Manchester Adventure and Haul

We have officially been back from Manchester for a couple of days now and it was a very much needed break away and enjoyed. The weather was really good for us too, which was greatly appreciated. I can’t believe our week off is finally coming to an end and I’m really sad it couldn’t have lasted a little longer, especially as I’m not feeling 100%. I can’t tell if I have a cold that’s going around or hay fever, or maybe a bit of both! Last night I went to bed at 7pm and was on and off asleep. I’m hopeful I’m back to myself come Monday when I’m back at work. 🙂

Aside from that, I wanted to do a blog post today not only sharing what we got up to during out time in Manchester, but also share with you my haul of the items I picked up during our time there too! I spent a lot of money, more than I’ve spent since probably Christmas and I feel semi guilty for it. That being said, it was also nice to have a treat and buy some things for myself! Alongside sharing what items I picked up, I also want to talk about Tokyo Ramen, Point Blank Shooting, Ohayo Tea, and The Arcade Club in Bury. Both of these places were so much fun and I can’t NOT mention them to you!

This will be a long post, so make sure to grab a drink, hot or cold and I hope you enjoy todays post! I’ll be talking in the order of places we ventured to, with my haul towards the end. 🙂

The first place we really ventured to in Manchester upon arrival was Tokyo Ramen. We were starving and as I’d found this place online weeks prior to heading to Manchester, we decided to go for lunch. It was SO GOOD and I cannot recommend it enough if you have a craving for ramen, or want to try it for the first time. We went for the standard type of ramen with pork cutlet and it was so good, as you can see! We only ate ramen once in Japan, but this is the best ramen I’ve had to date. Tokyo Ramen is in the Northern Quarter, opposite Afflecks.

After this we did some shopping in the Arndale, as well as around the Northern Quarter and headed back to our hotel to check in and have a rest before heading to Point Blank Shooting! For my 30th one of my friends has gifted me a Red Letter Days voucher for a comedy night, but as the past two years have flown, I wasn’t 100% feeling that so decided to pay a little extra to go to Point Blank Shooting instead! It was so much fun and I’m so excited to share it here with you all. You book a booth to go and plays some simulation shooting ranges, with replica guns. Alongside that you will also get a pizza and two cocktails as well! The food was really good and we went for the pepperoni pizza, which was amazing! The flavouring on it was great and I really enjoyed. We also have a few cocktails between us both too including Rock Out With Your Glock Out which Dane chose (sweet, dark fruits with vodka, blackberry, vanilla, apple, lime and cream soda) and Naked Gun which I chose (rhubarb and custard with vanilla vodka, strawberry, apple lemon, rhubarb and egg white). Alongside that we also grabbed a non alcoholic cocktail Zero Your Gun (bubblegum, cranberry, lemon and lemonade), which was so good! The prices of everything was really fair for everything we got and most of all, we got there forty minutes early with the intension of having some slow drinks before our session was booked. However, as our booth was free the staff let us start earlier without charging us extra, which was really lovely of them! We’d definitely go back again in the future, but we’re hopeful a Birmingham Point Blank Shooting will open in the future, as I would love to go with more friends for an evening out!

After this we headed back to the hotel as we were shattered and needed lots of rest. We had a busy day planned the next day! The next day we were up bright and early for breakfast at the hotel and checked out ready for a busy day ahead. We’d planned to have a look around the Arndale, potentially the Northern Quarter again and especially China Town for food!

The Arndale is such a big shopping centre and we got a little lost at times, but by the morning of our second day we had pretty much got our bearings. Some of the shops we ventured to were Damaged Society – has some cool alternative styles, Homesense – we sniffed all the candles, Kenji – amazing for Japan inspired goodies and especially Japanese sweet treats, Levi’s – spent WAY too much money on jeans, Urban Outfitters – I bought a cute planter which I’ll show later, Vans, Victoria’s Secret PINK, and Waterstones.

As it was approaching lunchtime we decided to go for a walk down to Manchester’s Chinatown for some lunch from Wong Wong Bakery and bubble tea and ice cream from Ohayo Tea.

I’ve been so excited to try Ohayo Tea since I discovered it at the end of 2020 through Instagram, so when the time finally came I was beyond excited for it and I don’t think we were the only ones either as there were people queuing outside of the store for at least half an hour! We had a nose at the menu before going in and when the time came, we made out way inside. We’d planned to sit in for some ice cream and bubble tea.

The store itself isn’t huge which I really liked! The only bad thing about Ohayo Tea is the lack of toilets, so if you wanted to stay here to do any work, or meet a friend for a long period of time you’d need to move on if you wanted the toilet. This didn’t affect us really as we must have spent a good hour there!

