Well this year is just non stop folks, it's just full on from month to month as the adventures of Kevlar & Mrs. P. continue and it's back to London for our 3rd visit this year but before that it was UK Foo Fighters and a stay in Cardiff city centres newest hotel with a very high room and a very friendly guy called Ashley who was our receptionist and bar person. We think he took a shine to me, it was "Hi Kevin, what can i get you love?" and "Hi babes, i'll check on that for you", felt a bit weird but he was harmless. The UK Foo's were amazing as always and we've found a new game to play while at their gig in The Tramshed, how many coffee tequila shots can you down before the concert finishes, i actually lost count but my trainers paid the price as i had coffee tequila stains all over the front of them as the shots were up to the top of the glasses.
Our view from our room overlooking a grey and grubby looking Cardiff.
Two of our usual Tramshed giant buckets of beer for us please.
Our night time view overlooking a dark and grubby looking Cardiff....Cardiff is grubby no matter what time of day it is.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME......yep and 57 this year. Don't doctors talk bo**ocks. They say to exercise, we do, they say to eat healthy, we do, they say not to smoke, we don't, they say to drink in moderation.......OK that one we can pass on. I feel worse now than ever before. I cycle 8 miles a day, we walk over 10,000 steps a day, i can't even remember the year of when we fried something at home to eat, i'm 9 stone exactly so weigh the same as i did when i was 18 and....get this....i'm now buying kids jeans size 13~14 years old, not joking, that's true. So folks, ignore the doctors and all the health advice nonsense, eat lard sandwiches, drink like George Best, never get up off the sofa apart from to eat and find a job that allows you to work from bed. Anyway....anti health advert over and i was a very lucky boy this birthday, i had so much off Sian, she really did think outside the box and put so much thought in to the presents i had no idea of what i was having and then Sian topped it all off with a surprise visit to my favourite restaurant "Giggling Squid" i clapped and giggled like an excited school girl....yes you did read that right.
A couple of pre meal drinkies.
I can honestly say this actually matches the flavours of Gordon Ramsay's Lucky Cat restaurant so save yourself some money and go to Giggling Squid instead. IT'S SO GOOD. Thank you my beautiful girl, i loved it xxxx
And off to London we go to see Lady GaGa. So i bought whatever tickets i could get when they went on sale and these seats if they were any further back we would have been sat on the roof of The O2, we were at the very back. There were 3 seats together but they wouldn't allow me to book just the 2 so i bought all 3 and sold the third on at a small profit, not like crazy profit but enough that our tickets then worked out at just £20 each, BOOM, BACK OF THE NET!
We were staying back at the London City airport Travelodge and that i think is now our go to hotel for London trips, easy connections to central London and cheap and newly refurbed. Before the concert we had a full on day booked in. First indoor skydiving at IFly in the O2 at 3.30pm, then shuffleboard straight after that at Boom Battle Bar at 4pm till 5pm and then straight from there to the Amex VIP lounge at 5pm for doors open at 5.30pm, so as you can see it was full on.
Sian and me, I'm supporting her in the IFly tunnel.
Then i went solo.
BUGGER! You guessed right? Yeah....that's not me...unfortunately due to the damage i have on my left shoulder i wasn't allowed to do it which i was gutted about as this had been booked for the both of us for over a year but my shoulder has got progressively worse very quickly over the past 5 weeks so no indoor skydiving for me.........SHIT! Sian did amazing. You usually get only 1 minute of fly time but because we were the only 2 people booked in Sian got my time as well but they then gave her 5 mins fly time instead of 2 mins. She said that it works every muscle in your body just trying to stay stable over the fan, she was aching for a couple of days after.
On to shuffleboard. We love a game of shuffleboard, when we emigrate to Canada we've said we're not having any furniture in our living room just a shuffleboard 😂
And wouldn't you know it, it's all day happy hour with 2 for 1 cocktails YAAAAHOOOOO! Unfortunately that excitement was short lived as i lost another tournament of shuffleboard to Sian, this is getting ridiculous!
I reckon Sian's spiking my drinks, Sian forgot that loser gets a nasty shot, YES!
