Valentines Day is almost here! Even though I am single I am excited for it, this year I have been designing T-Shirts for work for Valentines Day for about 4 weeks now, so I am really in the spirit of things. If you read my blog for the past few years, you’ll also know that I call 14th February “Michael Day” and have champagne and lots of other great stuff which I’ll be blogging about on the day
Hey!
So last night we went out and had some drinks and played pool. It was fun, more fun because I won and played well 
We went down the Quayside and went to a couple of bars including the Red House which seems to think it’s OK to charge £4 for a bottle of Budweizer! Probably the most I’ve ever paid for a bottle, pretty disgraceful. We went to the new Popolo which is down the Quayside now, taking over the building which used to be Jimmyz. It’s a similar bar to what it was in terms of drinks and cocktails, but it’s got more of a “Saturday night” vibe rather than the Friday night style the old bar used to have if you know what I mean; More space, dancing & more poppy music, the music was quite varied but was good 🙂
Then on to Brewdog. It’s a cool space, chilled out, friendly and is actually a nice spot, I am being won over. I only had a Diet Coke…Or at least that’s what I asked for and got Fritz-Kola Zucker Free 😀 It was quite nice actually.
I wore my new suede jacket, I will be featuring that in a blog post on it’s own soon, I love this jacket 😉 That along with my He By Mango cardigan, Armani Jeans and Hawes & Curtis Shirt.
It’s back! Everyone’s favourite dating TV show, Take Me Out is making a return for 2015 and is set to be on your screens this Saturday at 20:30. Paddy McGuiness returns with his flirty 30 and you can see all of the girls in their photos below 🙂
Not only that, but after a brief absence Take Me Out: The Gossip returns with Mark Wright and new presenter Laura Jackson, to dish the dirt on what’s been happening at the isle of Fernandos, this time round they’ll be bringing all the gossip direct from Fernandos!
UPDATE: Check out Take Me Out 2019 for Series 11.
You can find the 2018 girls on the Take Me Out Series 10 page here
Check out Take Me Out Series 9 photos for 2017 here!
Meet series 7 Take Me Out Girls below…
For film night I watched one of my new blu rays, and it’s something I’ve been wanting to watch for a while. Sin City: A Dame To Kill For is the follow up to the first Sin City film, which first came out 9 years ago. The first film was brilliant, and so the follow up had a lot to live up to. I heard that this had some mixed reviews, so I did not really know what to expect. Thankfully it is a good film, maybe not as good as the first, but it did have a lot to live up to.
It’s the last weekend before Christmas! We went out in Newcastle on Friday, so called “Black Eye Friday”, it’s traditionally the day/night that there’s lots of office parties and work nights out. Apparently the town was really busy early on, but when I was out at around 9PM it was no busier than you’d usually expect. It was a fun night, and we went to places like Union Rooms, Jalou, Mushroom, Science Bar and The Head Of Steam. The Head Of Steam sells Rekorderlig on tap, how cool!? 😀 However I noticed they were doing bottles of the premium Winter cider, so I had to get a bottle to try. The label says apple cider with cinnamon-vanilla flavours. It does not sound too good since I am not a lover of cinnamon, but I have to say it is really nice, another hit from Rekorderlig 🙂
A trip to Jalou means a Cookie Monster cocktail, and I noticed they’ve put the prices up of all their cocktails, these are now £7.50 with some other cocktails coming in at £8.50.
Fashionably late, but Michael 84 would not be a Newcastle blog without the mention of Fenwick Window. I have covered it in previous years, and of course have done this year too. If you’re not from Newcastle then you may not know the little story; Fenwick, a department store on Northumberland in the heart of Newcastle dresses up their window each Christmas, and is a hit with kids and grown-ups alike. They may now have stores on Bond Street in London and other locations, but the first store was Newcastle. Each year has a different theme, and this year it is Alice In Wonderland.
Check out the pics below, with the usual reflections of Greggs (and other shops!) 😉
One of the most well known and prominent drinking places in Newcastle in recent times is something known as the Diamond Strip. But what exactly is it? Well it’s basically the name which has been given to the bars in and around Collingwood Street in Newcastle. These bars are typically portray a better quality, more expensive style of bar, and are now targeted more on the student and under 30 crowd, but were previously more focussed on the 25-35 year olds. Most of these are late bars, open until at least 2AM on a weekend, with some opening until 3AM.