I’ve looked at the menu LOADS since discovering Ohayo Tea late 2020 so knew vaguely what I wanted drink wise, but ended up changing my mind last minute!

Dane went for their dirty Biscoff drink from the brown sugar series, which contains brown sugar tapioca milk with Biscoff and I went for the matcha tapioca milk from the fresh milk series. I’m a sucker for matcha bubble tea, so knew I had to go with that. I originally was going to have the same as Dane otherwise.

The only thing that the Ohayo Tea menu is missing is more fruit based drinks. I love green apple and cherry bubble teas so it was a shame they had neither of those on offer. They do have fresh fruit teas, just not ones I wanted/fancied.

We both went for one of the sundaes, with us going for the earl grey milk tea Shiba sundae, which was SO GOOD! As you can see from the picture you get the earl grey milk tea ice cream, brown sugar tapioca, wafer sticks and especially a Shiba waffle! You get to pick which flavouring of Shiba waffle you want, we both went for Nutella but you can also pick brown sugar tapioca, red bean or Hong Kong style peanut butter. This was so yummy and it took me an age to finish it, for various reasons. I was too busy enjoying it to scoff it really quickly. I hope next time I get the chance to visit that they have a matcha sundae on offer!

Overall, Ohayo Tea was amazing and it was well the almost two year wait to go! I wish we had one in Birmingham, I think I’d venture there often to enjoy their amazing drinks! We have do have Mee Cha though, that I have loved for ten years now! I did buy myself a couple of goodies in Ohayo Tea, which I’ll show at the end of the post!

Finally after we were done in Manchester we decided to drive over to Bury to finish out little trip. We’d booked to go to The Arcade Club to go an play some arcade games! My amazing Instagram friend Daysei has been telling me all about The Arcade Club for the longest time and I finally twisted Dane’s arm for us to go! He was against it for a while due to the location, but once we looked at the games on offer he got into the idea and we booked it.

You pay a fee per person and with that you can play as many games as you want, for as long as you want. We got there for 4pm and didn’t leave until 9.30pm, almost an hour before it was due to close! You definitely get your monies worth at The Arcade Club!

The Bury store has three floors FILLED with all sorts of games, from all over the world, including Japan, which is what appealed to us the most. The games I’ll be mentioning here are the ones we loved and enjoyed the most, there are all sorts of games to chose from and play, with a full list being on The Arcade Club’s website.

Tank! Tank! Tank! – A Japanese game we’d never heard of where you’re driving a tank and need to kill aliens, or each other if you do battle. The chair actually moves back whenever you shoot to be like an actual tank, which was so much fun! I think this was the first game we played and it was one of the last games we played too. It was so good and we spent a good half an hour playing all the types of games on offer.

Monster Hunter Pungee Race – This was a bizarre game to say the least and one I’m glad we tried for shits and giggles. You have a pig that you need to move around to the sides and up and down to race. It looks like you’re humping the pig, not going to lie! It was a fun game but only needed one play for sure. It reminded me of an arcade game I used to love playing as a kid at the local bowling alley, Final Furlong by Namco. I’d love to see those games at The Arcade Club in the future!

Dark Escape 4D – This was one of our favourite games and we actually played it twice because of that fact! This is a 4D horror shooting game where you not only play the game, but feel it too! You get air blown at you, can chose to play in 3D if you’d like to (otherwise it’s 2D), and the seats rumble and vibrate as well. On top of all that, the guns you hold have heart sensors on as well, which tracks your heart rate and determines your death and more. This game overall was just so much fun purely for the jump scares, whether it be in game or the air and vibrating around the game. We LOVED this and it’s such a shame there isn’t a version of this that could have been brought out on consoles or PC.

South Park pinball game and more – When I was younger I LOVED pinball games and would spend hours on them at a time if there was one available, especially in Fuerteventura. There were loads of pinball games at The Arcade Club and this South Park one really caught my eye. It was fun to play but the Flintstones one was my favourite, as I seemed to do the best on that one! Dane really enjoyed the Mario one.

Dancing Stage EuroMix – An old classic from back in the day! I rarely played the arcade game growing up, but more so my cousins dance mat at home that we connected to her PlayStation! This game throws back so many memories and it was fun to have a go on a couple of songs. I wish I’d played more to be honest but they seemed to constantly have someone playing them already.

Taiko No Tatsujin – This is a game me and Dane love and played a little of whilst we were in Japan! I do have the actual drum for the Switch but we hardly play it… Maybe that should change haha! This is the game we played the most at The Arcade Club, and at one point we waited almost half an hour to jump back onto it as it was pretty busy. It reminded me of our Japan trip all over again and was so much fun. If you’ve never played this before, you really must, it’s such a fun game, whether you play alone or with a friend.

