20somethingteen

Having a bit of a Florence fest as of late, forgive me!

So haven’t actually updated the blog since the 18th of July, BAD TIMES! Let’s see, what’s happened since then… (really need next term to come so I can get a free wall planner in fresher’s week, how I miss it so!)

Oh and before I forget, this morning at 4:56am the date and time read 4:56 07/08/09 :) how cool!

So I guess the biggest thing worth noting is the visit of a friend for a few days to the new house! Managed to cross a few things off The List too which is always good.

Bread & Butter

The first place we visited was a little cafe called Bread & Butter, on an unsuspecting, unassuming and altogether undisturbed street a few minutes walk from Piccadilly. The mismatched mugs and plates were very charming, as was the 1950’s decor and retro music playing softly through the speakers. The staff seemed friendly and were quick to offer advice on which items from the menu they did best, and they were right. Between us we had a Mozzarella and Italian Meatball Flatbread, and a Caramelised Onion and Cheddar Flatbread, both of which were very nice! Overall I’d give it a Would Happily Go Back if I was In the Area rating.

Shudehill Book Centre

Second on the list was this unsuspecting book centre. I originally thought it was a whole street of bookshops but it seems I was wrong, or maybe just looking in the wrong place. Anyways, its advertisements for adult books and videos is surprisingly obvious in this picture but I’ll let you know, it really isn’t from the street. We went in and took a look at some of the (old) (but decently priced) second hand books, before realising that the entire back section was devoted to material of an adult nature. A couple of shifty looking men entered and, no nonsense, headed straight for the back, which is fair enough. One guy however came in, and seemed to be a bit thrown off by the fact that there were other people in the front section of the store, actually looking for readable material. Because of this, he seemed to linger around the TV watching the news, or some sort drivel with David Dickinson, I don’t remember, with the members of staff for a while. This cleverly masked his subtle sidle over to the back section, which we were completely unaware of! Anyways, I’m going to give it a Would Go Back When I’ve Forgotten I’d Ever Been in the First Place rating, due to it’s easily forgettable stock and general lack of much choice. Next on the list is that small book market underneath the underpass by ManMet Student’s Union, will add to the list.

Worldwide Food Store

Another place crossed off the list is this rather large discount supermarket. Fruit and veg was brilliantly cheap, plus they had huge 25kg sacks of rice for less than £20 (don’t remember the price exactly). Definitely a must for the start of term! I also got a good selection of vegetables for around £2. The staff were quite friendly, on a visit since one woman even realised she didn’t give me enough change and called me back from the door! It has officially become my weekly grocery store, thus I’m rating it Would Go More Often Than Asda rating.

Solomon Grundy

Sorry for the ridiculously low quality image, it’s all I could find! We took refuge in Solomon Grundy when our ridiculously and unnecessarily long adventure to find Worldwide wore us out. The decor inside is stylish and indie, and reminded me of Font Bar’s more off the rails, drug addicted cousin. But that’s just the visuals. It seems very family friendly, and in there with us at the time were a couple of girlfriends and a middle-aged couple coming in for brunch. The whole place gave off quite a nice atmosphere, with the full glass front acting as a transparent blackboard to advertise to the street, which was a nice feature. The pricing was reasonable, fairly average, however we only ordered Cokes so I didn’t really get a good idea of the food. I’d give it a Would Take Out-of-Towners There to Show Off Manchester rating. And remember, don’t be solemn and grumpy, head to Solomon Grundy!

Comedy Balloon at the Ape and Apple

So we tried this out on the Wednesday night, but the acts pretty much sucked. Most of them were very cringe-worthy apart from one girl who was alright. The drinks were average price, however the bar staff were quite friendly which sort of made up for it. However, we ended up skipping over to the Odeon to see Bruno half way through, which resulted in a better evening in the end. Going to give it a Would Go Back if I Lost My Sense of Humour rating. However, we passed a little coffee place on the way which I went into to ask about job vacancies a few weeks ago. I have now added this to the list!

So yeah, overall a pretty good trip :) I don’t mind going to places even if they turn out to be rubbish, since I would never have known otherwise!