I'm sure Sian is practicing up in our attic, there's space for a shuffleboard up there, I'll have to investigate.
After getting my ass kicked...AGAIN...it's time for drinkies in the VIP Lounge before the concert.
Our selfies are a thing of class and beauty and so serious on the way to the VIP Lounge 😄
Good god, that Rohypnol Sian slipped me so she could win shuffleboard looks like it still has a hold over me.
Sian putting her Paw up for GaGa.
The VIP lounge was great, lots of room, very comfortable and Sian met Hannah Walters, Stephen Grahams wife and had a little chat with her. Like me Sian doesn't want to bother celebs with selfies even though Hannah offered a picture to be taken but Sian declined explaining Hannah was out for a night out and didn't want to bother her for a picture, i think celebs like that, that's why i don't ask, as long as i know i've met them i don't need a picture. They most probably will talk more about someone not wanting a selfie than the hundreds who do ask for selfies.
Sian said she smelt wonderful.
And after a few freebie drinkies which was great as they were £8.50 a pint otherwise and a woman gave me half a bottle of rose wine due to the fact she couldn't drink it all before entering the arena it was time to get to our seats.
JEBUS! Where's the oxygen! We were way back but great view of the stage and arena and the sound was perfect, you could hear every instrument and every word clearly. As we sat there waiting for the concert to begin you can see the stage is set out like an opera house and Lady GaGa is above the stage on a screen scribbling on a piece of paper with a quill to the sound of famous operatic music, not sure of the names of the songs but we knew them and then the lights go down and GaGa starts to speak and BOOM, your off. Now then at this point i have to say, it was just none stop for over 2 1/2 hours, it wasn't a concert, it was a theatrical mind blowing performance with costumes, narration, choreography and an amazing stage setting with light show. I had checked the setlist before we went and i only knew 9 songs out of 31 but it didn't matter, as i said this wasn't a concert with just a singer and a band it was a full on overload of the senses. I've seen many of the greats in concert, Bowie, Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Foo Fighters, G n R, Depeche Mode, Duran Duran, 5 Star, to name but a few and i can honestly say Lady GaGa's concert is the best thing i've ever seen, it was amazing and her voice is just pitch perfect and strong. The only person that has sounded as good as her, and this is weird, is Simon Le Bon, you would think it's the CD of the song playing they sound that good.
Knew i should have brought our climbing shoes.
Excuse the videos but my phone is old and not good with bright lights but the sound is good enough.
Just a feel of the lightshow.
And like all the other concerts we've seen, before you know it, it's over. Would we go to see her again, without a doubt as it was awesome to see.
NOW THEN.....there was a down side during this concert....next to me was a young woman who was obviously a social media user. She was singing loud and proud which is fine but every time i looked over she was filming herself singing Lady GaGa's songs and not taking any notice of the concert, WHY? For one thing her singing was awful, secondly Lady GaGa is on the stage in front of you and thirdly cause it was so dark where we were sitting you could only see her nose and eyes on her screen, it was doing my nut in, i wanted to snatch the phone and stamp on it BUT i did get my own back even though at the time i didn't know it.
I wanted to use the toilet but because we were the last row in the house i stepped over the back of my seat and walked behind the seats not to disturb the others in our row. As i walked along there was a white plastic rubbish bag on the floor that i trod over it on the way to the toilet and again on the way back. Then on the second visit to the toilet on the way back i kicked the bag to the end of the aisle where we were sat so no one else would stand on it or trip on it. As the concert ended and the lights went up i could see the woman next to me looking for something, she turns to me and asked "You haven't seen my coat have you". Guess what.....I'd only been trampling over her white coat and kicked it down the aisle at the back of a dirty walkway. It did feel quite good though when i told Sian and Sian just burst out laughing. Fun times as always with us.
And that was our visit over, it was just an overnight stay this time for the concert and for Sian to get some Levi jeans from the Levi outlet store in the O2 the next day and as always i bought Sian a Lady GaGa tour t~shirt but this one was really nice design and really good quality and it looked great on her.
And finally.....Squidly
Squidly fast asleep in her play tunnel.....
Squidly fast asleep with her head in her food bowl.......