Bishi Bashi Channel – A game Dane had heard of before and was eager to play and as it was pretty much behind Taiko No Tatsujin we jumped onto it not long after our first go on the popular drumming game! This is a fun game where you’re playing lots of little puzzle games, it reminded me of the WarioWare games to be honest with you! Some of the games were challenging, with some being a little more simple. Such a good game, was a shame we didn’t spend more time on it in all honesty!

Time Crisis 2 – An old classic for me and Dane and one I’d always play whenever I spotted it at an arcade! I always used to die before I’d get to the second stage, or just after so never finished it. Thankfully due to all the games being free to play (aka if you die in the game you can always come back!) we both FINALLY got to finish the game and as you can see, we came sixth place! It was so much fun to play and really did give me some nostalgic reels. Apparently The Arcade Club has Time Crisis 3 there too, but we didn’t spot it.

Monkey Mole Panic – I stumbled upon this game as we looked through the old school arcade games. I decided to give it a go as I’m a sucker for a whack a mole game and it was SO GOOD! I played it a couple of times and got to the top of the leader board! I’m gutted I didn’t take a picture.

Puzzle Bobble – An old classic for me as I had it on my Game Boy/Game Boy Color and would spend HOURS playing it, clearly all those hours came to something when I got to play for ages on this arcade machine! It’s made me want to play it all over again on either my GBC or on a Switch version if it exists!

Name unknown – This was a random choice is game to play but I actually really loved it and regretted not playing more! It’s a rhythm based game where you need to time your button pressing right in order to win the level/game. I played a couple of levels and it was just so much fun to do and once you got into the swing of things, you really did start to get a kick from playing it!

Luigi’s Mansion Arcade – We own the third instalment of this game on the Switch and really enjoyed playing it together, so we kind of had to give the arcade version a go! I always wanted to as a kid, but never had anyone to play with, which sounds incredibly sad… This was a lot of fun to play, but the controllers really ached our hands. It was good though and we really enjoyed giving it a go!

The House of the Dead: Scarlett Dawn – This was the last game we played before we headed home and it was so cheesy, but we enjoyed it! As you can see it’s a House of the Dead game, but this one you play as a woman and a man who appear to have been at a party? The game play was like the other House of the Dead games, so pretty straight forward, shoot and kill the undead who are headed your way! We played it for a while before we had enough and decided to call it a day!

Cho Chabudai Gaeshi 2 – Sadly this is a game we weren’t able to play as it seemed to be broken, but what made me sad about it is this was the game that twisted Dane’s arm in us going to The Arcade Club in the first place! He’d always heard about the famous Japanese arcade game about flipping a table, but we weren’t able to go on it. Maybe next time we go to The Arcade Club… Or Japan. 😛

We were so tired when we got home from our Japan adventures, we couldn’t wait to sleep! For the rest of the week so far we’ve not done a lot… Well technically we did all the washing from our trip, and some general chores/errands we’ve had to to do out and about.

So, I know some of you were excited for the haul, so I’ll get to that now before I end this weeks post! Disclaimer, I apologise for how crap the pictures are, I was shattered/sick yesterday so I quickly took photos on my office chair.

Frank Iero T-Shirt.

First of all this t-shirt wasn’t purchased in Manchester, but I did pick it up before going and it arrived the day we came home from Manchester, so I felt like it was worthy showing off! I’ve wanted this t-shirt for years now but just never picked it up, until May pay day! I snagged it off of Amazon as it was a good price and it felt the right time. I cannot wait to wear this now with anything and everything!

Shippon self-watering dog planter.

I can’t remember what store I picked this up from but I remember back in 2019 when we visited Manchester last/for the first time I picked this same dog planter up in that same shop to buy and left it… I decided I needed it this time and cannot wait to get it started! I’m not 100% sure where I want to keep it at the moment as I’m worried I’ll knock it over. I think the kitchen or living room might be a nice place for it for sure. This cost less than £12.

Smoko Tayto potato planter.

As many regular readers will know, I LOVE Smoko and their products and I honestly cannot get enough of them. It feels like every Christmas Dane will buy me something from them, and even last Christmas he bought me a back pillow and some of the Tayto lights as well! I saw that Urban Outfitters were having a sale and had this cutie on offer, so I decided to order to collect from Urban Outfitters in Manchester. I’ll be blunt, it was a fucking nightmare. The staff were either too busy talking to do any work, or it was arse about face getting the click and collect orders in the first place. It’s put me off doing a click and collect again, I’d rather pay the £3.99 shipping. That being said this planter is very well made and adorable as fuck! I can’t wait to put something in him now, as he’s living on my window shelf. I’m probably going to opt for a fake plant. 😛

Kenji Japanese snacks.

