft spot for the non dancers in the show, this being the celebs that don't have any dance experience in their past. I really enjoy seeing them learning and improving, and seeing them growing a love for dance they never thought they could have. For me, this is what the show is about.

Susan has been such an endearing person from the moment this show started. She is taking everything she can from the entire experience and to just look at her you can see pure happiness. 

Her dancing has been improving and I excitedly wait for the time in the show each Saturday when we get to hear "dancing next is Susan and her partner Kevin".

It's no secret on this blog that Kevin is my favourite pro dancer! So no matter who his partner is I feel I will always support him, but this year it's different. Susan makes me happy, she dances with pure joy and it's infectious. Kevin creates amazing dances each week and their partnership just works. No partnership before has made me want to write a whole post about them before! But I felt they deserve their very own post aside from a mention in my usual weekly Strictly series! 

Susan represents all the normal people out there, with no dance experience, who may be too shy to go out there and learn to have the courage to step up and dance their first move. A true inspiration.

Because of Susan, I actually went onto Kevin and Karen's YouTube channel, found their Charleston tutorial, and had a go! Shy unconfident me! 

Go out there and smash it tonight guys! You're incredible! 

Thanks for reading! 

Vikky. 

Strictly Come Dancing: Week 4

Lets get straight in by talking about Susan and Kevin, fab-u-lous darling!!!!!! By far my favourite performance of the night, so elegant and everything was stunning! She was on fire zooming around that dance floor! Perfect! Can’t stop watching on repeat on youtube!

Everyones going on about Alexandra and Gorka’s jive, yes it was awesome, yes it was flipping snazzy, but for me there wasn't enough actual jive content. I think Gorka should have choreographed more jive, Alex would have nailed it but I didn't feel like I was watching a jive. Probably an unpopular opinion there but I said it!

I love Gemma and Aliaz right now, they're improving week to week and loving it. I really hope she keeps going and maybe start knocking some of the dancers with previous experience off their podium. As good as these past experience dancers are they do have an advantage over the non dancers and I'm not sure thats fair, but Gemma is kicking their booty.

Brian is becoming someone I'm looking forward to each week, never thought I’d sat that at the start but I think he is also improving and I love seeing that. He wasn't brilliant with his paso this week but you could see him working on the steps and trying to get elements of the paso in there and thats good enough for me. As Shirley said, strictly is a marathon not a sprint and she nailed that right on the head.

Now to the eliminated couple, Charlotte and Brendan. Charlotte did my head in, I think she really did want to soak up the whole experience but she struggled letting go and this showed in her dancing for me, it was uncomfortable to watch and quite frankly, boring. But this week, even though she fudged up a bit, her jive was good to watch because she looked like she had let go and was having fun. I'm glad she's gone because she was the one that I thought deserved to go, but I'm also annoyed now we wont get to see her let go even more and see if her dancing would have improved the more comfortable she became.

I just wanna add on the end too that I am loving Shirley Ballas in that judging panel, she is the right mix of both constructive criticism and positive feedback, she wants every single dancer to improve and will pick up on individual steps they have done right to give them some praise. She's very fair, and very experienced and a perfect fit at the table.

Thanks for reading!

Vikky.

Self build Camper van!

I’m building a camper van!!!!!

I must be insane, crazy, loopy and round the bend! Why, because I picked up my new van earlier today, and I’m planning on converting it into a camper van by myself!! Well thats a lie, I’m having a professional fit some windows, and I might chicken out fitting the solar panel and electrics and get someone to do that too if its not too expensive, but other than that, I'm planning on doing everything solo. 

I’m no tradesman, I'm not skilled in a craft, but I consider myself fairly handy and I'm not afraid to get stuck in to a bit of diy, but admittedly this will be a huge challenge for me, and I'm incredibly excited to get started and give myself something to work my brain and to learn some new skills. 

I plan on filming, photographing and blogging the entire conversion and beyond so ill keep y'all posted for youtube videos and new posts!!

Like I've said before, I don't really have a clue what I'm doing, so as I learn I wanna document absolutely everything so that I can look back at what I've achieved and bask in sheer pride at what I've accomplished but also for other novices wanting to convert their own vans. I'm hopefully going to do some how to type posts or videos for things like insulating the van, building my bed and fitting the hob and sink that pure beginners can understand with clear step by step instructions.

I’m also doing this on a limited budget, so as I explore ideas for keepings costs down I’ll share them too. 

Fast forward, I've now had the van a few days and started work today. I had some crew seats in the back to remove, the bolts into the floor were a bastard to remove, cue lots of wd40, me squirming my way under the van to attack them from underneath with my Dad unscrewing them from inside the van! Just gotta fill the holes in now with a sealant. I've also removed the panels from the walls and gave it a bloody good clean. It was a mess inside but after a hoover and a scrub its squeaky clean! Its ready now for wiring and insulation when they all arrive. 

I'm having my windows fitted in a weeks time so more videos and photos to come! 

In the meantime I've made a short video of my van and the bit of work I've done so far clearing it out. 

He doesn't read my blog but I need to give my friend Mark a shout out for helping me so much with what direction to go in and what things I need to buy! Thanks bud! You'll probably want to murder me by the end of this conversion!

I’ll be blogging and filming lots more so keep an eye out for new posts!

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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Strictly Come Dancing Week 2.

Well slap me silly, what an exciting show that was!! Is it me or is the standard on the show like so high this year. I mean week 2!! And I'm tingling all over!!

Its obvious Alexandra and Gorka stole the show tonight. Her paso doble was INCREDIBLE!!!! For me, no other paso can compete. She should be incredibly proud of herself, she was stunning. I can’t even think what to write right now I'm just in awe of it! Amazing!

