Men's Lifestyle

The other day I got this box from Adidas, and I was as excited as a child!

Adidas launched the new kits for all their international teams, including my team, Spain. I went down to the Adidas store a couple of weeks ago on launch day, but they only had the standard home shirt in, and I wanted to get the Adizero version this time round. I’ve had the players editions before, last time I did not bother because I bought a standard top, so this time I decided I would only get the players edition, so had to wait for the delivery, and they finally came!

If you’ve been reading my blog since day 1 you’ll know that I always buy the Spain shirts, and when I say I buy them, I get virtually as many as I can! 😛 Being a Spain fan in the UK has been tough, it’s always been a challenge to get some of the shirts, especially things like the goalkeeper shirts which Adidas don’t usually market in the UK; Last time round they did one which I got, and had to send off to the USA for the other (which cost a fortune plus duty & import tax!!). I’ve bought direct from Spain a few times which always costs a lot more plus lots of shipping, so this time round I was so happy that Adidas UK are finally selling a lot of Spain gear in the UK 🙂

Of course that means that I bought a lot…A hell of a lot! I got the Adizero home shirt, the standard away shirt, and the standard goalkeeper shirts, both home and away. I got the ‘keeper shirts with printing, and of course it had to be no.1 Casillas as I’ve had on my previous few shirts. I got a training top too, and I have a further two training tops which I have given to my mam to put away for me for Christmas 😛

Official Home Spain 2016 Shirt Adizero Players Edition

The Adizero players version is a lighter shirt, with a vented back, a better, tighter fit and the badges are heal seals rather than embroidered.

Spain 2016 Away Shirt

The away shirt looks like a weird quirky design, but it comes together when you understand the story behind it. It’s a heat map of Fernando Torres when he scored the winning goal in the final of Euro 2008. I didn’t really like this design before I knew that, but now I do it’s growing on me more and more. It’s now iconic, and everyone remembers Fernando Torres for that winning goal 🙂

Spain 2016 Home Goalkeeper Shirt

The home goalkeeper shirt is a really nice blue with pin striping, and dark blue trim and sleeves. I got a number 1 and Casillas printed on the shirt, as I’ve done for several years now. The number is perforated and a different style to the away number which is odd. It’s a similar colour to the previous one.

Spain 2016 Away Goalkeeper Shirt

The away goalkeeper shirt is yellow and blue and I love it! The colours work really well, and has the diamond pattern on the shoulders as seen on all the other shirts. Once again I went for the number 1 and Casillas print, as mentioned this is a different style number to the home shirt, it’s sort of a block with speckled paint effects within it.

Spain 2016 Blue Training Shirt

I love this colour blue! The picture does not really do it justice, and a lot of the training gear is this colour. This is the royal blue training top, an Adizero shirt which means it’s a really good fit, and has vented perforations in the back the same as the official home shirt does.

Unboxing!

The biggest box ever from Adidas! 😛

If you live in Newcastle you’ll know all about the Fenwick Christmas window tradition. Each Christmas the window is dressed up in a Christmas or themed way, and is always a must see for everyone in Newcastle. Last year it was Alice In Wonderland, and this year’s window was unveiled last Friday. This year the window is a traditional Christmas scene, with a story about Santa’s sleigh crash landing on the roof of Fenwick.

This has been a Fenwick tradition for years, and also a tradition here on my blog, Michael 84 😀 What kind of Newcastle Lifestyle Blogger would I be without the Fenwick window featured on it! 😛

p.s. Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I will try to replace them with better ones if I can. It was daytime and I had to battle with families and small children!

If you’ve missed out on all the previous ones, you can see all the ones I have covered right here on the blog below:

Fenwick Christmas Window Through The Years

2016 | 2015 | 2014 |  2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010

Fenwick Christmas Window 2015

After a few weeks of rumours and kit leaks, Adidas has officially unveiled the new Spain shirt which is designed for Euro 2016 in the summer. I have seen these pictures, and I am unsure what to make of it at the moment.

It’s a lighter red design than the last one, and is a more traditional red colour as they’ve had before. It has triangular patterns, which is supposed to represent the way Spain plays football, a geometrical formation.

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One of the great things about living in the North East is that we have so much great stuff! We have Newcastle, the city, where I live. There’s the day life, shopping, eateries, scenery and plenty to do, with some of the best nightlife in the UK which you will all know about if you’re a regular reader of my blog 😉 Then to the South about 20 minutes drive we have the Metro Centre, the biggest indoor shopping centre in Europe! Yes, Europe, and it’s in the North East of England…Not Paris, not London, the North East! Since we’re close to the coastline we have some great beaches too, and three seaside towns in a row, namely Tynemouth, Cullercoats and Whitley Bay. I was doing some photos at the beach for an upcoming blog feature, suede jackets in Autumn, so I decided to share a couple of pics of Tynemouth.

