A guide for the modern gent who likes good living. You'll find tech, travel, cars, TV, music and everything else all us guys are interested in. Whether it's watches, the best TV and films or tech, if it's to do with life and it's popular, it's here.
What a nice day it has been so far! We had the sun, then we sort of didn’t…Then we did again! If you were late getting up, live in a place where you couldn’t see it or simply didn’t know, today we had a solar eclipse which was partially visible in the UK. It was most visible in places just North of the UK, like the Faroe Islands, but in Newcastle and the North of the UK, we saw 90% or more of the eclipse…It was pretty cool! 😀
I remember in 1999 there was a total eclipse in the Summer, but only from the South of the country, places like Cornwall. I remember there was such excitement over it, and I remember them covering it on The Big Breakfast and telling you to wear some special glasses (I think they’d given some away LOL). Back then I did not really see much, but this time I did!
Here’s the shots I got on my camera. I am no expert (clearly!) but I am happy with the shots I got…I’ve seen some others and they were not very good at all! 😛 Sadly it was not a clear sky where I was, there were clouds but I did manage to get a few shots. It was supposed to all happen at 09:30, luckily I was out before that and saw the very start and end of it. I took so many shots! Changing settings, angles and so on, and I think these few are among the best ones I have. I am forever learning photography so it was fun and challenging taking photos like this, something I’ve never done before, and playing around with all the settings on manual. I’ve previously taken night shots when searching for the Northern Lights but this was quite different.
I had taken a few with my wide angle lens, it wasn’t good for the job, so I used my telephoto lens which I rarely use…I am so glad I bought it now!
All photos Copyright Michael Adams / Michael84.co.uk | Do not use/reproduce
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
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!
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: Brief History
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.
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.
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!
