This week was my 27th Birthday so I thought I would share some of the things that I have been up to with you all!
Mamma Mia at Birmingham Hippodrome
I think the first thing I need to talk about is something which has been on my list for ages to go and see and (by ages I mean 2008 when the movie came out) which was to go and see the Mamma Mia stage musical. I always seemed to just miss it or by the time I found out it was on locally it was sold out but this time I managed to get tickets to see it at Birmingham Hippodrome last Thursday.
For those who haven’t seen the movie or show (in which case where were you 
?) but a quick synopsis. Sophie is about to get married to Sky and was raised by her single mother, Donna Sheridan without knowing her father. However in finding her mum’s diaries she realises her father was one of three men so she decides to invite them all to her wedding day which is when the mayhem starts!
This show is the very definition of feel good and was fantastic. The music numbers are obviously all hits from Abba which has you tapping your feet throughout.
My favourite numbers in the show are probably the same ones as the movie, Money, Money, Money, The Winner Takes It All and Does Your Mother Know. For the first two Sara Poyzer sung them amazingly and for Does your Mother Know the whole crowd was laughing as James Willoughby Moore’s Pepper tries to win the affections of Helen Anker’s Tanya and busted a dance break which I’m seriously jealous of!).
Plus at the end the entire crowd stood up and danced away through the encore to finish it off. I also went with my Mum and Dad who both loved it although unfortunately I have had the side effect of them singing Abba songs pretty much non-stop ever since (literally unleashed a monster there)!
I don’t normally review shows on this blog but will definitely give this 5 stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐. It is on in Birmingham until the end of this week (14th May 2022) but is on a full UK and International Tour until April next year and details for venues and tickets are here.
Below is some photos from my Instagram of before the show rocking my flower garland .
Monmore Greyhound Stadium and Orange Chips
On my actual birthday I also went to Monmore Greyhound Stadium in Wolverhampton. I have been here quite a few times but on a Bank Holiday Monday in the UK (which luckily my birthday falls on quite often) they offer free entry and it is definitely a great afternoon out.
Unfortunately I did have a flutter at the races whilst I was there but didn’t win anything 😞 although I had a chippy tea afterwards to make up for it which was great. The chippy also did orange chips which is a bit of a black country delicacy where the chips are cooked in orange coloured batter which makes them very crispy which you can see on my Instagram post below..
Mecca Bingo
Last thing which I did for my birthday week, though this is more for my sister’s birthday than my own (despite an 11 year age gap between us our birthdays are only three days apart so we usually end up doing something together and we went to Mecca Bingo in Wednesbury).
Again Lady Luck wasn’t on my side unfortunately but was still great fun and I look very happy to be with alcohol in this picture (I should reiterate both my bingo and dog racing visits were my first ones this year).
Blog Plans
You will also notice in my header image that I have a ring light which is also a mobile holder. I have increasingly been looking with interest at creating a YouTube channel to go with the blog so I can talk about books and also about my other interests such as fitness and gaming (whilst keeping it linked to books of course!).
I also recently learnt that Instagram is starting to prefer Reels and video content over image posts – assumingly due to dominance from TikTok which has made me more interested in doing video content which I can potentially share for both platforms.
I have so far just created the channel which I will link to here which is my BookTube account. I don’t know how frequently I will be posting videos on there at the moment as it is very early days but I will be letting you know in due course.