And a squid outfit that we're going to buy for Squidly 😂 that bunny doesn't look happy.
And that's it for this update folks, next stop Bath and Greg Davies.
So until then......
Serve All, Love All, Peace All......Kevlar, Mrs. P. & Squidly Out!
We hello once again to our beautiful, wonderful, friendly blog followers and you have been busy this month with over 10,000 views, why are you wasting your time reading this chit chat blabbering crap 😂. Your either all very bored, very lonely or need to be sectioned, either way we are thankful for your time and effort to stay awake as you read this nonsense.
It's another trip to London and yet another concert, Coldplay.
Sian saw them in 2017 and i was meant to be going with her if i could find a flight from Zakynthos to get me there for the morning of the concert and then a flight back the next morning but there was nothing viable without a long trip in the UK back to Cardiff so Sian went with a friend, BUGGER!
Now then, lets get something straight first, i loved their albums "Parachutes" and "Rush of blood" and their performance of "Clocks" at the Brit awards was nothing like i had ever seen before with the stage show which blew me away and "Paradise" is still one of my all time favourite songs, less we forget that "Sky full of stars" is our song, it was the song that was playing when i proposed to Sian at the Calgary Stampede but all the rest i thought was a bit of a sell out just staying fashionable and more pop than indie when they started out, middle of the road safe songs so i tuned out of the rest of their stuff BUT i still wanted to see the stage show and listen to the songs i liked and i was lucky enough to get us tickets at one of their Wembley gigs. I decided to get us tickets in the upper stand as i wanted us to experience and see the stage show not be in amongst it on the pitch and what a great decision that was.
We started off as usual with our holiday breakfast, me with my usual toast and Sian had granola with Greek yoghurt, blueberries and honey, Sian always chooses the better stuff, so not fair.
So as you know our lovely blog followers we have been to London so many times we're starting to get cockney accents so we won't bore you with the usual sight seeing pics as we've pretty much exhausted London of all it has to offer but we did have a wander and go to a few different places.
I had booked us in to Travelodge at London City Airport which is on the very edge of London but what a great hotel. newly refurbished, our room overlooked the runway about 100m away so could watch the planes coming and going, the transport in to central London was every 10 mins and the room was dirt cheap, 3 night for £180 in a super room which is their upgraded rooms and with Coldplay in town, that's a bargain.
We arrived late afternoon and it was a bit grey and very light rain but it didn't last that long so we dumped down the bags and off we went to Canary Wharf for a small pub crawl as tomorrow is a long day.
We had seen a bar in Canary Wharf when we stayed over there a few years ago we wanted to try so that was our first stop, it's called "Fair Game" which is an adults only fun fair arcade bar, just look for the giant floating rubber duck......ah...there it is.
As we enter the bar there are candy floss and sugar cane stalls, and nice big bar and then behind the bar are your arcade games like shoot the basket ball, horseracing, knock the tins off, water gun clowns, the sort of games you find at a fun fair for you to win teddies and the atmosphere was really good but the DJ was terrible, so many different ages, nationalities and genders but just one type of music, shit music.
Sian with her "Bear goggles" beer as the Fair Game logo is a tipsy looking bear. CHEERS!
After just the one in there time was pushing on so we head off to a German bar called "Munich Cricket Club" do Germans play Cricket? It's a very English thing isn't it, cricket, grown men playing a game where they can rub their genitals in public in front of hundreds of people in the ground and thousands watching on TV and get away with it, it's a minefield, you can be lude on a sports field but mac flashers back in the day were arrested, very confusing.
It was a Saturday night and the bar was very quiet, but we liked the bar so we went downstairs and we like German wheat beer so it was perfect for us and they played a good selection of music.
And after a few beers we're a bit peckish so we head back to our room and order a take away which was the quickest ever delivery we've had, it was literally 10 mins as the take away was round the corner, perfect when we got the beer munchies. Fed, full and tired it's nigh nigh time.
Sunday and IT'S COLDPLAY DAY AND IT'S SUNNY, YAY! As we're getting ready to go out for our morning walk and a coffee i turn to Sian and say "Why aren't i excited, i'm looking forward to it but not excited like all the other concerts and gigs we've been to, weird" Sian said she felt the same, the buzz wasn't there but we were both really looking forward to the concert, ah well.
