Men's Lifestyle

We have planned a trip to Reykjavik, it’s been booked for several months, and we’re finally going in a couple of weeks…If you have been following the news you may of heard that they have been having strong earthquakes, and thing that one of the volcanos, the Bardarbunga volcano could erupt any day. Earlier this week they increased the warning to orange, which is the second highest, and yesterday it was increased to RED! 🙁 They are now saying that it’s almost certainly going to erupt, they just don’t know when, and already small eruptions have happened under the glacier! 🙁

If you remember back in 2010 the Eyjafjallajokul volcano erupted, and not only knocked out flights around Iceland, but the whole of Europe!

I hope we get there, it’s been planned for months and we were going to see a lot of cool things, it was a holiday of a lifetime kind of thing, seeing the Northern Lights etc. I have never been to Iceland and it’s not your every-day holiday destination where you think of going. I can only hope that it doesn’t effect our holiday and we actually get there.

UPDATE – They’ve downgraded the warning to Orange again…Hopefully good news.

I finally got myself a new lens, the infamous cheap “Nifty Ffity“. I read good reviews on this, and it’s a “must have” if you believe what you read. It has some good features such as 1.8f aperture which lets in a whole load of light which is great, coming from a 3.5f aperture on my lens kit.

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Lovers of cocktails should clear their schedule for next week, as Newcastle Cocktail week returns to the cities hottest establishments. Lovers of cocktails will be able to experience cocktail master classes, as well as getting a taste of some of the best cocktails and non-alcoholic mocktails at unbelievable prices, starting at only £3. This year over 50 venues across the city are taking part, and I have the best deals for you below.

Alvinos Bar – £5 on all Cocktails

Alvinos are offering any cocktail from their menu for only £5.

Barluga – 3-5-7

Barluga are offering a selection of cocktails for £3, £5 and £7.

£3 cocktails include: Gin & Basil Smash, Caipirinha and Raspberry Caipiroska
£5 cocktails include: Tom Collins, Planters Punch and Kiwi mojito
£7 cocktails include: Poinsettia, The Classic and Watermelon Bellini

Bar Beyond – £3 Cocktails

Bar Beyond are offering Dib Dab or Skittles cocktail for only £3 each!

Bonbar 3-5-7

Bonbar are offering a selection of cocktails for £3, £5 and £7 each.

£3 cocktails include: Bonbar Gin & Tonic, Sugar Snap Daisy, Amaretto Sours, Raspberry Collins
£5 cocktails include: Disco Pisco, Amelia, Barrel Aged Negroni, Why Aye-land Ice Tea, Honey Margarita, Cosmopolitan
£7 cocktails include: Locomotive, Big Fat Sazerac

Browns Bar – £5 cocktails

Browns have a selection of cocktails available for £5 including Frog on the Tyne, Grey Street Collins, Ladies Day and Great North Rum

The Cocktail Project @ Fat Buddha

The Cocktail Project have their special Rum Three Way promotion with three cocktails priced at £3, £5 and £7 which include:

£3 – Lychee or Strawberry Frozen Daiquiri
£5 – The New Fashioned
£7 – Give me S”more

Floritas 3-5-7 Cocktail Week

Floritas  House Of Smith & Madame Koo are doing a range of cocktails starting at £3 each.

£3 cocktails include: Morello Cherry Sour, Double Cush Wor Kid and Whay aye!
£5 cocktails include: Mango and Lychee Collins and Seven Seas Mai Tai
£7 cocktails include: Zombie Nation, Gorgeous Geisha

Harry’s Bar – £5 cocktails

Harry’s Bar have a few cocktails for a fiver, including Lemon Merangue Pie, Raspberry and Apple Collins and Rock n Rolla.

Jalou – Cocktails for £5

Jalou have a range of cocktails for £5 including Raspberry Collins, Salted Caramel Colada, Tropical Caipirinha, Toothpaste Mojito, and Rhubarb & Custard.

Mimo – £3 cocktails

Mimo are offering any cocktail for £3 between 4pm – 8pm

Nectar – 20 cocktails for £5

Nectar have a selection of 20 cocktails for £5, ranging from classics to their own creations, which include:

Cherry Drop Amaretto, Cosmopolitan, Tom Collins, Black Forest Martini, Long Island Iced Tea, Gummi Berry Juice, and Black Russian.

Opera – £3 cocktails

Go to Opera in The Gate and you can get either a Stag Old Fashioned or Strawberry Cosmopolitan for only £3 each!

Revolution

Revolution cocktails are £5 and mocktails are £3 (excludes after 7pm on Saturday).

