2013 in music

If you're a regular visitor to Sunshine Days, you'll be fully aware that music plays a mahoosive part in my life. Looking back, I've been to some bloomin' brilliant gigs this year (above is a little snapshot with some rubbish quality photos... I'm far too busy actually enjoying the music at gigs to watch it through my phone screen!) from little gigs like The Family Rain who played the Brudenell Social Club to a mammoth expedition down to Suffolk for a weekend of fun and vodka at Latitude. Other highlights included HAIM, an Old Skool Cribs gig a few weeks back and stumbling upon a tiny Pigeon Detectives set in Leeds Trinity and ending up on the front row (even though we don't really like them all that much...). 

While I'm thinking about music of 2013, I thought I'd put together a list of my top tracks of the year. I did this back at the end of 2012 too and its a great way to look back and remember songs from a particular time in your life! Last year I narrowed the list down to five songs, this year I just couldn't whittle it down to any less than ten. Miss Indecisive 2013 right here.

Why'd you only call me when you're high? Arctic Monkeys

My Number Foals

 The Wire HAIM

Lovesick Peace

 Hearts Like Ours The Naked and Famous

Biblical Biffy Clyro

 Trust Me... I'm a Genius The Family Rain

Wasting My Young Years London Grammar

Best of Friends Palma Violets

Youth Daughter

What have been your favourite songs of the year? Hope you've enjoyed some of my top ten too!

Roll on 2014- its already shaping up to be a good one for me music-wise... so far I've got tickets for Foals, Bombay Bicycle Club and *ahem* McBusted (not ruining my indie street cred at all there...).

Also, for once I've not used song lyrics in my post title- yet more proof of how indecisive I am... I couldn't pick one of the 10 songs above as the most worthy of the title! I was discussing with my friends the other day that I really should get an app or something that will make all life decisions for me!

Sing along and it might just get you through

Since moving out of the city centre at the start of July, I've been very much enjoying having a longer walk to work in the mornings. Not so much on days where I've spent ages just sat on my bed listening to the radio, or have been too busy rearranging my bedroom to bother with getting dressed quickly and end up having to power walk up the huge hill on my route, but the rest of the time my walks have been far more relaxed and an ideal time for quality time with my iPod. Few things make me happier than when I'm listening to music, and listening to new favourites (and old favourites too... I have an unwritten rule that I have to reserve one morning walk a week for a bit of Pulp!) is the perfect way to put myself in a good mood for the day. Anyway, I thought I'd share a few songs that have been creeping their way up my most played list since I started my new walk to work.

Do I wanna know? Arctic Monkeys

I always try to maintain that I'm not a big fan of the Arctic Monkeys (I think I like to see myself as a little less mainstream indie than that, unless I've had copious amounts of vodka...) but this song slipped right through and caught me by surprise. I've not been able to get this song out of my head for almost two months now, and I'm not in the slightest bit ashamed to have it blaring out of my headphones.

Beach San Cisco

I've fallen head over heels in love with this band. They're from Australia, they're really summery and fun, plus they've done an awesome cover of Daft Punk's Get Lucky (if that doesn't make you love them then I don't know what will).

Pushing it The Family Rain

One of my only regrets from Latitude was not getting to see The Family Rain. I knew I really wanted to but Eddie Izzard was just too funny to leave (plus leaving was impossible as there were so many people crowded into the tent), his set over-ran plus the Comedy arena was the opposite side of the site to the little stage that The Family Rain were playing on. The odds weren't in our favour really. They're playing in Leeds in a few months time so I'm crossing my fingers that I'll get to see them then instead.

Lovesick Peace

Peace are a band that I literally haven't been able to stop talking about for over a year now. I waited patiently for their album to come out in March and I just haven't tired of it at all. Its not everyday you find an album like that. Lovesick is one of my favourites from the album so if you ever caught sight of me walking through Leeds, there's a very high chance that this'll be this song that I've got playing. 

Let me know if you like any of the songs I've included in this, and if you've got any recommendations of songs I can update my iPod with to vary my morning routine a little then let me know! 

Common People- Pulp

You know we'll float forever in the tide

This last week or so has been a rollercoaster and a half. On the one hand I had one of the best weekends I've had all year with three of my favourite people when we took a little trip to Birmingham for a change of scenery and a trip to Cadbury World. On the other I waved goodbye to my city centre flat and moved into a new little home which (despite being a complete mess of half unpacked boxes and no internet) I'm absolutely loving so far. Meanwhile, alongside all of this, I've had one of the worst weeks I could have ever imagined as my lovely Auntie Jackie died completely unexpectedly last Friday. Through all of the brilliant moments I've had this week, I keep catching myself off-guard and suddenly remembering that a huge piece of my life is missing but in a way I'm so grateful that I've had such a jam-packed week as its given me something good to focus on for the most part. Exactly what I needed to keep myself going at such a horrible time.