The Diamond Strip has been the place to drink for around 8 years, since around 2006. It all started a couple of years before that, where a bar which was then named The Apartment opened it’s doors as one of the first VIP style bars. It promised sophistication for the older crowd, a smart dress code and even waitresses which brought round your expensive drinks. It offered VIP membership too, along with a velvet rope and red carpet. This exclusive style of place was popular at first, but the VIP non-accessible ethos drove many people away.
The owners then changed the bar, and in fact the whole space, and you could find 3 different establishments which occupied the old Apartment bar and next door buildings; These are Madame Koo, Floritas and Baby Lynch. Baby Lynch then was re-branded and extended which is now called House Of Smith. Around the same time Perdu which is located further along Collingwood Street started getting popular after opening in late 2005. These bars can probably take the credit for starting the Diamond Strip era.
In late 2007 Tup Tup Palace opened which is off Collingwood Street, and marketed itself as “The only nightclub on the Diamond Strip”, it took the space which was previously occupied by Bar M. Bijoux joined the fray in April 2008 which was formerly The Navy Bar and @Home to name a few. This has spawned similar types of bar in and around the Diamond Strip and beyond, such as Jalou, Livello and Label.
Happy Friday!
So, you’ll know by all the posts from my blog in the past week I was in Reykjavik recently 😛 One of the main reasons for the trip was to go and see the Northern Lights, however it never happened because the weather was not good enough, and we wouldn’t have been able to see them. Quite ironically, last week it was the perfect time of the year to see them, and you could see them from our country! 😛 Since I live in the North of England, some people did get to see them in some places, so last Friday we decided to go somewhere dark and try our luck.
Once again we saw nothing! 🙁 But it was quite a laugh and something different to do. It was also a good chance for me to actually try my hand at some night photography. I have never done it before, and bought my Tokina lens for situations like this. I was actually quite surprised at how the pictures turned out, I think they are pretty decent for a first attempt. I got some shots of the moon and stars, the moon was quite orangey and almost looks like a sun set. I was doing long exposures, and even got in on one of my shots to see how it would turn out; Of course it’s not sharp because of the slight movements of myself, but it’s not too bad 😛
It does go to show how much light pollution there is in Newcastle. I was actually blown away by how many stars you can see out there in the middle of nowhere…I remember seeing them as a kid years ago, we must somehow have a lot more light pollution in the city these days.
Check out the rest of my pics below…
So you’ve read about my days and nights in Reykjavik, but there is so much more I must of missed out! What about the general things in Reykjavik, Iceland, prices, living and so on. So here it goes!
After Saturday night out in Reykjavik I needed to chill.We had already booked the Blue Lagoon which was a really good idea, however the bus picked us up at 9:30AM and I got in at 5AM….So I only had around 3 hours sleep!
The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa, basically a large lagoon which is heated up by the earth. It’s probably the best way to unwind after our Saturday night in Reykjavik, and best way to waste a day when waiting for a flight;
Far, far better than trying to kill time wondering around bored which I’ve had to do on other holidays! 😛 Unfortunately it was the only day it properly rained, but I guess that didn’t matter so much since we were in water anyway, and it was so warm! 😛
It’s a cool place, you go in and have a shower, then there is a small pool indoors, and the large lagoon outside. I got the €60 package which included priority entry to the lagoon, a drink, robe and towel and some skin products.
The lagoon is all different depths throughout, it goes down to around 1.5m so you can easily stand, and in places it’s so shallow you can sit on the floor and not be under the water. It’s pretty big, and even though it was pretty busy there was plenty of space for you to relax or have a wonder.
I got a waterproof pouch for my phone so I could talk pictures while I was in…Thank god it worked! 😛
From the Blue Lagoon we headed to Keflavik airport to catch our flight. The only bad thing was that the last bus from the Lagoon was at 3PM and we did not need to be at the airport until 6!
But the Blue Lagoon is definitely worth going to if you ever visit Iceland 🙂
Check out the rest of the pics below…
Michael 84 is often named amongst the best mens fashion bloggers in the UK and the world.
Please let me know if you have featured me in your blog, magazine or publication and I will add your button. Check out my Press Page here