Mushroom – £3, £5, and £7 cocktail offers

A wide selection of cocktails for all price ranges are available at Mushroom, including:

£3 cocktails: Pink Lemonade, Tequila Sunrise, Cherry Bakewell
£5 cocktails: Singapore Sling, Long Island Iced Tea, Mojito
£7 cocktails: Derby Daiquiri, Mojitarita, Blackberry Caipirinha

The Town Wall

The Town Wall are doing £5 all day and all night, including the following cocktails:

French Martini, Bloody Mary, Margarita, Daiquiri

Tiger Tiger

Tiger Tiger have a selection of £3 cocktails , and £5 Mojitos on offer, which include:

£3 cocktails: Cosmopolitan, Woo Woo, Long Island Iced Tea, Miami Beach Breeze, Margarita, Jack Your Body, Mai Blue Tai, Pom Pom, Caipirinha and Club Colada
£5 Mojitos: Classic, The Royale, Pineapple, Strawberry, Raspberry and Watermelon.

Tokyo

Tokyo Cocktail Week offer includes cocktails for £3, £5 and £7.

£3 cocktails: Banana Heaven, Mojito, Grapefruit Twist, Lemon Sherbet, Fruit Fusion
£5 cocktails: Singapore Sling, Bramble, Margarita, Peter Piper, Rum Punch
£7 cocktails: Martini, Manhattan, Mint Julep, Carnival Caipirinha, Hemmingway Daiquiri

Terms and conditions apply to all offers, which may include time restrictions.

The World Cup is only a few days away, and I am ready, armed with all of my Spain kits 😀 I have the full home and away kit, with shorts and socks, as well as the home and away goalkeeper shirt. My blue (home) goalkeeper shirt has printing on the back, with a number 1 and Casillas. The rest I have not got printed yet, although I think I might. I have also bought the white training shirt, Spain look set to play in a white shirt against Netherlands in the opening game, after FIFA have demanded Adidas make them a third kit.

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How amazing!

I got an email a couple of days ago from the lovely people at JJ Threads, informing me I had made their Top 50 Best Dressed Male Bloggers! 😀

Here’s what they said about me:

Michael84 – Michael Adams is considered one of the most prominent men’s fashion bloggers in the UK. He provides fashion & grooming advice, and highlights the latest style trends, tech products, and beyond.

Thank you JJ Threads 🙂

Yes, I have taken a while, but I have finally bought the Spain home and away shirts for the World Cup 😀

I got the blue 2014 home Spain goalkeeper shirt a long while ago, and even got the Spain 2014 away goalkeeper shirt which is fluorescent yellow in colour, and hard to come by. I usually get the home/away outfield shirts first, but this year I left it a bit late because they are relatively easy to get a hold of as most shops in the UK stock them.

Here they are. The home shirt is red but is darker in colour, and has thin and slightly thicker pin stripes, it’s trimmed with gold and the badge is toned in gold too, all one colour.

The away shirt is black which is unusual, and trimmed in fluorescent yellow, with a horizontal stripe going through the whole front of the shirt. it’s an interesting design, and something never seen in a Spain shirt. Usually the away shirts have been navy, white or yellow in the past, I can’t remember a black shirt other than for a goalkeeper.

As you may or may not have read on my blog, Spain may play Netherlands in a white shirt, which is actually non-existent at the moment.

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The boys over at FIFA have turned style gurus for this World Cup. First they declared that teams must play in all one colour, undermining the history of teams such as Germany who traditionally play with black shorts, England, Spain and Argentina who play in blue shorts to wear all one colour kit. This has angered most fans who say FIFA are disrespecting the tradition, culture and history of these great nations. Now FIFA have taken it a step further, and have deemed Spain’s away kit which was launched earlier this year as illegal under their rules, specifically rule 35.2, which states:

“Each team shall inform FIFA of two different and contrasting colours (one predominantly dark and one predominantly light kit) for its official and reserve team kit (shirt, shorts and socks)”.

Spain’s home shirt is red, with the away shirt being black. It appears Spain will have to play in a white kit, which could be the white shirt which was used in 2011, or Adidas may release a completely new shirt if they can get one ready in time, which will anger fans who have already gone out and bought the current away shirt, advertised as the “Spain 2014 World Cup Away Shirt”.

We will have to see what happens and if FIFA will force Spain to play in an “unofficial” kit, whether the RFEF (Spanish FA) will object or whether Adidas will have any influence. It could also cause problems for some others, with teams such as Mexico wearing a dark green home shirt and dark red away shirt, and Cameroon were spotted wearing an unknown white (possibly third) kit recently, their official home and away kits are green and yellow respectively.

Spain are drawn as the home team, so the usual protocol would be for them to wear red and The Netherlands to wear their away kit, which is dark blue. This makes perfect sense to everyone in Football including the Spanish FA but not FIFA. It could mean Spain wearing white against The Netherlands, Black against Chile and finally red against Australia in their three group games.

Adidas still have the black away kit on sale (It’s also being sold on the Official FIFA store).