We don’t have a Kenji in Birmingham so when I saw/heard there was one in Manchester I KNEW we had to go! We went in both days we were in Manchester, but on day two we decided to pick up some snacks, including grape and ramune gummy sweets, chocolate wafer taiyaki fish, pocky, collon, ramune drinks and some ice cream wafers. I have to be honest when I say that whilst Kenji is a nice store, I found it a little tacky… It shouted fake Japan to me and whilst I get it, it is technically fake it just felt wrong. There were some cute items in there, but not enough to prompt me to buy.

Levi’s 551z authentic straight jeans.

This was a HUGE purchase for me and I feel so guilty for it. I knew I wanted to pop into Levi’s to try some of the 90’s inspired jeans, but whilst trying them on I discovered they didn’t have the size I wanted, nor did the leg length go as long as I wanted either, which was such a shame. The staff were really helpful though and recommended me the pair I ended up buying. These are men’s jeans, but there’s nothing wrong with that, my first pair of Levi’s were men’s and they did me just fine. These are pretty much what I was looking for. A baggy boyfriend fit with a long leg. These were cheap as I said so I won’t be buying anymore anytime soon, but I’m a sucker for Levi’s. I used to own a pair as a teenager and lived in them, and then my mom bought me a pair in my early twenties and I lived in those too. I plan to do the same with these, especially for how much they cost. Next time I’m after a new pair of jeans I’ll definitely look at Levi’s again, but maybe next time I’ll look at the sale first. 😛

Umbrella image taken from Ohayo Tea Facebook

Ohayo Tea – t-shirt and umbrella.

Finally after we finished out ice creams in Ohayo Tea, I decided to buy some of the merchandise on offer. I decided to go for the t-shirt with their Ohayo tea Manchester design, as well as an umbrella… Because you can never go wrong with the latter. They only had a men’s medium in the t-shirt, and I usually go for large. It fits me fine, but it’s kind of see through, so I think I’ll just opt to wear this one around the house and whilst I’m working from home. The design on the back is gorgeous but the pocket at the front reminds me of a work t-shirt. 😛

The umbrella is strange and I’ve never owned one quite like it before. The handle is a loop shape so not only can you hang it off of tables, but you can loop your shopping onto it as you walk around. I know I’m not wording it very well by the way! I could have taken a picture of it but it’s in the car and I’m in the house. 😛 As well as that the umbrella opens up in a strange way, which again I can’t describe! I used it a little as we walked from Chinatown to the Arndale and it was really good! I’ll be using it more I reckon with some of the crappy weather we’ve had lately.

So, there we have it, my Manchester trip and haul! I told you it was going to be a long post. 😛

Have you ever been to Manchester? If so where did you go, what did you do, eat, see, etc. Tell me all about it! I know for a fact there’s loads of places we have yet to go and explore and I’m looking forward to the next time we venture up there!

Until next time guys, have an amazing rest of your weekend and see you next week!

May Favourites ’22

Another month is due to end and with that we of course have our monthly favourites! I can’t believe it’s June in four days time, the year is just flying by and I’m not liking it… But I am sort of liking it because excited things are coming up at the start of June!

May was a weird month for me, it was full of bank holidays, and annual leave which left me wanting more four day weeks at work. As well as that, last week me and Dane went to see My Chemical Romance and let me tell you it was amazing! I haven’t been to a show that big to date. The atmosphere was great and took me back to when I’ve seen them live twice previously, as well as to how I used to be when I was younger. If it wasn’t obvious enough, I was a little emo kid. 😛 I’m going to save more details for later on in my monthly favourites, because it obviously counts!

Aside from that, June is looking to be an exciting month for me and Dane! We have the UK Games Expo coming up with my best friend and her boyfriend and then me and Dane have a week off together for our nine year anniversary, which in itself has flown by! For our anniversary this year we’ve decided to go to Manchester for a few days, which we’re so excited for! Like MCR, I’ll talk more about it later in my monthly favourites, as whilst it hasn’t happened yet, it’s something I’m excited about, so it classes as a favourite… Right?

Me and Dane also finished our first Dungeons & Dragons campaign too, which lasted for three years! We had so much fun playing it and can’t wait to start a new campaign in June/July.