After everything that's happened, there was one positive in that I've been able to spend a sunny weekend at home (complete with the luxury of being able to use the internet to write this and re-enter the 21st century!). We've been making the most of having an unexpected weekend together by spending a good bit of family time wandering around Liverpool and a few different spots over on our side of the Mersey to clear out the cobwebs and take our minds off the sadness we're all feeling at the moment. 

Float Forever- Peace

She tastes like sunlight

dress: Primark, shoes: Next, sunglasses: New Look

Last night was an evening of alfresco dining and cocktails in teapots with my lovely friend Coral. Being able to happily sit outside in the evening without a jacket is absolute perfection as far as I'm concerned, and more than makes up for being cooped up in work through the day without even any decent windows to longingly gaze out of.

I bought this dress in Chester over Easter in the hope that the weather would soon get nice enough to be able to wear it. As it stands, I've only been able to wear it in the last week or two so have been making up for lost time by wearing it ALL THE BLOOMIN' TIME (my wardrobe is severely lacking in summery dresses... I blame the unpredictable British climate). Since buying this dress, I've seen a few variations of it in different styles appearing, but who can blame Primark for over-egging the fabric when its just so pretty. I got a lovely compliment on the pattern last night- it was mistaken for a Laura Ashley print! Primark, you should be proud of yourselves.

California Daze- Peace

I wanna get lovesick with you

I love bank holiday weekends. Especially this one as living in Leeds meant that I could spend the weekend surrounded by lots of my favourite bands at Live at Leeds festival. Buying a wristband for the Saturday gets you into all of the main music venues in the city centre where an endless list of bands are playing throughout the day. I went last year and saw more bands than you can shake a stick at, this year we didn't manage to see quite so much, partially due to not waking up until lunchtime (we were really sensible and went on a pretty heavy night out the night before...) but also because both The 1975 and The Pigeon Detectives attracted  huge queues that I don't think the organisers had quite anticipated which meant that there was a massive backlog of people who were forced to queue for miles to get into the venues for the acts that were later on in the day. Inevitably we ended up stuck in all of these queues since all of the bands that we wanted to see were inevitably playing at those venues later in the day. 

But really, its quality over quantity at these things (at least that's what we had to force ourselves to believe during our hour long wait to get into The Cockpit) and the acts we did manage to see put on a brilliant show. We managed to catch Backyards who are a great little band that we went along to support because one of my friends is good friends with the drummer plus they're a really talented bunch, Tribes (who I've seen about four times now but still really love the energy they have on stage every single time), Swim Deep (singing along to their songs after our horrendous Cockpit queuing experience was exactly what I needed) and Peace. Peace were the absolute highlight of the day, I've loved them for ages and have been dying to see them live after missing out on seeing them at a tiny little venue in Leeds way back in October and they completely exceeded my expectations. They're still a pretty new band, their album hasn't been out for long at all but they've really exploded in popularity lately and so the venue was absolutely rammed with fans singing back every word of every song. Plus, they snuck in a cheeky few lines of Daft Punk's Get Lucky (which forces me to dance like a loony every time I hear it!) and sent the entire room crazy. Perfection. There's no way they'll be playing a venue as small as Cockpit again from now on, they're destined for far bigger things! 

After another night out and a much needed Nando's to recover, we discovered that The Pigeon Detectives were playing a free set in the tiny Made in Leeds shop in Leeds Trinity. After missing out on seeing them the day before we decided that the chance to see them playing in a really tiny venue would more than make up for being caught out by the enormous crowd. Somehow we ended up on the front row, close enough to see the beads of sweat dripping off the lead singer's hair...sometimes being so close has its downfalls...

To top off our weekend, we had tickets to see The Vaccines playing in Millennium Square in Leeds so after our little encounter with The Pigeon Detectives (and a stop off for a few bottles of cider and a slice of cake) we headed into the arena. The sun was shining and there was a great atmosphere because of it, it felt like we were at a real festival but with less mud and more buildings around us. The Vaccines were bloody incredible. I didn't think I liked their second album quite as much as the first but seeing them playing all the songs live completely changed my opinion and made me love some of the newer songs just as much as the first. If you ever get a chance to see them live then go, go go- they know exactly how to make the crowd have the best time watching.

