Holidays

Today is my first day back in Fat Buddha after a almost 3 weeks off! Like many people, I couldn't really afford to go anywhere too exciting this summer, but decided to make what I could of it and have a wee UK holiday instead and it was great. 

First stop was Manchester where we stayed for three days. The main reason we went was to see Death Cab for Cutie play (I've never seen them before) but as I also love Manchester, I really was desperate for an excuse to go back and spend some time there. We got there on the Monday, the day of the gig, had a Nandos, bought some Krisky Kremes (another first - wow) and explored the city. The gig itself was incredible - despite being ridiculously hot in the venue, DCFC were amazing and played a meaty 2 hour set finishing with Stay Young Go Dancing, Marching Bands of Manhattan and Transatlanticism as an encore... perfect.

The next couple of days we spent really taking advantage of the amazing shopping and food Manchester has to offer, spending most of our time in the Northern Quarter where all the great independent shops and Café's are. Here's a few of the ones I loved the most:

The Real Camera Company - If you're into your vintage and analog photography this is this place for you. Jam packed with hundreds of vintage cameras of various brands and film sizes it really is quite the store. Nikons, Pentax's, Leicas, Rollei's as well as many soviet favourites, not to mention the thousands of lenses. They also have a basket full of expired film for £2 that you can rummage though too! 

Teacup on Thomas Street  - Without a doubt, I am in love with this place. When strolling through Thomas Street the cute decor got me and we decided to try it out for lunch. As well as delicious loose leaf teas, this place specialises in delicious home made cakes, pastries as well as an incredible food menu of eggs, pies, sandwiches, salads and even bangers and mash. Have to say, best Eggs Florentine I've had to date - it was so good we just had to pop back the next day too! With its cute interior, beautiful crockery and lovely staff really makes it a Manchester must. I can't wait until the next time I have an excuse to go back to this place... 

Richard Goodall Gallery -  Another favourite I stumbled across by accident. This Gallery, again on Thomas Street, specialises in beautiful art prints from film, music and photography. (Not to mention some Urban Vinyl - very close to our hearts) Be warned though, this place is dangerous and consuming - I spent a good few hours just leafing through stacks and stacks of beautiful art prints and even when I left I was straight onto the website (This place ships internationally - definately worth checking out wherever you are, there's something for everyone!)

When we got home to Glasgow I only had a couple of days back before jetting (megabusing) off again but managed to squeeze a fair amount into these two days. First I baked an awesome dinosaur cake for birthday celebrations (usually cake is not blog worthy but I'm particularly proud of this creation) and had a rather successful B'day BBQ to follow. The next day was Sunday and we headed up to T in the Park festival in Kinross, Scotland. When we arrived it was a beautiful sunny day but ofcourse within the hour it poured and everyone was covered in mud... hopefully my photographs convey the severity of the situation... really. Of course some great bands played, particular favourites including Futures,  Blondie, Pulp, Weezer, and not to mention Foo Fighters who finished up the festival.

There was no rest and the next day I was off to London to see Primus at the Brixton Academy. Now this is a weird one, Primus are a very strange band (known to most for doing the South Park theme tune... and sometimes for the video for Winona's Big Brown Beaver where they wear the big shoes) but I love them and have since my young mosher days. The two UK shows they did last week were the first they'd done here in 14 years so as soon as they were announced I knew I had to get to them. They do not disappoint, it really was an amazing live show and Claypool blew my socks off. If you're not too familair with this band they're worth checking out as, despite their strangeness they are pretty incresible musicians.

So now I'm home, happy (having seen Harry Potter) and back to work. Looking forward to going on some more adventures soon!

Katie