I will start this off by saying the following: I cannot run far. I cannot run fast. I am not a professional runner, or in fact a keen amateur, I am actually pretty bad at running and always have been. I remember back in the days of being a kid, we did athletics quite a bit at middle school, I particularly remember the 1500M around the school field many times, it was so hard and felt like running miles! We used to do P.E. with 2 classes together (split boys and girls) so there would be around 30 of us running round the field. I always remember the good runners finishing so far ahead of everyone, they’d be sitting on the field watching the rest of us finish. I was not the best, probably in the last 10 or so most of the time. Needless to say I was never going to be a runner, and did not really enjoy it.

Fast forward to now and I still don’t like it, not the running aspect anyway. The good things about it is the peace, you can be out and run and it really does clear your mind, it’s a great escape from the world. It also keeps you fit, or it will at least feel that way since you are doing something, and gives a sense of achievement of doing something. It’s actually addictive, even though I don’t like it I have been running for about 6 years and when I don’t run for whatever reason I feel like I miss it, or feel like I really need to exercise.

When I run I do not run too far, like I said I can not handle it. I heard that some people are just not made to run, even if they are fitness freaks some people can simply not run very far…If that is true I am one of those people 😉 Since I got the Nike App I have been able to see how far I run, and how fast, and have been able to set goals etc. which has been great, but I don’t take it too seriously. I usually run 3km which is far enough for me, sometimes I take it a bit further to 4 or 5, or shorter to 2.5km, depending on the routes I go on.

I don’t really know what is considered fast/average/slow…I read a couple of forums online and I found people which were a lot slower than me and people who were so much faster, so it does not really give much insight. This is me anyhow, and my times. It was over 2 or 3 weeks, and I really pushed the first mile to see how quick I could do it. The fastest I have ran a mile has been 7 minutes 42 seconds, which I think is really quick, considering my fastest was 8 minutes 24 seconds weeks before, shaving off 42 seconds is a lot! It’s all about competing with myself, rather than someone who is actually a great runner :p

I think I have hit the wall with that though, my fastest time is 07:42 and I think that will be the fastest I can do, but you never know 😉

How fast can you run a mile?

Fastest Mile – UPDATE – December 2014

So I have been running all year, and I thought I would never beat my 7:42 mile time, but by some kind of miracle I did! 😮 I ran a mile in under 7 minutes…In fact, UNDER 6 MINUTES! My fastest mile is now 05:40!!! I know I’ve said it before, but there is no way I will ever beat this!

YES! I have it….The first in the UK and maybe Europe, the Spain away goalkeeper shirt! 😀

I searched high and low, Adidas.es, Adidas UK, the usual UK shops and websites, and my usual Spanish websites, and nobody had this shirt. I eventually found it, so had to order it immediately, and it came quite quickly.

The away goalkeeper shirt for 2014 is a fluorescent yellow colour, and they have a very similar (almost identical) training shirt of the same colour, however it’s a slightly different style, and does not carry the World Cup 2010 badge which the Spain team uses in it’s match shirts. I got the home goalkeeper shirt 2014 some time ago, and when the away outfield shirt was announced and released I thought this would soon follow, but it seems very rare and hard to come by.

The badge, just like the other shirts this year, is mono coloured, and is fluorescent yellow and black instead of the usual colourful self. The shorts and socks are the same colour, making it an all neon affair.

I am not a big fan of fluorescent yellow on the black away shirt, I thought they could have used a better colour, it’s not very “Spanish”,  but  fluorescent yellow as a main colour is great, it reminds me of the 90s and it seems this year Adidas are really going for their neon and fluorescent colours.

I have tasted and bought some of the best and most premium vodkas which you can buy; From household names such as Grey Goose and Belvedere, Ciroc, Russian Standard and Stolichnaya, to lesser known premium brands such as Crystal Head, Roberto Cavalli and Wyborowa.

My latest is this Beluga vodka, and this is it. You can get a pack which includes a glass, something great in itself. The glass is a heavy, thick glass, with a metallic Beluga fish on the glass, which is trimmed with metal at the bottom and finished with the Beluga branding. The vodka itself is brilliant. It’s so smooth and crisp, you can taste it without a horrible aftertaste, it’s a very fine vodka. It’s probably the smoothest I have tasted, and I was so confident of the taste I tried a little neat, something I have ever really done with vodka, and it went down well.

About the vodka

Produced in 2002 in the world famous Mariinsky distillery, it’s a classic Russian vodka. Refined and rich taste is made from malt spirit and the purest of water from the Siberian artesian wells. You can pick up a bottle of Beluga Noble Russian Vodka for around £45.

In my opinion it’s better than Grey Goose and Belvedere, it has a much smoother taste but maintains the kick you want from a vodka when mixing your drinks. If you are looking for a premium vodka, then this should be near the top of your list.