My photos aren't exactly the best I've ever taken, I was mostly relying on my phone as there was no way my SLR was being let loose in the thick of the crowds I'd been stood in, but also because I was too busy singing until I lost my voice to be bothered about watching the whole show through my camera lens. In fact, it gets on my nerves when people do that at gigs... just enjoy the show and focus on the music rather than missing out on a good boogie for the sake of a few pictures.

Lovesick- Peace

You could be my ice age sugar

After jumping on the creme egg brownie bandwagon earlier this week, I decided that it was entirely necessary for me to test out creme egg cupcakes too in preparation for Easter. I'd already planned to bake some treats to bring into work for our last staff meeting before the holidays, but after having a chat with one of my colleagues realised that she was planning on bringing cakes in too. I still wanted to make something but being the extremely ever so slightly competitive person that I am, I needed to do something that little bit extra special because I know she has a reputation as the best baker in the office after we'd had a jokey chat about how we should turn it into a bake off. So, after letting her enjoy her glory on Wednesday with her cakes (which were pretty yummy, I'll give her that), I turned up to work the following day with my offerings. I'd been a little concerned about whether my plan would backfire on me as a few people had casually mentioned that they didn't like creme eggs the day before, but even they wolfed them down and got very over-excited by the secret creme egg in the middle of the buns (see, EVERYBODY likes creme eggs really) I think my mission to be crowned champion Easter baker in our unofficial bake off was a resounding success. So, if you want to impress people this Easter, you know what you need to do.

Creme Egg Cupcakes

100g butter

100g caster sugar

2 medium eggs

100g self raising flour

25g cocoa powder

12 mini creme eggs (plus more to decorate the cakes with)

100g icing sugar

100g butter

75g melted chocolate

*freeze the 12 creme eggs the night before you make your cakes)*

Preheat your oven to 180C 

In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Once combined, gradually add the eggs to the mixture, stirring as you go. 

Sift  the flour and the cocoa powder into the mixture and beat until smooth.

Line a 12 hole cake tin with cake cases, drop a teaspoon of mixture into each case initially and then rest the mini creme eggs on top of this before covering with the rest of the mixture (this should help to stop the creme eggs sinking right to the bottom of the cakes when they bake!)

Pop your cakes into the oven for about 15 minutes, then when they're ready remove from the oven to cool. 

Meanwhile, cream together your the butter, melted chocolate and icing sugar until you have a smooth icing. 

Once the cakes have cooled, pipe or spread the buttercream on top of the cakes (I decided I was too lazy to pipe mine, plus the flatter surface helped my mini creme eggs to sit nicely on top of the cakes and not slide off!). 

Get a sharp knife and halve your mini creme eggs down the existing line around the edge of the eggs and place on top of your cakes.

So there you have it, an easy way to impress your friends and family this Easter whilst making the most of the limited time that creme eggs grace our supermarket shelves. I'm planning on stocking up after Easter when everything gets reduced (malteaser bunnies for 10p each were my bargain of choice last year... here's hoping that happens again this year!) so I can carry on making these beauties for a little while after the Easter bunny has been and gone. 

Wraith- Peace

We spit blood at the sun, spit blood in the ocean

I say this all the flipping time, but I REALLY REALLY LOVE WEEKENDS. 

As much as I do love my job, there's just nothing better than a weekend full of fun to let off some steam and escape the stressful real world for a few days. This weekend was filled with a few quiet drinks (which inevitably morphed into a full blown night out... we're just not grown up enough for quiet drinks yet), lots of shopping and catching up, plus a Mexican night with waaaay too much food and competitive tequila fuelled Mexican hat games. 

This weekend was a far cry away from the last, which was a far more sensible family affair in Edinburgh which you might have seen me post about earlier in the week here. As I was too busy dancing to my favourite music (and the Mexican hat dance) this weekend to think about taking pictures, I thought I'd share a few more pictures from Edinburgh and our visit to the National Museum of Scotland. 

We spent hours and hours in the museum and probably only went in about half of the rooms, there was just so much to take in- plus we spent half of the time on the roof terrace looking out over the castle and the city. I spent forever in the Animal World gallery, it was incredible being able to get so up close and personal with the animals (I definitely prefer getting inches away from a stuffed lion to a real one thank you very much... far less risk of becoming a delicious lion snack). Although having so much to look at did cause a bit of a safety hazard, I walked right into my Dad because I was so busy staring at the sharks hanging from the ceiling. Not sure how factually accurate they were mind you- I've never noticed any sharks or whales flying above my head in Leeds before, maybe I just don't look up at the sky often enough.

Bloodshake- Peace