sunsetsanddragonflies: Birmingham, Best Friends & Bands!

Hey guys!

I know it’s been a while since I last blogged, but I had very good reason not to – I was in the middle of a very stressful house move (which is still ongoing, as we’re in a rented place for now, but we’re hoping to be in the new house sooner rather than later), plus my laptop screen was broken and I couldn’t find anywhere that could fix everything that was wrong with it for a reasonable price – so, I’ve been trying to use it hooked up to my old computer monitor! Once I’m feeling a bit more settled, I’ll be back to blogging fairly regularly again, so I hope you can be patient with me for a little bit longer!

Anyway, going back to this post – it may be pretty long and maybe a bit rambly in places, so if that’s not your kind of thing, I apologise!

My lovely best friend Beth invited me to stay at hers for a long weekend, as we were going to see You Me At Six and it made more sense for me to spend a few days with her and her family.

The journey up was quite hellish, not going to lie – the buses up here in Yorkshire don’t run very often, plus it takes forever to let people on and off the buses, so I ended up missing my pre-booked train and had to hang around for almost an hour for the next one – I also had an hour’s wait partway there, so all in all it took me around 7 hours to get to Birmingham (where Beth was meeting me) instead of the estimated 4.5 hours it said online!

When my train pulled into Birmingham, Beth met me on the platform and surprised me with a chocolate milkshake and the Umbreon plushie I’d been planning on buying myself over the weekend, which was very kind of her to do and I still really appreciate it! We had the longest hug hello ever – we hadn’t seen each other since February, I do believe – then headed off to catch the train to hers. We didn’t realise we were in the quiet zone of the train until just before we got off, so sorry if we annoyed anyone with our conversations!

I’d already met Beth’s mum before, when they came to Kingston in January to see You Me At Six with me, but I hadn’t met her dad or brother before, so I was feeling incredibly nervous by the time we got back to her house – they were all lovely and welcoming, so it put my mind at ease pretty quickly, even though I was still feeling anxious deep down inside! Beth had also bought me a few presents at Comic Con a few weeks back – I forgot to take any photos of everything together, oops, and some of it was food so it’s been eaten by now – which was lovely of her! She got me a mini Umbreon plushie keyring, a sticker of Isabelle from Animal Crossing New Leaf, some Sanrio bubblegum, a Mario easter egg and some strawberry Pocky (which we shared and it tastes like strawberry milkshake – so good!)

The first night, we went out for dinner – I got a chicken burger with cheese and jalepenos, so good – and then headed back to Beth’s, which was perfect for me, as I was really tired from travelling and all the delays. We ended up in my room playing Zelda together for a few hours, which was a lot of fun!

The next day, we headed out to a lovely place called Cannock Chase – it’s a forest, so it was really pretty, Beth and I both ended up taking far too many photos! We also ended up lagging behind everyone because we kept stopping to take photos and talk. I wore ankle boots, which I ended up regretting because I kept twisting my ankle/falling in holes, plus it ended up being hotter than I was expecting! When we got back, I think we ended up playing more Zelda – this time with Beth’s brother, Matt – and playing with Cookie (their guinea pig, who is far too cute). We also ended up in my room later on that night, doing ridiculous Buzzfeed quizzes while watching silly videos on YouTube.

On the Monday, we headed into town for a while in the morning so Beth could show me round – we also did some shopping and took some more photos, of course! I treated myself to some eyeliners and a new eyeshadow palette, as well as a game. Beth also got some makeup, the same game as me and I persuaded her to get Xenoblade Chronicles (one of my all time favourite games ever). Afterwards, we went back to hers to get ready to go to Birmingham for dinner before You Me At Six.

We ended up getting sushi and some banana Pocky – both were amazing – before wandering around the shops for a while because we didn’t fancy queueing for ages. By the time we got inside, we couldn’t really get a decent spot where we could see the bands, so that was a bit annoying but I’m used to it as I’m pretty short! Neither of us really enjoyed the support bands very much, but You Me At Six were amazing as always – they played pretty much all the songs I was hoping they’d play, plus I realised I’ve known them for almost 10 years, which is pretty crazy! I also ended up buying merch for the first time in years, as one of the tops was too nice to resist. By the time we got back, we were too tired to do anything, so we just made tea and went to bed, pretty much!

Tuesday was my last morning there, which was really sad because it felt like time flew! We didn’t do very much that morning, as I had to pack my stuff and get ready to leave, but Beth took me back into Birmingham to make sure I got my train okay, which was lovely of her. It was such an amazing long weekend, it’s always nice seeing Beth and luckily it’s not too long before I see her again!

If you read this blog to the end, thank you for your patience! I’ll be back soon with more blog posts – I have a few ideas lined up already – so stay tuned and I’ll see you soon!