On top of all that I’m going to be bloody skint this month, with MCR, UK Games Expo, Manchester AND my car needing to be taxed and serviced… It’s a good job I have plenty to keep me busy. 😛

Content wise for June I’m hoping to bring you some kawaii AF stuff, as well as some future posts about our Manchester adventures, especially geeky places to shop, fun things to do and good places to eat. I hope yah’ll are excited for it!

Anyhoo, on with the monthly favourites! I really hope you enjoy this months post, I feel like it’s going to be full of me being excited about adventures and MCR. 😛

Favourite Beauty Product – Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask in Berry.

I was planning to write a blog post showing off all the goodies I picked up from YesStyle a couple of months ago, but I decided against it as I thought I’d end up showing off the goodies in monthly favourites posts anyway (which I have!). One of the items I picked up is the Laneige lip sleeping mask in berry, which I have wanted to try for as long as I can remember. It’s recently started to hit the UK beauty stores, so it’s becoming more available to us in the west, however the price for the pot is a bit of a joke… Hence why I turned to YesStyle. From memory I only paid £10 for my lip sleeping mask, whereas here in the UK stores will charge £19 for it. Anyway, I’ve been using it for almost two months now and it’s definitely safe to say I LOVE it! It has definitely made an improvement to my lips, which is great with summer coming around. I don’t just use this at night like it’s known for, I use it in the morning before I start work (if I’m not wearing a lip tint that is), and I apply it before bedtime too. The mask is said to work best overnight as it “dissolves” all the dead skin on your lips, so you wake up with lovely soft lips. A lot of people claim it does what it says, but others claim it’s just Vaseline in a fancy jar, with some colour added to it. As someone who uses Vaseline on a daily basis, this is thicker than Vaseline and really does feel like it’s moisturising more, but that may just be me? To add a little bit of this stuff goes a long way, and due to that, I’ve not really made much of a dent, which is good! To add here, I picked up the Berry scent and it doesn’t really smell or taste like berries to me… But that doesn’t bother me, it would be a plus but yeah, it’s one of them. I’d say if you’re thinking of trying the Laneige lip sleeping mask, go for it, especially if you suffer with dry lips and live for lip balms! If you buy from YesStyle you could always get some of the little “sample” pots too to see what you think of it before buying a bigger jar.

Favourite Film – Jackass 4.5.

This is a recent addition to Netflix and one I was super excited to see! As many regular readers and friends will know, I’m a MASSIVE Jackass fan. I mentioned last month how I’d watched Jackass Forever and that I didn’t love it as much as the previous films they’d made. Jackass 4.5 really did make up for that, I laughed so much and even had to look away a few times in the fear of feeling (or being) sick! It was amazing, I just enjoyed it so much. The amount of times though that both me and Dane said, “Why didn’t they put that in Forever?” was crazy. I need to buy Jackass Forever and 4.5 at some point to add to my collection. If you have Netflix and love Jackass, definitely make sure to check it out! You find out a lot about the new crew members too, which I really liked. I’d love to see them come back and do more now after watching 4.5

Image taken from Empire Online.

Favourite TV Show – Moon Knight.

I’ve been a mixture of excited and nervous/sad to watch Moon Knight, but me and Dane decided to binge watch it one day over the last bank holiday in May and I can honestly say it’s my favourite Marvel TV series to come out to date! There was so much I loved about it, but the thing that made me sad was the fact it’s one of Gaspard Ulliel’s last acting role before he passed away in January. That being said, the show itself was amazing and I need more! The story of Steven/Mark and their role as the Moon Knight, as well as the dark themes and character build up were just incredible! Everyone did an amazing job and honestly, I loved it. Let me say this without spoilers when I say, Steven must be protected at all costs and he’s now up there as one of my favourite Marvel characters alongside Deadpool.

Favourite Music – My Chemical Romance.

Okay, the part of this months favourites I know some of you have been waiting for! At the time of writing this post I am still struggling with some post gig blues and I don’t really know when they’ll go away? I just crave more after last Thursday’s gig and I wish I could go see them again already! First things first, the show was amazing. Gerard dressed up and the band played a lot of popular songs from all their albums to date, including “Helena”, “Teenagers”, “Welcome to the Black Parade”, “Famous Last Words” and of course “I’m Not Okay”. We got to the gig shortly after doors opened, got some merchandise, drinks and headed to our seats. Our seats were shit as they were high up and all the way at the back, even with the screens you couldn’t see fuck all. This being said, I didn’t let it affect my experience of the gig, I was so in my element singing along to the words, watching the screens, the stage and everyone else around me that I was past caring after a while. I almost cried whilst listening to “The Foundations of Decay” due to how proud I am of the band, as well as how happy I am to see them back, as well as almost crying singing “Famous Last Words” and “Welcome to the Black Parade” as they both mean so much to me. MCR are one of the bands that were always there for me when I was struggling with my mental health growing up and especially the day my gran died. I went home to be on my own to grieve and ended up putting on The Black Parade so I had something to occupy my mind. When the song “Disenchanted” came on, I couldn’t stop crying and since that day, it always makes me sad to hear. Alongside all this the show was just incredible! Everyone was so friendly to talk to (when we did) and the atmosphere was one I’ve missed from previously seeing MCR play in 2007 and 2011. I’m just dying to see them again now… Maybe standing tickets next time for shits and giggles or at least closer seats! I was going to write a blog post about the whole day, but I feel like this is enough. 🙂

Image taken from PC Gamer.