Jonnie is such an inspiration, paralympic champion and jive conqueror, he did such an amazing job and he looked like he had so much fun, I may be developing a teeny itty bitty crush on this man! And I need a pair of Oti’s legs delivered and fitted immediately, she is stunning!! I can’t wait to see them next week!

Another couple who I cant stop watching on repeat is Aston and Janette. I’m not a huge fan of the salsa but I really liked theirs! My heart stopped in those lifts and even though he made a little mistake he pulled it together.

I feel so sorry for Simon, this dance and song meant so much to him and you could just see his heart break when he messed up going into the spin at the end, I really hope he doesn't dwell on this, the dance was beautiful and graceful and he should be so incredibly proud of himself. As a total non dancer I think he struggled to know how to recover from it but I honestly don't care, for me it didn't impact the dance one bit and mistakes are always going to happen. 

With the results show I think they got the dance off totally right. There were 4 people that I thought deserved to be in that dance off and thats Chizzy, Brian, Charlotte and Ruth. They suck! Haha! So it doesn't matter who goes week one for me, what matters is what happens over the next few weeks, personally I want to see Charlotte go, she has nothing about her, she's boring and I can’t find anything I want to connect with. 

Now I’ve said “for me” about 8000 times and had a little moan I’m off! 

Thanks for reading!

Vikky

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Strictly Come Dancing Week 1.

Now last year I did a bit of a Strictly Come Dancing series on my blog, but I started mid way though the season because I’d only just started my blog, I never had to write about 15 individual couples, and the thought of doing that now seems mind blowing! So I've decided to keep as short and sweet as I can about each couple until there are less of them and I can rave and rant about my favourites and my not so loved couples! 

I just wanna start off with a little comment about the new head judge, Shirley Ballas. No one can ever replace Len Goodman, but she's impressing me so far, I like her, she knows her stuff and she's offering the couples some wonderful advice to improve so I think she's a good decision made there.

Now the couples!

Some stood out, some didn't and some did for the wrong reasons! 

My favourite performance of the night was a toss up between Kevin and Susan and Joe and Katya. Kevin has a soft spot in my heart, and Susan really loves him too so naturally I'm going to be supporting these two cuties till their very last dance, but Susan looked really beautiful and graceful dancing the Viennese Waltz.

Joe and Katya had one of my favourite dances and it made me wanna join in, the jive is so fun and happy and he did it really well scoring some impressive scores for week 1! I couple to watch I think.

Next up is Aston and Janette, I have these two in a sweepstake at work but I haven't bonded with them yet like Kevin and Susan! Saying that their foxtrot was really good, I'm not too sure about the moves they added, probably trying to play to Aston’s dance background in a boy band but the foxtrot I liked.

Another jive was performed by Mollie and Aj, but I didn't much enjoy it, poor Mollie to me looked a little lost, maybe trying to remember the steps or she didn't feel totally comfortable or happy but I think she's got potential and want to see her improve each week.

Reverend Richard Coles and Dianne, we can tell our rev isn't going far on strictly, but he is having fun and giving it his all and I admire that so much more than someone like Aston who has a natural flare for dance. I didn't like his cha cha cha but I think he will do really well in ballroom.

Ruth and Anton danced a lovely Waltz, but I got bored watching it. I absolutely love Anton, but I think he struggles keeping up with the other pros on the show, he's very classic ballroom, and I really do think he maybe should have a seat on the judging table. He has so much experience in dance and a killer personality that he needs to be on that judging panel.

Davood and Nadiya are one sexy pairing! And their cha cha was steamy and I didn't want it to end! I hope to see lots of great things from these two going forward!

Debbie and Giovanni are a weird but wonderful couple. Everyone I spoke to prior to Debbie actually performing thought she was going to be a useless old bat, I defended her thinking she's got potential, I think good things will come from her and I'm so glad I was right! She smashed that Paso and I'm so looking forward to what else she's going to bring.

Jonnie and Oti, omg I tingle all over at the sight of these two!! Love love loved their Waltz and with Oti’s amazing ability to create unique routines I think these two are going to wow me over and over again. 

Chizzy and Pasha were supposed to have danced a cha cha but we didn't see much, she's a natural mover and has great rhythm but hopefully we will see more of the dance they should have been performing next time.

Charlotte and Brendan are my boring couple. Brendan is my least fave pro, he's passed his moment and I don't like his attitude. Charlotte is reserved, which isn't a bad thing but I can’t connect to her, Jay 2 years ago started off quiet and reserved but I easily connected, I can’t do this with Charlotte and I think this will be the safe and boring couple as seen in their Foxtrot.

Simon and Karen are a couple I hope improve week after week but I have a horrible feeling they will go fairly soon. Their Paso was ok, he is a complete beginner to dance and to learn that in 2 weeks is amazing, but I'm not sure he can compete with some of the others with a history in dance.

Alexandra and Gorka, holy moly Gorka is a babe isn't he?! Anyway…this is a couple that is clearly going to go far in this competition, she looked beautiful and at home on the dance floor in the Waltz and I really do think she will thoroughly enjoy this whole experience with a humble heart.

I actually forgot about poor Brian and Amy! I guess that shows I didn't think too much to their Tango. Another couple I fear will be eliminated early in the competition.

Aaaaaand finally, Gemma and Aliaz, a couple I think will have their ups and downs but will go far, I could see genuine moments in their cha cha where she was smiling at Aliaz and you could tell she was enjoying herself, yes girly! I want to see this! 

If you cant tell by now, I love Strictly, and I easily get swept up in the glitzy world and really look forward to the weekends, call me sad, I don't care! This year the person I shared my love of strictly with, my Nana, is no longer with us, she passed away at Christmas, a couple of weeks before we were due to go to our first live tour, so I am going to enjoy this year even more, for both me and my Nana. 

Thanks for reading!

Vikky.

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