So yeah, haven’t really been up to much else recently really. Trying to get the problems with the house fixed, seems like most of them are done now or in the process of getting done. I kind of snapped and had a bit of a go over e-mail to one of the women though, which wasn’t good and I shouldn’t have done really.. but she was totally getting it wrong, what we’d asked for, and accusing us of being ‘unfair’ to them for asking for too much when she didn’t even know what she was talking about with the stuff we had asked for. Ugh! I have also now asked them twice what to do with mail that is delivered to previous tenants and they have, first time, ignored my question and replied to other questions in the e-mail, and, second time, just didn’t reply to my e-mail. UGH! Oh well, pretty much all the stuff that I want sorted is sorted so I’m just gonna give up after this one e-mail I am about to send. Going to ask for a third time about the mail thing and also ask if the alarm people have been since we have no functioning burglar alarm and they said they would come yesterday or today, so! I’ll see what they say about that.

Heading into town tonight to see friends which should be good as I haven’t seen most of them in an age! Also waiting for the new(ish) Prince of Persia game to be delivered, eeee :) it kind of has an Ico/Wind Waker/Jet Set Radio inspired cell-shading graphics system, which looks lush. And apparently the combat system has been completely reworked so now you only fight one-on-one with enemies and the fluid, smooth and pretty fighting sequences that were so hard to achieve in the previous games are now a major feature of the fighting style. Brilliant! Also got Burnout Paradise for my sister’s other half as a birthday present (but stupidly got it delivered to my old address! getting it sorted though!) which looks brill. I absolutely love the adrenaline inspired style of the Burnout games, how you get boost points for near misses, driving on the wrong side of the road and power slides, genious! Also downloaded a demo (demos! who knew they still existed beyond free CDs with magazines??) of a game called Flat Out 2 which looks like a very good cross between Destruction Derby and Burnout, and you can get it for the mac! Want want want :)

Went to the doctor’s the other day about a heart problem I’ve been having for a while now.. as in.. several years. I never really know how to describe it.. it’s like.. imagine your heart is doing press ups in time with its beats, and it gets to a really hard one and it takes a while to pull itself up and then when it finally does there’s sort of a relief.. it’s kind of like that. My heart will beat in a regular fashion and then get a bit slower and then be like ‘arrrrgh this is harrrrd there we go’. If that makes sense? And while it’s doing that it kind of feels like I’m going to pass out. Anyways, I talked to him about it and he took my blood pressure (which, and I have no idea why, makes me laugh uncontrollably! always embarrassing!) and heart rate and then said it seemed normal but he would order an ECG and then talk to me after. So I did that but then afterwards the nurse said he didn’t need to see me anymore and if I wanted to wait for him it’d be a very long wait :( he said it was something called Cardiovascular Myopathy? And that it wasn’t serious? I don’t remember if those were the exact words, it may have been Cardiomyopathy or something.. however, this website says it is a ‘serious disease’ :/ but I don’t know if he’s got it right.. because he didn’t really ask me many questions and seemed to know exactly what it was without much information.. plus it comes and goes and it was fine that day so I don’t know how they can get an accurate picture of it :/ plus he said to do exercise when it happened, which would help get rid of it, but I just mowed the lawn and that actually caused it to happen! Plus my mum just wasn’t giving me the time of day which makes it worse, and I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m making it all up :( I hate it when she does that.. urgh! Anyways. I’m going to go to another doctor in manchester for a second opinion.. because it really worries me sometimes :/ anyways.

Right! That’s probably enough for this epic post.

Til next time!

t.

Summary:

• Bread & Butter - 4/5 - Would Happily Go Back if I was In the Area
• Shudehill Book Centre - 2/5 - Would Go Back When I’ve Forgotten I’d Ever Been in the First Place
• Worldwide Food Store - 5/5 - Would Go More Often than Asda
• Solomon Grundy - 4/5 - Would Take Out-of-Towners There to Show Off Manchester
• Comedy Balloon at the Ape and Apple - 1/5 - Would Go Back if I Lost My Sense of Humour

Florence and the Machine - Bird Song (on the iTunes Deluxe Edition of the album)