Favourite Game – Valheim.

This is a game Dane has been pestering me to play with him for as long as I can remember and finally in May I cracked and bought it, which made him so happy! Valheim is a Viking style game where you need to gather resources, build a base, defeat the enemies nearby and ready yourself to defeat even bigger enemies! We spent a weekend playing it together and I soon got my bearings with how the gameplay worked and was. However, tragedy happened when not only did I lose a lot of my stuff in a tomb (and couldn’t get back!), but then some boars we had captured and bred were all killed by an enemy! We both rage quitted after the latter and didn’t touch it for a week or so… Until one of our friends came to join us one evening to play and since then we’ve been playing it more. She’s really helped us build our base, defeat more/bigger enemies, as well as teach us a lot more about the game as she’s been playing it longer than we have. It’s such a fun little game to play, more so with people than alone and I highly recommend it!

Just a few of my favourite things…

Picking up old games/game completion goal – Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX and Persona 5 Royal.

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned on my blog since the start of 2022 how I have started working on completing games I currently own and making note of them on a Twitter thread here. This is something I was inspired to do by my friend Connor, who took part in it last year. I have a lot of games I’ve bought, played for a few hours and then never picked up again. Some games I could sell, whereas others I can’t as I’ve bought on stores/Steam. I decided to start spending less time sitting online window shopping and more time playing the games I love, but have allowed to gather dust!

The first one I want to talk about is Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX. This game is a remake of the original Mystery Dungeon games that came out in 2005 on the Game Boy Advance and DS, I still own both of these and loved them to death! The remake DX came out in 2020, just before Animal Crossing: New Horizons so I told myself I would try and complete it before Animal Crossing came out, which didn’t happen. However, what did happen is I got stuck on the second boss (Moltres) and no matter what I did, I just couldn’t get past them, so I ended up resetting the game and starting again. I grinded for ages to make sure I was ready for that boss battle again and last weekend I felt ready to take the boss on! I turned to Dane prior and said, “If I don’t beat this fucking thing, I’m selling the game.” Thankfully it wouldn’t come to that as I beat Moltres, as well as the boss after that too (Articuno), so I look like I’m going to be fine from there! I’m so glad I’ve picked this game up again, it’s making me feel so nostalgic to between 2009-2010 when I picked up both of the original games to play.

Alongside playing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX, I’ve also started playing Persona 5 Royal again, which is something I also picked up in March 2020! I hardly played it due to Animal Crossing: New Horizons and only played the first palace and some of the second. I decided to play it over a bank holiday weekend and haven’t looked back since. I genuinely forgot how much I love Persona 5 and the characters behind it, it really means a lot to me as the original game helped me through some dark days. So far I’ve completed the second palace and I’m probably near to beginning the third one from memory. I always recommend Persona 5 to people to play, but these days I often suggest people playing Persona 5 Royal, just because it has more to the story than the original. I’m probably going to focus on completing Pokemon Mystery Dungeon DX first and then on Persona 5 Royal, depends on my mood I guess. Currently my PS4 is in the living room, which I’d love to move temporarily to my desk in our office so I can play it with Dane in the background as company, but we shall see!

Image taken from UK Games Expo.

June adventures – UK Games Expo and Manchester.

As I mentioned at the start of this post I have lots of exciting things booked in and planned with Dane and some friends at the start of June, which I’m really looking forward to!