There’s a few beaches, including King Edwards Bay which is a Blue Flag beach. I walked along from Tynemouth to Cullercoats and took a few snaps. I was only there for a short time so I only took a few pics…In the future I may feature all three places in more detail; They’re all such cool little seaside towns 🙂

The great thing about it is all three are so close together, so you can easily walk through them all…They’re also all on the Metro line, so you can walk to/from each place or jump on the Metro to get from the centre of Newcastle to any of the three places.

Why is everyone obsessed with travelling? At least, that’s how it can seem sometimes.

But I actually think travelling is overrated. Not going places, not having holidays, but the travelling itself, and everything about it.

Let me explain…

For a couple of years now I have said I wanted to do one thing; Travel to different places. My aim is to go abroad at least once a year…If you are a frequent traveller or one of these who thinks jet-setting is the meaning of life, or you use the word ‘nomad’, that will not seem very ambitious.

Why I Hate Travelling

If you love holidays and love to experience new things then you’ll wonder how someone can even ponder not liking to travel. The end result of it all is almost always great, but it’s the build-up, the preparation and tedious planning which is something I hate.

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The winter is upon us which means one good thing if you’re a Rekorderlig fan…The Premium Winter Cider is back! I had my first one last year, and loved it, and as you can see, it won’t be my last.

As with all Rekorderlig flavours this one is really nice. It’s so crisp, and even though the ingredients sound like something I wouldn’t usually go for, they work in a drink and Rekorderlig get the combinations just right for a really refreshing taste. The apple cider is infused with vanilla and cinnamon which is perfect for the winter season.

Something else which is unique is that this drink can be served hot or cold. Warm up the winter, or chill out with the refreshing drink, it’s up to you. Personally I prefer an ice cold drink, so that’s what I will always go for 🙂

Are you hot or cold?

Bad hair day! 😛 | Red !Solid Jeans, Black DNKY Shirt, Grey Alfred Brown/M&S Jacket

Hey guys!

I hope you had a good weekend. Mine was good and bad, Saturday night was good, but the derby…Newcastle lost 3-0, largely due to a penalty and a player getting wrongly sent off! Anyway, I would have wrote this yesterday but I was so tired! I guess that’s the sign of a good night out.

I technically got back in after 3AM, and since the clocks went back at 2 it was really 4AM, and went out earlier than I usually do, so I guess I must of drank a fair bit, although I didn’t really feel any drunker than usual. We started off at the Ouseburn for a change and went to a few places around there like The Tyne Bar, The Cluny and Nancy’s Bordello, then a couple of places on the Quayside like The Akenside, Popolo, The Redhouse, Eye of The Tyne and Tiger Hornsby, then finished the night in Perdu.

I wore my red !Solid jeans with a black shirt and grey jacket; I wanted to add some colour to my outfit and think that this works well for Autumn. I love the red bottoms with the grey jacket, I think the two colours work well together, the grey calms down the red which could have otherwise looked really loud. As for shirts I could of gone for a white shirt or striped top which would of worked well, but I wanted to try a black shirt with this.

Here are a couple of pics from the night, mainly of the Quayside…I love my city! (They were taken with my phone)

I love my city! 😛

I’m sure if you live in the UK or rugby crazy parts of the world, then it’s hard to miss that the rugby World Cup is on at the moment. England have just been knocked out, and they’re the first host nation to get knocked out the group stage. I am not a rugby fan, but it’s really cool that Newcastle was chosen as a host city, and has 3 games at St. James’ Park. One has just taken place last weekend, and we have two more to go.

Not only is there people in the stadium, we have a fan park which was full, and apparently has been the busiest fan park in the entire country! I was out on Saturday night and they had the England game on the big screen at the Monument too…The fan park was full!

I was out and about a few days ago so I took a few photos of the city, including the fan park which has a big wheel and a real carnival kind of atmosphere 🙂

I have been writing this blog for years now, and I rarely shoot photos on locations, which I should really start doing a lot more. I live in Newcastle, it’s an amazing city, it has so many great buildings and cityscapes, there’s plenty of cool backdrops for creating some amazing images, not to mention it’s close by to a couple of beaches too!

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Hey guys!

I hope you’ve all had an amazing weekend. If you follow me on Twitter and Instagram you’ll already know this, but I have been so busy with features on the blog I forgot to post this…

I was featured in Men’s Fitness Magazine in their October issue to give some advice on my men’s grooming tips. I recommended Dover MEN+Care post shave balm, something I really like and have featured on the blog before, such as in my men’s grooming day post as well as the Dove MEN+Care review.

If you are looking for a Sunday read then you can get the magazine, if you don’t like paper you can get it on the app I believe 😉