We take a walk beside the Thames and we find a swing in a small area by apartments so Sian couldn't resist, i found a climbing web but because of my shoulder i couldn't have a go, so not fair again. HMPH!
We continue over to the O2 arena before heading over to Wembley to find the indoor sky diving centre called Ifly as Sian's mum bought us a flight each for Christmas and we we're booked in to fly today but again due to my shoulder we had to reschedule but we wanted to see where it was and we couldn't resist a photo opportunity.
Angels do exist.
The least angelic look in the world 😕
A quick pint in Whetherspoons and off to Wembley we go and we hit it at the right time.
We take a walk around the outside of Wembley as all the bars close by were rammed and find our gate. Once again, like Tottenham stadium, the businesses were all playing music that wasn't Coldplay, don't these people get it! COLDPLAY ARE IN CONCERT! Couldn't find a bar we liked outside the stadium so we decided to head in and go to the bar where we drank in at Taylor Hawkins tribute concert, now the excitement is kicking in.
Sian with her beer goggles on, get it, drinking a beer and wearing moon goggles.....please yourselves. Only found out after we got home that the Moon goggles give an enhanced experience of the fireworks and light show, wasn't told this on the day. DOH!
I know what your thinking "Could you be any further away" trust me, this was the best spot to see the stage show.
Our usual crap selfie, i'm very proud of the fact our selfies are getting worse, well done us.
The theme from E.T. starts to play, screens light up and there are Coldplay walking under the stage towards the centre stage and out from the side of it, it was a very calm entrance by them, nothing over the top but the crowd were going wild and then the show begins......
SEE.....now that's why we sat where we did, to see the actual show not be in it. It is an amazing show that Coldplay put on and the wristbands how they work is brilliant as they can even choose where they want them to be on and what colours.
The show is all very love, peace and harmony which in these days is a rare thing and i've never been to a concert where the whole stadium stood for every song even the slow songs, we sat for those so we must have looked like weirdo's to the others. We sang loud, clapped along and jumped around which in a steep seated area ends up being quite dangerous, we had to check ourselves a few times as we almost fell over the seats in front of us. Now i bet your thinking "Coldplay are boring", i will say it was a very pedestrian concert and just rolled along smoothly, i really enjoyed our song which i was happy to hear Chris Martin say "During this song (Sky full of stars) just one song, everyone put their phones away and go mad" which almost everyone did including ourselves as it holds that special memory for us and i sang "Paradise" as loud as i could but then something happened........they played a song i had never heard before.......and it blew me away........
It was loud, it was heavy and the light show was dark with just flashing bright white lights like huge strobe lighting that just made the songs experience feel even louder, WOW. Why can't they make more songs like that instead of all the bubblegum pop stuff, i saw them in a different light after that and even watching that video it made the hairs stand up on my arms.....well it's not going to be on my head is it. Unfortunately they finished the concert with 3 slow songs, not really going out with a bang is it, so we left during the last but one song as we know how manic it gets leaving at the very end.
We would definitely go to see them again, if they had been in Cardiff a week later we would have gone but it was only Wembley BUT we had a great night after the non pre concert buzz. The journey back to the hotel was quick and painless and it was dry and sunny all day, phew!
Monday and it's do what you like day and that's exactly what we did, a nice wander around central London, visit our fav drinking holes and just chill, well if walking 14 miles is chilling that is.
We always make a beeline for our Canadian home from home bar "The Maple Leaf" and it's had a very nice refreshing refurb and it looks great.
They also have a new Canadian brewery Sleemans, I had the Honey Brown beer, it's so good, CHEERS!
We then went to The Argyle which we've told you about before across the road from the London Palladium, we do like it in there as it's a proper traditional oldy worldy pub with the little snugs then it's "Messy Time" to the Hard Rock, HooRah!