First we have UK Games Expo the first weekend of June, which is a board game convention in Birmingham. Me and Dane went in 2019 and spent WAY too much money (which you can read about here), but we had an amazing time and always said we’d go again, but of course Covid happened… That being said we’ve finally plucked up the courage to go again this year. Due to my anxiety of Covid still, I do still wear masks in shops, as well as around the office at work, so I’m not 100% sure if I’ll wear my mask or not at the convention yet… I’m worried it’ll be really warm and I could maybe die from the heat haha! We’ll see how it goes though! There’s going to be some amazing vendors there from years before that I’m excited to purchase from and support again, plus I’m hopeful we can all play lots of board games and have fun! I’m so happy my best friend recently got into board games, because it means we can all venture to cafes and play games more! Me and Dane got into board games before Covid and then Covid happened… And we couldn’t play board games with many people. 😦

Then as I mentioned before, for our nine year anniversary we decided to go to Manchester as we’ve booked to go to Point Blank Shooting with a voucher I was gifted for my 30th. Point Blank Shooting is a simulation shooting range and bar, offering food and drinks whilst you play on the shooting simulation games! We plan to go and have a day of shopping in Manchester and then head to Point Blank Shooting, finishing up at some themed bars on the way to our hotel. The next day we plan to have some breakfast, more shopping, a big lunch and then heading to Bury for The Arcade Club! My friend Daysei is always telling me how much fun it is there and after showing Dane how many floors of arcade games they are, we booked it in to do! I’m honestly so excited for our gaming and shopping days away for our anniversary, it’s going to be so much fun.

I’m hoping to write Manchester guides and reviews of places we go to, so keep eyes peeled for those!

My Chemical Romance merchandise.

I mentioned earlier about how I went to see MCR last Thursday, well of course I had to grab some merchandise as well and man I bagged a few bits, one which has been semi sought after since. I want to state now, none of these are for sale. xD I also want to state, I apologise for how shit the photo is!

I decided to grab both the tour t-shirts, as well as the Boy Zone t-shirt as well. I couldn’t decide which tour t-shirt I wanted as they were both cool in their own ways. I’m so glad I picked up both after trying them on as they’re so comfortable! All of the t-shirts are in a men’s size large and I could have probably gotten away with a medium, but I like my t-shirts baggy!

The tour t-shirts have the tour dates on the back for their shows between 16th May until 18th June which is always a good t-shirt to have. On the front of the short sleeved is an updated version of the bloody bride and groom from the Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge album, which I just had to get for that alone! On the front of the long sleeved there are some skulls and bones, as well as “Decay” written backwards. I LOVE the long sleeved t-shirt the most and already can’t wait to wear it. I’m really into my long sleeved band t-shirts lately to wear with joggers, skirts and trousers for a relaxed look.

Finally the Boy Zone t-shirt that everyone has gone mad for! I knew I had to pick this up and even though I probably won’t wear it out and about, I’ll definitely live in it at home on lazy days. It was designed by Kerin Cunningham with support from Gerard Way. It honestly reminds me of my early teens where I would always buy the music magazines that was full of bands, love quizzes and more. I honestly love it so much!

So, there we have it guys, all of my favourites from May! I honestly can’t believe we’ll be going into June in less than a week now, it’s really flown by. The whole year is, Christmas is just 6 months away now… How crazy is that?!

What were your favourites from May? Did you go and see My Chemical Romance in May too? If you did tell me all about your feelings, thoughts, etc! I’m eager to hear everyone’s stories and experiences. 🙂

Until next time all, take care and have an amazing weekend!

Life Lately – Busy Little Bee

To think the last time I wrote a life lately post it was in January… That was nearly 5 months ago… When is the year going to slow down?

If there is one thing that I feel I haven’t been on my blog lately, it’s busy bee… Like the title of this post states. If anything it feels like the complete opposite. My blog has been quiet lately with most weeks just having one post a week, instead of my usual two to three. This change is just due to how busy I am right now… Seriously!

Not just that, but I’ve kind of taken a step back from being so fixated on my blog. What I mean by that is:

“I MUST get a blog post up today!”

“I MUST work with brands that I want to work with and attend events I’d love to attend!”

Even so much as saying to Dane, “I CAN’T do that today because I have loads of blog stuff to do!”

You catch my drift?

When did my number one hobby become my side job?!

My blog is and always has been a place for me to go and talk about things I love and enjoy, not to stress over. I never want to have a day when I have a crap and stressful day because I’m having a life. That just takes the fun out of it!

I’m pretty sure you guys are wondering, “So Nat? How come posts have gone from two to three a week to mostly just one recently?”

Well, I’ve been asking myself this same questions and I feel like I’ve finally found an answer. More than one in fact:

Reason 1 – To be blunt, for almost a year I was hardly doing any work in my previous job, so most of the time there was nothing to do and I had loads of free time to work on my blog and posts. Of course since starting at my new job I don’t get that now, which is great! I honestly love being busy! I can work on blog posts during my break, which I do sometimes… But to be honest with you, I like to just chill out, talk to my colleagues and play Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp on my phone.