We pop in to the shop first as we realised we've visited Hard Rock London more than any other Hard Rock but never got the tshirt as we have tshirts from all the others we've visited. We buy our tshirts and are then asked would we like to see the vault. This is a new one on us, we had only found out about it that morning and had never seen it before. In the shop is a staircase that you just miss, i've never noticed that staircase before and we've been in that Hard Rock shop over half a dozen times and across the staircase is a rope closing it off and until your asked if you'd like to go down in to it the vault stays closed as it really is a locked vault. We were two out of a lucky five given the privilege to go down in to it. THIS IS SO COOL!
We were given a tour of the most precious exhibits and guide of how the Hard Rock started and stories of the rock stars who have ate there as regular customers when they lived in London in the 70's. At the back of the room is a church pew from Jimi Hendrixs home in London and look at a few of the stars who have sat on that pew......(Sorry about the glare of the picture frames glass)
Aerosmith
The Edge from U2
Manic Street Preachers
Mr. Ringo Starr
And the ultimate rock stars.......US!
We were told by our guide that Ringo was the most miserable sod and didn't really want the picture taken so our guide told us to look miserable like Ringo...it's very hard to look miserable on purpose.
Our guide was brilliant, lots of stories of hard rock, he was funny and he had worked there for so long he couldn't remember but he had worked there since being a young waiter and now in his fifties, really enjoyed it and felt like an honour to see inside the vault.
And of course you couldn't have a rock music vault without a piece owned by a true rock legend, Freddie Mercury.
His chair from Garden Lodge.
After a brain overload it's time to get messy, YAY!
Start off with a couple of cocktails....
Followed by a few shots....
HIC......CHEERS!
A few cocktails and shots later and it's time to zig zag home. SO....we had planned to leave hard rock at around 7.30pm.....OOooopppps! It's 10pm....well not far off eh! We always have fun what can i say.
Tuesday and it's home time Boooooooooo! BUT we're booked in to Gordon Ramsays Lucky Cat again in Mayfair.
This time we knew what not to order, the 1 bottle of water for instance and 2 small beers, those alone last time cost us for the 3 a total of £21, this time we ordered 2 pots of mint tea and we only got charged for 1, GOT YA BACK GORDY!
Aren't we posh!
The last time we were here the set lunch menu was 3 courses for £38, this time it's been changed, it's a express lunch box 2 courses for £30 or 3 courses for £35. We didn't fancy a dessert so we went with the 2 courses and added crispy hoisin duck boa buns. It was so good, as good as the first time BUT Gordo has started to tighten the belt a bit with his portions, below you can see what we got for our 2 courses with edamame beans being the starter course which is cheap and the same as last time but the meal itself was allot smaller but in saying that really filling and amazing flavours BUT the rice was very greasy, not great. On our first visit the components of the main course were much larger and on individual plates, now its a bento box, no wonder Gord's doing Burger King adverts now, he must be strapped for cash along with scrimping on his lunch menu, what a tight arse.
Sian looking as gorgeous and cool as ever, she my girl, BACK OFF FOOL!
With heavy hearts and full bellies it's time to go home to Squidly, not that Squidly cares as she's got the whole of the house to run round and food, treats and water coming out of her floppy ears. She's very happy to be left alone but she does shun us when we first get back but it doesn't take long for her to come round.
Squidly unimpressed and fast asleep in her play tunnel when we arrived home.
And that's another update done and dusted.
What's in store for the next update....well.....we have the UK Foo Fighters but i've written about them loads of times .....and.....another trip to London and another concert...Lady GaGa. Don't know to many of her songs just the earlier stuff, Sian knows more but i want to see the stage show, from what i've seen that also looks spectacular and we've got Ifly booked in if my shoulder is OK by then and a day in Fair Game to try and win a bear.
And finally......I'm always on the look out for interesting new food and sauces and in a well known British supermarket (Not Lidl or Aldi) i found these.....
Cock, FuFu and Shito.
I found these lovely delights in one section of an aisle. I'll pass on the Cock, i'm OK with the FuFu but i'm sure if i put the Cock and FuFu together i may need the Shito.
COME ON.....you'd pay good money to see Ricky Gervais tell that joke and you lot just got it for free.
So until the next time........,
Serve All, Love All, Peace All, Kevlar, Mrs. P. & Squidly Out!.
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