Reason 2 – Since the start of 2019 I feel like I have a life… This sounds bad… Maybe even borderline rude but hear me out! I’ve worked with Cov Bloggers loads this year so far and made some amazing new friends through it, especially Amy (Writing into the Ether) who I meet up with often to go on double dates to play board games, as well as go geeky shopping around Birmingham and Coventry. I also meet up with one of my best friends weekly to go to pole fitness classes together. I love it! I finish work, have dinner and she pops over for a natter before we head to the class. I just love having that time once a week with her to have fun with pole fitness, as well as catch up on things. I’m just having more me time right now, as well as more me and Dane couple time, as well as seeing friends.

Reason 3 – I’m just calming down with going bat shit crazy in regards to blog related matter. I’ve pretty much cooled down because I’m kind of facing fact that blogging won’t really be a job for me… As much as I want it to, it just won’t. I’m at that age where I just can’t be arsed to chase job dreams. I have a great job right now and I love being an admin. It’s what I’ve always wanted to do and to be fair, I’m good at it! Don’t change something that isn’t broken!

So, what does the future hold for There Might Be Coffee?

Nothing any different to before, to be honest.

I’m still the same Nat. I still write the same nonsense as before, it just might be that some weeks I don’t have as many blog posts up as other weeks.

When I originally thought about this post I had made the note that I would stick to writing one post a week and have special posts be up two or three times a week. This being said, apart from this past week, I easily had 2 posts up a week with no real issues… It’s tough to say, “I’m going to have one post up a week!” and then bring you guys the old fashioned two to three and vice versa.

I may just stick to one post a week for now but always try to aim for two. I guess it depends how busy I am. For example this week I was stupid busy, which is why I only had one post up this week. Monday was the only day in the week that I could write. Tuesday I played D&D, Wednesday I was with my mom, Thursday I went to pole fitness and Friday I wanted a fucking rest. As for the weekend I wanted a mixture of rest and me time. Yesterday I had a long lie in, one I haven’t had for that long since I was in my early twenties. Just goes to show how shattered I was! For the rest of the day I mostly played games and did housework. Turning my laptop on didn’t even occur to me and I’m glad to be honest. This morning I have so far played games, watching some Nintendo E3 2019 footage and then got down to working.

I’m sure I don’t have to remind my readers but this ISN’T my job. It’s my hobby, granted my number one hobby but nonetheless, still a hobby. This hobby has helped me find people with similar interests as myself who I have befriended along the way. It’s also helped me work with amazing companies and gain more confidence and I love it for that and more. I never regret starting my blog and I’m not at a point in my life where I want to stop it altogether either. It’s my baby. 🙂

I wanted to mention what I want to do for the remainder of the year with my blog, including some TLC and even some exciting blog series coming up! I’d also love to revamp my blog at some point, but I don’t know when that will be. I’d love to try and have my own domain, as well as get a layout for my blog that will make me scream, “KAWAII!” every time I go onto it. Again… We’ll see.

As for exciting things coming up, as I wrote last month I’m now working with YY Kawaii as a brand affiliate, which I’m so over the moon about!

I also plan to try and grab you guys some awesome discount codes for a couple of brands I hope to work with on future blog posts. I’m just so excited to start working with brands I know and love! I already have an awesome discount code lined up with a brand who sells D&D products, so keep eyes peeled for that in the future. 🙂

Outside of blog related stuff life is pretty nice right now. I’m enjoyed my new job, I’m opening up to more things I love too, thanks to the amazing people around me (thanks Dane and Amy for getting me into boards games even more and especially D&D!). Speaking of D&D I’ll soon have a new series on my blog dedicated to this where I talk about what made me want to play it and why, how I build my character and about my character, where I buy dice and accessories from, etc.

The best bit of news though is the fact me and Dane are FINALLY going to Japan after 6 years of talking and dreaming about it! I don’t want to talk too much about it on this post as I plan to have a whole new 6 part series on my blog in the run up to our trip to Japan. This will be starting soon so make sure to keep eyes peeled for it.

Exciting, eh?!

Honestly I just want to say a huge thank you to all of my readers, friends, Cov Bloggers and even companies who have and continue to work with me. Honestly I love and appreciate you all so much and I don’t think works can describe how happy you make me feel. You all make me feel like what I do with my blog is worth it every single day and that’s why I love you all so much.

Without you guys, There Might Be Coffee wouldn’t be here. It would still be under my horrible old blog name with posts that weren’t true to myself. With time I’ve become someone I always wanted to be and I love that I can be that person here too.

Please let me know in the comments what you’re excited for on my blog, as well as any posts you would love me to write!

Until next time all, take care and I hope you guys are all having a wonderful weekend so far and aren’t getting soaked by the horrible rain we’re having right now.